Lauri Robinson Read Online Free

magnificent second.
    She let out an adorable little moan, and though he heard it with his ears, it was his heart that reacted, pounding against his rib cage like a hammer on a nail head. Those sweet and tender curves he’d admired for so long were molded against his, from chest to thighs, and had him hard in an instant.
    There were so many things he wanted to do, so many places he wanted to kiss and caress. So much he wanted to say. Dredging up fortitude from deep within, he kissed her tenderly, preciously, once more, and then lifted his face.
    Her breathing was rapid, matching his own, and he placed a tiny kiss on her brow, offering a touch of understanding. When she lifted her long, luscious lashes and looked at him with those magnetic eyes, emotion flooded his system. “I’m sorry, Della. I should never have said—”
    Della pressed a finger against his lips. “No. No,” she repeated, shaking her head. “I don’t still love him. I never loved Isaac. Not how a woman should love her husband.”
    Questions flooded Spencer’s mind. How could she have married Isaac if she didn’t love him? “You didn’t?” Beneath his fingers, she stiffened, and the color drained from her cheeks. “Della?”
    She stepped back, brushing her hands over the trim lines of her hips. “Spencer, I…ah…I…”
    Frustration rose within him at the sight of the indecipherable emotions that flew across her face.
    “You should leave,” she whispered.
    “I’m not going anywhere,” he insisted.
    She tilted her chin up, in that cute, determined way she had. “I won’t take your money.”
    He remained silent, holding in the immediate protest that formed on the tip of his tongue. He’d give all the longhorns he owned to know what she was thinking right now. Taking her hand, he led her into the kitchen. “Sit.”
    She glanced up, and for a moment he thought she’d refuse, but then she sat, and rested her folded hands on the tabletop. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs to stifle the urge to bear his soul. He fingered the vase that held a spray of sunflowers in the center of the table. “If you didn’t love him, why did you marry Isaac, Della?”
    Her gaze went to the flowers, and she plucked a few wilted yellow petals from the brown centers. He feared she wasn’t going to answer, but then, finally, after she’d formed a tiny pile of petals on the table, she asked, “Do you know what it’s like to not have a home? Not know where you’re going to sleep when the sun sets?”
    He thought of the cattle drives, but understood that wasn’t what she meant. “No, I guess I don’t.”
    “I do. Before Otis and I arrived in El Dorado for years we didn’t live in one place for more than a couple months at a time.”
    “Della—”
    She shook her head, stopping him from speaking. “By the time Isaac returned from school, Ester was already having spells. The doctor said it was her heart, that it was weak because of her bout with scarlet fever when she was a child.”
    He’d heard about the debilitating stroke Ester suffered shortly after Della had borne her second baby, and the one that took the woman’s life a few months later. “I didn’t know she was ill then,” Spencer admitted.
    A tender smile formed on Della’s lips. “She didn’t want anyone to know.” Letting out a long sigh, she pushed the vase back into the center of the table. “Otis hadn’t started his blacksmith shop yet, and I knew Ester’s death would mean we’d have to leave. Pack up and find jobs somewhere else.”
    A chill wrapped around his spine. “So you married Isaac instead.”
    Disgrace clouded her eyes and flushed her cheeks as she nodded.
    “You could—”
    “Please,” she interrupted. “Please don’t tell me what I could have done.”
    Spencer nodded, not sure what else to do. He’d never given much thought to those that didn’t have a home, had no idea how that might affect someone.
    “Would you like some coffee?” she asked.
    The