Fevered Hearts Read Online Free

faggot, when Liam’s ass still burned from being reamed the night before.
    The hurt in Ward’s bright blue eyes would live forever in Liam’s soul. A day didn’t pass that he didn’t think about it.
    When his father put the SUV in gear, Liam was shaken from his memories.
    “It’s not right, stripping the land like this,” his dad said under his breath.
    “You’re right, Dad. If I run into Ward, I’ll tell him that myself.”

Chapter Two
    Ward twisted the key in the ignition and his old full-size pickup made a grinding noise. Just another thing he’d been putting off. For a month, he’d known he needed to get under the hood and take a look, but with moving across the country again and finding out his father had stage three cancer, he’d put off caring.
    When Juls had informed him that their dad was ill, going through radical treatments to kill off the colon cancer, Ward had nearly hit his knees with shock. He and his dad were never close, but Ward couldn’t help but hate himself for not trying harder these past years while he was out west.
    And Juls hadn’t told him, which still pissed him off. She said she was sworn to secrecy, but something that important cancelled any vows of silence.
    So while his dad was fighting for his life, the logging company was being run by their manager, Jeff. As far as Ward could tell, they were making money, but for all the wrong reasons. Jeff had ordered his men to strip off an entire hillside—something the Bose family never would do. They were select-cutters, choosing only the best grade to haul out of the woods.
    Turning down the road toward the forestry office, Ward let his mind go on auto-pilot. He’d driven this stretch of road thousands of times.
    As he stared at the familiar homes, changed little since he’d left seven years ago, his thoughts wandered. Each dip in the road, every bend, spurred another memory.
    Before he knew it, he was driving past the sign for Mattson Hardwoods.
    He stomped on the brakes. The truck swiveled in the gravel, and he brought it under control in the parking lot.
    Heart pounding an ominous beat, he scoured the vehicles parked there, looking for Liam’s old truck.
    Fool. It’s been seven years. He would have bought a new vehicle.
    But a small voice in the back of his head reminded Ward that Liam was wheelchair-bound. Crippled. He couldn’t likely drive.
    On the heels of thoughts of Liam was a driving need. Ward’s balls clenched tight against his body and his cock throbbed.
    Then he added the image of Liam’s sexy little wife to the mix, and he thought he’d come in his jeans.
    He’d had erotic dream upon erotic dream about Ivy Mattson after falling into bed a few nights ago. Ivy’s lush curves had been a burning ember in his mind—and body. Awakening after the first dream of pressing her against a wall and sliding into her tight little sheath in one smooth move, he’d jacked off to a violent orgasm.
    Thinking he’d gotten the alluring creature out of his system, he’d fallen back asleep, only to wake up an hour later with a worse hard-on. A cold shower had done nothing. There had been no use for it—he fucked his fist to thoughts of both Ivy and his former lover to a mind-blowing climax.
    Heaving a shaky sigh, he swept his gaze over the outbuildings. The office appeared to be deserted, but the sign out front said it had been 390 days since the company’s last accident.
    Could that have been Liam’s accident?
    A burning urge to go see the man he’d once been so close to—the one who had broken his fucking heart—churned in Ward’s chest. Part of him was desperate to see if his friend was okay. Another feared seeing Liam as a shadow of his once-strong self.
    Setting his lips into a line, Ward drove on.
    What if he just stopped in at the Mattson place this evening? He and Liam were friends, after all.
    And he could get another good, long look at Ivy.
    No. Stop. She’s off-limits.
    But for those pulsing moments when he’d