August: Mating Fever (Bears of Kodiak Book 2) by Selene Charles Page A

it.”
    Tipping her beer bottle at him, she nodded. “I don’t hate it. Plus it’s fun to screw with people’s heads. Am I guy, a woman? Who knows, right?”
    “I’m pretty sure no one could mistake you for a guy, Jack.”
    “Well, not once they see me. But I can always hear the shock in their voice when they call expecting it to be a man, and it’s not.”
    “Well, now.” He leaned back in his chair, relaxed and ready for another round of a hundred questions. “We all have our funny stories. What’s yours?”
    Snorting, her eyes took on a faraway look. Slowly but surely, the smile slipped off her face.
    He regretted asking the question for a second until she started talking.
    “Braden.” Icy blue eyes flicked up toward him, holding him fast in her gaze. “He and I got set up on a blind date. He thought I was a man.”
    Something about that name tugged at his memory. There’d been a Braden mentioned at some point in time. But he couldn’t quite remember... Then, like an image in a mirror, the memory suddenly crystalized for him. Braden of Angoon, the mystery man that had caused her to leave the fishing village.
    He frowned. “So Braden was gay?” Not exactly the question he’d meant to ask, but he’d tripped over the plethora of words on his tongue.
    She chuckled. “Sirens aren’t gay or straight. We’re fluid. It’s just people, so if we like you, we like you.”
    “Have you ever been with a woman?” He really hadn’t meant to ask that, but...
    Again she chuckled. “Auggie, are you going to let me finish my answer or keep distracting me?”
    He held up his hands. “Yep. Sorry. You’re right.” Damn, he was curious now.
    She rolled her eyes. “To answer your question, of course I’ve been with women. Like I said, we’re gender fluid. Anyway...” She flicked her wrist.
    Hmm... he would have to ask her more about that later. The thought of his Jack with another woman had him squirming in his seat. But she was right, now wasn’t the time. Later for sure, though.
    “Anyway, when he met me, he almost had a spaz attack.” She giggled as though recalling a favorite memory, and he frowned.
    “Oh, stop. You don’t have to be jealous.”
    “Not jealous,” he grumbled.
    “Yeah. Whatever, you ugly grizzly.”
    He winked. “Sure, Jack. You just keep telling yourself that. If it helps you sleep better at night.” It shocked him how different he was with her, but she brought out a different side of him, one he’d never known existed before—a carefree flirt who lived only to see her smile.
    Once again, her foot found his. This time, though, she left it on top of his, and he let her.
    They’d had sex only once and kissed only a few times. In the past three months, they hadn’t allowed themselves to get touchy-feely at all, as if both of them understood that opening Pandora’s box would lead them right back to where they’d been before.
    Yes, he went home every night with a raging hard-on and had to relieve himself by hand just to get sleep, but that was better than the alternative of her ignoring him and him pushing her away.
    They were too explosive together. This was their safe place, together but also apart.
    But the dynamics had shifted. They both seemed to understand that it was their last night together, so the unwritten rules were being tossed aside.
    “What happened to Braden?” he finally asked. “Why did you leave Angoon?”
    Happy as he was that she had left, because otherwise he would never have known her, August hated seeing her sparkle die.
    Her words were so low, he had to strain to hear them. “I did the one thing all sirens know not to do.”
    Not sure if he wanted to know more, but also knowing that he would never be able to let it die if he didn’t, he asked, “What’d you do?”
    She took a deep swallow of her beer, and that act alone shocked August enough to know that whatever had happened had shaken her to her core.
    Squeezing her eyes shut, she whispered, “I