A Taste of Honeybear Wine (BBW Bear Shifter Standalone Romance Novel) (Bearfield Book 2) by Jacqueline Sweet, Eva Wilder Read Free Book Online Page B

is,” she interjected. “I want him locked away.”
    “It’s not your call, Mother.” Alison’s voice was quiet but firm as she spoke, raising her eyes from the ground. “It’s my call. I’m the aggrieved party here. I can decide whether or not to press charges.” She looked Michael in the eye. He could see her pupils dilate with desire. He could smell the arousal on her skin. It filled him with a crazed hunger. His heart began to pound heavily in his chest, not any faster, just more intensely. His cock swelled in his pants, threatening to cause a scene if it reached full mast. He’d always favored tight jeans, but today was a bad day for them.
    “Thank you,” Michael said, but what he meant was, I love you. I just met you and don’t know you, but I love you and want to fuck you right now, even if that means doing it here on the ground with everyone watching .
    “I didn’t do anything yet,” Alison said, her wide mouth curling up into a smile. “I’ll drop the charges on three conditions.”
    “Name them,” Michael said. Every time she spoke it was like soft fingers running down the small of his back. It made him impatient to be naked, to be with her, and above all to be naked with her.
    “You have to get the lockbox back.”
    “Of course.”
    “You have to fix the broken window and help me clean up the house.”
    “A big job, but sure.”
    “And you have to take me with you when you look for the box.”

Chapter 4
    Bearly Begun

    “Absolutely not. I won’t hear of it. My precious daughter. Alone! With that sex criminal.”
    “He hasn’t been convicted, Mother.”
    It was the wrong thing to say. The wrongest thing in wrong town. But Alison couldn’t help herself. For as much as she was worried about losing the house, about her mother flipping out completely and disowning her on the spot, she had to admit that she was having fun . Being near Michael made her feel safe. She couldn’t explain it at all. He’d broken into her house butt-ass naked and maybe kinda sorta knew the creep who stole her mother’s lockbox. She should have been furious or terrified. But she wasn’t. She felt confident and in control. And she felt a delicious itch deep in her belly that somehow she just knew Michael was dying to help her scratch. Men like him didn’t go for women like her. But if she had the chance, she’d take it.
    But first she had to get past her mother.
    They were in front of what everyone claimed was the local police station, but which really looked more like some old house that someone had nailed a sign to proclaiming its official capacity. It gave the town a certain temporary feeling, like it was all an elaborate prop in some weird movie. Inside the house she saw desks and piles of official-looking paperwork. There was a woman who had the flinty stare of a lifelong bureaucrat, who no doubt ran the station herself, and the old sheriff seemed sincere enough, even if Alison suspected his dopey mannerisms were mostly an act. The old sheriff now leaned against a wall, trying to look anywhere but at Michael, who was in the back of the station getting a talking-to from his mountainous brothers. One of them, Matt, was dressed in a brown suit and kept clapping Michael on the shoulder like he was giving him a pep talk. The other, Marcus, glowered like he thought he could punch his brother with his eyeballs.  
    Marcus terrified Alison in a way that no man had ever scared her before. Looking into his eyes was like meeting the eyes of a predator. His glance said, “I’m not killing you right now only because I choose not to. But if you bother me at all I will disappear you and no one will ever find you.” Michael’s eyes were downcast. The man seemed to shrink under the glare of his older brothers. What would it be like to grow up with men like that? Michael was taller than most anyone, but next to his family he looked almost dainty. And as curvy as Alison was, just one of Marcus’ legs was almost larger