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“You didn’t,” Adam said, stepping back farther. Nora just watched him, a mixture of emotions flitting across her face. Confusion. Frustration.Hunger.
He knew exactly how she felt.
“If you ladies will excuse me,” he said, nodding at each of them, “it appears I have another job to find.”
Martha bit her lip, but if she meant to keep her smile in check, it didn’t work. Not that he could blame her for laughing. Really, at this point, his situation was nothing short of ridiculous. He spared one last glance for Nora, who looked like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to become one with the wall or chase after him.
He spared her the decision and hightailed it out of there.
What had he been thinking, pulling her aside like that? Touching her like that? He’d only meant to talk to her, but the moment he’d had her alone, her eyes locked on his, her clean, woodsy scent invading his senses, the only thought in his head had been how badly he wanted to kiss her.
Her words echoed in his mind.You already did. And for a split second, he’d wanted to give in. Agree. Sign whatever she wanted, then drag his wife back to her house and show her what being married entailed.
What had she done to him?
One week. One week was all it had taken for her to do the impossible and make matrimony seem tempting. And now he was living under her roof…well, sort of. Close enough. With a woman who apparently had no qualms whatsoever about convincing him to give in, using any means necessary. And he was growing less and less capable of fighting her.
Fighting her? Hell, he’d damn near kissed her not three minutes ago, and it had been entirely his fault.
He needed to go see Preacher and see what he could do to move the annulment along. Because he wasn’t sure he would survive another week dodging his growing attraction to the tantalizing Miss Nora.
Chapter Seventeen
“Ow!”
Nora jerked her bleeding thumb away from the fence railing and pressed it to her lips.
Adam hurried over, concern stamped on his face. “What happened?”
“Nothing,” she muttered, glaring at her thumb. There was definitely something stuck in it. Probably a splinter. Lovely.
“Let me see it.” He pulled her thumb from her lips and brought it close to his face to inspect. So close his breath danced over the skin of her hand, sending a delicious shiver down her spine.
She didn’t fight him when he brought her hand even nearer, though she weakly protested, “It’s fine, really.”
“Hmm,” he murmured, his thumb rubbing across the soft skin of her inner wrist and up to the base of her thumb. “Looks like you have a nice splinter in there. Do you have something to treat this? Bandages?”
She nodded, though she knew she was frowning at him. She tried to school her features into a disinterested mask. But that was impossible to do with Adam’s thumb leaving tingles in its wake where it still moved softly over her skin.
She led him inside to where her small basket of medical supplies sat and let him deposit her in a chair while he went to rummage for what he needed.
“I can take care of it,” she said, though a large part of her wanted to keep her mouth shut. Still, she didn’t want him to think she was taking advantage of him or putting on an act. She’d been taking care of herself for quite some time. She was certainly capable of bandaging one nicked thumb.
“I’m sure you can,” he said, dropping to his knees before her. “But it wouldn’t kill you to let someone take care of you for a change.”
She opened her mouth, but not a sound came out. He moved closer, giving her that slow, sweet smile that melted her insides and turned her heart into a gooey pile of mush.
He pulled a rather large knife from a sheath near his gun holsters and brought it to her finger, and she let out a little squeak of protest.
“Shush,” he said, concentrating on her thumb. “This won’t hurt. Much.”
He made quick work of it, using just the tip of the knife to cut away the top layer of skin above the splinter. Once the splinter was revealed, she expected him to use the knife again to lift it from her flesh. Or maybe pull it out with his fingers.
Instead, he raised her thumb to his lips and drew it into his mouth. She sucked in a breath, not bothering to pretend she wasn’t affected when his gaze locked onto hers and he sucked on her thumb. Hard.
A line of heat shot straight to her core, tightening the muscles low in her belly and leaving her fighting the sudden haze of pure desire burning through her veins.
Adam slowly drew back, finally releasing her thumb from the wet heat of his mouth. She stared at him, trembling, her breath coming in strangled gasps that she tried in vain to control. He gave her that slow, sensual grin and then stuck out his tongue and plucked the splinter off it.
