Read Bear-ly Human (Bear Claw Security Book 4) for Free Online Page B

him.”
    Hercules’s frowned. “Then why do you need me here?”
    She looked slightly guilty at that, and suspicion once against lanced through him. “Well, okay, he’s a bit of a perv. Pushy.”
    Protectiveness overrode any other feeling he might have had, and he pressed one fist into the other, cracking knuckles. “I can deal with pushy.”
    “I know,” she said. “That’s why you’re the right man for the job.”
    He nudged her, hoping to make her laugh. “Plus, I’m devastatingly handsome, at least according to you, so I should be able to convince people I would really be with such a beautiful woman.”
    “I wish you were with me,” she said in a low voice, looking down at her hands.
    She was such a strong, tall, confident woman that it was unnerving seeing her so vulnerable, even for a moment. It struck him to the core.
    “Are you all right?” he asked after a moment’s pause.
    “Did you hear what I said?” she asked, brushing hair off her forehead and behind her ears, where it just barely reached, as she looked up at him.
    He was silent for a second. “I did.”
    “I wish you were mine for real,” she said.
    He didn’t know what to say to that. He didn’t want to start trouble between them. He didn’t want bad things to go down. Not while he needed to be here to help her. Not while he was paying back Bear Claw’s debt to her.
    “Hera, that’s not why I’m here,” he said quietly, not wanting to hurt her. That was the last thing he wanted in the world. To cause more pain to either of them.
    He’d easily die for her, but they couldn’t really be together again. It would just destroy both of them when it ended. Because nothing had changed.
    “Don’t look like that,” Hera said. “We’re not the same. We’ve grown, right? I’m not going to dig into your past. I’m not going to pressure you.”
    He sighed. “But you’re not going to leave everything and run away with me either.”
    She pressed her lips together. “I don’t see why we need to.”
    He looked out at the water. “I don’t belong here. I can never give you normal.”
    She opened her mouth like she was going to ask something, then closed her full lips, trying to hide her frustration.
    Her top button was undone, and her full cleavage heaved up and down with her breath, and Hercules suddenly found it a little hard to breathe himself.
    “I just… I thought maybe we could give it another chance. We were good together.”
    Hercules stood with folded arms, looking out at the sun rippling over the water. “Don’t get me wrong, Hera. I care about you. I always will. But I’m here to do my job and protect you. Nothing more.”
    “You’re too stubborn,” she said.
    “You’ve always known that about me.”
    “I don’t care if I get hurt,” she said, standing and putting her hand on his chest.
    He looked down at her, heart pounding painfully. What would it be like to just bend down and take her lips, just once more? Just one more time?
    He raised a hand, grazed it along her cheek and jaw, toying with the idea of tilting up her face and taking her lips with his.
    But then he dropped his hand and took a step back. “Come on. Let’s go back. We need to unpack.”
    The disappointment on her face tore at his soul. “Okay,” she said. “But I’m not giving up.”
    A slight smile forced its way onto his face at that. “I didn’t think you would.”
    She turned and started back toward the mansion. She paused, waiting for him to catch up, and then took his arm in hers. The feel of her warm body pressed against him nearly made him lose it right there. It brought back images of holding her in the night, of her soft body against his.
    It made him hope for impossible things and want to go against his best rational judgment.
    He tried to steel himself to pull away, but she drew him back. He looked down at her, slightly shocked.
    “Hey, for appearances,” she reminded him, wagging a finger.
    He groaned and let her stay.