A Summer Smile

2

“Here they come,” Daniel murmured. He shaded his eyes with his hand to watch the approaching jeep kick up clouds of sand on the desert floor far below the summit of the hill on which they were standing. “They’re really gunning it. They must have found our abandoned jeep and think they have us.”

“And do they?” Zilah asked with a worried frown. “They’re so close. They’ll be here within ten minutes, won’t they?”

“Just about.” He turned and took her elbow. She felt that same mysterious tingling surge through her and had to restrain herself from jerking her arm away. What on earth was happening to her? This touch wasn’t even like the other time. It was almost totally impersonal. “But we won’t be here. We’re not following the road. We’re heading through the trees and over that next hill. Then we’ll circle and rejoin the road at the border.”

“You seem to know this area very well.”

“Philip and I have done some hunting in these hills.”

“Philip?”

“Philip El Kabbar. He’s an old friend of mine.” He shot her a glance. “You’ve never heard of him?”

She shook her head. “I’ve spent the last seven years on a ranch in Texas. Should I be familiar with the name?”

“He’s probably the most powerful sheikh in Sedikhan other than Ben Raschid.” He was propelling her down from the summit on which they had been standing, hurrying from the path into the dense shrubbery that lined it. “That long? That must have been a trifle inconvenient for Bradford.”

“Inconvenient?” she asked, puzzled. “It was David’s parents’ ranch, but I tried not to be a burden to them. Once I learned to ride I could help around the ranch.”

“You’ve been stashed at David Bradford’s disposal since you were fourteen?” Daniel’s tone was caustic. “My Lord, you started young.”

“I don’t know what you mea…” Her eyes widened. “You think David is my lover?”

He held a branch until she had passed and then let it snap back behind them. “It’s none of my affair.” Then he shot her a glance that shocked her with its ferocity. “The hell it’s not. It is my business. I’ve been trying to convince myself since I saw a damned photograph of you that you’re just like any other woman. No more and no less. But I’ve never lied to myself and I don’t intend to start now. You are my concern.” His face was flint hard. “I walked down the aisle of that plane on which you were held just a few hours ago and I knew you were going to belong to me. Get used to the idea. I don’t know what the hell has happened to me, but I do know that.” He shoved another branch roughly aside and pushed her ahead of him. “You can tell David Bradford he’ll just have to be satisfied with his wife. You’re no longer available.”

“He couldn’t be more satisfied with Billie,” she said dazedly. “And I’m not going to belong to you. We’re complete strangers. This is insane. We’ve just met. There are four half-crazy terrorists snapping at our heels and you’re propositioning me?”

“Propositioning, hell! I’m telling you.” He was pushing her steadily forward, the harshness of his voice at strange variance with the exquisite care he was exhibiting in protecting her from the branches and roughness of the bushes and trees surrounding them. “Do you think I don’t know how I sound? I’m fully aware I’m not being rational, that I’m reacting like some kind of thick-headed neanderthal. I can’t help myself, dammit.” He glared at her accusingly. “And I don’t like not being in control. It annoys the hell out of me.”

“You’re acting as if it’s my fault you’re having this temporary aberration,” she said incredulously. “I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“I know that, too.” He scowled moodily. “My problem is that I’m not at all sure it is temporary.”

She laughed shakily. “It has to be.”

“Does it?” His lips twisted. “We’ll just have to see. It’s too soon to tell. Temporary or not, you’re still mine. And I’ll tell Bradford so if you’re shy about it.” His grin was a savage slash in the blaze of his bearded face. “I’d enjoy telling him.”

“I don’t belong to anyone. Not to you, and certainly not to David.” She was trembling, she realized with amazement. For the first time in her adult life a man had effortlessly pierced the wall she had built around her emotions. He had scarcely touched her in the past hours except with his words. Yet she was acutely aware of his very presence. Her heart was pounding, her mouth was dry, and she felt as if she had a fever. His fingers on her arm were as impersonal as his words were possessive, but her flesh was so sensitive that she could feel the drumming of his heart through the pads of his fingertips. How could she feel like this when she had to force herself to bear even the most casual touch of any other man? She tried to jerk her arm away, but her resistance was instantly quelled by a tightening of those fingers. “Let me go.”

