The Cougar's Bargain Read Online Free PDF

adventure.
    In truth, she thought it would take her nearly that many trips to convince herself that nothing bad was going to happen, and that if something did—she could handle it. They’d started the list going in reverse alphabetical order and had only made it as far as Utah. She didn’t know what her friends would think of her if they knew the trips weren’t just about fighting boredom. They’d always thought she was the one who had her shit together, but in truth, she was just the best actress.
    The only thing the camping adventure had done for her was reinforced her fear that she was never truly safe and that nothing was predictable. Looking at Sean reminded her of that. He was really no different from that bear. He was a wild, unpredictable thing who’d eat her alive if she made one wrong move, and he wouldn’t even have to touch her to do it. Words were enough.
    She rushed past Mason, and out the back door of Sean’s house before her alpha could get a word out. She didn’t turn to look behind her a single time until she was at Glenda Foye’s front porch.
    Mason leaned in the doorway with Sean—wearing a bed-sheet toga—beside him. Neither called her back, and that suited her fine.
    “Miles, is that you back here already?” Glenda said. “You’re just in time. I’ve gotta take these lunches out to the ranch hands and I need you to watch this bubbling pot. I turned the damned thing up too high.”
    “Um.” Hannah stopped in the living room, and shifted her weight from foot to foot while she plotted her next move. She and Glenda didn’t really have conversations. At least, not the kind Ellery and Miles did. Their relationship was contentious, at best, with Glenda having acted as her jailer for the first month after Hannah’s arrival at the ranch. Glenda had been as inconvenienced by the women’s arrival as they had, but having been in their position once herself, she was empathetic. Still, Hannah knew her allegiances lay firmly with her sons, and not the women they’d snatched for mates.
    “Miles?”
    “Uh. No.” Hannah let out a long breath and scrubbed the sleep out of her eyes. “It’s Hannah.”
    “Hannah? Is Sean …” Glenda appeared in the doorway wringing a potholder between her hands.
    Hannah nodded. “He’s back. He’s at his house with Mason.”
    Glenda closed her eyes and turned her face heavenward, her shoulders sagging with apparent relief. “That’s three.”
    Three sons. Three mates.
    Hannah had been the missing puzzle piece that would keep the Foyes together. She’d said yes to Sean out of guilt and fear, but she was relieved, too. It pained her to think of him that way, but Sean was someone’s little boy.
    Glenda righted her head and opened her eyes, and they were red and watery. “Hannah, I—”
    Pops and hisses sounded from the kitchen—a pot lid clattering and food boiling over into the flame. “Dammit.” Glenda hurried toward it.
    Letting out a long breath, Hannah walked slowly toward the kitchen, grateful for the distraction of the pot. She didn’t know what to say to the woman or what she what she wanted Glenda to say to her. The easiest thing for Hannah would have been if she didn’t have to speak to Glenda at all. She wouldn’t step on any conversational landmines that way—wouldn’t insult the woman more than she already had.
    Hannah made her way carefully past the sharp corners of furniture she’d bruised herself against so many times during her first month there. Glenda had a lot of furniture, and not enough space for all of it. Hannah had always wondered why she didn’t cull some of it, but she’d never asked.
    She leaned into the doorway and watched Glenda scrub food splatter off the counter.
    “Just give me one minute,” Glenda said. “Just stay right there.”
    “Take your time.” Hannah wasn’t even sure why she’d gone to Glenda’s in the first place. The movement had seemed instinctual. Or perhaps the part of her that was the