Verwandte Artikel zu Only With You

Only With You - Softcover

Sydes, Libby

 
9780440222330: Only With You
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0440222338 ISBN 13: 9780440222330
Verlag: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, 1998

Inhaltsangabe

When a New Mexico teacher risks losing her job and her reputation following an impulsive kiss behind the schoolhouse, tall and rugged Thorne steps in to offer Jennifer marriage in order to save her, but marriage may not be enough for a woman who dreams of love. Original.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Winner of several awards for historical romance, Libby Sydes continues to immerse herself in the joys and trials, heartaches and triumphs of her characters.  A former teacher, she now resides in Florida and divides her time between writing and her husband, three children, and dog, Beowulf.  <br><br>She loves to hear from readers c/o Dell Publishing.

Aus dem Klappentext

a marriage of convenience, and it ended in all-consuming love....<br><br>An impulsive kiss behind the schoolhouse and Jennifer Delaney's reputation was shot! Now she was about to lose her job and her beloved ranch--until a tall, rugged man named Thorne stepped in. The father of one of her students, Thorne offered the ultimate rescue: marriage. Jenny would care for his four-year-old son and he would save her ranch and her reputation. A marriage of convenience for a woman who dreamed of nothing less than love. . . . <br><br>Jenny had known Ian Thorne a lifetime ago. Together they had shared a privileged Southern childhood, until Ian was kidnapped and raised by Indians. Now he called himself only Thorne. A quiet, wary man of Comanche ways, Thorne was struggling to raise a young son alone, and trying hard to forget the pain of his wife's betrayal. But he had never forgotten Jenny. At first, Thorne had kept

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Jenny ran her finger along the stone lip of the fountain, lonely for the days of her childhood and the closeness of a family she had taken for granted.  "I should hope that if I ever died in childbirth, I would be missed."

"You would be."

It was simply said, yet there was an undercurrent, a forwardness, that was as welcome as it was unnerving.  Jenny looked at him.  "Is that honesty or truth?"

"Both."

"What's the difference?"

"The truth is that Ian is my given name, but in all honesty Thorne is what I go by now."

She smiled at the verbal jab.  "Point taken."

The moon cast cold, pale light over his angular features.  He was a handsome man, compelling in ways hard to define.  She had found it advantageous to study and distinguish her students in order to best meet their individual learning needs.  But she had not been able to fully define Thorne.  He was complacent one moment, coldly distant the next, friendly when it suited him.  His manner was wholly foreign to Jenny, and she found that she could not catalogue or characterize him.  For all his blunt, open attitude at times, he was still an enigma.

The breeze stirred the hair at her nape and sent chills down her spine.  The night was a screen, allowing them a privacy not possible in daylight.  An owl hooted in the distance, an eerie sound followed by its mate's answering call.  Marauding Indians used the sounds of nature to signal each other, and Jenny had learned early upon her arrival west to listen for the differences in friend or foe.

There had been no attacks on the ranch for years, but still her guard was raised by even the most innocent noise.  A coyote howled again, sending another rash of chills along her arms.  She pulled her shawl more tightly around her shoulders.  It was a night for secrets, for honesty, perhaps even a small liberty.  Hannah's request crept into Jenny's thoughts again, insidious as a snake, always hiding on the fringes ready to strike.  She admitted that her own avid interest had a lot to do with her willingness to be an accomplice.

She studied Thorne and wondered how he would react to such an intimate topic.  "If I asked you a personal question," she began, "would you answer me, no matter how improper?"

She caught a change in his expression, a hesitation, then reluctance.

"How personal?"

"Not terribly personal"--the very thought made her blush, and she was thankful for the gentle subtlety of darkness--"but unconventional, out of the ordinary, sort of educational." She quit rambling and came to the point.  "What exactly does a married couple do in the marriage bed?"

If she had fired a Colt repeating rifle between his eyes, he would not have been more shocked.

He reared back and stared at her.  "What?" The question came out in a near shout that echoed across the patio.

Abashed, Jenny faced him with all the hauteur she could dredge up to cover the obvious breakdown of her moral and mental faculties.  She hadn't meant to ask the question quite so bluntly, especially of him, but there was no backing out now.  "The details, I mean.  You were spouting honesty.  Be honest."

"No!"

"Why not?"

Because she had caught him off guard, had sent a boulder-size shock wave ricocheting through him.  He was still reeling from the impact.  "Just because."

Her chin set stubbornly.  "Because why?"

He leveled her with a look.  "Because it's not my place to explain the ways of a man and woman to you."

"It's not anyone's place!" she fired back in resentment.  "No one wants to tell an unmarried girl what happens."

"You own a horse ranch, Jenny.  You can't convince me that you don't already have some pretty good ideas of what goes on."

"I do," she said, "but that doesn't mean I have it all sorted out, step by step, exactly as it should be done."

He leveled her with an accusing stare.  "And why would you need to?"

"I don't.  It's a matter of education." She felt guilty and out of sorts but refused to back down at his tone.  "I promised a friend I would find out, but I'm beginning to think there is a reason women are kept so ignorant.  Is it so bad that men don't want us to know everything ahead of time? If it is such a part of instinct and nature, why do parents shy away from even the most basic discussion?"

She was on a crusade now, all her pent-up frustrations with the world pouring out on one unsuspecting man.  "Is it so terrible that men purposefully try to keep women uninformed until its too late? Is it so horrible--"

"No." Thorne smiled suddenly.  It was a wolf's smile, cunning and intense.  He leaned forward, his own expression full of secrets.

Her feistiness began to dwindle at the strange look in his eyes, but she had come too far to back down now.  "Then why?"

His eyes were cold and bright as the moonlight.  "Are you sure you want to know?"

She swallowed hard.  "Yes."

His voice went low, almost purring.  "No one tells unmarried women because it makes them want to do it."

She jerked back.  "It does not!"

His laughter was so insulting, Jenny wanted to slap him.  She stiffened in indignation, a mass of wounded feelings and irate embarrassment.  "Fine, don't tell me.  I didn't want to know anyway.  Like I said, I was asking for someone else."

Sure she was.  Reaching over, he tweaked a curl by her temple, as if she were a child.  "Come back and ask me when you want to know for yourself."

Her gaze narrowed suspiciously on him.  "Why? Would you tell me then?"

He rose from the fountain, uncomfortable with the motives behind this brazen conversation.  "No," he said as he walked out of reach.  "But I might show you."

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Verlag
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
1998
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0440222338
ISBN 13 
9780440222330
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
384
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Dell GmbH
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DE.CustomerSupport@dell.com

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