Excerpt of Colby's Child by Patricia Watters

Jenny touched him. She had no idea what possessed her to do that, other than she’d never touched a man there before. True, she’d been married, but the intimate part of her marriage to Myles always took place under cover of darkness, and she’d never had an occasion to do anything but let him to do the things he wanted, which weren't pleasant, but when it was over he’d leave her be for a little while. But she’d never expected, when she and Su Ling went to pull Jason’s pants off, that everything would come with them, leaving Jason sprawled on his back, naked as the day he was born. Su Ling left the room then, and she’d sat on the bed staring at her husband, the man she’d known was all male, but had not realized how very male he was. And that part of him was standing straight up like a flagpole. And that’s when she touched him.

Well, maybe not just touched. She’d been so fascinated by what she’d found that she did a little exploring... Until the thing started moving. She threw the coverings over him and didn’t touch him again, but she did stretch out beside him in case he needed something. But he'd been sleeping like a baby, and he never knew she was there...

Jenny awakened the next morning to the sound of Jason muttering under his breath—a curse—followed by the movement of him sitting up in bed. She pulled herself up and looked at a face she barely recognized. The dressing she’d wrapped around his forehead rested above an eye swollen shut and ringed in crimson. On his chest was a black and purple bruise that crept from beneath the dressing that covered the wound, then spread below his breast and extended down his ribs. Until now, she hadn’t noticed the scrapes and bruises on his shoulder and upper arm. "How do you feel," she asked, gathering her night dress around her.

"Like I was trampled by a bull." Jason's one-eyed gaze moved to her pillow beside his, then to his dirty clothes heaped in a pile on the floor. "You slept with me," he said.

"I was worried," Jenny replied. "You’d had a bad knock on the head."

Jason started to draw a breath then stopped abruptly, and his hand came up to clutch his ribs.

"You hurt badly, don’t you?"

"I’ve had better days." He looked at the mussed up sheets, then at Jenny, and said, "I want to know about last night. I'm naked and there’s a hell of a mess on the sheets, and I want to know what happened."

"Nothing happened."

"Did we consummate our marriage?"

"You were in no condition for... anything."

"When you were working on my head, I guarantee I was ready for something. My head may have hurt like hell, but another part of me hurt worse."

"Well, by the time Su Ling and I got your clothes off, you were... very relaxed." Jenny felt heat rush up her face. True, Jason had been sprawled on the bed like a drunkard in a stupor. But one part of him was on full alert.

Jason lowered his legs to the floor. Elbows on knees, he dropped his head in his hands and said, "I’m glad we didn’t consummate our marriage. I gave you my word."

Jenny touched a large bruise and felt him flinch. Removing her hand, she said, "Maybe we should forget about working the Dusty. It’s dangerous down there. You could have been killed."

"I made a bargain with you and I intend to stick by it."

"I don’t care about the bargain, Jason, I care about—" Jenny stopped short of saying, you, and said instead "—having a husband to protect me, not get himself killed."

"We just need to shore things up. Bring me some underwear," Jason said.

Jenny handed him a pair of under drawers from a stack in the locker. "You need to stay in bed today and rest," she said. "I’ll bring you a breakfast tray."

"I have to go to the Dusty." Jason threw the covers off and stood on wobbly legs. "Help me get these on."

Jenny stared at his tall naked frame. Reaching for the under drawers, she crouched in front of him and guided first one foot, then the other into each leg hole. "You can’t possibly go," she said, easing the drawers up his legs and over his male part, which, unlike the night before, looked as lethargic as the rest of him.

"I have to," Jason said. "Those timbers are rotten and I’ve got to shore them up before someone gets hurt." He eased his way toward the locker.

Jenny grasped his arm. "You absolutely cannot go anywhere today!"

Jason shrugged off her hand, opened the locker door and took out a shirt.

"I’m your wife!" Jenny yelled at his back. "And I absolutely forbid it!"

She stood in front of him and planted her hands on her hips.

Jason glared at her. "Either get out of my way or help me put the damn shirt on."

"Okay, if you’re so darn stubborn I’ll drive you there myself!" Jenny guided his hand into the shirt sleeve. "But I don’t see why this can’t wait until tomorrow."

Jason turned to her, face sober, and said, "Do you have any idea what it’s like to dig a dead man out of a pile of rubble? It’s not a pretty site. I’m going to the Dusty today if I have to crawl. But if you want to drive, that’s fine. Either way, I’m going."

Although Jenny was terrified of driving along the narrow road that hugged the side of the mountain, she was determined not to let it show. Jason pegged as a city-bred woman, too spineless to be the wife of a miner, and she was bent on provng him wrong.