Marie Harte - Outfoxed

“It’ll be okay, Grady. This happened to me once. It sucks, but you move on. I don’t think Joy and Dean meant to hurt you. Sometimes love just happens.”

He turned around and looked down at her. “You think?” Would that explain why he had trouble eating and sleeping? Why he couldn’t think about another woman, not when she was so close, yet so far from him? Why the sight of dark red hair turned him on like nobody’s business? “You ever been in love, Gabby?”

She shook her head, and he felt worlds better. “No, but it still hurt when the guy I was with found someone else. I found out the hard way, kind of like you just did.” He found the sudden flush on her cheeks entrancing. “Dean had told me they couldn’t meet in the main house, where he and Joy are staying. So they were going to use your place to talk.” She cleared her throat, obviously remembering the moaning they’d both heard. “He’s planning to tell you about them. He’s just trying to find the right words.”

Her sympathy made him feel like a real shit for lying to her, even though it hadn’t been his lie to start with. Then he remembered Miles leering at her, the foxes and other assholes in town constantly bothering her for dates. All’s fair in love and war , he told himself. Besides, the woman was part fox. They were just as shifty and tricky as coyotes. If he didn’t find a way to corner her and tie her down, he’d lose her for sure.

“Thanks for being here with me, Gabby.” He paused. Would he be pushing it? Hell, he didn’t care. He wanted to touch her again, so he reached for her hand. “I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t mention this to anyone. It’s kind of embarrassing.”

She clenched his hand tight, then let him go. “I swear, I won’t say a word. And since you and Joy were keeping it a secret anyway, no one will know she went with Dean after you.”

The little shit. “Right. Dean. He’s my brother, and I love him.” But right now he’s making me look like an ass. Like he could steal a woman from me .

“But he hurt you. I get it. Well, not like that. Julia and Meghan and I never had the same taste in men. And now with both of them married, it’s just me.”

“Guess you’re not angling for Ty.”

She looked horrified.

He grinned, and she smiled with him. “It’s good you can laugh now. Trust me, the pain of this will go away.”

He smothered his laughter. “Right. I hope so.” He coughed and turned away, calling on his acting skills. He couldn’t dance worth shit, but he could lie like a champ. When he turned back to her, he had tears in his eyes. “Gabby? Does it make me a dumbass if I ask you for a hug?”

“You poor thing. Not at all.” She hugged him tight, and he sighed into her embrace. She fit him perfectly. It was heaven and hell at the same time.

When she withdrew, he wanted to cry for real. “Better?”

“I will be, I suppose.”

“Let me get you a beer. You look beat. You worked all day, didn’t you?”

He nodded.

“Go sit down and relax. I’ll be right there. And Grady? You can stay here tonight if you want. I don’t mind.”

He nodded. “Thanks. You’re the best, Gabby.” He turned and found the couch, a huge-ass smile on his face. He composed a mental note to thank Dean tomorrow and made himself comfortable.

Gabby stuck her head in the refrigerator, trying to cool off. Offer comfort, idiot. Stop thinking about what his body feels like. Easy to say, but not so easy to do. Her damn cat wanted to rub up against him, while her fox wanted to curl around him, as close as possible. All this while knowing he had a thing for another woman.

Feeling like a fool but a slave to her libido, she reminded herself Grady wasn’t to blame. The poor man had just learned the cat he’d had feelings for liked his brother better. He’d been hit harder than she had, when she’d walked in on her boyfriend of four months screwing his real estate agent against the wall. So much passion, but it had never been directed at her. She’d been more angry than hurt. And she’d gotten over him pretty fast.

But even then she’d known Clint would never be her mate. From what Dean had told her earlier today, Grady was attached to Joy. They’d spent summers together when they were younger, when the Bermins would visit the Catamount Pride, keeping in touch and making closer bonds. Even though time had passed and Joy didn’t often visit, she and Grady kept in touch. Apparently, so did Dean.

She couldn’t imagine how Grady must feel. She brought the beer to him and stopped in her tracks. He’d taken go sit down and relax to heart. He’d stripped off his boots, socks and shirt and sat back on her couch, his head thrown back, in nothing but jeans.

She had to force her mouth closed and swallowed around a dry throat. She’d never seen a man better put together than Grady Chastell. Though she’d seen him naked enough times—because hell yeah, she’d ogled him like crazy while pretending not to look his way—seeing Grady in nothing but jeans reminded her what was under them.

With his head back, the strong cords of his throat lay bare, and she wanted to sink her canines into the juncture of his throat and neck, to put a mark there for other females to see. For Joy to see.

A low growl eddied within, and she froze. What the hell did she care if he’d had designs on the female? He’d never come on to her, not until Julia had encouraged him to make her feel like a part of the pride.

But maybe she could offer him comfort. A friendly woman who wouldn’t take advantage of his weakened emotional state. Someone not her, apparently, because it was a struggle to make her cat back down. And her fox came up with a dozen devious ways to trick the male into claiming her as mate.

As mate?

“Oh thanks, honey. I appreciate it.” He took the bottle from her stiff fingers.

She followed the motion of his forearm and biceps as they bunched, the muscles sure, strong. He brought the bottle to his lips and guzzled, and his throat worked as he swallowed.

What would his lips feel like against her, she wondered, and frantically slapped her lecherous self for thinking of sex when he was clearly hurting.

He put the half-finished beer on a coaster on her coffee table. Considerate as always. Then he patted the space next to him. “Sit with me, Gabby. You’re good at making me feel better.”

Oh boy, I could make you feel so much better. She eyed his crotch, unable to look away from what seemed like a long, thick erection beneath the denim.

“Gabby?”

Her cat purred at the thought of tasting him there, and the sound vibrated through her chest. How embarrassing. She threw herself onto the couch next to him but gasped when he dragged her onto his lap.

Then he did nothing but hold her tight, his flesh warm and hard beneath her. God, he even smelled good. Her purr grew louder.

“I like that.” He chuckled and tucked her chin under his head. Bad move, because it put her face closer to his throat, and he smelled like every fantasy she’d ever had about sweets, sex and need combined. “So what exactly did Dean tell you about me and Joy?”

Mention of Joy’s name should have dampened her ardor, but it only made her cat and fox that much more determined to erase the woman from his memory.

“N-not much. Just that you two have always been close. Great friends for years, and that seeing her again now, you just knew she was it for you.”

His arms tightened, and she cursed herself for being so tactless. “I don’t think I’d say I knew she was it for me. I like Joy. Hell, I like all the Bermins.”

“Except for Miles.”

He snorted. “That ass—ah, particular cat is not my favorite, no.” He paused. “What about you? Do you like Miles?”