today she wasn’t wearing any lipstick or gloss. And God, he wanted to kiss her.
“Donovan?”
Did she sound breathless? Surely not.
“Yeah,” he finally managed. “Yeah. We, um, need to get them fed.”
He moved around the table to the cabinets, pulling out the ingredients to mix up the food—similar to baby cereal—they’d try first. If that didn’t work, they might have to bottle feed the cubs.
Two of the cubs took the cereal right away. The third, the one Naomi had caught, was less inclined.
“We’ll have to give him a bottle.”
“Can I do it?” she asked eagerly.
Donovan laughed. “Sure. Let’s get them settled in the pen.”
Donovan prepped the bottle and they moved the cubs to one of the pens in the main portion of the building. Naomi propped up against the wall and Donovan gave her a blanket, the bear, and the bottle. The cub gratefully started nursing.
She looked up at him. “Well, this is good, right?”
It was very good, because the blanket was covering her legs and the flash of white panties he’d seen when she’d gotten down on the floor.
“Yep. For now. He needs the calories. But we don’t want him getting dependent on us.”
She nodded and looked down at the animal. “You think they’ve been on their own for two days?”
“Probably about that.”
“Poor babies.”
He watched them for a moment. She looked so beautiful like this. She should look bedraggled, shouldn’t she? Just having been out in a rainstorm? Her hair still wet? Wearing his clothes while hers dried? But no. She looked soft and happy, if slightly amazed to be holding a baby bear. And…she wasn’t wearing a bra. The shirt was big on her and fell off one shoulder, but now with the bear on her lap, it pulled more tightly against her breasts and her nipples were obviously hard and there was nothing between them and the soft cotton.
Donovan cleared his throat. “I’ll be back with more supplies.”
He took his time, but nothing was going to actually work to get the image of the sexiest and most amazing woman he knew, holding a baby bear, out of his mind. So he returned with more blankets and bedding as well as a few toys five minutes later.
They were babies. They’d need things to explore and to play with as they gained strength and learned to climb and forage on their own.
They scampered to the far corner as he rolled the first car tire into the enclosure. It would provide something for them to explore and climb on.
Naomi got to her feet and Donovan didn’t look away fast enough to avoid the flash of panties he got.
Or maybe he didn’t really try that hard.
Naomi joined him as he made a few trips from the supply room, adding two more car tires for climbing, a plastic barrel with the bottom cut off for the cubs to explore, and a large plastic igloo they could turn into a den. He’d add some logs and branches as well when he could get back outside.
“So, now we need a plan here,” Naomi told him, surveying the pen. “There’s a big storm brewing and you need a plan for not just the bears, but all the other animals that you’re housing here. And for yourself.”
“I’ve only got a beaver and a wolf. And they’re doing fine right now. Plenty of supplies. I checked in and they’re restless, I’m sure sensing the storm, but they’re safe.”
“Okay, good. So now that these guys are settled, you can come up to Ellie’s.”
“I’ll stay here till the storm blows over. So I’m on site for anything.”
Naomi sighed. “Of course.”
“I stay here a lot,” he told her. “Part of the job is to be on site for any needs.”
“I know.”
“The rollaway bed I have here is actually pretty comfortable.”
“Did you actually sleep on the ground and camp out as much as they made it seem on your show?” she asked.
“Maybe not quite as much as they made it seem,” he admitted. “But I’ve definitely slept in lots of tents and on cots and in rundown cabins and in my truck many, many times.”
“Fine,” she said, handing him the empty bottle.
“Fine? That I stay out here?”
“You probably should. Unlike the other animals, your animals are hurt. You probably should be here in case something crazy happens and you can’t get back to them or if they get spooked and hurt themselves or something.”
“How bad is the storm supposed to be?”
“You’re from the Midwest, right? I assume you’ve been through tornadoes?”
“Several.”
“So kind