“No, you need me.” He didn’t even look at her as he increased his pace. “You need me now and you’re going to need me even more later. But not in the same way, I assure you. I’ll fill every damn need you have. Bradford is out of your life.”

She moistened her lips. “David will never be out of my life. You don’t understand. David is my friend. I’m not his mistress.” She shook her head. “The idea is almost laughable. He’s completely in love with his wife, Billie.”

“I notice you’re not mentioning your own feelings in the matter.” Daniel’s lips twisted. “You’re obviously just as mad about him as he is about his wife. All he’d have to do is snap his fingers and you’d jump into his bed.”

Her gaze was steady and perfectly candid. “I’d give the last drop of blood in my veins if David Bradford wanted or needed it.” She shrugged. “As for my body, there’s no question he could have it. It wouldn’t matter at all.”

“The hell it wouldn’t!” Daniel’s voice was so violent that it startled her. “It would matter to me.” He drew a deep breath, and when he spoke again it was through clenched teeth. “I think you better shut up. At the moment I’m feeling pretty wild. I might just show you how much it could matter to you as well. That would be slightly unwise, as Hassan would probably appear on the scene and shoot my ass off.”

“That would be a little inconvenient.” She tried to smile. “As well as being totally useless. There’s no way you can convince me that the sexual act is more than a simple animalistic coupling.”

“No? You’re speaking like a frustrated, antiquated virgin. If we weren’t in the wrong place at the wrong time to-” He broke off as he saw the strange wounded look in her eyes. “What the hell’s wrong with you? You’re looking at me as if I’d stabbed you.”

“Am I?” Her voice was shaky in spite of her efforts to steady it. “How stupid of me.” She began to walk faster. “I’m not a virgin, you know. I haven’t been for a long time. You were right, I started very young.” She was speaking quickly, almost feverishly. “But not with David Bradford. Never with David.”

He suddenly halted in the path and swung her around to face him. “Will you shut up and let me look at you, dammit.” His gaze raked her tense face, and he began to curse with low and intense sincerity. “I’ve hurt you. What the hell did I say that hurt you so much?”

“Nothing.” She tried to loosen his hold. “I told you I was being stupid. Let’s get going. We’ve got to keep moving, haven’t we?”

“Yes,” he said. His hands were kneading her shoulders absently as he stared into her face. “But I’m not going on until you tell me why you’re hurting.” His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “Was it that crack I made about virgins? I’ve heard Sedikhan society is pretty straightlaced.” He gave her a little shake. “I don’t give a damn how young you were when you had your first man.” His lips twisted in a rueful grin. “I’d make a bet that I was probably younger than you when I had my first woman. I don’t have any right to ask something of you that I can’t give in return.” His smile deepened and took on a gentleness that caused her heart to jerk crazily and then melt like the snows of spring. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m a rough man and I’ve lived a rough life but you don’t have to be afraid of me. I’ll never hurt you intentionally.” His finger touched the outer edge of her lower lip. “And I’ll never let anyone else hurt you. Do you believe me?”

His touch was so light; how could it have such powerful sensuality? She felt every brush of his fingertip, not only on her lips but in her wrists, the pit of her stomach, and the soles of her feet. She was tingling all over and he wasn’t even trying to arouse her in a sensual way. She was conscious of the scent of him surrounding her. The clean smell of soap, the musky odor of sweat and man. She suddenly wanted to reach up and touch the dark, flaming softness of his beard and trace the well-defined curve of his lip as he was touching hers. She actually wanted to touch him, she realized with a sense of shock.

She lowered her eyes hurriedly to the center of his chest, but it did little to alleviate the odd languid heat that was flowing through her. Instead, she began to wonder if the hair on his chest was as red and silky as his beard. She shook her head to try to clear it. “I believe you,” she said with a laugh that was a bit husky. “But hadn’t we better keep going? I don’t see how you’re going to prevent my being hurt,” she said, her eyes twinkling with mischief. “Not with your ass shot off.”

He gave her a hug that was like being embraced by an affectionate grizzly bear. Lord, he was a big man.

