Wyoming Bold. Diana Palmer

parking lot at the Chinese restaurant and cut off the engine. He turned to her. “Honestly, yes, I have.” He searched her eyes, huge in that pale face. “You don’t have to talk to me about him if you don’t want to. We barely know each other.”

      She hesitated. “He was...brutal.”

      “Was?”

      She bit her lip. “We haven’t seen him in years,” she said. “We don’t know where he is. But we’re always afraid that he might come back.” She closed her eyes and shivered. “He was a big man. He was so strong...!”

      “He hurt you.”

      She looked up at him with tragic eyes. “Me, and Mama,” she agreed heavily. “I was so happy when he left. She threatened him. She told him what would happen if he stayed in Catelow. She knew, you see, and it wasn’t only a premonition. He beat up one of our farmhands and almost killed him. Mom told him that the man would press charges and he would go to jail. It’s the only reason he left.”

      “I see.”

      She drew in a breath, and shook her head. “No, you don’t. I lived in terror all my life that he would kill my mother.” She closed her eyes. “Once, I got brave, and tried to stop him.”

      “With almost fatal results,” he added.

      Her eyes were huge. “You know?”

      “Catelow is a very small town, Merissa,” he pointed out. “Yes. I know.” His expression hardened. “If I’d been here then, he’d never have touched either of you.”

      Her face lightened, and her eyes widened. “He would have been afraid of you.”

      He searched her eyes. “Are you? Afraid of me?”

      She swallowed. “Not so much anymore,” she said. “A little, maybe.”

      His face softened. “A little?”

      She shifted on the seat. “Not in the way you mean. You...confuse me. You make me uncomfortable. But not in any way I’ve felt before....”

      While she was talking, he unfastened his seat belt, and hers, and moved closer. “Uncomfortable?” he asked, propping his hand on the door beside her ear.

      “A...little,” she stammered. He was very close. She could smell the spicy cologne he wore, feel the heat from his body. His lips were at her forehead. “Just...a little,” she amended.

      He laughed softly. “Just a little?”

      She struggled to keep her breathing steady, but it was a losing battle. One of his hands came up and rested against her cheek. His thumb worked at her soft lips, parting them very gently.

      “I like making you...uncomfortable,” he whispered as his head bent. “Just a little.”

      His chiseled mouth traced her lips, teasing them apart very tenderly, so that he didn’t frighten her. She was very nervous. Her hand came up to touch his, and it was ice-cold. He didn’t need a program to know that she wasn’t used to having a man this close. It made him feel more protective than ever.

      “Easy, now,” he whispered, and his lips parted hers so that he could ease between them. “Easy...does it.”

      His mouth moved down onto hers. It was unfamiliar. It was disconcerting. But after a minute, it became more familiar, more comfortable. Very soon, her lips relaxed. Her body relaxed.

      She liked it.

      He drew her closer, but slowly, gently. He wrapped her up against him like fragile treasure and worked on her mouth until he made her hungry for him.

      She reached up, around his neck, and clung to him quite suddenly as the hunger flashed in her like lightning. She kissed him back with the same urgency that he kissed her.

      But very soon, it became clear that he was going to have to start undressing her or stop kissing her. It had been a very long dry spell.

      He drew back, flattered that he had to uncouple her hands from his neck and ease her away from him.

      He smiled gently at her embarrassment. “Don’t worry. It’s all perfectly natural.”

      “It...is?”

      “Yes. It is.” He brushed back her hair, loving the feel of it. “We should go inside.”

      She swallowed. She could still taste him on her lips. He tasted of coffee and mint. She smiled slowly. “I guess so.”

      He chuckled. He got out and helped her down. He held her hand all the way into the restaurant.