Tempted by the Texan

“Jaron called Sam to tell him that the two of you had argued and he found you gone when he returned to the house. He said he figured you were on your way over here and asked Sam to let him know you arrived safely,” Bria explained. “What happened?”

“I really don’t feel like going into it now,” Mariah said, suddenly feeling drained of energy. “Could we talk about it tomorrow?”

“Of course,” Bria said, guiding her toward the stairs.

A few minutes later, as Mariah got into bed, she curled up on her side and hugged one of the pillows to her chest in an effort to ease some of her anguish. How could everything have gone so wrong so fast? Why was he doing this to them? Why couldn’t he trust that her love for him was strong enough to overlook the demons of his past and help him put them behind him for good?

Just a few short hours ago, Jaron had held her in his arms and loved her with such tenderness she’d felt as if their souls had touched. Now she was at one ranch and he was at another. And the most frustrating thing about it all was that she really didn’t know why.

* * *

A couple of days after Mariah left the ranch, Jaron looked at the miserable man staring back at him in the bathroom mirror. He looked like hell and felt even worse.

He’d known up front that one day Mariah would leave, but he hadn’t thought it would be this soon or that her departure would cause him to feel as though he was dying inside. All of the pain his father had inflicted on him when he was a kid was nothing compared to the debilitating ache that had settled in his chest when he’d returned to the house two nights ago and found Mariah gone.

When his cell phone rang, he glanced at the caller ID and, groaning, shook his head. He didn’t want to deal with any of his well-meaning brothers right now, and especially not Lane. No amount of psychology was going to change things, and he had no doubt that Lane was going to try to draw him out and get to the bottom of what happened between him and Mariah. Ignoring the call, he let it go to voice mail and walked out of the bathroom to get dressed.

As he pulled on his clothes, he once again replayed the argument he’d had with Mariah. She’d told him that he was letting the issues with his father destroy him. Was that what he was doing by trying to hide the shame of being the son of a serial killer? It had been twenty years since he’d been the victim of his father’s violent temper. By not sharing the shame of his past with Mariah, was he allowing the bastard to victimize him yet again?

Besides being sent to the Last Chance Ranch and gaining five brothers he loved and could count on to be there for him no matter what, the only other good thing that had happened in his miserable life had been Mariah. Was he going to allow the old man to destroy what he had with her?

As a kid, he’d found a way to end the abuse by turning his father in to the law. Could confronting Simon Collier now put an end to the torment for good? Or would he be dredging up things that would only make him feel worse?

The last thing Jaron wanted to do was lay eyes on the monster who had ruined his life. But if there was even the slightest chance that he could salvage what was left of his life by confronting the man, then that was exactly what he was going to do.

* * *

Six hours later, as he walked out of the prison hospital, Jaron looked up at the sky and for the first time in longer than he cared to remember, he felt as though a tremendous weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He had dreaded seeing Simon again and had damned near talked himself out of visiting the man on the drive down to Galveston. But when he walked into the room and saw the frail old man lying almost lifeless on the hospital bed, Jaron knew he’d made the right decision. It would have been cruel not to give the man his last wish and would have made Jaron no better than Simon.

But Jaron never could have imagined that one deathbed confession would set him free and give him hope of being able to build a future with the woman he loved. And, God help him, he did love Mariah.

For years he’d tried to convince himself that he was too old for her or that he wasn’t the type of man she needed. He’d even gone so far as telling himself he didn’t believe in love. But the truth of the matter was, from the moment he’d met Mariah, he’d been fascinated with her, and he’d used every excuse he could to be close to her. And that included arguing with her over the gender of their nieces and nephews before they were born.

He needed her as much as he needed the air he breathed, and he knew as sure as the sun rose in the east each morning that he always would. And there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that she loved him just as much.