Gray Back Bad Bear (Gray Back Bears Book 1) by T. S. Joyce Read Free Book Online

tree or ten.”
    “So you got hurt while you were lumberjacking?”
    He smiled like she was cute and pulled her around to his back until she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on with her knees squeezed against his ribs like a koala bear. Then he pushed off the bottom and swam them slowly up the current toward the waterfall.
    Undeterred by him ignoring her question, she asked, “Is your job really this dangerous?”
    No answer meant yes.
    “Then why do you do it?”
    “Because it pays the bills and keeps my animal sated. Kind of. I like the physical work, and I like my crew, and that’s what we do. Each crew does a job. Some are construction workers, some firemen, some search and rescue. It’s always something physical. Sitting around in a cubical would be equivalent to caging our bears.”
    She ran her finger across a long scar on his shoulder. “You ever been caged?”
    “You’re killing my boner, Willa.” The words came out all growly and low.
    “Well, perhaps that’s a good thing,” she said primly. “I don’t even know if it’s healthy to keep an erection for twenty-three hours a day.”
    Matt snorted and stood in neck deep water, the mist from the falls surrounding them. “That’s why I go to the bar.” He turned to her and trapped her in his blue flame gaze, as if he were gauging her reaction.
    “Trying to hurt me by throwing it in my face how many women you sleep with? I’m unaffected, remember?” She pushed off him and swam on her back in a wide circle. “Besides, I’m quite scandalous, too. Once, I let Frankie Mercer finger me in my dorm room senior year of college. I even almost orgasmed.” Her cheeks were blazing, but something about Matt made her want to say out loud all the things she normally wouldn’t share with anyone. Perhaps because something inside of him had been broken, so he wouldn’t judge. That much was obvious from his marred skin and his need for different women in his bed.
    “Almost orgasmed? Frankie Mercer sounds like an amateur.”
    “Hey, don’t say that. At least he tried. He didn’t even ask for anything in return, just touched me like I’d begged him to.”
    Matt stopped treading water and stood, the water coming up to the tight buds of his nipples. “You begged?”
    “Told you I was scandalous. Now, why haven’t you accepted my friend requests on your social media pages?”
    A deep frown darkened Matt’s features. “I don’t know.”
    “Bullshit, you do. Since we’re friends, I think we should be honest with each other. We could play games if we were trying to date, but we aren’t, so let’s have it. Why not?”
    Matt’s chest rose with his deep inhalation. “Because I don’t really want you to see the comments on my pages.”
    “You’re afraid I’ll look at you differently if I discover you are a man-ho? I’ve already accepted that.”
    “Yeah, but convincing yourself to accept that about me will be harder if you see what the girls I’ve been with post on my walls.”
    “Right. Only show me your best side then.”
    “You’re only here for a week, Willa. I’d rather have fun getting to know you before you judge me based on—”
    “Your actions?”
    “Yeah,” he said darkly. Gulping a breath, he turned, dove under the water, and didn’t come up again until he was on the other side of the waterfall against the cliff.
    He wanted to get to know her? Warmth pooled in her stomach and drew a small smile from her lips. She interested him on some level. Her, Willamena Madden, awkward, clumsy, piccolo-playing human who was shite at swimming and an unintentional prude to boot, had captured the curiosity of an infinitely sexy, playboy grizzly shifter.
    Unable to stifle her curiosity, she asked, “Have you ever brought a girl up here before?”
    “No,” he answered easily as he shook his hair out like a Labrador.
    The heat in her middle turned molten, and she clutched her stomach to settle the butterflies that had made a home