Agitated now, Mari paced back and forth along the riverbank. “I’m so angry at her. I’ve mourned her so deeply. Today, I was so afraid. I was terrified.”
“My fault.” Grimacing, Luke faced her. “I’m sorry, Mari. I never should have left you alone.”
She winced and closed her eyes, shaking her head. “Yes, your bodyguard skills could use some work, but I’m not blaming you, Luke. Not really. The fault lies at our siblings’ feet. They fell in love and acted foolishly, and that’s what led to us having the bad luck to meet Finn Murphy on the—”
She broke off abruptly. Love. Bad luck. Love and Bad Luck. Mari glanced down at her hand. The Bad Luck Love Line.“No. I won’t believe it.”
“Believe what?”
That I was wrong to deny my own intuition. That I was wrong to dismiss Roslin as a charlatan. Her thoughts drifted back to the gypsy’s room that night in Hell’s Half Acre, and the unsettling sense of awareness that overcame her the first time the stranger placed the sapphire necklace in Mari’s hand.
“The necklace.” She clapped her hand against her breast, reaching for the pendant that wasn’t there. “Oh, no. He took it, and I forgot. I don’t wear it all the time like my sisters and I forgot. Oh, no.”
Mari’s teeth tugged at her lower lip as despair poured through her. “I’ve got to go back. If the curse is real, then I must have my necklace. I’ve got to track down Murphy and—”
“Hush,” Luke said, pressing a finger against her mouth. He reached into his pocket and pulled out her necklace. The sapphire pendant dangled from a broken chain, glowing a brilliant blue in the soft light of the setting sun.
Relief rolled over Mari like a wave. “How did…Murphy sent it to you?”
“With a little note. So what’s this talk about a curse? Look, I’ve known that Irishman a long time, and you can’t let him scare you with his yammering on about banshees and the like.”
Holding the pendant in her left hand, Mari traced the facets of the stone with her right index finger. “Do you believe in curses, Luke?”
“Not coming out of that son of a bitch’s mouth.”
“I’m not talking about Murphy. I mean fairies and ancient prophecies and—” she gathered up the broken necklace and dropped it down her bodice “—legendary jewels.”
“Legendary,” he murmured, his regard steady on her chest. Then he gave himself a shake and said, “Fairies, hmm? Well, I don’t know that I’ve given it much thought. I’m as superstitious as the next fella, I guess. I appreciate a run of luck at cards, and I shy away from black cats. I’ve never put much store in fortune-tellers who claim to read the future from tea leaves at the bottom of a cup.”
“Me neither.” Mari’s mouth twisted in a rueful smile. “Believe me, holding that opinion hasn’t been easy. Not in my family. Imagine being a McBride in a town where the Bad Luck Wedding Dress or the Bad Luck Wedding Cake is still mentioned in the local newspaper at least once a month. Customers at my candy shop regularly ask not which chocolate tastes the best, but which one will bring them the most good luck.”
“So why do you think someone put a curse on your necklace?”
“Not the necklace. My family.” After a moment’s hesitation, she sighed and said, “We were told it’s an ancient curse upon our family that dooms us to be unlucky in love.”
She gave him a brief synopsis of the McBride sisters’ visit to Hell’s Half Acre before Emma’s wedding. “Kat found the idea terribly romantic, and from that moment on, she eyed all her beaus as potential heroes to partner with her in ending the Curse of Clan McBride.”
“Rory Callahan is nobody’s hero.”
Mari considered his assertion. Rory was Luke’s brother. He should know the man. Yet something else nagged at her, a thought just beyond reach. “Emma already had found her love in Casey, and Kat used to spend hours on end imagining what task the newlyweds would need to accomplish in order to fulfill their portion of ending the curse. Casey’s death made it impossible for Emma to accomplish any sort of task, so that ended any possibility that my sisters and I could end the so-called curse.”
“Why’s that?”
“Casey was Emma’s true love.” Mari gave a small, red rock at her feet a little kick. But what if…maybe she and Kat would still have their turn. What if the curse wasn’t nonsense? What if it was real?
