Noelle

what’s this I hear about you pulling a gun on Mr. Garmon right in the town square?”

The young police officer stepped forward. “Sir, Mr. Dunn had no choice in the matter,” he said firmly. “Mr. Garmon had already shot Mr. Sims—and he was crazy enough to shoot anybody else who moved. Mr. Dunn did the citizens of Fort Worth a service.”

“I’m not questioning that, young man,” the judge said. “I’m questioning the possession of a firearm in the city limits.”

“It was Mr. Sims’s firearm, your honor,” the young man persisted courageously. “He loaned it to Mr. Dunn.” He straightened and lifted his chin. “Mr. Dunn was acting in the stead of a city law enforcement officer. You may consider him deputized for the duration of the incident. I’ll swear to that, sir.”

Jared smiled indulgently at the unexpected gesture from the young man, who looked embarrassed.

“Very well,” the judge said. He smiled, too. “You aren’t old enough to remember wild times in Kansas, young man, but I am. I know Mr. Dunn quite well. I was only tormenting him, for old time’s sake, and he knows it.”

Jared chuckled. “Nevertheless, Officer…?”

“Ryan, sir.”

“Well, Officer Ryan. Thank you for your intervention, and your support. I won’t forget you.”

He offered his hand, and the young man shook it. “You’re very welcome, sir,” he replied, grinning. He nodded to Jared and the judge and strode quickly out the door, the smile still on his face as he walked toward the corner.

his heart beating him half to death.

She felt him over her, against her, inside her. Her hands tested the firm muscles of his back and she struggled to breathe normally again after the most exhausting, explosive pleasure of her life. Her body still trembled rhythmically with the memory of it, as if trying to recapture what it had lost. Her hips moved helplessly, and she felt a tiny hot pain, but even that didn’t deter her body from its search.

His hand caught her hip and stilled it. “No,” he whispered gently. “You are torn. This will make it worse.”

“Torn?” It sounded terrible.

His head lifted. He touched his lips to hers with such tenderness that she felt tears spring to her eyes. “Noelle, have you never been told what happens when a man and a woman come together like this?”

“Who was there to tell me?” she whispered.

He kissed her closed eyelids. “Nature protects a woman’s body with a thin membrane called a maidenhead. When a man’s body penetrates a virgin’s, the membrane tears.”

She was so embarrassed that she thanked God it was dark and he couldn’t see her face.

“That’s why it was painful,” he said. “And I apologize to you most humbly for the accusations I made. Your virginity was all too apparent.”

“It was supposed to hurt?” she asked.

“I’ve been told that it has to, sometimes.”

Told. Her hands smoothed over the hard, powerful muscles of his shoulders and back. “You do not know?”

He chuckled and his mouth moved slowly to cover her soft breast. “No.”

eye.

That did it. With a soft groan, he reached for her, pulling her roughly against his broad chest, wrapping her up tightly in his arms. “I can’t bear to see you cry,” he ground out at her ear. “Stop it.”

She hit his chest, trying to stem the hot tears. “I’m not…a fallen woman,” she bit off.

“For God’s sake!” He pressed her face closer. “Did I say that you were?” he demanded.

“You said I could go to a brothel,” she said tearfully.

He sighed heavily. “Noelle,” he bit off. His cheek nuzzled hers. “Noelle,” he whispered huskily. “I didn’t mean it.”

He rocked her in his arms until the sobs died away. Then he handed her a handkerchief and watched broodingly while she dried the tears. His hands were back in his pockets again and he watched her steadily.

She hated that intense stare. She didn’t know what he was thinking. He said that he hadn’t meant it, about calling her a loose woman, but he thought less of her. She knew it.

“I’ve reacted badly,” he said after a minute, having regained the control she nearly cost him with her unexpected vulnerability. “What you do with Andrew is, after all, your business. But the two of you have created a scandal. Mrs. Hardy will have it all over town that you and Andrew were in a state of dishabille in a room, alone. By the time she’s finished exaggerating it, you’ll have been found in bed together.”

She bit her lower lip hard and lifted her chin. “Will you lend me the price of a train ticket to Galveston?” she asked proudly.