by Diana Palmer
Sandy smiled softly, her eyes full of love and trust. “Don’t be silly,” she said gently.
“You said you believed me!” Missy accused.
Sandy got up. “I wanted to see how far you’d go,” she replied simply. “Now stop this play-acting and tell the truth, Missy. You don’t want to do something like this to Jobe. You’re not a bad enough person to try to ruin his life deliberately.”
Missy’s lower lip stuck out. “I love him!”
“No, you don’t,” Sandy said. “If you did, you wouldn’t be trying to trap him into marriage. You want people to be happy if you love them. We all know that Jobe wouldn’t be happy with you unless he really loved you. And he doesn’t.”
Missy’s eyes clouded. She looked mutinous. “I could love him enough for both of us!”
Jobe shook his head. “That isn’t possible. I love Sandy. I always have. You’re a sweet kid, honey, but it wasn’t love.”
Missy’s shoulders slumped. “I guess I knew that all along. I didn’t want to admit it.” She flushed even more. “I guess I made a real fool of myself.”
“Not to me,” Sandy said. “Not to Jobe, either. I imagine he’s flattered, in a way. But it’s time to stop pretending.”
“Okay,” Missy admitted, “I’m not pregnant. He only kissed me once, like you’d kiss a kid who was hurt. I built a lot of dreams on it.” She drew in a long sigh. “I guess there’s somebody out there for me. Maybe I’ll find him one day.”
“Of course you will,” Sandy said gently. “But in the meantime, I think it might be better if you found a different job. One where there’s an eligible man or two.”
“Not here,” Missy mused.
“Not here,” Sandy agreed. She looked at Jobe quietly. “This one belongs to me,” she said, and watched his high cheekbones go ruddy.
Missy saw it, too. She managed a smile on her way out. “Well, I hope I get invited to the wedding, at least,” she said. “I’m not a bad loser.”
“No, you’re not,” Jobe agreed. He smiled at her. “Stay out of trouble, sprout.”
“I’ll do my best. I’m really sorry,” she added sheepishly. “It seemed like a good idea at the time. Maybe I wasn’t really grown up until now.” She went out the door quickly, closing it behind her.
Jobe got up from the desk with a sigh and walked to Sandy, pulling her into his arms. “You didn’t believe a word of it, hmm?”
She shook her head. “I know you too well. You’ve never lied to me. Not even when it would have been kinder. It was pretty simple to tell where the truth was. Besides,” she added, pulling his head down, “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” he whispered, and kissed her back hungrily.
CHAPTER SIX
Two weeks later, they were married. They didn’t plan on a honeymoon, but Ted sent them off to Nassau on an airplane and neither of them had the heart to argue with him.
Nassau was the most unexpected, glorious time of Sandy’s life. Despite the wealth that she and Ted enjoyed, it was the one place she’d never been. The day they arrived, she and Jobe didn’t even wait to change clothes. They tipped the bellboy who carried their luggage to their sixth-floor room at the huge, gaudy hotel on Cable Beach and then took a cab into downtown Nassau, where they walked down the narrow streets past the gaily colored straw market and friendly people, idly gazing at passenger ships at Prince George Wharf and pausing to look in store windows.
The air smelled of the ocean and adventure. They saw the statue of the island’s first royal governor, Woodes Rogers, in front of one of the older hotels in town, and then strolled along Bay Street, holding hands and dreaming.
When they got back to the hotel, they started to change for dinner when Jobe turned and just stared at Sandy as she stood there in only her lace teddy, with her dark hair down around her shoulders.
He had his shirt off. His broad chest, hair-covered and muscular and deeply tanned, drew her like a magnet. With her breath in her throat, she went to him, her heart racing.
She looked up at him, noting his own tension, the ragged sound of his breathing. “Now,” she whispered huskily.
He reached for her, gently, and brought her to him. “Now,” he whispered back, and bent to her mouth.
Several feverish minutes later, they were on the bed, trembling against each other with the sound of the ocean loud even outside the closed window as they fought layers of clothing to get to the skin underneath.
“Oh, Lord…I’ve torn it,” he groaned as he finally got the teddy out of the way and his mouth burned against her small, taut breasts.
“Who cares?” she panted, clutching his head to her. “Oh, Jobe, oh, dear God!”
She arched as the suckling motion of his mouth sent thrills of pleasure into the most secret places of her body.
Her soft cries made him wild to have her. He managed to get out of the last of his clothing and his mouth bit into hers as he eased quickly between her long, trembling legs.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered urgently. “I’m sorry, it’s going to be…rough.”
“I don’t care!”
She adjusted her body to his in a violent fever of need, so hungry for him that nothing else mattered. She barely felt the flash of pain as he went into her, the pleasure that followed drowning her in such exquisite sensations that she stretched like a wanton under his powerful body and sighed loudly.
“Yes,” he groaned, searching for her mouth as his hips moved down and he shivered. “Did you even dream…that it would feel like this?” he asked huskily.
“Never!” She met his mouth and lifted to him, matching his rhythm, trembling with each new contact. “This is wicked!” she whispered when he paused and looked down the length of their joined bodies, coaxing her to look, as well.
