Читать книгу The Secrets of Bell River - Kathleen O'Brien - Страница 3

He wasn’t going to do this

Jude could read the expression on Tess’s face. She wanted him. More than that, he wanted her. Wanted to see where comfort took them.

But no. He wasn’t even going to think about doing this.

It probably would have been much, much smarter to let Tess go on believing he was a married man, a picked peach with a helpless infant depending on him. Because they wouldn’t be lovers, tonight or ever.

He’d felt the years of deprivation in her body, more skin-and-bones than slender. He’d felt the terrible, lifelong isolation that left her shocked that anyone was willing to catch her when she fell.

And he felt the hunger, far deeper than a lack of food. A chronic lack of love that made intimacy frighten her so much she fought it even when she was unconscious.

But no. He had sworn off wounded birds. And this beautiful little sparrow was as broken as they came.