Bear With Me: Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance Read Online Free

guy I just banged in the back of the car makes me want to crawl into a hole and die , she thought helplessly.
    She had never done anything like that before. Lynda was right. Forget “dry spell.” What she’d had for the last five years was a drought . Late nights, lots of overtime, and the only males she’d spent the night with were the juvenile condors down at the conservation center.
    But from the moment she’d looked into that man’s eyes on the dance floor...
    It was like their bodies had been in sync. Hell, of course she hadn’t asked his name—they’d hardly exchanged half a dozen words. Just danced together, bodies pressing against each other, until neither of them could hold back any longer and they ran outside, fumbled their way into the car and pulled off each other’s clothing with clumsy fingers.
    Jamie was blushing so hard she felt as though her whole face was on fire. What had come over her? She hadn’t had that much to drink. And even now, in the sober half-light of dawn, all her body wanted to do was race back to the car and curl up by the stranger’s side.
    No. What a ridiculous thought. It was just a one-night stand, and the last thing she wanted was to ruin Kes’s big day with the aftermath of a one-night stand in the back of some guy’s truck. Especially with Lynda around to stoke the flames.
    Besides, Kes already knew Jamie might not be able to make it to the brunch. She’d only just managed to schedule time off for the wedding itself. The breeding program at the center was about to enter its most important phase. Jamie had been working toward this for the last five years. She couldn’t afford to be distracted—didn’t want to be distracted.
    She wasn’t ready for a relationship. And she definitely wasn’t ready to spend a morning beside—what had Lynda called him?—Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Spanksome, awkwardly navigating the fact that one late-night hookup really wasn’t the basis for any sort of serious relationship.
    Jamie sighed, and Lynda laughed.
    “Come on, Cinderella. Let’s get a few hours’ beauty sleep before everyone else wakes up.”

* * *
    MARK
     
    Sunlight was streaming through the windows of Mark’s station wagon. He groaned, unwilling to wake up from the most incredible dream he’d had in his life.
    The woman in his dream was beautiful. Shining red-gold hair, bright blue-gray eyes, and pale skin dotted with freckles that disappeared enticingly under the neckline of her dress. And under her dress…
    Still half asleep, Mark dreamily wrapped his arms around his red-headed goddess—and woke up to find himself alone in the back of his car.
    He sighed. Just a dream, after all.
    Except…
    Mark sat up. His bear was still grumbling sleepily, but he didn’t need his shifter senses for this. His truck still smelled of pine, of the trees of his northern forest, still lingering after the hours of driving to get to the wedding. But mingled in with that scent was something else—something delicate, and sweet, and feminine.
    There had been a woman here. The woman from his dream.
    So maybe it hadn’t been a dream, after all. In fact, Mark thought, as his body began to wake up and send reminders to his brain, he was pretty sure that what he thought had happened, had definitely happened.
    So where was she now?
    His bear raised itself on its back legs, sniffing the air. Mark shuffled across to the door, ready to spring out and find the mystery woman. Something dug into his hip and he reached down to find a slightly battered-looking, strappy silver sandal.
    He gripped it carefully and stepped down from the station wagon, his heart singing. He’d come to this wedding expecting an awkward weekend of awkward small-talk with his cousin’s friends and his own distant family.
    Instead, he’d found a woman who—who what?
    There was a strange stirring in his chest, in that deep place where he felt the strongest of his bear’s emotions. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he was looking