Desert Rain with Bonus Material

by Elizabeth Lowell

  “Butter in the ice chest,” Holly said. “Honey, too.”

  She broke eggs into the bacon pan, poured two cups of coffee, and laid most of the crisp bacon on Linc’s plate. She flipped the eggs deftly, counted to ten, and slid them onto his plate. Three of the five pieces of toast went on top.

  “Come and get it while it’s hot,” she said. “And no smart remarks or I’ll eat it all myself.”

  Laughing, Linc took his plate of food and began to eat.

  Holly cooked two more eggs, reached for her toast, and saw that Linc had already prepared it for her. A rich sheen of butter and honey swirled over the bread and dripped over the crust to make tiny golden beads on her plate.

  Though Holly ate quickly, Linc finished far ahead of her. He poured another cup of coffee and sat on his heels next to the rock she had chosen for a chair.

  “You’re amazing, niná,” he said, sipping the coffee.

  “Yeah. Right,” she said, licking honey off her fingers. “Not too many geriatric virgins these days.”

  Linc chuckled.

  “That’s not what I meant,” he said.

  “Huh.”

  He shook his head, denying her skepticism.

  “First you drag me to shelter and take care of me,” he said. “After that you go back out and risk your neck in a thunderstorm taking care of my crazy horse.”

  Whatever Holly might have said was lost in the big bite of toast she took.

  “Then I wake up in the morning,” Linc said slowly, “and I think I’m still dreaming because there’s the taste of you on my lips. Then . . .”

  His words died as memories of the early morning blazed in his hazel eyes.

  After a moment Linc let out a long breath and sipped gingerly at the coffee. He looked at everything around the camp except Holly. He knew if he kept thinking about this morning in the hushed intimacy of the tent, he wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off her.

  “Later,” Linc said, “I’m gone for fifteen minutes rubbing down my horse and I come back to find the tent organized, a fire going, breakfast waiting and sexy lingerie hanging next to my wet socks.”

  He took Holly’s hand and rubbed his mustache against it. With a gentle squeeze, he released her fingers.

  “You have no idea,” he said, “what a shining pleasure it is not to be saddled with a gorgeous, useless woman.”

  Holly winced. “Not all gorgeous women are useless.”

  “I don’t remember my mother ever cooking up anything but goo for facials,” Linc said, contempt in every word.

  Unhappily Holly chewed on her toast.

  “My stepmother was even worse,” he added. “She wouldn’t have been able to set up a tent, much less know how to trench around it in case of rain. Neither one of them would have gone out in a storm to take care of a horse.”

  Without a word Holly ate the last few bites of her breakfast. Linc was right about those two particular women, and the whole valley knew it. His father had unfailingly been drawn to beautiful, completely self-absorbed women.

  Even worse, Linc’s father had never seen that his marital problems couldn’t be laid at the feet of the children who needed the love of at least one parent. Alcohol had been Martin McKenzie’s solace and retreat when his marriages went bad.

  Then Linc and his much younger half-sister had only each other when the world went cold and harsh around them.

  “Hell,” Linc said, his voice icy, “neither one of those females would have gone out in a drizzle to save their own children. But they’d crawl naked through cactus to a cheap motel room.”

  Narrow-eyed, he stared out over the fire, seeing only the cruel past.

  Holly set down her empty plate. She put her hand on his bare shoulder, blending her warmth with his.

  “I’m sorry they hurt you,” she said.

  The beard stubble on Linc’s cheek rasped lightly over the back of Holly’s skin.

  “It’s over and done with,” he said.

  “Is it? You still hate beautiful women for no better reason than their beauty.”

  Abruptly his cheek lifted away from her hand. Displeasure showed clearly in the flat line of his mouth. It was a subject he was not willing to discuss.

  But for Holly, the subject was far too important to ignore in the hope that it would never come up again.

  It would.

  The longer she waited, the worse it would be when Linc found out that Holly was also Shannon.

