This Fierce Splendor

7

“She’s awake!” A broad grin creased Patrick’s cheeks as he began to untie the rawhide thongs of the saddlebags on Dominic’s stallion. “Came around late last night.”

Dominic went still. “And?”

“She’s going to be fine.” Patrick lifted off the heavy leather bag and dropped it to the ground. “Kind of hazy, but what can you expect?”

A dizzying stream of relief poured through Dominic. “You’re sure?”

“One of the first things she said was that she didn’t have time to be sick, she had to get to Kantalan. I think our little owl is definitely on the mend.”

“It sounds like it.” Oh, God, she was going to be all right! “Is she awake now?”

Patrick shook his head. “Silver gave her a bath, washed her hair, and fed her a little broth. She was pretty tired after that and went right back to sleep. Did you get anything from Doc Bellings?”

“Just some laudanum to help deepen her sleep. I thought it might stop the dreams. Maybe she won’t need it now.”

“Probably not. I hope to God that’s all over. Any news from Gran-da?”

Dominic slipped from the saddle. “The one you expected. Cort was in town two days ago and left a message with everyone he met for you to get your tail back to Killara.”

“And no messages for you?”

“No messages.”

“I imagine Gran-da will have quite a few things to say when Cort gets back to Killara and tells him what you’ve been up to.”

“I doubt it.” Dominic began to unsaddle the stallion. “When he was a young man Da would have considered it pretty tame to carry off a woman.”

“Maybe.” Patrick’s expression was skeptical. “But he’s become real respectable with the years.”

“He likes to pretend he’s respectable, but beneath that Sunday-go-to-meeting smile he’s as big a rascal as he ever was.” Dominic’s lips twisted in a bitter-sweet smile. “Perhaps that’s why he still manages to forgive me for all I’ve cost him through the years. Like to like. I’m a true son to the old devil.”

Patrick frowned. “Everything you’ve done, you’ve been forced to do, Dom. We all know that.”

“Do we? Tell that to the woman in the cabin.” Dominic’s voice was thick with disgust. “I swear to God, I was going to rape her, and, instead, I nearly killed her. Ten years ago I would have shot the balls off any bastard who so much as thought of doing that to a woman. What kind of man does that make me?”

“You went loco for a little while. You would have come to your senses-”

“The hell I would.” Dominic whirled to face him with a movement alive with barely contained violence. “She does something wild to me and… I would have done it, and if I’m ever left alone with her, I might still do it. I’m not the same man I was when I left Killara. Why the hell don’t you all realize that and stay away from me?”

“We love you,” Patrick said simply. “You’re family.”

Dominic stared at him for a moment. He felt as if he’d been struck in the stomach. He finally pulled his gaze away. “Haven’t you ever heard of black sheep? The smart thing to do is to cast them out and let them go their own way.”

Patrick smiled. “I never claimed to be smart. I kind of like black sheep. At least they’re not boring.” He paused. “I think you should know I’m not going back to Killara.”

Dominic’s gaze flew back to his face. “Oh, yes, you are. We’ve had this discussion before.”

“As I remember, we didn’t discuss it at all. You just told me what I was going to do. I’ve thought it over and come to the conclusion that it’s my duty to stay with you. You obviously need my help to keep you from wandering further down the path to hell and damnation. It should be a very interesting experience for both of us.” Patrick smiled blandly. “I’m staying glued to your side until you decide to come back to Killara with me.”

Dominic’s expression darkened. “I told you…”

Patrick held up his hand. “No one tells me anything these days, Dom.” There was a hint of steel in his lazy drawl. “Remember that, will you? If you want me to go back to Killara, you’ll have to go with me.”

“You damn fool, you’re going to get yourself killed,” Dominic said harshly. “It’s only a matter of time before one of Durbin’s hired guns shows up in Hell’s Bluff.”

“All the more reason to go back to Killara. We could make sure no one gets to you there.”

“They can get to me anywhere. Durbin’s price doesn’t require a fair fight. He’d be just as happy to have me bushwhacked.”

