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

a whip being cracked, everything fell into place. “I’m Cody Montrose. This woman was supposed to marry me.”
    Miriam’s full, luscious mouth dropped open, though nothing but a squeak came out. Heat surged through Cody again.
    The other man glanced between the two of them as if he wasn’t completely taken by surprise. He hesitated for a moment, then held out a hand. “Miles Kopanari. Miriam mentioned briefly that she knew a few people in this town. I had no idea she still had an attachment to a fiancé.”
    “Not anymore,” Cody snapped before he could stop himself. “She chickened out on me. High-tailed it and ran.” He fixed a frustrated stare on Miriam, suddenly twice as angry that she’d deprived him of her beauty and her feistiness. Even though a voice in the back of his head said he had no right to be angry.
    Miriam’s flush of panic resolved into her own brand of anger. “Well, what was I supposed to do?” she barked. “Get off a train in the middle of nowhere, in a place where I knew no one, and marry a man I’d never so much as clapped eyes on before?”
    She had a point, but Cody crossed his arms and shrugged. “Women do it all the time these days.”
    “Not this woman.” Miriam too crossed her arms, matching him glare for glare. “Some of us have more delicacy and discernment than that.”
    “Yeah,” Cody fired back. “And less backbone.”
    Miriam yelped. “I have a distinguished and stalwart backbone, Mr. Montrose. I’ll have you know that I have employed my backbone on many an occasion simply to survive in this world.”
    “Is that so?” Cody swayed a step closer to her, pulling himself up to his full height. Funny how the day had suddenly gotten so much hotter. “Is it backbone that caused you to leave a man to humiliation and teasing by his friends?”
    “Do you not think that a woman would be wise to have second thoughts about a man who had already rejected one bride?” Miriam fired back.
    Cody winced. Of course she would have known about his mix-up when Wendy came to Haskell. Wendy was supposed to marry him, but he had, in fact, rejected her based on the color of her skin.
    “I was just helping fate along,” he defended himself. “Wendy is far happier with Travis than she ever would have been with me.”
    “And what if I would have been happier with someone else too?” she asked. “Or did you expect me to bow to your wishes and be your wife, whether we were right for each other or not?”
    “You could have at least gotten off the train and talked to me about it,” Cody said.
    Miriam flinched, guilt flooding her beautiful face. “Have you…” She pressed her lips together, then tried again. “Don’t you think…” That attempt didn’t work either. “Well,” she said at last, planting her hands on her hips. “I got off the train this time.”
    Cody barked out a laugh. A funny, electric sensation zipped through him. He liked her. He liked her a lot.
    As fast as that thought came to him, he shoved it away. This woman had humiliated him, and he wasn’t going to take that lying down. Especially not when the man who had introduced himself as Miles Kopanari—and dangit, he’d been rude and hadn’t shaken the man’s hand when a handshake was offered—was watching the two of them with barely-concealed amusement. Worse still, another man that looked Mexican had strolled up to watch the scene too. Cody’d dug a hole for himself, and now he had to get out.
    “You want a place to stay?” He shifted his weight, doing his best to block out his audience in favor of staring down his former would-be bride. “The hotel’s that way.” He flung out a hand in the general direction of The Cattleman Hotel.
    “Um…could you be more specific?” Miriam asked, her voice suddenly tiny.
    Cody puffed out a breath, almost all of his ire dissolving and being replaced by a frustrating need to hold and protect the flashy, shapely woman in front of him. “Head up Main Street until