STORY EXCERPT

“Ms. Covey?” he asked when the door eased open a few inches and wide frightened eyes stared out at him from a too-pale face. “I’m Sergeant Katz, State College Police Department. You called about a break-in?”

“Yes. Someone broke into my car.” Her words were soft and shaky.

The need to protect and claim that he had felt in the driveway grew. In seconds it was a gut-tightening urge to pull her into his arms and stand between her from the world. As he met a pair of wide and frightened mossy green eyes, his cock surged to full attention. A fraction of a second later, his brain registered what his body had recognized several minutes earlier.

This woman was his life mate. After fifteen years of looking for the woman he was destined to be with for the rest of his life, he had found her right under his nose. Was that why he refused every time he was offered a different route? Had he always known he needed to be here to keep his mate safe even without knowing exactly who she was?

Taking a deep breath, he filled his lungs with her light, tangy-tart scent that brought to mind Christmas spices and oranges. His cougar wanted to surge forth and claim the woman right here and now. Somehow he successfully forced his beast to settle while he focused on the job.

“Do you know if anything is missing?” he asked as he tried to discreetly check her out.

Her ivory skin was pale and she looked shaken, but there was a fire in her mossy green eyes that told him she was stronger than she appeared. That strength would serve her well as his mate. Cops’ wives were also a rare and special breed, and he hoped she could handle the role. She met his eyes with a wondering gaze, as if she could feel there was something between them as well.

He refused to ask how old she was but figured early to midthirties was a good guess. It did not matter to him anyway. Age was just a number and destiny had chosen her for him, so she could have been twenty or sixty and he would not have cared. She was his mate. That was all that mattered.

Her reddish-brown hair was pulled back from her face in a ponytail, but the thought of sliding his fingers through it while she was on her knees with his cock in her mouth had his cock jerking with excitement. His eyes dropped, and he saw she wore only an oversize deep purple T-shirt that ended at midthigh. The shirt was huge and hid her curves, which was a disappointment, but KJ knew he would have her naked in short order, one way or another, though he hoped it would be with mutual pleasure.

“I went out a few minutes ago to look for something and found it like that.” She waved toward the driveway. “I didn’t touch anything, just came back inside, and called you.”

KJ nodded as he forced his eyes back up her body to her face. The sight of her shapely, naked legs distracted him for a moment. He wondered what, if anything, she wore underneath the shirt. Forcing his eyes back to hers, he watched as she looked down at herself just before her fear shifted to embarrassment.

“If you’ll wait here, I’ll be right out,” she said, taking a half step back.

“Sure, take your time,” he said.

Though he would have preferred her to stay just the way she was, the crime scene unit would be joining them. He did not want to have to kill any of his fellow officers for drooling over his mate.

* * * *

After closing the door on the best-looking man she had ever seen, Stacy raced through the house to her bedroom with embarrassment burning at her cheeks. How could she have opened the door while wearing just her sleep shirt and a thong? Maybe she really did need her head examined.

But what a sexy cop Sergeant Katz was. She had glanced at his hand and wondered if the lack of a ring on his left hand meant he was single, or if the job demands kept him from wearing a wedding band. He was young enough to fulfill Kimber’s cougar challenge, but not so young that Stacy would feel she was mothering him, though he was several inches taller than she was, making her feel like a woman and not a five-foot-eleven-inch sideshow freak.

His department baseball cap covered up his hair, so she could not tell much, except that he kept it very short, probably another demand of his profession. But his eyes were a deep, intense blue that made her think of the spring sky in North Carolina the last time they had met at Kimber’s house for their girls only weekend.

Going to her closet, she grabbed a pair of black yoga pants that were loose and comfortable. It shocked her to realize her thong was wet as she pulled them on. She grabbed a bra from the basket on the shelf and worked it on under her sleep shirt. She gasped as the bra brushed against her erect nipples, sending heat straight to her clit.

What was happening to her? She had never felt such arousal before just meeting a man. What was it about this police officer that had her turned on like a schoolgirl with her first crush?

Returning to the back door, she took a deep breath and tried to calm herself as she slipped her flip-flops back on. Opening the door, she stepped out and found Sergeant Katz standing with another man studying the damaged door of her Jeep. She gasped silently as her pussy clenched and gushed when he turned and his laser-blue eyes met hers. There was definitely something going on, an electricity in the air that seemed to be connecting them. For the first time in several years, she decided to not fight the attraction, but instead see where it led even if he was a lot younger than she was.

