Chapter 3 #2
“She declined my offer. My ex would have been furious if he had been sitting in your place and I had suggested it.”
“I thought it was nice for you to include her. We would have had fun as a threesome.”
“I didn’t want her to feel left out in case she doesn’t get out as a cougar very often to run and explore.
But I appreciated how nice you were about it.
My ex-boyfriend was really controlling and didn’t want me to have any friends anymore.
Just him. I only have my grandfather, and he didn’t want me to talk to him either, though we were estranged and I wasn’t in touch with him anyway. ”
“I’m sorry to hear it. I don’t have any family left, so the Havertons and their hired help have become family.
I once dated a woman who was terribly controlling.
She didn’t want me to speak with my friends at the Watering Hole; all my attention had to be paid to her.
She finally left town before I called it quits with her, which I fully intended to do that morning.
The guys all hassled me mercilessly for putting up with her for so long. ”
“Oh, I know what you mean. I felt the same way. All my friends kept telling me to ditch him, but when I did, he wasn’t going for it.
I kept hoping he would find someone else to hassle, not that I really wished him on anyone else, but I just wanted him to leave me alone.
I finally left the state, but when he followed me there, I knew I was in trouble.
Did you ever hear from your ex-girlfriend? ”
“No. Once she was gone, I never knew what had happened to her and didn’t want to. We have such a great community here; we don’t need anyone like her living here.”
“You weren’t afraid I would be like that?”
“Nope. And then when I heard your story, I realized you really weren’t like her in any way. Instead, you are more like me, having to deal with a controlling, aggressive person, except I was lucky that she just took off, and that was the end of that.”
After they finished their fajitas and had sopapillas for dessert, Rory paid for dinner, and he drove her to a hiking trail and parked at the trailhead.
“Do you want to strip here at the truck or change in the woods?” Rory asked.
“Let’s change in the truck. It’ll be warmer. I’ll use the back seat.”
“I’ll do it after you do.”
With the ground covered in snow, it would definitely be the warmer option.
She moved to the back seat, stripped off her clothes, and then shifted.
Rory came around to the back door, let her out, then climbed in, left the door open, and removed his clothes.
He shifted and leapt out of the truck. She shut the door with her paws.
Then he nuzzled her with a sweet rub of his muzzle, their whiskers tickling each other, greeting her cougar to cougar as a sign of trust, and she nuzzled him back, enjoying the intimacy.
Then he took off to show her the way. They were on the trail, and then off the trail, leaving their paw prints in the snow.
She was glad that the area was off-limits to hunters, or they would be easy to track.
The snow was falling in fat flakes, adding to the already covered pine branches and Colorado spruce. She loved it. She had lived in Florida, where there was no snow, and it was really fun to run through the snow in Colorado. Everything looked Christmas card perfect.
Rory got ahead of her, and she nipped at his tail in fun. He rounded on her and tried to tackle her to the ground, but she retaliated with her paws up, claws sheathed, and teeth bared in playful big cat fun.
He snarled at her, and she copied his stance, the two trying to bite each other’s neck, but their teeth clashed instead. Then they dropped down, their hearts beating like crazy, their breaths smoking in the freezing air. Then they licked each other on the muzzle. This was great.
She’d never played with a cougar like that. He was so gentle with her. She wouldn’t have dared to try that with her ex. Then they continued exploring the woods when they came to a clearing.
As soon as they walked into the clearing covered in snow, they saw a bull moose.
Ohmigod, she had never seen one in person.
He was dark brown with huge antlers. He was about six feet tall at the shoulder, and she knew they weighed about a half-ton.
They could be dangerous if he spied them and felt they were a threat.
Which, since they were cougars right now, they sure could be.
Then he charged them. A moose could run 35 miles per hour at short distances.
She and Rory headed for the woods, though he stayed behind her as if to protect her.
She leapt into the lower branches of a tree and began climbing.
Rory was right behind her as the moose stopped before ramming into the tree.
Then he grazed on the needles of the pine tree way below them.
They weren’t going anywhere for a while.
Though they could run 40-50 miles per hour as cougars, they figured they would just wait out the moose and then return to the truck.
At least she was fine with it. If Rory indicated he wanted to leave sooner, she would stick with him.
They watched the moose for a while, then he finally wandered off the way he had come.
They still waited until he was some distance off.
Then Lacy zigzagged down the tree, landing on branch after branch on her descent, knocking off snow, creating a sudden snowstorm.
