He ran his hands over her arms. “I’ve had so many battles to fight, I’m glad you made this easier for me.”

  “I care for you too much to want to play games. I have to admit, given the choice, I want to be doing things with you instead of writing and I have to make myself do the writing instead.” She sighed. “You are just—”

  “A bad influence?” He kissed the top of her head.

  “Oh, yeah, you’re just too irresistible.” Then she slid her body up his bare chest to kiss his lips, his gaze on hers—ravenous, just like she imagined hers was as she considered his face, the little dimples in his cheeks, the hint of a smile playing on his lips.

  “When it comes to you, I can’t resist temptation. I feel this deep-seated yearning in my blood for you. I just can’t help it.” Sealing his lips with hers, he kissed her back in a way that mirrored just what she was feeling. That he wanted to deepen the relationship in a hurry.

  And she was all ready for that.

  Their hands were all over each other, and the kissing was heating up. Her blood sizzling with desire, she slipped her leg between his, her needy body pressed against his thickening arousal.

  “Hmm, so hot,” she said, rubbing her body against his, loving that she could arouse him so quickly.

  His hands slid up the front of her shirt and cupped her breasts. His warm hands felt so good on her breasts, massaging, his thumbs moving to her nipples, peaking to his touch. He moved lower on her body, pulling her shirt up to expose her breasts. Then his mouth was on one of her breasts. His tongue teased and tickled her nipple while his free hand caressed her back.

  He was a lover like none other. She felt like she was in heaven, the way he coddled her and lathed his hot tongue over her nipple. And then he moved his mouth over to her other nipple and suckled. She felt a feminine wetness and the sensual ache growing between her legs.

  He moved his mouth from her breast and slid her pajama top over her head and tossed it aside. She’d undressed before in front of him to shift, but this was so much more intimate. His hands again cupped her breasts and massaged. Heavenly, dreamy. She leaned down and kissed his mouth, and his hands went to her back and rubbed her skin with a heated touch.

  Tongues tasted and tarried, lingering in a slow, long kiss. She loved this with Emerson, loved how he was so sensuous and didn’t rush making love to her as if this was a race to the finish. She rubbed against his arousal again and he growled low in a hungry, needy way. Then he pulled at her pajama bottoms and she kicked them off.

  She didn’t hesitate to begin pulling off Emerson’s pajama bottoms. Then they were naked together, rubbing against each other like big cats, sharing their musky scent, claiming they belonged together at least in the short run. Tonight. For this moment.

  Tension filling her, her body was so attuned to his, so desperate for his penetration. And then he moved her onto her back and began to stroke her clit with desperate deliberation, as if he couldn’t wait to go even further. Shockingly intense need ricocheted through her every nerve ending.

  She moaned and ran her hands up his chest, her thumbs stroking his nipples, loving the sensation of his flat nipples pebbling to her touch. His finger was doing an erotic number on her. She wanted more, everything, him inside her, pumping, thrusting, to climax, to come at the same time he came.

  Soft kisses, soft touches, then he was stroking her again, dedicated to bringing her to climax and she treasured him for it as she arched against his touch, yearning for the pinnacle. He kissed her hair, her ear, her chin and throat. Whisper-soft kisses that made her feel cherished. She wanted everything he had to give and she wanted to give him the same in return.

  She licked his mouth, then kissed it with heartfelt meaning and he kissed her back with the same passion and intrigue. She saw the darkened desire in his eyes and was glad she hadn’t delayed this.

  She was kissing him and ran her hands over his taut body, but all her concentration immediately again was directed to the feelings he was coaxing out of her as he stroked her. She felt like she was teetering on a climax, holding, holding, needing, wanting, and it hit. “Oh—my—god.” She was so ready to tell him she was keeping him, but she knew it was a lot premature. She could imagine him applying for his old job back in a hurry if he thought he was going to be tied to a mating just because they were having sex one time.

  She kissed him again, then pulled at his hip. “Join me.”

