Free Boarlander Cursed Bear (Boarlander Bears Book 5) by T. S. Joyce Page A

read, talk and walk, and all of the things I needed to function, but everything else was just gone. Just…poof.”
    She laughed out the saddest sound, and it gutted Clinton. It had been his idea to lie, his idea for her parents to give her a new name and a new life far away from here, just in case the International Exchange of Shifter Studies reneged on their deal and came after her again. Hell, it had been his fault she’d been taken in the first place.
    “So anyway, I’ve had trouble holding down relationships because I just don’t have that much history. I have no memory of my childhood. I woke up at nineteen, three weeks after my birthday, and I was a blank slate.”
    “That’s okay with me.”
    “You say that now—”
    “I’ll say it always. It’s okay.”
    She blew out a shaky breath, and her shoulders relaxed. “I like the way you handled it.”
    Crap, was he too flippant? “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, most of the time when I admit that to someone, they don’t know what to say and get really uncomfortable, but you just, I don’t know. You just took it in stride and were okay with it. So, thanks for that.”
    Her cheeks swelled with a smile, and he nuzzled his beard against her neck, drawing a breathy giggle from her lips. The sound settled his snarling bear.
    Growing serious as she made two plates, he swore, “I won’t ever let you get lost in the woods again.”
    Shae didn’t know the full extent of his oath. She didn’t know that it was his declaration he would never let harm come to her again. He would never let IESS or IESA or this damned shifter rights vote hurt her. She’d been through enough.
    They both had.

Chapter Ten
     
    “I was supposed to get a pedicure today and get a massage.”
    Clinton turned from where he was washing his hands in the en suite bathroom and offered her a horrified look. “Why would you want a stranger touching you?”
    “Well, I don’t. I’m setting it up for you to paint my nails and give me a back massage,” she teased.
    Clinton ran and leapt through the air, and Alyssa screamed as he landed on his hands and knees, straddling her on the bed. “I’ve never painted a nail in my life, but I would be fucking awesome at it. I’m awesome at everything.”
    “Cocky.”
    “I have a big cocky, too.”
    Alyssa groaned, but the sound turned to giggles as Clinton tickled her ribs. “Stop! I was comfortable!”
    “Are we spending the entire day in bed? I’ve never done that before.” Clinton was practically humming for some kind of action, and it was plain and clear to Alyssa he wasn’t the type of man to sit around. He got bored too easily. Clinton lifted off her in a perfect plank, his muscles bulging everywhere, tattoos on display, nipple bars looking so damn bitable. “Where is your nail polish?”
    “Really?”
    Clinton nodded. “Tell me quick before I change my mind.”
    “In that floral bag on the sink,” she rushed out. As he slid off the bed and sauntered into the bathroom, she told him, “I’ve never had a man paint my toes.”
    “Have you had boyfriends?” he asked in a careful tone.
    “In my whole life?” Because she didn’t know the answer for her first eighteen years.
    “No, just that you remember.”
    “Yes. Two. They both lived in my hometown. Kyle was a bank teller, and Ben owned a coffee shop.”
    Clinton growled. “What color do you want?”
    “You pick. Whatever you think would look pretty on me.”
    “Well, that narrows it down to every color on the spectrum.” He meandered back into the bedroom with a slight frown marring his blond brows, and he wouldn’t meet her gaze again. “What were their names?”
    “Who?”
    “Your ex boyfriends.”
    “I told you, Kyle and Ben.”
    “No, I mean their last names.”
    She shook her head and laughed. “Oh no. I’m not talking about them anymore. It’s about us now, and if I tell you their last names, I’m gonna be real disappointed in you if they end up in a ditch