August: Mating Fever (Bears of Kodiak Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

me?”
    He growled, not wanting to have this conversation right now. All he wanted was to stay lost in this moment, to forget about the damn mating ritual and the fact that Blue still waited for her, wherever the hell he was. He didn’t want to admit that he shouldn’t have done this or that his heart was way too wrapped up in her to be able to keep this casual or string-free.
    But she was persistent. Her nail dug into the corner of his jaw, snapping his eyes open as a sharp, quick burst of pain brought him forcefully back to reality.
    Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he felt the wetness of blood before he actually smelled it. The little minx had cut him. That act of passion had him smirking despite himself.
    Her hands were back on his chest as though ready to push him away even as her fingers curled into his shirt to keep him close. “For months, I’ve felt your eyes on me. I know what you’re doing. The games you’re playing. Don’t forget who I am.”
    “Then why have you let me?” he asked simply.
    Her beautiful face was a mask of contemplation before she finally said, “Because I’ve been waiting for you to wake up and realize that I’m here.”
    He shook his head. All the usual arguments were on the tip of his tongue and ready to roll off. He’d never had this talk with Jack, but he’d had it plenty with his brothers. They had discussed the reasons why they couldn’t allow their hearts to become engaged with anyone right before the ritual.
    “I can’t. The ritual.”
    “Bullshit,” she snapped back, pushing her hands deeper into his chest.
    He lifted a brow. “Bullshit?” He scoffed. “Bullshit is you going out with that fairy. That’s what’s bullshit.”
    Her laugh was incredulous. “I’m only going out with him because you’re too damned chicken to ask me, August. So just ask!”
    His nostrils flared. He’d wanted her from the moment he’d met her. Not just her body, but everything.
    After a moment of intense silence between them, she laughed. But the sound was anything but happy. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. You think I don’t understand the Breed? You’re wrong. I know what’s going to happen to you in a few months. I also know that until it does, you’re free to do whatever the hell you want. I’m a siren, August. I’m not looking for roses or romance.”
    Grasping onto those words like a lifeline, he snapped, “What are you looking for, then?”
    Releasing him as though she’d just been burned, she flicked a glance at her hands and shook her head. Her fingers moved to her pants as though to fix herself, but then she frowned, realizing that he’d made fixing herself impossible. Her zipper was busted, and her button was gone.
    Fluffing out her hair, she gave him her haughtiest look. “You know what, August? When you’re ready to grow up, then call me. Maybe I’ll listen. Until then, don’t you ever, eve r do to me what you did tonight. Play games with me again, and I’ll turn into the siren I should be. You got me.”
    Without saying another word, she turned on her heels and went back to the front of the bar, looking as regal as a queen.
    It was everything he could do not to chase after her and demand she finish what she was getting at.
    Did she just want a fling? A one-night stand? To scratch the intense itch between them? Even though it went against everything he was, he would do it. For her. It was fucked up for him to even think that, knowing that in a few months, she would be the only one left wanting what they both wanted right now.
    He was trying to save her from worse. But he was pretty sure that tonight, he’d gone way over the line of no return.
    Curling his hand into a fist and still smelling her all over him, he turned and walked back into his office. By the time he wrapped things up and walked back out to the front, she was long gone. Sitting at an empty table were his brothers.
    Regret slammed into his chest like a boulder. He’d screwed up