  She suspected he needed the encouragement that she wanted him to go all the way. It wasn’t a mating, for heaven’s sake.

  Then he moved between her legs and centered himself, and pushed into her, stretching her, and she loved the way he filled her. Then he was thrusting, long, slow, deliberately, his body moving against hers, rubbing against her body, his mouth on hers, tongues touching and teasing. Oh, he was good. Really good.

  Being with him in the throes of passionate sex was sheer joy and made her whole trip up here one of unexpected delight. He nuzzled her throat and kissed her, tongued her and she met her mouth with his and they tasted each other again. He continued to thrust against her, sliding his hand beneath her buttock and pressing her tight against him, his muscles tensing with his thrusts, perfection, taut, tight, carved in granite.

  “Oh, honey, you’re…mine.” And then he let go and thrust again and again until he was finished and she smiled up at him as he rested his body on hers, covering her, heating her, possessing her, still filling her with his masculinity. And he wasn’t letting go.

  His solid, muscular body felt good on hers and for a moment, he gave her a long-lingering, soulful kiss. It was as if he really needed this after the attack on his last mission—a spectacular sexual release, a she-cat’s attention. Here she had only been thinking about setting the mood with Christmas decorations when he set her world on fire with making love to her.

  “We’re going to have to think of some other arrangements,” he said, kissing her forehead, her nose, her mouth.

  “Other arrangements?” She couldn’t keep her hands off his skin, sliding them over his muscular shoulders and back.

  “About you leaving so soon.”

  “I have to go home for Christmas.”

  “Okay, and I’ll go with you.” He kissed her breastbone. “And then you’ll need to return here with me so you can write even more.”

  She smiled. “And do more of this?”

  “You might get some story ideas.”

  She chuckled. “You know me too well.”

  He moved off her and pulled her into the crook of his arm and rubbed her shoulder with a light touch. “My uncle should have told me about you sooner.”

  “He might not have felt you were ready to change.”

  “He might have been wrong.”

  She was beginning to think Emerson was right. One visit with her while she’d been staying here, even with his uncle in residence, and Emerson might have been rethinking ever going back to the job.

  “Hmm,” Jessie said, waking in Emerson’s arms the next morning. Now this was the life and she could envision doing this on a more permanent basis. “You know, I think your uncle really had the right idea. I hope we find him and he’s safe and sound and not in any trouble, but we owe him the biggest Christmas present ever.”

  Emerson caressed her arm and smiled down at her. “I was thinking the same.”

  She sighed and kissed his bare chest. “We need to get up and get ready since the guys will be coming over to eat breakfast with us and then build a snowman. I’m so glad you want to do it too.”

  “Yeah.” He kissed the top of her head. “Doing things with you is lots more fun. I’m glad you suggested it. The guys weren’t all that enthusiastic, but you know they’ll have a good time once they get going on it.”

  “They will.” Then she finally pushed her lazy bones out of bed and got dressed.

  “If they weren’t here though?”

  She smiled as she pulled on her sweater. “We would have spent more time in bed.”

  After a hearty breakfast of eggs, hash browns, and sausages, everyone put on their winter gear and headed outside to work on the snowman. Jessie looked like she was thrilled to begin working on it as Jack and Chet began wheeling a wheelbarrow load of snow from between the shed and the cabins to bring to the snowman in progress. Emerson couldn’t quit thinking about being with Jessie last night and was beginning to believe his uncle was an intuitive matchmaker himself and did a great job at it.

  Jack and Chet dumped the snow on the base and took off to gather more snow. Emerson helped Leyton with the sled, shoveling snow on top of it, then pulling it together to the snowman site. Jessie was trying to form the base while everyone was gathering more snow.

  This was the way to go. No little balls of snow but using tools to create the snowman at a faster pace. Emerson had never expected to be doing this with Jessie and a bunch of CSF agents! It was fun and it made him forget about the bad mission he’d been on or searching for his uncle for the moment.

  Leyton said to Jessie as they unloaded more snow for her to work on, “You know, I told Kate what I was doing up here and she wanted us to do the same thing in the courtyard between the clinic and our home when we return.”

