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“Here in town. Married with kids.”
Liza thought about the folks she’d seen last night at the saloon and then the families today on the streets of town and said, “Lots of families in Wilder. Some really young couples too.” She recalled all of the faces she’d encountered in the past couple of days.
Jack set his fork aside as though he’d just lost his appetite. Sitting back in the booth, he said, “The reverend frowns upon premarital sex, so…”
“Lots of religions frown upon premarital sex,” she pointed out, not getting his meaning.
“Yeah, well, he takes it a little more seriously than most.”
“What, did he outlaw it?” she asked on a half-laugh, because Jack’s tight-set jaw told her this wasn’t really a laughing matter.
“Not legally,” he said. “But morally…”
Liza picked at her pasta, wondering what sort of stranglehold Reverend Bain had on this town. “Are you telling me teenagers get married just so they can have sex?”
“Not all of them.”
She shot him a curious look. Considering the way he’d made love to her earlier, with unquestionable expertise, she had to ask, “Have you ever been married?”
“Fuck, no,” he said, looking slightly mortified. She remembered how proud he’d seemed last night by his bachelor status.
“So apparently you’re impervious to the good reverend’s wrath,” Liza said. “Because what we did this morning in my cottage would easily earn us fifty Hail Marys and several Our Fathers apiece.”
He grinned at her suddenly, stealing her breath. “Darlin’, I don’t let anyone tell me what I can and can’t do. Or how I can or can’t make love to a woman. Especially one who gets me as worked up as you do.”
Liza bit back a smile as heat flushed her cheeks again. “Thank God for that,” she said of his strong conviction. “I’d have hated to miss what you did to me this morning.”
The prickly sensation between her legs reminded her how much she’d wanted the Devil in Blue Jeans last night. And this morning. How much she wanted him this very moment.
Going back to work on the World’s Largest Meatball to distract her raging libido, she said in between bites, “I guess casual dating is a little complicated in Wilder.”
Was that why the reverend had gone all stiff-shouldered when he’d seen Jack in her cottage? He’d likely drawn a very easy conclusion as to what they’d been up to.
“I’ve never dated anyone in Wilder,” Jack admitted. “And how everyone else in town handles the spiritual blackmail isn’t any of my business.”
She could feel the tension radiating from him as his muscles seemed to bunch. She wasn’t sure where the angst was coming from, though. W
as it because people in town let Reverend Bain guide their morality to suit his own beliefs? Or was there more to this issue than that?
Liza thought about the cottage and the notion she’d had earlier that Jack had fixed it up for someone. Had he decorated it for a woman? One he’d intended to live with there?
She eyed him speculatively as she polished off the meatball and went to work on the pasta. The fantastic food was doing wonders for her imagination.
In fact, Jack’s comment about not dating women in Wilder tickled the back of her brain until she had to ask, “So if you’ve never dated anyone in town, who do you…see?”
“Mostly women in Austin or San Antonio,” he said. “Though…not for some time now. Gets complicated with the distance and schedules and whatnot.”
So maybe the woman he’d intended to shack up with hadn’t wanted to leave city life for country life—or single life for married. Liza could see that. And yet…
She gazed at Jack again and thought, oh hell, no!
Even if she hadn’t chucked it all of her own accord, she could give up being city mouse for country mouse if it meant spending every night with this man!
And the fire between her legs backed up her conviction.
He was hot, tempting and damn sexy. But there was so much more lurking beneath the hunky veneer. He was intense and thoughtful. This guy had stuff on his mind and Liza wanted to know what it was. Because even though he was playing it cool most of the time, the moments of raw intensity she saw told her there were some deep-seated issues making his brain churn.
She was too fascinated with him not to want to crack the nut.
