Then Jason disappeared outside, and she began to put away the dishes and work on the pans she had used for cooking. Then she wondered what Jason was going to swim in!

  When Jason came back inside, Erin said, “I think the party tomorrow night will be fun. I’ve never been to the billionaire’s mansion.”

  “Strom has a fantastic spread, great for parties and for running as jaguars. I’m sure everyone will get a kick out of the snow leopards.”

  Like Strom, her father lived out in the country, and it was really private out there. Essentially, they could wear, or not wear, anything they wanted to swim in. Maybe Jason could wear his underwear. She hoped to run as a jaguar tonight also.

  When she was halfway through cleaning up the dishes, Jason had gone out to his car and brought in all her bags and set them in her bedroom for her. Then he joined her in the kitchen and grabbed up the other pan and started to clean it. Now this, she could get used to. "Thanks for bringing in my bags. So did you bring a swimsuit?" she asked him.

  "A swimsuit?"

  "To swim in? You are going swimming, right?"

  "Yeah, if you want to."

  "I'd love to get some exercise after all the traveling I did today and of course being busy with the cases we handled."

  "What about a run in the woods as a jaguar?" Jason asked.

  "Yes! I'd love to." She had thought she would run alone if her dad wasn't going to be around. "Do you think he's really working on the case tonight, or seeing more of Laura?"

  "He's really a workaholic and dedicated to his missions."

  "Yeah, I know, but do you think he'll be seeing more of her?"

  “I do.”

  Erin glanced at Jason. “I should have told my dad to invite her over tonight to enjoy the dinner with us.”

  “I think your dad wanted to wait a bit since you just got here and maybe ease you into this or even just get his feet wet with her first, so to speak. He might not even be sure if he’s ready for anything with her either.”

  "You’re right.” Then she sighed. “You're nothing like I expected." She had to admit that to Jason. When she'd popped in to see her dad on holidays and for his birthday and hers, she would see Jason for brief periods. He had been short with her and didn't seem friendly at all. Like he was afraid she'd break up his friendship with her dad or something. But she had really been glad Jason had been there for her dad when he had needed the help. And she was glad they were more than just a boss and his employee. They were friends. And a friend of her father's was a friend of hers. Usually. At least it was a lot easier to like someone who was nice to her dad.

  "What did you expect?" Jason continued to scrub the pan.

  "You were always kind of abrupt with me when I came in to see my dad."

  Jason set the pan down on the drying pad on the counter. "I was always busy with a job."

  "Uh-uh. You were busy, sure, but you weren't friendly, and that was evident. It would have been easy enough to just cast a smile my way and—"

  "Kiss you?" He pulled her into his arms.

  She wasn't expecting this. This time they weren’t undercover. He leaned down to kiss her, and she lifted her head to press her kisses against his mouth. Warm, willing, eager.

  He gave her mouth a little lick, then kissed her again and she melted against him, for heaven's sake.

  Then he released her. "Your dad adores you and he wanted you to do what you were happy with doing, but he desperately wanted you home. Not only because he missed you terribly, but he wanted you working with him in the business. He worried you might get hurt while working with the FBI. I…I'm sorry. I guess I was just angry with you for not being able to see that."

  She was stunned. "He never once acted like he wanted me home. He continually said how proud he was that I was working for the FBI." She let out her breath. "Well, how do you feel about me now?"

  "You're home, he's happy, I'm happy. And I think we're going to make a great team. I wasn't sure, but after we did such a great job on Henry and Samantha’s cases, I’d say, yeah, we're going to do all right."

  She had been worried about that. About working with a PI who was close to her father but could barely tolerate her. She hadn't realized why he'd felt such animosity toward her, but now she could.

  "Well, I really didn't know, or I would have quit my job sooner. I wanted to, actually, but Dad just kept praising me for a job well done that I thought he wasn't ready for me to come home and work with him."

  "That’s because he was proud of what you’d been doing with the FBI, and he was afraid you wouldn’t be satisfied with just PI cases. I guess I should have talked to you about it. I just didn't want to come between you and your father."

  "Or mess up your special relationship with him either."

  "Yeah, there was that. He's been like a father to me since I began working for him. You can't know how much that means to me after losing my own parents earlier on."

  "I understand.” Then she frowned at him. “At the zoo today, I was going to go with the wolf to free his friend, not stay with the kids, but you took over and told me how the situation was going to be handled.”

  “Sorry. I knew you wanted to help free the man. It’s in our blood to want to rescue shifters in need. But I could also see Samantha didn’t want you to leave her. She needed answers about our kind.”

  “Ha! Dale shamed you into going in my place.”

  Jason smiled and the look he gave her told her that wasn’t his reasoning at all.

  “Samantha did seem grateful that she was able to talk to me about the jaguar business,” Erin admitted.

  “I knew she would. Woman to woman.”

  “So how are you dressing for swimming?" she asked him again.

  "I've got my swimsuit. I always bring it when I come to your dad's place so I can swim."

  "Oh, good. I'll grab mine then and we can meet at the pool."

  Then she headed for the bedroom and went inside the room to change into her bathing suit. She dressed in her one-piece, blue swimsuit and left the room to join Jason. He was already waiting for her on the pool patio.

