The Sunstone Brooch : Time Travel Romance Katherine Logan (no david read aloud TXT) 📖

toss you in the trough, but I don’t want you to freeze. You get a break this time, but I wouldn’t try it again.”

He watched her eyes and could see the mischief there. She wanted to splash him again and was weighing the odds of getting dunked.

“If it was summer, I’d splash you again.”

“Listen, when we get out of here, why don’t we go to the beach, and you can splash me all you want?”

“Sounds like fun. But I’ve got some stuff to work on when I get home. It might take a while.”

Remy came out. “Horses will be delivered to the train when it arrives. Let’s go. I want to see this hotel on wheels.”

“You couldn’t care less,” Austin said. “You just want the whisky.”

“Well, that too.”

“Connor leased a private car in Denver in 1878. It was a double-decker with two bedrooms up top.”

“A double-decker wouldn’t have as much headroom, would it?”

“Not enough. I’d still be walking hunched over.”

“That’s a problem I never have to worry about,” she said.

Austin led them over to the carriage and up the steps to the canopied open platform. “This is perfect for a whistle-stop. Anyone interested in campaigning?”

“Hell, no. I just want the whisky,” Remy said.

Austin stepped aside for Ensley and followed her inside, humming “Beautiful Dreamer.”

If I can’t get lucky with a sexy woman in a place like this, then I’ve lost my touch.

The carriage resembled a nineteenth-century drawing room, complete with mahogany-paneled walls and ceiling, deep-cushioned chairs and matching settee, blue shaded lamps, and crystal chandeliers—pretty much the way Connor described the carriage he leased in Denver. But this one had oriental rugs and a liquor cabinet.

Remy beelined it to the mahogany cabinet, opened it, and pulled out a bottle of The Glenlivet. “Fuck, yeah! I’m going to wash up, then sit down in that comfy chair and drink until I pass out. Unless anyone has any objections.”

“None from me.” Ensley crossed the room toward a hallway. “Let’s see what else this hotel has.”

Austin followed her for the tour. Next to the drawing room was a stateroom with an attached bathroom complete with a bathtub and an Italian marble sink.

Ensley shrieked. “Look! I can’t believe it. Does it have hot water?”

Austin turned on the faucet and put his hand under the stream. It was hot. He cupped a small amount of water and flung it on her.

She shrieked again. “It’s hot!”

“Now we’re even.” He didn’t think he’d ever seen something as simple as hot water please a woman as much as it pleased her.

“I’ve washed with cold water for weeks. I may never get out of a tub full of hot water.”

There also were boxes of different shapes and sizes stacked up on the floor. “Looks like you’ve got some work to do unwrapping all those. You want some help?”

She glanced at them. “It’s like Christmas. I think JC went overboard.”

“After what you’ve been through, he probably wanted to spoil you. I would have done the same.”

She gave him a suspicious look. “Why?”

“Because…you deserve this. You’ve had a rough time, and you should be going home, but you can’t yet. So why not spoil you?”

“I haven’t done anything to deserve it, but come on. Let’s check out the rest of this rolling hotel.”

He didn’t want to leave this room. He wanted to strip Ensley naked and wash her hair while she soaked in the tub. And whatever happened after that was up to her. And right now, she was impossible to read.

Next to her stateroom was another one but without a bathtub. “You’ll have to take a bath in my room.”

He waggled his eyebrows. “We could save time and water and take one together.”

She put her hands on his back and pushed him down the hallway. “As big as you are, there wouldn’t be any room for me.”

“Oh, baby—”

She stopped, put her hands on her hips. “Don’t you dare say it.”

He pressed his lips together and pantomimed zipping them. “You’ll never hear me say, ‘baby doll’ again.”

“Is that a promise?”

“Probably not.”

She gave his arm a knuckle punch. “I knew it.”

He rubbed the spot on his arm and groaned. “You’re killing me.”

“You know I don’t take you seriously, don’t you?”

He clapped his hand over his heart. “Say it ain’t so, babe.”

“There you go again.”

“You’re so easy to tease. Come on, let’s go find the refrigerator.”

“I think it’s called an icebox.”

“Whatever. As long as it keeps shit cold.”

Next to the second stateroom was a small bathroom and storage closet, and the apartment-size kitchen was on the other side. There was room for a sink, range, fridge, heater, and a small work table. And next to the kitchen was a dining room with an extension table and sideboard.

“I wonder where the staff sleeps.”

“Probably in here.” He crossed to one side of the dining room and ran his hand along the polished satinwood that formed the bottom of a sleeping berth. “This is a folding sleeping berth, and there’s one on the other side.”

“I can’t believe Tavis did this. I never expected anything so grand. Although I’ve been to Mallory Plantation, MacKlenna Farm, and the Upper West Side house in New York City, so I should have expected it. Wherever Elliott goes, it’s first-class all the way, but this is way too much.”

She walked back down the corridor. “I’m going to open the boxes, find something comfortable to wear, then take a bath. You might not see me for a couple of hours. What are you going to do?”

“Clean up and pour a double. Do you want a drink to sip while you’re in the bath?”

Her eyes brightened. “Hmmm. That sounds wonderful. Sure. Bring me one.”

She went into her stateroom and closed the door. He waited, curious to see if she would lock the door. She didn’t, and he smiled. But he wasn’t dumb enough to take the unlocked door as an invitation, so he returned to the drawing room. Remy had kicked back and was reclining on the sofa, sipping from a crystal glass.

“You