“Yes,” he said coolly. “You were in the wrong.”
“What?”
“Men come to a point whenever you walk by. You know it, but you keep on walking by.”
“What am I supposed to do? Stay locked inside behind curtains and veils?”
“Yes.”
Elyssa’s eyes widened.
“You’re serious,” she said in disbelief.
“Damned straight.”
Rage whipped through Elyssa.
“Tough luck, fancy man,” she said recklessly. “I’m not staying in jail just because I was born a woman instead of a man.”
“I figured you would take it that way. Some females just don’t know they’re alive unless some man is admiring them.”
The naked contempt in Hunter’s voice was like a slap.
“I’m not like that,” Elyssa said. “I never have been.”
“That’s what they all say.”
“Damn it, I’m not like your wife was!”
“Yell a little louder,” he drawled. “I’m sure the boys are hanging on every word.”
With that Hunter turned his back and walked toward the barn.
“Hunter!”
There was no hesitation in Hunter’s stride. He just kept on walking.
Elyssa was on the edge of yelling at him again when she became aware of Lefty and Gimp. The two old hands were standing just outside the barn, listening.
With a combination of resentment and embarrassment, Elyssa turned on her heel and went back to the kitchen.
This can’t go on, Elyssa promised herself. I have to make Hunter understand.
Perhaps if I talk to him when there’s no one to overhear…
The more Elyssa thought about it, the more the idea appealed to her. She needed privacy to discuss such personal things with Hunter.
Obviously the memory of his unfaithful wife still hurt him deeply. Hunter didn’t want to risk his heart again.
Once burned, twice shy.
Somehow Elyssa had to make Hunter understand that it was all right to trust his heart to her care. She would cherish the gift of his love and have her own love cherished in return.
If only she could make Hunter understand.
Tonight, after Penny is asleep. I’ll talk to him then. I’ll make him understand.
The door to Elyssa’s bedroom creaked slightly when she opened it. She froze in place, but heard no stirring downstairs or in the next room.
Letting out a slow breath, Elyssa eased the door shut behind her. With trembling fingers she tied her pale blue satin wrapper more tightly around her waist.
Fingers crossed for luck, Elyssa tiptoed down the short stretch of hallway that separated her bedroom door from Hunter’s. The floor felt cool through the thin satin slippers she wore, but not as cold as her hands. She was nervous about the coming conversation.
Hunter’s door was closed.
For a long minute Elyssa stood in front of the door, her hand resting on the doorknob and her heart pounding. Just before her courage faltered entirely, she opened the door a few inches.
“Hunter?” she whispered.
The distinct sound of a revolver being uncocked seemed as loud as a cry in the silence.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Hunter asked softly, furiously.
Elyssa jumped. The question had come from a point not six inches to her left.
“We have to talk,” she whispered.
“It can wait until morning.”
The door started to close in Elyssa’s face.
She stuck her satin slipper through the crack and leaned hard on the door with both hands.
“No,” she countered. “It has to be now, when there’s no one to overhear.”
“Keep your voice down!” Hunter demanded very softly.
“Then let me in.”
Hunter hesitated, trying to cool the hot racing of his blood that had begun when he realized Elyssa was standing outside his doorway late at night.
He took in a swift breath. The air Hunter breathed in was suffused with Elyssa’s unique scent, a garden spiced with rosemary and moonlight.
The heat in Hunter redoubled.
“This isn’t a good idea, Sassy.”
“It is.”
“No.”
“Yes!” she hissed. “I know what I’m doing, Hunter.”
He didn’t doubt it.
The thought made him even hotter.
Why not? Hunter asked himself savagely. God knows we both want it bad enough to taste it.
It isn’t like she’s a virgin, after all. Mickey made that clear enough with his brags in the Dugout Saloon.
And Sassy confirmed it when she talked about shocking her proper cousins with her behavior.
Without warning the bedroom door opened wide.
Elyssa all but tumbled into Hunter’s arms. Automatically he reached out to steady her. The heat of her body through the satin wrapper was like fire.
And like fire, it burned him.
Because Hunter wanted so much to strip Elyssa and take her with all the furious passion she aroused in him, he forced himself to release her. Letting a flirt control him was something Hunter had sworn he would never do again.
Instead of pulling Elyssa close, Hunter reached past her and shut the door. The faint click of the latch drew a quick, whispering sound from Elyssa, as though she had just taken a swift breath.
“All right,” Hunter said in a low, husky voice. “What’s so all-fired urgent that it couldn’t wait until morning?”
18
Elyssa opened her lips to speak, only to discover that her mouth had gone completely dry. Hunter’s naked chest gleamed in the moonlight flooding through the window.
The male beauty of muscle and sinew and midnight hair riveted her.
The intimacy of being alone with Hunter in his bedroom broke over Elyssa in a long, seething wave of emotion.
“Sassy?”
“Um.”
Elyssa swallowed and licked her lips. She wanted to ask Hunter to put on a shirt, but didn’t. He already thought her girlish as it was.
“I just wanted to…” Elyssa’s voice dried up.
Hunter waited.
His stillness irritated her.