  He looked sexy, hunky, all his muscle groups toned—not muscle bound, but just right. He was looking her over too, smiling, such a change from when she'd visited before. Though they’d both gotten an eyeful of each other at the Potters’ house when they had shifted to show off their jaguar coats to the Potter family.

  Then she said, "I'll race you to the other side.” She dove into the pool and began swimming. He was in the pool and beside her in a minute. She couldn't believe he'd swim that fast. She should have realized he could, being a jaguar.

  Still, it startled her and she tried to reach the end but he got there before her and when she reached the end, he smiled. "I could have let you win, but I figured you wanted to beat me without me giving in."

  "You are fast."

  "I was a swimming champion in high school."

  "Ha! You could have told me that first. I was homeschooled. My parents figured I would be too growly if I had gone to public or private school."

  He smiled at her, then his expression turned contemplative. "I didn't have a choice. My foster parents were human so I had to deal with it. It wasn't easy at times, believe me. Some big kids thought they could bully me, but I'd taken martial arts and wrestling and then swimming, so I was in good shape. They were just lucky I didn't resort to being a jaguar. Then see how big a bully they could be against one of our kind."

  "Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that.”

  “Thanks, I learned to live with it.”

  She wished her father had told her about that. “I’ll race you again." She took off and again, he gave her a head start and beat her by a foot. She sighed. She probably would never beat him at the game of swimming, but she had fun trying. And she wasn’t giving up.

  This time, he pulled her into his arms. Now this, she hadn't expected either. "Don't you think it might be frowned upon if the boss sees his employees fraternizing?" she asked.

  "I think this was what your dad has been hoping for all along."

  She sighed. "Well, just think of it this way, if you had been friendlier when I visited before, I might very well have figured I should have left the FBI to be with you."

  He chuckled. "I think both your dad and I had goofed then."

  "I agree. So you're not seeing anyone?"

  "No. I had to give you a chance to prove you were an interesting jaguar to date."

  "Oh, really."

  "Yeah. I've waited a long time to find that out."

  “You said you use your hot car to pick up women.”

  “On the rare occasion I’ve dated. Your dad has kept me working long hours.”

  “Hopefully, I can take up some of the workload and we can still see each other on the side.”

  Erin licked the water off his neck, and Jason kissed the top of her head. Then they were kissing again, and he hoped her dad wasn't coming home anytime soon. If they could play together as well as they worked together, it worked for him. Right now, he was glad they were swimming in the heated pool. They deepened the kiss and he realized she was a lot more into him than he had suspected. He guessed his annoyance with her when she first saw him during visits with her dad hadn't dissuaded her from getting to know Jason.

  Jason had decided, once he'd seen how Erin could be when she was sticking around, that he was dating her. He hoped things would work out between them because if they did, he wouldn't be looking for another job when her dad retired, he'd be mated to her, and they'd run the agency together. He'd like that.

  He had really enjoyed the time he'd already spent with her and hoped she was enjoying the same with him. She seemed to. She'd always made an effort to be friendly toward him, but he'd been upset with her for not just leaving her job and joining her father. Because of that, he'd had a hard time dealing with it. He knew it all had to do with her being lucky enough to still have a father and that she was throwing that connection with her dad away. Anyway, now Jason was glad she was home, and things were really looking up.

  He kissed her again, his erection already growing with his desire for her building. She was soft in all the right places, fit against him nicely, and her kissing him was just as eager and hungry as his kissing her was. He was amused she thought she could beat him at swimming, but she wasn't the kind of woman who wanted him to give her the win just because he was trying to get on her good side.

  "Do you…uhm, think my dad was hoping this would happen between us?"

  "Yeah. I mean, I didn't expect him to leave, or have me pick you up at the airport, or have you eat with me instead of him doing so, but after he kept changing the game plan and it meant I was spending more time with you, even on the cases we had today, I figured then that was his plan."

  She brushed a wet curl off her cheek. "He's with Laura." Then she frowned. "Do you think he’s staying with her the night?"

  Jason smiled. "Maybe. He's dedicated to his mission when he starts one."

  Erin groaned. "Come on. Let's swim some more, then run as jaguars."

  "Okay."

  They started swimming, him chasing her and tackling her in the water, and then she’d turn around and get him. Suddenly, he pulled off his swim trunks, laid them on the pool patio, and shifted into the jaguar. She laughed. Her cheerful laugh cheered him.

  He came after her and she struggled to get out of her bathing suit, tossed it up on the patio and shifted right before he tackled her. Then he had a hold of her neck and was mouthing her like a big cat in play, and she nuzzled him and did the same thing with him, mouthing his neck in a playful bite. She turned around to capture his tail. He growled at her, and she growled back at him.

  He hadn't played with a she-cat like this in forever. And she wasn't holding back. She bit at his flank underwater, and he dove around and under to bite her. They came up for air and she licked the water off his face. He did the same with her and they left the water at the same time, leaping out of the pool onto the patio with a single bound. They raced off toward the door to the yard and pushed through it. He followed her. They ran through the woods on her dad’s acreage then.

