“I’msorry.”
“A rancher’s life isn’t easy. She took good care of us, but it was hard work. In the end, her body justgaveout.”
“I can’t imagine how hard youmustwork.”
“I can’t imagine doinganythingelse.”
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 nightbefore.
“Shall we check out your bedroom?” he asked with a hint ofwickedness.
“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, naughtymovie.
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 fromwanderingin.”
“I don’t have anything valuablewithme.”
He shrugged. “Either way, you can’t always trust theguests.”
“Have you had a lot of problems withtheft?”
“Not during the last few years. During the recession, we had a few smaller items walk off, so we removed anything that had any realvalue.”
As they stepped into the room, she gasped. “It’sbeautiful.”
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-stylewallpaper.
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.”
“Iloveit.”
“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 thenearestwall.
“She sounds like she was an incrediblewoman.”
A moment of melancholy passed before he said, “Shewas.”
Touched by the love he had for his mom, Madison stepped closer and rubbed her hand across his upper arm. “She raised agoodson.”
He chuckled. “You hardly know me. And the bit that you do know about me has nothing to dowithher.”
“So you learned how to be a rogue onyourown?”
“Is that whatIam?”
“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 myroguishness.”
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 himseduceher.
When he looked down at her, his hazel eyes glittered like a cat’s. “Want to see thebathroom?”
She wanted to see something else. Something hard, andthickand…
“Well?”