“Your being on Delaney land would make it more difficult. You’re not going to change my mind, Dom,”

Dominic abruptly realized he was not going to be able either to persuade or intimidate Patrick, and the knowledge filled him with fear. He suddenly could see young Sam Bergstrom’s dead, staring eyes, the slow trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. He felt the hot bile rush to his stomach. God, not again. Not Patrick. “You can bet that I’m going to change your mind. Who the hell wants to be saddled with a snot-nosed kid like you? You’ll only get in my way.” He injected a taunting note of scorn in his voice. “What’s the matter, did someone finally take the blinders off Josh? Did he find out how you feel about Rising Star? Is that why you want to leave Killara for a spell?”

The color flooded Patrick’s face and his hands suddenly clenched into fists at his sides. “Shut up, Dom.”

Dominic smiled coldly. “I don’t remember ever going to bed with an Indian. Are they any different? Tell me, do they give a warwhoop when-”

Patrick took a step forward. “Shut up or, so help me God, I’ll kill you, Dom.” His voice was shaking. “How can you talk like that about her? I thought you liked Rising Star. You know she would never be unfaithful to Josh.”

“Do I? You’ve been nosing around her from the moment you found out what women were for. Everyone but Josh knows how you feel about her. She must be damn good to keep you coming back-” Dominic broke off as Patrick’s fist smashed into his mouth, snapping his head back and causing him to stagger sideways. He shook his head to clear it of the black spots dancing before his eyes. Christ, the kid had a wicked right hook. “Do you still want me to come back to Killara?”

“I want you to burn in hell,” Patrick said between his teeth. “Don’t just stand there, fight me.”

Dominic shook his head. “I don’t fight children. Go home and grow up.” He turned away. “Maybe I’ll give you your chance in a few years.”

“The hell you will.” Patrick fastened his hand on Dominic’s arm and whirled him around to face him. “Damn you, I’m going to-” He broke off and suddenly the fury was fading from his face. “You did it deliberately,” he said slowly.

“And I’ll do it again.” Dominic met his gaze with a cool steadiness. “I’ll hurt you where you’re raw. I’ll uncover all the wounds you’ve hidden for years and make you bleed. Do you think you can stand that?”

“You son of a bitch.”

“Yes.” Dominic’s lips twisted in a crooked smile. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.” He jerked his arm from Patrick’s grasp. “I’ve learned to do what I have to do to get my own way. Go home, Patrick, you won’t like what I’ll do to you if you stay.”

He turned and walked around the cabin without another glance.

He almost trampled over Silver, who was standing only a few yards away, leaning against the rough logs of the cabin. “I was coming to see if you had brought any medicine for the woman,” she said as she slowly straightened. “And then I decided to listen. We heathen Indians have no scruples about things like that, you know.”

Something flickered in Dominic’s expression. “I didn’t know. The Indians I’ve known have usually had a more highly developed sense of honor than most white men.”

She met his eyes. “Yet you speak of my aunt, Rising Star, as if she were a whore, as if all Indian women are whores. What you believe has little meaning to me, but I found it… curious. My aunt regards you with affection.”

“I regard Rising Star with affection also. You weren’t meant to hear my words; they held no truth. Sometimes it’s necessary to…” Dominic trailed off and then continued wearily. “I apologize if I hurt you.”

“You didn’t hurt me, I permit no one to hurt me. I knew what you were doing. You wanted to send Patrick home to safety and you used what weapons were at hand. I would do the same.” She smiled sweetly. “If I had not known that, I would have plunged my knife into your back, or better yet used it to remove the part of the body with which white men make whores of virtuous Apache women.”

For a moment Dominic felt the heaviness of spirit he was experiencing lighten and a faint smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “Then I’m extremely glad you’re so perceptive. I’m very fond of that particular body part.”

“Most men are,” Silver said dryly. “They pale and tremble when it is threatened. Why is that? I wonder. You’d think they would value their limbs or their eyes more. Men are very foolish.” She dismissed the subject of masculine unreasonableness with a shrug. “Do you wish me to go away for a little while? Your woman is awake again.”

“How is she?”

“She gains strength slowly; it will take time.” Her eyes narrowed. “You could take her to Killara. They would treat her very well if she brought you back to them.”

“No!”

