A High, Hard Land by Tory Cates

Author:Tory Cates
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books

Chapter 8

Well, this is a rare and pleasant surprise.”

Matthew’s greeting was warmed by enough genuine pleasure to melt away a bit of the chilly layer of apprehension that had iced over Lissa’s impetuosity on the long drive. Now that she was there, standing in front of Matthew as he was framed in the doorway, the golden light from the fire leaking out and haloing around him, Lissa faced an important truth—the reasons she’d come were many and complex. Something deep in Matthew called to her and made her dream of lives entwined. But all that was underpinned by the one response that made the myriad others possible. She ached to touch him, to have his arms around her, to know the feel of his weight upon her.

All those desires swarmed through her as she stood poised at Matthew’s door, both of them waiting. Matthew waited for a sign, Lissa unable to make it. He ushered her into his home. Lissa entered, feeling as if she had let another precious moment, ripe with possibility, slip from her. She had come to him, chased by phantoms of loneliness, and knew it was up to her to explain that to Matthew. But now that she was there, facing him, his gaze studying her, still waiting, she couldn’t do it. Couldn’t risk exposing herself that nakedly.

“Shooting went pretty well today,” she finally blurted out with a nervous chattiness. A flash of something close to pain appeared to shoot through Matthew’s ebony eyes at the brittle, superficial comment. “We did the scene where Quaid comes back at the end of the rodeo season and Jeannie sends him away.”

“Could have been a tough one to play,” Matthew offered, managing to hide his growing disappointment behind a neutral tone. He had been stunned by the ferocity of his own joy when he’d opened his door and found her standing on his porch.

The past few days had been hard. He hadn’t allowed himself to call her, denying himself the sound of her voice. But it had been clear to him that that was what he had to do. He wanted either all that this extraordinary woman was capable of giving or he wanted nothing. The polite, detached level they were at was unendurable for him, but Lissa had to be the one to end it.

“The scene was a bit hard,” Lissa said, radically understating the hurt intensity of her reaction. Feeling as if she were ripping the cover off her emotions, she added, “I went sort of flat at the end.”

“You mean where Jeannie tells Quaid that she’d rather not have any father for her child than one who’s always running away after a fantasy?”

Lissa nodded, the inexplicable clot of emotions that that scene raised in her clutching at her throat.

“Why do you think that is?” Matthew asked, his instincts for the unexplored and unexplorable forces that drive human beings beginning to prickle. “Why was it so hard for you?”

Lissa shrugged off the question and turned away. The instant her face was hidden, she took several deep breaths to steady herself.

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