August: Mating Fever (Bears of Kodiak Book 2) by Selene Charles Read Free Book Online

life.
    “I’m not saying sex or even a relationship. I’m saying we be friends. You tell me about you, and I’ll tell you about me.”
    He was treading in dangerous waters. The more he knew about her, the more he would want her. But what if he didn’t? What if maybe learning about each other was the way to kill the dangerous attraction between them once and for all? He decided to give in because he was tired of always pushing her away. August had always been a sucker when it came to playing the knight in white to the woman in need.
    He looked toward a new hire, Madison’s brother Urich—another dragon, which they definitely didn’t need more of. “Urich, man the bar, will you?”
    Without waiting for the black-haired dragon to nod his assent, August slipped out from under the bar and headed toward an empty corner table, holding out his arm toward Jack. “Ladies first,” he murmured.
    Her smile pierced his heart like a poison-tipped arrow. The shot would kill him, but he would die a happy man to see it one more time.
    Sitting, they ordered drinks from a wide-eyed Madison. She looked at them both as if they’d lost their minds but went and filled their drink orders anyway.
    Neither of them said anything until their drinks were dropped off.
    Jack was the one to break the silence first. Cocking her head, she gave him another one of her breath-stealing smiles. He decided she was far more dangerous to his senses when she was being open with him.
    “So tell me about you, Auggie,” she said.
    Hearing her pet name for him slip so easily off her tongue made him almost forget they were just supposed to be friends. What he really wanted was reach over, take her hand, and beg her to end his agony of want.
    He shook his head. “You first,” he rumbled with a deep voice.
    Flicking her wrist, she laughed. And the sound did crazy, mad things to his body. It made him ache and feel alive all at the same time.
    “I guess fair is fair,” she said. “Truth is, I’m gonna be moving soon.”
    All thoughts of how sexy she was flew out the window with those words. His spine went rigid, and his shoulders became taut. “What? When? Why? Don’t you like it here?”
    Her smile was soft as she shrugged. “I don’t know. Feels like it’s time. As to the when, two months from now.”
    She didn’t have to tell him why to make him understand. He didn’t think about the loss in revenue he would feel when she left, or even about the fact that the highlight of each day for him was walking into the bar and seeing her smile up at him in greeting, however brief it was. What he did think about was that she couldn’t go.
    “You’re the best damn thing that’s ever happened to me, Jack,” he admitted ruefully, forcing out the words that shouldn’t have come out but were long overdue.
    She went absolutely still at that. “That’s not what this was about, August. I’m not trying to hurt you, but you have to understand—”
    “Blue,” he said softly.
    Her brows dipped. “Huh? He and I didn’t work—”
    He chuckled. “My favorite color,” he clarified. “Or used to be anyway.” August picked at the wrapping on his beer bottle with his thumbnail, waiting to see her reaction.
    He didn’t have to wait long. A slow smile spread across her face. She snorted. “Clever.”
    He decided he liked her relaxed and carefree, laughing at the dumb things he said. Why couldn’t things always be like that between them?
    Giving into temptation, he reached over and gently ran the pad of his finger along her cheek, causing her to suck in her breath and turn her wide, doe eyes back on him.
    “Though I think arctic blue will always be my favorite,” he said.
    It didn’t seem possible that those simple words should make an experienced siren blush, but they did. A faint stain of pink rose high on her neck, and she grinned, acting as though his words hadn’t bothered her in the slightest, or his touch. She acted as if she was unaffected by him