Free Josie: Bride of New Mexico (American Mail-Order Bride 47) by Kristin Holt

wanted.
    He straightened a little, allowing himself to draw nearer to her. The fine cotton of her nightgown, so smooth against his legs, felt cool against his heated skin.
    She broke away enough to whisper, “Adam.”
    “Josie.” He tried not to sound strangled.
    She’d turned away, just a little, and his mouth landed on her cheek so he kissed her there, trailed little nibbles along her jaw.
    “Adam?”
    “Josie.”
    “Would you mind if we finished the story tomorrow night? I— I’m not interested in more stories.”
    His heart skipped right over two beats, slammed against his ribs and raced to catch up. He opened his mouth to ask something, anything , for this was not the time to make assumptions.
    Before he could blunder his way through a question he had no idea how to phrase, she freed her hand from his grasp and settled her fingers along the buttons up the front of his nightshirt.
    She freed one, then two, and he found his question unnecessary, after all.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter Twelve
     

     
    The following morning, Josie enjoyed leaving the train with her husband for a quick stop in Gunnison, Colorado. The railroad town offered a variety of stores, but Adam remembered a shoe cobbler he believed could make her a sturdy pair of boots that would fit her narrow, small feet and slender ankles.
    She hadn’t been able to tell him no.
    She didn’t want to tell him no.
    Especially after he’d brought out an entire trunk filled with ladies’ boots, shoes, and slippers in every size imaginable. He’d started their wedding trip well prepared to meet her needs— including footwear.
    “The cobbler’s place is up ahead. He does magnificent work. If he has nothing in stock that will fit you, we’ll place an order and ask him to ship them to us at Silver Queen. You’ll need a sturdy pair of boots in that soil, if not two.”
    She walked at her husband’s side, enjoying a beautiful new suit Mrs. Bushnell had brought on board as one of many hopefuls in her ready-made stock, and it had required little enough alterations she’d been able to dress in it before breakfast.
    The brown woolen jacket and skirt were made of companion fabrics and the construction was nothing short of extraordinary. Everything she wore, from the skin on out— except her boots— petticoats, drawers decorated with a frivolous waste of lace and ribbons no one but her… oh, and Adam… would ever see.
    And the stockings! So smooth, so thin, so feminine. The stockings just might be her favorite bit of the new, stylish clothing. She’d never owned anything so fine and had never felt so lovely.
    “You are positively radiant this morning,” Adam said for her ears alone. “Absolutely beautiful.”
    She couldn’t stop smiling. Between Adam’s attentiveness, his generous affection, her marvelous new clothes and a walk outside in the fresh air and mountain sunlight, she wondered why everyone wasn’t smiling.
    They turned a corner and Adam halted. He glanced up the street, then another block ahead. “The cobbler shop was right there, where that new grocery is.”
    A wooden structure, painted white, seemed brand new.
    Disappointment clouded his handsome features. In the daylight, the waves in his black hair shone and she wanted to run her fingers through them.
    “Maybe someone inside knows where the cobbler’s business is now?”
    “A fine idea, Darling.”
    Before she recognized his intention, he’d swung her into his arms to carry her across the street.
    She squealed with laughter. “Put me down. I’m quite capable of walking.”
    “The streets are full of muck.”
    “Lawrence streets were, too. I’m quite capable of finding my way across without soiling my shoes or skirts.”
    He carried her as if she weighed little. The sparkle in his eyes when he looked at her made her feel like she’d become the center of his world.
    A good place to be.
    “We need to feed you four meals a day. I think your petticoats and suit weigh more than you