Wild Texas Rose by Jodi Thomas Page A

didn’t question the boss. Abe had given him a chance when no one else offered him a job.
    Abe watched him go, wishing he could pick up the box and hurry across the street. If he could have, he might have talked to her again. He might have asked her to step out one evening. He might have had a chance with such a woman if he tried.
    At noon, as Abe always did, he closed the store for lunch. Henry went home and Abe ate his meal alone in a little room in the back his mother had always called his study, as if they had a real home and were wealthy enough to have a real study. She had started the practice of closing the noon hour because he needed to rest his leg, and over the years it had become a habit. Everyone in town knew the store hours and respected them.
    As he walked toward the back, Abe thought of trying to catch a nap in the old leather chair beside his collection of books he kept in “his study.” Henry would wake him with a tap on the back door if he did happen to fall asleep.
    He moved past a desk in the hallway, which served as his office, so he could watch for customers while doing his accounts. In the daylight, the windows high along the back wall offered plenty of light. As he slid his hand from the desk to a railing, Abe caught a glimpse of Miss Norman standing beside the stairs.
    She wasn’t looking at him. She stood still as stone, holding her hands in front of her so tightly together he could see them turning white. As always, she stood as proper and perfect as a model in a window of a ladies’ store.
    “Drop your hands to your sides,” he said in little more than a whisper. He hated to think that she was hurting her fingers in her effort to remain still.
    She lowered them and looked up at him, her gaze a mixture of fear and longing.
    He didn’t know how to make small talk. He didn’t even know how to be kind. But she already knew that and it wasn’t the reason she was standing before him now.
    Leaning his hip against the desk so that they were close to the same height, Abe lifted his hand to her cheek. “Remember, not a word, Miss Norman.” He wasn’t sure he could stand chatter. “Do you understand? You’re not here to talk.”
    He could feel her shaking, but she nodded as he slipped his fingers behind her neck and pulled her to him. Her body was stiff, almost fighting him as he lowered his mouth to hers. The need to touch her again had been building in him like a fire all morning.
    She’d come back to him. That one fact made him feel half-drunk. She’d returned for another kiss, but she wasn’t going to make it easy. Maybe, if it were possible, she knew even less about this than he did. They weren’t courting or flirting. Neither knew how.
    Circling her waist, he pulled until her breasts flattened against his chest. Her arms remained at her sides, but he could feel her with each breath. When she tried to put an inch between their bodies, he tugged her back against him without breaking the kiss. “No,” he whispered against her mouth. “I want you close against me.”
    He let the feel of her rock through his entire body.
    The second time, she remained close even when he lessened his hold. He smiled, lightening the kiss to barely a brush of his lips against hers. “That’s the way, Miss Norman. Now I can feel the way you react.” His words brushed her cheek. “I can feel you.”
    With slow caressing strokes, his fingers crossed her face, tilting her chin slightly. His thumb brushed her bottom lip, pulling it open so that he could feel the moisture just inside. “You want this between us?” He had to be sure.
    She nodded again. Her eyes were closed, but her short breaths and trembling body told him she was terrified of the unknown. Yet all she had to do was pull away. He might be touching her, but he wasn’t holding her. “Move against me then,” he whispered near her ear. When he stroked her back, she followed orders.
    “Don’t move away until we’ve finished. I’m not going