What if Kat was working on her task?
Mari glanced up at Luke. “Maybe this wasn’t a selfish elopement, after all. Maybe your brother is Katrina’s true love, and the two of them are pursuing her task, and it has somehow prevented her from contacting us. Maybe by the time we find them, they will have fulfilled the first of the conditions for lifting the curse.”
Luke tossed a dried mesquite twig into the campfire. The wood ignited, hissed and spit. “Look, Mari. I’m not denying that your family has had a run of romantic bad luck, and I’m not saying this clan curse isn’t for real. One thing I can say for certain, however, is that Rory Callahan simply isn’t your sister’s true love.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Luke opened his mouth to speak, then hesitated.
“Well?” Mari prodded.
“Just trust me.”
“You’re an outlaw,” she grumbled. “You rob innocent people of their hard-earned money. How can I possibly trust you?”
He gave her a wink and a grin. “You know, honey, I’ve been asking myself that question ever since you sashayed into my saloon daring me not to come along on this adventure.”
She wrinkled her nose and growled at him. Luke laughed, and Mari answered with a reluctant smile. A moment later, she sighed heavily, then spoke from her heart. “I’m so angry at her, Luke. Look at what almost happened to me today. This day has been one of the most frightening of my life. I could deal with it better if I thought there was a reason—a good reason—it all happened.”
“I understand. However, you’re not gonna find the answers here beside the Pedernales, so let it go for now.” He put his hands on her shoulders and massaged her muscles. “Try to relax, sugar. You’re all wound up.”
It took only seconds for all thought of curses and Kat and a rogue named Callahan to evaporate from Mari’s mind. His hands felt like heaven. Strong fingers kneaded the tense cords beneath her skin, moving just where she wanted them in response to her silent request as she arched her neck first one way, and then the other. The jittery feeling inside her gradually subsided and Mari began to calm.
Began to melt against him.
“There, does that feel better?” Luke asked, his voice husky and low, his warm breath feathering against her neck.
Mari purred in response. His hands slid over her shoulders, and he squeezed them, then started to step back. “No,” she protested. “Don’t stop.”
After a moment’s hesitation, his hands continued their ministrations, his thumbs working their way down her spine. He massaged her back until she arched like a cat and let out a throaty moan.
“Dammit, Maribeth. You’re playing with fire.”
Mari knew it, and she couldn’t explain it. Not three hours ago, she’d come close to being brutally violated. By rights, she shouldn’t want to be near a man, much less in his arms. Why, after Emma’s friend Sue-Ellen Johnson was grabbed and forcibly kissed by a drunken friend of her brother’s, she flinched every time a man came within a dozen feet of her for at least a month. And Sue-Ellen hadn’t had to look at her assaulter naked!
Now, the idea of looking at Luke Garrett naked sounded rather intriguing.
Good gracious, Mari. Maybe you really have lost your mind.
The massage softened to a caress as Luke’s hands drifted lower, until they settled on her hips. Tension and a keen sense of anticipation hummed in the air. Finally, as soft as a whisper, he bent his head and brushed his lips against her neck.
Yes. That jumpy, edgy, needy feeling returned fully, and Mari realized the driving force behind it. She wanted him to kiss her. She wanted him to turn her around a
nd wrap her in his arms like he had on the train. She wanted to lose herself in the shelter of his arms and the pleasure of his kiss and the delight of his caress. The promise of his desire. Never mind that he was a thief, a scoundrel, an outlaw. She did trust him. She wanted to enjoy him, to indulge herself. She wanted to live, even if it meant living dangerously.
That is such a McBride Menace thing to do.
The thought was almost enough to give her pause. Almost.
Today, she’d almost died. What a shame it would have been to have died a virgin. In the wake of her broken engagement and the mortifying gossip Alex had spread around town about her, she didn’t anticipate getting married anytime soon. The men in town would either allow nonsense like Alex spouted to scare them off, or they would view her as a challenge to conquer.