  “Would your mother’s and stepmother’s selfishness have been any easier to bear if they had been ugly?” Holly asked quietly.

  “If they had been ugly, they wouldn’t have been selfish.”

  His voice was smooth and cold, leaving no opening for disagreement. It was as though he had just said that the sun set in the west.

  A fact, indisputable.

  Holly started to speak, then thought better of it.

  Linc had been hurt by actions, not words. It would take actions, not words, to convince him that not all beautiful women were selfish and cruel.

  I made a small start just by being myself, she consoled herself as she stared silently into her coffee cup. I helped him and cared for his horse.

  Holly hadn’t done any of it to impress Linc. It was simply the way she was. She could no more hide her basic nature than she could step out of her own skin.

  Linc had no trouble believing that she was generous and kind. The rest of her truth was going to be hard for Linc to accept.

  Under certain conditions, Holly could be very beautiful, yet she was never cruel.

  In time, Linc had to see that.

  Linc is right, she admitted to herself. We need a truce, a time to know each other better.

  She prayed that two days would be enough.

  Nine

  Holly rubbed the skillet with sand, wrapped it in newspaper, and stacked it in the supply carton. She carried the box to the Jeep along with the tarp that had covered Sand Dancer.

  Though it was not yet ten o’clock, the sun cut through her thin blouse like a laser. The sky was blue-white and brilliant with water vapor. Even now the first clouds were forming against the highest peaks. By evening, summer thunder would come again to the dry land, bringing the gift of water.

  From habit Holly moved quietly, enjoying the desert sounds. Quail chuckled beneath the chaparral. Brush rubbed over itself with a soft, leathery sound. Bees hummed endlessly, frantic with their efforts to take advantage of the brief bloom that followed midsummer rains.

  The thundershower had unsettled the desert inhabitants. Many of them lived underground, letting the land itself insulate them from the sun’s killing heat. The hard rain of last night had filled underground holes and burrows with water, driving everything living up to the surface.

  There the animals would stay until the water sank beneath the level of their homes. In the winter rainy season the land softened and allowed water to drain quickly out of the burrows. In the summer it took longer, for the land had been baked by the sun like clay in a kiln.

  At the Jeep, Holly shifted the gas can aside to make room for the carton. Metal clanged noisily against metal.

  In the silence that followed, the dry buzz of a rattlesnake sounded like thunder.

  Holly froze.

  For an instant she was thirteen again, taking a shortcut through her backyard to the corral. She hadn’t heard the rattlesnake that bit her, but she had seen it strike, sinking its fangs into her leg just above her cowboy boots.

  Her jeans had protected her somewhat, but not enough to prevent some of the poison from entering her blood. The venom had been like molten metal burning through her.

  At the time Holly had screamed in agony because she couldn’t help herself.

  She was screaming now, remembering.

  “Holly!”

  Finally she realized that Linc was holding her, calling her name again and again, his eyes made dark by fear.

  With a convulsive shudder, she returned to the present.

&
nbsp; “I’m all right,” she said hoarsely.

  “What happened?”

  “Rattlesnake.”

  Instantly Linc’s glance raked the nearby desert. He saw nothing threatening.

  Holly gave a shaky laugh.

  “It’s gone now,” she said. “It probably was as scared by my scream as I was by its rattle.”

  Without a word Linc knelt and yanked up her pant legs, looking for puncture wounds left by fangs.

  “The snake wasn’t close enough to get me,” she said.

  “You’re shaking like it did.”

  “I know, but it didn’t.”

  As Link stood up, Holly took a deep breath and tried to still the trembling of her body.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I feel like such a fool. There are always snakes around the springs. I shouldn’t have been so surprised.”

  He looked at her white lips and at the sweat that stood out on her skin. Gently he gathered her in his arms again. One of his hands made slow, soothing sweeps down her back.

  “It’s all right,” Linc said. “Even if the snake had bitten you. I always have antivenin in my saddlebags.”

  Silently Holly shook her head.