  “Good, then you will have more fun when you go home.”

  Leyton added, “And she wants us to have hot dogs and s’mores over a fire pit since we proved we could do it in the snow.”

  Jessie smiled as she patted more snow onto the base. “See all the inspiration you’re getting while you’ve been up here? Did you mention about doing snow angels?”

  About that time, Emerson and Jack were back with another load of snow and waited to hear what Leyton had to say.

  Leyton shook his head. “No pictures. No sharing about that.”

  The guys all laughed. Emerson wondered how long keeping the snow angels secret would last before someone shared that with the folks in Yuma Town.

  Much later that afternoon, they were done with their snowman, making him in three parts and then adding one of Emerson’s uncle’s red and green scarves and his black furry hat, they found a drawer full of buttons—black ones for the eyes and mouth and his chest. Then they added a traditional carrot for the nose and branches for the arms.

  They took pictures with the snowman, including one of Jessie giving the snowman a smooch on his icy cold cheek. Emerson kissed her mouth to warm her up and they had some pictures together with the snowman. Jack had to have some to send to his wife and kids. Leyton, also.

  Chet didn’t want one taken of him with the snowman since he said he had no one to send it to, but Leyton said, “Your mom would love it. And if you don’t send it to her, I’ll send it to the big boss.”

  Chet laughed and got with the program.

  Then they went inside for hot cocoa and Leyton said, “This seems to be a good day to have the ribeye steaks we brought up for everyone.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Emerson said. “I hadn’t expected this much company, or I would have had enough steaks on hand.”

  “No problem. That’s what these are for. Where’s the grill?” Leyton asked.

  That surprised Emerson. He figured they would cook inside.

  These guys were the ultimate grill cooks to cook out in the snow. “What can I do to help?” Emerson headed outside to help them get the grill out of the storage shed.

  “Help Jessie fix the rest of the meal, if you don’t mind.” Leyton and the other men carried the grill to the covered back patio and started getting it ready.

  Jessie was still in the house getting warmed up.

  “Will do. Thanks.” Emerson went on inside and Jessie was just getting the potatoes out.

  “How about mashed potatoes and I had brought asparagus with me we could grill,” she said.

  “Yeah, that should be good.”

  “I hadn’t expected the guys to bring steaks with them, but they will grill practically in any weather.”

  “That’s hardcore, grilling in the snow.” Emerson started peeling potatoes.

  “Don’t you?”

  Emerson smiled. “If I had someone like you here that I could grill for, sure.”

  “Okay, I just wanted to make sure.”

  “That sounds encouraging.”

  “Not panicking yet?” She smiled at him.

  “Should I be?”

  She laughed. “This is the perfect way to celebrate creating a snowman.”

  Though he knew she still wanted to do the snow angels next. For now, she and Emerson started boiling the potatoes and grilling the asparagus.

  “I like your friends. I hope they’re okay with us being together.”

  “They’re watching you, though, as long as you don’t turn all rogue on me, they will be thrilled for us,” she said.

  “Taking down Smith doesn’t count, does it?” Emerson sounded so serious Jessie thought maybe he was worried about how she viewed his past assignments, or this future one if he could nail Smith, even though she didn’t really know what all his assignments had entailed.

  She pulled him into her arms and kissed him. “He’s the rogue and you and the others have every right to eliminate him for the good of our kind and for the others on your team.” She mentioned them because the rest of the team members hadn’t been cougars.

  Jack opened the door and bringing in the cold air with them, Leyton came in with the steaks on a plate, Chet following behind Jack and Leyton.

  Leyton said, “I hope we’re not interrupting anything.” But he didn’t sound like it at all, which amused her. “Hey, Emerson, I want you to know that I would hire you in a heartbeat to join our CSF unit in Yuma Town, if you were interested in the job.”

  Chet scoffed. “Cheyenne, Wyoming. That’s the place to be. I could use another partner now that Leyton, Travis, and Bridget teamed up together. Then they added Jack. But we figure you’re going to continue to run the resort. So we don’t have a chance at convincing you to be one of us.”