Well, if any conquering was to be done, then she wanted to be the one to do it, not some villain intent upon wickedness. Not some lily-livered Lothario pretender who blamed others for his own failings. Mari wanted to be the one in control. She wanted to conquer Luke Garrett.
What would it hurt? No one would know. The two of them were all alone out here in the middle of nowhere. And despite the fact that Luke was an outlaw and a truly horrible bodyguard, she liked him. She liked his wit and his grin and the twinkle in his eyes and the dimple in his cheek. His sheer masculinity made her knees go weak.
Mari’s heart pounded. Her fingers itched to touch him. Summoning her courage, boldly, she turned to him. “No.”
His hands dropped away from her. “No?”
“Earlier, you asked if I wanted to be safe with you and I said yes. I’ve changed my mind, Luke.” Reaching out, she hooked a finger around his belt loop and pulled him toward her. Going up onto her tiptoes, she used her free hand to bring his head down toward hers. Then, just before their lips met, she added, “Go ahead and burn me.”
CHAPTER TEN
BURN HER, HELL. LUKE was the one going up in flames.
Her lips were soft and hot as they molded themselves against his. His will to resist lasted less than a second, and when her tongue slid past his lips to tangle with his, heat shot straight to his groin.
His hands gripped her hipbones as he took control of the kiss. His tongue plunged and plundered the sweet hot wetness of her mouth. He took her mouth with a fierceness that fanned the wildfire raging between them, until she moaned and met his passion with a hunger equal to his. At that point, the kiss took on a life of its own, and Luke went along for the ride.
Mari pressed closer against him and her soft curves flattened against his solid form. He threaded his fingers through her hair, the silky strands sliding across his skin soft as a sunset.
It lasted for minutes or maybe a month until, finally, they both came up for air. When she took a step back, he let her go without protest, his hands dropping to his sides, curling into fists with the effort not to reach for her again. He watched the pulse throb at the base of her neck and resisted the temptation to lick it.
Slowly, her hand lifted to the yellow satin bow at the center of her bodice. Grasping the trailing ribbon, she gave it a tug. The bow slipped free.
“This is a mistake,” Luke said, his tone hoarse.
“Why?”
“You don’t want this.”
“Yes, I do.” Her finger twirled the dangling ribbon. “I told you I changed my mind.”
“More likely you’ve just lost it.”
“I considered that myself, but rejected the idea.” She laughed softly, seductively, and the sound sent a shudder skating up his skin. “I know what I’m doing.”
“Do you?” Needing to touch her, he traced the curve of her cheek with the pad of his thumb. “Are you a virgin, Maribeth?”
She nodded.
He muttered a hard word beneath his breath even as he slid his thumb down her neck and along her collarbone, pausing to stroke back and forth across the hollow at the base of her neck. “I live my life like an outlaw without honor. You’d be well served to remember that when you start teasing me.”
“I’m not teasing.”
“Well, you’re damn sure not thinking straight,” he said, his thumb dipping lower, skimming across her skin just above the neckline of her dress. Just above the loosened ribbon.
Mari’s breasts swelled toward him as she leaned forward into his touch. “Maybe not, but maybe it’s time for me to think a little crooked. For years now I’ve tried hard to live down my reputation and what did that get me? I think I’ll probably always be a McBride Menace in the eyes of Fort Worth, only now, thanks to my former fiancé, I’m the frigid McBride Menace. Do you have a clue how humiliating that is?”
“Sugar, Alexander Simpson doesn’t have the sense God gave a goat. Don’t let him play with your brain that way.”
“I want you to play with my body, Luke.”
Her comment shocked him. Come to think of it, this entire exchange shocked him. While he had little experience with virgins—no experience with virgins, actually—he couldn’t imagine many of them acted so forward. “You’re a bold bit of baggage.”
His hand cupped the plump fullness of her breast. “You’re reacting to the danger you faced today, Maribeth. You’d regret this tomorrow. You’d give me hell for it.”
“Does the idea frighten you?”
“You frighten me.”
