Impulse: Southern Arcana, Book 5 by Moira Rogers Read Free Book Online Page B

one arm around her. “I’m here. Not to run your life or tell you what to do, but to protect you. To keep you safe.”
    She trembled, the shiver working through her in a wave as she squirmed closer. “I stood up to him,” she whispered. “I know it’s probably not impressive to the rest of you, but I was so proud.”
    “You should be.” He stroked her hair and pressed his lips to her temple. “I’m proud of you.”
    Her breath escaped on a rusty, tired laugh. “Living with Anna can make a girl feel…small.”
    “Here’s a secret, sweetheart. Anna makes everyone feel small sometimes.”
    “Yeah?” She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder with a soft sigh. “It’s better than Kat. Kat made me feel stupid.”
    He had to laugh at that. “You’re in good company there too.”
    “I had to take introductory math last year so I could qualify for the culinary program at my college. I stopped asking her help after the third assignment. I know she was trying to help, but…”
    “I understand.” Kat tended to get wrapped up in her head and forget that whoever she was talking to probably had no clue what she was saying.
    Sera’s body was soft, tucked against his side. Warm and pliant, and relaxing more every moment as she responded to his careful touches. “I did okay, though, for a high school dropout.”
    So prickly, defensive about all those little things that weren’t so little to someone like her. “What’re you going to do this summer?”
    “Work, I guess.” Her eyelids had begun to droop, though she didn’t sound tired. More like lazily content. “See if I can find my own place. Maybe with Anna. I don’t want Kat to renew her lease just so I can keep living there.”
    She’d probably buy the damn building if she thought it would keep Sera secure. “You could ask Nick about the apartment over the bar.”
    “It’s only got one bedroom.” Sera smiled. “I like Anna, but not quite that much, contrary to rumor.”
    “I meant if you wanted to live alone.”
    Her smile faded. “I don’t think they’d let me live alone.”
    Julio frowned. “Who, Kat and Anna?”
    “Them. My dad. Alec. Every other dominant I stumble across regularly. Maybe even your brother.”
    Maybe even him. “It isn’t that they don’t want you to live alone, and it sure the hell isn’t that they won’t let you. They don’t get to decide what you do.”
    She traced an idle finger over his chest, drawing some impossible-to-discern pattern against the black cotton of his T-shirt. “Not in theory. In practice, it’s messy.”
    “I know,” he murmured, then laughed as Callum’s words drifted back to him. “Maybe you could use a vacation from it.”
    “A vacation?” The idea seemed to amuse her. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been on one. When we all went to Jackson and Mackenzie’s wedding? Does that count?”
    “Just overnight? Uh-uh.”
    “We didn’t travel much when I was growing up.” Sera’s eyes drifted shut. “I don’t think my dad wanted to take the chance that we’d find other coyotes.”
    According to Carmen, Franklin had spent most of his time working. “Where would you go? If you could go anywhere, I mean.”
    She seemed to consider it. “I don’t know. A beach? I haven’t been in forever. I could buy a cute bathing suit and get sunburned.”
    She’d probably look adorable when her nose started to peel. “So why don’t you?”
    Her sudden laugh sounded as tired as it was amused. She poked him in the chest once before letting her hand fall to her lap. “Spoken like someone who’s not often broke.”
    No, he hadn’t been. He’d dropped out of college and taken a relatively low-paying job with the fire department, but he’d never been broke. “I’m out of suggestions, then.”
    Sera eased away and smoothed her hair down. “You cared enough to make suggestions. That’s what matters.”
    Julio steeled himself against the vague sense of loss that flickered through him. “Even when