Read Online Finding Jessie: A Mystery Romance by Eve Paludan - Free Book Online Page A

eating so they could talk.
    When she was finished, she plinked the fork down and told him that it had hit the spot. Then she asked him for a favor.
    “I’m getting kind of ripe. It has been five days since the accident. I can take myself to the bathroom, but I would really like to take a bath and shampoo my hair. I just don’t know if I can get in and out of the tub by myself.”
    He blushed and put down the Kindle Fire on the nightstand.
    “Are you saying that you want me to help you take a bath?”
    “Please,” she said, her blue eyes begging him. “Have mercy on me before I stink up your house.”
    He laughed. “You do not stink! But if you want a bath, you shall have a bath.” He walked into the bathroom, plugged the drain of the claw-footed tub and adjusted the water temperature for her. “All right, Jessie. It’s filling up for you. How do you like it? Warm or hot?” he called.
    “Almost hot! I’m not just dirty. I’m achy, too, from lying in bed.”
    “Anybody would be. Five days is a long time to just lie around.”
    “I know. I feel like I’m not earning my keep,” she said.
    “That is not for you to worry about, Jessie. Your job, right now, is to heal.”
    “Okay. Thank you.”
    He got out a couple of clean towels and when he turned around, she was at his side, naked, except for the sling.
    “I’m a little dizzy. Could you take off this darn sling, please? I just can’t manage it. If I don’t get my arm stretched out, I think I’m going to scream. My elbow’s cramping.”
    He removed the sling and gently helped her bend her arm. He saw her wince a bit.
    “Bad?”
    “Actually better than yesterday. I haven’t taken a pain pill today. I’m trying to wean myself off them, so I don’t have to be helpless and ask you for everything.”
    “That’s all right. I don’t mind.”
    She smiled at him, like some naked, bruised Venus in his bathroom. Even with all of the healing burns and bandages, she was beautiful.
    “I hope this isn’t too embarrassing for you, Sam. I know how shy you are.”
    Sam grinned and tried not to look at her breasts, never mind lower than that. “And you? Why aren’t you shy with me?”
    “Well, I can be shy and lay in your bed stinking, or I can be brazen and get a bath from you. It was a hard choice, but stinking is much more humiliating than being naked in front of you.” She paused. “I guess I trust you. I just realized that. Being naked usually in front of anyone throws me into a panic.”
    “You should trust me. I hope I haven’t given you any reason not to.”
    “You haven’t.”
    “Good.” He offered her his hand and she held onto it with her good arm to balance herself as he helped her into the clawfoot tub and helped her sit down slowly in the hot water.
    “Oh, that feels like heaven. I love your tub. It’s so long that I can float on my back.” She did so and closed her eyes.
    He stole a direct look at her while her eyes were closed. He could see every inch of her through the clear water. Her breasts were small and like little pink shells on her pale golden skin. Without any flab on her, her hipbones jutted out a bit, leaving an inward curve to her groin. A soft-looking downy mound of light red hair punctuated the juncture of her long legs. Everywhere he looked at her, she was like a beam of warm light, and he drew warmth from her, just from seeing her in his bathtub.
    He cleared his throat and put his razor and shaving gear out for her. “I don’t have any body wash, or whatever you gals use to smell so good.”
    She opened her eyes and sat up in the tub.
    “That’s okay. Regular soap and shampoo will be just fine.” She eyed the shaving gear. “No razor necessary. I kind of go natural all over. My leg hair is so sparse and light-colored that I don’t bother with the social custom of shaving. I hope you aren’t offended.”
    “Not at all. A lot of New England women don’t shave. But mostly, I think it’s because they are bundled