An Arranged Marriage by Susan Fox

Author:Susan Fox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-12-26T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

BLUE left his sleeping bride long before daybreak. The sweet knowledge that she really had been a virgin played on his male pride like an aphrodisiac. He remembered then what she’d said about never having met the man who’d hung the moon, and the heady, masculine thrill of seducing her began to drag on his conscience.

He’d rushed her into sex. He’d taken brutal advantage of her inexperience, and few of his intentions had been honorable. He’d truly not been able to think about lying next to her one more night without taking her, but he’d also wanted to change her mind about love. To show her that love wasn’t necessary or needed.

He hadn’t been able to tell if she’d been telling the truth about not knowing her aunt and uncle were coming over. He’d thought at first that she’d invited them, but wouldn’t own up to it. Part of the reason he’d seduced her had been to create a new bond of loyalty to him, and break some of her strong family ties.

He cared for Allison, he damned sure felt tender and hungry for her, but he didn’t love her. He didn’t want to. He did, however, want her loyalty to be exclusively his.

And because he’d become a little afraid of the idea that she might someday fancy that she was in love with him, he’d figured rushing her into sex—putting their marriage on the level of sex—might be the one chance he had to spoil her notions about love.

Now that he’d taken her, he’d discovered that sex was better between a husband and wife. Sex had been intoxicating with her, but in the end, sex was all it had been. And because in his mind, sex had never meant love, it made sense to him that after last night, it wouldn’t mean love to Allison, either.

Why those thoughts caused a heaviness in his chest wasn’t something he wanted to examine too closely.

By the time Allison awoke, it was almost nine o’clock. She was aware of the emptiness beside her before she was fully awake. The depth of the sweet, tender feelings she had now for Blue were astonishing. She’d never felt so exposed, so close, to anyone in her life as she’d felt to Blue last night. She’d never imagined passion could be as sharp, as fiercely gentle as it had been. She’d never guessed her body could feel what Blue had made her feel.

But as she lay there thinking, awash in the memory of his kisses and the feel of his hard, strong body and the way they’d made love, she began to regret that it had happened so soon.

Now she remembered that there had been no tender words between them, no whispers of love, no declarations. She understood then what place she would truly occupy in her husband’s life.

The six-year-old black quarter horse mare was magnificent. Expertly trained as a cutting horse, the mare had competed in enough cutting horse competitions to show promise of being a champion.

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