Free When a Texan Gambles by Jodi Thomas Page A

I’m leaving you,” he threatened.
    “Then leave. When you pass out and fall off the wagon, don’t float by here and expect me to fish you out.”
    He’d had all he could take. Slowly he lowered himself from the wagon and walked toward her.
    If she had any sense, she’d run. But he knew she’d stand her ground. Something more than memory told him she hadn’t backed down from him one step since they’d met. For most people, the length of a room wasn’t far enough away from him. She must not have an ounce of self-preservation in her entire body.
    When he stood in front of her, he noticed how tiny she was compared to his bulk. Didn’t she know he could break her in two as if she were no more than a dried twig?
    “Well?” he asked.
    “Well.” She took a breath and held it as if she were making herself bigger, more frightening.
    Sam wrapped his arm around her waist and lifted her up against his chest. “You are going with me, not staying here to care for invisible children.”
    “I’m staying.” She pointed her finger at him as though it were a weapon. “So put me down.”
    Sam had been fighting the torture of her nearness for two days. The hunger for food was nothing compared to the hunger he felt to touch her. But he wasn’t an animal like some men he’d known, who would take a woman just because she was there for the taking.
    If he were honest, though, he’d have to admit that he thought about holding her more than once. And a few times he’d wanted to return the touch she had so frequently given him.
    She was already his. She’d told him so herself. He even remembered bits and pieces of the wedding. Sarah was his and he’d spent every waking hour not touching her while she’d patted and poked on him like a kid at an ant bed.
    “Well?” She glared at him with those sky blue eyes. “Put me down!”
    Sam lowered her to the ground without removing his arm from around her. The hint of honeysuckle drifted in the air, and he guessed she’d used the sliver of soap she had left to wash up. Before he thought of why, he leaned forward and kissed her hard on the mouth.
    She didn’t fight, or try to push away, but she didn’t kiss him back, either. She felt stiff and cold, as if his advance had stopped her blood from flowing. He couldn’t even feel her heart beating. It was as if he’d caught a butterfly and held it a little too tightly.
    When he straightened, he let go of her and said two words he’d never said in his life. “I’m sorry.”
    If she had yelled at him, or slapped him, or swore to kill him, Sam would have felt better. At least she would have reacted. But she did nothing. The nothing hurt worse than anything she could have thought to do.
    She didn’t back away from him now, he admired her for that. She stood right where he’d planted her and said, “You got a right, I guess. But don’t expect me to take any part of your handling me. I’ve been told men have needs that sometimes they can’t help but force on a woman.” Her chin rose slightly. “All I ask is that you don’t hurt me overly if you plan on not honoring our bargain.”
    “What bargain?”
    She stared at him with a hint of fear sparkling in her eyes. “You said if I helped you out back there in the bar that you would owe me one.”
    “I did.” Sam had no intention on going back on his word but he couldn’t remember. “Name your price.”
    “I ask one thing only. I probably should have said something earlier, but with you so hurt, I didn’t see that there was a need.”
    “Ask.” Sam wasn’t sure he wanted to hear her words, but he knew he could wait no longer.
    “I ask that we not become fully man and wife.... I ask that you not bed me until I’m ready. Just for once in my life I want my body to belong to me for the giving. I’ll be a wife to you in all other ways, I promise.”
    The request seemed simple, but Sam saw the importance of her favor reflected in her eyes. He knew little of her past, but he saw