“You do it every day, don’t you?”

“Sometimes. There’s no shame in the toe grab. And look! You can cross arms and grab opposite toes.”

“Rebellious.”

“I live on the edge, Gwen.”

Laughing, Gwen dropped her legs and curled into Lock’s side.

“What? What’s so funny?”

Sharyn McNelly pulled her truck into the strip mall and parked in front of the hair salon.

Walking inside, she didn’t bother to look around. For the last two years, she’d been coming to this salon every other week just before closing. The owners were cats, but they were cheaper than the other places and worked fast. She dropped into the chair and opened her bag to toss in her phone. “The usual, Ling,” she told her stylist. “And make it quick, I’m meeting someone tonight at the bar down the street.”

There was a rare moment of silence from the chatty stylist and then, “Man, you got fat.”

Sharyn’s head came up, her fangs instantly extending as anger roared through her system. “You.”

Roxy O’Neill grinned back at her in the mirror, seconds before she gripped the back of Sharyn’s head and slammed it into the table that held the stylist’s tools.

Stunned, Sharyn fell back in the chair as Roxy moved around her. “You went after my daughter? What made you think that was okay?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, bitch.”

Sharyn’s head hit the small table in front of her again. “Goddamnit!”

“My baby girl. Did you really think I’d let you get away with that?”

Gripping her head and panting, Sharyn watched the cat. “She was there. It was convenient. And I still owe you.”

“Are you kidding? You did it over that idiot?” Roxy leaned down and stared Sharyn in the eye. “He fucked everybody in the league, sweetie. And actually, it was Marie who fucked him. I just gave him a blow job.”

Sharyn wrapped her hands around Roxy’s throat and they crashed to the floor, but the cat wasn’t alone, her sisters grabbing Sharyn’s arms and pulling her off, dragging her across the floor.

Roxy stood, shook out her gold mane of hair. “There’s a thing about the O’Neills you need to know, pooch. Mixed-blood or full. Dark hair or gold, we always protect our own.”

Even though she struggled, the cats easily yanked Sharyn into the chair and held her there.

Roxy smiled down at her. “The other thing. Never start shit with a lion when it’s lions that are doing your hair.”

“And FYI,” Marie tossed in. “Just because she and her sisters are Asiatic lions, doesn’t mean her name is Ling.”

“It’s actually Tracey. And look!” Roxy held upclippers. “She’s letting me use her equipment. Now let’s see if we can fix that mess you call hair.”

Marie patted Sharyn’s shoulder. “You know, hon, conditioner? It’s your friend.”

Gwen pulled on one of Lock’s Tshirts and laughed when it went past her knees. He grinned at her from his bed. The lone white sheet was pulled up to his waist, but he had one leg out and raised. She’d always enjoyed the male body but…

She sighed softly. All that hard muscle and so damn much of it. And she’d spent the last three hours enjoying every inch of him. It simply dazzled her how he went from goofy bear, rolling on his back and playing with his toes, and right into sexy-beyond-belief Jersey grizzly who’d worked her body like a love god.

“It looks like you’re wearing a muumuu,” he joked.

“And if I were wearing a muu-muu?” Gwen asked, her hands on her hips. “Then what?”

“Gwen, I don’t care how big you get, you’re never wearing a muumuu around me. But…feel free to wear any of my shirts, anytime you want.”

The way he looked at her sometimes…it wasn’t cute and cuddly, that was for sure. And it made her feel sexier than she ever had before. “I’m going to call Blayne before she calls me, panicking. I ended our training session a little abruptly this afternoon.”

“Okay. I’ll scrounge up something for us to eat.”

“Sounds good. I won’t be long.” She started for the door, but she heard the grizzly grumble and then what she could only describe as tongue clicks. She faced him. “Yes?”

“I want a kiss.”

Gwen shook her head. “Uh-uh.”

“Why not?”

“Don’t give me that innocent bear look. I start kissing you and we’ll never eat and I’ll never call Blayne and then we’ll starve while crazy Blayne tries to track us down in all the wrong places.” She pointed at the door.

“So I’m going out there and you’re going to get us food.”

“Not even a little kiss?”

“Stop it.” She again moved toward the door, but paused before she went through it. “And stop humming.”

“I didn’t know I was.”

She looked at him over her shoulder. “You do it while you sleep, too.”

“And you purr in your sleep.”

She didn’t normally. Of course, the last few nights in Lock’s bed she’d been purring a lot.

Leaving the bedroom, Gwen grabbed her phone and speed dialed Blayne. She dropped facedown on Lock’s couch as Blayne answered.

“Chello?”

Gwen smiled. “You sound in a good mood.”