Curvy Girls: Claimed By The Cowboy (The BBW and the Billionaire Rancher) Read Online Free PDF Page A

mind-blowingly incredible, and he couldn’t wait to do it again.
    But her side of the bed was empty.
    He stretched and groaned, flinging back the covers as he climbed out of bed, naked. His mouth felt furry; there were usually half a dozen guest toothbrushes in the cabin, so as soon as Abigail was done in the bathroom, he’d be sure to brush his teeth before he kissed that delicious rosebud mouth of hers again.
    Rubbing sleep from his eyes, he stifled a huge yawn, trying to decide where he’d take her out for breakfast.  He was going to show her exactly how wrong she’d been when she claimed that he wouldn’t be seen with her in public.
    He hadn’t been back to Crooked Creek in eight years, but as far as he could tell when he drove by, the Daily Grind coffee shop was still where everybody in town gathered for breakfast. So if he took her there, everybody would see that they were together.
    Then again, the Royal Swan Hotel was the fanciest place in town, with caviar omelettes and Mimosas served up for brunch.
    He could always ask her which place she’d rather –
    Hell.
    The bathroom door gaped wide open, and he suddenly realized why there was a dull sense of emptiness in his chest.
    She was gone. She’d gathered up her clothing and left, without waking him, without saying a word.
    Stunned, Ty grabbed his underwear off the chair back where they were hanging and slid into them. He grabbed his jeans from the clothesline in front of the potbellied stove, yanked them on, and stepped out on to the front porch, barefoot.
    Had she walked back to her property in the middle of the night?
    No, far off in the distance, he could see a cloud of dust disappearing into the horizon. Someone had come and picked her up while he slept.  He swallowed hard, and felt an unfamiliar throb in his chest.
    What the hell? Why had she run off like that?
    Normally, he practically had to pry a woman off him in the morning – even though he always made it extremely plain that he was just looking for a quick roll in the hay.
    But now that he’d finally spent the night with a woman that he wanted to see again, she’d evaporated like the morning dew, leaving him with an odd, dull ache of emptiness inside.
    With a deep sigh, he walked back inside the cabin, dressed quickly, and grabbed his Nextel radio so he could call for one of the ranch hands to come pick him up, and send a tow truck out for his pickup.
    Time to go back to the house and confront his older brother Clayton, lay down the law about Clayton’s plans for the ranch. He hoped they could come to a peaceful resolution, but he sensed that Clayton was spoiling for a fight.
    His stomach churned at the thought of the inevitable showdown. Clayton had already invited developers from Graniti Industries out to the ranch, without consulting Ty, and they were driving all over the property, pissing off the ranch manager and the ranch hands, getting in the way, taking measurements, making nuisances of themselves.
    Would he be able to talk sense to Clayton? It had years since they’d seen each other.  They’d both taken off as soon as they graduated high school, leaving behind Crooked Creek and the Jackson ranch, and never looking back.
    Ty had eventually drifted back into ranching; it was in his blood. Clayton, who was more bitter than Ty and had much more reason to loathe his heritage, had turned his back on ranching completely, and gone into construction management.   Now he was swooping down on Crooked Creek like a vulture on a corpse, ready to destroy the town while pretending to save it. He’d partnered up with Graniti Industries, known for their massive property developments, and set his sights on the Jackson Ranch.
    It was no wonder Abigail was so adamantly against it; for once, he agreed with her on something.
    And why had Abigail’s name popped into his head again, anyway?  Damn the woman.
    * * *
    Cheyenne Larkin. Betsy Finkelstein. Carlotta Mancini.
    They were Abigail’s best