Fated to a Cougar: 4 (Cougar Surrender) (3 page)

He took a step closer. “I can understand that it would, but
I’m willing to put up with that. At least take the time to get to know me
better before you shoot me down.”

The sound of a baby crying reached his ears. Sage turned her
head to look into the house, then back at him. She seemed to search for
something while she gazed at him before she nodded as the baby’s cries grew
louder.

“Fine,” she said. “You can come in and we’ll get something
delivered to eat. I have to get my nephew.”

Grady stepped inside as Sage turned and walked farther into
the house. He took off his boots and winter jacket before he followed her into
the living room. A thick blanket was spread out on the middle of the floor,
where he presumed the baby she held had been lying.

Once Sage noticed him, she walked toward him, then passed
the baby. “I have to warm up a bottle for Josh,” she said. “You said you wanted
to help, so you can hold him while I do that. After he’s done I’ll put him to
bed, then we can order some food.”

Grady looked at the little person he held, not sure what to
do. This was his first time holding a baby. Josh smiled, then proceeded to try
to stick his drooly hand inside Grady’s mouth.

“Enough of that, you,” he said as he pulled Grady’s hand away.
“You might like to suck on your hand, but I don’t.” Josh tried again, and Grady
let out a quiet cat growl, which the baby thought was funny and giggled. “You
like that, huh?”

He really was a cute little thing. Grady purred as he
nuzzled the side of Josh’s neck, causing Josh to giggle again. The baby managed
to grab hold of Grady’s cougar head pendant as he lifted his head. He held it
in a tight fist and refused to let go.

“Don’t even think about putting that in your mouth,” Grady
said with a chuckle. “You might like it because it’s shiny and has rubies for
eyes, but I don’t need baby slobber all over it.”

“Here, let me help before he pulls too hard and breaks the
chain on you,” Sage said as she came to stand beside Grady.

“I doubt he’d be able to do that. It’s pretty strong.”

Sage gently pried the pendant out of Josh’s hand. “Nice
cougar. I’ll take Josh now and give him his bottle.”

“Thanks. All right.”

Grady couldn’t resist giving the baby a quick kiss on his
soft cheek before he passed him over to his aunt. She settled on the couch with
Josh, propped him into the crook of her arm, then put the nipple of the bottle
into his mouth. Josh greedily took it.

“I guess he was hungry,” he said as he sat next to Sage.

“My sister has started him on solid food, but Josh still
loves his bottle. She said he’ll fall asleep while he takes it, then that’ll be
it for the night. He usually sleeps through.”

Already, Grady saw Josh’s eyes were fluttering closed. “In
that case, we should decide what we’ll want to eat. I can order it while you
finish feeding him.”

“Okay. I don’t think it’ll take very long.”

“Then what would you like to have?”

“It’ll probably be easier to order pizza. I like almost
anything on it, except for onions and anchovies.”

“That makes it easy. Do you have a usual place you get it
from?”

Sage told him of a pizza place not too far from her house.
So as not to disturb the baby, who’d fallen asleep, Grady stood and went to
stand near the entrance of the living room. He used his cell phone to find the
restaurant’s phone number, then made the call.

Sage set her gaze on Grady as he turned his back to make the
call to order pizza. She had a great view of his ass, which was encased in
black denim. His jeans were tight enough to show it off. His wide back tapered
to a narrow waist. She had to admit he had a great body.

She sighed to herself as she fixed her attention back on
Josh, who was asleep and still sucking on his bottle. It was already half gone.
Sage had thought the baby would be a great excuse to cancel her date with
Grady. What she hadn’t counted on was him asking to help babysit and then
wanting to order in food. And for some damn reason, she couldn’t bring herself
to tell him no, be it going out on a date or inviting him inside her house.

Seeing him again brought how attractive she found him to the
forefront of her mind. She wanted him, there were no ifs, ands or buts about
it. What she wanted to do with that knowledge was something entirely different.