“You need not shout at me. I do not care whether you ever go back. It is nothing to me. It is your woman who needs a place to heal. Are you going to keep her lying on that dusty mat on the floor? She would be better off at my people’s village. At least there I could give her soft furs to cushion her and not have to-”

“Stop stinging me with that scorpion tongue, dammit,” Dominic said. “I’m taking her back to the hotel at Hell’s Bluff as soon as she’s able to travel. When will that be?”

“She will not be able to sit on a horse by herself, but if you could make her comfortable, she could leave tomorrow. It would be better than keeping her here. She is not accustomed to roughness.” Silver continued grudgingly, “Though I think she would suffer it without a complaint. Her spirit is stronger than her body.”

So Silver had discovered that as well. “She won’t have to suffer it. I’ll give her whatever she needs to make her well. Will you come with me, Silver? I don’t know what kind of reception she’s going to receive in Hell’s Bluff.” He smiled bitterly. “I made sure I burned all her bridges when I took her away. The good people of the town may be very cruel to her if we don’t protect her.”

“You… need me?”

“I need you.”

Silver quickly took pains to mask any sign of the pleasure she felt. “Of course you need me. How could you take care of her by yourself? You are only a man, and a white man at that. I will come and no one will be cruel to her.” Her smile was fierce. “More than once.” She turned away. “Now I will go for a walk and you will tell her she will not be alone when you take her back to town. Wipe the blood from your face. You must not frighten her.”

Dominic lifted his fingers to his lips and it came away with drops of blood. “Yes, ma’am.” He jerked the handkerchief out of his back pocket and dabbed at his split lip. “Anything else?”

“No, not at the moment.” She glanced back over her shoulder and smiled. Dominic inhaled sharply. At that moment she looked so much like Boyd, there could be no question of her parentage. Why couldn’t Da see the resemblance? Why did he deny the truth so stubbornly? “I’ll let you know if I wish anything else later. After all, white men have made good slaves for Apaches before this.”

He bowed slightly. “Yours to command.”

To his surprise a slight flush darkened her golden skin. “You needn’t mock me,” she said, her eyes blazing. “I know how you all feel.” She turned and walked away swiftly.

Dominic gazed after her, silently cursing Boyd and Da and himself. At that moment he had seen a glimpse of something hurt and vulnerable beneath the fierceness Silver wore about her like a cloak. In no logical way could he compare her to Elspeth, but for a fleeting instant she had reminded him of his little owl, struggling desperately to be brave against overwhelming odds.

His little owl, his Elspeth. How easily possessiveness crept into his thoughts when they concerned Elspeth. But he mustn’t think of her as belonging to him. He couldn’t let her become closer to him than she was already, any more than he could allow Patrick to come nearer. He had done enough to her without exposing her to more danger. Not that she would want to be close to him, he thought moodily. She would probably be on the stage and hightailing it out of Hell’s Bluff as soon as she could totter out of bed.

He drew a deep breath and squared his shoulders. It was time to face her. He had been dreading the confrontation since Patrick had told him she had regained consciousness, but he would put it off no longer.

Elspeth’s eyes were closed when he walked into the cabin, but they opened at once to gaze up at him with startled alertness. She had been expecting him, she had known he would come, and yet her breath seemed to stop when she saw him. He was unsmiling and his familiar grim expression made her suddenly remember what she had been trying to forget since the moment she had awakened to see Silver sitting beside her.

The hot color flew to her cheeks and she tried to sit up. The tan blanket slipped and she grabbed at it frantically, abruptly conscious that she was completely unclothed beneath it.

“Have you no sense?” Dominic was across the room in three strides and dropping to his knees at her side. “Lie down before you fall down. You can stop looking at me like I’m some sort of ogre. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“No?” she whispered. “You’ve changed your mind then? About ravishing me, I mean.”

A flicker of pain softened his expression. “I’ve changed my mind. I won’t ask you to forgive me, I know there’s no forgiveness possible. But for God’s sake, don’t be afraid of me. I won’t hurt you. All you have to do is concentrate on getting well.”

The tension flowed out of her and she relaxed slowly. She nestled her cheek on the suede of his jacket that still served as her pillow. “I thought you would change your mind once you had gotten over your anger with me. You didn’t really want to bed me. I knew that.”

