Page 91 of The Honorable Texan
“Yes,” he murmured gruffly, and he bent again.His arms enfolded her, tender arms that no longer forced her into intimacy.His mouth was tender, too, exploring hers with slow mastery, careful not to overwhelm her.
She sighed into his hard mouth, relaxing against him.Her hands moved restlessly on his broad, bare chest, and contracted in the thick mat of hair that covered him.
He lifted his head, staring down into her wide eyes with somber delight.His hands smoothed hers deeper into his thick hair and hard muscle.He traced the edges of her short nails with his thumbs.His breath was jerky.He didn’t like having her see that he was vulnerable.There were too many things he still didn’t know about her, and he didn’t trust her.She seemed innocent, but he couldn’t forget the dress she’d been wearing and the accusations her father had made about her.He didn’t dare trust her on such short acquaintance.On the other hand, his body was singing with pleasure from the long, hot contact with hers.He couldn’t force himself to let her go.Not just yet.
“Why did you do that?”she asked huskily.
One dark eyebrow lifted.He didn’t smile.“Why did you let me?”he shot back.
She felt uncomfortable.Despite the effort it took, she moved away from him.He let her go with no show of reluctance.He watched her struggle for composure while he refastened buttons with easy confidence, concealing the effect she had on him.He didn’t even look ruffled.
“The coffee must be done by now,” he pointed out when she seemed unable to move.
She turned stiffly and went to fill cups and put them, along with cream and sugar, on the table.
While he fixed his coffee, she made him two thick ham sandwiches with hands that slowly lost their tremor.She was devastated by a kiss that didn’t seem to have disturbed him at all.She remembered the sudden hardness of his body, but she knew all about anatomy.A man couldn’t help that reaction to anything feminine, it was part of his makeup.It wasn’t even personal.
Somehow, it made things worse to know that.She felt his eyes on her back, and she knew he was measuring her up.She had no idea why he’d kissed her, but she didn’t trust his motives.He didn’t like her.She couldn’t afford to let her guard down.Rey Hart would be hell on a woman who loved him.She knew that instinctively.
By the time she had the sandwiches made, her hands were steady again and she was able to put them on the table with a cool smile.
“I have to tidy up the living room…” she began.
He caught her hand as she started past him.“Sit down, Meredith,” he said quietly.
She sat.He sipped coffee and studied her for a long moment.“I talked to Simon while I was away,” he said.“Your father has been released from jail and placed in an alcohol treatment center.It’s early days yet, but the prognosis is good.It helps that he hasn’t been drinking that heavily for a long time.”
She looked relieved and anxiously waited to hear what else Rey had to say about her father.
He continued.“The therapist wouldn’t reveal any intimate details to Simon, you understand, but he was able to say that your father had been unable to deal with a family tragedy.Now that he’s sober, he’s extremelyupset about what he did to you.”He looked grim.“He doesn’t remember doing it, Meredith.”
She averted her eyes to her coffee cup.For something to do, she lifted it and took a sip of blistering black coffee, almost burning her lip.“That’s common in cases of alcohol or drug abuse,” she murmured absently.
He studied her over the rim of his coffee cup.“You won’t be allowed to communicate with him until he’s through the treatment program, but he wanted you to know that he’s desperately sorry for what he did.”
She ground her teeth together.She knew that.Her father wasn’t a bad man.Until he’d started abusing alcohol, he’d been one of the gentlest men alive.But, like all human beings, he had a breaking point which he reached when tragedy erupted into his life.
“He isn’t a bad man,” she said quietly.“Although I know it must have seemed like it.”
“I’ve seen drunks before,” Rey replied.“My brothers have gone on benders a time or two.”He smiled faintly.“In fact, Leo holds the current record for damage at Shea’s Bar, out on the Victoria road.He doesn’t cut loose often, but when he does, people notice.”
“He doesn’t seem the sort of man who would do that,” she remarked, surprised.
“We’re all the sort of men who would do that, given the right provocation,” he told her.
She smiled.“Do you get drunk and wreck bars?”she couldn’t resist asking.
“I don’t drink as a rule,” he said simply.“A glass of wine rarely, nothing stronger.I don’t like alcohol.”
She smiled.“Neither do I.”
He leaned back in his chair and studied her quietly.His hair was still faintly disheveled where her handshad caught in it when he was kissing her, and his lower lip was swollen from the pressure of her mouth.She knew she must look almost as bad.Her hand went unconsciously to her unruly hair.
“Take it down,” he said abruptly.
“Wh…what?”
“Take your hair down,” he said huskily.“I want to see it.”
