Harden by Diana Palmer

Author:Diana Palmer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 1991-03-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Miranda didn’t believe at first that she’d heard him. She stared at him blankly. “What?”

He met her eyes. “I want you to come home with me,” he said, shocking himself as much as he was obviously shocking her. “I want more than this,” he added, dragging her breasts sensually against his bare chest. “As sweet as it is, I want to get to know all of you, not just your body.”

“But…my job,” she began.

“I have in mind asking you to marry me, once we’ve gotten used to each other a little more,” he said then, driving the point home. “And don’t look so shocked. You know as well as I do that we’re going to wind up in bed together. It’s inevitable. I’m no more liberated than you are, so we have to do something. Either we get married, or we stop seeing each other altogether. That being the case, you have to come home with me.”

“And stay…with you?” she echoed.

“With Theodora. My mother,” he clarified it. “I’m buying a place in Jacobsville, but it isn’t ready to move into. Even if it was,” he added with a rueful smile, “things aren’t done that way in Jacobsville. You’d stay with Theodora anyway, to keep everything aboveboard. Or didn’t I mention that I was a deacon in our Baptist church?”

“No,” she stammered. “You didn’t.”

“I thought about being a minister once,” he murmured, searching her rapt eyes. “But I didn’t feel called to it, and that makes the difference. I still feel uncomfortable with so-called modern attitudes. Holding you like this is one thing. Sleeping with you—my conscience isn’t going to allow that.”

“I was married,” she began.

“Yes. But not to me.” He smiled gently, looking down to the blatant thrust of her soft breasts with their hard tips brushing against his chest. “And it didn’t feel like this, did it?”

“No,” she admitted, going breathless when he brushed her body lazily against his. “Oh, no, it didn’t feel anything like this!” She pressed even closer, gripping his shoulders tightly. “But you say you hate women. How are you going to manage to marry me?”

“I didn’t say I hated you,” he replied. His hands tangled in her hair and raised her face to his quiet eyes. “I’ve never wanted anyone like this,” he said simply. “All I’ve done since I left Chicago is brood over you. I haven’t looked at another woman in all that time.”

She drew back a little, tingling with pleasure when the action drew his eyes immediately to her breasts. She didn’t try to hide them this time.

After a minute, he lifted his eyes to hers and searched them, reading with pinpoint accuracy the pride and pleasure there. “You like it, don’t you?” he asked quietly. “You like my eyes on you.”

“Yes,” she said hesitantly.

“Shame isn’t something you should feel with me,” he told her. “Not ever. I know too much about you to think you’re easy.”

She smiled then. “Thank you.”

His lean hands smoothed down to her waist, and he shook his head.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.