Read The Cougar's Timid Little Lynx (Sweet Water) for Free Online Page B

do this right. I’m not asking for anything you aren’t willing to give, okay? All I want is to pick you up like a gentleman, take you and Joey to have a nice, fun meal, and talk about whatever you want. No pressure, no rush.”
    The fact he admitted to his vulnerability had her shoulders relaxing and a bit of her uncertainty leaving. He was just such a big and powerful male, and he had told her he was scared , too. Her heart also clenched at the knowledge that he was intent on including Joey in what they did, because she wouldn’t have had it any other way. Swallowing roughly, and tightening her hand on the phone, she took another step that would help pave the road to mending her tattered life.
    “Okay, we’ll be ready at six.” She swore she could hear his smile through the phone even though he hadn’t said anything yet.
    “I’ll see you then, Alice.” She closed her eyes, an automatic reaction she was realizing she had every time he said her name. It was like he was reaching through the receiver and running the pads of his fingers along her body.
    “Okay, Luke.” A low growl left him after she said his name, and she couldn’t help but feel the slight pleasure that filled her at the fact she had power over him as well.
    They hung up , and she set the phone on the table, staring at it like she expected it to disintegrate into a million pieces. Her whole body tingled, and a myriad of emotions went through her. She was happy that she had found the strength to move forward, to take another life-changing step, but she was also scared and unsure, worried that everything was going to blow up in her face.
    Her life had been less than pleasurable, but she couldn’t blame it all on Joshua. Yes, his abuse had crippled her mind, and at times her body, but she had also stayed, too afraid of what was out there in the world, and allowed herself to be the verbal and emotional punching bag of a man she had thought she loved. Maybe if she had grown up in a different atmosphere, with loving parents she might have been stronger? But then again, maybe not. Things just sometimes happened for no other reason than that was how it was supposed to be. Luke seemed like a good man, at least what she could tell from the short time she was in his presence. But then she thought of Joshua, and how she had thought he was a good man as well. She had been so very wrong about him, and it had only taken that one moment when she gave herself to him for her entire life to change. But it seemed fate had led her right to Luke, and she liked to think that everything she had endured up until that point had been for this one moment, that she might be able to experience a semblance of happiness and adult companionship. Only time would tell.
    ****
    There had never been a time when Luke had been nervous, but right now he was so fucking nervous the rush of adrenalin in his bloodstream made him feel high.
    “Luke, you’ll be fine . Tonight will be fine. You are really freaking yourself out for no reason.” Talia’s voice came through the receiver, and he scrubbed a hand over his face. It was five-thirty in the evening, and here he was, sitting in his car and talking to his sister because he was scared as shit. He had never even felt this way when everything had gone down with Mina. Talia was a level-headed and intelligent female. She was before she became mated with a bear, but she seemed even more so now because of being with Ford. “What I wouldn’t give to see you unraveled like this over a female. I’ve never known you to be less than confident…”
    She stopped talking , and he knew she was thinking about when he had broken his engagement off with Mina. Although he was past all of that know, had no feelings over the human that he thought he loved once but who had pretty much kicked him in the dick, he was still holding onto the anger and hatred that situation had caused inside of him. But for once in his life, and just thinking about Alice, Luke