Hi everyone! Sorry I’ve been a tad M.I.A. lately, but I’ve been busy moving across the country. I now reside in sunny San Antonio, Texas! So, I might a little discombobulated for a while (how long can I get away with using the move as an excuse for being flighty?) as I try to get us settled in and back to a routine.
I debated on whether to post a Wee-Bit today, but my Twitter friend, Serena Bell, encouraged me to share, so here it is. (You can catch the previous snippets of my WIPs here.) In this excerpt, Gabriel has driven Ava to her broken-down 1970 Barracuda on a stretch of desert road. She fell asleep on the ride over, and when they get there, Gabriel sees a gigantic cat lounging inside her car. Ruh-roh!
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| Uma Purrman: Ava’s pet kitty |
“Here kitty, kitty, kitty,” he called. “Be a good boy and get out of the car. It’d be a shame to ruin something as beautiful as that.” Adrenaline raced through his veins and his heart beat a rapid tattoo as the big cat leapt through the open window and landed soundlessly in the dirt.
“Gabe, what’s going on?”
Trying not to react to Ava’s sexy sleep-induced voice, he gave her a soft order. “Ava, don’t move. Stay right where you are.”
As expected, she didn’t listen to a damn thing he said, choosing to sit up in her seat instead. Great, that’s all he needed: a hysterical woman. He hoped she didn’t scream.
“Gabe,” she said in a careful tone, like she was trying to talk him down from a ledge. “Put the gun down. You’re going to make him mad.”
On cue, the cougar growled low in his throat and lowered its body several inches. Fuck. “No offense, but I’ve dealt with them before. Most of the time they’ll run off, but in case he decides I’m dinner, I think I’ll leave my gun right where it is.”
“No,” she said more forcefully, “you won’t. Put it down, or I step in front of it.”
He’d heard of animal activists doing some crazy shit, but putting yourself in the line of fire to protect something that would eat you as soon as look at you was insanity. He cut his eyes over to hers, trying to gauge just how serious she was. Damn. Real serious if the fire in those golden eyes told him anything.
“Gabriel!”
That got his attention. He swiveled his head to look her dead in the eye. “He was in your car. He probably ate your cat.”
Ava set her jaw and clenched her fists. “That is my cat, and if you kill him, it’s going to put a serious strain on this new friendship of ours, so put the damn gun down.”
Dumbfounded, Gabriel lowered the rifle to his side and swung a finger in the cat’s direction. “That is Uma Purrman? That gigantic man-eater is your pet?”
She climbed over the driver’s seat and hopped out of the truck smiling up at him. A few seconds ago, she’d been almost shaking with her frustration toward him, but lowering the gun as she’d asked had acted like a breeze blowing over footprints in the sand, erasing her anger as if it never existed. “Isn’t he gorgeous?”
“He’s a cougar.”
“Yes, also known as a mountain lion, mountain cat, catamount, panther, or puma,” she said with a look of pride before walking toward the two hundred pound beast. “C’mere, Uma, baby.”
Gabriel watched with mouth slightly agape as the woman dropped to her haunches to welcome the advancing cat in her arms. Uma the puma—and didn’t that just figure that’s what she’d named it—rubbed his face on hers as he purred his contentment at Ava’s return. But his keen eyes never left Gabriel’s, nor did Gabriel take his gaze off the cat. It was as though they were both wary of the other harming the female between them at any moment.
