The Cowbear's Curvy Christmas (Curvy Bear Ranch 2)

by Liv Brywood

  “Tell me why you want this job.”

  She hesitated a beat too long before speaking. “I’ve run bed and breakfasts before and I love doing it.”

  “I tried to call Holiday Cottages to confirm your previous employment but the line had been disconnected.”

  “They went out of business.”

  “Did Aspen Holiday Honeymoon Cabins also go out of business?”

  She shifted in her seat. “I suppose.”

  “I have no way of confirming your past employment.”

  “I worked at both of those places,” she insisted.

  “All right. Tell me about what you did there.”

  As she rattled off a list of tasks, he couldn’t help but notice the way her suit lay across her breasts. Flashes of her silky perfection raced through his mind, completely distracting him. It took a few seconds to realize she’d stopped talking.

  He cleared his throat. “Okay, so, um, why should I hire you?”

  “Because I’m more than capable of running this place and I need the job.”

  “You came a long way for a job.” He suspected there was far more to her story, but he didn’t want to pry too hard. If he scared her off, he was screwed.

  “I’ve always wanted to work in Montana. Something about the open fields and endless sky heals my soul.”

  The wistfulness in her tone spoke to his heart. He knew exactly what she meant. Sometimes he’d ride up to the hill overlooking the valley and just watch the play of sunlight across the horizon. He also wondered why her soul needed healing. He’d have to find out later.

  “So, did I get the job?” she asked.

  The look of hope in her eyes helped finalize his decision. She may have lied about her name last night, but so had he. As long as she wasn’t lying about anything else, he could live with having her around for the next few weeks. This Christmas season didn’t have to run perfectly, but as long as she didn’t scare any of the guests away, he could make it work.

  “You’re hired.”

  A huge smile lit up her face. “You won’t regret it.”

  “I’d better not.”

  Now all he needed to do was keep his hands off of his alluring new employee. As he furtively glanced at her sensual curves, he knew it would be a long, hard Christmas season.

  Chapter 3

  As Maddie followed Mack through the kitchen, she couldn’t help but sneak peeks at his firm ass. Now that he was her boss, he was completely off-limits. But she could look, couldn’t she?

  She’d sweated through the whole interview, waiting for him to call her a fraud. She hadn’t realized how much she’d wanted the job until she’d been faced with the prospect of losing it. At least she could relax a bit.

  Mack said, “Everything you need for the morning meal is already in the fridge. Before Sarah left, she made a supply list and I sent Hank into town to get everything. We print a menu for every meal.”

  “A menu?” She panicked. Would she have to make more than one entrée per meal? She could probably fake one, but any more than that would instantly reveal her lack of experience.

  “It’s a fixed menu,” Mack said, “but we occasionally make special dietary arrangements. For the first week, we don’t have any special requests. But that can change when guests arrive. Sometimes they forget to tell us about their gluten-free, vegan diets until they’re staring down a plate of chicken.”

  “I’m very flexible. I can work with whatever the guests request.”

  “Just don’t over-promise.”

  “I won’t.”

  “Let’s go upstairs and I’ll show you the bedrooms.”

  A zing of awareness raced up her spine. They’d never even made it into a bedroom last night. Even though he was her boss, and a bit of an ass, she couldn’t help but think about the way he took charge in the cab of his truck.

  At the top of the log-shaped stairs, he stopped. “There are twenty guest rooms plus two rooms to accommodate employees. Each room has a bathroom with shower and tub.”

  “Will I be cleaning those?”

  “Yes. After the morning meal is complete, you’ll come up and make the beds. Some guests want their sheets changed every night, but most are fine with having them changed once a week.”

  “I can do that.”

  “Good.”

  He walked down the hall and turned right. Toward the back of the house, he led her into a large laundry room. Industrial-sized washing machines and dryers lined the walls.

  “We stay on a very strict schedule,” he said. “As soon as the beds are made and laundry is done, you’ll return to the kitchen to start lunch. Lunch is served at noon.”

  “Who decides what to serve?”

  He gave her a quizzical look. “You do. Shopping days are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I’ll go with you right after lunch.”

  “What time is dinner served?”

  “Six p.m. We serve everything family style. It cuts down on prep time and makes the guests feel more like one big family.”

  “That sounds fun. I never had a big family.” Just a house full of servants to cater to her every whim. As amazing as that sounded on the surface, it stifled any semblance of warmth in her family. Meals with her parents consisted of endless conversations about stocks, bonds, and corporate mergers. They had been of the mindset that children should be seen and not heard. So she’d spent most of her meals in silence.

  “With five other brothers, our parents had their hands full,” Mack said. “But they did their best to make sure we always remembered that we were family. Our mom worked hard to make the holidays special. It was her favorite time of the year.”

  “I bet you miss her a lot.” When he cocked his head to one side, she added, “Hank told me she’d passed away.”

  “Yeah, two years ago.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “A rancher’s life isn’t easy. She took good care of us, but it was hard work. In the end, her body just gave out.”

  “I can’t imagine how hard you must work.”

