Beverly Barton 3 Book Bundle

She puckered her lips and frowned. “Are you really going to send me away?”

He nodded. “Yeah, honey, I’m afraid so.”

She pulled away from him, stepped back and threw her arms out in a take-me gesture. “Think about what you’re turning down.” Robyn lifted her T-shirt to show him that she wasn’t wearing a bra.

Jim swallowed hard. His penis twitched. Down boy. Youaren’t getting any of that. Not tonight. And if I’m reallysmart, not ever.

“It’s my loss,” he told her.

Huffing, she lowered her T-shirt. “Well, this is a first for me. Turned down by two men in one night.”

“You propositioned the preacher?” Jim chuckled.

Robyn grinned. “Well, not exactly. But by a couple of hours into the date it was obvious that he didn’t fuck on a first date. Hell, he didn’t even kiss on a first date. I think something’s wrong with the guy.”

“He’s a minister. My guess is he thinks fornicating is a sin.”

Robyn tiptoed her fingers up Jim’s chest. “Are you sure you don’t want to do a little fornicating tonight?”

“Not tonight.” Jim turned Robyn around and marched her to the front door.

“Want a rain check?” She winked at him.

Jim didn’t respond immediately.

“Who is she?” Robyn asked.

“What?”

“You wouldn’t have hesitated in answering if you weren’t either getting it or planning on getting it from some other woman. Who is she?”

“There is no other woman,” Jim told her. And just to prove to her that there wasn’t, he said, “I’ll take the rain check.”

She gave him a tongue-thrusting kiss, then breezed through the door. Pausing on the sidewalk, she turned and waved at him. “Call me. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Jim watched her get in her little yellow sports car and drive away. He had the hard-on from hell. His body wanted a woman in the worst way. Not Robyn Granger in particular, just a woman. Any woman.

Chapter 15 (#uf0f29a13-839e-557e-a55f-f4749208704f)

He had left Thomasina weeping. The stupid cunt. She thought that by being compliant and meek, she could fool him. But he wasn’t fooled, not in the least. She didn’t love him the way he needed to be loved, the way he deserved to be loved. She was like all the others, nothing more than a beautiful whore who lied as easily as she breathed. She told him she loved him and begged him to make love to her, but she was as big a disappointment as Stephanie had been. And Jacque. And …

Why was he doomed to suffer, to believe he’d found true love, only to have his hopes dashed? But he wouldn’t give up. He couldn’t. He was more determined now than ever to find the perfect woman, his perfect mate.

He had found her once, years ago, his perfect girl.

Even now, her name was like music to his ears. Soft and sweet and beautiful. He had loved her, been obsessed with her, would have died for her. She had promised him her heart and her body.

No! Stop thinking about her. Don’t remember what happened. Remembering hurts too much. It will rip you apart allover again.

He had to forget the past and concentrate on the here and now. For her sake and his, he had to set Thomasina free. And he had to do it soon. In the beginning, he’d had such high hopes, such fabulous dreams of what it would be like for them. He had wanted her to be “the one.” Everything about her had seemed so right. She was young and pretty, with lustrous dark hair and a bewitching smile. And she was very popular. All the guys liked her, wanted her, dreamed of fucking her. But she didn’t want any of them. Not the way she wanted him. She’d been waiting for him, longing to be with him, had accepted all of his little gifts, each a special token of his affection.

She loved him.

But she didn’t love him enough to give him everything he needed. She tried, but she had failed over and over again. Maybe it wasn’t her fault that she couldn’t satisfy him, even though he satisfied her completely. He knew he did. She told him so. She liked all the things he did to her and always begged him for more.

Lies. All lies!

They had lied to him. Every single one of them. They had promised him everything, but never gave him enough. They’d always held something back.

But next time would be different. Wouldn’t it?

He parked, got out and locked his vehicle. She lived only a few blocks away, a quick and easy walk, especially if he went down the back alleys. At this time of morning when it was still dark outside, no one would see him. She didn’t have a security alarm, didn’t even have deadbolt locks. Getting inside her house should be easy. She would still be asleep. If he was very quiet and very careful, he could go inside, find her bedroom and watch her while she slept.

Maybe she sleeps in the raw.

His dick twitched.

As he hurried up the alley, he imagined what it would be like with her. She wouldn’t disappoint him. He felt sure that she would know how to please him in ways none of the others had. She had flirted with him, teased him, made him silent promises with those sultry looks she gave him.

You can watch her, but you can’t touch her. Not yet.

No, he wouldn’t touch her, wouldn’t begin their courtship until he ended things with Thomasina. He wasn’t the kind of man who betrayed one woman with another. With the others, he had known within a couple of weeks that their relationship wasn’t going to work out the way he had hoped. He and Thomasina had been lovers for nine days and already he knew he could never care for her the way he had his first love. And that’s what he wanted—to love and be loved with equal passion and devotion, to once again share what he had shared with her.

But she didn’t really love—

He hummed inside his mind, blotting out any negative thoughts about the past, shutting out the agony.

Just as he came up alongside the chain-link fence that ran the length of her property, separating her yard from the alley, he heard voices. Who was awake and outside at four-thirty in the morning? Stopping dead in his tracks, he looked and listened.

The shadows cast across her back porch, created by the blending of illumination from the moon overhead and the streetlight in front of her house, revealed the two dark silhouettes embracing.

She was giggling. He knew her laughter, recognized it instantly. But who was the man? It couldn’t be her husband. He was in the Middle East.

When he saw her kissing the man on her back porch, every muscle in his body tautened. She was his. How dare she give herself to another man!

But she’s lonely with her husband away. And she doesn’tknow that you want her, that you can offer her a love that istrue. A love that could be forever.

He crept out of the alley and into her neighbor’s backyard, being careful to keep hidden behind the trees and tall shrubbery.

“I wish you could stay,” she said, clinging to the man.

“You know I can’t. If anyone saw me …”

“I know. I know. But damn it, Ron, I’m sick and tired of sneaking around this way.”

Ron? She’d called the man Ron.