She bit her lip again and Nash tried not to react. She'd calm down, but she was right. If he wanted to keep his job-and he did-he couldn't afford to piss her off. Even if it was fun to watch her get riled up. And it was. If there was one thing Nash enjoyed, it was to have fun with a sexy woman. "I'm sorry." But he also knew when to swallow it and play the game and in this instance, he was all about the game. Especially if it meant keeping his job. "I came here to clean up a clogged shower." He gave her his most genuine smile. "I definitely wasn't expecting to meet a beautiful bear while I had my hand down the drain."
His words didn't make everything better, but Kira's shoulders lost some of the tension and she no longer looked as if she was going to go for his jugular.
"At any rate," he said, pouring on the charm, "I didn't mean to come on so strong. Please accept my apologies."
He waited for a moment while she considered it. Nash half expected her to say no and fire him, or at the very least storm out. Bears weren't known for their ability to calm down quickly or, especially when it came to wolves, be reasonable. But Kira was definitely not a usual bear. In fact, she was very different from any other bear he'd ever encountered. And he was intrigued. To say the least.
"Okay," she said after what seemed like a very long time. "I accept your apology." She nodded toward the drain he'd just unclogged. "Thanks for that."
Nash waited until she'd turned her head and taken a few steps toward the door before he let himself smile. He was really going to like this job.
"Oh, and before you go." Kira turned around so suddenly, Nash swallowed his smile. "Check the other drains, and I heard there was a toilet that needed snaking. Could you see to that?"
He resisted the urge to salute. "Absolutely."
She gave him a look and for a second, he thought she might say something else. Instead, Kira nodded. "Good."
Nash didn't even try to contain his smile as he watched her juicy curves in her tight khaki pants walking away. Oh, yes. The summer was definitely turning around for the better. Was it really only a few weeks ago he'd left his big brother and his pack in search of something … .well, just something? Things had certainly turned around. Clogged drains and toilets aside, not only did Nash have a job for the summer, he had a place to sleep, and with any luck, before long he'd have a very sexy she-bear to cuddle up with to keep that bed warm.
Chapter Two
"A wolf?"
Kira stalked toward the cabins where the staff lived. She'd driven the ATV back from the shower house faster than she should have. Faster than the vehicle should move, period. But she needed to burn off some steam. What she needed to do was shift and let her bear out. But she wasn't doing that.
Not anymore.
There was no point in shifting.
There hadn't been for a very long time. But she hadn't ever before felt the burn in her veins, the heat that coursed through her, threatening to consume her. Something about Nash had triggered a response in her that heightened the need to shift into her bear, to run, to feel the animal inside her.
It wasn't an option.
"Dammit." She kicked a stone in her path. "A bloody wolf."
"A wolf?"
Kira spun on her heel to see Sasha next to the wood pile. "Did you say there was a wolf? Here? In the campsite?"
"No." She had to think fast. After all, there was a wolf in the campsite, but not one Kira could talk about. "No," she told Sasha. "I was just thinking about something else."
"You're sure? You look concerned about something."
"I'm fine." Kira forced a smile she didn't feel. "And really, it's nothing. I was just thinking about something I read in the newsletter about the wolves in the park." That wasn't entirely a lie. She had been reading about the Yellowstone-wide wolf reintroduction project and how some packs had thrived while others had failed. Kira couldn't help but wonder which one of those packs Nash had come from. Or whether he was a Yellowstone wolf at all.
Not that she was going to ask.
She was definitely not going to ask him.
"Hello. Earth to Kira." Sasha waved a hand in front of her face. "Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Not a ghost. A wolf. A tall, sexy …
"I'm fine," Kira said. "I was just thinking about-"
"The shower room?" Sasha laughed. "What exactly went on over there?" Before Kira could come up with a decent excuse, Sasha's pretty face changed and her mouth fell into an O. "You met the new handyman, right?"
"What?"
"The new handyman. You met him, didn't you?"