ADULT EXCERPT

The queen-size bed with its burgundy silk comforter and collection of frilly pillows called to him, but the more open space on the floor in front of the bed looked even more enticing. Plenty of room for what he had in mind. The barely beige carpet looked soft and cushiony as well, and if things got too passionate between them, there would be no fear of rolling off the floor.

And he had a feeling things might get very wild.

He kissed her again as he peeled her limbs from around him. As soon as she was standing on her own and somewhat balanced, he began to work on the buttons of her shirt. As he worked his way down her shirt, he kissed a line down the exposed skin at the center of her body.

Once he slipped the last button through its hole, he straightened and pushed the shirt off her shoulders and down her arms until it floated to the floor behind her. Then he turned his attention to her jeans. In less than a minute he had her stripped bare of bra and thong as well. When she reached for him, he shook his head as he stepped back, pulling off own clothes off as fast as he could and damn near ripping them in his haste. He was too close to the limits of his control. If she started touching him like he had just touched her, his cat would go wild and he might hurt her. And that was the last thing he wanted to do, especially after the vow he had taken not so many minutes earlier.

Once they were both naked, he pulled her close, sighing as her body came to rest against his. Her soft skin felt so good as it pressed against him. He felt as well as heard her moan into his chest, her warm breath ruffling the furred triangle of hair that covered his chest.

“Feel good?” he murmured. He dropped his head forward so his cheeks rubbed against hers, sending more sparks of arousal straight to his groin.

“Uh-huh,” she sighed.

KJ could not help but grin. He had to fight down the urge to howl with the happiness he felt. She felt the bond between them just as strongly as he did.

“KJ?” she asked, her voice low and sultry.

“Yes?”

“I don’t think I can stand up anymore.”

“That’s okay, sweetheart. You don’t have to.”

He guided her to her knees and knelt with her, wrapping his arms around her. Then he slowly, gently lowered them until they were lying on the floor side by side, breast to chest and belly to belly. Once they were horizontal, he tangled his legs in hers to keep her from going anywhere.

“Better?” he asked as he eased her onto her back and moved to rest on elbow and hip. He then leaned down and began to explore with his free hand as well as lips, teeth, and tongue.

“Mmmm,” she hummed as he tweaked one nipple while taking the other between his lips and sucking gently.

Though he wanted to take things slow, gentle, make it a beautiful first time, Stacy, and his beast, seemed to have other ideas.

“Please,” she whimpered as his tongue drew a hot, wet line from one nipple to the other.

KJ lifted his head. “What’s wrong?”

“I need. More. Please. Please fuck me.”

Her gentle pleading so soon after getting started had his cat roaring in ecstatic anticipation. Feeling the same urgency, KJ spread her legs then pressed them up until her thighs rested against her torso. KJ crouched over her and looked down at her as he licked his lips. He had been shocked to see her pussy was bare, and the sight of her full hips and breasts and mature, womanly figure had his heart racing with excitement.

His mate was exquisite.

He lifted his gaze to her heavy-lidded expression and knew the answer even though he felt driven to voice the question. He had been a cop long enough to know that situations as volatile as this one might be later misconstrued once the explosive sexual heat between them cooled and senses returned. The last thing he wanted was for Stacy to regret what they were about to do.

“Are you sure, Stacy? Are you sure you want to make love?”

Her eyes widened with shock for a heartbeat at his terminology. Two endless seconds passed before she nodded and panted, “Yes, KJ. Please. I need you.”

Shifting his weight to one forearm and his legs, he leaned down and kissed her as his free hand wrapped around the base of his cock. He guided the head up and down her center, purring at the wet heat he found there. She gasped as her own need rose even further at the same time her hips began to rise, trying to capture his cock in her pussy.

Instead of giving in to her unspoken demands, KJ used the tip of his cock to begin to trace circles. He stroked around her knotted-up clit twice before tracing the line from top of her slit, over her clit and pussy entrance, all the way to her puckered star, and then back again.

“Please,” she begged. “Please, KJ. Fuck. Me. Now.”

Dropping over her until they were nose to nose, he looked deep in her eyes and said in a voice deep as a well in the desert, “No. I will not fuck you. I will hear you scream with your pleasure. I will erase all memories of those past bastards who used and hurt you. What I will do, baby girl, is make love with you.”

With that declaration, he fit the tip of his cock into her open, wet entrance. His eyes locked on her, he pushed, keeping his movements slow and steady, but not stopping until his cock was full length inside her wet, welcoming pussy.