Dating A Cougar (21 page)

She walked across the room. Moments later she was squealing and running as her mother was once again in hot pursuit. Casey just seemed to be laughing and enjoying the show.

Regina looked at Lauren. “You might get to arrange a wedding soon.”

“Goody,” Lauren said, clapping her hands. “I wish it were mine.”

Regina put an arm around Lauren’s waist.

“Well, you never know. If Alexa can find love after all this time, maybe it can happen for us, too,” she told Lauren.

“You’re next then,” Lauren told Regina. “I’m still not ready.”

Lauren couldn’t feel ready for love, she thought, when the only men that ever attracted her were womanizing cheaters. It may have started with her cheating ex-husband, but her bad luck spanned all the way to the weird thing she currently had for self-professed married womanizer, James Gallagher.

“Of course you’re ready—you’re just scared to trust yourself. But thanks for thinking of me,” Regina said to Lauren. She knew it would take an absolute miracle for her to find a man willing to get involved in her crazy life.

“Come on,” Regina said to Lauren. “Let’s go help. If we sit on either side of Casey, Alexa will get jealous and come run us off. That will give Jenna time to escape. Maybe Alexa’s jealousy over us will balance out that nasty temper of hers.”

Lauren had to work hard not to stare at Regina with her mouth open in shock. Regina thought Alexa had a bad temper? That was the pot calling the kettle black, Lauren mused, smiling. In her opinion, it was a toss-up who was more high-strung, the former model or the notorious sex therapist.

When the two women lined up cozily on either side of Casey, he just looked at them strangely.

“We’re saving Jenna,” Regina told him. “Play along.”

Casey stretched his arms out and hooked one around the shoulders of each woman.

“Hey, Mama,” Jenna called. “Regina and Lauren are flirting with Casey.”

Alexa stopped stalking her daughter and turned her attention to the women on the couch. She walked back and stood in front of the three of them.

“Move it, girls,” she ordered, plopping herself down beside Casey again when room was made for her. “I swear I can’t leave you alone for a second, Carter. You have no right to ever accuse me of flirting again.”

Regina pointed to the now abandoned air hockey table. Lauren nodded, and they both left.

“Now you know how I feel when you flirt,” Casey told her when they were alone. “Except I wasn’t flirting. I was just making
friendly conversation
.”

Alexa reached, got the pillow, and smacked Casey again. “Oh, shut up.”

“If only you were this bossy in bed. A man can dream,” Casey said wistfully, thinking of her midnight ride. There probably would be nothing like that tonight. Pity.

“If only you were—oh, my god, I can’t even think of an insult bad enough,” Alexa fumed. “You drive me crazy.”

“I live to please,” Casey said easily, his hand coming to rest on Alexa’s knee. “I love your crazy life, by the way.”

“Thanks,” Alexa replied, smiling at everyone in the room. “I like it, too.”

Another wave of tiredness hit her. Alexa kicked off her shoes, curled up on her end of the couch, and put her head in Casey’s lap, using the pillow she’d previously pelted him with. She felt him laugh under her cheek and didn’t mind.

“Now I really need a nap,” Alexa told him. “Guard me. I love them, but these people are nuts.”

“Okay,” Casey said. “I’ll guard you.”

Casey stroked Alexa’s face until she relaxed and marveled at how she actually fell asleep while the family chaos went on without them.

When he sighed this time, it was in happiness and gratitude, wondering how he’d managed to get so lucky with a woman one more time in his life.

Chapter 20

Two weeks later, Casey was again sitting at Alexa’s kitchen table watching her cook and listening to the results of the marketing tests for Lauren’s natural line of scents. He had so much admiration for how Alexa handled every creative endeavor, every opportunity for growth with the same enthusiasm. The longer he knew her, the more he liked her.

“So
Desire
was the complete favorite among the male test group. Lauren said you can mix vanilla with anything and please men.
Revelation
was second with its ginger and peaches scent.
Pleasure’s
citrus tones came in last in both the male and female focus groups. Still, I can see Jenna wearing that one over the others. Maybe it needs to be marketed to younger women.”

His attraction to her was growing as well, Casey thought, admiring the stretch of her jeans over her backside, feeling an answering response in his own body.

They’d been inseparable for nearly two weeks. He’d seen Alexa now in every way possible, and he liked them all. A future with an aging Alexa Ranger did not intimidate him. Not only did Casey want to watch the lines beside her eyes deepen over time, he wanted a matching set. He thought with her sense of humor and as often as they laughed, Alexa would probably give them to him.

Unaware of Casey’s study, Alexa set two heaping plates of pasta covered in marinara on the table before jogging back to the counter to retrieve the shredded parmesan and pepper flakes.

She slid into the chair next to Casey and attacked her food. It took a few moments for her to realize Casey wasn’t eating.

“Something wrong with the pasta?” she asked between bites.

Casey shook his head no. He badly wanted to lick the pasta sauce from the corner of her mouth and taste it on her tongue. Instead, he made himself settle for wiping it away with his thumb.

