Embraced by Faulkner, Carolyn (books for 8th graders .TXT) 📕

the opposite side, crowding her some, but she didn’t seem to mind. The frown deepened, threatening to permanently crease his face.

He and Hayden were going to have to have a serious talk about poaching. Even if Hayden didn’t know he was poaching.

Unable to bear watching his rival take Meagan’s hand in his, he

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Embraced

hustled the younger, only slightly smaller man out of the room in a rude manner, on the flimsiest of excuses.

Meagan was befuddled at Barrett’s behavior, but not surprised. He’d been a marvelous caretaker, providing breakfast in bed, making sure she took her asthma medications and glaring people out of the room if he thought they were tiring her. For the first couple of days, she really did sleep a lot, but after the third day spent in bed, her eyes popped wide open at 11:30 PM, and she could not force herself to go back to sleep. Butch’s head came up when she got out of bed, but Mandy commanded him to stay as she threw a long lacy white robe over her pretty pink cotton nightgown, padding barefoot into the kitchen in search of she didn’t know what.

She walked slowly, loving the house itself. She’d always told Mandy to will it to her, but she’d had been adamant that the house was Barrett’s. The rest of them would get land upon attaining a certain age, but the house had been their eldest brother’s since their parents died when he was 16 and he went to work to support and raise them all. It was a beautiful, big ranch house, full of nooks and crannies and character. The kitchen was one of her favorite rooms, and that’s where she ended up, peering into the fridge and freezer as if it held the answers to life’s greatest questions. And of course, it did . . . Ben and Jerry’s Mystic Mint ice cream. Ambrosia!

Meg was just reaching for the cardboard pint when a low grumbled made her squeal in surprise. “What are you doing out of bed, little girl?”

Her hand fluttered over her heart, which was threatening to escape her ribcage. “Cripes, will you not sneak up on me like that!! You’re going to give me a heart attack!”

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Carolyn Faulkner

Barrett leaned a hip against the counter. “I wasn’t trying to sneak. You were looking like you’d just discovered gold.”

“Better – B & J’s,” she wiggled her prize under his nose triumphantly. “Want some?”

“No, thanks.” It definitely wasn’t ice cream he wanted.

That frilly white dressing gown and nightshirt didn’t do much to dampen the inevitable affect she had on him. He watched her gather a bowl and spoon. “Should you be eating that this late at night?”

Obviously he thought she shouldn’t be. Barrett’s tendency to issue orders and inherent belief that he knew what was best for everyone was one of the things Meagan liked least about him, but instead of picking a fight, she sat down at the round oak kitchen table and said quietly, “Probably not. But I woke up suddenly about a half an hour ago, and couldn’t get back to sleep. I think I’m slept out.”

He nodded in agreement, and she was pleasantly surprised, half-expecting him to order her back to bed. After ladling a couple of small curls of ice cream into the bowl, she put it back into the freezer and sat down again. Watching her eyes practically roll back into her head at the first frosty lick brought various parts of him to full attention. She was so unselfconsciously sexy, licking the spoon, swirling the creamy confection in her mouth . . . and he knew that she had absolutely no idea how turned on he was getting.

Some women would have been eating that way to put on a show for him – get him interested. Hell, he had enough money to interest most anyone in a skirt, and his size was usually a plus, too. But Meg ate that way because she reveled in the feel and taste of the treat. A natural sensualist. A virgin, he’d bet his life on it.

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Embraced

Barrett shook his head to clear his thoughts, hoping to calm his raging hormones. “Do you feel any better?”

“Yes, much, thanks.”

“Try an easy day tomorrow – don’t do anything strenuous for another couple days.”

“Humph. At that rate, my vacation’s going to be over before I get to have any fun!”

A raised eyebrow. “Fun as in . . .”

“Hayden’s been promising me for the past umpty-ump years that he’d teach me to ride. I want to learn how to ride and take care of a horse. There’s a showing of Monet at the museum in San Antonio that I wanted to hit. I want to see Barb and her new baby . . . “

His mind couldn’t hear past Hayden teaching her how to ride and care for a horse. Jealousy raged inside him until he consciously tamped it down. Barrett didn’t think that Hayden would be the one teaching her. No, not at all.

Meg leaned back in the chair with a sigh, ice cream chilling the inside of her stomach. “Mmmmmmm. That was fantastic.”

She washed out her bowl and set it in the dishwasher, then indulged in a full body stretch. “I think I’m going to make another attempt at getting to sleep.”

Impulsively, Barrett crossed the few steps that separated them, pulling her to him in one swift movement. Her ample breasts flattened to his broad chest as he held her tightly with a strong arm across her