Free Nola by Carolyn Faulkner

even though
when they finally returned to the house, they both pretty much stank of horse
and barn.
    So they took a
bath. Together.
    He liked introducing
her to new things, and this was one of the best as far as Brandon was
concerned. The tub in the master bedroom suite at the cottage was easily big
enough for the two of them. He'd made sure that it was going to be hot for them
when they got there by sending one of the stable hands ahead of them once they
were almost done at the barn, to warn the staff to have everything ready for
them.
    He hadn't had
many friends in his life. He wasn't the personable type. Most people didn't
find him very easy to be around - he was too intense. He was very smart in
school, but disliked jumping through the hoops necessary to get himself very good grades. He attended Harvard and graduated,
but didn't do very well academically there, either. He was too much of an
original, and didn't like to be told what to do under any circumstances.
    Roger was
probably the only person on the planet that he could call more than a business
acquaintance. His father and his grandfather were more thorns in his side - and
if he was feeling very generous mentors - than anything else. It was nice to
have someone to talk to.
    As he let his
hands roam over her soapy body - with no cloth between his inquisitive fingers
and her slick flesh - he wondered what she'd be like in a boardroom, and
figured she could be nothing but an asset. He had her tucked in front of him,
so that she was sitting in the cradle of his big body, her back to his front as
she leaned back. He knew she thought that this was completely opulent and
outrageous, and he supposed to a wide eyed recently deflowered virgin, he knew
it must seem that way.
    But Brandon was
used to getting what he wanted - no matter how different it might seem - and he
wanted to bathe with his wife tonight, so that was exactly what he did.
    She was the absolutely
perfect size for him. All in all, he thought, as he leaned his head back on the
edge of the tub, but kept his hands very busy and full of various parts of her,
he had done a pretty good job in picking her as his wife. He knew he had chosen
someone who was going to be a challenge, but that was fine with him. He'd
rather have someone interesting, with a mind and a will of her own - as long as
she realized that his will trumped hers - than a doormat without an original
thought of her own.
    And she was absolutely
perfect for him physically. She was tiny where he was tall, she was soft and
round where he was angled and muscular. His hands naturally drifted up to cup
her breasts, massaging them gently, rolling and just slightly pinching her
already proud nipples just the way he'd learned she liked, and was rewarded
with a squirming woman who sighed and arched and did everything but what she
knew would get her into trouble - moving his hands.
    His face was
right behind hers, his chin resting on her shoulder. "Feels good, doesn't it?"
    He was treating
her so differently from what he had before that Nola was just the slightest bit
suspicious of him, as if she expected the other shoe to drop any time now. But
he was right. It felt damned good, and that's exactly what she told him.
    He laughed at
her language use. She didn't sound like a proper lady, but then he'd married
her because that was exactly what she wasn't. A thought struck him, and it was
out of his lips before he had a chance to stop it. "Why did you marry me?" He
wasn't at all sure that he wanted to hear her answer, but then he couldn't
really retract the question once it was out.
    Nola was frankly
amazed that he'd asked - as amazed as she could be considering how befuddled
she was by the things he was doing with his hands. But she answered him
truthfully. He wouldn't buy the idea that she was in love with him, anyway. It
was absurd. They'd barely known each other when they got married, and she
refused to lie to him, regardless. "I married you because you