  “Yeah, I’ll be running the resort.” Emerson glanced down at Jessie, as if saying she was the reason he wanted to stay put and settle down, if she were interested. She figured he had spent plenty of time running all over the world and even though the CSF handled regions in the U.S., not everywhere—particularly because they didn’t have cougars everywhere—he wasn’t interested in chasing down bad guys any further.

  “Of course, what we could do is hire you for contract work,” Leyton said. “You could be our point of contact up here if we learn of cougar rogues creating problems in your area.”

  “Yeah, my boss could hire you.” Chet turned to Leyton as they all sat down to eat. “Are you trying to raise an army?”

  Leyton laughed. “We’ll get you down to Yuma Town to work with us before you know it, Chet.”

  Emerson didn’t say anything, but Jessie sensed he was intrigued with the proposition. She could understand his desire to fill that adventurous part of his psyche, but if he was working to take down rogue cougars on occasion, maybe that would satisfy his need to fight the good fight, if he still felt like he needed that. She thought she could manage the resort for him so he could take on some of the missions to help if he wanted to.

  And yeah, she couldn’t believe she was even considering doing that, as if they were going to be mated cougars! Yet, she wanted to help him. She seriously wanted to be part of his life. Sure, she’d dated lots of guys before, either ones who hadn’t interested her all that much, or ones who were rotten to the core when she learned more about them.

  But she felt really good being with Emerson—his teasing her by not telling her his full name, thinking it was funny, amusing her. His protectiveness when he wanted to keep her safe from the bears and the like. His conscious efforts to allow her the time to write—and she’d gotten much more done while she’d been here, much more so than when she was at home—despite all the stuff that was going on here. His wanting her to join him in bed, so they could talk about what was going on, when she knew he just needed someone in his life. And she didn’t think he would react that way with just anyone who had waltzed into his life. The guys she had dated hadn’t had any romantic bones in their bodies either. Sunsets? S’mores? Visits to scenic vistas in the area? Yeah, she could envision it and more.

  “This is just delicious,” she said. “Outstanding. It will give us a lot of energy for making snow angels next.”

  The guys chuckled.

  She figured they had thought she’d forgotten about that! Or at least hoped so. But when she wanted to do something fun, she didn’t forget. Besides, it would go in the story. Rough and tough special agents and a Black Ops guy, all former military, making angels in the snow. How fun was that?

  “Your families will get a kick out if,” Jessie said.

  “And make us do it when we get home,” Leyton said.

  “Naturally. You should be doing that.” Jessie served up slices of German chocolate cake for everyone after the meal and before they dressed warmly to go outside and play some more in the snow.

  “I can just imagine Kyle and Noah piling on top of me while I’m trying to make a snow angel, just like when I roughhouse on the floor with them. Five-year-old twins can be a handful,” Leyton said.

  They all laughed.

  “Make that five for me, one pair of twins, aged nine, and triplets that are three,” Jack said. “Knowing Dottie, she’d join them.”

  “That would be fun.” Jessie was having a ball with the guys and was glad that they had joined them, not only to try and figure out what was going on but were enjoying themselves.

  “And you can send the pictures to your mother, Chet,” Leyton said, rubbing it in that he didn’t have a mate.

  “She would wonder what in the world I’m doing on this mission,” Chet said.

  “Working and having a good time. You can do both.” Jessie finished her cake about the same time everyone else did and she and Emerson began clearing the table.

  “We’ll clean up the grill,” Leyton said.

  “We’ll get the dishes,” Emerson offered.

  Once Jessie and Emerson were done, they headed outside to make snow angels and take pictures with the guys. Leyton and the others had just put the cleaned grill back in the shed. As they were making snow angels near the snowman, everyone was laughing so hard that she thought this was good for Emerson after what he’d gone through, both on the last mission and here at home when he was knocked out on his own property. She thought she was making him feel better too, just by being here.