“We’ll make every effort to keep that from happening. I have a great fondness for that portion of my anatomy.” Then he released her and started hustling her through the underbrush at a pace that gave neither of them breath for further conversation.

Zilah’s lungs felt as if they were about to burst, and her jeans and shirt were as wet with perspiration as if she’d been dropped into a lake. Oh, dear, she wished she hadn’t thought of that simile. Being immersed in a cool mountain lake was the stuff dreams were made of at this particular moment.

Daniel cast her a glance over his shoulder. His eyes narrowed to pierce the dusk that was falling around them. “All right?”

She nodded, saving her breath. She was going to need it. In the past few hours Daniel had set a grueling pace. She didn’t know how many miles they had come, but if sheer exhaustion was any measure, it must have been a hundred. These hills had looked so cool and inviting when she’d first caught sight of them. That misty coolness had truly been the mirage she had thought it. Here in the shade of the trees it was only a few degrees cooler than the desert.

“I’ll let you rest soon,” Daniel said. “I want to make it down to the foothills before dark.” He didn’t wait for an answer but turned and set off again. His long, powerful legs traversed the downhill slope with a speed and surety that was amazing in a man so large. He moved very silently as well, she thought as she forced herself to try to match that torturous pace. Was his stealth responsible for his managing to plant all those charges around the plane without being detected? Must be, she decided. Now he had to be feeling the heat as she was. His khaki shirt was plastered to his back and arms, and that backpack and rifle he was carrying had to be suffocatingly hot as well as heavy. Yet he wasn’t even breathing hard, darn it. She was ready to drop in her tracks and he looked like he was out for a leisurely stroll.

He stopped so short she almost ran into him. “Come on. I thought I remembered it being here.” He took her arm and half pulled her up a sloping knoll that bordered the downhill path. “It’s just around this little cliff.”

“What is?”

“A small cave, and down the hill a little farther is a tiny stream. We can shelter there for the night.”

“We’re not going to go on?”

“Hassan and his boys may be combing the hills, and I don’t want to blunder into them in the dark. Not with you along. We’re close enough to the border that we can reach it in a few hours. We’ll start out again before dawn.” He pulled her up the last few yards. His arm encircled her waist as he half carried her over the overgrown path around the knoll.

“You don’t have to stop on my account,” she said, trying to catch her breath. “I’m fine.”

He glanced down at her, and for an instant his hand on her waist tightened imperceptibly. “I can see that,” he said gruffly. “You look as if you’re ready to collapse at any moment, but you’re just fine. You can handle it, right?”

She grinned. “Right.” She felt a surge of warmth that was different from the hot tingling she had felt before. This was more comforting, as sweetly soothing as her mother’s touch, even David’s touch. How strange that this stranger could fill her with such a tempestuous mixture of emotions. “I can handle it.”

“Well, you’re not going to have to handle anything at the moment.” They emerged from the shrubbery on the other side of the knoll, and he stopped in front of a small opening in the side of the hill that was no more than five feet in circumference.

“That’s your cave?” She shook her head. “I think I prefer to stay out here for the night. I don’t like confined places, and that looks awfully small.”

“It goes back fifty yards or so. You’ll be safe in there once I scrounge up some ground cover to hide the opening.” He grimaced. “I don’t like the idea any better than you do. I have a thing about closed-in places too.”

“Then why not stay out here?”

“Because it’s safer for you in the cave,” he said curtly. “Stay here. I’m going to take a look inside. I don’t like unpleasant surprises.”

The mouth of the cave looked dark and menacing in the fast-falling twilight. “Are there any bears in Said Ababa?” she asked.

“Not that I know of.” Daniel leaned his rifle against the wall of the cliff beside the cave opening, unstrapped his backpack, and dropped it to the ground. “I was thinking more on the line of bats and spiders.”

“Bats!” She shivered. “I think I’d rather face a bear.”

“Well, with any luck you won’t have to face either one.” He had drawn a small penlight from his backpack and was on his knees, starting to crawl through the low opening. “Though I do think it would be a good idea to examine your priorities in that area.”

