His Tempting Bride (The Brides of Paradise Ranch - Spicy Version Book 5)

by Merry Farmer

  “Where is their sense of adventure?” Howard bristled, disappointed. He immediately shook his head to ward off those thoughts. “More importantly, are they not helping the search? These poor twins could be anywhere.”

  Cody shook his head. “I believe they’ve headed out to the Katz ranch to see if Liu Chen is their brother.”

  “Liu Chen must be fifty if he’s a day. He can’t be their brother.”

  “They didn’t wait long enough for me to tell them that.”

  The smack of the hotel’s front door being blown shut grabbed both Cody and Howard’s attention. Cody’s gut flopped like it always did as Wendy rushed into the lobby. She held a bundle in her arms, and as soon as she saw Cody, she rushed to him.

  “I just saw Travis. He told me what’s happened. I want you to take this.” She thrust the bundle into Cody’s arms.

  It was something made of thick wool and fur. “Wendy, I don’t—”

  “Those poor girls don’t have the right kind of clothes for a blizzard,” Wendy cut him off. “Travis says you think you know where they are and that you’ll be able to catch up to them before anyone else can form a posse to hunt for them.”

  “A posse.” Howard brightened. “Good idea. I’ll gather the best and strongest men to form a search party right now.” He marched off, but swerved and changed directions when Gunn walked out of one of the back halls. “Gunn, we have to form a search party.”

  Cody left the two of them to figure things out and turned back to Wendy.

  “They might be freezing,” she said before he could add anything or thank her. “They’re probably scared and alone. I don’t know if they’ve ever experienced weather like this.”

  Several thoughts flashed through Cody’s head as his sister-in-law glanced up at him with worried eyes, wringing her hands. This was Wendy’s first Wyoming winter. There was a fair chance that she was as frightened as she supposed the twins were. And yet, here she was, giving him what were probably expensive cloaks or blankets for the lost women. That thought snapped hard to thoughts of everything Miriam had started to tell him earlier.

  Miriam and Wendy knew each other from Hurst Home. Hurst Home was a place for women who had been badly treated. The connections formed in Cody’s mind so fast his head spun. Wendy—his brother’s smart, generous wife—had a story behind her as painful as Miriam’s…and he’d only added to that pain by rejecting her for the color of her skin all those months ago. If anyone had done the same to Miriam, he would have given them a black eye.

  “I’m sorry,” he blurted out, hands fisting in the garments she’d given him.

  Wendy’s anxiety resolved into a puzzled start. “What for?”

  Prickling embarrassment washed through him. “For what I did to you all those months ago. For rejecting you.”

  Wendy laughed nervously. She rested her hand on his arm. “Cody, you’ve apologized before. Several times before. And we’ve all agreed that things worked out for the best. Travis and I are very much in love, and we’re going to have a family soon.” She rested a hand on her stomach.

  “I know,” Cody rushed on, “but these last few weeks… Miriam was at Hurst Home too... She’s real special… I should have…” His words tumbled out on top of each other, none of them making sense.

  “It’s okay.” Wendy squeezed his arm. “Yes, I know Miriam has experienced difficult times. But she has you now.”

  Cody swallowed to keep his throat from closing up. “I don’t know what to do for her. She started telling me about her past, but we were interrupted. I could kill that…” He clenched his jaw, shoving those useless thoughts aside to make way for thoughts that might actually do some good. “What do I do, Wendy? How can I make her see that I don’t care about any of that, I just want her to stay here and marry me?”

  A warm, wistful smile spread across Wendy’s face. “By telling her just that. That’s all she needs to hear.”

  “Is it? Because as far as I can tell, she’s ready to run.”

  Wendy shook her head. “She won’t run. Not if you’re holding her. If there’s one thing I learned about Miriam Long in the time we spent living under the same roof, it’s that more than anything, she wants someone to hold her close and accept her for who she is.”

  Cody wrinkled his brow. “Are you sure? Because she ran away once, and if she didn’t care so much about her friends, I think she would have run away again.”

