Second Chance Mates Read Online Free Page B

foot on her
porch.
    Laying down the hammer and nails she
held, she used her sleeve to wipe the perspiration from her
forehead as she walked from the unfinished deck, through the
folding doors into the house, and made her way towards the front
door, a heavy feeling in her heart. The developers were a nuisance
and she hated dealing with them.
    If it were anyone else, her parents for
instance, they normally would have just walked in, but lately she'd
taken to locking the door. There was something about the developers
that made her nervous. It was probably Stanton's bully boy tactics
disguised under his smooth smile and shiny suit that did it. Or
maybe that he always brought muscle, like she was going to start a
fight! Even so, confronted with a locked door, any member of her
family would think nothing of walking around back in search of her.
She'd gotten used to their unannounced visits and really, it was
sweet that they kept checking in on her. Well, originally it had
been sweet. Now it was kind of annoying.
    Her nostrils flared as she caught a
stray out of place scent. Strangely, whoever was at the door made
her wolf perk to attention and not in an unpleasant way. She felt…
what was that? Excited?
    With a wary look on her face, she
turned the key in the lock and opened the door, surprise nearly
making her heart falter a beat.
    In front of her stood not her parents,
or friends—not that she'd seen many of them in a while—or even
those damn developers, but instead the man that made her wolf yip
and whirl in her mind. The man who featured in her dreams, the man
who was on her mind almost as often as Colton. The man who could
have been her lover. Who should be her lover.
    Cade.
    Her wolf howled and scrabbled at the
corners of her minds, delighted to see him, desperate to throw them
both into his arms and just revel in the pleasure of being held by
him.
    Instead she froze, her attention
diverted as a second man stepped out from behind Cade and her wolf
went into overdrive. Tall, impossibly broad shouldered and muscled,
with a shaggy crop of blond hair, just curling at the edges, and
eyes that seemed amber, he was delicious. And he was looking at her
with an expression that moved swiftly from annoyance to the
surprise she was sure echoed in her own eyes.
    She sniffed again. There was that
scent. Tiger , she registered in shock as her inner wolf
slobbered. A freaking tiger? On my porch? Damn
me.
    Her heart rate rose as she stared in
shock at the two men, not quite sure who to focus on. Damn me,
if fate didn't steal my mate and then send me two.
    And with that shocking thought, Clara's
eyes fluttered. She gasped a ragged breath, her knees buckled and
everything went black.
     
    ***
     
    Clara blinked, her eyelids fluttering
rapidly until a sea of white span into view. Her ceiling. Her
bedroom ceiling. What?
    "Don't move." The mattress pressed down
as someone sat next to her and a cool flannel was laid across her
forehead. The same voice said, "You fainted."
    "The heat," she murmured, closing her
eyes again. She sniffed the air. Was someone cooking? Her
stomach growled at the smell of spaghetti and she slapped a hand
over it as the man chuckled. It wasn't just the delicious cooking
scents that made her hungry as she inhaled. It was the man too. She
recognized that scent all right. Damn it. It haunted
her.
    "Yeah, must've been the heat," he said,
and chuckled again.
    Blinking, she struggled to push herself
up on her elbows and found a pillow swiftly stuffed behind her
back, hands helping her sit up. At last his face swam into
focus.
    "Cade?" she whispered, still not quite
believing it.
    "In the flesh," he replied, a tentative
smile on his lips.
    "What are you doing here?"
    "Seem to remember I had an open
invitation. I just finished up some work and came by for a visit.
Can't say I expected you to faint at my feet as a reception." He
seemed amused but she couldn’t fathom why.
    "Can't say I expected to see you at my
door," she shot