Dating A Cougar (3 page)

“Amen, sister,” Regina said, high-fiving with Lauren and making her giggle.

“So neither of you would pursue this if you were me simply because of his age,” Alexa repeated, wanting to make sure she understood.

Regina and Lauren looked at each other. Surprisingly, it was Lauren who piped up with “depends on the amount of attraction.” Regina just smiled widely and nodded in agreement.

Alexa closed her eyes and crossed her arms. “This is not helping,” she complained.

Regina removed the white linen napkin from her lap and folded it into a neat triangle before placing it on the now empty plate in front of her.

“Do not try to fool the sex therapist, Alexa,” she said ominously, making Lauren giggle again. “You’ve dated slightly younger men before. What’s the real problem with this guy?”

“The only younger man I ever dated was only two years younger than me. The term younger barely applies in that case. But you’re right, the real problem is he’s Seth Carter’s cousin Casey. He’s the older one that raised him,” Alexa confessed at last.

Conversation paused while Regina and Lauren absorbed the news.

“Jenna would probably kill you,” Lauren finally said, wincing at how dramatic that sounded.

“Yes, exactly,” Alexa agreed. “I’m not sure any man is worth risking my life.”

Regina squinted hard as she considered the frown on Alexa’s face and the disappointment reflected in Alexa’s gaze.

“I agree it’s a tough twist, but I wouldn’t let it be the deciding factor. Jenna and Seth might not work out anyway. If you don’t take this chance, then everybody loses. Sometimes it’s okay to be selfish, Alexa. This may be one of those times,” Regina told her.

Alexa nodded, but none of what they said made her want to call Casey up and ask him out. The idea of a fifty-year-old woman dating a thirty-eight-year-old man just smacked of desperation to her. If the press found out, she would make the headlines again—
Aging Model Dates Young Marine.
She wasn’t ready to deal with the public or private fallout that might happen. She liked being less notorious.

“Do you think fifty is old?” Alexa asked them sadly, knowing her age was the biggest reason she wasn’t even considering Casey as a potential.

“You’re kidding, right?” Lauren proclaimed, shocked at Alexa’s sad tone.

Alexa sighed. Talking to Regina and Lauren was turning out to be worse than talking to Sydney. No one seemed to understand her concerns.

Regina swore and got up from her seat to gather her things. “I have to go catch a plane, so I’ll be quick with my two cents on the subject. No, fifty is not old, and you make it look better than thirty anyway. Lauren and I are using you as our role model. You know damn well that at forty-seven, fifty’s just around a corner for me. Go have sex and shake this mood, Alexa. You need the oxytocin high from intercourse to fight the hormonally depressive funk you’re in right now.”

“
Hormonally depressive funk?
Is that a precise medical opinion, Dr. Logan?” Alexa asked sarcastically.

Regina just gave her a look that asked if Alexa needed a little more proof, or
a lot
more proof. She would happily give either to her friend.

“Fine. I’ll take care of it,” Alexa said sarcastically. “You’re probably right, anyway. Sydney said the same thing.”

“No, I’m probably right about the weather changing, and that the plane ride will be bumpy to Boston,” Regina told her. “I am always right about sex.”

As they split the bill and debated the tip, Alexa thought about how best to follow Regina’s advice. Instantly, Casey Carter’s image popped into her mind and her heartbeat picked up. No, she told herself, putting it away in the realm of fantasy and not reality.

Instead, Alexa made herself think about the ever-available Todd Lansing who was a
friend-with-benefits
as Jenna would say. A couple years ago her comfortable relationship with Todd had been okay with Alexa because it kept her from bed hopping while she casually dated other men. Now, the thought of using Todd for gratuitous sex held no appeal, much less desire.

The only man who sexually interested her at all was not a good possibility. Which was just as well, Alexa concluded. She didn’t need another empty sexual relationship without the remotest possibility of happily-ever-after attached.

Chapter 2

The moment Casey Carter walked through the door of the Eddy’s Bar and Grill, his attention zeroed in on Alexa Ranger sitting at a polished dark wood table with two other women.

Since meeting her a month or so ago, his body had developed a radar for her presence that refused to be ignored no matter how much his brain argued about it.

Looking around, he saw Seth was not waiting for him as promised—no big surprise there. Luckily he was having a good day and hadn’t needed to use the cane, so he chose a seat in a dark area of the bar near the door.

It was as far away as possible from Alexa’s table, but still with a view of her. Slipping off his sunglasses, he pulled the Marines logo ball cap lower over his eyes, not wanting to draw attention to himself while he studied her.

Casey guessed Alexa had to be at least forty-five years old despite the fact she looked much younger. The intensity of his attraction to the older woman was a mystery to Casey, but the reality was that when Alexa was within view, Casey couldn’t stop himself from meticulously planning what he would sexually do to her and with her if he ever got the chance.

And because Casey had that reaction even the very first time he’d met her, he had been avoiding even minor social contact with the woman for the last month. Jenna and Seth had finally given up trying to include him in family activities.

Not that Alexa seemed to have the same problem.

