Child Bride

by Suzanne Forster

  “That’s blackmail,” Chase muttered, unable to keep the incredulity from his voice. He reached automatically for the thin strip of rawhide that secured the whip to the saddle horn—and then wondered what the hell he was doing. A man didn’t crack the whip at Norman Rockwell characters. Not unless he was Simon Legree.

  He stared at the two of them a long time, willing lightning to strike where it would do the most good. But the sky never even clouded over, and finally he conceded that Annie Wells probably had God on her side too. The woman didn’t fight fair.

  “Aw, the hell with it,” he said abruptly. “Go on inside and get your clothes on. But if anything goes wrong on this trip, it’s your butt in the sling, Missy.”

  A short time later they were riding out, just one big, happy family. Only now it reminded Chase of a full-fledged Norman Rockwell painting where Mom and the pooch were alight with secret pleasure, Dad looked disgruntled, and all three of them knew why. Even the horses seemed to be in on the joke.

  Chase tried to convince himself he was doing the right thing in letting Annie come along, but it was no easy task. Finally he decided it might be worth the trouble of having her in tow if it kept her busy and got her mind off that seduction business she’d been preoccupied with lately. She’d been asking him leading questions about men and women and sex, never flirtatiously, more with the intent concentration of someone determined to learn.

  But Chase needn’t have worried about Annie at that moment. She was busy, indeed. She’d never been on a horse before, and Chase had given her only a few cursory instructions. He’d told her to sit the horse like a fork, her body being the handle, her legs the tines. With that in mind, she was doing her best to imitate a kitchen utensil, but it felt strange and awkward having such a huge thing moving beneath her. She felt like a salad fork on a big piece of steak.

  At least she got the hang of the horse’s gait quickly enough, and soon she was swaying comfortably in the saddle, aware of a sense of accomplishment as she enjoyed the scenery. The Wyoming foothills were vastly different from a tropical rain forest where the vegetation was lush and chokingly thick. Here, slender-limbed aspens, willows, and birches rustled gracefully in the same breezes that swept the verdant meadows and tousled the apple-green pasture grass. It was all so glorious and inspiring to the soul. I could love it here, she thought.

  Even Shadow seemed energized by the bright, sunny day. He was as full of mischief as a puppy, chasing butterflies and racing around the horses, barking. Annie glanced at Chase occasionally for any sign that he might be loosening up a little too. But he remained silent and remote until Shadow made the mistake of sticking his nose in a prickly pear cactus and jumping back with a surprised yelp. Hearing Chase’s low, husky laughter, Annie glanced at him, and their eyes connected for a moment.

  Annie felt as though she’d been jolted by an open current of electricity as he held her gaze. The natural sensuality in his smile took her breath away, and without realizing she’d done it, she drew her horse to a stop, watching him and the Appaloosa pull away from her. With his dusty black Stetson tilted low and his buckskin vest stretched tight across his shoulders, he cut a powerful figure on the huge animal. Watching him made Annie feel desperately strange inside. Loose and warm. Meltingly warm.

  Chase glanced over his shoulder. “Coming, Missy?”

  Annie felt a tug in her stomach, as though he’d yanked a tether that was connected to her vital parts. She wasn’t sure she liked him calling her Missy when he’d first done it. But she was beginning to like it now. Yes, indeed.

  By the time they reached the east pasture of the McAffrey ranch. Chase was back to business, warning Annie to keep her horse under control, and ordering Shadow to stop his cavorting. “Longhorns can be unpredictable,” he said, pointing out the herd that grazed the rolling grasslands that stretched before them. “We don’t want to spook them and start a stampede.”

  As they rode just outside the fenced area, Annie noticed that Chase kept one hand casually resting on the wooden handle of his whip, much the way a gunslinger’s hand might hover near his holster. Finally curiosity made her ask a question that had been at the back of her mind ever since she’d met him.

  “Why do you use a bullwhip, Chase? It’s such an unusual weapon.”

  “It gets the job done with less damage,” he explained, smiling mysteriously. “For example, I can disarm a man without killing him ... or undress a woman without touching her.”

