Page 19 of A Bear's Secret

“Good lord,” said Barb, still standing at the stove. “I’m sorry about him, he makes that joke about once a day.”

Sloane took a long, deliberate drink of her over-sweet, milky coffee, and then smiled at Austin.

“I’ve been drinking nothing but iodine-flavored water for weeks,” she said. “This is heaven.”

Austin just raised his own mug of black coffee to his lips, a teasing smile still playing around his eyes. Something about the way he drank his coffee and leaned against the counter made Sloane go a little weak in the knees — his sheer, swaggering confidence, the way he seemed so certain that she, a short, slightly-chubby girl would be interested in flirting with him?

I mean, I am, Sloane thought. She took another drink of her too-sweet coffee, mostly to break their eye contact. Nothing I like better than a man I can’t have.

Austin poured himself more coffee, then set about making more, and Sloane considered him for a moment.

Maybe we could be pen pals or something, she thought. Then she rolled her eyes at the thought. Sure, because super-hot, grown-ass men love having pen pals. What am I supposed to say? Dear Austin, today I hiked a bunch. Almost to Bakersfield, the city of wonder!

She drained the mug, the grainy, undissolved sugar at the bottom crunching between her teeth. Normally, she would have been grossed out by it, but there was something delightfully decadent about being in a house and just eating sugar.

Austin flicked the switch on the coffee maker, then folded his arms and leaned against the counter for a moment, watching Sloane.

She raised her eyebrows, setting her mug on the counter.

“You got plans for today?” he asked.

Sloane’s heart jumped a little.

“Not really,” she said. “Lie around, drink some beer, maybe read a trashy romance novel about a pirate and the maiden wench who learns to love him.”

Austin raised his eyebrows.

“Sounds exciting,” he said.

“It’s in your library,” Sloane said. “Someone must have left it here. I didn’t get a good look at it, but I assume that puffy shirts get torn open and bosoms heave.”

For just a moment, she remembered her own heaving bosom last night, during the braless incident.

“Maybe I should read it,” Austin said. “I do like a good heaving bosom.”

Sloane felt herself turn bright pink.

“Austin,” Barb said from behind him. He grinned.

“Sorry, Barb,” he said.

Sloane slid her mug across the counter toward him.

“If you’re going to scandalize me, at least pour me some more coffee,” she said.

Austin’s eyes sparkled in amusement as he did.

“How many sugars?” he asked. “Ten? Twenty?”

“Just give me the sugar and I can do it myself,” she said.

“First you’re scandalized by bosom talk, and now you want me to give you some sugar?”

Sloane laughed.

“What exactly are you offering?” she asked. She made her voice sound as casual as she could, even though on the inside her heart was racing, her pulse throbbing through her veins.

Austin just grinned and handed over the sugar bowl, watching as Sloane piled spoon after spoon of sugar into her coffee.

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