Page 77 of Texas Glory
His heart was thudding with such force that he was afraid he might not have heard her correctly. “You do?”
She nodded, and he could have sworn she blushed in the moonlight.
“So if I come to your room tonight, you won’t be afraid?”
She shook her head. “Nervous, but not frightened.”
He thought about kissing her. He thought about making love to her beneath the windmill, but he wanted everything perfect.
He wanted to give her in one night the courtship he should have given her before he ever married her.
CHAPTER
TWELVE
Becky Oliver had never known terror, but she found herself fearing everything now: the rough hands, the fetid breath that stank of too much whiskey, the strong fingers clamped around her wrists holding them behind her back. His mouth missed its mark and skid across her cheek, leaving a slobbery trail.
“Duncan, stop!”
He shoved his thigh between hers. “Come on, Becky, you know you want a little kiss.”
She wanted nothing of the kind, at least not from him. She wanted to scream, but she thought she might die if anyone saw her like this: pressed against the back wall of the general store with this man wrapped around her.
“Duncan, please let me go,” she pleaded.
“Kiss me first.”
She felt the tears threaten to surface. Somehow, she knew that he would enjoy watching the tears fall, so she held them back. “Duncan—”
“She’s not interested.”
She heard Austin’s voice and relief swamped her. Duncan grunted and she was suddenly free of his hold. She cowered beside the boxes that lined a portion of the back wall and watched as Austin slammed his fist into Duncan’s face. Duncan cried out and stumbled back.
Oh, she was glad, so glad, even though she knew whiskey had made him mean, had made him frighten her.
Austin stood with legs akimbo, his hands balled by his side, waiting … waiting.
“Come on, McQueen, get your ass up out of the dirt so I can hit you again.”
Groaning, Duncan rolled over and came to his knees. “You broke my nose!”
Duncan looked over his shoulder, and Becky could see his blood glistening in the moonlight. She rushed from her hiding place and wrapped her fingers around Austin’s arms. “Don’t hit him again.”
Austin snapped his gaze to hers. The anger burning in his blue eyes frightened her almost as much as Duncan had. She’d never seen Austin angry.
“He hurt you.”
“No, he didn’t. Not really. He just scared me.”
Austin pointed his finger at Duncan. “Stay away from Becky or next time I’ll kill you.”
She knew without a doubt that he meant it, and that knowledge terrified her. He turned to her then, and she could see the worry etched in his face, along with the anger.
“Let me take you home,” he said.
Leaving Duncan struggling to his feet, Austin walked with her to the side of the general store and followed her up the stairs. On the landing, he said quietly, “Are you all right, Becky?”
She wasn’t and she had hoped to slip into the house without his ever knowing, but his voice was filled with so much concern that she couldn’t stop herself from turning to him, with the tears slipping past her defenses.
