After several decades of looking for true love and never finding it, aging model and lingerie designer, Alexa Ranger, has finally given up the search. A couple years ago, she got tired of the game completely and just stopped dating.  Now friends and family keep her mostly content, so it’s shocking at 50 yrs old to find herself suddenly wanting a sex life again. It’s even more shocking to be attracted to a much younger man this time. She definitely thinks Casey Carter is sexy, but not handling her own age well, Alexa just can’t get passed their twelve year age difference to even consider a fling.  Not that it matters anyway, anything resembling a normal dating relationship is totally out of the question because Casey is related to and living with her daughter’s boyfriend. The very last thing Alexa needs is yet another talk-show worthy drama in her already complicated life, no matter how amazing Casey’s kisses make her feel.

For a couple of years, 38 yr old, medically retired Marine, Casey Carter, believed his military injury had made him impotent. Having lost his wife to cancer, he hadn’t exactly been worried about the problem. Most days walking with cane was enough challenge for him. But now that he was ready to move on with his life, he had become more worried when none of the females his cousin brought around held any interest for him. So the last woman in the world he expected to start his engine revving again was the mother of his cousin's girlfriend. Even at fifty, Alexa is drop-dead gorgeous, and his libido certainly keeps reminding him she is the first woman he has wanted in a long, long time.  Ironically, the more Casey gets to know and like Alexa, he finds out desiring the older woman is the easiest part. Jaded and cynical about love, Alexa is a difficult woman to convince of anything, but her kisses are all the proof he needs that they belong together. The former Marine decides his next mission is figuring out how to fit himself into her life.

This book is free at ebook retailers. Please download your copy from your favorite site.

This is an excerpt from one of my favorite scenes is where Alexa and Casey are trying to be responsible in their relationship before they become intimate.  So they are discussing their sexual pasts . . . ~ Donna McDonald

Alexa looked at Casey, really looked at the man holding her hand as they sat in the car. All she could think was how great it would have been to have met him twenty years ago. Instead of her fifty year old self, Casey would have been sleeping with a very different woman tonight. He was certainly not getting the nice version of her for sure.

“I’m not naïve,” Casey told Alexa. “Given the differences in our ages, and the fact you never married, it’s only reasonable to assume you’ve been with more partners than me.”

Alexa snorted at his statement. Here comes the judgment, she thought.

“How magnanimous of you, Mr. Carter. So do you want a drink first to brace yourself for my answer?” Alexa asked with a smirk.

Casey looked in Alexa’s eyes to see if she was worried or not about what he thought. He couldn’t tell. Either he was too nervous to figure it out, or Alexa truly didn’t care. In the end, he decided neither would change the reality. It was a waste of time to worry about what came before him.

“Am I going to need a drink to hear the answer?” he asked finally.

“Depends. Are you a person who peels off a band-aid slowly or just rips it off all at once?” she asked, not yet answering.

Casey contemplated the warning, recognizing it for what it was.

**************************************

And here's another . . . LOL. This shows the essence of their difficulties. ~ Donna McDonald

Alexa wilted in her seat. She put her arms on the table and laid her head on them. “I need a nap.”

Casey looked at her. “Hmmm…are you too tired to fight with me?”

“Why? Did you do something in the last four hours that might make me want to hurt you?” Alexa asked, but without much venom.

Casey walked to the other side of the table and sat. He reached across and could barely touch her fingertips. Stretching a couple of times in different directions to be sure, he finally settled in the chair.

She laughed. “What are you doing?”

“Just making sure you can’t reach me.” Casey leaned back and grinned.

“Spit it out,” Alexa ordered. “You have the guiltiest expression I’ve ever seen.”

“Do you want the band-aid peeled off slowly, or should I just rip it off?” he asked, stalling.

“How bad is the news?” Alexa asked, narrowing her eyes.

“I told Jenna about us,” Casey said flatly, watching the information being processed and anger light up her eyes.

Oh hell, he thought.

“Look, I didn’t want to get caught at your house and it be one of those awkward moments where Jenna rushes out crying, or worse, yells at you. So I thought I’d just go see her and let her yell at me first, maybe get it out of her system,” Casey explained.

Alexa rose from the table and walked across the room to the farthest wall, as far away from Casey as she could get. Several minutes ticked by while she tried to think of a rational way of telling a man who gave her the best sex of her life to go to hell. Nothing came to mind, but she was still working on it.

“What were you thinking?” Alexa demanded, turning to glare at him across the room. “Do you honestly believe I need anyone’s permission to sleep with a man, much less my daughter’s? You obviously don’t know me if that’s what you think.”

“That’s not what I thought,” Casey agreed, trying to keep his tone soothing. “I just thought I would spare you criticism about me. I wanted Jenna to know this was more my idea than yours. If she was going to be upset about it, I wanted her to be upset at me, not at you.”

“Well, don’t do me any more favors,” Alexa spat. “I wasn’t worried about telling her. I was just waiting until I was sure it was going to be necessary.”

“That’s why I did it. I thought it was necessary,” Casey said, wincing as he realized too late his statement was like pouring gasoline on a fire. Just because he thought it was necessary didn’t mean Alexa did, but damn it, she should be agreeing.

