Bittersweet Rain by Sandra Brown

Author:Sandra Brown [BROWN, SANDRA]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: FIC027000
ISBN: 9780446545334
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2008-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

“Laura Jane?” Steve knelt down in the hay and touched her shoulder. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Hmmm?” She stirred in her sleep and rolled from her side onto her back. “Steve?” she murmured. Her eyes blinked lazily, then came slumberously awake. “Is it morning?” she asked softly, stretching languidly, arching her back and lifting her breasts toward him.

“Barely morning,” he said, tearing his eyes away from her chest. “What are you doing in here?”

She sat up and shook hay from her hair. Faint sunlight shone into the stable onto her bare shoulders. The air was still night-cool, but the hay on which she had slept was warm and pungent. Horses in the various stalls were nickering, hungry for their morning ration of oats. Dust motes floated in the air, catching the sun’s first rays.

Laura Jane’s sleepy eyes focused on Steve. She smiled and touched his cheek, which was pink and shiny after his recent shave. “Last night Caroline and Rink argued. I could hear them shouting all the way in my room. Haney was already asleep so I couldn’t go to her. I had to get out of the house. Why are Caroline and Rink always so angry with each other? I don’t understand it, Steve.”

She leaned forward, laying her head on his chest and wrapping her arms around his waist. “Anyway, I came out here. The door to your apartment was closed and all the lights were out. I knew you were already asleep, too, and didn’t want to bother you. I curled up here in the empty stall and went to sleep. I felt better just being close to you.”

She snuggled closer to him and his insides were pitched into chaos. He had cursed Rink Lancaster and his threats after the scene in the yard. Did Lancaster actually think he meant any harm to come to Laura Jane? Couldn’t that bullheaded brother of hers see that he loved this woman/child, that to him she embodied everything that was pure and good in a world he had thought rancid with hate and killing and blood and war?

He had sworn last night never to be alone with her again, never to touch her. Because to be caught at it would mean that he would have to leave for good. That he couldn’t have borne.

Now, however, he knew that he would not be able to heed Lancaster’s warnings. The nearness of Laura Jane’s soft body was blotting them from his mind. Without his planning it or weighing the consequences of such a move, his arms closed tightly about her.

“I’m sure they were both upset by your father’s funeral. They’ll iron out their differences. It’s natural for a household to undergo some stress when someone in it dies.”

“I love them both so much. I want them to be friends.”

He laid his cheek against her hair. His large, scarred hands smoothed her back. She had on a soft cotton nightgown with a daintily smocked bodice across her breasts. Thin straps tied it onto her shoulders.

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