Free Cougar's Gift: Pacific Northwest Cougars: (Shifter Romance) by Moxie North Page B

you? What’s your family like?”
    Stryker mentally did a quick edit of the facts and started in. “Mom is Lilibeth. Dad is Sebastian. They run a fruit farm in California.
    Oldest brother Dax lives in Washington state and runs a farm up there. Sister Mackenzie lives in Washington and is a stay-at-home mom with my new nephew Kingston.
    Brother Everett is the one that I told you about that just got married. He lives in Las Vegas now. Then there’s me,” he finished. That was the truth, altered slightly.
    “They sound nice,” she remarked. She was ashamed to admit that she didn’t expect him to have such a normal sounding family. She had dreamed up all sorts of scenarios. Orphaned, on the road, looking for forgiveness.
    Yeah, she totally read too many books. But he sounded like a normal guy. Weird, because nothing about him seemed normal.
    “They aren’t too bad. Mom’s a nut, but you just have to know how to deal with her. Heard she had a run-in with my brother’s new wife. I guess she’s seen the light about welcoming spouses into the family,” he said with a laugh.
    Libby couldn’t help the little twinge in the region of her heart when he said the word spouse. She’d never said it out loud, but she’d always wanted to get married and start a family.
    She didn’t have grand plans to be a businesswoman or do some really important job that would change the course of history.
    She didn’t fault anyone for those goals, in fact she looked up to them. The girls she went to school with had such huge plans. They were goal oriented and focused. Libby was just counting the days until she could head back home.
    She just wanted to be Libby. Read lots of books, teach her children and the community’s kids to love books.
    She wanted someone to come home to. To cook for, cuddle with and talk to. Those were her big aspirations. They sounded simple and boring, so she never really shared them with anyone.
    “Well, my parents still think I’m twelve so I don’t think they would know what to do with a gentleman caller,” she joked.
    “Oh, sweetheart, I’m no gentleman,” he said.
    “You know what I mean,” she replied.
    “I do and you can call me whatever you’re comfortable with. Guy I’m dating, boyfriend, lover, but it doesn’t change what I really am,” he said softly.
    “And what are you?” she whispered back.
    “I’m yours, Libby.”

Chapter 15
    D id he mean that ? How could he say something like that after a few hours?
    Libby was confused and feeling very out of her element. He talked like one of the heroes in her favorite books.
    Sexy strong alpha males that took what they wanted and didn’t apologize. But those were make-believe. Real men did not talk or act that way.
    Libby was thinking that there was a distinct possibility she may be suffering from a brain tumor and this was all some horrible, awesome hallucination.
    “How can you know?” It seemed a reasonable question. He’d only known her for the sum total of half a day.
    “How do you know?” he returned.
    “What do you mean? I don’t know anything yet,” she said, affronted at the turn of questioning.
    “Yes you do, don’t lie to me, mouse. I can already tell you aren’t the kind of person to follow a stranger out into the woods. You’d have to trust that person, know that he’d keep you safe. How do you know?”
    Darn, she didn’t have an answer to that, just her instincts telling her that she didn’t need to perform fight or flight in this situation.
    In fact, if she took a moment, she realized she was supremely comfortable sitting on his lap just having climaxed. He hadn’t stopped touching her since they met. She liked his constant attention.
    And she’d only briefly considered herself crazy for her actions so far. That was those after school specials talking, not how she truly felt.
    “I feel it,” she finally answered him.
    “Same with me. I feel it, I’m sure of it in a way that is hard to express. I know that I’m