“Don’t be angry with me,” she said quietly
When she reached her hand out to touch his back he jerked and she curled her fingers inside her palm. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have touched you.”
He turned and his eyes burned with a dark fire she’d seen before. “You can touch me any damn time you want to, lady. Just know that when you do, it sets off a jolt of lightning inside me and I’m hard-pressed to keep my own hands where they belong.”
“Lightning?” Was that akin perhaps to the tingling sensation his fingers imposed on her when he gathered her close? When his lips touched hers and a flame arced from that spot to the depths of her body?
“Yeah. That’s what I said. I missed you for four days, Miss Augusta. I dreamed of you every time I crawled into bed. Spent some damn restless nights in fact. And you’re such an innocent you don’t even know what I’m talking about, do you?”
Acclaim for Carolyn Davidson’s recent titles
Maggie’s Beau
“A story of depth and understanding that will touch your heart.”
—Rendezvous
The Bachelor Tax
“From desperate situation to upbeat ending, Carolyn Davidson reminds us why we read romance.”
—Romantic Times
The Tender Stranger
“Davidson wonderfully captures gentleness in the midst of heart-wrenching challenges, portraying the extraordinary possibilities that exist within ordinary marital love.”
—Publishers Weekly
#616 AN HONORABLE THIEF
Anne Gracie
#617 A WILD JUSTICE
Gail Ranstrom
#618 THE BRIDE’S REVENGE
Anne Avery
The Texan
Carolyn Davidson
Available from Harlequin Historicals and
CAROLYN DAVIDSON
Gerrity’s Bride #298
Loving Katherine #325
The Forever Man #385
Runaway #416
The Wedding Promise #431
The Tender Stranger #456
The Midwife #475
*The Bachelor Tax #496
*Tanner Stakes His Claim #513
“Wish Upon A Star”
Maggie’s Beau #543
The Seduction of Shay Devereaux #556
A Convenient Wife #585
A Marriage by Chance #600
The Texan #615
Other works include:
Harlequin Books
Wild West Brides
“Second Chance Bride”
Writing for Harlequin has been a privilege. Finding friends among the ranks of their historical authors has been a joy. To Cheryl St.John and Deb Hale, I offer my gratitude, for sharing your strength and wisdom over the past years. This book is for all y’all.
And to my manager, Mr. Ed.
Contents
Chapter One
If innocence bore a Christian name, it would be Augusta McBride. For there before him was, without a doubt, the most lily-white specimen of womanhood Jonathan Cleary had ever laid eyes on.
Wearing a wide-brimmed, feather-embellished hat over golden hair, and clad in a long-sleeved, up-to-the-neck, fully buttoned dress, she stood on his doorstep, hands folded and reticule drooping from one wrist. Her eyes were wide, blue and wary. Pink and inviting, her lips glistened, and as he watched, he noted the reason for the moisture evident on that lush, full mouth. Her tongue touched her lips briefly, not for the first time, as if the flesh were dry and taut. He watched with male appreciation as that pink, pointed member dampened the skin and then retreated within her mouth.
“As I said, my name is Augusta McBride,” she repeated, as if she’d been reading the lines in a book and had somehow lost her place and must begin again. “I’m here to collect donations for a shelter for…” Her voice trailed off as if she had become aware of the smile he wore, a smile he was certain signaled his approval of her appearance.
The dress she was bundled in covered all her curves sufficiently and did not offer a tempting peek at one square inch of skin, save a part of her throat. And that lack only served to whet his interest in what lay beneath its fabric. Starched percale could not subdue the lift of her full bosom, nor could the dress’s long sleeves hide the perfection of slender fingers and pink, oval nails.
“The shelter for…what?” he asked quietly, commanding his eyes to rest on her rosy cheeks, lest he frighten her away with the full survey he wanted to repeat. He’d only caught a glimpse of her slender form for a moment before his gaze was captured by the perfection of a straight nose and wide-set