  “But she didn’t,” Wendy assured him. “And once she sees that the past is behind her and the best thing she could run to is you, she’ll stay.”

  Cody wasn’t completely convinced, but when Miriam appeared at the top of the stairs and stomped her way down in boots that were surprisingly well-suited to a blizzard, an extra scarf or two and the tail end of a shawl poking out from under her coat, the thumping of his heart drowned out any further questions his head might have had.

  “I’m ready,” she said, already breathless as she skittered to a stop in front of Cody and Wendy. “Let’s hurry. We have to find them before the storm gets any worse.” Without more than a second’s pause, she blinked at the bundle in Cody’s arms. “What’s that?”

  “Warm cloaks for the twins, when you find them,” Wendy said. “Now hurry. You’re right, you do have to find them before it gets worse.”

  Miriam nodded, and then, to Cody’s complete surprise, she leapt toward Wendy and gave the woman a tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re here,” Miriam blurted before pushing away, gesturing to Cody, and running for the door.

  As it turned out, the cloaks had a more immediate use than Wendy had probably intended. As Cody looked for a way to stuff them into the saddlebags slung over his horse’s back, he realized that they would be just as useful preventing his horse from freezing as they would for the twins. But the time he and Miriam were mounted once more, the horse looked like it was draped in some sort of woolen, medieval heraldry.

  Unfortunately, by that point the wind had also picked up. Somewhere behind the thick snow-clouds, the sun was still up, but only its light was pushing through the storm. Cody tried to stay focused on the positive as he guided his mount along the snow-packed road leading out of town toward the ranches. At least he could still see where the road was. The wind was whipping, but the snow wasn’t so thick that he couldn’t see. Off in the distance, the flickering lights of The Village peeked through the snow. That meant that by the time they neared Paradise Ranch and continued on to other ranches further out—including Katz’s ranch—they would still have lights to guide them.

  And Miriam was safely tucked against his chest, huddled over his horse’s neck, gripping the pommel of the saddle.

  “They can’t have gone far.” Cody had to shout to be heard over the wind as his horse plodded valiantly onward. “Not in this weather.”

  “Unless they had a huge head start,” Miriam called back.

  “Yeah, there’s that,” Cody murmured, knowing she couldn't hear him.

  “How long does it usually take to get to this ranch?” Miriam shouted as a gust caused the horse to shiver.

  “Three or five hours, depending,” Cody answered. He didn’t like it. The more he thought about this crazy scheme, the more he felt as though the twins weren’t the only ones in serious danger.

  “Are there places to stop along the way?” Miriam seemed to be thinking the same thing he was. That filled him with courage, strangely enough.

  “Plenty.” He gave her waist a reassuring squeeze.

  “Then hopefully they’re smart enough to have taken shelter as soon as the weather took a turn.”

  And hopefully they’d be smart enough to do the same if it came to it.

  The problem was that the wind and the snow couldn’t seem to make up their mind enough to allow Cody to make up his mind. One minute everything went white and the wind howled around them. Cody was convinced they needed to pull off the main road and find somewhere, anywhere, to stop. Ten minutes later, the snow would lighten and the wind would slacken long enou
gh for him to be convinced they had a chance of making it all the way out to Katz’s place. That confidence would be replaced in turn with a deep, anxious fear as soon as the snow and wind picked up again.

  They must have been out on the road for more than an hour without seeing a single trace of another living soul when Miriam called out, “Cody, we have to stop. I…I can’t feel my feet anymore.”

  That was all he needed to hear. Immediately, he was on the alert, looking for shelter of any kind, but he kept the mood as light as he could by saying, “Even in those boots?”

  Judging by the shake of her body, she must have laughed, but the wind carried the sound away. If he could have stopped his horse right where they were and dug a hole in the ground to keep Miriam safe, he would have, but there had to be something better. He pushed forward, eyes searching the bleak, white landscape, praying for anything that could shelter them.

