The Cowbear's Curvy Valentine (Curvy Bear Ranch 5) Read online

  When he swirled his tongue across her clit, her hips jerked. She killed the tiny voice in her head that loved to spew fear, frustration and anger. She refused to listen to it another second. Instead, she took Cody’s soft groans. He didn’t hide his need to savor every inch of her body.

  As his mouth sucked and licked her delicate flesh, she arched against him. She didn’t care about his secret. Hell, she didn’t care about anything but where he was going to nibble next.

  “Oh, God,” she yelped as his tongue vibrated against her.

  He mumbled something she couldn’t make out.

  “What?”

  “You taste amazing,” he murmured.

  She wanted to respond, but she couldn’t. Her mouth flew open as a long, undulating cry of pleasure burst from her throat. Twinges of orgasmic bliss sliced through her consciousness. She pulsed against his mouth, unable to keep from screaming out his name.

  He quickly crawled up her body and kissed her, probably to silence her. She couldn’t help it. She’d given up on trying to reign in her feelings. She needed him in a way she’d never needed anyone before.

  As he parted her thighs with his knees, she reached between them to stroke his cock. He moaned and pressed his forehead into her shoulder.

  “I need you, Abby.”

  “Then take me.”

  In a slow, deliberate movement, he pushed into her, filling her with more than just his thick cock. He filled her with hope. Maybe she could find a way to move on with her life. Maybe Cody was the key to unlocking her future.

  Each thrust brought her closer to him. Each roll of his sensual hips locked them together until she couldn’t imagine ever being apart from him.

  “You’re incredible,” he whispered. “I want to watch you.”

  Without warning, he rolled onto his back while dragging her up to cover him. She straddled his thick thighs and quivered as the new position pushed his cock into her at a different angle.

  “Oh, God.”

  “Ride me.” The urgency in his voice filled her with incredible power.

  She moved over him in gentle waves until she was convinced she wouldn’t fall over. She’d never made love like this. Her other boyfriends always wanted missionary style with the lights out. Almost as if they didn’t want to actually see her. Cody wasn’t like that at all. A look of rapture crossed his face as he reached up to stroke her bouncing breasts.

  “I could watch you for hours,” he said.

  “I don’t think my legs will hold up for hours.” She grinned.

  “We’ll see.”

  She laughed and dipped to kiss his lips. His hands found her hips and guided her faster, deeper. For the first time since the trial, she felt powerful. Her confidence returned with each sway of her hips, until a heady rush of dominance pushed her over the edge.

  As she plunged into a river of erotic delirium, he gripped her hips and brought her down hard. His mouth formed an O. A low, guttural moan burst from his throat as he found his release. She collapsed over him, still completely filled with his pulsing cock. She shuddered and pushed her face into the space under his chin.

  For a long time, they lay like that, bound together in the throes of pleasure. She didn’t want to move for fear of ruining the moment. If she moved, they’d have to talk. And if they had to talk, then the reality of the situation would come crashing down to ruin her contentment. She wasn’t ready to let him go.

  ***

  Cody stroked her hip as she clung to him. He wasn’t sure why she hadn’t moved yet. She was still breathing as far as he could tell, but an electric field of discontent crackled in the air. His bear sensed the slight tension in her body. Part of him wanted to ask if she was doing okay, but another part of him was afraid of the answer. Had they really accomplished anything by making love again?

  When she finally stirred, he tensed. She pushed up on trembling arms and crawled to lay next to him. As she settled into the crook of his arm, his heart kicked. If he hadn’t been convinced that they belonged together before, he was now.

  Told you so, his bear snarked.

  Fine, you were right.

  I know, his bear replied smugly.

  “What do you dream about?” Her sudden question surprised him.

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “I guess I’m trying to find out if you’re normal.” She rolled onto her side and gazed up at him with shining blue eyes.

  “I’m like any other man. I want to provide for my family, protect them. I want to get up and work every day to make sure the ranch is in good shape.”

  “Not all men are like that,” she said.

  “That’s sad. Real men take care of their families,” he said.

  “My father took care of us financially, but there wasn’t a lot of affection in our house.”

  “I’m sorry you didn’t get the love you needed, but that’s all in the past,” he said.

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “Whatever happened when you were growing up is done and over with. Yes, you still have to interact with your parents, but it’s time to forge your own life. What do you dream about?”

  “Painting.”

  “And?”

  “Love.”

  He stayed silent while he considered whether or not he should confess his feelings.

  “Why haven’t you fallen in love and gotten married yet?” she asked.

  “I never found the right woman,” he said.

  “What are you looking for?”

  “Someone who wants to live a relatively secluded life. We go into town a few times a week, but this isn’t big city life. Our town’s movie theater has one screen. We don’t have a mall, not like the ones you find in big cities,” he said.

  “Living in a city full of strangers is overrated. I like the idea of knowing your neighbors. I live in a condo downtown and I don’t know anyone in the building. I’ve lived there for three years. How sad is that?” she asked.

