Page 59 of West Wind

He stopped outside a simple boardinghouse. “We might as well spend the night here. Can’t put many more miles behind us today anyway.”

“Do you mean it?” she asked, her eyes widening with excitement. “We can sleep in a real bed, with pillows and sheets and… and...”

He looked down at her and clucked her chin with his brown finger. “Is that all you think about?”

“Shelley!” Heat rose in her cheeks.

He gave her a crooked grin. “You’re blushin’, darlin’.”

He rented a room for the night, ordered a hot bath for his wife, and left her alone. She didn’t want him to go. She never would’ve admitted it, but she was still scared. The wound he’d dismissed as a scratch horrified her, and she was haunted by the faces of the three dead men they’d left behind in their camp. The last thing she wanted was to be left alone.

As long as Shelley was with her she was fine. When he was close by her heart beat as steadily as his and her mind remained free of doubts about the future. When she was alone she wondered if she had any future at all.

Scared or not, she sank slowly into the hot water of the tin bathtub. A bath, a simple bath, was heaven. She lathered her hair with a bar of scented soap, then her face, her neck, every inch of her body that had been subjected to dust and sand and pesky insects.

Nearly an hour later she remained in the bathtub, her knees drawn up and her hair floating on the sudsy water. Her fingers were pruny, but she didn’t care. She looked up, startled, when a key turned in the lock and the door opened.

She stood as Shelley closed the door and locked it. “You’re gorgeous.”

“No one’s ever called me gorgeous before.” He grinned at her, tossing his packages on the bed.

She grabbed the white towel that lay folded on the floor beside the tub and wrapped it around her body, ignoring the water that ran down her legs and through her hair to the floor, puddling at her feet. She reached out to touch Shelley’s smooth jaw.

“You shaved your beard.” Her fingers danced along his jaw and over his clean-shaven cheeks. “It makes you look younger and… absolutely gorgeous.” She smiled as she leaned closer to kiss his smooth cheeks, then his top lip. Even his mustache was gone.

“Well, there was a barber shop next to the general store, and I was long overdue—” Her kisses silenced him. He wrapped his arms around her, loosening her towel and dropping it to the floor.

“You need a bath,” she whispered, unbuttoning his torn shirt, unbuckling his belt.

She made no move to replace the towel he’d removed as she stripped him. Why bother? When he was as naked as she was she assisted him into the tub, careful not to get his bandage wet. He sat in the cooled water while she soaped his chest, leaning over and into him. Her hair fell across his body as she bathed him, her hands often dipping boldly beneath the surface of the water.

Impulsively she leaned over so she could reach deeper into the tub and kiss him, just a light brush of her lips against his. He grabbed her without warning and pulled her over the edge. The soap went flying and she landed in his lap with a splash.

She settled herself comfortably, her knees drawn up and pressed to his hips. “Now look what you’ve done.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again, more thoroughly this time. “What were you thinking? This tub is too small for both of us.”

He pulled her closer. “Seems just right to me.”

They stood, Shelley keeping his good arm around her. “But I’ll be damned if I finally get you into a room with a real honest-to-God bed and we end up in a… in a gosh darn tin bathtub.”

“Gosh darn?”

“Well, you did ask me not to curse so much.”

“I did, didn’t I?” She stepped out of the tub.

“It’s not as easy as it sounds,” he groused.

He held her hand as she led him across the room. She was still worried about his injury, careful not to bump his left arm at all, her gaze occasionally drifting to the bandage.

“Don’t worry about that, darlin’.”

He moved her toward the bed, kissing her lightly, drying her half-heartedly with the damp towel, pushing his parcels to the floor. One package landed with a loud thud; she jerked her head around.

“What was that?”

“Later.”

He pushed her onto the waiting bed and lowered himself gingerly beside her.