Only in My Arms by Jo Goodman

Author:Jo Goodman [Goodman, Jo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Cowboy
ISBN: 9780821777824
Google: uqOwLwHG7IYC
Amazon: 0821777823
Barnesnoble: 0821777823
Goodreads: 323427
Publisher: Zebra
Published: 1996-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

It wasn’t shock that touched Mary’s features, but curiosity. She looked at Ryder and asked frankly, “Why would she do that?” Ryder’s eyes mirrored nothing of what he was thinking.

“Aren’t you going to ask if it’s true? Don’t you want to know if I raped Anna Leigh?” Mary’s brow furrowed.

“Why would I ask that? I can’t imagine you even thinking about raping her.”

“Then you’re the only one,” he said without rancor.

“Miss Hamilton was very effective in telling her story.” A short red-gold strand of hair had fallen over Mary’s forehead. She blew it out of the way.

“I’m sure she was. But I have another experience with you that makes it difficult to believe you would act in any dishonorable way.” Her gaze dropped back to the map, and she pretended to study it.

“I haven’t forgotten the night we spent outside a watering hole in the Hudson Valley. You held me, comforted me, and quite against your will, I think, your body responded to mine.”

“It wasn’t against my will,” he said softly.

“I wanted you that night. I had wanted you that morning.”

Mary’s fingers stopped tracing map lines as a fris son of heat tripped down her spine. She closed her eyes and said words she had never spoken aloud before, words that she had struggled not to put together even silently in her own mind.

“And you never acted on it. Not that morning when I would have fought you… and not that evening when I would have given you anything you wanted.” Ryder had to strain to hear her last whispered words. It was no admission she was giving him, but her confession.

“Oh, Mary,” he said quietly. He took her wrists and pulled her toward him. The maps twisted and curled beneath her, but Ryder didn’t care. When she was at the edge of the bed he lifted her down but never let her leave his embrace. She rested her head against his shoulder.

Tears pressed at the back of her closed lids.

“It’s not the reason I left the Church,” she said on a thread of sound.

“I was already struggling… questioning… If you hadn’t been there that night the outcome would have been the same.” He stroked her hair, resting his chin against the crown of her head. Pain shuddered through her and Ryder felt the vibration against his skin. Mary’s voice was choked now. She had to work words past the hard, aching lump at the back of her throat.

“Sometimes… sometimes I think God sent you to me… to help me surrender. I was fighting His wishes… ignoring what He was telling me so I wouldn’t ..” Her tears touched his chest, slipping along the outline of her cheek.

Ryder didn’t probe or press. He waited.

“So I wouldn’t disappoint… my mother.” Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, but tears still ran freely from them and her breath came in small, pained gasps. Sagging against Ryder, Mary cried until she exhausted herself. Ryder pushed the maps aside and lifted her back on the bed.

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