The Cowbear's Curvy Christmas (Curvy Bear Ranch 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

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 painted 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