He seemed to be gone a terribly long time. Dear heaven, she hated just standing there waiting helplessly while Daniel took the initiative. Why hadn’t she insisted on going with him? He had been risking his life for her from the moment he had walked into the cabin of the plane she’d been held hostage on, and she was still letting him run risks. That hole looked so dark and creepy.

Snakes! What if there were snakes in there?

She wasn’t even aware that she had dropped to her knees until she had crawled halfway through the opening. Oh, dear heaven, it was dark in here. And she could hear no sound in the darkness ahead.

“Daniel?” It came out as a whispering quaver, she noticed in disgust. What a miserable coward she was being. She lowered her head, took a deep breath, and began to crawl forward as fast as she could.

Suddenly her head ran into something solid with a force that made her see stars. She lifted her head swiftly in alarm and she rammed into something equally hard. A chin?

“Ouch!” It was a pained grunt from the bulk in front of her, followed by a shockingly explicit curse.

“Daniel?”

“Who else would it be, for heaven’s sake? What the devil are you doing in here? Besides trying to knock me unconscious, that is.”

“I was worried about you.” She found her arms clutching at him desperately. “Snakes.”

“What?”

“There might be snakes in here.” He was so big and warm and safe. She had slithered forward and now his arms were holding her. She could hear his heart beating beneath her ear, filling the darkness with its vitality. “Why isn’t your flashlight on?”

“I was saving the batteries. I don’t have extra batteries for this one and we may need it later. I used it to check out all the nooks and crannies and then turned it off for the crawl back to the opening.” His hands were moving over her shoulders and back in a caress that was sexless, she could tell. Yet his touch was causing hot vibrations to spread to her every nerve ending. “Didn’t it occur to you that if you were afraid, it would be smarter not to come crawling to my rescue?”

She shook her head. “If you’re afraid of something, you have to confront it. I found that out a long time ago. If you hide your head, it festers inside of you until it poisons you. I had to come.”

His hands stopped their soothing caress for an instant. “Yes, I think you did.” His lips brushed the top of her head with a feather-light kiss. “You’ll be glad to know that your attempt to rescue me wasn’t necessary. No snakes. No bats. No bears.” He pushed her gently away. “Now, suppose you turn around and crawl out of here? I have a craving for fresh air. This place is smaller than I remembered.” He turned her around and gave her derriere an encouraging pat. “Move.”

The air smelled clean and sweet despite its heavy heat when she crawled out of the cave. She shifted away from the opening and settled herself with a sigh of relief against the hard stone of the cliff wall. Daniel was close behind and rested beside her. He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket and lit one before leaning back against the cliff and inhaling deeply. “Oh, sorry.” He fumbled for the crumpled pack he had jammed back into his shirt pocket. “Would you like one?”

She shook her head. “I don’t smoke.”

“Would you rather I didn’t?”

“No, I don’t mind people around me smoking. I just can’t stand the thought of it myself.” She closed her eyes and arched her throat to let the fresh breeze touch her with its sweet freedom.

“Disease?”

She shook her head. “No, it’s the dependency. I can’t bear the idea of becoming addicted to them. It frightens me.”

“Frightens you?” Daniel’s brow arched quizzically. “That’s rather strange in a girl who isn’t afraid of bears, terrorists, or snakes.”

She opened her eyes. “Is it?” She was suddenly rising to her feet. “Did you say there was a creek nearby?”

“At the bottom of the hill in that little cluster of tamarisk trees.” He could scarcely see her face in the dimness of the dusk, but her shoulders were oddly rigid and tense. He slowly crushed out his cigarette on the ground. “Wait a minute and I’ll show you.”

“No, that’s all right. I’ll find it.” She was already hurrying, almost running down the hill.

Daniel muttered a low exclamation as he got to his feet and followed more slowly. The woman changed moods from moment to moment. One second she was a frightened little girl, clinging to him in the darkness, the next she was coolly strong and mature. And now she was acting as nervous as that high-strung palomino she had been riding in the photograph. If he had to form an instant obsession with any woman, why couldn’t it be with one who wasn’t as complicated as that Mah-Jongg game Philip was so fanatic about? He had only known the woman one afternoon and she had already aroused in him an entire gamut of emotions. Desire, tenderness, protectiveness, jealousy. If he hadn’t been so jealous of her precious David, he’d have been a hell of a lot more diplomatic about staking his claim. He could tell he had almost scared her to death. Not that he wouldn’t have established his possession before he turned her over to Clancy anyway. From the minute he had sat down across from her on the plane he had known. It was like the pieces of a puzzle at last slipping into place. God, it had felt weird.