Here I am hardly able to draw a breath for being this close to him, Elyssa thought angrily, and he’s looking at me like it’s nothing at all for him to be half-naked with a woman in his bedroom.
Realization hit Elyssa with a force that shook her.
Of course, nitwit, she told herself. Hunter was married. It’s nothing for him to have a woman in his bedroom.
Or his bed.
Elyssa swallowed hard. Then she squared her shoulders and quelled her nerves. She was determined not to appear juvenile in front of this irritating man.
“I’m not flirting with Mickey,” Elyssa said.
“Keep your voice down!”
“All right,” she whispered angrily. “Did you hear me?”
“Hell, half the hands on the Ladder S probably heard you.”
“Listen to me. I’m not flirting with Mickey or Bill or any other man on the face of this earth.”
“Do tell.”
“I just did!”
“Then what do you call it when you cut sideways glances at me and lick your lips like you can’t wait to find out if I taste as good as I look?”
Elyssa hoped her blush didn’t show in the moonlight. She felt like sinking between the cracks in the floor-boards. She hadn’t thought that her actions were so transparent.
“Only with you, Hunter,” Elyssa whispered painfully. “I only look at you.”
“Uh-huh.”
The sound should have meant agreement, but Elyssa knew it didn’t.
“Hunter Maxwell,” she said in a soft, incensed voice, “you have less manners and intelligence than a mule. I am not like your wife was!”
Hunter felt like laughing out loud. Here Elyssa was standing in front of him and insisting upon her inno
cence, yet she had come to his room in the middle of the night dressed in the kind of boudoir clothing that set fire to a man’s body.
But then, she always dressed that way, setting fire to the men around her.
“You’re something, Sassy,” Hunter said in a low voice. “Really something.”
Wisely, Hunter didn’t say what that something was. He didn’t want her outrage to wake up every living person on the Ladder S.
“You’ve got to believe me,” she whispered.
“Why?”
Elyssa blinked.
“Because it’s important,” she said, frustrated.
“Why?”
“Dear God, are all men this dense or are you a special case?” Elyssa retorted in a low, seething voice.
Hunter smiled slightly. It was intriguing to watch Elyssa maintain her innocence with a force that set her breasts to swaying seductively beneath her satin wrapper.
“Hunter?”
“I’m listening.”
“You’re the most mulish man,” she whispered in exasperation. “Sometimes I feel like shaking you until your teeth rattle.”
“Then why did you come to my bedroom in the middle of the night?” Hunter murmured.
“Because either one of us could die tomorrow and I…”
Elyssa’s voice died. She couldn’t say I love you to a man who was watching her with such wary, faintly predatory patience.
Damn his wife, Elyssa thought bleakly. She ruined Hunter for anyone else.
“Well?” Hunter asked.
“I…”
Elyssa made a small, helpless gesture with her hands and looked mutely at Hunter.
“You want me,” he said in a low voice. “Any girl bold enough to come to a man’s room like this shouldn’t shy from the words.”
“Hunter,” Elyssa whispered.
“Say it.”
She drew a shaky breath.
“Say that you want me,” Hunter said.
Elyssa opened her mouth. No words came out.
Hunter took a single step. It brought him so close to Elyssa that he could feel the heat of her body radiating through the sleek wrapper.
“It’s not a secret,” Hunter coaxed in a low voice.
“Your eyes give you away every time you look at me.”
“I…”
Elyssa’s voice died. Hunter’s sheer closeness was overwhelming. She hadn’t felt like this since the night in the garden, when they had danced and kissed and more, much more.
“Your eyes,” Hunter whispered, “tell me that you’re remembering what it felt like when I kissed your breasts and you moaned.”
A faint shivering went through Elyssa, echo of the wild passion she had felt when his mouth caressed her.
“You want to feel that way again,” Hunter whispered. “Don’t you?”
Elyssa swallowed as heat bloomed softly in her body. The sweet, unexpected fire made her tremble.
He’s right, she realized. I want to feel that way again.
Shivering, Elyssa closed her eyes.
“I…want you,” she whispered.
“Was the truth so hard?”
Hunter’s words were breathed against Elyssa’s forehead, the hollow of her check, the corner of her mouth.
The tremor that went through Elyssa was felt by both of them. Hunter took a swift breath and allowed himself to remember what it was like to set fire to her with a few caresses. No woman had been like that for him.
Ever.
Her response haunted him.
“Hunter,” Elyssa whispered, “would you kiss me? Hard. Very hard. The way it was in the garden.”
The words dragged a low groan from Hunter. His arms went around Elyssa and his head bent down to her. When his mouth touched hers, he found it open, hungry. His tongue shot between her teeth as he gave her what she had asked for.
Hard. Very hard.
The mating of Elyssa’s tongue with Hunter’s was neither coy nor hesitant. She remembered what it was like to be caressed and consumed by his kiss. She had dreamed of it, longed for it, hungered for it with an intensity she was only now realizing.
With a husky moan, Elyssa wrapped her arms around Hunter’s neck and lifted herself against him. She wanted to be close to him, even closer than she was.
She had to be closer.
