Saving the White Cougar by Terry Spear

Chapter 17

"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you and stay the night tonight?" Ted hated for Stella to go home alone that night. He couldn't believe how much he felt he would miss her if she wasn't here with him, and he wouldn't care anything about the commute while being able to be with her.

"Friday, you have to come and stay with me."

"Okay." But Friday was a long time off, he felt. He didn't want to crowd her. Maybe she needed the time to herself to gather her thoughts, pack, and she didn't need him as a distraction. Maybe she needed to unwind from work and wanted to do it alone.

He wanted to have dinner with her, make love to her, go to sleep with her and he wanted to wake up to her in the morning and cuddle with her. He loved her.

"We'll be together shortly. Truly." But when she left him, he knew she wasn't as immune to being with him as she seemed to be, and she tried to hide her tears before she left.

He texted Kolby and said, "Stella has gone home."

"Okay, the other men and I are about finished with chores."

"I'll come out and help you." Ted had to get his mind off Stella, at least for the moment. When he went to bed tonight, she would be all he thought of.

* * *

Stella hadn't wanted Tedto have to make that commute day in, day out. Not that she didn't want to come home to him at night, or make love to him, or sleep through the night with him. But she just didn't want him to have to leave at oh-dark-thirty to get up and arrive at the ranch in time to work. It would be different when she lived at the ranch, and he could just fall out of bed, dress, eat and go to work and she would go in later when her day started. His days were much longer too since he had to do some night chores also.

So it was better this way. If he could get off next weekend, they could spend the whole time together. She just hoped it would be okay with the Havertons. They had done so much for them already, she didn't want to impose.

Still, by the time she went to bed that night, all she could think of was Ted and him wrapping his arms around her and kissing her goodnight. Friday wouldn't come soon enough.

* * *

When Stella returnedto work to give notice Monday morning, the lawyers she worked for had to look up the new one she was going to work for.

"From Denver. Why in the world would Larry Pierce open a practice in some hole-in-the-wall location like Yuma Town?" one of the lawyers asked. "Why would you?"

"He's tired of the city life, and his remaining family lives there. As for me, I've met a man I truly care about." She smiled. And they're all cougars, like me, she wanted to add. That's what made living there so special.

"You'll be bored out of your skull," one of the other paralegals said.

"I don't think so." She could just imagine having lunches with Ted and the other ladies, doing a million things with the cougars while there. She spent most of her evenings watching TV series or reading books, wanting to really enjoy life, and now she could. She would still watch TV with Ted, but she'd also go horseback riding and run as a cougar, enjoying the camaraderie of the cougar families. Everyone was already talking about Thanksgiving, and she couldn't be gladder to finally have a real family to have dinner with.

Half the time, she made one of those turkey breasts for dinner and ate it afterwards in soups and sandwiches. But this time? She was eating a whole turkey with a whole family. She couldn't wait for her two weeks to be up so she could return to Yuma Town, that was feeling a lot more like home than this place ever did, no matter how many years she'd lived here.

"Really," one of the other paralegals said to her as the lawyers went off to defend court cases and she and her friend were alone, "why would you leave this job for a little town with a small population that can't have much in the line of real cases? Was the lawyer nearly disbarred and that's why he left the big city?"

None of them would ever understand the cougar’s reasoning. "When you fall in love someday, you'll understand."

Tori scoffed. "That's like an every-other-day occurrence for me. I can't imagine uprooting my whole life to go to live in some town in the boondocks." Then she smiled. "Wait, it's all about you living the fantasy of the old west, right?"

"I will be living on a large working horse ranch."

"The guy you're seeing is a cowboy?"

"Foreman of the ranch."

"I've never dated a cowboy. Maybe once you get settled in, you could hook me up with one. Just so I could say I dated one."

Stella smiled. "The other one I know who isn't married is in his twenties, a little young for you."

"Hey, I've been known to be a cougar before."

Stella chuckled. Not like any of them were.

Then a woman came bearing white roses and they had to be from Ted, but Stella didn’t want to claim them if they weren’t and embarrass herself. “These are for Stella White.”

“Oh, thanks so much.” Stella put the vase of roses on her desk. They smelled like a delightful perfume.

“Wow,” Tori said. “Looks like someone got shot in just the right place.”

Stella laughed. “Yeah, though when I was first shot, I didn’t think so at all.”

* * *

That nightafter giving her resignation first thing on Monday morning at work—and the paralegals working with Stella had still questioned her sanity, she was surprised to hear a rapping at her apartment door. She hung up her suit jacket on the coat rack and when she looked through the peephole, there was her cowboy, all smiling, Stetson on his head, and white roses in his hand.

Stella beamed. She just couldn’t believe it. She opened the door and pulled Ted into her apartment, kissing him at the same time, locked her door, then pulled his Stetson off and set it on her coat rack. "I never expected seeing you here."

"I couldn't stop thinking about you and I wanted to see how they had treated you after you gave them your resignation."

"Ha! You were worried I wouldn't have the nerve to resign." She began unsnapping the snaps on his western shirt, forget trying to figure out something for dinner to eat alone.

"No. I knew you couldn't wait to return to Yuma Town, and you wouldn't have put Larry in a bind, when he knows you're working for him in two weeks. And you would miss me too much unless you had changed your mind about you and me."

“No way.” She was kissing Ted again, pulling his shirt off his shoulders, remembering she needed to unsnap the long sleeves of his shirt first. Then she yanked them free and pulled his shirt off the rest of the way and kissed his shoulders, his pecs, his scruffy chin, then met his mouth again with hers, kissing smartly, then deepening the kiss.

* * *

Ted had achedto be with her even when he was working hard on the job. She was like a thirst he couldn't quench. Now they were together again, and the need had intensified all the more. In life and love, he would give her everything—commitment, protection, loving, sharing, caring. He was so happy to be with her, relieved even. He hoped once she moved in with him, he wouldn’t feel this desperate to see her, knowing they would be together every night and when she wasn’t working.

Her scent of woman and she-cat and intrigue and sex took his breath away, held him in hungry anticipation. He pressed his hands over her breasts and felt her nipples, tight peaks pressing against her clothes and his hands.

He pulled her close, their bodies flush, her breathing and his ragged with lust. They kissed and her tongue darted out to lick his mouth, and he invited her in, wanting the connection, the anticipation of being with her like this again feeling better than right. She deepened the kiss and hugged him tight.

"I've wanted to do this since I left you. I'm glad you came here and didn't wait."

"You know it," he said, sweeping his hands through her hair. "I didn't want to dream about being with you. I wanted to live it."

"Oh, I so agree."

A swirling, heady maelstrom of need rushed through his bloodstream, and a low groan rumbled forth from deep within his throat as he slid his hand up her skirt covering her thigh and she ran her hands over the front of his jeans, cupping his sex.

He had given her his heart, his body, his strength, his soul. He was hers forever. She kissed him with the kind of passion like he knew she would, just like he gave her back.

She took a deep breath and smiled up at him. "I figured I'd bring some of my stuff to the ranch on the weekend to join you. I didn't think you'd be coming here during the week to see me. Not that I’m disappointed to say the least. I just didn’t want you to have to make that commute so early in the morning."

"I can’t stay away from you. Besides, this is a dangerous place to live," he explained, running his hand over her shoulders. He said it just in case she had any real objection to him being here. “I would be remiss not to be here to make sure you remain safe—at least at night." In truth, he couldn’t stay away from her for anything.