Big Bear Mountain - The Complete Series Read Online Free PDF

of another. No matter
what he said right now, it would get him into trouble. If he said he loved her
smooth, glorious curves, then he was admitting he noticed them. If he pretended
he hadn’t noticed that she wasn’t a size 2 kind of girl, then he’d look stupid
or worse … a liar. Now was a good time for Jarrad to stop talking.
    “What smells so
good?” Elle asked, breaking the awkward silence and taking in a good whiff of
the mouthwatering smell.
    “Homemade pasta
with Flathead Lake cheese, baby spinach, wild mushrooms and crispy bacon,”
Jarrad responded with pride.
    Looking at the
hulking man with his thin tee taught across his magnificently muscled chest,
stirring tiny pots and pans with sinewy arms, thick with bulging muscle and
hearing his glowing description of dinner, Elle couldn’t help herself.
    She burst out
laughing.

Chapter 14
     
    E lle was unmistakably famished. Perhaps from
having been on the run for so long without a break or from the stress of the
rescue. Maybe both, in equal measure. Either way, she scoffed down the best
pasta dish she’d ever eaten in her life with such enthusiasm that Jarrad watched
her with a look of bewilderment. He’d never seen a girl put away so much food
so quickly.
    “That was delicious. That would rival some
of the best restaurant meals I’ve eaten, I think,” She said, mopping up the
last of the sauce with the crust of her bread.
    Embarrassed, she pushed her empty plate
aside. Jarrad was barely half way through his. “I haven’t eaten in over 24
hours,” she offered, by way of explanation. Being on the run wasn’t ideal for
someone with a healthy appetite. There were a few times during the road trip
that she wished she was one of the skinny ‘lettuce leaf and carrot stick’ girls
she went to college with. But that was never going to happen. Elle enjoyed good
food and was of the opinion that life was too short not to.
    “So, now you’re showered, changed, fed and
rehydrated. Want to tell me what you were doing dodging the cartel on a high
mountain road in a car and clothes better suited to a weekend in Vegas?”
    She knew it was coming, but she still
hadn’t prepared her story well enough and wasn’t sure how much she could trust
this stranger. No matter how disarmingly hot he was.
    “You could try telling me the truth, if you
haven’t come up with a story yet,” he said, as if reading her mind.
    “How —”
    “When I was in the army, my job and my
survival depended on me being able to read people.” He paused and fixed a cold,
ruthless stare on her. “I was damn good at my job, too.”
    Elle not only felt like she was being
interrogated, but that Jarrad already knew a lot of the answers. That was
probably because he did.
    Trooper Ryan had called Jarrad on his cell
while Elle was getting cleaned up and changed. It seemed the car and its driver
had turned up in a couple of state and federal bulletins relating to the
embezzlement of funds from a finance company. According to DMV records, the
recently vanished BMW was registered to the chairman of said finance company.
    He wasn’t sure why, but when quizzed if he
knew the whereabouts of the woman in question, Jarrad told the trooper that he
had no idea. They’d been unable to make contact with the helicopter pilot to
verify where the rescued woman had been taken and they were hoping Jarrad could
fill them in. Jarrad was giving his heightened shifter instincts free reign for
the moment and they told him in no uncertain terms that the girl was in trouble
and that she was a good person. His bear knew that she had to be, otherwise,
she wouldn’t be his perfect mate.
    Biting her bottom lip, Elle considered her
situation before deciding, on a whim, to trust the mysterious stranger. As much
as she hated to admit it, she had no other choice. No money, no car, no means
of disappearing without a trace as all of her personal belongings were in the
trunk of her car. Bottom line? She was heavily reliant on this