  “I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

  His smile warmed her body from the inside out. Liquid heat pooled in the pit of her stomach. His mouth was so incredibly sexy that she couldn’t help but rest her gaze on his lips and remember the trail of fire they’d left on her throat the night before.

  “Shall we check out your bedroom?” he asked with a hint of wickedness.

  “Sure.”

  She flushed and turned away, but not before catching the look of amusement in his eyes. Damn, she really needed to stop thinking about him naked. But the more she tried to block the erotic images, the more they flashed through her mind like a movie. A sexy, naughty movie.

  Mack pulled a set of keys out of his pocket. “You shouldn’t need to, but at night, you can lock your room from the inside. You can also lock it in the morning to keep people from wandering in.”

  “I don’t have anything valuable with me.”

  He shrugged. “Either way, you can’t always trust the guests.”

  “Have you had a lot of problems with theft?”

  “Not during the last few years. During the recession, we had a few smaller items walk off, so we removed anything that had any real value.”

  As they stepped into the room, she gasped. “It’s beautiful.”

  A huge bed made of polished logs sat in the center of the room. On the wall above the bed, a tapestry depicting a roaring grizzly bear gave the room a sense of wildness. Paintings of the various water features in Yellowstone Park covered a muted, western-style wallpaper.

  She walked into the center of the room and turned slowly to take it all in. Its rustic appeal was the polar opposite of the silken opulence in which she’d spent the first eighteen years of her life. Her mother would have a fit if she’d ever had to stay in a place so “uncouth.”

  “I love it.”

  “The year before my mom passed, she’d completely remodeled the B&B. She always had an artist’s touch. She even pa
inted some of these,” he said while pointing at the nearest wall.

  “She sounds like she was an incredible woman.”

  A moment of melancholy passed before he said, “She was.”

  Touched by the love he had for his mom, Madison stepped closer and rubbed her hand across his upper arm. “She raised a good son.”

  He chuckled. “You hardly know me. And the bit that you do know about me has nothing to do with her.”

  “So you learned how to be a rogue on your own?”

  “Is that what I am?”

  “Maybe.”

  He smirked and stepped close enough to whisper in her ear. “Too bad you’re my employee now. I haven’t even shown you a hint of my roguishness.”

  A soft puff of breath slid down the side of her throat as if he’d caressed her with his fingers. She shivered with desire. She’d never met a man who could reduce her to a simpering puddle of need with just one look. If she wasn’t careful, it would be easy to let him seduce her.

  When he looked down at her, his hazel eyes glittered like a cat’s. “Want to see the bathroom?”

  She wanted to see something else. Something hard, and thick and…

  “Well?”

  “Sure,” she stammered.

  God, she was behaving like a cowboy groupie, if there was such a thing. So what if he wore his jeans like they’d been cut just for him? So what if they stretched and wrapped around his ass in a way that made her knees go weak? She needed to keep her licentious thoughts to herself.

  As they entered the bathroom, she silently wished she could jump into an ice-cold shower to stop the rush of carnal heat that was coiling in her sex.

  “In addition to a shower, we installed a claw-foot bathtub a few years back. Sarah had been having some problems with arthritis and her doctor had suggested she soak in a hot bath every night.” As he spoke, he stared at her as if he was undressing her with his eyes.

  “I like bubble baths,” she blurted.

  His eyes turned a shade of stormy green, the color of the sky before a tornado. She didn’t know who moved first, but the next thing she knew, he’d swung her around and lifted her ass up onto the edge of the sink.

  Now at eye level with him, she searched his face for any hint of hesitation. When she found none, she crushed her lips against his. Like the previous night, there was nothing slow about their movements. Mashed against his, her lips burned with the roughness of his kisses. She couldn’t take a breath before he’d parted her lips with his tongue and delved into her mouth.

  Dizzy and off balance, she leaned into him to keep from falling. She wound her fingers into his thick hair and clung to him. His hands found her hips to steady her. Blood pounded in her ears. She’d never felt so reckless, so full of primitive need.

  As he shoved up her skirt, she reached for his pants. She’d just unbuckled his belt when she heard a door slam somewhere in the house.

  “Shit,” Mack cursed.

  She panted. “Who is it?”

  “One of my brothers.”

  “Shit.”

  She jumped down and smoothed her skirt over her legs. When she turned to look at herself in the mirror, she cringed. Red lipstick was smeared across her mouth. Her hair stuck up every which way. Anyone who walked in right now would know exactly what they were doing. She couldn’t risk having one of his brothers find out about their clandestine make-out session because it would only bring embarrassing questions that she wasn’t prepared to answer.

  Mack whispered, “I’ll head him off. Pretend you were going to the bathroom.”

  ***

  Mack yanked his belt buckle together as he raced toward the bedroom door. If his brothers found out he was sleeping with the new B&B manager, they might lose respect for him. Also, he couldn’t risk losing their trust in his judgment. If they found out that he’d picked her up at the bar and had slept with her in his truck, he’d never hear the end of it. His brothers considered him the most responsible person in the family and he had to uphold that image.

  He also needed to find a way to keep his hands off of Madison. Every time he got within three feet of her, he wanted more. He could still feel her tight, slick heat wrapped around him. As soon as he headed off his brother, he’d have to go dunk his head in the river.

