Excerpt of What a Woman Desires by Rachel Brimble

Monica stared at the man’s partially revealed profile,
obscured by the shadow of his hat. Familiarity she
couldn’t place swept over her. He was tall, almost a foot
taller than her, his shoulders broad and his biceps
thick. Her gaze drifted along the sinewy forearms
revealed by his rolled shirtsleeves. A laborer. She
lifted her gaze to his face as he glared at their
attackers. His jaw was chiseled despite the stubble that
grazed it. She swallowed as shameful intimidation and
attraction rolled through her. She imagined his eyes were
the deepest blue. . . .

“Get up.”

The sound of his deep, rough voice a second time sliced
through her appraisal and Monica stiffened.

“Get up now,” he growled.

Her breath knotted in the center of her chest. “Thomas?”

He turned and their gazes locked for the briefest moment
before he looked to the men once more. It was barely a
second, maybe two, that he’d looked at her, but the
intensity of his gaze lingered on Monica’s skin, burning
white-hot heat through her clothes to sear deep into her
flesh just the way it had years before. Her heart picked
up speed and her body warmed with a desire she hadn’t
known in so very long. To trust a man implicitly, to know
he cared for her and those closest to her was a rarity
she’d taken for granted throughout the years she’d lived
in Biddestone.

Her time away had taught her more than Thomas would ever
understand. Shame pinched hot at her cheeks. No matter
her previous connection with him, the men she’d met since
had made her doubt her instincts and not dare to trust
again. Yet, the life lessons she’d endured would do
nothing to soothe the undoubted scar she’d left on
Thomas’s sense of loyalty by leaving Marksville and not
once looking back.