Big Strong Bear Read Free Page B

time.
    But he touched his face. Felt the lines, the scars. No, she didn’t want this, not anymore. She’d made it clear. He tried to remind himself of this. But he couldn’t ignore the lust that had glittered in her resentful eyes. The proud way she’d stared into them after they’d kissed, even as her pulse leapt from his effect on her.
    Perhaps he just needed to remind her of what they had. And even if some things were different, some were the same. Like the way he could make her feel—affected, stunned. The way her body yielded to him instantly. The way she trusted him as protector. The way he could still make her weak in the knees.
    The way she made it impossible to think.
    True, he found it easier to calm down after years of training in intense situations. But inside, despite his composed demeanor, his heart had been pounding the entire time she was with him. Only now was it slowly relaxing. And at the thought of getting up in the morning, seeing her again, it sped up, thumping against his chest painfully.
    He rubbed a hand over it, thinking of her. Of happier times, smiling in the sunlight. And sadder times, like when she’d shouted at him, telling him it was over and she didn’t want to see him again.
    It had been a shock even as it was expected. Expected because he knew he’d lost pieces of himself that she loved, but a shock because some part of him had hoped Cassie could overcome the impossible and still love him as he was.
    He pulled a small blanket over him, laughing softly at how little it covered. He clapped a hand and the light went off, leaving him in darkness.
    Not that it mattered.
    He didn’t plan to sleep tonight.

----
    C assie woke confused , unsure where she was for a moment. Then she saw the sparse, masculine furnishings. The dark drapes, the gray carpet. The space was nice but dark, elegant but a little unnerving.
    Sort of like someone she knew.
    She got out of bed and changed into new clothes. She yawned and stretched, not ready to go out and face Hades.
    Despite the drama between them, she had to admit she’d slept better in his home than she had in a long time. No matter what happened between them, there was no safer place for her than by his side.
    Which just made everything that had happened that much more sucky.
    There was a bathroom attached to the bedroom, so she walked to it with her cosmetic bag to see if there was anything she could do before seeing him.
    She ran a hand through her curls, pushing them into place, though they still sprung back wildly. She wet a hand and tamed them somewhat, tucking the most errant ones behind her ear.
    John had never minded her curls being everywhere. He’d loved to absentmindedly curl them around his fingers when they were cuddling and watching a movie or lying in bed after being together.
    They’d shared some good times when he was home on leave. There were no spoken promises, not since they were younger, but she’d just always assumed what they’d done was under the same auspices.
    But when he’d wanted nothing to do with her once he was actually free to commit, that said it all.
    Even if he’d wanted to get some shortly after that.
    She washed her face and dried it off with a gray towel. So much gray in his life.
    She was swiping on some pink-tinted ChapStick and pinching her cheeks to look less pale when someone knocked on the bedroom door.
    She sighed and stayed silent, waiting to see what he did next.
    “Cassie, you up? We need to talk.”
    Of course they did. She sighed at the bags under her eyes and shrugged because there was nothing she could do about them.
    Then again, she didn’t know why she was even going to all of this trouble with John. Hades. Whoever he was. There was nothing between them anymore, and even when they’d been together, he never minded any of her flaws.
    She walked to the door and opened it to find a hard abdomen and chest in front of her. She followed it up to a strong neck and that devastatingly handsome,