His Tempting Bride (The Brides of Paradise Ranch - Spicy Version Book 5) Read Online Free Page A

had to seek you out.”
    “You heard I was in town?” Forget pinching her cheeks, sudden excitement—and a good deal of panic—sent her pulse racing and the color rushing to her face naturally.
    Libby answered her with a frank look, squeezing her arm. “Word travels fast in a town like this. Cody met you at the station yesterday, or so I hear, then went to the Silver Dollar with a member of your theatrical troupe. Athos Strong, the stationmaster, stopped by to join them after his train business was completed, and since Athos lives next door to my…my children’s grandparents.”
    Miriam barely registered the hesitation over the grandparents. Her mind was already spinning in circles. “What did Cody say? Was he happy to see me? Was he angry? Eden doesn’t think he’s angry, but I don’t know. He seemed so angry when I was talking to him, but before he knew who I was… Well, if he was any other man, the afternoon might have turned out quite differently.”
    “Miriam!” Libby laughed through her shock. “I had no idea you were such a fast woman,” she added in a whisper.
    “Oh! I’m not, I swear it.” Her grin betrayed her. “But I must admit, I found Cody Montrose to be quite dashing. At least, before I discovered who he was.”
    “And after?” Libby raised an eyebrow.
    Tingles broke out along Miriam’s skin, particularly in delicate places. She stopped her grin before it could get away from her. “Let’s just say that if someone had sent me a portrait of the man before I left Hurst Home, I might not have cowered in my bench and moved on with the train last time I was in Haskell.”
    Libby shook her head, the corners of her mouth twitching. “Come downstairs and have a snack with me in the restaurant. I’m hungry all the time these days with this one on the way.” She patted the bump of her belly. “We have so much to catch up on.”
    As they left the room and walked down to the hotel’s elegant restaurant together, Libby told Miriam all about how she had become reacquainted with Mason Montrose. Not just reacquainted, but the two had married.
    “I’m so happy for you,” Miriam beamed as they were seated at a small table by one of the hotel’s windows by a dashing, white-haired man that Libby called Mr. Gunn. “Oh, I simply knew your star-crossed romance would have a happy ending. Of all the people I know who deserve happiness, I’m so glad that you actually found it.”
    “Would you and Miss Long like high tea with sandwiches and scones, Mrs. Montrose?” Gunn asked them.
    “Yes, please.” Libby smiled.
    Miriam gasped. “Oh, uh, just plain tea for me, thank you.” Her cheeks burned.
    Libby looked at her oddly.
    “It’s the troupe, you see,” Miriam confided, leaning closer to her. “We…we have very little money. Miles would throttle me if I spent the meager salary he can afford to pay me on such frivolities as scones.”
    “Miles Kopanari?” Mr. Gunn asked.
    Miriam peeked up at him. “Yes.”
    Mr. Gunn’s kind smile broadened. “We were introduced yesterday when he secured the rooms for your company. I informed him then that meals are included in the price of your rooms.”
    Something in the flash behind Mr. Gunn’s enigmatic blue-green eyes told Miriam he was fibbing. Or at least that there was more to his offer than rested on the surface.
    “Tea isn’t a meal,” she whispered to him.
    “My treat, then,” Mr. Gunn whispered back.
    There was nothing Miriam could do but concede.
    “He’s rather grand, isn’t he?” she asked Libby in a hushed voice once Mr. Gunn had left.
    “He’s the most remarkable man I’ve ever met,” Libby agreed with a warm smile. “He helped me out of a…delicate situation shortly after I arrived.”
    “Oh?”
    “I believe that’s what the man does. He helps people out of trouble. And it seems to me that you and your troupe are in some sort of trouble.” Libby steered the conversation away from herself and the enigmatic Mr. Gunn so