Bear My Baby (Shifter Squad Six 1) by Anya Nowlan Page A

Humvee and sent off to another undisclosed location.
    A man who was haunted by a loss he had already lived through and was going to go through again. It made all the sass dry in her throat.
     

CHAPTER NINE
    Connor
     
    He started to say something, but the words died on his tongue before he could ever get them out. I missed you. Too melodramatic. It was one night. A fucking good night, yes, but he had no reason to think that she was in half as deep as he was. And again, he wasn’t even supposed to be engaging with her, but when he saw that creep put his hand on her, he couldn’t stop himself.
    It was like his legs carried him across the club of their own volition, completely bypassing the troublesome route between muscles and brain. And by the time he knew what he was doing, he could already feel the guy going limp in his hands, struggling to keep hold of his lucidity. If she hadn’t stopped him, Connor might as well have killed the fucker.
    And he wouldn’t have regretted it for a moment.
    “How have you been?” he finally asked, cringing at how lame that sounded.
    “Hiding away in San Francisco. Using a new name. Not seeing my parents. Uprooting my whole life for a reason no one’s even bothered to explain to me. You know, I’ve been so good,” she snarked, and fuck if it didn’t make him want to kiss that mouth of hers.
    He scuffed a hand through his short hair and then propped it against the wall to one side of Cassie’s face. Her scent was stealing any modicum of sense he might have had, making the bear thrash wildly within him. Only one thought constantly ran through him. The need to prop her against a wall and fuck the daylights out of her.
    “Good to hear. I’d hate you to miss all the great things San Fran has to offer,” he quipped dryly, trying to make some space in his head for anything that wasn’t the uncontrollable urge to taste her sweet pussy.
    He was rock hard in his jeans and he could only thank the shitty lighting for the fact that she wasn’t intimately aware of that yet.
    “You bet. Here for the scenery and the good wine, not because some faceless corporation planted me here and told me to be Ellie Burnbaugh.”
    “The hell kind of a name is Burnbaugh, anyway?” Connor laughed, relieved that he still possessed the capability to do that. Not all was lost yet, it seemed.
    “That’s what I said,” Cassie said, smirking.
    There it was. That smirk. That face she’d made at him when he’d dived for her back in that little cabin in Chicago. The one thing that would really make him lose his mind. Mentally, he said his goodbyes to his sense of honor and duty, and chose the woman instead. At least for right then and there.
    Connor slipped a hand around her waist and pulled Cassie to him. He let out a growl of approval as her soft body yielded against his and her hands rested on his chest, right where they were supposed to be. He gave her a moment to pull away, to protest, to scream her head off at him. If he’d given her a second longer, she would have probably done all three, but she didn’t.
    He kissed her hard, his tongue immediately invading her mouth. Her taste made his head spin. Pushing his hips against hers, he bit her lower lip, growling as he did so. And thank the spirits above, she responded. With a yelp, she kissed him back, her tongue lapping against his, her hands fisting around the fabric of his shirt and tugging him lower so she could kiss him harder, deeper.
    He complied, of course. How could he not, when his entire being had been consumed with thoughts of this impossible, gorgeous woman and now fate had rewarded him with a chance to taste her again? Even if it was for a moment in time that was sure to be ripped from him.
    Heat danced off their bodies as he claimed her mouth, licking, biting, kissing. They were standing right next to a fire exit that led out of the club and without a second thought, he unlatched it and slammed it shut, effectively cutting anyone off from