Usually able to pick up a vibe off people who she thought
she’d have to watch out for, Sage didn’t get any of that from Grady. He seemed
like a genuinely nice guy, and seeing him hold Josh and hearing him make her
nephew giggle had almost melted her insides.

Grady came and sat once again on the couch next to her. He
spoke in a quiet tone. “I ordered a large pizza with just about everything they
had, except for the two toppings you didn’t want. It should be here in twenty
minutes.”

Sage looked down at Josh and saw he’d finished the bottle
and pushed the nipple out of his mouth. “And it looks as if Josh is all done.
I’ll put him upstairs.”

After leaving the living room, she took the stairs to the
upper level and headed for her bedroom. Even though she had two guestrooms,
Sage wanted Josh in her room in case he did happen to wake up in the middle of
the night. She tended to be a deep sleeper, especially when she was trying to
make the changeover to another shift.

Inside her room, she carefully placed Josh in the playpen
and covered him with blankets. Before she headed downstairs, she turned on the
baby monitor that sat on her dresser, then picked up the receiver to take with
her.

Sage returned to find Grady sitting on the couch exactly
where she’d left him. He smiled as she closed the distance and took a seat next
to him. She placed the receiver for the baby monitor on the end table.

“Did Josh stay asleep?” Grady asked.

“Yeah. He was out like a light.”

“Good.” Silence stretched between them for a few seconds
before Grady said, “I’m glad you didn’t cancel our date.” He turned on the
cushion toward her. “I was looking forward to seeing you again.”

“I guess you could say I was as well.” That was mostly true.
Even though Sage had wanted to come up with a way to cancel their date, she
really had thought about seeing Grady again. And now that they were together
once more, she didn’t mind having him around.

“So what do cops do on their days off?” Grady asked with a
grin.

“Well, this one, besides babysitting for her older sister, usually
hangs around at home and relaxes. I also get caught up on laundry, house
cleaning and grocery shopping that I tend to neglect during a workweek.”

“Sounds exciting.”

Sage chuckled. “No, it’s not, and you know it.”

“Okay, that’s true. How long have you been a police officer?”

“A couple years now. It can be a stressful job, but I
wouldn’t want do anything else. How about yourself? What do you do for a
living?”

Grady smiled. “Live. Seriously though, I don’t work. I don’t
have to. I own stocks in my uncle’s multinational software company, which is
the biggest here in Anchorage.” He said the corporation’s name.

Sage instantly recognized it. “Yeah, you must do well for
yourself.”

The doorbell rang and Grady pushed to his feet. “That has to
be the pizza. I’ll get it since I’m paying for it.”

She watched him leave the room, then heard him talking to
the delivery guy. It didn’t take long for Grady to return, holding a pizza box.
The smell of it made her stomach growl once it hit her nose. Sage hadn’t
realized how hungry she actually was until then.

“I’ll get some paper towels,” she said as she quickly headed
for the kitchen.

She handed Grady a sheet once she returned. He opened the
pizza box and they dug in. A quiet moan pushed out of Sage after she took the
first bite, chewed and swallowed. It was exactly what she needed. She looked
over at Grady to see him watching her eat. He stared at her as if he wanted to
taste her along with the food. A surge of arousal shot through her. To hide it
from him in case she showed any outward sign of it, she took another big bite
of pizza.

“Enjoying it?” Grady asked.

Sage nodded, then swallowed. “This place always has the best
pizza. I’d hate to tell you how often I order it. Cooking is another thing I
find hard to do while working.”

“You must work long hours.”

“I do, and a lot of them can be during the night shift.”

They didn’t talk too much after that and concentrated on
finishing their meal. Once they were done, Sage got rid of the pizza box in the
kitchen and returned with a beer for each of them.

Now that they were no longer eating, Sage decided to bring
up the subject of how she’d met Grady. So far, she hadn’t seen any sign of the
nasty head wound he’d received. He seemed to have recovered rather quickly.