“Did you? Clever of you.” He was acutely conscious of the vibrant textures of her. Her long hair was flowing silk against the rough black suede of his coat, and the flesh of her shoulders gleamed with the luminous transparency he remembered as if it had been carved into his memory with the blade of a tomahawk. Dear God, he was wanting her again. He hadn’t expected desire. He had felt nothing but aching regret and tenderness all the time he was caring for her, and yet now desire was upon him again, sharper and more alive than ever before. “I’m no threat to you. Patrick said I’d gone loco. I guess he was right.”

“Loco?”

“Horses sometimes eat loco weed and go berserk out here,” Dominic said. “He meant I went wild and started acting crazy.”

“I see. It’s a very colorful word, isn’t it? You have many words that-” She broke off as her throat tightened and the breath left her body. He was looking at her with that same expression she had seen as he lay beside her on the mat that night. His lips held a heavy sensuality and the hollowed lines of his cheeks were taut with hunger. Then he looked away and she could breathe again.

She must have been mistaken. He had said he no longer wanted her and there was no reason to disbelieve him. She knew very well she was not a woman a man would want to bed. “I should like to study the origin of some of your American words sometime. Perhaps when we come back from Kantalan I-”

“Kantalan.” His glance flew back to her face. “I would have thought you’d realize by now that I have no intention of taking you to Kantalan.” He slowly shook his head in wonder. “I can’t understand you. You were nearly raped, you fell into a gorge and almost split your head open. You’ve taken risks that no sane woman would take, and all because you want to find a lost city which probably no longer exists, if it ever did.”

“But it does exist,” she said softly. Her eyes grew misty and faraway. “I know it does. All my life I’ve dreamed of Kantalan and known that I would go there someday. From the first moment I heard my father speak of it, I knew I’d walk the streets of Kantalan and see the temples and-” She broke off as he made a sharp exclamation. She frowned in puzzlement as she saw his expression held surprise and for a flickering moment even a touch of fear. Then it was quickly shuttered again and she thought she must have been mistaken. “Is there something wrong?”

“Walk the streets of Kantalan,” he repeated. “It’s a curious phrase. I suppose it just startled me. You act as if you can really see yourself there.”

“I can.” She raised herself on one elbow, her eyes bright with eagerness. “Sometimes I see it and know that I belong there. I realize it’s only my imagination, but there’s nothing wrong with dreaming, is there? Sometimes reality is more bearable if one comes to it from dreams. Haven’t you ever had a dream that was so strong, so clear, it was more real than the world around you?”

“Yes.” Killara. Many times he had dreamed he was home at Killara and woke to find only bitterness, ashes, and loneliness. “Yes, I’ve had dreams like that.”

“Then surely you realize how I feel about Kantalan. Won’t you take me there?”

Walk the streets of Kantalan. The phrase echoed in his memory and sent a chill rippling down his spine. Coincidence. It had to be the merest coincidence, but it still brought him the same sense of fear and dread he had known the night White Buffalo had told him the prophecy.

She was looking at him as if he could grant her the gift she had yearned for all the days of her life. He felt suddenly heady with power. He could give her this. He had hurt and shamed her, but he could make amends by giving her what she asked. He opened his lips to answer her and then closed them again without speaking. If White Buffalo’s prophecy held any truth, what she wanted could also bring her death and he would not risk it. Perhaps he believed more in that prophecy than he had thought, perhaps his skepticism regarding Kantalan had actually cloaked fear.

He stood up. “No, I won’t take you to Kantalan.”

Her eyes were suddenly blazing with excitement. “But you could take me. You know where it is, don’t you?”

They had gone beyond subterfuge. He wouldn’t lie to her again. “I know where Kantalan is supposed to be. That doesn’t mean it’s actually there.” His lips tightened. “And I won’t take you. Sometimes it’s better for everyone not to have a dream realized.”

“But why-”

“No!” The word echoed on the air like a whistling lash of rawhide. “I’m taking you back to Hell’s Bluff tomorrow. We’ll start out at sunset, it will be cooler then so the trip will be easier for you. You’ll stay at the hotel until you’re fully recovered and then I’ll put you on the stage for Tucson. Can’t you see you don’t belong here? You almost died, dammit.”

“I may not belong here,” she whispered. Her eyes were enormous in her pale face. “But I do belong in Kantalan. Take me there.”