  Annie stopped her horse again. She stared at him in astonishment, a fine trembling in her fingertips as they pulled the reins taut. “I don’t believe you.”

  “About disarming a man?” He reined in his horse and turned to look at her. “Or undressing a woman?”

  “That part—the woman.” She’d actually seen him disarm a man in Costa Brava, so she couldn’t question that.

  “Want a demonstration?”

  “No!”

  But Chase was already pulling the coiled whip off the horn of his saddle and urging his horse across the path they’d just traveled toward an unfenced, flower-filled meadow. Annie followed him reluctantly, aware that he was putting some distance between them and the herd.

  He flicked the whip out behind him as he rode, letting the braided-leather thong trail on the ground like a loose rope. But the snakelike rawhide didn’t sound like a rope as he suddenly swung it up in a powerful, fluid arc and cracked it in the air.

  The whining snap electrified Annie. It was so sharp and riveting to the nerves, she wanted to gasp. Black lightning, she thought. He could claim the thing was harmless all he wanted, but it seemed downright deadly to her. At least she could be thankful for one thing. He wasn’t demonstrating on her!

  Just beyond Chase and the snorting Appaloosa, a patch of wild daisies swayed in the breeze, their delicate white petals fluttering. Annie watched, reluctantly fascinated as Chase drew the whip back again. Please let him put it away now, she thought. Instead, he swung the thong up in another stunning, recoiling arc of motion.

  His second throw amazed her even more than the first one had. The whip reared back like a cobra about to strike, then flashed low to the ground, zinging toward its target. With surgical precision it snapped one of the daisies clean, severing the flower’s stem at its base. Annie watched in mute wonderment as he swung off the horse and picked up the flower, turning back to her. His eyes were dark and sexy, charged with erotic undercurrents.

  “You like flowers?” he asked.

  She shook her head, an instinctive reaction that had nothing to do with whether or not she liked flowers. It just seemed the wisest response under the circumstances.

  He walked to her anyway and offered her the daisy. “It’ll look better in your hair than mine,” he said.

  Annie took it automatically, tucking it above her ear and mustering a smile. Anything to keep the man with the whip happy.

  “Do you want to get down?” he asked. “Stretch your legs?”

  She wasn’t at all sure what she wanted to do, but somehow being on solid ground sounded reassuring. “You’re very good with that thing,” she said rather belatedly as she allowed him to help her off the horse. “The whip, I mean.”

  She swung her leg over the saddle and slid toward the ground, facing him, silently thrilling to the feel of his hands on her waist as he caught her and set her down. Their clothing brushed as he held her that way for a moment before releasing her. All she had to do was stand still, and she would be closer to him than she’d been all week! And exactly where she’d always wanted to be. So stand still, Annie, she told herself.

  “My, it’s warm today, isn’t it?” she said, aware of the moisture at the back of her collar. Without glancing up, she inched out from between him and the horse, a hot spot if ever there was one. “I’m actually damp after all that riding.”

  He’d loaned her one of his old cotton shirts, shrunk from years of washing, and she was wearing it under her open cardigan sweater. She busied herself getting out of the swea
ter, tying it around her waist, and then fanning herself with her hand as she glanced up at him. “Don’t you think it’s warm?”

  He regarded her silently. Beneath his tilted Stetson his eyes were smoky-black and faintly intrigued. Was that his getting-down-to-it look? she wondered, feeling herself flush and grow even warmer. Why in the world was she suddenly acting like a schoolgirl with a crush? Now of all times?

  “You probably ought to be wearing a hat out here in all this direct sunshine,” he said, taking off his Stetson and raking back his wavy black hair. “You’re getting a burn, Missy.”

  He popped the Stetson on her head, and if it hadn’t been for the volume of her hair, the hat would have dropped to her nose. Feeling a little silly, she adjusted it while he knelt to pick up the whip.

  “This thing seems to be making you nervous,” he said as he coiled the rawhide thong. “Maybe you ought to learn how to use it.”

