Free The Cougar's Trade by Holley Trent Page B

trying, and she tells me I’m a traitor and turns her back when I try to get her to understand.”
    “She can’t.”
    “I know. Trying to explain falling for someone unexpected to a person who’s never been in love before is probably a futile endeavor, but I’ll keep trying. You can sleep at our place for as long as you want, or until you figure out how you’re going to negotiate this thing. Do you think you’ll go home once things settle down?”
    Miles turned her hands over. “Probably. Maybe I’ll ask for that in exchange for the favor. I don’t see why I wouldn’t go home, especially since Hank thinks I’m a liability here.”
    Ellery grimaced. “I don’t think he’s going to go for that.”
    “Why not?”
    “From what I’ve learned, Cougar men aren’t so inclined to let their mates stray, even if they’re not a couple.”
    “That doesn’t make sense.”
    “Says the lady to her witch BFF? Why do you keep expecting things to make sense here?”
    Ellery had a point.
    “Anyway, Mason swears the sofa is comfortable, but I can’t vouch for it.”
    “I’ve never met a sofa I didn’t like. As tired as I am, I probably wouldn’t notice if it was uncomfortable for long, anyway.”
    They started toward Mason’s house, letting Nick toddle slowly between them while gripping their hands. Sean jogged past them, half-clothed and throwing up a hand in salute. He was probably on his way to shifting to his cougar form. “Guarding the hellmouth,” he called back. “Please forgive me for locking your friend in my basement.”
    “Sean!” Ellery shouted, and looked toward Sean’s house.
    Sure enough, the basement lights shone up from the window wells.
    “Um…” Miles cringed. “Should we…”
    “Rescue her?” Mason had caught up to them, with Hank right beside him.
    There went Miles’s plan for an easy escape for the night.
    “She had choices,” Mason said. “She preferred the basement to a conversation. Sean is seriously considering getting her on the very first flight heading east.”
    “Can you blame her?” Miles asked. The words were meant for no one in particular, but they had to be said. “It’s an awful situation. Hannah wants her freedom, and Sean has to either do his goddess’s bidding or lose his life as he knows it. It’s not Hannah’s problem, but Sean’s, and what does it matter to her if some guy she doesn’t even know ends up stuck wearing a cat’s body for the rest of his life?”
    No one said anything, but she hadn’t expected they would. Sometimes the truth made for hard conversations.
    Hank fell into step beside Miles, and she looked up at him.
    Miles was a little more sympathetic, but she wondered how long she could maintain that. There was nothing to read in his expression. He might as well have been a statue.
    There was a serious disconnect between the Hank Glenda knew and talked about, and the one Miles had personally met. Supposedly there was an intelligent,
interesting
man behind all that stone. Miles hoped to someday meet him, just to see if he lived up to his own legend.
    They reached the steps of Mason’s place, and she let go of Nick’s hand. Ellery scooped him up, and Hank pressed a hand between her shoulders and got her moving toward his house.
    “’Night, Mason,” he said. “Ellery.”
    Miles caught a glimpse of Ellery over her shoulder.
    “Hank, she can sleep here,” Ellery called out.
    “I’ve got a bed for her.”
    “Miles?”
    Miles sighed, then called back, “It’s all right, I guess.”
    “I’m not going to hurt you,” Hank said in what sounded like the precursor to a growl.
    She didn’t believe he would hurt her. Not physically, anyway—just her feelings over and over again.
    She climbed up the porch steps of Hank’s foursquare house, dead tired, but so curious.
    Why would a single man have a house like this?
Not even his mother’s house was as large, and it seemed out of place on the ranch with its colonial styling and,