Claimed by the Mountain Man Read Online Free Page B

thought he would demand her body in exchange for food and lodging if she stayed much longer. He wondered if she still planned to live in that blasted cave now that she knew about the grizzly, or if she would return to town and try living there again. He felt compelled to order her to leave the woods, but he could tell by the way she was speaking to him that she wasn’t in the mood to listen to reason. She had a determination and stubbornness in her tone. Easy to be that way on a full belly , he grumbled to himself.
    It occurred to him that she could live with him. He didn’t dislike her company, not yet anyway, and he reckoned any trouble she gave him could be swiftly dealt with, judging by how punishment straightened her right up. He was surprised that the idea of her living with him crossed his mind. He wouldn’t have thought he’d be open to living with a woman who wasn’t his wife.
    Sadness wrenched at his heart as his wedding night suddenly flashed through his memory. He could tell how nervous his lovely bride was when he took her to bed, but it wasn’t for the reason he figured, which was that she was about to know a man’s touch for the first time. When he moved inside of her and felt no barrier, the realization that she’d been with another man prior to him felt like a punch in the gut. It brought a wave of fury and nausea.
    “You’re not intact,” he said, staring at her from his position over her.
    Her legs tightened around his hips, drawing him into her. Tears formed in her eyes as she whispered, “Please don’t hate me, husband. I didn’t love him like I love you.”
    He plunged into her roughly and took her that night in a frenzy of anger and desire. He loved her, but he couldn’t cope with the idea of her with another man. For the next six months until he left for the war, he made her pay for what he perceived as betrayal. He treated her like a whore every time he took her to bed. She enjoyed it. He could tell by the way she screamed his name and shuddered her releases. Her passionate responses to his bawdy actions fueled his anger and resentment, for he couldn’t experience her passion without imagining her having the same response with another man.
    He could see the sadness in her eyes whenever she looked at him, waiting and hoping for him to forgive her. Before he left, he held her close to him. He loved her so much it hurt, but still he couldn’t bring himself to tell her that all was well and good between them. He walked away, leaving her alone with her shame. Jack never thought she’d be the one to die while he was at war. When he returned home with an understanding of what true immorality and betrayal looked like, along with a deep need to hold the sweet woman he’d left behind, she was already dead and buried.
    Nettie folded her arms in front of her chest and spoke, bringing him back to the present. “I suppose I should thank you for saving my life and getting me out of that hole, but seeing as how it was your fault I fell in it to begin with, I don’t reckon I need to thank you for that.”
    Of all the cheek , he thought, shaking his head.
    “I’d like to repay the debt I owe you for feeding me,” she continued. “I’m good at sewing, if you have something that needs mending. I’ll do as much as I can around here before returning to the cave.”
    When he didn’t say anything, she walked to his dresser and opened it. She removed his clothes and draped them over her arm. He stared at her as she did this, not sure whether he was pleased or annoyed by her initiative. Then he felt sad again. It had been a long time since he’d been around a woman and her ways about the house.
    Nettie found the sewing supplies, such as they were, at the bottom of one of the drawers and brought everything to the sofa, where she sat and got to work fixing the seams that were torn, adeptly plunging the needle and thread in and out of the material.
    When Jack dunked his plate in the basin and grabbed a