Free Sadie's Surrender by Afton Locke Page A

to be forbidden?
    “Knowing the obstacles doesn’t make them any easier to accept. I wish—” She turned her head away before she finished.
    “You wish what?”
    “I wish you’d never told me how you felt about me.” She wiped her eyes. “It was easier to assume you didn’t want me.”
    He gathered the papers into his waterproof sack, barely noticing how many pages he bent in the process.
    “I’ll find a desk for you tomorrow.”
    He turned and opened the door before his knees collapsed. Because he wished he could give away Rockfield’s and just about anything else, to have her.
    * * *
    At Rockfield’s the next day, Sadie sat in the lunchroom with Mama and Jimmy Clark. They occupied the end of a long, communal table near a window. She’d worked all morning in a small storeroom upstairs near Henry’s office. If anyone asked, she was supposed to be cleaning it up and organizing it. In reality, she was continuing to review the business paperwork and recent decisions.
    Not that she could concentrate much today. Seeing Henry in this setting after last night’s endless kissing was harder than she’d expected. The numbers on his papers swam before her eyes in a jumble because she kept imagining his tongue pressing against her lips. Begging her to let him inside. And when she finally had, her panties had flooded faster than high tide.
    But lust wasn’t the half of it. He’d pried open her heart, too, pushing aside every defense. There was no going back. The expression in his eyes when he’d told her she was beautiful would remain etched in her mind forever. No matter what happened.
    If only he hadn’t told her his true feelings. Never in her life had she felt so much despair and joy in one moment. What was the point in meeting the man who truly wanted her if she couldn’t have him?
    “How do you like your new job, Sadie?” Jimmy asked.
    With his big, kind eyes and reddish-dark skin, he was as handsome as ever. The plant’s fastest shucker, he was still quite a catch. After being in Henry’s arms, though, he didn’t interest her any more than the apple in her hand. She could hardly believe she’d once batted her eyelashes at him, trying to lure him away from Pearl. But Pearl had broken her engagement to him because she preferred a white Rockfield. And so did she…
    “It’s better than shucking,” she said.
    But seeing the man I can’t have all day is killing me.
    “It pays more, too,” Mama bragged.
    She gripped her mother’s thin arm. “Keep your voice down.”
    The less attention her new job received, the better. Because even though spending so much time around Henry was hard, it was better than not seeing him at all.
    Mama turned her attention to Jimmy. Sadie didn’t like the shrewd expression in her eyes. The same way she’d looked at her daughter this morning and said she’d heard some strange noises during the night.
    “You still ain’t married, are you?” Mama asked.
    “Not yet, Mrs. Johnson,” he replied.
    “Sadie here could use a new husband. You’d never believe what I caught her doing to herself one night.”
    The night she’d rubbed her breasts after her first meeting with Henry danced through her mind. She sank lower on the hard bench, wishing she could hide under the table.
    “Mama!” She seized her apple, ready to shove it into the woman’s mouth to quiet her. “I have no plans to remarry. Once was enough.”
    Jimmy’s gaze dropped to his sandwich. “Er, that’s good to know. I mean—”
    “It’s all right.”
    Sadie shoved her lunch away, having lost the rest of her appetite. Why couldn’t she and Henry be a couple so Mama would stop playing matchmaker? If she couldn’t have the man she wanted, she didn’t want anyone.
    “Well, if you ain’t interested in her, what kind of woman are you looking for?” Mama demanded.
    Outside the window, Jonathan Carter walked by with his sister. Sadie shivered at the sight of his pale-gray eyes. The tonic on his brown hair