“She did too,” Stephanie said at once, her voice high and harsh. “She was a good mom.”
“So what’s your problem?” Mirabeau asked.
“What’s your problem?” Stephanie countered, and stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind her. Tiny stepped out of her way as she passed and watched her go with a sigh. His head came back around to the bathroom door, however, when he heard sloshing water in the bathroom. Mirabeau was getting out of the tub, he realized. Not wanting to get caught eyeing the door, he busied himself emptying his pockets in preparation for stripping to take his own bath. When he finished, he moved out to retrieve the 3X T-shirt and joggers he’d bought for himself as well as the black tank top, a medium-sized T-shirt, and the medium-sized joggers he’d bought for Mirabeau.
He was carrying them into the bedroom when the bathroom door opened and Mirabeau appeared, wrapped in a towel. The sight brought him to a dead halt. It wasn’t that she wasn’t covered at all the important points, but he couldn’t help but be aware that she was completely naked beneath the towel.
She paused on spotting him and her shoulders sagged as she said wryly, “I guess I didn’t handle her as well as you’d hoped.”
Tiny couldn’t seem to drag his eyes away from their inventory of the naked flesh visible above and below the towel, but did manage to murmur, “Well, she was kind of rude.”
“I was probably ruder at her age,” Mirabeau admitted wearily, then noticed the clothes he held and started forward, her expression brightening. “You found clothes?”
She said it in a tone of voice he would have only expected from an offering of a designer original, but he completely understood her happiness. He’d been pretty thrilled himself when he’d spotted the clothes in the store.
Tossing the clothes for him on the bed, he offered the others to her. “I guessed you were a medium, but wasn’t sure which you’d prefer. I thought probably the tank top, but it is winter, so—”
“Cold doesn’t bother me,” Mirabeau assured him, choosing the tank top as he’d hoped.
Her words made him wish he’d brought the short shorts as well. She probably wouldn’t have worn them, but he could fantasize.
“These are great,” Mirabeau said happily as she took the joggers as well. When she caught his wry expression she laughed, and pointed out, “They don’t stink and cover more than a towel.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he admitted, his eyes dropping to run over the back of her legs as she spun away and headed for her own room.
“I rinsed the bath, it’s ready if you want to take your turn at it,” she said, then slipped through the door and out of sight. Tiny sighed as the door closed behind her. He supposed it had been too much to hope that the towel might slip or something. Ah well…He would shower to wash the stink away, then eat some of those sandwiches he’d brought back. While he was hungry, the thought of eating in his present state just made him want to gag.
Chapter Seven
Stephanie was sitting cross-legged on the far bed when Mirabeau entered the room they were to share. She supposed that meant the nearer bed was hers and dropped the clothes on it, then whipped off her towel and grabbed up the joggers to pull them on, aware that Stephanie was watching her. She wasn’t self-conscious about her body. The nanos her kind had in their bodies had been programmed to fight illness, repair injuries, and keep them at their peak condition. Peak meant young and healthy, and she knew she looked her best. Or perhaps it was just that after so many years she’d been naked in front of so many people for one reason or another that it didn’t bother her any-y more. Mirabeau didn’t know or care why it didn’t bother her. She didn’t even really think about the fact that she was naked until Stephanie spoke.
“You don’t shave your legs,” the girl said with surprise. And then her eyes widened with sudden alarm, and she asked, “We can shave and wax our legs, can’t we? The nanos don’t just make it grow back within minutes or anything, do they?”
Mirabeau paused and glanced down at her legs, which were sporting a soft feathering of hair that, until Stephanie had spoken, hadn’t bothered her. Now she worried about it and thought she would have to pick up a razor or something on the way to Port Henry. She would need to shave before seducing Tiny, and Mirabeau was growing more and more determined to do that once this assignment was over. Aside from being attractive physically, she was starting to find him very attractive in personality as well. She’d known he was a good man from the stories Marguerite had told her, but his empathy and patience with Stephanie were really making an impression on her. She wasn’t the patient sort herself. Never had been. Perhaps that was why the trait in him was so attractive to her.