Read Online Bear My Soul (Fire Bears Book 1) by T. S. Joyce - Free Book Online Page B

When my dad died…” Cody swallowed hard and straightened his spine, releasing her from his blue-flame gaze. “When he died, the title went to me.”
    Rory inhaled deeply. “So people do know about bear shifters.”
    Cody nodded. “For now it’s just the people who want to use their knowledge of our existence as leverage.”
    “That sucks,” she muttered, stunned.
    He ran a hand over his short hair and laughed. “You have no idea.”
    “You know what else sucks?” she asked, crossing her arms.
    “What?”
    “Shayna.”
    His golden brows arched high as a slow smile took his face. “You jealous?”
    “I mean, it’s hard watching someone else kiss the father of your child. I don’t care how unattached or mature you are, it’s an awkward situation. Even if we’re just friends.”
    A soft knock sounded against the door. “I have to pee.” It sounded like Leah.
    Cody shot the door a troubled look, and then leveled Rory again with that intense gaze of his. “This is harder than I thought it would be.”
    “Don’t worry, Keller. I’ll be out of your hair in four days. Then you can go back to banging whoever you want.”
    She stepped around him and reached for the doorknob, but he grabbed her arm and spun her to face him. “Don’t do that.”
    “Do what?”
    “Call me by my last name and talk about leaving.”
    His lips crashed down on hers. Inhaling in shock, she balked against him, but he cupped her neck and dragged her waist closer. And as his lips softened and moved against hers, she closed her eyes and melted against him. He angled his head as she ran her hand up his chest. Opening her lips, she allowed him to taste her. A mortifying, helpless sound wrenched from her throat as his fingers turned gentle and the pace of his kiss slowed. He plucked at her lips once. Twice. Resting his forehead against hers, he said, “I shouldn’t have done that.”
    “Don’t,” she drawled out. “Don’t take away from this. What you meant to say is, ‘I shouldn’t have given you our first kiss in the ladies bathroom of a donut diner.’”
    A tiny huff of laughter sounded as he swayed them gently from side to side. “Technically I gave you our first kiss in a bar.”
    “Yeah, that’s not any better, Keller.”
    “Stop calling me that.”
    “Don’t gripe at me in front of your family.”
    “Our family now, Dodson.”
    She narrowed her eyes, readying for a retort when he leaned forward and gave her the sweetest, softest kiss. The kind that ended with a quiet, sexy smacking sound and made her go warm from her mouth to her knees.
    “I knew you were trouble from the first time I saw you in that bar, woman.”
    Leah sang through the door, “I still have to pee.”
    Cody grabbed Rory’s hand and led her out of the bathroom. All she could manage was a drunken smile for Leah.
    “What happened to you?” Leah asked, wide-eyed.
    She’d been kissed too thoroughly, that’s what. Cody looked back at Rory with a wicked grin, then waited for her to climb across the bench seat.
    “Where’s Aaron?” she asked, panicking when she looked around and he wasn’t there.
    Ma pointed under the table, and Rory ducked under. Aaron, Arie, and Tate were all playing near her feet with chocolate smiles that said they’d already inhaled their breakfasts.
    She huffed a sigh of relief and apologized for bolting.
    “No worries,” Ma said with a smile as she poured syrup over a pancake so big its edges flopped over the side of the plate. “He’s been playing with his cousins and has been perfectly well-behaved. Besides, I’d never let anything happen to him.”
    “It’s true,” Boone said. “Ma is scary protective of her grandbabies. She barely lets us hold them.”
    “Oh, shut up,” Ma said with a grin that said she liked being teased.
    “Here you go. This is the last of it.” A man wearing a T-shirt with a cartoon donut printed on it set two plates stacked high with pancakes, bacon, and eggs over easy in front of