Page 62 of Cowboy Bull's Promise

It’s the stuff of nightmares, unless you’re used to it. Which, you know Arliss isn’t.

Then bam. Standing in the middle of my living room like it’s just another goddamn Tuesday?

A fully naked Dante.

Not even a hint of shame.

Just dives and scoops Rosie right out of the air like it’s the most normal thing in the world to go from full Grizzly to full on naked man inside my fucking cabin.

“Gotcha! Now, shift back,” he says firmly.

Rosie gives a shimmer and a shiver, and suddenly, we have a tiny naked child.

Who immediately starts wailing.

Not because she’s hurt.

Nope.

Because her Dad used the you’re in trouble voice.

“Hush, Rosie Posie,” Dante sighs, rocking her a little and grabbing a couple of towels from the basket of clean laundry I haven’t had a chance to fold yet.

He hands one to Rosie who is now sitting on the couch. And wraps the other around his waist.

“No crying. But you owe Uncle Kian and his guest an apology.”

Oh no.

Oh no no no.

My stomach drops.

My guest.

My half naked, very human, very not in the know guest who is technically my mate.

Rosie sniffles, bottom lip trembling like the world’s tiniest hurricane.

“I’m sorry, Uncle Kian! I just wanted to play!”

She looks like a wet-eyed cherub who just got caught with a box of kittens under the porch, and obviously I can’t be mad at her.

I’m not a monster.

But then Arliss clears her throat.

I turn slowly.

She’s still wrapped in my blanket, standing frozen on the stairs like she’s trying to solve a murder mystery, her brain running a million miles an hour.

Her eyes flick from Dante’s semi-naked form, to the cub, who is back in his arms, to the goats on my couch, to the duck chewing on my shoe by the door, and finally, back to me.

To her lover.

To the man she just slept with.

To the idiot who said “go back upstairs, everything’s fine” while a damn Bear Shifter swung from his ceiling fan.

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