Read His Heartbroken Bride (The Brides of Paradise Ranch - Spicy Version Book 4) for Free Online

said. “Stop please,” she tried again in a shout. “Just stop.”
    Icy, invisible fingers stretched down her back as memories pushed to the surface. “Stop. Stop it. I don’t want this. No, stop.” Her voice shriveled more and more with each plea. Her vision narrowed and dark spots formed in the corners. For a moment, she wasn’t standing in a bright, nippy back yard, hanging laundry while children played. She was alone in a room with a closed door, in the dark of night, no one around to hear her pleas. “Stop. Please, stop.”
    A large hand closed around her upper arm, and she jumped.
    “Whoa, hold on there.” Mason’s voice split right through the darkness of her memory. She whipped to face him. He wore a teasing grin, the afternoon sun catching highlights in his brown hair. “Did the monkeys break out of the circus?”
    As soon as he saw her face, his amusement vanished. Libby lunged against him, hiding her face against his shoulder. His strong arms clamped around her, but unlike Hector’s cruel embrace, Mason’s hug was comforting, safe. He was the one man who had wanted her, but had respected her boundaries, her marriage.
    “Libby, what’s wrong?” His hand on her back took on more of a supportive feeling, as if she would sink into the mire if he let go.
    No, she had to stop imagining things were more dire than they were. She was in Haskell, not Pine Arbor, and she knew better than anyone what had really happened with Hector. She blinked rapidly, pushing back, and searching around the yard and forcing herself to laugh.
    “They have broken free, haven’t they?” Her voice sounded strained and slightly mad rather than amused.
    Mason continued to frown and stare at her so intently that Libby was certain he could see into her soul.
    Which would be the worst thing anyone could possibly do right then.
    His frown softened, and he pivoted to face the yard. “Hey!” he shouted so suddenly that Libby jumped. She wasn’t the only one. The kids—from four-year-old Millicent Strong to Muriel as she dashed out onto Josephine’s porch—froze where they were. “I could hear your racket all the way out at Paradise Ranch,” Mason went on. He had just enough teasing in his authoritative tone to get a response from the children without frightening them. He picked Petey out of the group and said, “Your ma is trying to work, and you’re not being very respectful.”
    “Sorry, sir.” Petey dropped his shoulders and kicked at the grass. He was used to being hollered at by the men of Teddy’s logging camp and knew enough to know he’d crossed a line.
    “Think you can continue to play a little quieter?” Mason asked.
    “Yes, sir,” Petey, Vernon, and Toby answered.
    Matthew and the Strong girls chimed in a moment later with, “Yes, sir.”
    “Good.” Mason nodded. “Go about your business.”
    Libby caught herself smiling, both at her son’s respectfulness and at Mason’s gentle discipline. The Civil War was halted for a moment, and the boys clamored off into the Strong house. The two Strong girls who had been chasing Matthew with a frilly bonnet saw Muriel and scrambled after her, stars in their eyes. Bless him, Matthew stopped running, glanced after the girls, forlorn, then hurried after them into Josephine’s house. Libby was confident that, for the moment, at least, her boys were safe and happy.
    “You have a way with children.” She nodded to Mason.
    Mason shrugged and took a casual step back from her. “I like them, they like me. If that’s a ‘way,’ I guess I do.”
    She managed a smile and put the laundry basket down to resume hanging the last of the clean clothes.
    “Doing laundry, I see.” Mason thrust his hands into his pocket and nodded at Libby.
    “Yes.” In spite of the chill breeze, heat flooded her. What was it about Mason that had always made her feel…unsettled when he was around? She knew him to be kind and sober, helpful and respectful. But he’d always filled her with