Linda O. Johnston - Cougar's Conquest

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Gwynn Macka hasn’t seen Brett Sorrellson in over a year, not since their relationship had ended so abruptly. Not since the brilliant, sexy man she fell for learned her secret and she’d been forced to flee.

Now Brett is back with an offer to join a covert military unit of shapeshifters, and the spark of their attraction is instantly reignited. Neither can resist sharing one last night of passion, but as a cougar shifter, Gwynn had been taught only to trust her own kind. Can she truly trust Brett with her secret…and with her heart?

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Brett?

No, that couldn’t be Brett Sorrellson standing there at the edge of the crowded sidewalk still filled with students waiting for rides home after school.

Gwynn Macka’s brain must be even more fried than she had thought to imagine that Brett might be here, at this small middle-school campus in the Rim of the World Unified school district, way up in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California. The area was so far from Denver in distance and attitude that it might as well be on the other side of the globe.

But Gwynn wasn’t fooling herself. Though she hadn’t seen Brett for more than a year, she would never forget his sharp-edged good looks, the way his astonishingly intelligent hazel eyes had bored into her as if she were a computer enigma to be studied and solved on the spot.

Or his buff masculine physique, very unexpected in a guy who pretended to be nothing but a computer nerd. A physique that he kept buff—and knew how to use to its full advantage.

Oh, yes, Gwynn had found that out. Enjoyed it.

Loved it.

Until what they’d had ended so abruptly. Until the brilliant, sexy, wonderful man she’d cared for so deeply had learned the secret she couldn’t share with anyone outside her family, and she’d been forced to flee.

Even at this distance, while Gwynn stood at the top of the steps overlooking the pickup driveway, she couldn’t doubt her eyes. And how appropriate it was to see him there at the end of this highly taxing school day and before she returned home to what she knew would be a typically stressful time with her parents and brother.

How had he found her? She’d been so careful. Hadn’t even used her own name before, when they had known each other.

Well, no matter now. She couldn’t just stand there pretending not to see him. Nor did she dare to confront him.

She needed time to think. She turned and hurried back into the building, using the crowd of teachers and students at the exit as her camouflage. She practically ran through the halls toward her classroom, ignoring curious glances of other teachers who conversed outside their own classrooms—none really her friend since she feared getting close to anyone. Not around here—and not ever again.

Inside, she barely glanced at the rows of tablet-armed students’ chairs. She headed immediately to her large teacher’s desk at the front where she secured her personal property. Pulling the key from her pocket, she unlocked the drawers and grabbed her purse. From a file cabinet to the side, she yanked out folders of biology homework that she’d planned to grade here later that afternoon for her students. Working at home was impossible, but she’d figure out something.

She locked her desk again, jammed her key in the pocket of her gray linen slacks, and dashed toward the door while clutching all she carried.

But her way out was blocked by a tall, looming, gorgeously handsome—and fully unnerving—form.

“Hello, Gwynn,” said the deep voice that had always wrapped itself inside her and churned all sorts of lava-hot effects from her most vulnerable body parts. “Good to see you again.”

Brett smiled as he regarded the shocked look on Gwynn’s face. He tried to keep his expression friendly but knew it was sardonic. And maybe a bit triumphant.

“What are you doing here, Brett?” she demanded. She didn’t sound defensive the way she used to, just angry.

Had she changed that much over the past year? Or did she just want him to think so?

“I’ll bet you can guess,” he responded lazily, leaning against the doorjamb. “It took me a while to get here after I located you. But I thought you knew me well enough to realize that I enjoy a challenge—especially one I can use as a puzzle over the internet.”

She had remained in front of him, hugging files to her shapely chest as if using them as a shield against him. She needn’t worry. As much as he had once loved caressing her curvaceous, full breasts, that wasn’t why he had come.

Although given the opportunity…well, sure. He’d enjoy making love with her just once again. For old times’ sake.

“No, actually, I can’t,” she said. “I don’t know why you’re here. I should think it would be pretty obvious that I didn’t want to see you again after I left Denver.”

“Ah, but I definitely wanted to see you again,” he said, broadening his smile. Her eyes widened for an instant as if in utter terror.

Damn. He knew how vulnerable she had seemed before. But he had come to believe that was just part of her act. Her seduction of him. Her method of playing him as a fool.

But what if it was real? Had she genuinely felt vulnerable because of who she was, even when no one was aware of it?

Or was it all a pretense?

He would find out.

“Well, you’ve seen me,” she said in a tone so icy that he felt transported for an instant to the cold Aspen mountain slope where they had skied together months before she had disappeared. “Now go back to Denver.”

“I don’t live in Denver anymore,” he told her.

That appeared to shock her. “Really? I thought you loved it there.”

“Too many memories,” he said casually, although he felt anything but casual.

Her eyes closed for an instant before opening again. “I…I’m not sure what to say.”

He regarded her for a minute, not saying anything, either.

She was as beautiful as ever. Her prominent cheekbones underscored deep chocolate eyes that looked even more haunted now, and perhaps afraid as she regarded him warily and, maybe, with a touch of regret—or was he only hoping for that? Her pink lips were less glowing and pouty today than in his memories of her, since she had initially drawn them into a taut line of displeasure while watching him. Now, they were slightly open, all alluring, suggesting silently that he kiss her. Or was that just another thing he wanted to read there?

Her tawny hair was rolled into a knot at the nape of her neck, which suggested it was still long and sexy. She wore a blue shirt and gray slacks, a nice outfit for a schoolteacher, he supposed. As before, she looked slender and sleek. And of course now he knew why.

Had known it for over a year.

Brett had watched Gwynn change, under a full moon, from this incredibly sensuous, attractive woman he had once loved into a wild, stalking cougar. Oh, and not the euphemistic term now used for an older woman who dated younger men.