“How’s your head?” she asked.

“Fine.”

“Did you end up going to the ER?”

“Actually, no. It wasn’t as bad as you thought it was. Even
though it bled like a bugger, it was only a scratch.”

Sage frowned. Having taken a metal pipe to his head, Grady
would have been pretty lucky to only end up with a mere scratch. The light from
her flashlight hadn’t been the best, but what she’d seen when she’d checked his
head the night before was a lot more than that. Yes, head wounds bled a lot,
but the amount of bleeding he’d done, it hadn’t been something as minor as
that.

“Really?” she asked. “Then you won’t mind if I look at it.
And I never did get a chance to ask if you knew who your assailant was before
you took off.”

“I thought you were off duty today,” Grady said with a short
laugh.

“I am, but that doesn’t mean I stop being a cop. I take my
job very seriously. Some of the guys I’ve dated in the past have said I’m too
uptight about it. But that’s the way I am. So are you going to let me look?”

“There’s nothing wrong with that, and I’m fine. As for the
guy who hit me, it was dark and I didn’t see his face very well.”

“Do you normally walk around that area alone late at night?
The buildings there are mostly industrial. I thought it was kind of strange.”

Grady looked at her, not showing anything on his face. He
then said, “You ask too many questions.”

Sage didn’t get a chance to say anything else before Grady
closed the gap between them and took her mouth in a heated kiss. A small voice
inside her said he was using it to distract her from what they’d been
discussing, but the rest of her didn’t give a shit. She quickly lost herself to
the sensations coursing through her as his lips moved over hers. It became more
so once he pushed his tongue inside and stroked hers, tasting her.

Things quickly heated up after that. Sage basically said the
hell with it, wrapped her arms around Grady’s neck and tugged him even closer.
She wanted him. She didn’t know if what they started here would last, but right
now her body craved his touch—bad. She’d just feel and enjoy what he could give
her.

Grady reached between them and palmed one of her breasts.
His thumb stroked back and forth across Sage’s taut nipple. It immediately
tightened even more. She kept hold around his neck, shifted and fell back flat
onto the couch cushions, taking him with her. His heavier weight stretched full
on top of her with his hips wedged between her spread thighs, which had her
moaning. His erection landed right on her pussy, rubbing against it, driving
her arousal higher.

Soon Grady stepped things up a notch. He lifted his upper
body off her, breaking contact with her mouth, and pushed her sweatshirt to her
chin. He stared down at her bra-covered breasts, his gaze filled with hunger.
With one finger he traced an invisible line from the hollow of her throat to
her cleavage. It then hooked into one of her bra cups and tugged it to the
side, exposing her nipple.

“Beautiful,” Grady said on a sigh.

A noise that sounded like a true cat’s purr pushed out of
Grady as he bent his head and kissed the tight bud. Sage arched her back,
pushing herself closer. Her heart beat faster and an ache built inside her
pussy. She panted in anticipation, silently begging him to touch more of her.
Once again in a man’s arms, she now realized how much she’d missed it, how much
she craved it.

Grady rubbed her nipple along his cheek, then opened his
mouth and took it inside. He rested his weight on a bent arm as he used his
free hand to caress Sage’s side. He thrust his hard cock against her pussy,
making her wish there weren’t layers of clothing separating them. Wetness
pooled between her legs and she lifted her hips to meet his.

Their breathing became harsh as they strained against each
other. Grady tugged the cup aside that covered her other breast and took the
nipple between his lips, sucking, making her even wetter.

Sage reached down and pushed her hands under the back of
Grady’s shirt. She ran them up the muscles along his spine, scraping her nails
against his skin. He groaned and released her breast.

He lifted his head and met her gaze. “I need to see and feel
more of this gorgeous body of yours.”

“I won’t stop you,” Sage said in a low voice. “I intend to
do the same to you.”

