Embraced Read Online Free PDF Page B

Meg’s arms.

    Lead-foot Amanda obey the speed limit? It didn’t bear thinking of. “Oooooh, you’ll have to be really careful, won’t you?”

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    Embraced

    “I couldn’t l-live without my c-car, Meagan!” she fairly wailed. That threat seemed to be bothering her more than the spanking itself. If it had been Meg on the receiving end, it would have been the exact opposite.

    “I’m sure he didn’t mean it,” Meg said soothingly, but that only seemed to agitate her further.

    Mandy pulled away from Meg. “Oh, no. Barrett means what he says. He was deadly serious. He always is about punishments.” She sighed, rubbing away tears with the backs of her hands in a way that made her seem very little girlish. “I think the worst part is having Barrett mad at me, though. He didn’t even hug me when he was done; he just told me to go take a nap. He must be really angry.”

    After a short cry on Meagan’s shoulder, Mandy decided to do as her brother ordered, exhausted not only physically from the punishment but emotionally, as well. It was as if Barrett had known that. He probably did from years of experience paddling butts. Meg tucked her in, then decided to continue reading on the veranda. As she set the dog on her lap, and picked up her book, she mulled over what she’d learned about Mandy and her relationship with her older brother. Obviously, Mandy loved her brother, and Meagan had known that. They were an extremely close family.
    But Meg wondered if it Barrett could really love Amanda as much as he said he did and still punish her so severely? Wasn’t that a dichotomy? To love someone but cause them physical pain?

    It was too much for her to answer without asking either of them a whole lot of embarrassing questions, so she applied herself to the novel in her hands. She became so lost in the sexy plot about a dashing, dark haired, brawny pirate and a red-haired, saucy maiden that he was standing next to her, blocking the sun and glowering down at her before she noticed he was there.
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    Carolyn Faulkner

    “You wanna learn about horses?” Short and not so sweet.

    Meg nodded, not very sure of her reception when he was in this dark mood. He didn’t say another word, just walked away.
    She hurriedly trotted after him, and got to spend most of the afternoon with him around her favorite animals, in a clean, open barn that smelled of horses and leather. Surly and sullen as he was, he was an excellent teacher, firm and kind with both her and the horse. But conversational, he wasn’t.

    “When do I get to ride?” Meg piped up, while helping him groom the beautiful palomino.

    “You don’t.” He was putting away some of the horses’
    tack.

    “Huh? Then why am I out here?”

    The look he gave her made her truly wish she hadn’t asked.
    “You’ll get into the saddle when you know how to take care of the horse properly before and after the ride, as well as saddle and bridle him yourself, and not before.”

    “Ok.” He stared at her for a moment as if expecting her to argue with him or throw some sort of tantrum, but she simply continued to work on the snarls in Sugar’s mane. Never one to know when to shut up, though, she asked, “I’m going to ask you the same question I asked your sister, are you all right?”

    Barrett hesitated just as he was hefting a big Western saddle onto a sawhorse. “All right?”

    “Yeah. Are you ok?”

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    “I’m fine. Has Mandy been crying on your shoulder?” he asked abruptly eyeing her with that piercing, dominant he-man gaze.

    “I just made sure she was ok.”

    “She got what she deserved. A warm fanny is a small price to pay when she could really have been hurt if she’d had an accident coming home.”

    “Mmmmm.”

    “What does that mean?” He took the currycomb out of her hand and faced her.

    “It means just what it says, ‘mmmmmm’.”

    “Uh-huh. I