He’d done all he could to sate himself, but desire for her still grabbed him with an iron fist. But even that was dwarfed now by the emotion rolling through him like a wave each time he thought about his relationship to her. The tightness in his throat was constricting as he tried to talk.

“I have to tell you something, Alexa,” he said quietly. “I’m not going to be able to wait any longer.”

“What’s wrong?” Alexa asked, pausing mid-bite, suddenly concerned that Casey was being so mysterious. Casey was not mysterious by nature. He was plain-spoken to a fault, a trait she both admired and hated.

Her instant worry made Casey laugh. “No one’s dead or dying,” he said, picking up a fork and taking a bite. “This is very good. I’m afraid all I have to offer in culinary skills is excellent French toast.”

Alexa waved her fork over her plate. “I took cooking lessons when Jenna was in middle school. She was gaining weight from eating junk food. It was a result of responding to heavy mother guilt at the time, but I’ve been very glad ever since. I like cooking, but it’s not fun to cook for just yourself,” she said, drifting off and taking another bite.

“I promise to be properly appreciative if you want to cook for me for the rest of your life,” Casey said, keeping his eyes on his plate. He was too nervous to look at Alexa, and it didn’t improve when he saw her fork come to rest on her plate out of the corner of his eye.

Alexa took a deep breath, her heart pounding. She wasn’t really ready for this conversation, but it wasn’t like she hadn’t seen it coming. And with Casey, she had learned there was no avoiding something he wanted to get clear.

“I believe this is one of those times I would rather you just rip the band-aid off quickly,” she said, using their code for brutal honesty.

Casey made himself raise his gaze to hers. “I love you, Alexa.”

Alexa was already shaking her head from side-to-side before Casey had finished saying the words.

“You can’t. You hardly know me,” Alexa protested. “It’s only been a few weeks.”

“I knew you were going to say that,” Casey said sadly, wanting to hear she loved him in return and knowing it wasn’t going to happen. “I guess—I guess you’re right. It’s too soon, but I needed to tell you. It was weighing on me to feel it and not say it.”

“Maybe you’re just—“ Alexa stopped when his gaze met hers again. There was nothing but honest emotion in it.

What could she say? Deny it was true?

Maybe it was. Casey had known love before. He knew what it was like to love and be loved in return.

Alexa was the one who didn’t know what it was like. “I don’t know what to say to you,” Alexa said finally, sadly.

Casey reached out a hand and rubbed her arm to comfort her. “You don’t have to say anything. I just needed to say the words out loud so they wouldn’t drive me insane. I won’t beat you up with it or make you feel guilty for not returning the sentiment.”

Her answer was a giant sigh.

“I’m not just using you, Casey. I do care about you,” Alexa said in her defense. There was a slight burning in her eyes and a flutter of nerves in her stomach.

“Yeah,” Casey said easily, “I know that, honey.”

Casey also knew Alexa loved him back on some level, or at least he strongly suspected it was the case. Because he ultimately wanted to marry her, he hoped it wouldn’t take Alexa too long to figure it out.

“Great pasta,” he said, going back to eating as if nothing out of the ordinary had been said. “I care about you too, Alexa. You’re a good woman—even if you do flirt too much.”

Casey smiled across the table.

Alexa picked up her fork and gave Casey a look, one that usually sent people who knew her scurrying off to avoid the imminent explosion. She knew Casey was mostly unaffected by her temper, and she wished the fact didn’t turn her on so much.

“Don’t start with the insults or I will never cook for you again,” she told him.

“Flirt with me later and I might get over it,” Casey offered, trying to distract her from the seriousness he introduced by admitting he loved her. He would certainly tell her again, and he intended to keep telling her until Alexa believed him, and loved him back.

“Leave me alone and eat,” Alexa ordered, concentrating on her food and hoping the butterflies in her stomach didn’t argue much with the pasta she was now having to force herself to consume.

*** *** ***

Later that night, Casey was once again happily buried deep inside Alexa and moving to the rhythm of the new life he’d found with her. It was beyond Casey to do anything other than whisper his love over and over in Alexa’s ear while she shattered into brilliant star fragments pulsing around him.

“Casey,” Alexa whispered back brokenly, tears streaming, body shaking as he emptied himself within her depths.

“Ssssh. . .sleep honey,” Casey said eventually, his heart still pounding against hers. “I’ve got you.”

Alexa couldn’t bring herself to be irritated at his possessiveness or even the control he exercised over her. She was emotionally exhausted, blissfully sated, and at the same time, incredibly sad that she couldn’t instantly give Casey back what he wanted.

The last thought she had before sleep was Casey always seemed to be one step ahead of her in pretty much everything that happened between them.

*** *** ***

The next day Casey purposely kept things light and teasing, trying to break though the sudden reserve in Alexa’s interactions with him.

He tagged along to work with her but left, promising to return for lunch. When he returned, they opted to walk to a nearby restaurant and enjoy the unusually warm weather for autumn.

