Bear Naked Truth (Southern Shifters Book 7) Read Free Page B

kind of cool factor. That was reserved for guys like him. The ones who used the least amount of words and obviously took their time thinking about them before they spoke.
    He didn’t say anything else, and she stood there like an idiot watching the muscles in his arms and chest flex as he worked. Several minutes later she realized what a goober she was and went on a hunt for every towel she owned. Time to start cleaning up this watery mess.
    It took her nearly an hour to get the last of the water mopped from the floor. Including from around the sink where Calder sat still working on her plumbing. Which of course made her think of a different kind of plumbing she needed worked on.
    Jesus. What was she? Twelve?
    With a clatter of the pipe wrench, the bear emerged from her cabinet. “That should do it for now. You had the bare bones for supplies under here, so this fix is only temporary. I’ll need to go and get some new pipes and cement to make it permanent.”
    “You don’t have to do—”
    “I’m gonna. So there’s no point in talking about it. Jake is two states away dealing with family problems, so he isn’t going to be able to help. And I don’t mind doing it. Gives me something different to do.”
    “You said that earlier,” she said, handing him a towel to wipe his hands. “What is it you normally do? I mean since it’s so different and all.”
    He stared at her silently while cleaning his hands. The intensity of his gaze made her unable to look away. It was the quiet strength he continuously exuded that did her in. Most men tried to convey their power through words and it often felt forced. Calder, on the other hand, did not. He was an alpha through and through, and he didn’t need to tell anyone to make it so.
    “I do mostly security at the Dark Moon. The roadhouse just outside of town. I also take on private jobs as needed.”
    “Deals Gap seems a little sleepy for security. It’s quiet here.” She fiddled with the edge of her shirt unable to hide her nervousness.
    He came out of her cabinet and hauled himself to his feet. All seven feet of him. “Don’t let the size of the town fool you. We get a lot of strangers through here during tourist season. Among other things...” He placed her towel on the counter and accidentally brushed her arm.
    She gasped. The sudden sizzle of connection took her by surprise. It tingled across her skin and raced across her body. Nerve endings lit up for no apparent reason other than this beautiful man touching her.
    His hand froze with the connection between them still hot. “It’s not safe for someone like you to be out here in the woods alone.”
    “Someone like me? You mean a woman?”
    The ice blue color of his eyes thawed and heated, turning a deeper shade of blue. “Yeah, a woman alone in these woods is vulnerable.”
    She frowned. “I have a lock on the door. And a shotgun next to my bed that I do know how to use. I’m feeling pretty safe.” Even more so with him standing there in her kitchen.
    Jessa turned away. As attractive as he was, it didn’t change anything. The indulgent look he’d given her at the bakery had been the real deal and she didn’t need to waste her time getting hung up on a man, make that shifter, who would want nothing to do with a woman unable to bear him children.
    According to Simon, the doctor for the Blackwood pack, the shifter females weren’t getting pregnant very often and when they did, they often couldn’t carry to term. And now finding some sort of solution had turned into an obsession that had clans turning against clans, often in violence.
    “Still,” he continued, pulling her from her thoughts. “Seems like an odd choice for a woman like you to take up residence in a seen better days cabin on the outskirts of a town where you don’t know anyone.”
    “Oh for Pete’s sake.” She jerked her arm free and stomped away from him. “Stop referring to me as a ‘woman like you’. What the hell does that even