A Burn To Bear (Fire Bear Shifters Book 3) by Sloane Meyers Read Free Book Online

her toward the rear of the SUV. His hand was rough, but strong and warm. River tried to memorize the way it felt against her palm.
    When they got to the back of the vehicle, Luke fumbled with the lift gate until he managed to open it.
    “Sorry,” he said as he pushed the gate upward. “This isn’t my car, actually. I borrowed it from my buddy, Trevor, because I needed the space to transport your gift.”
    Curious, River looked into the back of the SUV. The middle seats were folded flat to make more room, and a large, wooden mass that appeared to be a bookshelf filled the interior space.
    “A bookshelf?” River asked, running her finger gingerly across the smooth wood of the bottom shelf.
    “Yes. I made it. I don’t think you can see from here, but I carved a river scene into the panel at the top.”
    “You made this?” River’s voice sounded incredulous. She could only see a small portion of the shelf from her current vantage point, but she could already tell that the piece was beautiful. This obviously was not Luke’s first attempt at woodworking. His cheeks reddened in the dim streetlights, and he looked slightly embarrassed as he nodded.
    “Yeah, I made it. I wanted to show you that you matter to me as a person. I might not be an avid reader like you, but I think it’s really cool that you love books. It’s important to have something that you’re passionate about. I thought about buying you a special book, but I don’t know what kind of stuff you like to read, or what you already have. And since I’m not much of a bookworm myself, trying to figure out which books were good enough to be special wasn’t an easy task. I decided to stick with something I know I’m good at, and put my woodworking skills to good use. I’m sure you already have many books that are special to you. Now you have somewhere special to store them.”
    River stared at the bookshelf, taking in its lovely finish and smooth edges.
    “Luke, this is beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like it. Where did you learn to build things like this?”
    Luke shrugged. “I had a lot of angst in my younger years, and I needed some sort of physical outlet for it. I started woodworking as a hobby to distract me from deeper thoughts, and I eventually got really good at it. But I joined the army several years back, and hadn’t built anything since then. I guess trying to impress a pretty girl was as good a reason as any to get back into it.”
    It was River’s turn to blush. “This is amazing, Luke. I can’t believe you put all this effort into something for me. Especially after I tried so hard to get rid of you.”
    Luke beamed at River’s praise. “Wait until you see the whole thing standing up. I think the river scene I carved at the top turned out really awesome. I don’t want to pull it out here in the rain though.”
    River looked up at the dark sky. The rain didn’t show any signs of stopping.
    “I’m here by myself, because the other book club members didn’t want to come out in the storm. Which means I can leave anytime I want,” River said. “We could take it back to my place right now.” The statement sounded way more sexual than River had intended it to sound, but she didn’t care. The idea of Luke coming over made her heart flutter. She grinned when he nodded.
    “Okay,” Luke said. “Do you want me to just follow you?”
    “That works. Let me go lock up the building really quickly and then we can go.”
    River ran back into the library, and grabbed the box of key lime pie. She left the other pie boxes sitting on the meeting room table. She’d have to figure out what to do with them tomorrow. Right now, she had a sexy, hot firefighter waiting for her outside.
    River bounded back to her Jeep, and placed the pie on the passenger seat. Her wet clothes were going to soak through the fabric of the driver’s seat, but the Jeep was old and it wasn’t the first time it had been subjected to harsh treatment. It would dry