LITMIR.BIZ

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to that preacher? Till death do us part, Billie Rae. And that, sweetheart, is the way it is going to be, come hell or high water. You understand me, or am I going to have to refresh your memory?

      As she spun the band in a circle, she thought about what Emma had said about fate. Did she believe in fate? Tanner had saved her tonight, he’d brought her to this house, to his stepmother, Emma, who had known instinctively what Billie Rae was going through.

      Maybe fate had brought her together with this family tonight, but Billie Rae knew she had to run again come morning.

      Slowly she took off the rings to set them on the bedside table. The diamond winked at her in the light of the star-filled night coming in through the sheer, billowing curtains.

       You really think it’s that easy to be rid of me?

      She got up, stood in the middle of the room, unsure what to do with the rings. Her first impulse was to throw them away, but common sense won out. The rings were worth money and she was going to need some if she hoped to stay free of Duane. She put them in the pocket of her slacks.

      As she climbed back into the bed and pulled the covers up, she felt stronger than she had since she married Duane. It had been fate that she’d met Tanner Chisholm and that he’d brought her to this house. She’d been ready to give up and go back to Duane, believing she had no choice.

      But now she felt as if she could do this. She would do this. She had let Duane Rasmussen bully her for too long.

      This time when she closed her eyes she pictured Tanner Chisholm’s face. But she didn’t kid herself that Duane wouldn’t be nearby waiting to ruin her sleep.

      TANNER WOKE TO SCREAMING. He bolted upright in bed, confused for a moment where he was. As everything came back in a rush, he swung his legs over the side of the bed, pulled on his jeans and ran barefoot down the hall.

      His conscious mind told him it was impossible that Billie Rae’s husband had found her here. That there was no way the man could be in the house. Worse, that he could have found the bedroom where she slept and—

      He shoved open the door. Faint light shone through the sheer curtains at the large window next to her bed. A shaft of light from the hallway shot across the floor, making a path into the room. Tanner felt his heart break at the sounds coming from the bed. He rushed to Billie Rae.

      She came out of the dream swinging her arms wildly. He didn’t have to guess who she was trying to fight off.

      “It’s me, Billie Rae. Tanner. Tanner Chisholm.”

      Her eyes were wild with panic. She blinked at the sound of his voice and slowly focused on his face in the dim light before bursting into tears.

      “You had a bad dream, but you’re all right,” he said as he sat down on the bed and pulled her into his arms. As he stroked her hair, he whispered, “It’s all right. You’re safe. You’re all right.”

      She clung to him, sobbing, her breathing ragged. He could feel her damp cotton nightgown against his bare chest. She was shivering uncontrollably from the cold, from whatever horror still clung to her from the nightmare.

      He held her close, continuing to stroke her hair and whisper words of comfort while all the time he wanted to kill the man who’d hurt this woman.

      “Your nightgown is damp with sweat,” he said after her breathing became more normal. Shadows played on the walls, the breeze whipped the sheer curtains and outside the window, a branch scraped against the house.

      As he started to pull away, she cried, “Please, don’t leave me.”

      “I’ll be right back. I’m just going to get you something warm and dry to sleep in.” He hurried to his room, rummaged through a drawer where he’d left some of his old clothing. He found a large soft-worn T-shirt and hurried back to Billie Rae’s room.

      She was sitting up in the bed, clutching the covers to her chest. He sat down on the edge of the bed next to her again. “Here, take off the nightgown and put this on.” He turned his back. He heard her behind him struggling to get out of the damp nightgown and knew she was still trembling from her nightmare.

      What had her husband done to her to make her so frightened? He recalled what he’d heard the man say outside the door at the fairgrounds. But he’d thought them merely angry words. It wasn’t until he’d seen the bruised area around Billie Rae’s eye that he’d realized why she was so afraid of her husband.

      Now he heard her pull on the T-shirt and lay back against the headboard.

      He turned to look at her, jolted again by that strong emotion he’d felt under the lights of the exploding fireworks. Her face was lovely in the faint starlight. He couldn’t imagine her ever looking more beautiful or desirable. Or vulnerable.

      “Do you think you’ll be able to sleep now?” he asked, starting to get to his feet, knowing what could happen if he stayed.

      Her hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. He slowly sat back down.

      There was a pleading in her brown eyes, along with flecks of gold.

      “You want me to stay?”

      She swallowed and he could see the battle going on inside her reflected in those big eyes. As he looked down, he saw that she’d taken off her wedding rings. There was a wide white mark where they had been.

      He raised his gaze to her eyes again. “Slide over. I’ll hold you until you fall asleep.”

      He saw relief, gratitude and something he didn’t dare think about too long in those eyes.

      She slid over and he lay down next to her. She moved closer as if desperately needing to know he was still there. He put his arms around her and drew her to him. She fit against him perfectly. He nestled his head against the pillow of her dark, luxurious hair and breathed in her scent. She smelled of soap and summer. He closed his eyes, feeling the steady beat of his heart in sync with hers.

      “Thank you,” she whispered. “I’m sorry that I—”

      “Shh,” he whispered. “I’ll be here as long as you need me.”

      BILLIE RAE WOKE IN THE wee hours of the morning from a wonderful dream. She lay very still, keeping her eyes closed as she tried to get back into the dream. But it stayed just out of reach, slipping further away, and she finally opened her eyes.

      She thought she was at home, so when the horrible dread she always woke with settled over her, she closed her eyes again, pleading silently for the dream and the man in it who had made her feel so loved. Like in the dream, the arms around her didn’t hold her as tightly as Duane’s did. Tanner held her gently, not as if he feared she would get away, but more like he wanted to keep her safe.

      With a start, she came fully awake. She had gotten away from Duane.

      Tanner shifted in his sleep and for a moment she feared he would let her go. She had never met anyone like him. She hadn’t dated all that much before she met Duane. In college, she’d had to get good grades to keep her scholarships and still help her mother, who had by then been diagnosed with cancer, so she’d had no time for a social life.

      She’d never been held this tenderly, never felt this safe and secure, never felt … the emotions she was experiencing at this moment—not even the first time she’d gone to bed with Duane. He’d been disappointed she wasn’t a virgin and that had spoiled their lovemaking for both of them. After that, he was always much rougher as if he was punishing her for losing her virginity to the boy she’d dated all through high school and thought she was in love with.

      Scott had been a nice boy, but just that—a boy.

      After high school, they’d gone to different colleges. They’d stayed in touch for a while, but had grown apart. Billie Rae had been thankful for that since she’d known by then that Scott wasn’t the person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

      She’d met Duane

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