Sheltered by the Cowboy by Carla Cassidy

Author:Carla Cassidy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Romantic Suspense
Published: 2017-11-23T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

It was a little after midnight when Brody and Mandy finally left the hospital. There was a full moon overhead and the sky was a blanket of shiny stars.

“It’s a beautiful night,” she said once they were in the truck and headed home.

“Thank God you’re here to enjoy it.” He shot her a quick glance. “You seem to be handling everything remarkably well for a woman who was nearly strangled to death.”

“All’s well that ends well, right?” she replied lightly. “I’m just ready for bed now.”

He had a feeling she was in some sort of shock and once that shock lifted, her real emotions would set in. When that happened it was possible she’d be angry with him for not protecting her. He’d accept her anger because he more than deserved it.

What he wouldn’t do was allow her anger to chase him away. She was stuck with him until Dillon got the bad guy in jail. There was no way he intended to walk away from her now when she needed him more than ever. He didn’t give a damn how long it took. He intended to be by her side until all danger to her had passed.

She was quiet for the rest of the ride home and he didn’t prompt her to speak. Her throat had to hurt. She had to be exhausted from the trauma and hopefully she’d feel better after a night’s sleep.

Once they were inside her place, she grabbed her pajamas and headed into the bathroom. Brody sat on the sofa as she took a long shower.

He couldn’t believe how lucky they had been. There was no doubt in his mind that if he’d waited a couple more minutes to see what was taking her so long, she’d be dead. He couldn’t even begin to process the loss of her.

He jumped up when she emerged from the bathroom, smelling fresh with that hint of brown sugar and vanilla that he always found so appealing. Damn those pajamas that fit her just tight enough to encourage him to fantasize about her body beneath them. She appeared so soft...so touchable. His fingers itched with the need to reach for her. “Ready to sleep?” he asked instead.

She nodded and climbed into her bed. He walked over to the side of her bed and picked up the candle lighter. With a flick of the trigger he lit the candles that she always slept with.

“I’m going to take a shower. Will you be all right?” he asked.

Once again she nodded, and then she closed her eyes. Brody went into the bathroom and took a shower. As he lingered beneath the hot spray, he tried not to think about the attack and how she must have felt.

But it was difficult not to think about it. She had been terrorized. She’d believed she was going to die. He couldn’t imagine the level of fear she’d experienced when that man had been squeezing her throat and she couldn’t draw any air.

Brody would have given anything to take that experience away from her.

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