The Bride Wore Spurs (The Inconvenient Bride Series, Book 1) by Ihle Sharon

Author:Ihle, Sharon [Ihle, Sharon]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: ePublishing Works!
Published: 2012-04-03T22:00:00+00:00

I can resist everything except temptation.

—Oscar Wilde

Chapter 12

Not at all sure he could get a grip on his anger, lust, or his usual self control should he stay with Lacey after her diatribe, Hawke stormed out of the house and made his way to the back of the barn. Cursing Kate's ineptness again and Lacey for her mulish stand against fulfilling her wedding vows, he split several pine logs in an effort to work out some of his frustrations. Exhausted at last, he and Crowfoot settled on a snack of venison jerky that the boy kept stored in the barn, then Hawke made himself a bed in the straw not far from the young man's lair.

He did all that, but didn't like any of the circumstances one damn bit—especially the fact that he'd be spending the night in the barn. But like it or not, Hawke figured that at least this way he had the opportunity to think things through in a calm, clear manner—something he couldn't seem to do when face to face with his new bride. So he looked at their impasse from every angle imaginable, including her side, and finally settled on the only theory that made any kind of sense: Lacey was afraid.

At least he hoped to God that was the problem, fear of the unknown, and not something more terrible that he couldn't understand, much less talk to her about. Assuming that he'd guessed correctly, Hawke moved on to the next dilemma: How to ease Lacey's fears and convince her that bedding him would be the natural, pleasurable thing to do. And there he hit another brick wall, one that would put him right back in the kitchen arguing with her over whether she would or would not sleep with him the way any other wife would do without having to be begged.

His frustrations renewed, Hawke burrowed about in the straw seeking a more conformable position, then settled back down to work on the problem. Admittedly, he didn't know much about women or marriage, but he was pretty sure that seducing this wife of his was turning out to be a lot more difficult than it should have been. Why was he having such a hard time of it? he wondered. After all, gentling untamed animals was his specialty, was it not?

Looking at the problem in those terms—that a wild horse was not so unlike this reluctant bride of his—a glaring similarity between the two struck Hawke like a bolt of lightning. Wildness, he'd learned, came from fear and the instinctive need for self-preservation. Maybe Lacey's fears were born of the instinct to survive and not from something she found repulsive about him. Could it be that carving a path to this woman's bed wasn't so different from breaking a wild filly? Growing more and more convinced that he'd hit on Lacey's reason for denying him, Hawke pondered new ways of approaching her.

Obviously, he wasn't much good at explaining the way things ought to be between them, so he ruled out having any more discussions about the matter.

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