He muttered a curse beneath his breath. “Didn’t you listen to a word I said? You’re not going to Kantalan. You’re going home.” He turned on his heel and stomped toward the door. “Make up your mind to it. You’re definitely going home.”

As he uttered the last sentence the door opened to reveal Silver gazing at him with raised brows. “You’re sending someone else home?” she asked. “There will soon be no one left. I came to tell you Patrick has gone. He rode out a few minutes ago.”

Dominic experienced a sharp thrust of pain. It was what he had wanted, what was necessary, but that didn’t help relieve his sudden sense of terrible aloneness. “No, there will be no one left,” he repeated dully. He moved past Silver and stood in the doorway watching Patrick’s quickly retreating figure as the chestnut negotiated the twists of the winding trail that bordered the gorge. Then, as Patrick was lost to view beyond a curve in the trail, Dominic pulled his gaze away. “I picked up some soap and bandages in town. I’ll fetch them from my saddlebags.”

He shut the door behind him.

Elspeth gazed at the door, a pensive frown wrinkling her brow. She had glimpsed pain and sadness and poignant regret at the moment Dominic had left the cabin. She had thought him hard, even ruthless, and never dreamed he could display softer emotions. Her gaze moved to Silver’s face. “Why did he send Patrick away?”

“He loves him and he fears for him,” Silver said matter-of-factly. “There are many men who would like to kill Dominic and he thinks they will also kill the ones he loves. The Delaneys are a very close family and they protect their own.” She came to Elspeth’s side. “I’m glad he brought fresh bandages. It was difficult to keep these clean.” She began to untie the white linen binding Elspeth’s head wound. “It will be easier once we’re in Hell’s Bluff.”

“The Delaneys,” Elspeth murmured. She was suddenly intensely curious about the family that had brought forth such wildly differing offspring as Dominic, Patrick, and Silver. “Tell me about them, Silver.”

“What do you wish to know?”

“Everything. I’d like to know everything.”

Silver began to bathe the cut on Elspeth’s head. “The old man, Shamus, and his wife Malvina, came here from Ireland in 1842. They had nine sons and five are still living-Joshua, Falcon, Dominic, Cort, and Sean. He has three grandchildren; Patrick, Brianne, and William.”

“And you,” Elspeth said. “Patrick said you were his cousin.”

Silver’s eyes flickered. “The old man will not admit I am his kin. There is no proof. My mother was only an Indian who caught his son, Boyd’s, eye. He bedded her, left his seed, and rode out of our village without another thought. When my mother grew big with child, Sun Eagle, the brave to whom she had been promised, decided to redeem his honor. He killed Boyd Delaney and took my mother away to a tribe far to the north of here. When I was born, I had these.” Her hand gestured to indicate the startling crystal gray of her eyes. “Sun Eagle was willing to accept my mother, but not look upon me, her shame, with every passing day. One night he rode down from the north and left me wrapped in a blanket on the porch of the homestead at Killara.” Her lips twisted. “And the next morning Shamus sent me to the village of my mother’s father, Black Bear, with a message that I was no blood of his.”

Elspeth felt a surge of poignant sympathy. “How terrible for you.”

Silver’s expression became suddenly fierce. “Why? Black Bear was very kind to me. There were others in the village who had no use for a white man’s leavings, but I had no need of the old man’s charity. I would have been just as happy not to have ever seen the Delaneys again. It was Rising Star who made me come back to Killara.”

“Rising Star? I’ve heard that name mentioned before.”

“She is my aunt and married to Joshua. It was at the feasting when they were joined that Joshua’s brother met my mother. Joshua took my aunt to Killara and she lives there like a fine lady.” A fleeting wistfulness touched Silver’s expression. “When I was five she came to our camp and took me home with her. For four months of every year she kept me with her, giving me schooling and teaching me white men’s ways. It was a very brave thing for her to do. She has always been frightened of the old man and he didn’t want me there, even for just four months out of the year.”

“She sounds like a very splendid lady.”

Silver’s lips curved in a bittersweet smile. “I said she lives ‘like’ a fine lady, but she is Indian and the whites never let us forget.” Her expression softened. “But Rising Star truly is a wonderful woman. I am proud to call her my aunt. She bears her pain with the strength of a great warrior.”

“Pain?”

Silver’s lips thinned. “You have heard enough about the Delaneys. If you want to know more, you must ask your man to tell you.”

