Page 55 of Sear
Malia was a warm, sweetly-scented presence curled up next to him, her arm flung possessively across his chest. Despite the hideously early hour, it was a damned nice way to wake up.
Outside the cabin, the continued sounds of pouring rain and occasional rumbles of thunder were punctuated by flashes of lightning cutting through the pre-dawn darkness.
Lucas turned his head and looked at the digital clock on the nightstand. Five minutes before his alarm was set to go off.
He reached for his phone to deactivate the notification so that it wouldn’t wake Malia. Then he squinted at his text app and saw the message was from Bickham.
Weather sucks. Made other plans for today. Hunting again tomorrow?
Lucas couldn’t help wondering what those other plans might be. But he was relieved not to have to get up at oh-dark-thirty and spend the day getting soaked to the skin.
Sounds good,he replied.Meet at same place & time?
Bickham responded with a thumbs-up emoji.
“Hey,” Malia murmured sleepily. “What’s going on?”
Lucas put his phone on the nightstand and settled beneath the bedcovers. “Hunting’s canceled today, and I can sleep in for a change.”
He drew her sweetly curved body against him, and prepared to drift back to sleep for another hour or two.
“Do youreallyhave to keep hanging out with Bickham and Silvers?” she asked, disappointment lacing her tone. “If you’re worried about not knowing the area, I can ask someone to guide you. Maybe Rob—he spends a lot of time in the forest when he isn’t working.”
“I wouldn’t want to impose,” Lucas said quickly.
“You wouldn’t be imposing. My brother’s off work until his arm finishes healing, and I know for a fact that he’s going stir-crazy inside his apartment.” Malia snorted. “Do youknowhow many texts he sent me yesterday, detailing exactly how bored he was?”
“Okay, I’ll think about it,” Lucas said neutrally. He itched to tell her the truth—that he was hunting, all right, but not elk. Bickham and Silvers were his real prey.
Malia was a fellow law enforcement professional as well as his mate. He wanted to trust her. But then Lucas remembered how quickly word had gotten around about his first date with her.
One of the iron-clad rules of undercover work was to keep the circle of those in the know to the absolute minimum. The only people who knew about this operation were Gage Tringstad, Evan Swanson, and Lucas’s boss Tony Latham.
Lucas couldn’t afford the risk of anyone else finding out…but it was killing him not to reveal the truth to his new mate.
And he was trying hard not to think about how Tringstad and Swanson were going to react when they heard about the mating. Should he ask Malia to keep the news to herself for a while?
Yeah, right. And how are you going to justify that without sounding completely shady?he asked himself.
He closed his eyes, put his arm around his mate, and willed himself to relax. He didn’t often get to turn off his alarm and stay in bed past dawn. The fact that he was doing it with an armful of cuddly woman made it all that much better.
He was beginning to drowse when Malia stirred. An instant later, her small, warm hand fisted his morning wood and stroked gently.
Lucas’s eyes snapped open. He abruptly lost interest in sleeping.
“Mm,” she murmured. “I’m really glad you don’t have to run off. And my shift doesn’t start for a couple of hours, so we have a little time.”
He turned to her and kissed her, long and languorously. “You know what? I’m hungry, and I really want to eatyou.”
She shrieked and giggled as he dove beneath the covers and parted her legs. He nibbled his way up her inner thigh then buried his face in her sweet, musky pussy.
Her giggles turned to sighs and soft moans of pleasure as he indulged himself in her addictive taste. His cougar luxuriated as he covered himself in her scent.
And then there was the exquisite experience of watching her come apart for him as he fucked her with his tongue and sucked on her bud.
She panted and whimpered as she came. He caressed her through it before moving up, draping her knees over his arms, and spreading her wide.
He plunged into her and took her hard and fast, making sure that his cock stroked her in just the right way with each sliding thrust.