  “Do…do you know where we are?” Miriam asked several long minutes later.

  “Yep,” he called back, beating the wind. Well, he knew they were on the road to Jasper Katz’s place. He wasn’t going to worry her by telling her he couldn’t be more specific.

  About fifteen minutes later, Miriam cried out, “I’m cold,” in a voice so desperate and pitiful that it gored a hole in Cody’s gut. Forget searching for the twins and making sure they were safe, he needed to protect and care for Miriam right now.

  “It’s all right, sweetheart. There’s plenty of waystations left over from all those old trails and from cattle drives around these parts. We’re sure to find something soon.” He wasn’t a hundred percent sure if he was lying to her or not. All he could do was hold her as tight as he could and still lead his horse—who was slowing down and showing signs of distress too—and pray he was right.

  The bleak, painful thought that Cody had done some stupid things in his life, but this might beat all of them, sank into his bones. He’d been a little bit reckless and more than a little irresponsible for as long as he could remember, but that didn’t seem like such a fun, manly, independent thing to be anymore. In fact, if God would just see him through this, he reckoned it was well past time he put away childish things and acted like the strong, responsible man his brothers had become. For Miriam’s sake.

  Ten minutes later, as if by some miracle, a small, square shack appeared through the snow, right off the road. Cody laughed in relief, his whole body relaxing. Even his horse was happy to see the sight. It bobbed its head and picked up its pace to race toward the shack.

  “What do we do about the horse?” Miriam asked as they reached the shack and Cody dismounted.

  He scooped her in his arms as soon as his feet were steady in the snow and pulled her down with him. “He comes with us. Wouldn’t last five minutes just standing out here.”

  “Oh!”

  Surprised or not, Miriam accepted the necessity of bringing the horse into the shelter with them. Cody was just glad that the shack was slightly bigger than he’d thought at first approach—more like a cabin than a roadside waystation—and that it was unlocked and unoccupied. The horse didn’t need much coaxing to duck through the doorway and walk into the single, barren room. The space was big enough that the mount could stand in the far corner, out of the way and unobtrusive. Cody only wished that the fireplace was lit, but at least there was plenty of wood and kindling to get one going. In fact, the cabin seemed well-taken care of and ready for exactly what they needed it for.

  “First things first.” Cody swept one of the fur-lined cloaks off the horse’s back. He shook off the snow it had collected on the trip, then walked over to Miriam to wrap it around her.

  “Won’t the horse be cold?” she asked, teeth chattering.

  “He’s bigger than you are and has been walking or running for almost two hours now. He’s still got one cloak, and even though it’ll take a while for any fire to heat the place up, he’ll be fine.”

  Miriam could only manage a nod in response. As Cody set to work lighting a fire in the cabin’s large fireplace, she searched the room for lamps, finding and lighting those. It was still frigid, but the cabin walls were sturdy and kept the wind out. The fire took, and within minutes Cody had it going at a cheerful blaze. The room would take much longer to warm up, but at least they weren’t in immediate danger of freezing.

  The only thing left to do was for Cody and Miriam to cuddle up together on the moth-eaten old couch across from the fireplace.

  “Should we ask the horse if he wants to join us?” Cody joked, removing Miriam’s boots so she could tuck her ice-cold toes against his marginally warmer thighs.

  Miriam laughed. “Don’t give him ideas. He might.”

  They chuckled together as Miriam snuggled closer and Cody wrapped his arms and the cloak around them both. “Remind me to thank Wendy for being smart enough to give these to us, even if we’re not using them for their intended purpose.”

  Miriam tensed in his arms. “I’m scared, Cody. I’m so scared for Meizhen and Meiying. What if they didn’t find a cabin like this? Even if they did, I don’t know if they know how to light a fire.”

  He tightened his arms around her and kissed her head. “We just have to pray that the good Lord is watching out for them.”

  She let out a shuddering breath. “I suppose so.” She only paused for a moment before saying, “I just can’t stop imagining them all alone out there in this blizzard.”