Looking at his watch, he saw thirty minutes had passed in the bar now without her even once glancing his way. Evidently, Alexa did not have the same physical radar for him, though he still believed she had been attracted to him too.

As Casey studied Alexa, he considered it a point in her favor that she didn’t constantly scan the bar for men like one of her companions was doing, or look around in disgust like the other one. No, Alexa just kept on talking, her focus completely on the conversation.

His phone buzzing with an incoming text message finally snagged his attention away from Alexa.

Can’t make it after all. Last minute problem keeping me here. TTYL.

He texted back a reply.

WTF? Drinking your beer and mine then. Your fault if I don’t make it home.

Seth’s obsession with work matched any Casey had ever had with the Marines. Only eight years older than Seth, Casey felt a couple decades ahead in understanding about what was important in life. There had been some rough times for him, but he hadn’t let a hip replacement or a wife dying of cancer take him down for good.

Casey watched Alexa shift her attention when the door to the bar opened. Even at a distance, Casey could read the depth of her concern in unsmiling lips pressed in a firm line.

He shifted in his chair, willing his body to relax when all it wanted was to get up and go to her—comfort her. It was the craziest reaction he’d ever had with a woman he barely knew.

Casey’s attention finally shifted to the person Alexa had watched come through the door when the woman in question passed by his table.

There was a blur of blue and a whiff of some expensive scent that made him think of silky sheets, pulled blinds, and ceiling fans. From the tall heels all the way up the seamed stockings to the more interesting curves outlined in the skin-tight dress, the woman was a dream come true for the lucky guy she’d dressed to please.

Wow
, Casey thought,
that is a take-me-now-I’m-yours dress
. Though it had been awhile since Casey had seen one, he still recognized them.

And thank God for that, he concluded.

Dragging his attention away from the woman, Casey noticed pretty much every man in the bar was watching her with great interest. Then he noticed she was heading directly to Alexa’s table.

When the bartender yelled the woman’s name, Casey swore silently. The woman was Alexa’s daughter—Seth’s girlfriend.

So where was Seth? Seth hadn’t mentioned anything about Jenna in his text. What detained Seth at home if it wasn’t Jenna?

Casey drummed his fingers on the table. Some clichés were truer than others, especially where military men were concerned. All Casey’s instincts were telling him—no, swearing at him—that this situation was not good. So Casey put his sunglasses back on, picked up his beer, and discreetly moved to the other end of the crowded bar nearer Alexa’s table where he could do some further reconnaissance.

Or in other words, where he could eavesdrop on their conversation.

*** *** ***

Alexa’s mother radar went on full alert when Jenna walked into the bar. Seeing Jenna in full-out woman gear was a thrill, but the look in her daughter’s eyes spoiled the perfect picture. Alexa sighed when Jenna frowned at all the males avidly watching her swinging curves move across the room.

Jenna stopped at the table and put her hands on hips, mirroring a physical gesture Alexa recognized as one of her own. Her heart contracted with love.

“Is there an age limit to join this hen party?” Jenna asked, her gaze meeting her mother’s.

“Yes. Lauren barely makes the cut, but at twenty-seven you’re good,” Alexa teased.

“Wonderful—because I really need a drink,” Jenna said.

Alexa offered her still nearly full glass of red wine to her daughter who took it while still standing and drank greedily.

“Well, don’t you look yummy tonight. If I were a lesbian, I would make a pass,” Regina said, giving Jenna an admiring perusal.

“Thanks,” Jenna bent forward to brush her lips across Regina’s forehead, “I’m glad the dress is getting an appreciative response from somebody.”

Alexa’s eyebrows rose into her hairline at the comment, but Jenna looked away before she could ask the obvious question.

Lauren looked at Regina. “
Lesbian? You?
I can’t even imagine you giving up men,” she said snidely.

“I don’t know. How much harder could being a lesbian be?” Regina asked dryly, pushing her auburn red waves back from her face. “When I suggested male enhancement drugs to the last man I hoped to be intimate with, he told me I needed to grow up. I told him he needed to get it up, patted him on the hand, and left.”

Lauren looked at Regina in complete and utter shock, because that was appalling behavior—even for Regina.

“You didn’t really suggest your date take male enhancement drugs, did you?” protested Lauren, blushing at the thought. “You probably hurt his ego. If you’d just slipped it in the man’s drink at dinner, he’d have thought you inspired lust.”

“Lauren, I would never trick a man into taking male enhancement drugs. Besides, drugging someone is a felony. Don’t you ever talk about sex with the men you date?” asked Regina. “Communication is key, you know.”

“I have no need to discuss sex with my male companions. My dates are strictly platonic, and I like it that way.” Lauren insisted, saluting Regina with her mineral water. “You are the only person I ever discuss sex with, Dr. Logan.”

Regina rolled her eyes and took a long drink of her pomegranate martini. “I feel sorry for you then.”

Alexa breathed a sigh of relief when Jenna belly laughed at the argument between Regina and Lauren, and smiled the first real smile since she’d come into the bar.

Looking at her vital, lovely daughter, Alexa couldn’t help wondering for the umpteenth time what Jenna found so appealing about Seth Carter. The man was good looking, but not very physical. Jenna worried about his lack of desire constantly and complained about it now and again.