  They raced each other, her leaping into a tree and him following, then she would leap down just as fast, and he'd miss being with her on the branch. But sometimes she would leap onto a branch, and he would anticipate her jumping off the branch, and be ready to chase after her. This time, she swiped at him and knocked him out of the tree. He landed on his feet, naturally, but he was so surprised she had changed tactics.

  Then the race was on again. She was an incredibly fast runner, even for a jaguar, a beautiful golden jaguar, not like him. He was black with rosettes visible in certain lights. He had never anticipated having so much fun with her like this. Or planning to do anything but watch a movie tonight—by himself. He figured Erin and her dad would have been just sharing family time.

  Then she came to a pond and dove in, and he chased after her, back to water play. He didn't want the night to end he was having such a great time. He hoped she didn't want it to either.

  Chapter 9

  Snow began to fall as Jason and Erin raced back to the house in their jaguar coats. Erin wanted to do this again with Jason tomorrow night at Strom’s mansion, if he was game and they weren’t investigating another high-priority case.

  The temperature was really dropping by the time they finally reached the house, and they dove through the jaguar door leading to the indoor swimming pool. They crossed the pool patio and returned to where they'd left their wet bathing suits and a stack of towels were sitting on a bench for their use. They shifted, then wrapped themselves in towels. Then they grabbed up their wet bathing suits and went inside the house.

  "That was fun," she said. "I haven't done that in a while. It's kind of hard to do it on missions and finding a safe place to run could be difficult too.”

  “Yeah, that’s another reason I like working for your dad. This place is perfect for jaguar runs through the woods.”

  “Do you get to do it very often?”

  “No. When we’re not really busy, we try to get a jaguar run in though.”

  “Maybe with three of us working cases, we’ll all have more time for fun. Man, is it getting cold out there,” Erin said. “I’ll be out in a minute.” She went into her bedroom and pulled on her panties, jeans, a bra, a warm sweater, and slipper boots, and set her damp towel in the laundry room where his was already hanging.

  Then she walked into the living room where Jason was dressed in the clothes he had worn earlier, and he’d already started a fire. She really appreciated that he was always proactive.

  “It’s been two hours since Dad left and he’s not back yet.” She checked her text messages and phone messages. “He didn’t let me know he was returning any time soon. Did you want something hot to drink? Like peppermint cocoa?” She pulled out a box of some peppermint cocoa.

  “Yeah, sure, that would be great. I’m sure he just got—”

  “Sidetracked with Laura?” Belatedly, she realized she should have just pulled on some lounge pants and a shirt, instead of getting fully dressed. She wanted to relax, but she did have company. Then she called her dad to make sure he was all right.

  “Hey, Dad, the weather is getting worse. When are you going to be home?”

  “The roads are really icy out here. I’m staying put for the night. Tell Jason not to drive anywhere either. Have him put the Jag in the garage. It looks like it’s really going to get bad,” her dad said.

  In the past six years, they’d had snow here three of those years—nothing substantial, but weirder weather out of the norm was becoming the norm. Still, it hadn’t been that bad. They’d had about half an inch to three inches of snow—fun for sharing photos with friends in other parts of the States, mostly up north, who were as unused to seeing them have snow as they were.

  “You’re staying at Laura’s?” Erin asked her dad.

  “Uh, yeah, she’s putting me up for the night.”

  Erin’s jaw dropped. She really was surprised. Had her dad been seeing her for some time then? She hoped her dad didn’t think that Jason was supposed to entertain her while he dated Laura. And she hoped her dad hadn’t been hiding that he’d been dating Laura, afraid to let on to Erin about it. “Okay, well don’t do anything I wouldn’t.”

  Her dad just laughed, and she smiled, figuring her dad would do whatever he wanted. He always did, and it was all right with her. He sounded like he was ready to move on with his life, and she was glad for that. She glanced at Jason who was waiting to hear what was going on. “Night, Dad, see you tomorrow then.”

  “Not if the weather is bad. Don’t go anywhere.”

  “All right.” She knew they’d all be at work tomorrow. She didn’t figure the weather would be all that bad or last that long either. She set her phone on the kitchen island counter. “Okay, Dad’s staying at his girlfriend’s place for the night because he thinks the snow and ice will be too hazardous for driving conditions. He wants you to stay here tonight because the roads are getting icy.” She turned on the TV to see the updates on the news, not believing it could be that dangerous.

  To her surprise, and Jason’s, several pileups of vehicles on the highways and roads had already occurred. She was so glad her dad wasn’t coming home.

  “Okay, you’re staying the night,” she said to Jason, not wanting to be responsible for his safety if he were to decide to try and brave the weather on the way home in his fancy Jaguar. She hoped he would be fine with staying here with her. “Oh, and Dad said to move your car into the garage for safekeeping.”

  He smiled, looking perfectly pleased with the notion.

  “You didn’t have anything to do with any of this, did you?” she asked, giving him a mug of peppermint cocoa.

  He chuckled. “No. I have nothing to do with the weather, but I wouldn’t have been entirely surprised if Cannon had decided to stay with Laura tonight anyway and we would have been left to our own—”