Page 15 of Texas Honor

“I am not!” she retorted.

His fingers on her wrist were softly caressing. She reacted to him in a way that shocked him. In all the years, with all the women, he’d never felt such response. She was innocent, despite her denials. He’d have bet an oil well on it.

“Calm down,” he said softly, feeling so masculine that he could have swallowed a live rattler. He even smiled. “I won’t hurt you.”

She flushed even more and jerked away from him, but he was much too strong. “Please,” she bit off. “Let me go. I don’t know how to play this kind of game.”

His thumb found her moist palm and rubbed it in a new and exciting way, tracing it softly, causing sensations that went far beyond her hand. “I stopped playing games a long time ago, and I never played them with virgins,” he said quietly. “What are you afraid of, Mari?” He spoke her name softly, and she tingled like a schoolgirl.

“You hate women,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper. She met his green eyes levelly. “I don’t think there’s any real feeling in you, any deep emotion. Sometimes you look at me as if you hate me.”

He hadn’t realized that. He stared down at their hands, hers so pale against his deeply tanned one. “I got burned once, didn’t your aunt tell you?”

“I got burned once, too,” she replied, “and I don’t want to—”

“Again,” he finished for her, looking up unexpectedly. “Neither do I.”

“Then why don’t you let go of my hand?” she asked breathlessly.

He drew it relentlessly to his hard mouth and brushed at it with soft, moist strokes that made her go hot all over. “Why don’t you stop me?” he countered. He pried open her palm and touched his tongue to it, and she caught her breath and gasped.

He looked up, his eyes suddenly hotly green and acquisitive, and she felt the first tug of that steely hand on hers with a sense of fantasy. Her eyes were locked into his possessive gaze, her body throbbed with new longings, new curiosities.

“I’m going to teach you a few things you haven’t learned,” he said, his voice like velvet as he drew her relentlessly down toward him. “And I think it’s going to be an explosive lesson for both of us. I feel like a volcano when I touch you...”

Her lips parted as her eyes dropped to his hard, hungry mouth. She could almost see it, feel it, the explosive desire that was going to go up like fireworks when he put his hard mouth on hers and began to touch her.

She almost cried out, the hunger was so formidable. Silence closed in on them. She could hear his breathing, she could feel her heartbeat shaking her. In slow motion she felt his hard thighs ripple as she was tugged down onto them, she felt the power and strength of his hands, smelled the rich fragrance of his cologne, stared into eyes that wanted her.

She parted her lips in breathless anticipation, aching for him. Just as his hand went to her shoulder, to draw her head down, the front door opened with a loud bang.

CHAPTER FIVE

“GOODMORNING,”Apleasant auburn-haired young man was saying before Mari was completely composed again. He seemed to notice nothing, equally oblivious to Mari’s flushed face and Ward’s uneven breathing.

“Good morning, David,” Ward said in what he hoped was a normal voice. From the neck down he had an ache that made speech difficult. “Have some coffee before we start to work.”

“No, thank you, sir,” the young man said politely. “Actually, I came to ask for a little time off,” he added with a sheepish grin. “You see... I’ve gotten married.”

Ward gaped at him. His young secretary had always seemed such a levelheaded boy, with a head full of figures. As it turned out, the figures weren’t always the numerical kind.

“Married?” Ward croaked.

“Well, sir, it was kind of a hurried-up thing,” David said with a grin. “We eloped. She’s such a sweet girl. I was afraid somebody else would snap her up. And I wondered, well, if I could just have a couple of weeks. If you could do without me? If you have to replace me, I’ll understand,” he added hesitantly.

“Go ahead,” Ward muttered. “I’ll manage.” He shifted in the chair. “What would you like for a wedding present?”

David brightened immediately. “Two weeks off,” came the amused reply.

“All right, you’ve got it. I’ll hold your job for the time being. Now get out of here. You know weddings give me indigestion,” he added for good measure and then spoiled the whole thing by smiling.

David shook his hand with almost pathetic eagerness. “Thank you, sir!”

“My pleasure. See you in two weeks.”

“Yes, sir!” David grinned at Mari, to whom he hadn’t even been introduced, and beat a path out the door before he could be called back. He knew his boss pretty well.

“That tears it,” Ward grumbled. “What in hell will I do about the mail?”

---