  “No, thank you.” She did not want to touch that whip. Annie had never been so sure of anything in her life. His prowess with the weapon had unnerved her, no doubt about it. But it was more than that. The fear she felt seemed almost instinctive, and she wouldn’t have been surprised if it had something to do with the whip’s physical similarity to the poisonous reptiles of the rain forest. She’d never got used to the coiled menace of a jungle snake, either on the forest floor or high in the trees.

  “I think I’ll take your suggestion and stretch my legs,” she said, her voice softening to the hushed tone she’d used in the convent. “Here, you can have this back.” She handed him the hat and turned away from his questioning gaze, walking deeper into the meadow.

  “I could show you how to crack a whip in no time at all.”

  “No ... ”

  He was silent a moment, and then his husky voice caught her, caressed her. “It’s no good running away from things, Annie. They always catch up to you, one way or another.”

  “I’m not running,” she said. “I’m walking.”

  Her heart was pounding with a strange and dizzying force as she made a pretense of being enraptured by the wildflowers that created a rainbowlike panorama in the meadow’s green velvet carpet. “Aren’t they lovely!” she exclaimed, heading for a patch of columbines that fanned out alongside the daisies.

  “Annie.”

  He called her name in a way that made her freeze in the act of kneeling to look at flowers.

  “What’s wrong,” he asked.

  “Nothing ... ”

  “Turn around then, talk to me.”

  His voice tugged at her irresistibly, that hot tether again, connected to her vitals. “Leave me alone,” she implored softly. “I just want to pick some of these flowers.”

  “Annie ... I’m not going to ask you again.”

  Her hand began to tremble as she stubbornly ignored him and knelt to pick the flower. And then she felt something stroke her back lightly. A delayed crack of sound jolted her upright, and when she glanced down, her sweater was gone from her waist. She whirled and saw him dangling the article from his fingertips, the whip handle clutched loosely in his right hand.

  “Why did you do that?” she demanded.

  “To get your attention.” He threw her sweater over the saddle horn of the mare. “What is it you’re afraid of, Annie? The whip? There’s no need.”

  He looked like some kind of desperado with his black hair flying in the breeze and the black kerchief he wore tied loosely around his neck. Taking him in all at once, Annie found her eyes drawn to the way he was standing, one leg cocked and his faded blue jeans stretched tight across his hips.

  “Of course there’s need,” she said, clutching a hand to her midriff, where the sweater had been tied. “Whips are dangerous. People get hurt.”

  “Not with this whip.” His eyes brushed over her breasts, lingering there a moment. “I could undo every button of that shirt you’re wearing, and you’d never feel a thing.”

  She stepped back, her throat constricting painfully. “That’s insane. You wouldn’t—”

  “Easy does it now,” he said, shaking the whip out. “I’m not going to hurt you. Just stand very still.”

  “No! Chase, no!” she cried as he drew the handle back.

  “Annie! Stand still!”

  “Oh, God!” She closed her eyes, terrified as he brought up his arm and the flash of black lightning cracked in the air high over her head. She began to tremble, a shock wave moving through her body like a thunderbolt. And then there was a rush of something that sounded like water roaring in her ears.

  Just as she opened her eyes, he threw the whip again, aiming for her this time, and she felt a heat and a power beyond description as the thong coiled softly around her middle and yanked her forward. A scream locked in her throat.

  “Easy does it, Annie. You’re okay.”

  His voice echoed distantly, part of the thunder as she stumbled toward him, drawn by his muscular power on the whip, and by some other terrifying force that stormed through her like a roaring wind. The landscape blurred, and Chase’s dark eyes penetrated her consciousness, the only thing she could see for a moment. She grabbed hold of the leather thong like a lifeline, pitching forward as he tugged at it.

  “Don’t fight the whip, Annie. You’ll make it tighter.”

  By the time she reached him, she was shaking and half-drunk on the river of adrenaline gushing through her system. The whip loosened, slithering to the ground, and she would have slithered with it, if he hadn’t caught her.

  “Here—I’ve got you,” he said, taking her into his arms. “Grab hold of me.”

