The Cougar's Bargain by Holley Trent Read Free Book Online Page A

saying, but wasn’t parsing it well. Also, every time the statuesque blonde in his periphery shifted, he looked at her. Hannah wasn’t paying him a damn bit of attention, and that distracted him far more than it should have.
    So fuckin’ cavalier. Must be nice.
    Ego was a nasty thing. He shouldn’t have cared how cavalier she was. After all, he’d more or less invited her to take a hike.
    At some point, the room cleared out, and Sean didn’t notice. His brothers stood in front of him with their arms crossed over their chests.
    “Dude,” Hank said. He always managed to pack so much
stank
attitude in a single word.
    “What did you miss?” Mason asked.
    “What makes you think I missed anything?” Sean leaned his chair onto the rear legs and crossed his arms, too.
    “Your energy went blank. It totally just fell off as if you weren’t there.”
    “Hmm. That’s weird,” Sean said flatly. There was probably a lot of shit wrong with him after having been a cat for a period he wasn’t quite certain the length of. He hadn’t thought to check the date.
    Hank leaned onto the table and let out a long, ragged breath. “You need to try to stay conscious. Your aura shrinks when the cat in you is doing the steering. You probably didn’t notice.”
    “I don’t exactly have firsthand experience with this. I’ve never seen the other side of a curse before.”
    “Neither have we.”
    Sean waggled his eyebrows. “Wow. I get to be the first to do something for a change. Only took thirty years for me to get a chance.”
    Hank rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “For fuck’s sake. Hannah’s waiting.”
    Sean made a
get on with it
gesture. “Waiting for …”
    “You need to go.”
    “Go where?”
    Mason had dragged his fingers through his hair and gave it a tug. “Fuck. I hope you can drive.”
    “Where am I driving to?”
    “Hannah will tell you. She’s got the address.”
    “Obviously, when my inner kitty was sitting in on your meeting, he didn’t take notes and relay the message to me. Is this a short errand or a long one?”
    “Not an errand. A mission.”
    Sean snorted. “Are we special ops now or something?”
    “It’s a
Lola
mission, dipshit. Either you go with Hannah or she doesn’t go at all, and the latter isn’t an option.”
    “Well, damn.”
    “I don’t know how long you’ll be gone, but if you want to pack a bag with a few changes of clothes that’s small enough to put on your bike, I think Hannah will spare you the five minutes.”
    “You’re putting me on a
motorcycle
with her?”
    “It’s inconspicuous.”
    “No, it’s
loud
, and an explosion waiting to happen, but I see how it is. You’ve always been jealous of me for being the baby boy, and now you’re taking it out on my hide. Some brothers.”
    He knew Mason and Hank weren’t playing around when they didn’t respond.
    His day just kept getting better and better.
    Sean packed his duffel, sighing between every article of clothing, then found Hannah in the shade of the barn where he’d left his bike covered.
    She didn’t greet him, and barely even looked at him. She just fiddled the straps of her backpack and shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans.
    All righty then.
    He didn’t really know what to tell her. Being at a loss for words usually wasn’t a problem for him, especially not with women, but none of the other women he’d sweet-talked before had been his fated mate. None of the usual stuff worked on her.
    He tossed his duffel to the ground, pulled the cover off the rebuilt Harley, and flinched. The last chick he’d had on his bike had talked a good game and sold him on her supposed fearlessness and love of excitement. The moment he’d gotten them up to fifty-five miles per hour, she’d demanded he pull over so she could barf.
    He’d waited with her on the roadside until her brother could pick her up. The next time Sean had heard from her, she’d acted like it had never happened and