Page 22 of Texas Honor

Mari couldn’t stop herself. She leaped up from the table and ran to the front door, threw it open and darted out onto the porch. She caught herself just before she dashed down the steps toward him. She hadn’t realized until that moment just how deeply involved she already was. Boys had never paid her much attention. Surely it was just the newness of being touched and kissed. Wasn’t it?

She held on to the porch railing, forcing herself not to take one more step.

He got out of the Chrysler, looking as out of humor as when he’d left, a flight bag slung over one shoulder. Striking in a deep-tan vested suit and creamy Stetson, he closed the door with a hard slam, turned and started for the steps. Then he spotted Mari and stood quite still, just looking.

She was wearing a gauzy sea-green blouse with beige slacks, and she looked young and very pretty and a little lonely. His heart shot up into his throat, and all the bad temper seeped out.

“Well, hello, little lady,” he said, moving up the steps, and he was actually smiling.

“Hello.” She forced herself to look calm. “Did you have a good trip?”

“I guess so.”

He stopped just in front of her, and she could see new lines in his face, dark circles under his eyes. Had he been with some woman? Her eyes narrowed curiously.

“Do I look that bad?” he taunted.

“You look tired,” she murmured.

“I am. I did two weeks’ business in five days.” He searched her big, soft blue eyes quietly. “Miss me?”

“I had lots to do,” she hedged. “And the phone hasn’t stopped.”

“That’s not surprising.” He let the bag fall to the porch and took her face in his big hands, tilting it up to his curious green eyes. “Dark circles,” he murmured, running his thumbs gently under her eyes. “You haven’t slept, have you?”

“You look like you haven’t, either,” she returned. There was a note in her voice that surprised and secretly delighted him.

“I never mix business with women,” he whispered lazily. “It’s bad policy. I haven’t been sleeping around with any of those gorgeous, dark-eyed Latinas.”

“Oh.” She felt embarrassed and lowered her shocked eyes to his chest. “That’s none of my business, after all,” she began.

“Wouldn’t you like it to be?” he asked softly. He leaned toward her, nuzzling her face so that she lifted it helplessly and met his quiet, steady gaze. “Or would you rather pretend that what we did the night I left meant nothing at all to you?”

“It meant nothing at all to you,” she countered. “You even said so, that you...”

He stopped the soft tirade with his mouth. His arm reached across her back, pillowing her head, and his free hand spread on her throat, smoothing its silky softness as he ravished the warm sweetness of her parted lips. He was hungry, and he didn’t lift his head for a long time, not until he felt her begin to tremble, not until he heard the soft gasp and felt the eager ardor of her young mouth.

He was breathing through his nose, heavily, and his eyes frightened her a little. “You haunted me, damn you,” he said roughly, spearing his fingers into her thick dark hair. “In my sleep I heard you cry out...”

“Don’t hurt me,” she whispered shakily, her eyes pleading with him. “I’m not experienced enough, I’m not...old enough...to play adult games with men.”

That stopped him, softened him. The harsh light went out of his eyes, and he searched her delicate features with growing protectiveness.

“I’ll never hurt you,” he whispered and meant it. He kissed her eyes closed. “Not that way or in bed. Oh, God, Mari, you make me ache like a teenager!”

Her nails bit into his arms as he started to lean toward her again, and just as his lips touched hers in the prelude to what would have become a violently passionate exchange, they heard the soft, heavy thud of Lillian’s cast as she headed toward them.

“Cupid approaches,” he muttered, a subtle tremor in the hands that gently put her away from him. “She’d die if she knew what she just interrupted.”

Mari stared at him, a little frightened by her lack of resistance, by the blatant hunger that she’d felt.

“Passion shouldn’t be frightening to you,” he said gently as the thuds grew closer. “It’s as natural as breathing.”

She shifted, watching him lift his bag without moving his eyes from her. “It’s very new,” she whispered.

“Then it’s new for both of us,” he said just before Lillian opened the door. “Because I’ve never felt this with another woman. And if that shocks you, it should. It damned well shocks me. I thought I’d done it all.”

“Welcome home, boss.” Lillian beamed, holding the door back. “You look good. Doesn’t he, Mari?” Flushed face on the girl, and the boss looked a little flustered. Good. Good. Things were progressing. Absence worked, after all.

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