Wyoming True - Diana Palmer Page 0,67

need just a little...more practice?” she faltered, uncertain of him.

But he smiled. “We might,” he murmured.

He bent again, but this time the kiss lingered, slowly building to an intensity that brought her closer as the arm that wasn’t holding the dress went around her shoulders and pressed her to him. His mouth was warm and gentle, even though his heart was racing and he felt himself going very taut at even that contact. But he mustn’t frighten her, he told himself. He had to be gentle for a while, and not give way to the desire that had unexpectedly bubbled up in him.

He drew back far too soon, his breath going into her mouth as he lifted it. She looked—he wasn’t certain—dazed, perhaps. Fascinated. He smiled. He liked the way she looked very much. He started to bend his head again, afraid that this time it wouldn’t be gentle or brief, because he was rapidly losing his self-control. He was in over his head. He couldn’t stop. But he had to. His lips were almost touching hers when the kitchen door opened suddenly and they broke apart.

CHAPTER TWELVE

MAUDE HID A smile as she told them that dinner would be served momentarily. They looked flushed and disoriented. Good, she thought. This might be a better marriage than they’d planned. Especially, she added to herself, since the boss lady was knitting a baby blanket. She’d said it was for the child of a friend, but the way she looked as she worked gave away her own hunger for a child. She wondered if the boss knew it.

He didn’t. He was too concerned with wedding preparations and faint doubts. He liked Ida, a lot. He was comfortable with her. But he had memories he couldn’t share with her, memories that brought him awake shouting in the dark. Flashbacks of horror, gore, war. He lived alone, so nobody knew about them.

He did recall Cindy mentioning that Ida had woken her screaming one night, and she’d called the sheriff, thinking the poor woman was being attacked. It was bad memories there, too.

Jake sighed. If Ida had nightmares, too, they might get along well. But he also had battle scars that he’d never shared. He didn’t go shirtless in the summer, even on the hottest days when he was helping the men out on the ranch, here and in Australia. It brought comment, which had quickly been squelched by foremen who knew about him.

He wondered if Ida had cold feet, too. He’d given his word, promised to marry her, bought her a ring. It was too late to back out. He’d have to go through with it. Some small part of him wanted to marry her. He was lonely. He missed the wonderful days he’d had with Mina when he hoped to make her love him. Those days were only memories. They comforted him when he was sad. He thought about her with the baby boy she shared with her husband, Cort, and recalled how much he’d wished it was his child.

He didn’t think Ida would want children, not in her physical condition. He wasn’t certain that she could carry a child in her body with all the damage it had sustained. But he remembered her knitting the baby blanket. It gave him an unexpected jolt of pleasure.

He went back to talk to Tolbert, because he was concerned. The wedding was tomorrow. He couldn’t back out now. The marriage had been announced in all the surrounding counties’ newspapers. Jake was well-known in cattlemen’s circles, in sophisticated circles in cities, as well. There would be coverage of the wedding. He hadn’t told Ida. It would be impossible to keep the newsmen away, even if they could be barred from the church during the brief ceremony. It was just one more worry to address.

“You’re concerned,” Tolbert guessed when they were sitting in his office at the church.

“Yes,” Jake confessed. He was perched on the edge of the chair, his elbows resting on his knees as he leaned forward. “I guess most bachelors get cold feet just before the ceremony.”

“Every one,” Tolbert said with a smile. “Women, too. I expect your Ida is pacing the floor herself.”

He hadn’t thought of that. But it made sense.

“Listen,” Tolbert said gently, “you and Ida are very suited. She’s beautiful and rich and talented. Yes, she has physical problems, but she can afford any rehab she needs to keep going. Women with hip replacements can have kids, you know,” he added and noted