Rory moved down at the same pace on branches close by, appearing to want to reach the base of the tree trunk at the same time as her, protective, endearing.
When they landed on the ground in a pile of snow, they looked back in the direction of the moose. He had paused and turned his head to consider them. They tore off, leaping through mounded snow. Lacy glanced over her shoulder and saw Rory peering back. The moose had sauntered off.
They were safe. They nuzzled each other and headed to the trailhead that took them another half hour of trekking through the snow to reach.
Despite the momentary terror of the moose charging after them, and that had been an experience and a half, making it memorable, though, she had had a blast with Rory.
He shifted next to the truck, let her in, closed the door, then shifted back, waiting in the snow as a cougar for her to dress.
As soon as she had, she opened the door for him, and he jumped into the back seat and licked her cheek with his sandpapery tongue.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him.
Then she left the truck and returned to the front passenger seat.
He soon joined her in the driver’s seat and smiled at her. “What did you think about that adventure?”
She laughed. “I loved seeing the moose. I have to say that it’s the first time I’ve been a cougar in the snow, and I really enjoyed it. But being chased by a moose? What a fantastic memory.”
He smiled. “I’m glad you weren’t terrified.”
“Momentarily. He was big and running fast. I figured that we might have outrun the moose. I know that, as a human, if you hide behind a tree, they don’t see you, and the threat is gone to them, so they’ll usually just stop.
But for us, climbing the tree was perfect.
We could have outrun him too, but if he followed us to the truck, then what?
We would stop to get into the truck and would have been in danger.
He could have struck us. So waiting in the tree was the right thing to do. ”
“I agree. I can’t believe I took you on a fun-filled cougar run and we had to get out of the way of a raging bull.”
She laughed. “We’ll remember it forever.” She didn’t mean as in she was mating him, but just as a life experience.
“For sure.” He drove her to Mrs. Fitz’s home and parked.
Lacy leaned over the console and kissed him. “Thanks for a delightful dinner and run as cougars. It was just perfect, and I had the best time ever.”
Rory kissed her back, rubbing her shoulders with his hands in a soothing massage. “Do you want to have dinner at the Sizzling Slice tomorrow night?”
She laughed. “And a cougar run afterward?”
“I’ll take you out to the ranch. We can run up into the rocky hills if we have trouble.”
“Okay, sounds good.”
Then he walked her to the house, pulled her into a hug, and kissed her again. She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him deeper. Yeah, being with Rory felt just right.
She was already thinking about going further with him, which was probably crazy, but she hadn’t had intimate relations with her ex in six months. With Rory, she just wanted to go further. But he lived in a bunkhouse, and she was staying with Mrs. Fitz, so it seemed privacy would be impossible.
“I’ll see you tomorrow then.” Rory rubbed her arms and then kissed her forehead in a really tender way.
She smiled. “Sounds great.”
The day after that was the Christmas dance so she needed to figure out what to wear for it. When she entered the house, Mrs. Fitz was reading a book on the couch and drinking hot cocoa. “Did you have a good time?”
“We encountered a moose and ended up in a tree.” Lacy laughed. “I’ve never seen one for real. Boy, was he huge. But yeah, we had a great time. We’re going out to dinner tomorrow night.” She had to tell Mrs. Fitz so she wouldn’t expect to have dinner with her.
“And the dance.”
“I’m going with Rory.”
“Oh, wonderful.”
Lacy wanted to know if Mrs. Fitz was going too, but she didn’t want to make her feel bad if she didn’t have anyone to go with and wasn’t attending because of it.
“Would you like some hot cocoa?”
“No thanks. It’s late. I’m going to take a shower and head to bed.” They had to get up so early to start preparing breakfast dishes at the coffee shop that Lacy was tired.
“Okay. See you in the morning.”
All Lacy could think about was enjoying her time with Rory tomorrow at dinner and looking forward to another fun-filled run.
Florence was so glad Lacy was having such a good time with Rory. He was a great guy—the same with the other ranch hands. Lacy needed someone in her life to prove to her that good men existed in the world, not like her ex-boyfriend.
Florence had just about fallen asleep when she heard a knock on the front door.
She frowned, threw on some clothes, and grabbed her gun from her bedside table. She called Dan next as she headed down the stairs. “I’ve got an unexpected visitor. I’m going to check it out, taking my gun, but I just wanted to let you know in case I have trouble.”
“I’m on my way. If it’s Lacy’s ex-boyfriend, don’t open the door.”