Page 281 of The Cowbears of Curvy Bear Ranch

“I know,” she whispered. She averted her gaze and pulled her sweater down around her waist. “I should goupstairs.”

“I… okay,”hesaid.

“Goodnight.” She stood and hurried up thestairs.

He dropped his face into his hands. Great. He’d acted like a complete fool. Hopefully she wouldn’t tell anyone about their kiss. He’d never hear the end of it from hisbrothers.

After closing the glass doors on the fireplace, he walked to the bottom of the stairs. He looked up into the darkness. A strange sensation sliced through his heart. It wasn’t his infernal bear, for once. But he didn’t like it. He shouldn’t be thinking about her at all, let alone contemplating going up those stairs to her room. He needed to stay away from her, but something kept drawinghimback.

Although she’d told him bits and pieces about her life, he really didn’t know much about her. She was an intriguing puzzle, one he wanted to solve. Maybe Madison wasn’t completely off base when she’d chosen Sharon from the gaggle of womenonline.

He sighed. He didn’t like where this line of thought was headed. But he couldn’t help but wonder... if there was even the slightest possibility that she’d ended up on his door via fate, didn’t he owe it to himself to get toknowher?

Chapter5

As Cindy swungthe door to her bedroom open, she gasped. Drew stood outside with his fist up as if he’d been about toknock.

“Oh,” he said. “I didn’t know you wereheadedout.”

“I was going to take a walk through the woods,”shesaid.

Her gaze rested on his full lips for a moment before she looked away. Her mouth tingled with the memory of his kiss. God, he was a good kisser, so much better thanherex.

“Oh.” He stuffed his hands in the pockets of hisjeans.

“Did you need something?” sheasked.

“I came up to see if you wanted to go on a snowmobile ride with me today. I didn’t want to leave you cooped up herealone.”

“That sounds fun,”shesaid.

“Have you ever been on one before?” heasked.

“Nope. We don’t have much snow in Florida.” The mountains near LA could get a lot of snow, but she’d never spent much time out ofthecity.

“You’d mentioned that you wanted to see the Minerva Terraces in Yellowstone,”hesaid.

“Yes.” She stood taller. “I’ve always wanted to see them in person. I can’t imagine that the webcam does them anyjustice.”

“Webcam?” heasked.

“Yellowstone Park has a bunch of live webcams set up throughout the park. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched Old Faithfulerupt.”

“If you want to go, we need to leave soon,” he said. “The drive is long, and it will probably be pretty cold, but I thought it might be a fun trip… if you want to gowithme.”

“I do,” she saideagerly.

“Great.” He flashed a smile warm enough to turn her bonestomush.

Why did he have to be so dammed sexy? He wore jeans and a flannel shirt better than most men wore suits. Every inch of him—every inch—was on display. When she’d been draped across his lap the previous night, she’d felt enough to know that the man was packing. He had to be at least nine inches. Not that she’d been up thinking about it all night oranything.

Part of her plan to go hiking in the woods involved giving her enough time to cool off. If he wasn’t so panty-melting hot, she wouldn’t even consider going into the frozen wilderness. But she had to do something to chill the molten heat in her core. If she didn’t, she would probably melt into a puddle of simmeringdesire.

“Did you eat breakfast?” heasked.

“Yes.”

“Madison packed enough snacks for an army,” he said. “So we’ll eat lunch after we get to the terraces.Soundgood?”

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