Grady gave her a sexy grin. “I get to go first.”

He shifted to his side, wedging himself between her and the
back of the couch. Sage turned to lie on her side as well, facing Grady. There
was just barely enough room for both of them. She was about to suggest they
move to the floor, or any flat surface that was a lot bigger than the piece of
furniture they were on now, but the words died in her throat as he undid her
jeans and shoved a hand down the front of them and her panties.

Sage moaned as a finger stroked her pussy, playing in her
wetness. It then pushed inside her, pumping in and out. It wasn’t until a
second joined it that she could no longer lie still and rocked against him. She
squeezed her inner muscles around the plunging digits while pleasurable
sensations shot through her. Sadly, it wouldn’t take much more of that to make
her come. She was already strung tight.

She panted and ran her hand down Grady’s chest, encountering
his cougar head pendant. It felt warm to the touch, and Sage couldn’t resist
wrapping her fingers around it. She used it to anchor herself to him as he
skillfully worked her body.

Grady took her lips in a carnal kiss, his tongue thrusting
inside her mouth, mimicking the movement of his fingers. Sage clutched his
pendant tighter as her orgasm slammed into her, almost taking her breath away.
She moaned against his lips, riding his fingers while wave after wave of
pleasure swamped her. He continued to thrust into her pussy, pushing every last
bit of her release out of her until there was nothing left.

He removed his fingers and nibbled her lips. “God, I love
the way you look when you come,” he said, his voice husky with arousal. “I want
to see you do it again, but with my cock buried deep inside you.”

“Yes.” Sage reached for the button on Grady’s jeans and
undid it. With a quick tug, she had his zipper down as well.

She’d been about to get her hand around his erection when
the doorbell rang. Sage stiffened, then turned her head in its direction.

“Don’t answer it.” Grady grabbed her leg, draped it over his
hip and nuzzled the side of her neck.

“I have to,” she said reluctantly. “It could be my sister.
This is the first time she’s let me keep Josh overnight. She might be
regretting that decision.”

Grady sighed, then slowly let Sage go. “You’re right. You
have to get it in case it’s her.”

Sage rolled off the couch and stood. She quickly did up her
jeans and fixed her shirt before she headed for the front door. She smiled as
she pulled it open, all prepared to see Macy standing on the other side,
looking anxious. Her smiled died when her gaze landed on the police officer who
stood on her porch. She knew him well since she worked with him almost on a
daily basis.

“Hey, David. What brings you over to my house? I’m off-duty
today.”

He nodded and took a deep breath as if he really didn’t want
to be there. “I’m not here about you being off. It’s a personal matter.”

Sage frowned. “I don’t understand. What could that possibly
be? As far as I know, I haven’t unconsciously broken any laws, because that’s
about the only way I’d do something like that.”

David looked down at his feet, then back up at her. “Damn,
this is a lot harder to do when you know the person.”

“Now you have me feeling a little nervous.”

“Sage, I’m sorry.” He paused, then continued in a
businesslike voice. “There was an accident almost an hour ago. A drunk driver
slammed into a car and pushed it into the oncoming traffic where it was hit
head-on. The driver of the car the drunk hit was killed instantly. The
passenger was rushed to the ER barely alive and not expected to make it.” He
paused again, a look of pity on his face. “It was Macy and her husband. You
need to go to the hospital to be with her. I know she had a baby. He wasn’t in
the car. Do you know where he is?”

“He’s asleep upstairs in my room,” Sage said softly, not
wanting to accept what David had told her. “Are you sure it was Macy and Hank?”

“I’m positive. I was first to arrive on the scene. I
recognized them from the family picnics the department has in the summer. Plus,
we found ID on them, which confirmed who they are. I’m so sorry. Would you like
me to drive you to the hospital? As I said, your sister isn’t going to make it.
When I left the ER, they were doing their best to keep her alive.”