She reached up and gently stroked his cheek. “And confused as all hell, I’ll bet.”
He leaned into her caress, his eyes closing in pleasure. “We got used to it, and as soon as Jonathon stepped down I came home and named Simon my Beta.”
“Beta?”
“Mm-hmm, my second-in-command.”
“You said I’m your mate,” Emma whispered as Max pulled her into his arms.
“My Curana.”
“Your who-wadda?”
She could feel Max’s laughter rumbling through his chest. “My Curana. Mate to the Alpha. It’s supposedly a name derived from the Portuguese word for cougar.”
“Oh.”
Emma allowed Max to pull her head gently to his chest. She snuggled into his warmth, inhaling his unique scent, oddly comforted by his presence. “So,” he rumbled, “we’ve done the dinner and fight.” He leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “Come home with me, little Curana. I want to make love to you. I want to be inside you the next time you come.”
Emma shivered as she heard the low, rumbling purr emanating from him. “Max?”
“Hmm?” His hand started to stroke up and down her back, gently nudging her towards the SUV.
“Will I have to use a litter box?”
“Emma!”
Chapter Four
Max took his time driving her home. He wanted to savor having her next to him for as long as possible.
“Do you open tomorrow, or does Becky?”
Emma turned towards him. She’d been far away, and he’d left her to her thoughts. After all, he’d dumped a remarkable amount of information on her in a short amount of time, and she’d handled it remarkably well. He was so proud of her he was ready to burst with it.
“Actually, I close tomorrow and Becky opens. Becks closes Saturday.”
Max smiled in pure anticipation. “Good. We can take our time tonight. Adrian’s got the early morning, I have late shift.”
Her shiver of response was enough to send heat flooding his system.
“Emma?”
“Hmm?”
He was truly curious about her responses, so he asked, “You took everything I told you really well.”
“I’ve never understood the woe-is-me thing. I mean, the hottest guy in town just told me he wants me badly enough to bite me and make me like him, and now he wants to drag me home and ravish me. I’m going to, what, run screaming into the night? Oh, no! I’m a Puma now! My life is over! Sob!” Emma
rolled her eyes. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s still freaking me out a bit, and it’s probably going to cost me a fortune in bikini waxing, but it’s not the end of my world.”
Max nearly ran off the road. “You get a bikini wax?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Hell yes.”
Her laughter filled up all the empty places inside him he hadn’t even known were there.
“If Simon and Becky get together, does that mean he’ll bite her?”
Max nodded. “If he wants to mate her, he’ll have to bite her. And from what he told me, he wants to mate her.”
Emma gave him a speculative look out of the corner of her eye. “How many women have you bitten?”
“As a mate, or to turn?”
Emma growled, startled at how possessive she felt. “How many mates do you have?”
“Only one, Curana.” He took his hand off the steering wheel to stroke the back of her neck soothingly.
Emma still glared at him. “And how many women have you turned?”
“Two, not counting you.”
“Oh?”
Max grinned at her possessive tone. “One as a favor to Jonathon, one because it was the only way I could think of to fix a problem she had. And, no, I can’t explain it further than that; it’s not my secret to tell.”
“Did you have sex with the women you turned?” His slight wince was all the answer she needed.
“Who?”
“Emma…”
“ Who? Livia.”
Max sighed. “Livia.”
Emma groaned. “How did I know you were going to say that?”
“What can I say? I was young and stupid.”
“Was she the favor or the problem?”
“Jonathon asked me to turn her. Maybe he thought, since Marie and I didn’t hit it off, that Livia would turn out to be my mate.”
“Especially since the two of you were already doing the mattress mambo?”
Max flushed. “We broke up soon after that.”
Emma remembered the circumstances of the break up, and winced. “So it had nothing to do with how she insulted me,” she muttered, not thinking about how that would sound.
“It had everything to do with how she insulted you.” When she looked at him, confused, he smiled. It wasn’t pleasant. “She was very good at hiding how much of a bitch she really is. I broke up with her that night over what she said about you, and what she wanted to do about Becky’s punch stunt.” He shuddered. “She’s been on my tail since I got back into town. So far nothing I’ve done has gotten her to leave me alone.” Max’s smile was cheerful. “But I have the feeling you won’t have that problem.”
Max turned into his driveway and pressed the button to open the garage door. He lived in a lovely historic house his parents had left to him when they retired to Florida. The home was craftsman in style, built early in the twentieth century, and had been lovingly restored by the entire Cannon family. The dark gray gable roof was set off by rich mahogany brown shingles and bright white trim work, with rich red fieldstone set around the base of the house. The front had that beautiful pillar and post design, with a covered porch that wrapped around to the left side of the house. The elder Cannons had added on a two-car garage and utility room to the right side of the house. They’d made the extension look like just another part of the house by having the garage entrance on the side rather than the front. The windows along the front matched the rest of the house. Emma had never been inside, but she’d always admired it from afar.
Max pulled into the garage and turned off the Durango. He reached up and pressed a button, closing the garage door behind them. He turned to her with a solemn joy that startled her.
“Welcome home, Curana.”