  She clung to him weakly, only vaguely aware of taut muscles and male power, and of the long line of his body as she pressed herself up against him. Such heat, she thought, soaking up the warmth he gave off. Such blessed strength. She knew she ought to be angry, furious even, that he had so deliberately frightened her, but she didn’t have the energy for it. She’d been sapped of every ounce of strength. All that was left was a quaking need to be held, to be enveloped by his sheltering arms.

  Gradually she became aware of the way she’d locked herself to him, of his heartbeat and his breathing, of his stony thigh muscles and hipbones. But most of all she reveled in the way his arms encompassed her, one bracing her shoulders, the other locked firmly around her waist. Within moments the power of his hold had matched, then begun to subdue, the awesome, seemingly destructive power inside her.

  “See there,” he said, his hand cradling her head against his chest as he caressed her hair. “You’re okay, Missy. You didn’t feel a thing, did you?”

  “I don’t like whips,” she said, a sob in her voice.

  “So I gather. Sorry if I frightened you.”

  “Sorry?” She looked up at him, wishing fervently that she could summon some anger, just enough to swear at him—a couple of soul-satisfying four-letter words would do. Sister Maria Innocentia wouldn’t have liked it, but she was thousands of miles away. And Chase wasn’t. No, he most certainly wasn’t. Lord, the feel of him so close and sexy was about to do Annie in. He was too much for a woman in her weakened condition. His eyes were as black as carbon. And his body was so wonderfully hard to the touch. And so damn big. There, she had sworn at him.

  “I wanted you to see there was nothing to be afraid of,” he explained. “But you wouldn’t hold still long enough. I thought a little demonstration would be the quickest way to ease your mind.”

  She shook her head. “Next time don’t be so all-fired quick about easing my mind, thank you.”

  He seemed amused as he studied her expression. “What are you saying, girl? That I rushed you? If I remember correctly, you seemed disappointed the last time I wanted to slow things down.”

  The “last time” was their very first encounter, Annie realized, probably the closest they had ever come to actually making love. And maybe ever would. He’d told her he wanted to make love to her that day. He’d said those exact words, and she would never forget the rough thrill of his vo
ice, or the heat of his mouth on hers.

  “Well then, maybe you ought to just go ahead”—her voice caught, trembling—“and rush me.”

  His eyes darkened, hotly aware of what she meant. “Don’t tempt me, Miss Annie,” he warned, his fingers biting into the flesh of her hip. “You might not like what you get.”

  “I’ll like it,” she said. “I promise.”

  Seconds flashed by, each one of them a burning eternity as he stared down at her. He curved his hand to her throat, his fingers splaying out, his thumb stroking her jawline. “I wonder if you know what you’re asking for,” he whispered harshly, tipping up her chin.

  Annie made a sound as he bent to kiss her. But it wasn’t a moan, or even a sigh. The inaudible whimper came straight from her soul, and it was sweet and softly anguished.

  “I’ll like it,” she whispered as his lips touched hers. “I promise ... ”

  His breath hissed out, and his arms contracted around her, bringing their bodies together. Annie felt the crush of him all at once, and it was a wonderful thing. She wanted to touch him, to tangle her fingers in his hair and kiss him back. But she couldn’t move. There was something sparkling hot and terribly erotic trembling through her, and it made her ache for the rapture of his hard, hard love.

  He deepened the kiss, turning it into something miraculous. Annie was clinging to him mindlessly when suddenly he broke away, his breath hot on her parted lips. An instant later the same hot, harsh breath was near her ear. “Annie, listen,” he said. “Do you hear it? Horses ... there’s someone coming.”

  Horses? Why did he want her to listen to horses? All she wanted was to be closer to him. She wanted to drop to the ground and rip off their clothes and make love. Right then and there.

  “Annie, do as I say, and don’t ask questions.” He held her back, his abruptness breaking through her euphoria. “Get Fire and take cover in the trees. Hear me? Do it! Quickly!”

  She reacted automatically, stumbling away from him, reaching for the horse’s reins. But as she was leading Fire around, she stopped cold. She didn’t care if it was the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse riding down on them. There was something she had to know. “Chase?” she said, catching him as he was scooping up his Stetson from the ground. “Could you have done it? Could you have undressed me with that whip?”