Again, she gave that alluring little laugh, then her tongue came out to wet her lips. “You’re a big bad gun-slinger and you’re frightened of the likes of me?”
“Mari, you gelded a man with a cactus. Any fella with a lick of sense is gonna be wary of you.” He thumbed the hardened peak of her nipple and she purred.
“Hell,” he muttered, then gave it one more try. “Be sure, Mari McBride. Once you’ve given your virginity, you can’t get it back.”
“Given is the salient word, here.” Her smile was sultry as she swayed toward him and pressed her soft curves up against him. “It’s my choice. My decision. Have you made yours?”
Luke stared down into her beautiful face, saw desire and need and a hint of vulnerability in her eyes, and he knew what he had to do. Speaking from the heart, Luke said, “You are a tantalizing woman, Mari McBride. I wanted you the moment I first laid eyes on you, and I want you so much right now it’s like to make me crazy. But…”
Her long, curling lashes fluttered down once, twice. “You’re turning me down?”
“Hell no. I may be crazy, but I’m not an idiot. I’m just trying to figure out the logistics. Your first time should be in a soft feather bed, but all I have to offer you is a bedroll shared with a snake.”
Mari gave her head a little shake. “Let’s leave Finn Murphy out of this.”
“Fine by me, but I’m not talking about Murphy. I’m talking about that. See?” He pointed toward the grassy area that stretched beyond the bedroll spread beside the campfire.
Mari followed the direction he gestured. “See what?”
“There. In the grass. I figure it for a three footer, maybe three and a half. Just a bull snake, though. Nothing poisonous like that rattler you tangled with yesterday. However, I don’t expect you’ll be anxious to lie down with a snake—of the cold-blooded variety. I’m arguably a snake, but I’m definitely hot-blooded. Now…” He made a show of looking around even as he felt her going stiff in his arms. “Where’s a good spot I can move the bedroll so you won’t need to worry about—”
“No!” Mari scrambled away from him, turning in a circle, scanning the ground with a wild look in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Luke. I can’t. That’s just one too many reptiles today.”
In a lucky coincidence of timing, something rustled in the nearby bushes. Mari screamed and scrambled atop a nearby rock.
Watching her, Luke knew a real sense of regret. She truly was tantalizing, and he honestly did want her more than he’d ever wanted another woman.
Some days it was damned hard for a man to be a hero.
AFTER A NIGHT spent precariously balanced in a hammock fashioned f
rom Finn Murphy’s bedroll and a rope, suspended between a cottonwood and a live oak, Mari awoke the following morning surprisingly rested and hideously embarrassed. It was bad enough that she’d acted the empty-headed fool and refused to sleep on the ground last night, but her conduct before that, the way she’d thrown herself at Luke, then changed her mind like a wishy-washy tease left her mortified.
It was just the sort of behavior that Alexander Simpson had accused her of.
In her defense, it wasn’t frigidity on her part that put a stop to events. She’d quite simply gone batty for a bit at the notion of tangling once again with a snake. Considering the day she’d had, a temporary lapse was understandable. Embarrassing, but understandable.
The problem was that now she didn’t know how to act toward Luke. It was, in a rather unusual sense of the term, an awkward morning after.
Gathering her courage, Mari opened her eyes, checked the ground below for slithery things, then swung to her feet. Luke lay atop bare dirt, propped against a saddle, his hat pulled over his eyes. His chest rose and fell with a steady rhythm. He appeared to be fast asleep.
Mari seized the opportunity to escape down to the river to wash. Just as she left the campsite, Luke let out a snore that had her jerking her head around, eyeing him suspiciously.
His lips twitched. The villain was awake and pretending otherwise. In that instant of recognition, pique overrode Mari’s embarrassment. She wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue at him. His laughter rang in the air and followed her down toward the water.
When she returned to the campsite, washed and prepared to take him on, she found both horses saddled and Luke ready to ride. He handed her a kerchief filled with blackberries saying, “This will have to do for breakfast, I’m afraid. If I remember right, we should run across a stand of peach trees not too far along the trail back to town.”
Her Bodyguard Page 15