  “No good,” she said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I was bitten when I was thirteen. I’m allergic to the venom. I’m even more allergic to the antivenin. Dad barely got me to the hospital in time.”

  When what she was saying sank in, Linc’s face went almost as pale as hers. He stepped back abruptly and looked at her.

  “When I came to the next day,” Holly said, “the doctor told me that unless I happened to be in an emergency ward the next time a rattler nailed me, I would die.”

  “Then why in the name of God did you come to Hidden Springs?” Linc demanded in a voice made harsh by fear for her.

  Though her lips were still pale, she smiled up at him.

  “Lots of people have the same problem with bee stings,” she said, “but they don’t stay shut up in their houses. I used have an adrenaline kit with me, but once I went back east I stopped carrying one.”

  Linc looked grim.

  “It’s okay,” Holly said. “I just have to remember where I am, and then I won’t panic if I see another rattler.”

  Briefly Linc closed his eyes and said something beneath his breath that he hoped she didn’t hear.

  “At least,” Holly added with a catch in her voice, “I hope I won’t panic.”

  “New rules.”

  She stared at Linc, surprised by the cool steel in his voice.

  “What does that mean?” she asked warily.

  “You get a new adrenaline kit and you carry it with you at all times.”

  She nodded.

  “You don’t walk or ride anywhere in the desert alone,” Linc added flatly. “When you do go out, you go second, not first. Let somebody else find the snakes.”

  Holly’s first impulse was to argue.

  Her second was to agree with his commonsense approach to the problem. He wasn’t telling her that she had to stay locked in a house. He was simply trying to work out a safe way for her to enjoy the desert she loved.

  Smiling, Holly bowed and waved toward camp.

  “After you, monsieur,” she murmured.

  Surprise showed on Linc’s hard face.

  “Agreeable, aren’t you?” he asked, not quite believing her.

  “Uh-huh. Docile, loyal, and obedient, too.” She grinned. “Want to scratch my ears?”

  Linc laughed, taken off-guard again.

  “You’re full of surprises,” he said. “There was a time when you would have raised hell if I told you to do something sensible.”

  “I’m not sixteen anymore.”

  Suddenly serious, Holly looked up at him with eyes that were almost gold.

  “Six years, Linc,” she whispered. “I’ve changed in a lot of ways. I can be very beautiful. Will you still want me when you realize that?”

  His eyes narrowed.

  “Do you think I don’t know how—” he began angrily.

  Abruptly Linc took a deep breath, shutting off his irritation.

  Truce, he told himself sardonically. Remember?

  “You’re a warm, capable, stubborn woman,” Linc said after a moment. “Very warm. Very woman. And very damn stubborn.”

  As he spoke, his hazel glance lingered almost unwillingly over the opening in Holly’s blouse. The gentle swelling of her breasts was visible, tantalizing.

  “You noticed,” she said, smiling.

  It was a different kind of smile, a remembering kind.

  A sexy kind.

  “Linc—” she began.

  “No,” he interrupted promptly. “I’ve got a headache.”

  “Isn’t that supposed to be my line?” Holly retorted, recalling what he had said to her that morning.

  Linc shook his head in rueful amusement.

  “I’m glad you aren’t sixteen any more, niná,” he said. “I’m having a hell of a time with my conscience as it is.”

  “Why?”

  “You’re a virgin,” he said simply.

  “You make me wish I wasn’t. If I were experienced, I would know how to touch you so that you would want me so much you—”

  “Truce,” he interrupted, groaning.

  “—wouldn’t be able to stop yourself.”

  Without warning Linc bent and put his mouth over Holly’s. His tongue parted her lips with deep, slow strokes that brought a low sound from the back of her throat. Her body melted against his with hungry ease and breathtaking thoroughness.

  A bolt of raw desire lanced through him, shaking his powerful body like thunder shaking the land. When he finally lifted his mouth, his eyes were glittering with desire.

  “You don’t need to know one damn thing about turning me on,” Linc said harshly. “Just kissing you is more exciting than sleeping with another woman.”

