Bear the Burn (Fire Bears Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

talked to him for a few minutes longer, then hung up, more confused than when he’d called. Bruiser was supposed to have told him how to break away from whatever spell Quinn had cast on him. She couldn’t be worse for him, or he for her. Oil and water.
    If she had any shot at happiness, it wasn’t with him.
    He was a meteor on a collision course with the human race.
    If he pulled her along for the ride, she’d burn up right along with him.

Chapter Four
     
    When the bacon grease in the skillet popped, Quinn yanked her hand back. She glared at a tiny dot of moisture that burned on the knuckle of her thumb. Today hadn’t been awesome. Confusing, irritating, and heart wrenching, yes, but awesome, absolutely not.
    Daffodil huffed a yip from beside her, and she frowned at the tiny Yorkshire Terrier. Daffodil wasn’t a barker by nature. She was more of a lazy, eat while lying next to the food bowl, sleep through a burglary type of dog. The exact opposite of her breed traits. It was Beans that had been the barker in his younger days, but now her senior yorkie just lounged around the oversize bed she had set up for him in the corner of the kitchen. Old as a dinosaur, deaf and nearly blind, he wasn’t the best watch dog either.
    The fact that Daffodil had barked set off clanging warning alarms in Quinn’s head. She turned off the knob to the stovetop and padded toward the window. Her eyes flew wide and she guffawed when she saw Dade’s jacked-up Tacoma sitting on the street at the end of her long, gravel driveway. How the hell did he know where she lived?
    She pulled back the curtain a little farther with the tip of her finger as he strode up the stone walkway, only to turn around and jog back to his truck. A curse word echoed through the window as he ran his hands through his blond hair. Short on the sides and longer up top, it was sticking up everywhere as if he’d roughed it up a few times already.
    He turned and glared over his shoulder at her front door. His angry expression confused her. What had she done? Answer: not a darn thing. He was the one who had been hot and cold at the vet’s office, then sprayed travel grit in her face as he drove away.
    Dade hooked his hands on his hips and stared off into the woods across the road.
    Okaaay…right here was a man completely at war with himself, but why?
    He spun and strode for her front door, then stopped halfway and stomped back toward his pickup again. When he opened his door, it became apparent he was really leaving this time, and a piece of her revolted at not finding out what he wanted.
    In a rush, she pulled a few pieces of bacon from the skillet and wrapped them in a paper towel, then bolted for the door just as the engine roared to life.
    “Wait!” she called, sprinting for his truck, the hem of her robe flapping behind her. It wasn’t until she reached his Tacoma that the chill on her legs reminded her she hadn’t checked her clothes before she left the house.
    “Oh, crap,” she said on a breath as she looked down in horror at her bare legs.
    Dade opened the door with a look akin to amusement on his face where she’d expected anger. “What are you wearing?”
    She opened her mouth and snapped it closed again, unable to hold his gaze for more than a second. “I brought you bacon.”
    The smile dipped from his face, and the corners of his eyes tightened. “Bacon?”
    “Boys like bacon,” she rushed out, regretting the words as they tumbled past her lips.
    Dade scratched his ear and scanned the street behind him. “You don’t have any pants on.”
    Grimacing, she handed him the wrapped meat and pulled her robe around her. “Sorry.”
    “I don’t mind at all,” he said, eyebrows arching high. “You look fuckin’ hot.” Dade cleared his throat and stared at her bare feet. His contrite expression said he deeply regretted those words.
    “I’m making breakfast for dinner. You want to come in?” she asked.
    “Best if I don’t.” He held up the