Page 5 of Tangled Passion

On the one hand, he was amazed that a woman could make him feel again, and on the other, he felt like a cornered animal and tried to protect himself against the heartbreak he’d been through years before.

Abby, he and his brother’s ex-wife, had taught him how truly devious a woman could be. He’d trusted her. He hadn’t minded that she took trips into the city to shop for a few days. He and his brother were usually busy, but she seemed happy to go alone.

It had broken something crucial in him when he found out she’d been having affairs. It wasn’t just about trust or jealousy. It was the fact he could misread someone he thought he knew, one he loved, or thought he did.

Not long after the divorce, Trey told him he thought they hadn’t loved Abby the way they should have. They had settled on a woman they were both attracted to because they weredesperate to start a family. Even if it was the three of them, the men wanted a woman between them in bed every night—whenever they wanted. Instead, they ended up with a lying, cheating, stealing, manipulative woman.

The only good thing they had done was to make her sign a prenup before the wedding. Their parents had demanded it. He wondered if they hadn’t already known Abby for what she was. He knew part of it was the lodge, which had been in the family for three generations, and they didn’t want to take the chance that anyone outside the family could take it from them.

Something else that astonished him was his parents, who weren’t surprised by Abby’s deceptions. They never came out and said it, but he and his brother finally realized neither parent ever liked their wife. In fact, no one at the lodge had. Only after she left were they told how badly she treated everyone. She treated them like they were all servants there to carry out her orders.

He was glad she was out of their lives, but he’d learned a harsh lesson. People were very rarely what they seemed. It was something he wouldn’t soon forget.

Chapter Four

Garrett met his brother as he was pulling alongside the stables.

Trey grinned as he slid out of the truck. “Hey, how’s it going around here?”

“Good. I’m glad you’re back. Let me help you with unloading the horses.”

Trey glanced at him. “I’ll take the help. One of them is pretty feisty.”

“How many did you bring home?” Garrett asked as he stood aside and waited for his brother to open the back of the horse trailer.

“Just five.”

Garrett followed his brother in and started backing one of the horses out.

Trey chuckled when Garrett had ahold of the horse he’d just told him about, and the mare started to act out.

“You could have warned me which one it was,” Garrett complained.

“Naw, what’s the fun in that? This makes life more interesting.”

Garrett rolled his eyes. He pulled down on the lead that was attached to the halter. “Knock it off, you knucklehead,” he grumbled to the horse, making his brother laugh.

“Denny, can you put the trailer away for me?” Trey yelled at one of the men who worked for them, standing several yards away.

“Sure thing, Boss.”

Trey turned back to his brother. “Okay, now tell me what’s wrong?”

Garrett looked away from him. “What makes you think anything’s wrong?”

Trey snorted. “Because I know you.”

Garrett walked over to the fence and watched a few of the horses in the small pasture graze as their tails swished at flies.

“A woman checked in a few days ago.”

Trey waited for a moment. “And?”

“She’s beautiful.”

Trey rolled his eyes when his brother paused again. “And?”

Garrett turned toward his brother. “She looks and sounds sweet, and her laugh is so cheerful and contagious, and everyone seems to like her, and…”

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