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against him. She struggled, pulling away as if suddenly afraid. Rearing his head once
more, he let loose another feral wail then laid her down and claimed her once more.
Love had finally found him.
* * * * *
The early afternoon sun fell across them in a blanket of yellow light. Next to him,
the old quilt rustled with Lucia s movement as she glided her lips over his shoulder.
Pulling her closer, he kissed the top of her head, breathed in her scent and nestled her
into the crook of his arm.
Time for the questions, he supposed. Questions that would force him to walk a fine
line. He was certain she was indeed the woman promised to him. The one who would
forever change the only life he d known the life of two souls dwelling within one
body, each sharing the other s existence yet walking the earth alone.
It had always been his nature to keep to himself because of what he was, but that
part of him had already changed just by being with Lucia. Could he go back to that
42
Black Cougar Curse
solitary world? But then he d never really been alone, had he? His cougar had always
been there. If the curse could be lifted, which one of them would disappear?
The cougar or Sam?
Would the spirits be so cruel as to send Lucia to him just to have him taste her love
and never live out his dream of truly being loved by banishing him instead of the
cougar? And the cougar deserved to exist in this world just as much as he. Sam wasn t
the only one who d guarded the mountain all this time.
The cougar belonged to the Great Blue Ridge. It was a part of the place of blue
smoke and understood things that Sam never could, sensing all the wondrous
phenomena and upheaval that was nature. In truth, Sam s need to interact with other
people his need for a woman had brought trouble down on them. Everyone was
curious about the reclusive guide who seemed to know the mountains like the back of
his hand.
He d been forced time and again to vanish into the wilderness for a decade or more
because someone was getting dangerously close to discovering his secret or because he
couldn t age, and sooner or later someone would notice. Each time the need to return
would overwhelm him and he d reinvent himself so he could stand on the fringes of life
and watch from afar. What was this& his tenth or twelfth incarnation?
Sam had lost count.
While as much a part of him as his cougar, the sounds of the hills and valleys had
never fully given him what he needed, and he always found his way back to the edge of
civilization, longing for what he could not have. That elusive promise.
Friendship. Family. Love.
Sam?
Yes.
I feel like there s more to all this. To you and me. I m not ready to talk about it, but
we need to at some point. You know that, don t you?
I do.
How the hell did his mate end up being a city gal? The woman was just too damn
comfortable with herself, but they were all that way, weren t they? At least the ones
he d seen wearing their designer jeans and boots to go hiking as if they were on a trip
to the mall. Tossing their gum wrappers into the streams and taking pictures with their
fancy digital cameras and never really understanding the beauty they saw.
Yet he sensed something different about Lucia.
If she wasn t, it would never work between them. But why did he even doubt she
was his. He knew it with every part of him.
And we need to talk about something else too.
Here it comes. He nodded.
Who killed my father?
43
Tess MacKall & Natalie Dae
Sam threw back the quilt and tried to get up. She wrapped her arms around his
waist, her breasts pressing the bare skin of his back.
Don t. I need to know.
I don t know who killed your father. First lie.
But you said
He ripped her arms from him, stood and turned to face her. I said I thought
someone killed your father. I never said I knew who.
Then tell me who you think killed him. I have the right to know.
He couldn t argue with her on that score. Hell, he couldn t argue with her anyway.
Not and look at that sexy mouth of hers or those gorgeous breasts. The thought of
driving his cock deep inside her tightened his nut sac. He d love to spread those pretty
legs and have her again. But he doubted she d be in the mood once their talk was
finished.
I was out walking near your father s campsite. It wasn t actually a lie he d been
prowling the night as his cougar. I d talked with him the day before.
You spoke to my father? The quilt fell farther down her body as she pushed up
onto her knees.
Sam nodded and silently reproached himself for thinking about sex while in the
middle of telling her a bunch of half-truths about her father s death. Seemed like a nice
guy. I m sorry for your loss.
She looked away for a few moments. At first he thought she might be crying, but
she wasn t. When she faced him again, she appeared determined to keep going. Her
eyes glowed with a mixture of sadness and anger.
Jaw set, she asked, What did you talk about?
The fact that there was a line of storms moving in from the west the next day and
that he should move his site.
And he didn t, she stated in a dull tone.
No. Not then, well& He said he was waiting for someone and couldn t leave until
they showed.
Who?
Didn t say.
Sam bent over and picked up his briefs and jeans. Although she watched him dress,
she stayed quiet, obviously thinking on what he d said so far.
Threading his arms into his shirtsleeves he asked, You okay?
I ve had a few months to get over the shock of him being gone, but to think
someone may have killed him&
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