Read August: Mating Fever (Bears of Kodiak Book 2) for Free Online Page B

lagoon and allowed her mind to wander. And as she suspected, it drifted immediately toward August.
    They had two months left before he would forever leave her. Two months wasn’t a lot of time, but it was enough.
    Couldn’t they at least be friends? Or try to be anyway? Did everything always have to be so standoffish between them? They were adults. Wasn’t it time to start acting like it?
    Humming softly to herself, she released some of her magick. Cradled by the water and her magick, she came to a conclusion that seemed so obvious, she couldn’t understand why she hadn’t reached it before.
    True, August would have no choice but to submit to his instinct to mate. And yes, his heart and lust would be turned to another once he did. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t be friendly. It didn’t have to be all or nothing. There was a middle ground they’d both been ignoring. Maybe if they learned to make friends, she could eventually learn to let him go and be okay with it.
    Smiling softly to herself, she swam back to shore. Getting out, she snatched up her clothes. The cool winds dried her wet flesh quickly, and she was able to shimmy back into her clothes.
    Without even knowing it, she realized that she had walked to within half a mile of the Junk Yard. Jogging briskly to help warm up, she ran the last bit to the bar. It was time to start letting August go.

Chapter 5
    August
    T he door opened, and he knew without looking up that it was her. Her shift had ended four hours ago. He’d seen her leave with Blue. But looking up now, he saw that Jack was all alone, and her eyes were only on him.
    His skin prickled from the intensity of her look.
    All around, there was chatter and laughter. Honky-tonk music played, and glasses clinked, but he saw and heard nothing except for the glide of her booted feet and the sexy smile on her lips.
    When she finally reached the bar, he realized her hair was wet.
    “Took a bath?” he asked, forcing himself to finish setting up the keg.
    Leaning over the bar, her mouth brushed his ear. “Nope. Took a swim in the lagoon.”
    Chuckling, because he could believe the wild, crazy woman would do just that in the middle of winter, he shook his head. “You don’t say. Trying to drown yourself?”
    “Ha.” She snorted. “Sirens can’t drown, you furry baboon.” There was something different about her tonight, something easy and stress-free, almost as though she was a different person completely.
    His heart beat hard in his chest. It was obvious to him that something momentous had happened during her swim, either that or she and Blue were really falling in love, and that’s what had given her the glow.
    He scowled at that thought. He would have sworn there was nothing that serious between them before. He’d seen the way she looked at Blue... like friends, but nothing more.
    But the pretty siren in front of him at that moment wasn’t at all broody or contemplative, or even sad like she typically was when she was around him. She had a definite bounce to her step that he found sexy and more than just a little appealing.
    Finished with what he’d been doing, he gave her his full attention, drinking her in like a man parched. Her blue eyes sparkled like the sun-dappled waters she called home.
    Narrowing his eyes, he said, “You seem different tonight.”
    “Do I?” She grinned then nodded. “Yes. I guess I would.”
    “Why?” He wasn’t sure whether to trust this new, perky Aphrodite incarnate.
    “Because I’ve come to a conclusion.”
    He knew she was baiting him, but that didn’t stop him from asking anyway. “And that is?”
    “That we can be friends. That we should be friends.” She held up her hands when he opened his mouth to again remind her why that was such a bad idea.
    Although his attempts to tell her that would have been half-hearted at best. Staying away from her the past months had been sheer torture, especially once Blue had become a permanent fixture in her