Free Married for Christmas (Willow Park) by Noelle Adams

Don’t sound so
impatient with her.”
    “It sounds like she’s digging her way through the floor.”
    “She’s not going to hurt the floor.” Worried Daniel would
get annoyed, Jessica hauled herself out of bed and limped over to the dog. She
patted Bear’s back until the dog settled down.
    Since she was up, she went to the bathroom and cleaned
herself up a little.
    She was still limping slightly as she returned to bed.
    “You okay?” Daniel asked as she climbed in beside him.
    She didn’t answer. Just gave him a speaking look that she
was sure he could read even in the dark.
    “You’re limping.”
    “I’m a little sore. It’s not that bad.”
    Maybe she should act more delicate and get him to take care
of her, but she’d never been any good at doing that.
    She scooted toward him and was relieved when he wrapped an
arm around her.
    It felt nice, to sleep against him. Almost as nice as their
lovemaking had been.
    She’d thought for a long time that she’d never have a man to
sleep against.
    ***
    It had been a really long day, and
she fell asleep almost immediately.
    She woke up around two in the morning, however, and rolled
instinctively toward Daniel’s side of the bed.
    It was empty.
    It took a moment to orient herself, but this was indeed the master
bedroom of the manse, and Bear was snoring softly from her corner.
    Daniel just wasn’t in bed.
    The bathroom door was opened, so he wasn’t in there.
Concerned, she got out of bed and walked barefoot out to the hall.
    The other bedrooms were all empty, so she went downstairs.
    She found him in the small room they’d made his study, where
he’d set up walls of bookcases and placed his old desk.
    He sat at his desk, reading his Bible. She couldn’t tell if
he was doing devotions or trying to work.
    “What are you doing?” she asked.
    He jerked, obviously surprised by her presence. “Nothing.
Just reading. You should go back to bed.”
    “Why are you reading down here in the middle of the night?”
    “I couldn’t sleep.”
    She frowned, wondering if he’d always been in this bad habit
of getting up in the wee hours or if tonight was somehow special. He’d never
had workaholic tendencies—at least none she’d been aware of. “You need to rest.
This can’t be good for you.”
    He smiled, but his expression was a little distant. Not like
earlier at all. “I’m fine, Jessica. Seriously. Go on back to bed.”
    She understood his resonance clearly. She wasn’t welcomed in
his study—not at the moment anyway. She started to turn away.
    She was very inexperienced with sex. Very inexperienced with
marriage. Very inexperienced with men .
    But she was sure—she was absolutely sure—this wasn’t right.
    She turned back. “Can’t you do that later? You should come
to bed.”
    He released a long sigh and straightened up. She could see
from his expression that he was trying to think of an excuse, a reason not to
return to bed with her.
    As he thought, his eyes rested on a framed picture on his
desk. The photo of Lila. He must have pulled it out tonight, since he hadn’t
set it up in his study before.
    When he saw she’d noticed the photo, he silently slid a
drawer opened and started to put the picture away.
    “You don’t have to put it up,” she said in a rush, her heart
aching for so many reasons. “I’d never want you to hide her picture. I’d never
want you to pretend she wasn’t important to you.”
    His features twisted—strangely, in a way she almost never
saw. He was nearly always in control, of his words, his behavior, even his
facial expressions. “It doesn’t seem right—to keep her photo out like this when
I’m married to you. I don’t want you to ever think I don’t... I don’t want to
hurt you.”
    She was hurt, but it was irrational. Their lovemaking
had felt intimate, important to her. It had made her want to be even closer to
him. But it must have been different for him, since he’d run away from her. She’d
like to