ACougarsDesire by Marisa Chenery Page B

to do it. She’d accumulated too much stuff over the years.
    The more she thought about it, the madder Katarina got. She
needed to get out of her apartment. Thank goodness Jase had invited her to
spend the night at his place. She really needed to get away. And there was the
fact he might be able to help her. She considered him her boyfriend now, and
she thought he felt the same way about her.
    Katarina grabbed her purse, keys, the overnight bag she’d
packed and the piece of paper Jase had written his address on before she
stalked out of the apartment. She left the building and headed for her car.
Hopefully Jase would have some suggestions. She really didn’t want to go home
to her parents. They didn’t live in Anchorage. She’d come from Butte, which
only had a population of a little over thirty-two hundred. There was no way she
could live there again. She was too used to the large city of Anchorage.
    She followed the directions Jase had given her along with
his address. The area became increasingly more affluent the closer she came to
his house. This was definitely an area where all the rich people lived. When
she’d first moved to Anchorage, she’d driven through the neighborhoods like
this, wondering what the inside of the houses looked like.
    Katarina pulled onto the long drive and then drove her car
off to the side where some parking spaces were close to the four-car garage.
She looked up at the large brick home. It was indeed a mansion.
    She got out of the car, grabbed her bag and purse from the
backseat before she walked over to the front door. Katarina rang the doorbell.
It seemed to take a while before she heard footsteps coming toward it. It was
opened by a woman who looked to be in her middle thirties. She wore dress pants
and a blouse that looked to be silk. Her tawny hair, the same shade as Jase’s,
was pulled back in a ponytail. Her light-brown eyes that verged on gold were
also the same color.
    The woman smiled and opened the door wider. “You must be
Katarina. Jase told me you were coming over. Come on in.”
    Katarina smiled. “Thanks. Jase didn’t tell me he had a
sister. I thought he only had a brother.”
    The woman laughed. “I’m not his sister. I’m his mother. My
name is Olivia. I’ll take you upstairs. He’s up in his room.”
    Katarina followed Olivia across the large, open foyer to the
oak staircase that curved upward. Olivia didn’t look old enough to have a
twenty-seven-year-old son. Katarina would have sworn the other woman was only a
few years older than she.
    At the top of the stairs, Olivia led her halfway down the
long hallway and stopped at a closed door. She knocked on it. “Jase, honey?
Katarina is here.”
    Jase opened the door and motioned for Katarina to come
inside his bedroom. “Thanks, Mom. I take it you introduced yourself.”
    Olivia smiled. “Of course. Will the two of you be eating
downstairs with us or are you going to stay up in your room?”
    “I figured we’d stay here.”
    “All right. I’ll let the cook know. She can make a tray for
you to bring up.” Jase’s mom looked at Katarina. “I hope to get to know you
better, Katarina.”
    Once Olivia left, Katarina walked farther into Jase’s
bedroom and looked around. He hadn’t been kidding. It was huge. There was a
full sitting area complete with a couch and glass coffee table. There were even
glass sliding doors that opened onto the wraparound balcony she’d seen on the
outside of the house. It really was like having his own apartment.
    Jase came to stand beside her and took her overnight bag.
“You’re early. I thought it would be closer to dinner before you could get
away. Did the owner show up sooner than you expected?”
    Katarina turned to face him. “He did.” Some of her anger
returned at the mention of George.
    “You look pissed off. What happened?”
    “The asshole let me go. I now have two weeks to clear out my
apartment. He didn’t leave me enough time to find another place. And