A Vow to Love by Sherryl Woods

Author:Sherryl Woods [Woods, Sherryl]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 1994-10-19T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Penny couldn’t get to sleep. Her blood raced as if she’d had ten cups of the strongest coffee available, rather than the one cup of decaf she’d nursed all evening. She told herself that any sensible woman would have been wide-awake and tossing and turning after the close call she’d had tonight. Unfortunately, she knew that the episode with Tank had nothing to do with her insomnia. The potential of danger no doubt had been there, but in reality it had been a minor incident.

No, it was the presence of Sam Roberts in her living room that had her on edge. As infuriating as he could sometimes be, the man was more tempting than an entire pound of Belgian chocolates.

She told herself it wasn’t as if this was the first time they’d slept under the same roof. They had just spent the entire weekend in the same house on Cape Cod. But there they had been surrounded by people, she reminded herself. Hell, who was she kidding? She hadn’t slept a wink on the Cape, either, and for the very same reason. She wanted the man in her bed. Tonight he had offered to join her there. And she, for some reason she couldn’t entirely fathom, had turned him down. Was she out of her mind or what?

Penny tried to sort out what had brought them to this point. The powerful, if somewhat innocent yearning she had felt at sixteen had turned into full-blown, weak-in-the-knees lust. After he’d kissed her the other night, it had only gotten worse. She had felt his desire and it had been just as overwhelming as her own. The fact that he seemed so damned determined not to admit that it meant anything only complicated matters. Obviously the challenge he’d uttered tonight—the sofa or her bed—had been a test. But for which one of them? she wondered.

Ten years ago, with the fragile ego of a sixteen-year-old just discovering her sexuality, she had taken his rejection personally. She’d been crushed by it. Now she could see that it was as automatic for him to hold people at arm’s length as it was for her to embrace them. Couldn’t he see how that made them perfect for each other? He could teach her caution. She could teach him to love.

First, though, she had to get him to stop rescuing her. Sam needed an equal, a woman who wouldn’t be dependent on him for anything except his love. She could see that now. He feared anyone needing him too much, because as Dana had reminded her, all he had known in his life was abandonment. He obviously figured he was destined to repeat the pattern, hurting any woman who dared to love him or being hurt by anyone he risked loving.

But how did she go about showing him that she was strong enough to survive on her own without making it seem that there was no place for him in her life? For all of her education, she wasn’t smart enough to figure that out.

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