Cougar Christmas Read online

  “Drew…” She looked down, her cheeks pink with embarrassment. “I…I guess I’ll try. If for no other reason than to save my job—our jobs, I guess I should say—since I got you into this mess.”

  “Hey.” He leaned down and kissed her gently on one hot cheek. “There is no place on Earth that I’d rather be than here in the middle of ‘this mess’ with you,” he murmured. “Okay?”

  She smiled. “Okay.”

  “Good, that’s settled.”

  Drew smiled and sat up. He wanted to kiss her again but he knew if he did he wouldn’t want to stop. And despite Genevieve’s promise to try and step outside their normal, proscribed relationship, he sensed that he couldn’t rush her if he wanted to win her over.

  And suddenly he did, very much want that. He wanted to see his ice-cold boss thaw and he wanted to be the one that thawed her.

  “It is?” Genevieve looked at him uncertainly. “All settled, I mean?”

  “Sure it is.” He grinned at her and looked at his watch. “But in the meantime, didn’t Phillips say dinner was at seven?”

  “Oh, yes. Yes he did.” Genevieve frowned. “But it’s only…six thirty now.”

  “Which gives us just enough time for a quick round of role playing.” Drew grinned at her. “Better practice your cowboy language, lady. Because the naughty school girl is prowling around tonight and anyone caught with their boots off will be riding into the sunset with a red bottom.”

  “Gotcha partner.” Genevieve was smiling again. “I guess I’d better look for some boots to go with my chaps then.” She laughed out loud. “Can you imagine the look on Phillips’ face if we really did switch roles like that?”

  Drew laughed with her. “He’d probably just diagnose us both with gender confusion and prescribe some other weird exercises he could watch. Where did he get his degree anyway—Voyeur U?”

  Genevieve shook her head. “I don’t know but I doubt it was anyplace very reputable. I wish I could tell Stuart exactly how creepy he is but, well, we’re stuck with him for now. Him and his exercises.”

  “Mm-hmm.” Drew nodded, trying to keep a straight face.

  He could only imagine what it was going to be like to do those exercises together. He had to admit he was looking forward to them—he just hoped he could get Genevieve to feel the same way, in time.

  Chapter Four

  “Okay, that other couple at our table was just weird,” Drew complained as they walked in the door of their suite. Dinner had been in the grand dining room downstairs which was filled with little round tables just big enough for four. Before the first course was served, Phillips had stood up and made an announcement that he hoped they would all make special friends among the other couples before leaving the retreat.

  “Remember, making friends with couples who are confronting the same intimacy issues that you and your partner are, is beneficial to your own journey toward oneness. I encourage each of you to try a new table every meal until you find some couple friends you feel comfortable talking to,” he’d concluded.

  Unfortunately Mitzie and Myron, the couple Genevieve and Drew had wound up sharing a table with, were a little too comfortable talking.

  “So have you watched yourselves making love yet?” Mitzie, a redhead with bright green eyes somewhere in her early forties, had asked the moment introductions were over. “Myron and I just couldn’t resist—we had to see what we looked like as soon as our personal therapist explained how the equipment worked.”

  “Yes and it was damned sexy,” Myron, an older man who looked to be in his late sixties boomed. “Of course we have a May-December romance but you two look like you have a little of that going on yourselves.” He grinned and wiggled bushy eyebrows at Drew. “You have a thing for older women, Junior?”

  Drew smiled politely. “Actually I have a thing for intelligent, sexy women. I’ve wanted Genevieve from the first time I met her.”

  Genevieve had felt her heart catch in her throat as he gave her an unmistakably lustful look across the table. God, if only there was a way to know how much of this he was faking and how much he really meant!

  It doesn’t matter either way, she told herself sternly. He’s too young for you and he works for you. So don’t get too carried away, Gen. Just take it one step at a time so you can get through this.

  “That’s so romantic.” Mitzie sighed and smiled at them. “I felt the same way the first time I saw my Myron.” She turned to Genevieve. “So what’s it like having a younger man? Is he unstoppable in bed?” She giggled.

  “I, uh…” Genevieve could feel her cheeks getting hot. “Yeah he’s, uh, pretty amazing.”

  “So is Myron since he got his penile implant pump.” Mitzie leaned across the table and put a hand on her arm, as though imparting some fabulous secret. “You oughta see it, hon. He just pumps it up and it can stay hard for hours. I haven’t had so much fun since my second husband back in the nineties!”

  “Wow.” Drew smiled at her. “Sounds like you two are just burnin’ up the sheets.”

  “You know it, Junior.” Myron laughed again. “My Mitzie has to have it twice a day—she just can’t wait to get started on that list of kinky exercises, either.”

  “Oh my Gawd, that list!” Mitzie put a hand to her obviously fake breasts. “It looks like so much fun! I think we’re going to do the body painting tonight and then maybe the bondage. You know we have handcuffs and blindfolds in our room? It’s so naughty!”

  “It, uh, certainly is,” Genevieve agreed weakly. By then the first few courses of dinner had come and gone and she’d barely tasted a thing.

  “So what are you gonna try first?” Mitzie asked excitedly.

  “We thought we’d mix it up a little—maybe combine them,” Drew answered before Genevieve could think of what to say. “I’m planning to tie Genevieve to the bed and paint her all over with chocolate sauce while I’m dressed like a naughty school girl. Gen, of course, will be playing the part of the cowboy so what I’ll probably paint on her is a mustache and beard—maybe some sexy sideburns. Then I’ll give her a sensual massage with the rest of the chocolate sauce while I stuff her mouth with luscious strawberries and sing the dirty version of Home on the Range in her ear.” He grinned at the other couple. “Sounds hot, right?”

  “Uh…” Mitzie looked confused. “There’s a dirty version of that song?”

  “Don’t you think that might be a little too much to start with?” Myron demanded.

  “Not at all.” Drew shook his head seriously. “We like to overdo things. The kinkier the better. Right, baby?” He looked at Genevieve who had tried to nod without laughing. Trust Drew to break the tension even in a weird conversation with people like Mitzie and Myron…

  “You really had them going, you know,” she said as she took off her watch and laid it on the end table beside the oxblood leather sofa. By unspoken mutual consent they were both avoiding the bedroom, at least for now.

  “Yeah, they were going all right.” Drew sighed and sank down on the couch. “And we should be too—to a whole different table next mealtime. Somehow I don’t think that Mitzie and Myron are going to be the ‘couple friends’ we’re looking for.”

  “I think you’re right. This is a couples retreat that focuses on sexual intimacy issues and they certainly don’t seem to have any problems in that area. What are they even doing here?” Genevieve sat on the sofa beside him, careful to leave space between them.

  “Actually, Mitzie told me that while Myron was talking about how beautiful the mountains are this time of year.” Drew had the manila folder with the intimacy exercises in his lap but he hadn’t opened it. “She said they thought it sounded like a fun way to spend Christmas since they didn’t want to spend it with the family. Apparently Myron’s children don’t approve of her—I think because most of them are a few years older than her.”

  Genevieve nodded. “Oh, well that makes sense.” Suddenly something inside her snapped she couldn’t stand the tension anymore. “Okay,