Elspeth’s eyes widened in bewilderment. “My man?”

Silver shrugged. “Dominic.”

Wild rose color stained Elspeth’s cheeks. “You misunderstood. He’s not my-” She moistened her lips and started again. “I know our circumstances are not the most proper but…”

Silver was gazing at her in puzzlement. “Why do you lie to me? When you wept and screamed in fear, only he could comfort you, and when he thought you were going to die, he was as fierce and sorrowful as if you had been his squaw for many years. I know the signs of belonging.” An ironic smile touched her lips. “One who does not belong anywhere can always read such signs very well.”

“Well, you’ve read the signs wrong this time.” Had Dominic genuinely felt concern for her? The idea was fascinating. She wondered if he had really looked at her with pain and sorrow as Silver claimed. It was clear he wasn’t as hard a man as she had first thought. His love for his nephew, Patrick, was plain enough to see; there was no mistaking the remorse he felt for his part in her injury. She had even believed for a moment that he was going to give in to her plea to lead her to Kantalan. Still, Silver had to be mistaken.

“You are smiling,” Silver said softly, her shrewd gaze fixed on Elspeth’s face. “I think perhaps the idea of belonging to Dominic does not displease you.” Then, as Elspeth opened her lips to protest, Silver placed two fingers on them to silence her. “Hush, be silent now and rest. Later you can think of man-woman things.”

The next evening Elspeth found she could think of little else besides man-woman things. For the principal reason that she found all the curves and valleys of her woman’s body were pressed against Dominic’s equally obvious masculine attributes.

Silver had dressed her in a pair of her own knee-high moccasins and a clean blue shirt belonging to Dominic that came past her knees. Then she had wrapped Elspeth so tightly in the freshly washed tan blanket that she could scarcely move a muscle.

“There. Just like an Indian baby in a papoose,” she had said with satisfaction. “I will tell Dominic he can take you now. I will clean up the cabin and follow you to Hell’s Bluff when I finish.”

“Take me?” Elspeth asked faintly.

“You are too weak to sit on a saddle. He will have to take you up in front of him.” Then, noticing Elspeth’s suddenly apprehensive expression, she continued comfortingly, “Don’t worry, Dominic is a fine rider, almost as good as an Apache. He won’t let you fall.”

“That’s very reassuring.”

There was nothing in the least reassuring, however, just an hour later as she lay across the saddle in the curve of Dominic’s arm. She was pressed against Dominic’s hard, muscular body with every swaying step the stallion took.

The layers of material separating them might have been nonexistent for all the difference they made. Intimacy. She was feeling that same blinding sense of intimacy she had experienced when Dominic had taken her naked foot and held it against the same rigidity that was pressing against her hip at this very moment. The side of her soft breast brushed against him with every movement and she was beginning to feel a strange painful tautness in and around her nipples.

Heat. Heat was surrounding her, touching her, overpowering her. It was the blanket, she thought hazily. She had to get rid of this blanket wrapped so tightly around her or she would suffocate. She began to fight her way out of the woolen folds.

“What are you doing?” Dominic’s voice was oddly thick. “For God’s sake, can’t you be still?”

“I’m hot. The blanket…”

“You can’t be any warmer than I am,” he said dryly. “And I don’t have the excuse of a blanket.”

“Please.” The heat was growing. She could feel the flush of it on her skin and the crests of her breasts were beginning to feel acutely sensitive and swollen. “I think I’m getting sick. I want to sit up.”

“So that you can fall off the blasted horse?”

“Silver said you wouldn’t let me fall. Please, just for a little while. I’m beginning to feel so peculiar.”

He muttered something beneath his breath and suddenly his hands were on the blanket, holding her steady with one while with the other he unwound the blanket from around her. “This is a mistake.”

“No, I’ll feel much better once I’m no longer so warm.” Then the blanket was gone, draped over the horn of the saddle, and she did feel cooler with the gentle evening breeze caressing her cheeks and pressing the soft blue shirt against her body. Though she was still feeling that strange tingling in her breasts and difficulty in breathing. “Now help me to sit up.”