  “Sweetheart, there are any number of people in these parts who might have seen then and given them shelter.” That much was definitely true.

  “Are you sure they’re nice people? That they wouldn’t take advantage of two women alone?”

  Cody’s heart squeezed for her and everything she’d been through. “Yes, darling, I’m sure.”

  “But what if they fall into the wrong hands? What if someone takes advantage of them?”

  There was more than just concern for her friends in Miriam’s voice. She was speaking from experience—experience she’d begun to tell him about before the day had turned upside down.

  “What if they come to harm?” she fretted on. “There are worse things than death, you know, what if—”

  Heart aching for her and everything she’d been through, Cody stopped her worrying the only way he knew how—with a long, passionate kiss.

  Chapter Nine

  Miriam’s swirling, anxious thoughts stopped completely. She’d kissed Cody before in her hotel room, but that had been expected. This kiss took her by surprise. In more ways than one. As his lips caressed hers, his hand smoothing along the chilled lines of her face and neck, the flurry of panic in her heart stilled. His warmth surrounded her, softening the jagged edges of her thoughts.

  Her body sang to life, wanting to be one with his. Her heart beat so desperately it was painful. She wanted nothing more than to lose herself to him, to toss all her cares aside and focus on pleasure, hers and his. But a spark of conscience held her back.

  Cody ended their kiss, tipping back with a lazy smile. “There. That’s better.”

  He surged forward, stealing a second, less fiery kiss.

  Miriam let out a breath. She wanted him so badly on so many levels that her eyes stung with tears. But her heart was not his entirely.

  “I’m afraid,” she whimpered, clutching him around the waist under the cloak wrapped around them. “For them. I’m afraid for Meizhen and Meiying.”

  Maybe it was her words, or maybe it was the tiny, fractured sound of her voice, but Cody nodded. He brushed his fingertips under her chin, tilting it up so that she couldn’t help but meet his eyes.

  “I know you’re afraid, sweetheart.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “I’m worried about them too. But I think you’re afraid for more than just your friends.”

  Miriam swallowed. She couldn’t look down, but she could look away at the fire snapping away nearby, trying hard to fill the frigid room with warmth and comfort.

  “We never finished our talk,” Cody went on. “You were just telling me
about how some manipulative bastard lured you into doing things you didn’t want to do.”

  A stab of shame hit her heart like a knife. She turned her head to tug out of Cody’s grasp and lowered her eyes. “No, it wasn’t like that,” she whispered. “Because I did want to do all those things.”

  Every muscle in her body hurt, and every beat of her heart sent needles through her veins, but she had to be fully honest with Cody. They’d gone well past the point of no return.

  “I was young,” she confessed in a voice that was softer than the snap of the fire. “I had no one growing up. You don’t know what orphanages are like. Too many children and not enough people looking out for them. No one there to hug them and hold them and tell them they’re special. No mothers, no fathers, no one.”

  She dragged her gaze up to meet Cody’s puzzled one. “I was very young, and for the first time in my life, people, men, wanted me. They wanted to touch me and kiss me and tell me I was beautiful. I’d never had anything like that before. And I would be lying if I said being with them wasn’t pleasurable.”

  She looked away again, her shame too potent to keep eye-contact.

  “You don’t understand what it’s like to go your whole life without affection, and then to suddenly have it by the bucketful.”

  “But…but was that really affection?” Cody frowned, but not in disapproval. He was trying to understand, trying so hard it squeezed at Miriam’s gut.

  “Of course not.” She laughed, softly but bitterly. “It sure felt like it for a while, though. Then I found out Ulysses was taking money from the men I entertained.” She flickered a glance up to check what Cody thought, even as her skin crawled over her former actions. “I was seventeen at that point, but I wasn’t ignorant enough not to know what that made me. Especially when people I shared the stage with started calling me ‘whore’ to my face. Which was blatant hypocrisy on some of their parts,” she added with a flash of indignation. “We all knew what went on backstage.”