Her Wyoming Man Read Online Free PDF Page B

welcome. “I was waiting for you.”
    Stepping in, he closed the door, but didn’t turn the key in the lock. Once he stepped farther into the room, she took the initiative and locked the door.
    His slight frown revealed uncertainty. “I’d like to talk to you.”
    “I’m eager to hear what you have to say. Would you like to sit? Let me help you remove your jacket.”
    He kept his gaze from wavering to the bed. “Please. Have a seat.”
    He waited until she had settled on the settee and then took a chair across from her. “I’m aware that our marriage is unconventional,” he began.
    She had no experience with marriage, conventional or otherwise. “I intend to be a good wife, Nathan.”
    “I appreciate that,” he replied. “And more than anything I hope you’ll be comfortable and content here. Everything is new to you. The territory. This marriage. Because of the circumstances, we were forced to make decisions quickly, and that’s not an ideal condition. Courting gives a couple time to learn about each other, time to grow comfortable and at ease.”
    “I don’t feel cheated,” she said. “I’m prepared to be your wife.”
    “Ella,” he said kindly, “there are aspects to marriage that shouldn’t be rushed. You’re young, with tender sensibilities, and I refuse to take advantage of you by consummating our marriage while you’re unprepared.”
    At last his hesitancy took shape in her mind. “You don’t intend to come to my bed tonight.”
    “No.”
    “Will you be sleeping in another room?”
    “I’ve given you your own room for privacy’s sake.”
    A sinking sensation settled in her chest, dangerously close to her heart. He didn’t want her? Ella kept her features passive and calm, but inside she quaked with uncertainty. Fear got a tiny foothold on her confidence. What had she gotten herself into? Half a dozen men had looked at her with lusty thoughts swimming in their gleaming eyes, and she had chosen to marry the one man who didn’t desire her?
    How would she prove herself—endear herself to him? How would their relationship be sealed?
    “I intend to court you, Ella. You deserve enough time to come to terms with a marriage and all it entails. We will observe a courtship period before we become intimate.”
    She remembered to breathe. “And how long would that be?”
    “I have my mind set on six months.”
    Six months? Why entire towns sprang up in less time. Wars were fought and… “What will we do for six months?”
    “We’ll get to know each other.”
    Her thoughts traveled back to his proposal. I’m not asking because I need you to perform household chores, he’d said. I’m asking because I believe we could develop a mutually satisfying relationship.
    At the time she’d known exactly what that meant. She still understood. He hadn’t needed her to clean or cook or even to look after his children. She would have learned how, but all those tasks were taken care of. No, he wanted her because he needed a woman at his side in public and in his bed in private. Hadn’t he?
    But because he believed she’d come from a genteel background and was like any other young unmarried woman her age, he believed she needed protection and shelter…a slow tender initiation to the ways between men and women.
    She appreciated him all the more for his concern. But she was all the more determined to win his favor. “Will you kiss me?”
    “I—” He had obvious trouble forming his reply.
    “Is kissing part of courtship?” she insisted.
    “Yes. Most certainly it is.”
    She rose to her feet. “Then I’d like you to kiss me.”
    When he stood and stepped forward, she tipped her head back to look up at him. Still, he hadn’t closed all the distance between them. She took the step that brought her against him and rested her hand on the front of his jacket. Parting her lips, she waited.
    Instead of bending forward and covering her mouth with his as she expected, he raised his hand to her cheek and