Read Online Trail of Kisses by Merry Farmer - Free Book Online Page B

the soap,” he
answered.
    It didn’t help Lynne’s scrambled mind at all
when he came closer and reached the point where the water soaked
his drawers, or when he sank into the water to swim to her. When he
came to stand a few feet away, the water was above his waist,
making it far too easy for Lynne to imagine that he wasn’t wearing
drawers at all. The thought made it difficult for her to breath,
especially with his beautiful, fine chest almost within arm’s
reach.
    “ This is ridiculously improper,”
she scolded him, then cleared her throat. What had happened to her
voice? She hardly recognized it.
    “ What, bathing in the stream on
the trail?” Cade shrugged. He handed her the soap.
    She reached for it. Their fingers touched. His
were far too warm and inviting. He had such large hands, hands that
could do things. She was worldly enough to guess at what they
were.
    “ You are improper,” she answered
him at last, taking the soap and retreating a yard or two. “You
being out here… like that.”
    Cade stretched his arms to the side and looked
down at himself. His satisfied smile painted a picture of a man who
knew he was attractive. It sent Lynne’s temperature
soaring.
    “ I thought I could use a bath
too,” he defended himself. “John Rye’s in the water up there doing
the same.”
    “ John Rye has a shirt on,” Lynne
said.
    “ Well those miners down there
don’t.” He nodded downstream.
    Lynne took a peek to give herself a reason to
stop staring at Cade. There were miners about twenty yards
downstream, and most of them had their shirts off. Some of them had
everything off. Lynne gasped and snapped to face Cade again, cheeks
bright, which didn’t make her feel a lick better.
    “ All right.” She took a breath to
steady herself. She could be reasonable and hold her head high no
matter how strange the situation. “If you’re truly here to take a
bath, then bathe.”
    She tilted her chin up and ignored him, taking
the soap and running it over her arms and under the fabric of her
chemise. It was a poor excuse for a real bath, but still better
than washing from a bucket with an old rag.
    She almost let her guard down and enjoyed the
feeling of getting clean, until she noticed that Cade was still
watching her.
    “ Do you mind?” she
asked.
    He shrugged. “I don’t have any
soap.”
    Her eyes wandered over the expanse of his
chest, glistening with water in the sunlight now. His nipples stood
out in sharp relief against his chiseled muscles. Without warning,
she caught herself imagining that chest lathered with soap suds.
She swallowed, hot and cold all over.
    “ Fine,” she said at last,
breathless. “Have the soap.”
    She rubbed it under her arms as one last,
desperate measure to cool the situation down, then inched sideways,
closer to Cade. She extended her arm to its full length and handed
him the slippery cake of soap.
    Cade reached for it, but as their fingers
touched, Lynne pulled back. The soap tumbled out of her grasp and
into the water before Cade had hold of it.
    “ Oh!” Lynne gasped as the current
caught it and whisked it away. “Hurry! Get it!”
    She lurched toward the spinning cake as it
rushed past her. Laughing, Cade lunged after it, diving into the
water. Lynne shrieked as he splashed her. She rubbed water out of
her eyes as quickly as she could, then scrambled after Cade. As far
as she knew, that was the only cake of soap they had for the entire
trip. She wasn’t about to lose it so early in the
journey.
    “ Get it! Get it!” she shouted,
splashing and scrambling over Cade as he half swam, half floated on
the stream’s current. Lynne reached out as the soap bobbed just out
of reach, her arms tangling with one of Cade’s as he cut in front
of her.
    “ Well I would if you weren’t in
the way,” he said.
    Lynne tried to reach farther, but the bulk of
Cade’s body was in the way. His arm brushed against her waist. One
of his legs bumped against hers, sending her