The Heiress Bride - Catherine Coulter [32]
She lay on her back and stretched out her hand to find his. Instead her hand found his side. He was naked, his flesh smooth and warm. She didn’t want to leave that part of him, but she did. It wouldn’t be fair to take advantage of him when he was asleep. She laced her fingers through his. Surprisingly, she was asleep very shortly.
Sinjun awoke with a start. Sunlight was pouring through the narrow diamond-paned window. It certainly wasn’t the crack of dawn. On the other hand, to get strong again, Colin had to sleep, and a bed was preferable to the jostling he got in the carriage. She lay there a moment, aware that he was beside her, still sleeping soundly. He hadn’t moved, but then neither had she. She realized then that the covers weren’t tucked up about his neck, where they were supposed to be. Slowly, knowing she shouldn’t but unable not to, she turned and looked at him. He’d kicked the covers off and they were tangled around his feet. As for the rest of him, he was there in the bright sunlight for her to see. She’d never before seen a naked man, and she found him as beautiful as she thought she would. But too thin. She stared at his belly and his groin, and at his sex nestled in the thick hair. His legs were long and thick and covered with black hair. He was beyond beautiful; he was magnificent, even his feet. When she finally forced her eyes away from his groin—a difficult task, for she was frankly fascinated—she blinked at the white bandage around his right thigh.
Of course the fever alone hadn’t been responsible for his continued illness. She remembered that damned limp of his the previous night. He’d been hurt somehow.
Anger and worry flooded her. She’d been a fool not to suspect that some other injury was at work here. Why the devil hadn’t he told her?
Damnation. She scrambled off the bed and pulled on her dressing gown.
“You wretched man,” she said under her breath, but it wasn’t under enough. “I’m your wife and you should trust me.”
“You’re not my wife yet and why are you bleating at me?”
His jaw was a stubble of black whiskers, his hair was mussed, but his eyes were alert, such a deep blue that she forgot to speak for a moment, content just to stare at him.
Colin realized that he was naked and said calmly, “Please pull the covers over me, Joan.”
“Not until you tell me what happened to you. What is this bandage for?”
“The reason I was so ill was because I was knifed, and like a fool, I didn’t see a physician. I didn’t want you to know because I could just see you tearing London apart with your bare hands to find the villain and bring me his head on a platter. Now we’re out of London so it doesn’t matter. You’re safe from yourself.”
Sinjun simply looked at him. He had a point. She would have been greatly incensed, no doubt about that. She smiled down at him. “Does the bandage need to be changed?”
“Yes, I suppose so. The stitches need to come out tomorrow or the next day.”
“All right,” she said. “I’ll do it. The good Lord knows I’ve had enough practice with all of Ryder’s children.”
“Your brother? How many children does he have?”
“I call them his Beloved Ones. Ryder saves children from dreadful situations and brings them to live in Brandon House. There are about a dozen children there right now, but one never knows when another will arrive, or when one will leave to go to a family Ryder has carefully selected. Sometimes it makes you cry, Colin, to see a little one battered by a cruel drunken father or just left in an alley by a gin-soaked mother.”
“I see. Get yourself dressed, but first cover me up.”
She did, reluctantly, and he found he was chuckling. Never in his life had he met any female like her. Her interest in his body was embarrassing it was so blatant.
Sinjun solved the privacy problem with a blanket hung over an open armoire door. She didn’t stop talking to Colin while she dressed. While she was eating her breakfast, she watched him shave. She volunteered to help him bathe, but that treat was denied her. Again, she was ordered to pack