Between the Bear's Sheets (Wylde Brothers 2)

“Mind if I tag along?” She needed out of this place and out of Mina’s company, or she was going to strangle the bitch. Her brother looked shocked and then hesitant at her inquiry, but when he glanced over his shoulder at Mina, heard her nasty remarks to her friends on how the fabric of the dress didn’t fit her the way she wanted it to, she knew he would cave.

It wasn’t like he didn’t know how his future wife was; it was just the point that he actually stuck around with her despite all of it. It may not be cool for his little sister to tag along when it was clear he wanted to hang out with his friends, but he wasn’t going to turn her down, not when she saw the sympathy on his face and she was laying on the pouty lips extra thick.

“Really?” he asked. At her nod, he smiled and then lifted his eyes to stare at Mina, which ultimately had that smile fading. “She being that bad today, huh?”

Talia wanted to tell him Mina was bad every freaking day, but she pursed her lips and forced herself to nod instead of spewing out what a cunt Mina was.

“I don’t know how much fun you’ll have hanging out with me and the guys, but if you really want to come, I’ll pick you up at eight. The guys want to head over to a popular shifter bar in town. I think it’s called Something Shifty.”

Clever. She snorted at the ridiculous name of the bar. “I’ll absolutely be ready by then. Thanks, Luke.”

He chucked her under the chin, went up to Mina, and gave her a disgustingly passionate kiss then left the boutique. At least now she had something to look forward to, even if it was hanging out with a group of loud, obnoxious shapeshifters.

She could always get drunk enough that their obvious and pathetic flirting with the females wouldn’t bother her. Her brother may be a renowned doctor in California, but some of his friends were still stuck in the college party days. Besides, anything was better than hanging out with Bridezilla.

3

Ford exhaled, exhaustion claiming him. It had been another day busting his ass on the construction site. He’d come into work earlier than everyone else and stayed later than most. Sweat covered him, his hands had been bloody, and his body was sorer than fuck, but he welcomed it all.

Now, here he was, watching Bram flirt so hard with some human waitress that she’d be gripping her ankles for him before the night was over with.

All Ford could think about was the sexy little red fox shifter who he met earlier that day. And that was something he had been trying to purge from his mind all day—hence the reason he worked his balls off today.

He didn’t want to be so strongly attracted to someone, least of all an innocent-eyed little fox who stared up at him with her arousal pouring off her in waves. There had never been a woman who had affected him so powerfully with just one look, but when he looked into her pale-blue eyes, something in him had awoken. A little part of him had broken through the darkness that filled every recess of his body.

Those emotions were foreign to him and made him increasingly twitchy and uncomfortable. So he had done what he did best. He turned their charming yet slightly embarrassing encounter into something sexual.

He checked her out blatantly, staring at her tits and not bothering to hide the fact. Then she had gotten even more embarrassed, and aroused, and it had taken everything inside him not to push her up against the wall and take her right there.

Thank fuck she left when she did, because he had been two seconds away from following through on those primal desires.

Her image was ingrained in his head, and not just because he had been able to see every inch of her luscious breasts. It was her deep-red hair and icy-blue eyes that turned him on like no other had. Her curvy, all-female body was made for a man to get lost in.

But he was broken, his self-hatred a living entity inside him. He couldn’t care less what others thought of him, or if he was wearing some high-class shit. He worked hard, kicked back with his brothers and crew after a long day, and got drunk more days than he cared to admit.

He didn’t deserve to be happy. But then he had seen Talia, and everything inside him calmed. The darkness in him actually receded, and a sliver of light shone through, all because she looked up at him. Fuck, he was acting like a pussy. He was too old for this shit, too old to think he could change after being this way for so long.