Free Lora Leigh - Bound Hearts3 by Lora Leigh Page B

what you want for him. We’re friends, and I want your happiness above anything. So I want to help you do this.”
    Terrie tilted her head, watching the other woman closely. For once, Tally’s dark gaze held no mockery, no laughter.
    “No wonder Jesse doesn’t ever know what to make of you,” she whispered softly. “You’re like him, Tally. Unselfish…”
    Tally snorted as she rose quickly to her feet. “No way, Terrie. I’m very selfish. When we’re done, you’re helping me get that job at Conover’s. Your man is a lousy boss. Hell, he caught onto his own filing as though he’s supposed to do it himself,” she grunted. “So never fear, it comes with a price.”
    Terrie hid her smile. She had never known what a true friend she had. But she did now. The nights Tally had forced her out of the house, getting her drunk, tattooed, pierced. Terrie remembered those bleak days clearly. Days when she had fought to make sense of her life, and who she was. Days she had wondered if Thomas had been right. If she was truly less of a woman than she had ever believed. Never enough woman for a man like Jesse.
    “Okay, we can do this,” she announced. “He’ll be here in less than an hour. I’ll get him in the handcuffs, Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    but he’s going to be pissed.”
    “Of course he will.” Tally smiled. “That’s the best part.” She rubbed her hands together with mocking eagerness. “Can we blindfold him?”

Chapter Ten
    Terrie was waiting for Jesse when he stepped slowly into the bedroom. The house was dark, lit only by the candles that showed the way from the front door, up the stairs and into her room. The bedroom was lit by dozens of the small scented candles, casting his expression in shadow. But she caught a glimpse of his somber expression as he stepped into the room.
    Tally was waiting on the screened-in back porch, watching for the bedroom light to flicker. The sign that she could enter. What Terrie had to say to Jesse, she wanted no one else to hear.
    She watched as he pushed his hands into his slacks’ pockets, watching her carefully, his green eyes quiet, reflective as she sat on the bed, dressed only in the short silk gown she had donned.
    “Why do I have a feeling you want to talk first?” he quipped almost too seriously.
    “Because you know me that well,” she said softly, watching him a bit sadly. “You always have. Even when I was too young to know what it meant. And when I was too stupid to accept what it was.”
    He leaned against her dresser, watching her quietly. Terrie felt her chest tighten at the flood of emotion that washed over her. He was so strong, even now, as he watched her uncertainly, his eyes brilliant with all the emotions she had never realized were there before.
    “You were never stupid, Terrie,” he said quietly. “Frightened. Innocent…”
    “And too stupid to know what I was feeling or what I wanted,” she finished for him. “I love you, Jesse. I always have loved you.”
    He frowned, his expression brooding, intense. “I know that, Terrie. I always knew that.”
    She tilted her head. He wasn’t lying. She could see just how very serious he was.
    “And you love me,” she whispered, fighting her tears. “You loved me, before Thomas.”
    He breathed out roughly. “Before Thomas, during Thomas, now,” he growled. “Love doesn’t just turn off, Terrie. What do you want me to say?”
    It was there in his voice. Husky, controlled, endearingly honest. If there was one thing she knew about Jesse, it was that he would never lie to her about his feelings for her. He might not tell her something she Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    needed to know, but he wouldn’t lie to her.
    “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked him roughly. “Why didn’t you let me know, Jesse, instead of leaving me in the dark?”
    “How, baby?” He shrugged, though she saw