After meeting Seth’s cousin Casey, Alexa was baffled more than ever about Seth. Casey’s sexuality had plastered her over the kitchen counter with just a handshake.

Sighing at the irony, Alexa figured she was the only mother in history who ever worried about a man
not
putting the right moves on her child. But she wanted Jenna to have a real relationship, and well—she would like to have grandchildren someday.

“Sweetheart,” drawled Alexa, “if your ego needs stroking, all you have do is turn around. There are at least eight pairs of eyes glued to your lovely rear right now.”

Jenna sighed, walked around the table, and leaned over the stunning brunette who had borne her for a lingering hug.

“If you were standing up, Mama, you know every man would be looking at you instead of me,” she said.

Alexa crushed Jenna to her in a fierce embrace. “Not today. That shade of blue is amazing on you and matches your eyes perfectly, which is only secondary to what it does to enhance your—”

The sound of glasses dropping interrupted Alexa. It was followed by someone big hitting the floor with a loud thug and swearing.

The other women at the table giggled, and then laughed outright as Jenna straightened red-faced from the hug.

“I guess I shouldn’t have bent over so much,” she admitted, face flushed with embarrassment.

A booming voice yelled, “Jenna Lee Ranger, no more bending over the table. I can’t afford any more losses here, cutie pie.”

Several people in the bar laughed. The women at the table laughed louder than anyone. Jenna’s blush spread upwards to the roots of her hair. She pulled out a chair to sit, but could barely manage to wiggle into it because the dress was so tight.

“Sorry, Eddy,” Jenna yelled over her shoulder. “I’m sitting down now.”

Alexa patted her shoulder in support, while she worked to stifle her own laughter. It was not nice to laugh at your child—your only child.

“Well,
that
was mortifying. What makes an intelligent woman think a dress like this is a good idea?” Jenna whispered, complaining to the women.

She sighed, laid her head back in the chair, and slid down as unglamorously as possible into the seat. “I can’t sit comfortably. These three-inch heels are killing me. The dress is so tight I can barely breathe. I’m an idiot.”

Alexa thought Jenna looked more like a pouting twelve year old than an accomplished woman of twenty-seven. When Jenna walked into the bar, Alexa had internally raised two fists in the air and screamed “Yeah!” Being an architect in a profession mostly populated with men, Jenna rarely bothered with her feminine side.

Men, Alexa fumed. Only a few were even worth the expenditure of hormones.

“I bet you were thinking Seth Carter would want to chew that dress off you with his teeth,” Regina said, eyeing the dress with envy.

Jenna opened her mouth to reply, but Lauren interrupted and patted her hand.

“At your age Jenna, hormones cause a temporary form of female insanity. Men briefly look good for a few years, but the urge passes eventually.”

“Stop that!” Regina scolded Lauren, smacking her hand off Jenna’s. “You’ll scare her. Just because you swore off sex years ago doesn’t mean you get to warp Jenna.”

“Ouch! Your watch scratched me, Regina. And I did not swear off sex. I swore off men. It’s a different thing altogether. You of all people should know that,” Lauren protested.

Regina turned to Jenna and said seriously. “Sex with men does not have to ever go away. Or at least it doesn’t have to if you want to keep on living and not become a dried-up prune at age forty-two.”

Alexa looked at her friends in both amazement and wonder. There couldn’t be two more different women or two more differing views on men. Jenna certainly had unusual role models with the three of them.

She focused her piercing sapphire gaze intently on her daughter’s slumping form.

“Well, I bet you were thinking the dress would once and for all get Seth Carter’s attention off his cell phone and focused instead on you. Just like you thought the red dress, the pink shorts, and the black lace bra I gave you would do the trick.”

When Jenna didn’t reply, Alexa gave her daughter a long, knowing stare. “Sweetheart, you are one hundred percent sure Seth’s not gay, aren’t you?”

Jenna’s chin lifted at the question and she pulled herself completely upright in the chair.

“I’m sure, and—
no
,” she answered her mother. “Seth’s not gay. I don’t know what the problem is, but it’s not being gay.”

Alexa knew quite well the good and bad of men. She loved men, but in her experience, most men were better in bed than out of it.

Jenna looked away from the women staring at her intently, and then finally brought her gaze back. “I wanted to surprise Seth. When he answered the door, the phone rang. He took the call, turned his back to me, and left me standing in the doorway.”

“Left you standing the doorway?
In that dress
?” Shocked, Regina could only shake her head.

“Was it bad timing, maybe?” Lauren suggested, choosing to believe there had be an answer other than Seth didn’t want Jenna as much as Jenna wanted him.

“It’s always bad timing with Seth,” Jenna told Lauren, sighing and unable to keep the sadness from her voice.

She looked at her mother.

“Earlier this week Seth kissed me good night, and I know—damn it,
I know
he was interested in that moment. I mean I’m not
completely
stupid about men.”

“
Jenna
,” Alexa scolded. “You’re not stupid at all. Any man in this bar would happily take you to bed. This is obviously about Seth and not about you. Don’t even go there.”