  At first she smiled. Then the image of Cyn’s voluptuous, experienced body flashed before Holly’s eyes. She stiffened, remembering Cyn and Linc in Palm Springs.

  He felt the change in Holly, saw it in her suddenly wary eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Another woman,” she said, trying to make her voice light. “How can I compete with Cyn, being a plain virgin and all? And you so damned handsome and experienced.”

  Holly looked away, unable to bear the narrowed intensity of Linc’s eyes.

  “Cyn.” His voice was curt. “Who told you about her?”

  Silence and a shrug was Holly’s only answer.

  “Look at me,” he said.

  Reluctantly, she turned her head. His expression was gentle and intent. His eyes searched hers.

  “I’ve always been very careful in my affairs,” Linc said quietly. “Do you understand?”

  “That you’re not a virgin? Sure.”

  He smiled wryly. “That’s not quite what I meant.”

  “What did you mean, then?”

  “I’ve always used condoms. Always. You won’t have to worry about catching anything from me.”

  Holly knew she was blushing, but she didn’t care.

  “I wasn’t thinking about that,” she admitted.

  “You should have been. As for Cyn—” He shrugged. “We had an arrangement that was mutually convenient.”

  Holly remembered Cyn’s full breasts and hips pressed against Linc’s body. His arm had been close around her, and his eyes were amused and indulgent as he looked at the little blond.

  And those same hazel eyes had been so scornful of the woman called Shannon.

  “Had?” Holly whispered. “It’s over with Cyn?”

  “It’s history. You’re all I want, Holly. You’re more than I dreamed I’d ever have.”

  “Then why won’t you make love to me?”

  Linc smiled crookedly.

  “I have,” he said.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Is being a virgin so terrible?” he tea
sed.

  “Not terrible. Painful. I ache, Linc.”

  He drew in his breath sharply. His eyes narrowed to smoldering lines. Passion burned behind his thick lashes.

  “You’re getting there,” he said huskily.

  “Getting where?”

  “To the point where you’re as hungry as I am.”

  Holly groaned. “You mean it gets worse?”

  “Much worse. And then it gets much, much better.”

  “Worse? That isn’t possible.”

  “Want to bet?”

  Even as Linc spoke, his long, lean fingers slowly unbuttoned her blouse. When the soft blue folds parted, he smoothed the fabric off her shoulders.

  For a long moment he simply looked at Holly, from the startled beauty of her eyes to the gentle fullness of her breasts rising beneath dark blue lace.

  Her heart turned over in answer to the desire that leaped in his eyes. Heat spread beneath her skin, making it glow. Under the bra her nipples tightened visibly, aroused simply by his look.

  His fingertips stroked her throat, cherishing the pulse that raced in answer to his caress.

  “I’ve never wanted a woman more than I want you now,” Linc said huskily.

  Holly tried to speak but couldn’t force out anything more than a throaty sound that was his name.

  In hushed silence she watched Linc’s face, watched his eyes grow intent, his lips part in a sensuous smile, his tongue move between his teeth to claim her mouth.

  At the first warm touch of his tongue, wires tightened and sang all through her.

  “What an odd sound,” he said. “Are you frightened?”

  Holly shook her head.

  “Want me?” Linc asked softly.

  She nodded.

  “You’re shivering with passion,” he said, “and I’ve done nothing more than look at you and touch the life beating in your throat. You tempt me, niná. My God, how you tempt me, and you don’t even know ”

  He slid the blouse down her arms and over her hands. He left tiny, biting kisses on her fingertips as they emerged from the blue sleeves.

  With a husky sigh, Holly closed her eyes, caught in the sensuality that radiated from Linc like heat from the sun. He took her mouth in a kiss that was as deep as it was quick.

  “Look at my hands,” he whispered against her lips.

  Her dense black eyelashes lifted. She looked down and saw his hands on her body. They were brown and strong and very male against the delicate lace of her bra.