  “I hear it’s pretty common. Carol moved here from New York. She told me that in a city of millions of people, she only knew a handful of them well. I’m not interested in a superficial relationship,” he said.

  “Isn’t that what we’re doing?” she asked softly.

  “Are we?”

  When she didn’t immediately answer, a flash of hope warmed his heart.

  “I don’t know what we’re doing,” she said. “Up until a few hours ago, I was ready to flee the ranch.”

  “Why didn’t you?” he asked. “Did Madison convince you to stay?”

  “No. She did give me some things to think about, but that’s not why I stayed.”

  “Then why?”

  “I couldn’t leave without seeing you again,” she said. “I don’t understand it at all, but there’s this pull I feel… I don’t know how to describe it.”

  “Fate,” he said.

  “Fate?”

  “Have you ever heard of fated mates?” he asked.

  “No. But then again, I’ve near heard of werebears.” She smiled.

  He couldn’t resist leaning down to kiss her. When he pulled away, she rested her head on his bicep.

  “Fated mates are two people who are destined to be together,” he said.

  “That sounds so romantic… and completely impractical.”

  “It’s real. Our bears know when we’ve met our mate. They have a special ability to sense it.”

  “Like through smell or something?” she asked.

  “Not exactly,” he said. “They just know it, on an intuitive level. Then they do whatever it takes to convince us that we’ve found our mate.”

  “Have you ever found a mate?” she asked.

  He considered blurting out that he had found his mate and that she was lying next to him. But he didn’t want to scare her again. He also couldn’t lie to her.

  “I have,” he said.

  “Where’d she go?” she asked.

  He gave her a pointed look. Her eyes widened.r />
  “Oh, that can’t be right,” she said.

  “Why not?” he asked.

  “I’m not anything special. This fate stuff doesn’t work for me. I thought I was fated to win the trial and look how that turned out.”

  “Are you sure about that?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “Are you sure you weren’t supposed to lose the trial so you’d run away to Montana and find me?” he asked.

  “If that was true, then fate’s a bitch because in the process, she let a murderer loose.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, I just don’t buy it.”

  His bear jumped around in his chest in a panic. He couldn’t let her walk away again.

  “Just give me some time to prove it to you,” he said. “We’ve only been together a few days.”

  “I have to get back to Dallas. I’ll be lucky if my parents haven’t already disowned me by now,” she said.

  “Will you just give me a few more days?” He traced the side of her cheek with his thumb.

  Her gaze softened. She pressed against him and sighed.

  “I guess I was planning on staying until the end of the week anyway,” she said.

  His bear jumped for joy. She still hadn’t agreed that they were fated to be together, but at least he’d bought a few more days. No matter what, he’d have to find a way to convince her that she belonged in his arms forever. But how?

  Chapter 10

  Abby hung the last pair of jeans back up in the closet in her room at the B & B. She’d spent the night in Cody’s arms and had reluctantly left their warmth when he got up at sunrise to tend to the horses. Apparently he was on muck duty all week.

  Her cell phone chimed with her mother’s ring tone. She froze. She wasn’t ready for another conversation with her, but she’d already missed three calls from her that morning.

  She picked up the phone. “Hi, Mom.”

  “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been calling all morning. Have you heard the news?” her mom asked in a frantic tone.

  “No, what news?”

  “Edward Lee Drake is dead.”

  “What?” she yelled.

  “Last night, an off duty police officer shot him. The cop caught Drake trying to abduct another boy from a laundromat. The boy screamed his head off—God bless him—and he fought like a champ. All the commotion caught the officer’s attention. He raced out of the coffee shop he’d been sitting in and saved the kid. In the process, he shot Drake three times.”

  “Three times?” she whispered more out of shock than out of awe.

  “He’s dead. Now we can put this awful case behind us and move on,” her mom said.

  “Us?”

  “Your father and I are as much a part of it as you are,” her mom said.

  “You and Daddy didn’t get fired from the D.A.’s office,” Abby snapped. “You weren’t in the courtroom staring down a murderer for a month. How can you say you’re as much a part of this as I am?”

  “Stop being so dramatic,” her mom said dismissively.

  “I’m not. You know what, never mind.” Abby huffed. She wasn’t going to keep trying to explain things to her mom. What good would it do if the woman wouldn’t ever listen to what she was saying?

  “When are you coming back?” her mom demanded.

  “I don’t know,” Abby said.

  “How can you not know?”

  “I met someone,” she blurted.

  “What? Who?”

  “A cowboy in Montana,” Abby said.

  “That’s ridiculous. You need to get in your car and come home. You don’t need to get hooked up with someone who works in the fields all day,” her mom said.

  “Works in the fields all day? Are you kidding me? His family owns a ranch. He’s not some destitute blue-collar laborer,” Abby said. “And even if he was, it wouldn’t matter. There’s more to life than just money.”

  “You only say that because you’ve never known what it was like to be poor.” Her mom’s voice broke. “You don’t know what it was like for me growing up, huddled under a blanket with my brothers and sisters just trying to keep warm in the winter, wondering where your next meal is going to come from.”

