Free Bear Meets Girl by Catherine Vale

you’re killing
me. I know you’d never hurt me.”
                His
eyes darkened then, a sneer curling his lip. “And how exactly do you know
that?”
                Angela
sucked in a breath. “Because I’ve just spent the last hour naked and vulnerable
around you, and you haven’t taken advantage of me yet?”
                “But
I could.” His jaw tightened. “I could kill you so easily, and even erase all
traces of it so that nobody would ever find out. And yet here you are, still
lying here naked with me.” He laughed bitterly. “You’ve got to be some kind of
fool.”
                Anger
flared bright and hot in Angela’s chest, and she shoved hard at Cole’s chest,
sending him crashing into the love seat. A snarl curled her lips back as she
jumped to her feet, her eyes glowing orange, and it was a miracle she managed
to grasp enough willpower not to pounce on him and start raining punches down
on his gorgeous face.
                “Let’s
get this straight right now,” she spat, her fists clenching and unclenching at
her sides. “I might be a female, and you might be stronger than me, but I’m no
easy kill, and I won’t stand to be called a fool in my own home, especially
after I’ve gone out of my way to give you my hospitality.”  The shock on
his face as he gaped up at her was priceless, but not nearly enough to pacify
her, especially when a healthy dose of humiliation joined the anger burning a
hole through her chest. “I apologize for offending you with my kindness and my
naked body. Good night.”            
                She
stomped past him to the safety of her bedroom, and slammed the door shut behind
her, blinking back hot tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks. Her
heart ached fiercely at the rejection, and she barely managed to refrain from
snatching a vase off her dresser and throwing it against the wall. He would
hear that and know she was having a temper tantrum, and she wouldn’t give him
the satisfaction.
                Throwing
herself down onto her bed, she closed her eyes against the tears and tried
desperately to fall asleep. Maybe when she woke up, Cole would be gone and
she’d discover that everything that happened tonight had just been one long, horrible
nightmare.

 
    Chapter Six
                The
aroma of coffee and pastries woke Angela long before she was ready to open her
eyes. Groaning, she turned her face into the pillow and tried to block out the
scent, but the sounds of Cole moving around in the kitchen arrested her
attention. Thoughts like, Dammit, it wasn’t a nightmare, and What the
hell is he doing out there? prodded at her consciousness until she was
firmly pulled from the sinking pool of darkness that was sleep, and back into
the light again.
                “Shit,”
she muttered, looking at the alarm clock on the nightstand. It was 10:00am,
which meant she’d only gotten four hours of sleep. Sitting up, she came face to
face with her reflection in the mirror seated atop her dresser, and debated
whether or not to splash some water over her pasty, make-up streaked face or
run a brush through her tangled hair before shuffling outside to find the
source of the aroma that woke her up.
                What’s
the point? a bitter voice asked. It isn’t like you’ve got anyone out
there to impress.
                Lifting her chin, she dragged
her eyes away from the mirror and strolled into the living room as if she
didn’t look like the latest reject from an episode of The Walking Dead .
Cole was standing behind the kitchen counter fixing up a paper cup of coffee,
his actions largely obscured by the ginormous white paper bag at his elbow.
Angela squinted at it, trying to divine the contents and wishing she had laser
vision.
                Cole
glanced up at her, then raised an eyebrow. “You can look inside the bag,