Read Online Genevieve: Bride of Nevada (American Mail-Order Bride 36) by Cynthia Woolf - Free Book Online Page B

wanted to make love to her in the worst way and have all that black hair spread out beneath them on the pillow.
    She wasn’t paying him much attention as she undressed, so he drank his fill watching her. With each piece of clothing she removed he desired her more. Tonight he’d get to hold her without the encumbrance of clothes. He couldn’t wait to feel her skin under his fingertips and yet he dreaded the situation at the same time. What if he lost control? He was close to doing so now.
    The thought of Genny naked in his arms nearly undid him. Perhaps they should just stay wrapped in their blankets as they slept. That arrangement would be much safer…for him.
    She bustled around using the water in a bucket on the counter to wash the dishes, getting them ready for the next person who needed the shack.
    “Where will we get the water to replace this bucket and fill the coffee pot again?”
    “There’s a stream not far from here. I’ll fill them in the morning before we leave.”
    Genny nodded and kept glancing at the bed. She went to the shelves in the kitchen and grabbed something off of one of them.”
    “Do you play cards? Faro? Poker? Whist?” She took cards from a box. Her face lit up as though she’d answered a difficult question.
    His eyes widened. “You know how to play poker?”
    She smiled. “Yes, one of the nuns taught me. She apparently had been quite good before she gave up everything to marry God.”
    He grinned. “I’d suggest strip poker but if either of us loses, the game is over. So how about five card draw? We’ll use matchsticks for money.”
    “Done.” She put the cards on the table and went to get the matches making two piles before shuffling the cards.
    Genny dealt like a pro.
    “You and that nun must have played a lot.”
    She grinned. “Just about every night after the other nuns went to bed. Prepare to be trounced.”
    They played for hours. Genny cackled after every hand she won and frowned when he won—which wasn’t often. She was very good at poker.
    “If you ever want some spending cash, get the boys to play poker. You’d clean them all out in a few hands.” He pointed at his dwindling pile of matchsticks. “I think now would be the time to go to bed. You’ve won practically all of my match sticks and we’ll have to leave early if we can.”
    “And if we can’t? If there is too much snow?”
    He frowned. “We’ll face that problem when we have to.”

CHAPTER 6

    “Shouldn’t we put both blankets over us and put our bodies together for warmth?”
    Genny was the one that made the suggestion, much to his surprise.
    “Aren’t you worried I’ll take advantage of you?”
    Genny rolled her eyes then looked at him with a cocked brow. “If I thought all it took for you to make love to me and for us to have a real marriage was to flaunt my naked body, I’d be walking around naked all the time.”
    Stuart snorted back a laugh. “I bet you would, too.”
    Genny unwrapped her blanket, spread it on the bed and then held out her hand.
    “Give me your blanket.”
    He stood, stunned seeing her body completely naked for the first time.
    “Stuart.” She snapped her fingers.
    “What? Oh.” He unwound the quilt from around his body and handed it to her.
    She spread it on top of the bed as well, and then she climbed under the blankets and looked up at him. “What are you waiting for?”
    He shook his head to get the image of Genny’s naked body out of it and climbed in next to her. He tried to stay away from her body. She scooted next to him, flung one arm over his stomach, and then used his chest as a pillow.
    Stuart had no choice but to wrap his arm around her back.
    Genny was asleep in minutes.
    He on the other hand lay awake for awhile, just listening to her breathe. Watching the rise and fall of her chest and being completely happy doing so. Happier than he’d been in a long time, simply because he was holding his wife in his arms.
    Was what she wanted from him so