Free Hard To Bear by Georgette St. Clair Page B

out of the house, and got in his car with a slam of the door.
    She showered and changed into her pajamas, feeling badly that he was sitting out in his car, but there was no way she was inviting him in.  The living room couch was tiny, which meant the only place that he could sleep would be on the bed, and no way, jose.  And she’d told him to go home.  He could leave at any time.
    She went to sleep, tossing and turning.  
    Then, around midnight, it started to rain in earnest.
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter S even
    When t hunder cracked through the air, Coral relented. She scrambled out of bed, raced to the front door, and flung it open.    Water poured from the sky as if angels had turned on a million spigots all at once.  Jagged lines of lightning slashed the night sky.   She hollered “Come in already, you big stubborn bear!”
    He raced through the yard in the drenching rain , but even in the short dash to her front door, he was soaked. 
    “I thought you’d never ask,” he smirked, as she slammed the door shut against the gusting downpour.
    He stood in her entryway with water dripping in pools on the floor, and began unbuttoning his shirt.
    “What are you doing?” Coral squawked in alarm. Not naked. He couldn’t get naked in front of her! How much willpower was one woman supposed to have? Coral couldn’t walk past an innocent chocolate mousse torte without molesting it, and she was supposed to resist a naked Flint McCoy?
    “I’m going to give you my clothes to dry,” he said, eyes wide and innocent. “You wouldn’t want me to catch a cold, now, would you?”
    “I…I don’t have anything for you to wear!” she protested.
    He peeled the shirt off and handed it to her.   She tried hard not to look.  His body was so perfect, he looked like a super-sized version of a Greek statue.  His burly arms could have snapped a redwood like a twig.  Each square of the six pack on his abs stood out in perfect relief. He had a dusting of dark brown hair on his chest, and a treasure trail running from his navel down below his pants, which he was unbuttoning.
    Coral looked away, holding the dripping wet shirt.
    “What, you’ve never seen a naked man before?”
    “I’m not a virgin, if that’s what you’re asking,” she said huffily.
    She’d seen naked men before. Not one of them had made her feel the way she was feeling right that moment.  She felt as if liquid fire were pooled in her belly and running hot through her veins.  She could feel her sex pulsing with each heartbeat, yearning to be filled.
    “I know you city shifters don’t tend to get nekkid in front of each other,” he said cheerfully, stripping off his pants and boxers in one swift motion.  She could barely see out of the corner of her eye, but what she could see was magnificent. And erect.  Damn it. He certainly was proportional.  She wondered if he’d fit inside her, quite literally.  He might actually be too big. Not that she planned on finding out.
    “No, we don’t tend to shift and go dashing through the streets of New York,” she said. “But New York only has like a ten percent population of shifters anyway.  We usually go up to places in Connecticut or upstate New York when we want to get our wolf on.  It’s kind of a weekend thing. And we have piles of clothing waiting for us in changing rooms when we return.”
    “Too bad.  If you ever want to go for a run in the woods here, let me know,” he said, and then he looked serious for a moment. “These woods can be dangerous for people who don’t know their way around.  If you ran into a pack of wolves that weren’t shifters, they’d be liable to pounce on you.  Same thing with mountain lions. If you ever decide to go for a run around here, tell me and I’ll come with you.”
    “I’ll do that,” she said to the wall, concentrating very hard on not staring at his nakedness. How odd, she thought, he really sounded concerned at the thought of her shifting