Night of the Cougar Read Online Free Page B

beat beneath her fingertips as she pressed them to his neck. Weak and thready, but there.
    She hooked her hands beneath his armpits and pulled, trying to drag him indoors, into the growing heat of the room. But moving him was like trying to move a felled tree. His body was stiff and unresponsive. Deadweight, heavy, but she put her back and legs into it, dragging him away from the doors so she could secure them once again. Then, foot by agonizing foot, she tugged and jerked him across the floor until she had him in front of the fireplace.
    The last time she had started a fire on her own was in Girl Scouts, but like riding a bike, it soon came back to her. She wanted to jump with glee as the kindling flared to life and the logs above it caught fire.
    Heat quickly drifted out of the fireplace, but Jamie knew that would not be enough. She hurried down the hallway to the bathroom and grabbed an armful the towels then raced back to the living room.
    Kneeling beside Galen once again, she dried and rubbed down his body. He moaned then, as if in pain, but she pressed onward, pleased as color slowly crept back into his skin.
    With the fire and furnace now pumping out more heat, she lifted a comforter off a nearby couch and draped it over Galen, praying that all her efforts had been enough. But he didn’t rouse, and soon after her rubdown, his body began to tremble violently.
    Shared body heat.
    The words came to mind from some survival show she had seen on television. All she knew was that she couldn’t let Galen die.
    Ripping off her clothes, she covered his body with hers and pulled the comforter back over them. For good measure, she wrapped her arms around him and stroked him, pleased as his tremors fled. As warmth replaced the chill, a low rumble rolled through his body and he finally drew in a long breath, murmuring her name.
    “It’s me,” she said, and eased upward so she could see his face.
    His eyes fluttered open, displaying the gorgeous emerald color, along with something foreign. A flash of bright green, almost glowing, before another flutter revealed only the jewellike color she remembered.
    “Jamie,” he breathed again, almost like a prayer, and then he weakly lifted his hands to tenderly cradle her back.
    But his next words shocked her.
    “You’ve got to leave. It’s not safe here,” he said. He added almost sadly, “I’m not safe.”
    “You’ll be fine. Just rest,” she urged, splaying her hands on his chest.
    Inside him, Galen could feel the animal just waiting for night so it could emerge once more. She had to leave before then.
    “No, you have to go,” he said, and tried to rise, but couldn’t. He was too weak from a combination of that morning’s transformation and being trapped out in the cold and snow.
    “You have to rest,” she said, shifting her hands back and forth, warming him with her touch, reminding him of how long it had been since he’d felt a human touch.
    How long it had been since she had touched him. The memories of her roused a different kind of warmth inside of him.
    Jamie realized it as well. The comfort that had earlier filled her marvelous sky-blue eyes was replaced with the glittering heat of passion.
    He knew it was wrong. He could offer her little. The accident and mauling that had made him less than human had changed his life forever. Because of that accident he hadn’t returned any of her calls.
    But as she bent her head and brushed her lips against his, nothing had ever felt so right.
    He returned her kiss, reached up and cradled the back of her head in one big hand as they kissed over and over, exploring each other.
    Her lips were warm and mobile. Her hair so soft. Tickling him as it drifted forward against his face.
    He shuddered, but not from the cold. From the need to have her. The need to love her. To experience every nuance of what she was before he made her leave.
    He tightened his hold on her back and urged her upward until she was straddling his midsection