Bear-ly Human (Bear Claw Security Book 4) by Terry Bolryder Read Free Book Online Page B

I don’t want either of us to be hurt again.”
    She held his arm. “Then don’t leave me.”
    “Hera, you can do better. You belong here. With people like you. Men who can give you everything. Not just some bodyguard at a small agency with no family history to speak of.”
    “I don’t care about that,” she affirmed.
    “You did at one point,” he said.
    “Only because I didn’t get what you were hiding from me. I still don’t.”
    He took her hand in his, marveling at how small it was. He thought about someone like her, someone so perfect and so full of light, being with a person like him, all darkness.
    He’d been in La-la Land all along if he’d ever thought that was going to be a match. “You deserve better. I promise.” He stroked her hair back. It was light and soft. “I can’t tell you why, but you do. And I’m here to keep you safe and make sure you find it. I promise I’ll help you find it.”
    She shook her head. “That’s not part of your job.”
    “Looking out for you will always be part of my job.”
    “You let me go before,” she said.
    “Because it was the right thing to do. Because you were better off without me, no matter what I wanted.”
    She sighed. “There’s no getting through to you, is there?”
    He shook his head slowly. There really wasn’t. The small part of him that had opened up and hoped for more when they were together had all but closed shut. Even if just sitting next to her was starting to crack his resolve, he couldn’t give in.
    She would go on with someone else and learn to love properly.
    “Fine,” she said. “So you’re rejecting being with me. But I came all the way here. You might as well kiss me.”
    He bit back a groan. That was like touching fire.
    “That’s the least you can do,” she goaded. “I scaled the wall for you, after all.”
    “You what?” he asked, standing and pacing to the window to look out. “You’re crazy. You aren’t doing that again.”
    “Okay.” She shrugged. “But you might as well make it worth my while.”
    “You’ll agree we can’t make it?” he asked, as she came in front of him and they both stood in the window, surrounded by moonlight.
    “I won’t,” she said. “I’m going to keep fighting for us.”
    He sighed. “And I’m going to keep telling you it’s pointless.” No matter how much I’ll always love you.
    “Say that after kissing me,” she said, running a hand up and along his neck. He sighed and arched back, relishing in it.
    “Hera…”
    “You never could say no to me,” she said, rising up on tiptoes, bringing herself closer to his mouth.
    And then it was all too much. He’d said his piece. He’d told her the truth about their chances. The rest wasn’t his fault. And he could no sooner say no to her than hold back the sun.
    So he kissed her. Lowered his lips to hers and plundered them slowly, achingly, letting the feelings of the past sweep through them both.
    Hera gasped and sagged in his arms, and he held her up, held her close, supported her as his tongue tangled with hers in a heated dance that made his knees want to go weak.
    When he finally pulled back, they were both gasping, breathless.
    The power of what they had between them was incredible.
    It always had been. It was almost enough to make him forget he was half monster.
    “Hera…” he said, lost as to what to do next.
    “I get it.” She stepped back and touched her lips. She could see how lost he was. “You did what I asked. I’ll go.” She turned back to him as she sulked toward the door. “But I’m not letting this go.”
    “You’ll have to,” he said. “Because I can’t stay.”
    Her eyes shuttered at that, but she squared her shoulders and pulled her robe tighter around her, looking haughty and proud. “We’ll see about that, Hercules. We’ll see if you can really give me up to someone else and walk away. Because I think you can’t.”
    “Don’t scale my wall again,” he said, even though seeing