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“Thank you,” Martha said, waving goodbye.
Nora clicked at the horses, trying to resist the urge to follow the wet trail Adam had left down the middle of the dirt road. It was just sheer, morbid curiosity as to what that man might get up to next. It had nothing at all to do with the fact that if she did follow the trail, she might find him naked and fully submerged in a bath of hot water.
Nothing at all.
Then again…meeting him in the bathhouse might just solve all her problems. She knew she wasn’t what most men found attractive. She was too tall, too sturdy, too…independent for most of them to glance at her twice. They wanted someone small and soft, someone who needed them. That wasnotNora.
But she’d caught Adam’s gaze lingering on her more than once. And not in the way any other man had ever looked at her. She wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but he had to be at least alittlecurious. If nothing else, he was a man. He would be there, naked. A naked man presented with a willing woman probably wouldn’t turn her away.
Though,wasshe willing? Was this something she really wanted to do?
It would solve the whole marriage problem, certainly. Preacher wouldn’t annul a marriage that had been consummated. And while she had no desire to be a wife, that didn’t mean she didn’t have the desire to indulge in a few wifely benefits. She would like to know what it felt like to be touched by a man she desired. To be kissed and caressed. To be wanted in that way, in any way, even if it was for a short time. And while she didn’t want Adam as a permanent husband, he did…intrigue her in other ways. In all the ways that counted for this particular plan.
If she could seduce her wayward husband, she’d get to feel all that. It would be nice to experience it at least once. And, more importantly, with annulment off the table, Adam would surely see reason and grant her a temporary marriage.
Not that she had any earthly idea how to go about seducing someone. But one thing was for certain. She couldn’t do anything from where she was. Maybe if she went to the bathhouse and just talked to him. Saw how things went…and then took the seduction plan from there. It couldn’t be that difficult, could it?
She sat for a few more seconds, her eyes fixated on the rapidly approaching fork in the road. She didnotwant to follow him.
Half a heartbeat later, she sighed. Even she didn’t believe herself anymore.
She snapped the reins to get the horses moving faster, guiding them away from home. And toward the bathhouse.
Chapter Eleven
Adam groaned, letting the heat seep into his weary bones as he sank farther beneath the water. It had cost him extra money he couldn’t afford to spend to get a full bath of hot, clean water, but it was so worth it.
He hadn’t properly bathed since arriving in this godforsaken town, and remnants of his pathetic “disguise” lingered, no matter how he tried to scrub during his sponge baths. Add in manual labor he was not used to performing and his recent bath in liquor strong enough to make his eyes water, and yeah…he desperately needed a good, long soak. Even better, at this time of day, when most other men were out actually working, he had the place to himself. Or this particular room, in any case. And he fully intended on wringing every last penny’s worth of the time he’d paid for out of this bath.
He thoroughly scrubbed his body and washed his hair, twice, and then settled back to enjoy just soaking until the heat ran out.
Nothing about Desolation was turning out like he’d expected. But he was at least relatively sure Woodson wouldn’t be demanding to meet him with guns drawn any time soon.
No, he had a more pressing problem. Miss Nora Schumacher. The woman who would be his wife. Or who already was his wife.
He frowned. He had no idea how he should think of her. His overly religious mother would consider them wed, to be sure. Just the thought of telling his mother about the whole situation had him squirming like he was a child facing her stern reprimands again. But legally, at least, he didnotcurrently have a wife. And that’s the way he wanted to keep it.
He’d tried the whole love-and-marriage thing a time or two in the past. It had worked out about as well as anything else in his life. The first one had carved a hole out of his heart that would probably never heal, and the second had damn near succeeded in carving a hole out of his hide. Or shooting a hole through his hide, to be more accurate. Women, on the whole, were beautiful, amazing creatures…but he’d be a complete imbecile to even attempt to trust another one.
Not that the woman in question wasn’t intriguing. In fact, just the thought of her long, long legs and those flashing eyes had parts of him mightily intrigued. The part in question stirred beneath the water and he shifted, trying to ignore it. Dwelling on the enigmatic Miss Schumacher—and all the interesting things they could get up to if they were, in fact, married—led nowhere good. Matrimony was not a part of his future, and the sooner she understood that, the better. How he was going to convince her of that fact was another question entirely.
“You know, it can be dangerous to doze off in a bath,” a voice said behind him, and he nearly jumped from the tub with a strangled gasp.
He twisted to look around. Nora stood in the doorway, whisps of steam capturing a few of the stray tendrils of hair that had escaped her braid and making them adorably frizzy.
“What are you doing in here?” he asked, properly scandalized.
She walked farther into the room, and he slapped his hands into the water, covering all his important bits as she perched on the tub next to him.
“I wanted to talk to you,” she said.
“And it couldn’t have waited? How did you get in here anyway?”
“I’m friends with the owner.”
“Is there anyone you aren’t friends with?”
She shrugged. “Not really. And besides, we’re married. There’s nothing improper about it.”