He frowned as he crossed the last few yards to the tamarisk grove. Zilah must think he was the weird one: An ex-mercenary with the edges still rough and unpolished, barging into her life, throwing bombs around and telling her that she was going to belong to him whether she liked it or not. It was no wonder she was acting so skittish.

He would have to curb his impatience and be gentle and civilized. Hell, she was only twenty-one. A college kid who had probably been sheltered from rough bastards like him. What had he been doing when he was twenty-one? Nam and then central Africa and then…He couldn’t even remember all the countries, all the wars, all the women he had gone through in all those years that separated them. He’d have to be very careful to keep those years and experiences from intruding between them. Yes, he’d be very discreet and cool from now on and maybe…

All thoughts of coolness and discretion fled as he caught sight of her kneeling on the stones that banked the rushing creek. She had taken off her cotton shirt and the straps of her lacy bra were pushed down on her arms as she bathed her face and shoulders with a white handkerchief. It was the same handkerchief he had given her on the plane, he realized. Her sunstreaked hair was falling in a straight silky cloak around her. One hand reached up to push the shimmering mass over her shoulder and it rippled down her back. She dipped the handkerchief in the water again and wrung out the bit of cotton before running it in slow enjoyment down her arm from shoulder to wrist.

Daniel inhaled sharply. He felt as if that leisurely hand was stroking his body, not her own. His loins ached. He could imagine her hand moving so caressingly over him. A pulse hammered in his temple and a heavy heat spread over him in waves of sheer lust.

He hadn’t made a sound, but she must have felt his presence, for her head turned toward him like that of a startled deer. She went still. Then, when she recognized him in the shadows, she laughed shakily. “I must be more nervous than I thought. You frightened me.” The tenseness flowed out of her. She bent over the stream to dip her improvised washcloth once more into the water. “This feels wonderful. I’ll let you have your handkerchief back in a moment, but if I don’t get some of this sand and sweat off me, I’m going to perish.”

“Take your time.” His voice was hoarse, almost guttural, and there was tension about his massive shadow that generated a matching nervousness within her. She couldn’t decipher his expression in the dusk, but she could feel his gaze on her. She was suddenly conscious of her partial nudity and had the impulse to scramble hurriedly back into her shirt. How very stupid! She was wearing more than she customarily did on the beach and they were in a situation where practicality, not modesty should prevail. “I wish I had something else to wear,” she said with forced cheerfulness.

“I have another shirt in my backpack that you can have.” He was moving slowly toward her. “It will probably come down to your knees but at least it’s clean.” He paused beside her, looming over her like a solid wall. “I’ll go and get it.”

She shook her head. “Then you won’t have anything to wear. I’ve taken too much from you already.” She tilted her head to gaze up at him. “I’m very grateful, you know. I don’t think I told you that.”

“I don’t want your gratitude.” He dropped to his knees beside her. “I’m going to want a hell of a lot of things from you, but gratitude isn’t one of them.” He laid his rifle on the ground beside him. His fingers were rapidly unbuttoning his shirt and stripping it off. Then he was bending over the creek, delving into the water and scrubbing his face and throat with the energy that characterized his every movement. The bronzed muscles of his shoulders and back were rippling and sliding as he moved, and her gaze clung to him compulsively. He wasn’t really handsome by any conventional standard. There was no reason for her to get this breathless and to be unable to look away from him. Virile magnetism and the muscular grace of a Roman gladiator were all he possessed. All? It was more than enough to make her knees go weak and cause her hands to shake so badly that she could hardly hold on to the handkerchief.

He was splashing the cool water on the cloud of fiery hair on his chest now, and she could see the water beading on his flesh. She had a sudden impulse to lean forward and lick the drops away. The thought sent a thrill of pure shock through her. Desire. Despite the assurance of the psychiatrist she’d been seeing every week for the past six years, she had never believed she would experience that particular emotion. Yet how could this primitive yearning be anything else?