He moved back in the saddle and was lifting her so she was astride the horse, her back pressed against his chest. His breathing was labored and as his chest lifted and fell, it touched her back with every movement. She guessed that shifting her had been strenuous for him and said, “I’m sorry I troubled you. I’ll be fine now. Just forget about me.”

Forget about her? Dominic almost laughed aloud. How could he forget about her when that enticing bottom was pressed against his groin and every motion of the stallion resulted in a friction that caused him to gasp with desire. “I’ll try.” His throat was so tight, the words were barely audible.

“You told me once I wouldn’t be able to return to Hell’s Bluff.”

“There’s no place else for you to go. I promise no one will make you feel the least bit uncomfortable.” He could see the pale gleam of her thighs beneath the tail of his shirt and the start of the leather moccasins. He wanted to run his hand slowly down her thigh and then push the shirt up to her waist. He wanted to put his palms on the tight golden-brown curls he had fondled once before and press hard. He wanted to unbutton the blue shirt that clothed her and watch her breasts as they bounced and shimmered in the moonlight. He wanted to sink his tongue into the ear so close to his lips and tease her until she was as hot and aching as he was.

“This is a very nice horse,” Elspeth said. “He has a much smoother gait than that horrible horse I rode to the cabin. Does he have a name?”

“Blanco.”

“But he’s black as midnight. Why would you call him Blanco?”

“Because he wasn’t. At the time I thought it was hilarously funny.”

“Really?” she asked doubtfully. “I don’t quite see-”

“I was drunk.”

“Oh.” She turned to look at him and a swath of her hair moved against his lips in a silken, sensual kiss. “I’m afraid I paid no attention when you brought me here. How far is it to Hell’s Bluff?

“Too far,” he muttered. “Will you just not move.”

“I’m sorry I bothered you,” she said with hurt dignity. “I only wondered.”

He was wondering too. He was wondering what she would do if he turned her in the saddle, freed himself, and sunk deep within her. He wondered if she would be frightened if he wrapped her legs around his hips and buried his tongue in her mouth. He wondered what she would do if he lifted her breasts to his mouth and suckled his fill. He wondered all these painful, hungry thoughts while the heat built and the swelling in his groin increased and he prayed he’d make it to Hell’s Bluff before wondering became reality.

Elspeth leaned back against his chest and sighed despondently. He was angry with her again. The softness she had sensed in him when he had returned yesterday morning was now completely gone. Her gaze fell on his hand on her stomach that was steadying her on the saddle. It was a beautiful hand, she thought dreamily. His long, tanned fingers were splayed across the blue cotton shirt and looked slim, capable, and strong. She could feel the imprint of each finger through the thin cotton and she suddenly remembered how gently his fingertips had moved over her naked body, touching, brushing and then moving on until…

She moved restlessly against Dominic and she heard him inhale sharply. She tried to turn and look at him again, but his hand on her stomach suddenly tightened, crumpling the fabric. “No!”

His voice held a heaviness, a guttural deepness that sent a queer warm shiver through her. Heat again. The wind that touched her face and pushed the cotton of the shirt against her breasts was no longer cool but scorching. It hadn’t been the blanket, she realized, but Dominic Delaney who had brought the heat. She had always thought fear was cold, and it must be fear that was causing the blood to tingle through every vein.

After all, fear was the natural reaction when a man had nearly ravished you. Yet should she not be experiencing the urge to escape instead of this melting acquiescence? No, it couldn’t be fear, then. Her brow wrinkled thoughtfully as her usual curiosity came to the forefront at this startling realization. She would think about it, examine this new emotion, and determine why it so unsettled her. Elspeth settled her head more comfortably against Dominic’s breast, her gaze on the moon rising above the purple-shadowed mountains, and began to wonder.

She wondered why her breasts were suddenly swollen, the nipples pressing against the soft cotton as if pleading for release. She wondered why the rhythmic pounding of the leather saddle against that most private part of her was causing an ache that held no pain. She wondered why his hand on the gently rounded flesh of her stomach seemed to become heavier and more possessive with each passing moment. She wondered why his warm breath against her ear was causing an odd languor to attack the muscles of her neck and shoulders.

They were silent for the remainder of the journey.

Wondering.

Dominic took no physical action.

Elspeth came to no conclusions.

It seemed a long, long time to both of them before they saw the lights of Hell’s Bluff.