A Burn To Bear (Fire Bear Shifters Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

his charms.
    Luke, since you aren’t interested in answering my calls or texts, or in explaining what kind of ‘emergency’ you had to deal with last night, I’m not interested in giving you a raincheck for our date. Go find someone else to play your games with.
    River felt a pang of regret as soon as she hit send on the text. Maybe she should have listened to Colleen and given Luke a chance to explain. But it was too late now, and River set her jaw in a stubborn line as she climbed out of her Jeep and headed up to her third floor apartment. Whatever Luke’s reason for missing their date, it didn’t matter anymore. She had better things to do than worry about a man who was all wrong for her.

Chapter Four
    Just over seventy-two hours after leaving the pub to respond to his alpha’s emergency call, Luke finally arrived back at Base with the rest of his crew. The Burning Claws Smokejumpers lived in a large airplane hangar with a large bunkhouse and shower house attached. The bunkhouse had been built to house a crew of twenty-five people, so the six member smokejumper crew had more than enough space. Even with Hunter’s lifemate, Riley, living on base now, everyone had room to stretch out and be comfortable.
    And after picking up his cell phone from his bunk, Luke definitely wanted some space.
    The messages had started off casual enough. River hoped everything was okay, and asked him to call her when he got a chance. There was a gap overnight where she didn’t call or text, but early the next morning she had texted again, worried that she still hadn’t heard from him. There were two more texts that each had a slightly more aggressive tone, and then a long stretch of silence before a final, angry text. As Luke had feared, River didn’t understand why he had suddenly disappeared with no response.
    Luke stepped into one of the shower stalls to wash off the sweat and grime of three days in a smoky forest. As he rubbed a bar of soap across his dirty skin, he tried to figure out the best way to respond to River. The cynical part of him said to just let the whole thing go and forget about River. He’d had enough trouble with women to last him a lifetime, and the way things had played out with River the last few days, it looked like trying to date her was just asking for more trouble.
    But something deep within Luke stirred every time he thought of River. He knew she was different. He knew his bear wanted her. He had to find a way to convince her to listen to his apology. Luke turned his back to the showerhead, and let the warm stream of water run down his body. He tried to come up with a romantic way to show her that he did care about her and that the last thing he had wanted to do was disappear right before their date. But romantic creativity wasn’t exactly Luke’s strong suit. He had brought a dozen red roses to the bar the other night, which he knew had screamed “cliché,” but it had been the only thing he could think of to do. Now, he worried that he would only mess up any attempt at romance, and make things worse than they already were.
    Luke washed away the final traces of soap residue, and decided that the best option available to him would be to simply call River and explain things. Surely, if he just explained to her what had happened, she would understand. He should have tried to explain better from the beginning, but he couldn’t change that now. He would try to reschedule their date and get things back on the right foot.
    Luke stepped out of the shower and toweled off, wincing a bit as his sore muscles protested against the vigorous movement. After several slow weeks with no fires, the last three days of chopping down trees and hauling heavy gear had really taken it out of him. He gingerly pulled a gray t-shirt over his head, and then threw on some loose black sweatpants. He went back to his bunk to grab his cell phone, not bothering to put on any shoes before he went outside and sat on top of the picnic