She could feel her breasts swell, their peaks hardening in an incredible response. She wanted to cover that response with her hands, but that would have been too revealing an action. She snatched up her shirt instead.

“No!”

Her eyes widened and flew swiftly to his face.

His gaze was on her full breasts veiled only by the sheer lace of the bra she wore. His face was heavy with a sensuality that made her catch her breath. “Not yet,” he said huskily. “Come here.”

Her tongue moistened her lips. “I don’t think that would be a good idea. This situation is so…extraordinary that our reactions are a little out of kilter.”

“Yours may only be out of kilter, but mine are going crazy.” His finger reached out to touch the betraying prominence of one nipple through the lace of her bra. “And I think you’re progressing nicely in the same direction.”

She flinched back. It was as if she were being stroked with electricity when he touched her so lightly.

He smiled crookedly. “See?” His hands cupped her shoulders gently. “Pretty explosive, isn’t it?”

“All the more reason…” He was pulling her into his embrace and she was yielding like a bit of metal to a magnet. Why wasn’t she struggling? Then she was pressed against the warm hardness of his chest and she forgot about questions. His fiery mat of hair was stroking her woman’s softness with flames of sensation. Her head was swimming and she couldn’t seem to get her breath. She trustingly rested her cheek against him with a little sigh. “This is a mistake, Daniel. It’s too soon. We don’t know anything about each other.”

“We’ll find out everything we need to know.” His fingers were tangled in her hair as he pulled her head back to look into her eyes. The expression emanating from his own eyes was grave. “Just a little now. I won’t ask more than you want to give.” He shook his head ruefully. “Five minutes ago I was promising myself I’d be very cool and patient. Now all I can do is promise I won’t throw you down and rape you.” He lowered his head slowly. “I want to be so gentle with you, Zilah. I’ve never felt this way before. I usually like it hard and fast, but not with you.” His warm breath was feathering her lips. “I want to savor every touch.” The first brush of his lips was so light she scarcely felt it. Then he captured, held, and cherished her. His lips moved, brushed, angled as one caress became a hundred. Taking breath and warmth and yet giving more back than he took.

How lovely, Zilah thought dreamily as her hands moved to caress his shoulders. He was so smooth and warm. So strong to be so gentle. It was all so new. As if each kiss, each touch were being created at this magic moment. How did he manage to create sorcery like that?

“Zilah.”

“Hmmm.”

“Open your lips, love. I want to taste you.” His fingers were combing through her hair with tactile sensuality while he coaxed her lips apart. “Don’t you want to taste me too?”

“Yes.” She wanted to taste everything about him, touch every part of him, with a hunger that amazed her. Then his tongue was warm on her lips, lazily brushing, before he plunged inside, exploring her teeth, toying playfully with her tongue. It was an intimacy performed so lovingly that it became surprisingly natural, even comfortable. She almost laughed aloud when that thought filtered through the sensual haze Daniel was weaving about her. How could she be so aware in every throbbing pore and still think it comfortable, for heaven’s sake?

Daniel’s hands were fumbling beneath her hair and she felt a sudden loosening. Then he was slipping the straps of her bra off her arms while his lips covered hers. Flesh to flesh, warmth to warmth, hard muscle against the soft cushion of her breasts. A wrenching ache began throbbing between her thighs. “Oh, Zilah, isn’t this great, love?” He pushed her away to look down at her. “It’s getting too dark to see you, dammit.” He gave her a swift, hard kiss. “Come on.” He was on his feet, his hand grasping hers and pulling her to her feet.

“Where are we going?” she asked, startled.

He draped his discarded shirt around her carefully before picking up his rifle and her bra and blouse. “Back to the cave,” he said. “I can’t see you in the dark and I won’t risk your neck and mine making love to you out here in the open.”

“Is that what you were doing?” she asked quietly.

“Making love?” He shot her a glance. “You’re damn right I was making love to you. If I was just using you sexually you’d know it, Zilah. I’m not very subtle.”

