A Spark to Bear (Fire Bear Shifters Book 2) by Sloane Meyers Read Free Book Online

away from him, he swam over to her.
    “How do you like it?” he asked
    “It feels good. It’s nice to get some of this dirt and sweat washed off.”
    “If you like it so much then why are you taking so long to go under?” he asked.
    “What’s the rush? We have all evening,” she said, crossing her arms defiantly.
    In response he pounced on her without warning and dunked her below the surface. It only took a moment for her body to adjust to the cool shock of the river water, but her eyes and nose filled with water from the surprise dunk. She shrieked as she came back above the surface, and lunged at him to return the dunk. But he had anticipated this, and jumped quickly out of her way.
    “You rascal!” Riley exclaimed, trying to lunge for him again.
    Hunter laughed, a rough belly laugh that bubbled up from deep within him. Riley had no chance of catching and dunking him, but she was enjoying the game. She put in a few more good faith efforts to dunk him before giving up to focus on washing the dirt and soot out of her hair. She pulled out the pony tail holder she’d been using and let her long, dark brown tresses cascade around her shoulders. The strands were curling up a bit on the ends like they always did when they were wet, and Riley worried that her hair was going to become hopelessly tangled She had lost everything she brought with her in the fire, including her comb. But she could deal with tangled hair, if it meant getting rid of some of the smoke smell. That awful smell had permeated everything—her clothes, her hair, and even her skin still smelled like the fire.
    Riley became so preoccupied with washing out her hair that she didn’t notice Hunter was watching her. When she finally looked up and saw him staring at her with churning green eyes, she stopped short.
    “What?” she asked.
    “Nothing,” he said. “It’s just your hair. It’s so long. And beautiful.”
    Riley smiled shyly. He had the same look on his face that he’d had earlier when she’d thought he was going to kiss her. She dropped her eyes to his lips and licked her own, trying to give him the hint that she would welcome the chance to experience his arms around her and his mouth on hers. But he turned away abruptly and then disappeared under the water again.
    Riley sighed. Despite his tough, confident exterior, Hunter seemed very unsure of himself when it came to showing a girl he liked her. And Riley was sure this time that she hadn’t imagined or misread the longing look in his eyes. He wanted her, but something was keeping him from going for it. Maybe he didn’t want things to be awkward for the remainder of their trip out of the wilderness. Riley could have tried to push him a little bit, but she didn’t want to be the one making the initial move. After the fallout from her last relationship, she wanted a guy who was willing to show her that he was really into her. If Hunter’s feelings weren’t strong enough to overcome the worry of rejection, then were they really strong enough to last in the long term? Riley wasn’t so sure, and she definitely wanted something long term. She wasn’t the kind of person who could just sleep with a person and move on like it had all been a fun little exercise. She got too attached too quickly. She loved too fiercely.
    Riley frowned and walked up to the rocky shore of the river while Hunter dunked in and out of the water. She tried to tell herself again to just enjoy the easy friendship they had out here in the woods. Take the time for what it was worth, and don’t try to push things, she told herself.
    When she reached the shore, she stripped off her shirt and shorts, leaving her in just a bra and underwear. She wanted to really wash out her clothes and get as much of the dirt and grime out of them as possible, and the best way to do that was to take them off completely and scrub them with her hands. She knew that stripping down to her underwear would probably catch Hunter’s