"Rosalyn West is one tremendous talent whose enthralling storytelling enraptures readers." - Romantic Times
"A Man's Touch is a tender, romantic and sensual love story! One of the best books this year!" The Literary Times
While running a desolate way station, a plain woman's lonely life changes when she finds herself caring for a stranger who is temporarily blinded in a stagecoach robbery, unaware that he's been hired to drive her off her land by any means necessary.
"A Man's Touch is an exciting western romance filled with two superb lead protagonists . . . a winning book by an author whose talent is a rare and shining experience." Affaire de Coeur
"Rosalyn
West is a fantastic storyteller! She knows how to wrap her words around her
readers' hearts! You won't want the story to end." The Literary
Times
"I appreciate all you've done. If the line doesn't repay you for your list of expenses, present them to me."
"A-a list?" Confusion lifted as a hot flush of temper rose behind it. "You think I was doing this for the pay?"
"Why else?"
"W-why else?" She gave a strangled laugh and stared at him, facing her loneliness and her hunger for his company. No amount could buy what he'd brought into her life, if only briefly and reluc-tantly. He'd given her a glimpse of how it could be, how it was supposed to be when a woman had a man to love and care for. But this was not her man. How had she let herself forget that over a little kiss?
"Why else? No, Mr. MacKenzie, I'm sure you wouldn't understand a motive other than personal inter-est. It is probably beyond your belief that such things as common decency or Christian compassion exist."
"Oh, I believe they exist, for a price."
Jude steamed at that arrogant summation, hurting that he should value her integrity so little. "A price. Yes, I should be considering my price. Let's see that'll be three meals a day plus room, linen changes, doctoring expenses, gauze, maid services, mopping up spilled coffee, around-the-clock nursing care, not to mention putting up with your bullying and vile disposition. Why, Mr. MacKenzie, are you sure you can afford me?"
Furiously, she surged to her feet, only to be snagged by the arm before she could storm out.
"Release me," she snarled. "You haven't paid for the privilege of pawing me. That must be an expense that sorely strains the budget of a man like you."
He yanked hard, pulling her down to the mattress next to him so they were seated face-to-face. "I'm sorry," he told her, meaning it. "It wasn't my intention to insult you." She readied to let go with another volley of angry words when he said simply, sternly, "Shush."
Then his questing hand found her. His fingertips fanned along the flare of her facial bones, moving lightly in graceful strokes, the way an artist would, upon the palette in his mind. He palmed the strong angle of her jaw, smiling in confirmation at its crisp, haughty cut. The pad of his thumb rode the soft swells and valleys of her lips, pausing to measure their sudden trembling. His forefinger drew a line up the straight ridge of her nose, following it to the arch of her brows before circling to do a delicate charting of her quivering eyelids. Lashes whispered against his hand like hummingbird wings.
"What color are you eyes?"
"Gray."
"Like steel or the dawn?"
"That depends upon my mood."
He smiled at that and brushed along her brow until fingers sank deep into her hair, raking gently, curling softly. "And your hair?"
"Brown."
"Like dark honey or sable?"
"Just brown."
"Brown." And the way he said it made it sound like the most glorious shade in the spectrum. "Smooth like silk."
Chills took her body, followed closely by a ferocious heat as he continued to scan her face with his fingertips, as if memorizing each detail, translating texture and topography into an image he could hold within his head.
At last, as his knuckles stroked down the line of her throat, over the jerk of her rapid swallowing, he crushed her dream with a husky pronouncement. "Beautiful. Just as I'd imagined."
Jude slipped from his grasp and was out the door before tears upon her plain face betrayed her.
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