She suddenly giggled, feeling ridiculously light-headed. “Hard and fast?”

“Right.” His hand was at her waist, propelling her up the hill. “With lots of fireworks. You’ll like it like that, too, I hope, but we’ll start out slow and easy.”

She stiffened and was silent for a long moment. “I don’t think I’m ready for…fireworks,” she said hesitantly. “This has come as something of a surprise to me.”

He didn’t answer until they had reached the mouth of the cave. “Like I said, we’ll keep it slow and easy. Right now I kind of like the idea of courting you.” His grasp tightened on her waist. “Just don’t try to shut me out entirely. I couldn’t stand it after touching you. I’ll do without the Roman candles, but a few firecrackers are required.”

She had an idea she would have a difficult time resisting the temptation to touch Daniel as well in the future. “Whatever you say,” she said meekly.

He snorted inelegantly. “As long as it’s what you want too.” His voice became unexpectedly grim. “Honesty, Zilah. There has to be absolute honesty between us. Tell me it’s what you want too.”

“It’s what I want too, Daniel,” she said quietly. And it was, she realized with amazement. He had only to touch her and she wanted him so much that it shook her to her foundations. “It’s exactly what I want.”

His arm tightened in a quick hug. “That’s my girl.” He released her and turned away. “Now, why don’t you rummage in my backpack to find that clean shirt. I’ll go and see what I can do about rustling up some shrubbery to cover the cave opening.”

Zilah watched him stride away in a state bordering on bemusement. He had stirred so many responses in her with his vibrant presence that now she felt suddenly cold and a little lost. She gave herself a shake and deliberately turned her eyes away from Daniel’s lithe retreating back.

He was a stranger, blast it. She couldn’t possibly be so emotionally involved with a stranger. His dynamic vitality and bold, rakish charm had merely captured her imagination. His sexual attraction for her had caught her off guard and she mustn’t mistake chemistry for something deeper. A man like Daniel must have eager women standing in line to crawl into his bed. How could she compete with them when she didn’t even know if she could respond sexually to any man? Yet Daniel wasn’t just any man. She had melted like a snowball tossed into a bonfire when he had touched her-that was the final healing, according to Dr. Melrose. He had been so coolly clinical when he had made his recommendation to respond freely if she ever did feel that flare of sexual attraction. The possibility had seemed so remote that she had listened indifferently at the time, but now…What if Daniel were offering her nothing but a physical rapport that might last only a few weeks? If he took from her, he might also be giving more than he could ever imagine. The final healing that would make her a whole woman at last.

She dropped to her knees on the ground beside the backpack, her fingers fumbling at the straps. She instinctively shied away from the realization of what that healing would bring. She wouldn’t think, she would only feel while she was with Daniel. She would flow with the tide. She could rely on him to see that she wouldn’t drown in that sea of emotion. There was a warm sensitivity beneath his surface hardness that she intuitively trusted.

She swiftly shed the shirt Daniel had draped around her shoulders and slipped on the blue cotton workshirt from the backpack. It felt crisp and clean against her skin and smelled faintly of lime and tobacco. She rummaged through the backpack. There was bread and cheese wrapped in a cloth, a large battery-operated lantern together with a packet of extra batteries, a white undershirt, a box of ammunition for the rifle, a folded silver-coated sheet, a wicked-looking machete. In all, a very workmanlike, efficient emergency backpack. Like Daniel himself: Practical, lethal, and efficient.

“Pass me that machete, will you?” Daniel asked from behind her. He unslung his rifle and handed it to her in exchange for the machete. “I’ve found a dead tree we can use. It will take only fifteen or twenty minutes to drag up enough branches to cover the opening.”

“May I help?”

“No, you stay here.” He turned back as a thought struck him. “Do you know how to use this rifle?”

“I’m pretty good with a Browning automatic. David’s father taught me how to shoot at the ranch. I don’t know how I’d get along with this one.” She made a face. “This is one of those rifles that doubles as a machine-gun, isn’t it?”

He nodded. “An M-1. You just adjust the cartridge lever and pull the trigger back.” He turned away again. “Keep a sharp eye, Annie Oakley. I’ll be back soon.”