Here is the excerpt;
“I’ll get us a couple of towels,” she called over her shoulder as she hurried down the hall. She placed her bow in the back room. The closet door creaked when she opened it to extract two towels. “Here.” She entered the living room and shoved the fluff pink terry cloth at him. “Will your horse be all right?”
“Yeah. He knows the way back.” Jake removed his hat. He dried his neck and blotted the water from his shirt.
She squeezed the back of her hair in the towel. She was crazy for inviting him in. Her brain must have gone on vacation without her permission. Sitting out the rain by herself versus being confined with Jake. The storm may have deemed lesser of the two evils.
“I’m going to change.” She retreated to her bedroom without a second glance in his direction. She crossed the burgundy carpet to her mirrored dresser. Making quick work of it, she discarded her clothes, dried off, and put on a gray t-shirt with matching sweat pants that she'd cut into shorts. She picked up a comb and ran it through her hair when a knock sounded on her door.
“Yes?” She opened the wooden divider.
“Dex called. He’s worried the road to your cabin may get washed out and asked if I'd stick around to make sure you were okay.” His eyes roamed over her now dry body.
She sighed. “Your horse made it back?”
“Yeah. Dex spotted him coming in while we were on the phone. Anyway, it’s not supposed to clear up for a few hours.” His eyes traveled behind her to her bed.
Maddie shifted to block his inspection.
“Wonderful.” She punctuated the statement with a sneeze.
“Hey, you're the one who invited me in. Otherwise, I'd be back at the ranch.” He peered down at her, looking ready to devour her. “Why did you ask me to come in?"
Maddie shrugged. "Insanity."
"I don’t think so." He chuckled.
"Honestly," she gave him a fleeting look and lowered her head. "I don't know."
Jake lifted her face with a finger under her chin. Her gaze met his. "Nothing wrong with honesty." He smiled. The ice around her heart melted—some.
"You have a clothes dryer in this place?”
She eyed him. “Why?”
“My clothes are soaked.”
Her eyes traveled over him, drinking in every nuance. The black T-shirt he wore plastered to his chest—along with her gaze, which she didn’t have the power to remove. He planned to parade around her cabin-gulp-half naked.
“What are you going to wear?”
“I don’t suppose you have any men’s pants lyin’ around?” One side of his mouth twitched upward.
“No.” She bit her lip and slid her gaze away.
“I bet you wouldn’t be too happy if I marched around in my birthday suit?”
Her gaze jerked to his hazel eyes, twinkling with laughter. “No.”
“A bigger towel?” He handed her the one she gave him earlier.
Maddie examined it then his waist. The small cloth shrunk before her eyes. He needed more material. “Follow me.”
She contemplated sending him out in the storm, but if he came down with pneumonia, she'd feel horrible. Plus this would be the first storm since she moved into the cabin. She didn’t really want to be alone.
She opened the closet door and searched for the biggest terry cloth she owned before leading him to the laundry room behind the kitchen.
“Are all your towels pink?” He raised a brow in question.
“Does it threaten your masculinity?" She smiled.
“Nothing’s capable of that.” He puffed up his chest.
Maddie licked her lips as the material strained, outlining the contour of his muscles. She gave a nervous laugh and shut the door to give him privacy. She braced herself against the wood, closed her eyes tight, trying not to think of him undressing in the next room.