  “I know what you went through, but that doesn’t mean you should be so fixated on money,” Abby said.

  “Don’t use that tone of voice with me. Your father and I didn’t teach you to talk back.”

  “I have to go, Mom,” Abby said with a sigh.

  “I expect to see you home this weekend.”

  “We’ll see.”

  After hanging up the phone, Abby walked to the window. She looked out toward the barn. Cody was probably in there right now working. There was absolutely nothing wrong with getting knee deep in horse poop. He made a good, honest living. Something she wished she could do.

  Well why not?

  She quickly dressed in her warmest clothes and went downstairs. She stuffed her feet into her boots and laced them up tightly.

  Madison poked her head out of the kitchen. “Heading out?”

  “I’m going to the barn.”

  “To see Cody?”

  “Yep.”

  “Tell him I expect to see you both for lunch,” Madison said with a smile.

  “I will.”

  As she strode through the snow, she took in the beauty of the land. Sunlight gleamed across the frozen lake. Snow-packed mountains rose up to kiss the sky. Ice crunched under her feet to remind her that there was beauty in nature. It was something she hadn’t stopped to think about in years.

  When she entered the barn, the sweet scent of hay mingled with the pungent smell of horse manure. She wrinkled her nose. Okay, maybe she’d overly romanticized working on a ranch. But eventually she’d get used to the smell, right?

  Cody popped out of a stall near the end of the barn. She hurried toward him.

  “Hey, hon,” he said.

  “I just got some really good news,” she said.

  “What?”

  “Drake’s dead.”

  “You’re kidding,” he said before swooping down to hug her.

  She quickly explained what had happened. When she finished, Cody shook his head.

  “I’m glad it’s over,” he said.

  “I feel like a ten ton weight has been lifted off my shoulders.”

  “I can imagine,” he said.

  “I told my mom about you.”

  “What?” His eyes went wide.

  “Yeah. It about gave her a heart attack, but I told her.”

  “What did you say?” he asked.

  “I told her you’re the sweetest, most caring man I’ve ever met…”

  He blushed and gave her an awe-shucks smile.

  “… and I decided to come out and help you. If I’m going to consider a rancher’s life, I want to test it out.”

  “Really?” His face lit up.

  “Really. But I have to ask you something first,” she said.

  “What?”

  “Do you ever get used to the smell?”

  He laughed and hooked an arm around her shoulders.

  “Wait until you smell it in the summer,” he said.

  She laughed and followed him into the next stall.

  “You just watch for now,” he said. “There’s an art to keeping the muck off your boots.”

  “Show me the way, oh wise one.”

  He grabbed a pitchfork and proceeded to scoop old hay and other unidentifiable matter into a pile. As he worked, she watched the strong muscles in his arms ripple with power. She hadn’t been out of his bed more than a few hours and she already wanted to jump all over him.

  As he moved through his list of chores, she did her best to keep up. A few hours later, the muscles in her arms burned and her stomach audibly rumbled in protest.

  “It’s time to break for lunch,” Cody said.

  “Thank God.”

  “You’ll get used to it.” He winked as he pulled off his gloves and set them on a stool.

 
; She followed suit, removing the extra set he’d given her. When he reached for her hand, she took it. Their fingers laced together and they walked hand in hand toward the B & B.

  Inside the dining room, four sets of couples sat chattering with each other. Since she hadn’t met Brady, Rachel, or Jimmy yet, Cody introduced them. Another brother strolled into the room and stopped.

  “Oh, brother. Am I completely outnumbered now?”

  “Drew, this is Abby,” Cody said. Then he turned to her and added, “He’s the only single brother left.”

  “And I’m going to stay that way. I’m the holdout,” he said with a grin.

  “We’ll get you hitched too,” Madison said while waving a spoon through the air.

  “Doubtful,” Drew said. “But if you want to set up a mail order bride for me, go for it.”

  “I might just do that.” Madison arched a brow.

  “You’d better not,” Drew warned. He turned his attention to Cody. “When did this happen?”

  “Over the last few days,” Cody replied.

  “I swear. Cupid’s running around here with a quiver full of love darts,” Drew said.

  “What’s a love dart?” Jimmy asked.

  The adults all laughed.

  “It’s what happens sometimes when two people meet,” Rachel said.

  “Does it hurt?” Jimmy asked.

  “Only if you let it,” Cody said while looking at Abby.

  She smiled and took his hand under the table. Everyone else seemed so happy in his family. Maybe the fact that most of them were werebears really wasn’t a big deal. If they could all be happy with their mates, then maybe she could too. The more time she spent with Cody, the more she wanted to give their relationship a chance.

  ***

  After Abby helped the other women clean up the kitchen, she checked to see if Cody was upstairs in her bedroom. When she didn’t find him there, she headed to the other house where Mack greeted her on the front porch.

  “Are you looking for Cody?”

  “Yeah, do you know where he went?” she asked.

  “He said he had to run into town to pick something up from the post office. He’ll be back soon. They closed about fifteen minutes ago,” Mack said.