  Logan had just crested the stairs when Mack stepped out of the bedroom. “I heard you hired a new manager. Hank said she’s a hot city girl.”

  “She’s okay. And she’s our new employee, so keep your hands to yourself.”

  Logan placed a hand over his chest as if he’d been offended. “Are you accusing me of being a womanizer?”

  “You never met a skirt you couldn’t conquer.”

  “Very true,” Logan said as he peeked over Mack’s shoulder.

  Mack steered his brother toward the stairs. “We can wait for her downstairs.”

  “Why? Is she indecent?”

  You have no idea. “She’s using the restroom.”

  Logan smirked. “Sure she is.”

  “When are you going to grow up and settle down?”

  “Oh that’s rich coming from you. Once you have a wife, I’ll consider finding a ball and chain of my own. But until then, all the ladies are fair game.”

  “Not this one,” Mack said through clenched teeth.

  Logan held up his hands as if surrendering. “Whoa. This one’s already got her hooks in you. I get it. No problem. I’ll... damn!”

  Mack turned to watch Madison descend the stairs. She carried herself with the grace of a debutante. She’d washed the makeup off her face, revealing a stunning complexion. It reminded him of fresh summer peaches. Why on earth had she covered up all that perfection with paint? He shook his head. She looked so much better without all that gunk on her face.

  “Well hello there.” Logan stepped forward and grabbed her hand. He kissed the top of it.

  Mack didn’t normally want to slug his brother, but he did right now. His bear reared up to demand that he challenge Logan. Unfortunately, it wasn’t easy to reason with his bear. He silently willed the animal to stay calm. This wasn’t the time or place to make a scene.

  If he could appear nonchalant about Logan’s obvious lust, then his brother would be less suspicious of their relationship. Not that there was a relationship. A few kisses and one night of hot sex didn’t give him any real claim over her. Not that he wanted to claim her. Right?

  “Nice to meet you,” she said.

  When she didn’t immediately pull her hand away, Mack’s bear growled. Logan must have caught a whiff of his anger and immediately dropped her hand.

  “So you’re going to be with us through Christmas?” Logan asked.

  “Yep.”

  “Nice. Well, I look forward to seeing you around. If you need any help with your biscuits, let me know.” He winked.

  Mack groaned. “Really?”

  Logan smirked. “What? I know mom’s recipe the best. I used to help her all the time.”

  Mack shot him a look that said that he’d better keep his hands off her biscuits.

  “See you later,” she said.

  “Count on it.”

  After Logan left, Mack turned to her. “About him—”

  “I can handle guys like that.”

  “He thinks he’s God’s gift to women. He’s not going to attack you or anything.”

  She raised a brow. “Unlike you?”

  His jaw dropped. “I didn’t—”

  “I’m kidding.”

  “Anyway, we can’t let what happened upstairs happen again.”

  “Nothing happened.”

  “Nothing? Really?”

  She bit the edge of her lip. “We should forget that it happened.”

  “I agree. While you’re here, we need to keep things strictly business. The B&B is very important to the ranch’s bottom line, so we need to keep things between us professional.”

  “There’s nothing between us.”

  Her comment cut deeper than he could have an
ticipated, but she was right. They’d had a one-night stand, nothing more. But he wasn’t completely in denial about their attraction. He’d have to stay away from her as much as possible. Avoiding temptation was half the battle when trying to resist something. That’s why he didn’t keep jars of honey lying around. He’d be face-first in them if he wasn’t careful. Being a bear, he had one hell of a sweet tooth.

  “So boss, when do I officially start working?” she asked.

  “Tomorrow morning. There will be ten people total including you. You’ll find everything you need for breakfast in the kitchen. I’ll be cooking dinner tonight. We eat at six. Until then, you can unpack and get familiar with the locations of the various supplies. It might help to get everything you need laid out for breakfast.”

  She smiled. “Yes, boss.”

  “Don’t call me that.”

  “Then what should I call you?”

  “Mack, just Mack.”

  “Okay, Mack. I look forward to working for you. I’ll see you tonight.”

  With that, she turned and walked toward the kitchen. He tried to pry his gaze away from the sway of her round hips, but he couldn’t. The curve of her ass captivated him until she disappeared around the corner.

  By hiring her, he’d either just made the best choice, or the biggest mistake of his life. How the hell would he make it through one night, let alone three weeks without touching her delectable curves again?

  Chapter 4

  Madison tossed and turned as the wind howled against the windows outside her bedroom. She’d never been alone in such a large house. Every creak and groan made her bolt upright. She clung to the blankets as she studied the shadows for any movement. She knew she was being completely irrational. Who would walk miles through the snow to break into a bed and breakfast in the middle of the winter? It was just jitters from her first night in the hotel.

  As she rolled onto her side, she glanced at the alarm clock. The red numbers glowed five-fifteen a.m. She couldn’t have gotten more than a few hours of sleep, but she needed to get up at five thirty a.m. to start cooking. Fortunately, she’d found a box of biscuit mix, a carton of eggs and a mountain of raw bacon in the fridge.