Bear My Love: BBW BWWM Paranormal Shapeshifter Werebear Mail-Order Bride Romance (Shifter Grove Brides Book 4) by Anya Nowlan Read Free Book Online Page B

over her soft stomach and pulling her against him.
    Now, he held both of them up and she relaxed against him, his still-rigid cock still in her. She rested her head against his chest, looking up at him with her head thrown back. He didn’t hesitate to use the moment to steal a kiss from her – just the lightest of pecks on her lips.
    “Okay, so maybe there’s something to this working outside thing after all,” she murmured.
    Keesha could get used to that. As long as her every little work-related victory was met with furious fucking with a sexy as hell mountain of a bear.
     

CHAPTER NINE
    Battle
     
    He was tense again and he was sure Keesha could feel it. She was sitting next to him in the truck as they bounced their way down the dirt roads towards Shifter Grove for the first time. He’d managed to hide her away at his place for several days, but his lack of planning had caught up with him. There wasn’t enough food and he only had one towel at the house, and Keesha was itching to see Shifter Grove.
    He wasn’t completely sure why he was so rigidly opposed to going out in public with her. It certainly wasn’t because he was afraid to show her off to the townsfolk. He was sure that she’d strike a positive chord with them as she did with him, and he was proud to be walking next to a curvy beauty like Keesha Bailey.
    His curvy beauty.
    At the back of his mind, he had a guess as to what made his mood droop. He’d been loose and cheerful when it was just him and Keesha, tucked away in the woods, fucking and talking. But as soon as she’d offered a trip to Shifter Grove, he’d grown worried. He could see the first buildings start to crop up behind the trees and it made a muscle twitch in his neck.
    “Everything okay?” Keesha asked, quirking a brow at him.
    He nodded mutely, gripping the wheel harder. Battle hadn’t liked being around people much for years now. Ever since… well, ever since he’d stopped liking being around others. He kept waiting for his past to catch up with him, and that had always kept him moving, always running. Now, in Shifter Grove, he had thought that maybe it could end. Maybe he could settle down and build a life again that didn’t include fleeing a new place every few days, always sleeping in his truck and being wary of strangers and acquaintances alike.
    But now with Keesha by his side, it wasn’t just his own safety he had to worry about, it was hers as well. So all the old worries came back. What if someone recognized him? What if someone knew what he’d done? What if someone wanted vengeance? What if they were better than he was and he couldn’t protect Keesha? His stomach tied into knots and he thought they would soon twist around his lungs and cut off his breath completely. Battle exhaled sharply.
    Shifter Grove was a place for new beginnings. As much as this meant that people could hide from their pasts, it also meant that others with the same goal could find them there. And Battle had plenty of people he didn’t want to find him.
    They rolled into town and Battle parked his truck in front of Pearl’s General Goods. He hopped out and, this time, he made it over to Keesha’s door before she could scramble out on her own. Like it was the most natural thing in the world, he took her hand in his and led her into the store, making a beeline for the door and not taking any time to stop or look around.
    “Are we in a hurry?” Keesha asked, a smirk on her lips.
    “Always. I just want to keep you for myself, so the sooner we get out of here, the better,” Battle said jokingly, but he didn’t feel any of the humor.
    He waved to Dalton, the gangly looking teenager that helped Pearl out at the store, and picked up a basket.
    “Grab whatever you need,” Battle said, making his way to the meat section.
    It took up about a third of the store. Most of the shifters in Shifter Grove were carnivores and Pearl, the storeowner, had spared no expense in stocking for even the most