Page 20 of Wyoming True

IDA’SONLYRECENTmemories of kisses came with terror and pain. She was wary of Jake this way, and it showed.

She felt as stiff as a board under the big, warm hands that settled on her shoulders as his hard lips brushed her soft ones.

He lifted his head and looked down into her eyes under the porch light. His own eyes were shuttered under the wide brim of his Stetson. “You’re frightened,” he said softly. “No need. I don’t have to beat a woman to make me feel like a man.” He said it with absolute disgust.

Her lips parted and the breath she’d been holding sighed out. “Sorry,” she bit off. “I’ve...I’ve had some problems.”

“With a brutal husband.”

She hesitated. Then she nodded.

“So you wear a mask, to keep men at bay, so they won’t know that you’re afraid of them.”

She shifted restlessly under his hands. “It usually works.”

“You’ve damaged your reputation in the process. Doesn’t that matter?”

“I was...rather desperate at the time, when I first came back here. Everywhere I went, men came on to me. Not in droves, but even one was frightening. I wanted to be left alone. I tried to tell them, but of course, nobody believed it. So I developed this personality...”

“The happy hooker,” he mused and actually laughed softly.

“Something like that. You know, I’m so good in bed that I judge men, and almost all of them come up lacking, and then I gossip about them.” Her blue eyes twinkled. “It really worked.”

“Almost too well,” he said under his breath. He cocked his head. “Are you afraid of me?”

“Not so much anymore.”

His fingers smoothed over her cheek. She had exquisitely soft skin, and when she was vulnerable, like this, she made him ache.

“That’s nice to hear.”

As he spoke, his fingers were toying with her mouth, teasing the top lip away from the bottom, arousing her.

She barely recognized the feelings. She’d only really had them for Bailey before they were married. Then, so quickly after the ceremony, he’d brutalized her over and over during their brief marriage. She didn’t trust desire. It had already betrayed her once.

She started to step back, but Jake went with her.

Her long-fingered hands pushed at his shirt with leashed fear.

“I won’t hurt you. Not ever,” he whispered, one big hand covering hers where they rested on the soft cotton of his shirt.

Under the shirt she could feel hard muscle and curious indentations. She recalled that he’d been shot and that he never took his shirt off with women. She blushed at the memory, which had embarrassed her with his telling of it. There was something soft over the muscle. Hair?

Unconsciously, her long nails were teasing his skin as she stood there in the circle of his arms, nervous but trusting.

“I really like that,” he said, his deep voice husky. “So it might be a good idea to stop.”

“Stop?” She looked up with wide-eyed curiosity.

His hand pressed hers closer. “What you’re doing with your nails.”

She realized belatedly that she’d been exploring him. She gasped. “Oh, my gosh!”

He stilled her backward movement with a soft chuckle. “Don’t panic,” he said gently. “It wasn’t really a complaint. I’m being protective. Of course, that’s frowned upon in our enlightened modern society.”

“I...don’t mind it,” she replied.

He cocked his head and smiled. “You don’t?”

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