AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She turned to face the river at the last moment, her back exposed as she let the shirt fall to the ground. That ugly hat she wore followed the shirt before she unbraided her hair. The braid left her long locks in tight curls that fell to brush along her hips. When she brought her hands up to cover her breasts, then looked at him over one shoulder, he knew whatever had gotten into her was gone. Her cheeks were red and she wouldn’t make eye contact.
“You can turn around any time now.”
“I thought you were going to give me a show.”
“You wish.” She raised her head and gave him a hard look. “Now turn around.”
He sighed and tipped up the front of his hat with one knuckle before doing as she asked, tucking both hands under his arms and strained to hear every move she made. When he heard the first splash of water he looked back just in time to see her lily white behind sink beneath the water. He turned when she surfaced a few moments later.
“Did you look?
“Now why would I do that?”
She laughed. “Because you’re a cussed ole’ goat who don’t listen.”
A smile tugged at his lips despite her insult. He faced her and shook his head. “You know, you have a very low opinion of me. Is that any way to treat your husband?”
“This marriage isn’t real.”
“Only because you say it isn’t.”
“It takes more than words on a piece of paper to make people married, you know.”
He knew all right and smiled. “Is that an invitation?”
She scoffed and swam backward away from the shore. “Not hardly.”
Removing his hat, he scratched his sweaty head, mussing his hair in what he imagined was a mess of tangles. “I’m thinking it was. It’s why you started taking that shirt off while facing me. You want this but you’re too stubborn to admit it.”
She was treading water, her arms in constant motion to keep her afloat and ever so often, the top curve of her breasts was visible. She said nothing as she stared at him and he knew in that moment he could tease her all night but it would change very little. She wasn’t ready to admit she had any feelings for him and until she did, all the words in the world wouldn’t make her admit she felt something for him. Hell, maybe everyone was wrong and she disliked him as much as she told him she did.
Either way, he wasn’t a fool. He knew she’d been trying to put distance between them the past several days and he’d been pushing back twice as hard to stay as close to her as he could but truth be told, he was tired. Tired of the constant rejection. He could only take so much before his pride would be permanently bruised. He couldn’t continue to get beat down by her words and not feel the sting of them. He wasn’t that teenage boy who kept wishing and hoping she’d come around.
He put his hat back on and crossed his arms again. “Is that what you really want, Alex?”
“What?”
“For this marriage to be nothing but words on a piece of paper?”
Her mouth opened but she didn’t say anything. He watched her for long minutes, the answer clear on her face despite her unwillingness to say it out loud. “I’ll be over there a ways to make sure no one bothers you. Finish your bath. Your virtue is safe with me.”
In all theyears they’d known each other, Alex had never seen him look so beat.
The last rays of the sun were sinking below the horizon but she could still see enough of Jesse’s face to know he’d finally given up. He was going to leave her alone.
The relief she should have felt was missing, instead, her chest ached to the point of pain.
She looked around the area, the growing darkness closing in on her, and a sudden chill crept into her bones. Jesse had walked away as he said he was going to do but for some reason, her skin tingled as if she was being watched.
Swimming to the shore, she covered her breasts with her arms and stood on her toes to see where Jesse had gone. She could barely make out his form in the darkness. He was true to his word but was closer to camp than she thought he’d go.
The sensation of being watched was still there and she tried to cover as much of herself as she could before grabbing the soap Isaac had given her and quickly returning to the water.
She made quick work of washing, lathering her hair twice and grabbing a few of the smaller pebbles near the shore to scrub the grime off every inch of her skin. When she was as clean as she would get, she hurried to the shore and wiggled into her dry clothes, which wasn’t easy to do being wet.
She washed her dirty clothes best she could, as Owen and the others had done, and was slipping her boots back on when she heard the reeds along the bank rustling. She froze, listening to whatever it was come closer.
Every sort of creature she could think of came to mind before she snatched up her things and ran.