They were waiting to cross a busy street when Casey felt the little girl brushing by his leg as she passed him. She was barely a toddler. He dropped his cane to go after her as quickly as he could. His hip twisted painfully as he snatched her up in his arms, but he was glad he’d at least been able to catch her.

Alexa stepped off the curb, chasing them both into the crosswalk. Casey was reaching out with the child, passing her to Alexa, when a car hit Casey and knocked him forward in the street. He hit the pavement and lay without moving.

Alexa called his name in shock. The mother of the child rushed up and scooped the now screaming child out of Alexa’s arms.

Alexa stumbled forward to join the driver of the car, who had also rushed to Casey’s side. Blood flowed from a gash in Casey’s forehead. Acting on instinct, Alexa pulled off the sweater she was wearing, folded it, and held it firmly to the gash to try and stop the blood flow. She was shaking badly and it was hard to keep the pressure firm.

People talked around her, but she couldn’t hear them, couldn’t take anything in but how Casey looked lying in the street. How much time passed, Alexa wasn’t sure, but eventually there were several EMTs crouched beside her. Pulling herself out of her stupor as best she could, she answered questions about what had happened.

The mother of the little girl Casey had rescued was also there answering questions, filling in the gaps.

Alexa told them about Casey’s military injuries, including his hip replacement, so they stabilized his pelvic area before moving him.

Alexa watched Casey being loaded into the ambulance and then gratefully let them tuck her in beside him with relief she wasn’t going to have to leave him. At the hospital, they wheeled Casey away to the emergency room, leaving her alone in the waiting area holding a bloody sweater in her hands.

One thought kept running through Alexa’s mind over and over. Casey could die without knowing how she felt about him.

She should have tried to explain better, told him how much life he’d brought to her. The last and only man she had ever said “I love you” to had been Paul. The men she had dated in between Paul and Casey had been interesting, some even fun. But until Casey, no one had touched her heart. No man had challenged her views, much less fought her for control. And Casey Carter was the only man she’d ever shared her business with comfortably.

She hadn’t told him any of this, and now she might not get the chance. Tears streamed at the thought.

Sydney had been right about how jaded and cynical she had become. She probably wouldn’t have recognized real love if someone had handed it to her wrapped with a big bow.

Why hadn’t she told him how she felt?

She would give anything to trade places with Casey and spare him yet another huge physical setback in his life. Seeing him broken and twisted in the street, Alexa had gotten a glimpse of what Casey must have endured when he was originally injured.

She rubbed her stomach to soothe her jangled nerves. Her worry was so overwhelming, it was all she could do not to start tearing the waiting area apart.

Alexa closed her eyes and shivered. It was easy to imagine the doctor coming to tell her that Casey was dead. She raised the bloody sweater to her face and cried into it softly.

Her stubbornness had cost her dearly this time.

*** *** ***

Sydney got there first and pulled the bloody clothing from her hands before gathering Alexa into his arms. Alexa let herself rest against him, wishing it were Casey holding her instead.

Not long after, Seth and Jenna came running into the waiting area as well.

Seth went immediately to check on Casey’s status and then came over join them.

“Alexa?”

Alexa pulled out of Sydney’s arms, stood up, and walked into Seth’s arms, which came around her instinctively.

“They say Casey is still being examined,” Seth said.

“He ran into the crosswalk to save a little girl,” Alexa choked on a sob. “I couldn’t stop him. I couldn’t get to him in time. A car hit him. He was unconscious when we got here.”

Seth closed his eyes and took a deep breath to steady himself. Casey was all the family he had left in the world. He couldn’t lose him too.

“Is the little girl okay?” Seth asked tightly, needing another focus.

“I think so,” Alexa said, pulling back. “The mother was still there when we left in the ambulance.”

“It will be the first question Casey asks when wakes up,” Seth said, hugging her to comfort both of them.

“How did you all know it happened?” Alexa asked, realizing she hadn’t called anyone. She’d been too much in shock.

“Someone recognized you,” Sydney said. “A woman called the office and told me what happened and which hospital he was taken to. My instincts told me it wasn’t a prank call. I called Seth and Jenna on my way here.”

Alexa nodded. She walked back to take a seat, reaching out automatically to pick up the blood-stained sweater and clutching it to her chest. “I watched it happen and I still have trouble believing it. One minute we were laughing and going to lunch. The next I was in the street watching Casey’s head bleed.”

Alexa put her head in her hands. “How can that man be hurt again? Hasn’t he suffered enough in his life?” She left her face in her hands and wept, uncaring of what any of them thought about it.

“Mama,” Jenna put her arms around her mother. “Casey would have gone after the little girl no matter what you did. Every soldier is hero. Isn’t that what you always told me?”

Seth came over and sat next to Alexa.

“Jenna’s right.” He reached out and took Alexa’s hand in his. “Besides, I’m not too worried about a bleeding head injury. No one has a harder head than Casey.”