“I didn’t mean to butt in between you and your daughter. I just didn’t want to be secretive about dating you. I wanted to spend the weekend with a clear conscience about your family.” Casey crossed his arms. He could be as stubborn as she about something this important to both of them. She needed to get used to it.

“I’m so angry I could throw something at you, and at the same time, I’m incredibly embarrassed you would do this behind my back,” Alexa said, crossing her arms.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to embarrass you,” Casey said. “Jenna even warned me you’d feel that way.”

“Great. Even my daughter gets that much. Why can’t you? What else did Jenna say?” Alexa asked, throwing her hand up on the wall, leaning on it with face buried and with her back turned to Casey.

“Jenna said she wouldn’t call to give you a hard time until tomorrow. She told me I had the afternoon to confess,” Casey said softly, worried when Alexa wouldn’t even look at him.

“Did you tell her I’d slept with you?” Alexa asked.

“Give me some credit,” Casey said harshly, “I told her I wanted to date you and I hoped she’d be okay with you if we did.”

“You asked my daughter’s permission to date me? I’m fifty damn years old!” Alexa declared, her voice squeaking. She did turn back then, shock on her face. All anger was wiped away in utter disbelief.

Casey couldn’t help but laugh and wished he could take a picture of how she looked. He was sure Alexa would laugh about it one day. “No. Hell no. That’s what I said to Jenna when she asked the same damn thing. I told her I liked you. I was not asking her permission to date you.”

“I’ll never hear the end of this. She’ll tell Regina and Lauren. She might even report it to the papers just to spite me. Oh, dear God.” Alexa put her face in her hands and shook her head back and forth.

Casey laughed because he couldn’t help it. “You’re being too melodramatic. Don’t you even want to know what she said about us?”

“No,” Alexa said through her hands.

Casey laughed more. “She said she would be okay with us dating if you were okay with it. She said she loved you.”

“I love her too,” Alexa said, lifting her face and dropping her hands to her side. “You--I hate right now.” The last was delivered with an icy blue glare.

Casey grinned, trying to stifle a laugh, but lost.

“Fair enough,” he said on a sigh. “How long are you going to hate me?”

“Until I get over being angry,” Alexa told him righteously.

Casey pushed himself up from the table and walked slowly to her. She backed up against the wall.

“It would not be smart to touch me right now,” she warned, blue eyes flashing, sparking with temper still.

Casey laughed nervously, but kept walking closer. “You already know I’m more brave than smart. I’ve apologized. Now I want makeup sex.”

“You are out of your freaking mind. I’m serious, Casey. Keep your distance,” Alexa ordered.

Casey walked up until he was mere inches away from her. “I’m your hero, Alexa. I deserve a hero’s reward, so I want a kiss.”

“You’re my nemesis, you mean,” Alexa corrected, tossing her head and sending her hair flying. “I am not kissing you.”

“Hurt me then, because it’s the only way you’re stopping me from kissing you,” Casey said, moving in closer still as Alexa all but climbed the wall behind her trying to escape. He wanted to tell her how arousing it was and how it just made him more determined. She would have knocked him flat for sure if he did.

“I’m sorry for embarrassing you,” he whispered, fighting to keep his hands to himself. “But not for talking to Jenna. It was something I felt I needed to do. I never meant to hurt you.”

Casey leaned in and placed his lips on her neck, just above the pulse that pounded furiously still. He brushed his mouth back and forth all the while inhaling the ginger and peaches scent that mixed so well with her heat. His body took the final step into her when there simply was no choice about it. He groaned in relief to finally be touching her again.

Alexa drew in a breath when Casey pressed into her. Indignation warred with arousal, but ultimately lost to the simple need to feel him next to her again. She swore softly, damning him to hell, but let Casey press his hardness into her softness, closing her eyes on her own sigh of relief.

Casey felt her body give in to his but wisely said nothing. Instead, he brought trembling hands to her waist and held her hips while he pressed into her.

“Am I still invited for the weekend?” he asked quietly.

“Would it matter if I said no?” Alexa asked in return, the sting of surrender making her tongue sharp.

Review Companies

Risque Reviews

Enjoyed the story but… (full review)

MR Review
Rating:
Reviewer: Alberta
Review:

Alexa is a fifty year old, self-made, former model-turned businesswoman. Casey is a former marine, mustered out because of injury, but retaining a monumental self-image. He falls in love with Alexa, concentrating on her sexy, sassy-self, and practically ignoring her business acumen, her lone cougar persona, and most of all her twelve years’ seniority. She resists for a time, but the juggernaut of Casey’s love, along with his phenomenal ability in bed, is too much for her to resist. He fits in with her nutty collection of real and quasi-relatives, her friends, and her ability to nurture, even as she maintains her tough broad exterior.

Although I liked the romance part, I loved the way both Casey and Alexa changed their goals and motivations over the course of the story, and how the author solved all their conflicts in Dating a Cougar. I was a bit disappointed that Alexa’s daughter didn’t solve her own problems yet, but perhaps that’s another book.

 

Disclosure: Manic Readers receives books from authors, publishers, and publicists which are given to reviewers in exchange for their honest opinion. Each review represents the opinion of the reviewer which may or may not have been influenced by receiving the book at no cost.

       No comments available.