“We’re married,” he whispered unsteadily. “Two of the oldest virgins in the continental United States… Good God!”
Her sudden urgent movement caught him off guard and he cried out as she moved again, twisting up to him.
He ground his mouth into hers with a sharp groan and suddenly there was no time to savor it, to lengthen it. There was tension and urgent need. He drove into her, drowning in her sweetness, her husky little cries of ecstasy. When he felt her arch and cry out, he was already in the throes of his own fulfillment. He seemed to black out as the most harshly sweet pleasure he’d ever experienced pulled his powerful body so tight that he thought he might actually faint…
Minutes later, drenched in perspiration and shaking in the aftermath of their frenzied lovemaking, Sandy lifted her head to look at her new husband and she couldn’t resist a huge, wicked grin.
“I guess it was worth waiting for, huh?” she teased.
He rolled over, his face aglow with love and happiness. He laughed like a boy. “Oh, yes, my darling. Well worth it,” he replied. He bent to her mouth and rolled over in the same instant. “I love you insanely. And just in case you didn’t get the message the first time…!”
He wasn’t the only one insanely in love and aching to prove it. Sandy’s last conscious thought was that marriage to Jobe was going to be one long, sweet adventure. And this was only the beginning!
* * * * *
Lone Texas Ranger John Ruiz finds unexpected passion with Nurse Sunny Marlowe, but will a looming threat destroy their chance at happiness?
Read on for a sneak preview of UNBRIDLED, the next book in the Long, Tall Texans series from New York Times bestselling author Diana Palmer
CHAPTER ONE
It was two weeks until Christmas. Suna Wesley, whom her coworkers called Sunny, was standing by herself at the edge of the makeshift dance floor in the boardroom at the San Antonio Hal Marshall Memorial Children’s Hospital, watching as her colleagues in the hospital laughed and performed to the music on the loudspeakers. A disc jockey from a local radio station, related to one of the nurses, had been persuaded to provide commentary. There was plenty of punch and refreshments. Doctors and nurses, orderlies and dieticians,
mingled around the buffet table. It was a holiday-themed party, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. One of the favorite staff doctors had taken a job back east, so it was mostly a going-away party.
Christmas decorations were draped around the room, marking the start of the holiday season. Holly and mistletoe and golden bells mingled with red bows. It made the holidays come to life in the red and green decor. But the whole holiday season was sad for Sunny. It brought back haunting memories of the season with her father and mother and little brother. Those days were long gone.
As she watched a nurse flirt with one of the interns, Sunny wished it was over. She’d been persuaded to stay after her shift and join in the fun. But it was the same as always. She was alone, because she was too shy to push herself into one of the many small groups and engage in conversation. She lived alone, stayed alone, was resigned to being alone for the rest of her life.
She pushed back her long, platinum blond hair and wished she were beautiful. Her hair was her one good quality. It was straight and pretty when she left it long, and it fell to her waist in back. She had big brown eyes that reflected her loneliness when she was alone and didn’t have to hide it from others.
It was sad that she had no partner. Her mother and father had loved to dance. Her father had taught her all the exotic Latin dances that at least three couples were mutilating on the dance floor. Her feet itched to try it. But she avoided men. It was useless to become involved with anyone, considering her limitations. No, better to stand all alone with a glass of punch that she hadn’t even touched and feel sorry for herself, decked out in a floral nurse’s tunic and droopy slacks, not a smidgeon of lipstick or powder on her soft features. Her brown eyes were dull with memories that hurt. Holidays were the worst…
“Hey, Ruiz, you going to show us how to do that samba?” somebody called to a tall man in a shepherd’s coat and wide-brimmed creamy felt hat with a feather decoration. It reminded Sunny that even in San Antonio, autumn was cold.
Her eyes went to the newcomer. Her heart skipped a beat just at the sight of him. He was gorgeous! Tall, olive-complexioned, elegant, with powerful long legs and a face that would have graced a magazine cover. He had a very masculine face, with a chiseled, sensuous mouth. Black eyes danced under a rakishly tilted cream-colored Stetson, white teeth flashed at the questioner.
“Hey, do I look like I got time to give you pilgrims dance lessons?” he called back in a deep voice just faintly accented. “I’m a working stiff!”
“Lies!” the physician called back. “Get over here and have some fun. You’re too serious!”
“If I wasn’t serious, you guys would have to pay people to let you operate on them,” he scoffed.
“One dance,” the physician dared. “Come on, you spineless coward!”
“Ah, now, that’s fighting words.” He chuckled, looking around for a victim. His eyes fell on Sunny’s long, beautiful hair and narrowed on her exquisite complexion.
No, she thought. Oh, no, no…!
Don’t miss UNBRIDLED by Diana Palmer, available in July 2018 wherever Harlequin® books and ebooks are sold.
www.Harlequin.com
Copyright © 2018 by Diana Palmer
ISBN-13: 9781488036866
Long, Tall Texans: Jobe
First published as Jobe in the anthology A Long Tall Texan Summer by Silhouette in 1997
This edition published in 2018
Copyright © 1997 by Diana Palmer
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