Free Cougar's Conquest by Linda O. Johnston

 

    Chapter One
     
    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