Rio's Fire by Lynn Hagen Read Free Book Online

early evening, the sun still hanging in the sky, although it was slowly sinking in the west. Fire sat beside him in a calm quietness. Rio still wasn’t sure if he was doing the right thing. “Are you going to ignore me?”
    “Honestly, I’m not really sure what to say.” Fire looked a bit rattled as his wary frown deepened. “I still haven’t quite figured you out.”
    “Then stop trying,” Rio said as he drove toward town at an almost snail crawl. He wasn’t trying to rush his time with Fire, and he sure as hell wasn’t looking forward to sitting in a place crowded with nothing but people. His panther purred at Fire sitting next to him, though. Rio knew that just as soon as they walked into the restaurant, his cat was going to have a fit.
    Fire’s body was stiff and if Rio hadn’t been a shifter, he would’ve thought that Fire was angry. But he could scent the man’s apprehension. His control had slipped this afternoon, but it was not Rio’s intention to make his mate fear him.
    Rio wanted to reach out and caress his fingers through Fire’s long and silky hair, to pull the man toward him and let him know that although he was serious about what he had said, that his mate never had to fear him.
    But the words were stuck in his throat. He was still feeling Fire out. What if he recanted his words and then Fire turned around and drove the knife of pain right back into him? There were depths to Rio 44 Lynn
    Hagen
    that Fire didn’t know yet. Rio was malleable and sweet, but only up to a point. He could be a first-class bastard if the situation called for it.
    The only people who would never see that side of him were his students. Even though Fire was his mate, Rio did not have infinite patience.
    “So, are you going to tell me where we’re going?” Fire asked in his seat next to Rio. Deciding not to spoil their night, Rio gave Fire a mischievous grin.
    “Nothing fancy. I just wanted to take you out and get to know you. Trying to get to know you at work is kind of hard with little ears that can hear a pin drop.”
    “Those kids don’t pay attention to me,” Fire said offhandedly.
    Rio furrowed his brows, wondering if Fire was really that naïve.
    “You’ve got to be kidding me. Kids are the nosiest little beings and have better hearing than shifters. Just because you think they are not paying attention, you better believe they’re listening to every word you say. That’s why I’m very careful what I say and do around them.”
    Fire snorted. “I don’t believe that. I talk to them until I’m blue in the face and it falls on deaf ears. They have the attention span of a gnat.”
    “You have got so much to learn.” Rio was flabbergasted with Fire’s reasoning. “Have you ever been around any children?”
    “Why, does it show?” Fire asked sarcastically. “There’s a few babies running around the Den, but whenever I see them I run in the opposite direction.”
    Slowing the truck until he was at a complete stop, Rio turned toward Fire. “How on earth did you become an art teacher?” It made no sense to Rio. Why would somebody become a teacher if they ran from kids? It was perplexing as hell to him.
    Fire threw up his hands animatedly, letting out a long-suffering sigh. “Ask Maverick. He had this grand plan that teaching would help me find my way. The only thing that teaching has done is make me turn grey and jerk uncontrollably from shot nerves.”

    Rio’s Fire
    45
    That definitely explained a lot. Rio now knew why Fire had absolutely no control over his classroom or how clueless he was in planning activities. He wasn’t sure if Maverick’s reasoning was sound, and Rio wasn’t going to question the alpha. What he was going to have to do was help Fire become a better teacher. Unsure of why Fire needed direction, Rio was going to have to work with what he had.
    Mr. Fishman presented a problem as well. Rio knew for a fact that the human had no idea that shifters existed in Brac Village. And