Elyssa’s abandoned response and the feel of her satin covered breasts twisting against his chest made Hunter forget all the reasons he was a fool for even kissing her. The taste of her was like wine running in his blood, flooding him with hunger and fire.
He wanted so much more than a hot kiss and the feel of her breasts on his skin.
And he was going to have it.
Without warning Elyssa felt herself lifted off her feet. The power of Hunter’s arms was a lure and a promise and a memory combined. She gave herself to it recklessly.
Then the fire of Hunter’s kiss burned everything else from Elyssa’s thoughts. Distantly she realized that the pressure beneath her back came from bedcovers that were bunched under her, but it had no meaning other than to drive her closer to Hunter’s body.
With a passionate whimper Elyssa drew her hands over the flexed power of Hunter’s back. The shudder of excitement that went through him was as heady to her as straight whiskey.
She repeated the caress, kneading and testing his strength with her hands. Her tongue tasted him as deeply as he was tasting her. Hesitantly, then heedlessly, her nails caressed the long muscles on either side of his spine.
The low sound Hunter made in response was intoxicating. A delicious kind of heat coiled through Elyssa’s body, drawing it tight and then tighter still. She twisted against him, trying to ease the ache in her breasts.
“I want—” she began raggedly.
Hunter’s hand came down hard over Elyssa’s mouth.
“Quiet,” he whispered roughly against her ear. “I know what you want.”
His other hand moved swiftly, opening Elyssa’s satin wrapper. He bent his head and found one of her breasts with his mouth. Heedless of the fine silk of her nightgown, he drew the tip of her breast into his mouth.
Fire raced through Elyssa. She arched up to the caress, wanting more.
Hunter gave it to her with teeth and tongue and the wild, changing pressure of his mouth.
Excitement coiled harder and harder within Elyssa’s body, drawing her so taut that she moaned. Then excitement burst, drenching her in liquid fire. She made a broken sound and trembled and softly pleaded for more.
Hunter laughed low in his chest and repeated the caress on her other nipple.
Elyssa arched up into Hunter’s mouth. She didn’t fight the masculine hand muffling her incautious cries. She didn’t even notice it. Her whole being was focused in the exquisite burning of her flesh.
Hunter’s free hand swept down and buried itself between Elyssa’s thighs. She stiffened in surprise, but he didn’t notice. Her heat and drenching response swept all thoughts from him but one. His hand curved around her softness. Long fingers tightened in a probing caress.
Fierce pleasure shot up Elyssa’s body. The startled cry she gave went no farther than the hard palm across her mouth.
Then Hunter’s hand moved sharply between her legs and excitement stabbed through her again. This time the sound she made came from passion rather than surprise.
“Damn,” Hunter said beneath his breath. “We’re going to have to find a more private place the next time. I want to hear every sound I drag out of you.”
His hand clenched, pressing deeply into Elyssa’s softness. Her body arched like a tightly drawn bow. He barely muffled his own groan when her liquid heat spread over him.
“Open your legs,” Hunter said against her ear.
Elyssa hardly understood the words. Her legs were moving restlessly, seeking more of the wild, stabbing pleasure she had just known.
But Hunter’s hand was no longer between her legs, caressing her with pure fire. She shook her head and tried to speak, wanting
to tell him that she wanted more, not less, of his touch.
“Hush, Sassy. I’m just as eager as you are.”
Elyssa sensed Hunter moving, settling between her knees, forcing her thighs apart. Then hard fingers moved again, with no cloth to dim the heated contact.
Pleasure washed through her. Instinctively she lifted her hips, wanting more of the wild caress.
His thumb moved again and once more her body was drenched in pleasure.
“God,” Hunter said hoarsely.
His body tightened, his hips drove hard, and he was buried inside her.
All that kept Elyssa’s cry of surprise and pain from ringing through the house was the strength of Hunter’s hand over her mouth. She twisted and shoved at his shoulders, trying to dislodge the burning weight of him between her legs.
Hunter gave a low, husky groan and drove into Elyssa again. Then his body became rigid, he shuddered from head to heels, and abruptly went slack against her.
Dazed, Elyssa turned her head aside, escaping Hunter’s hand. This time when she shoved at his shoulders, he rolled aside.
Without a word, Hunter withdrew from Elyssa, turned his back, and rearranged his clothing.
She waited for him to speak, to say something.
Anything.
Silence expanded with every heartbeat until Elyssa thought she would suffocate beneath its weight. Just when she had lost hope, Hunter spoke in a low, emotionless voice.
“Go back to your bedroom, Sassy. It will be another long day tomorrow.”
At first Elyssa couldn’t believe that was all Hunter had to say to her.
“Wh-what?” she whispered.
“Fun’s over for tonight. Go back to your room.”
Elyssa closed her eyes as the truth broke over her in a black, icy wave.
Well, now I know, she thought bleakly. It wasn’t love for me that Hunter was fighting. It was lust.
And we both lost.
The pain of it was shocking.
Instinctively Elyssa knew she couldn’t let it overcome her. Not yet. Not here.
Not in Hunter’s bed.
I won’t cry.
It’s my own fault. Lord knows that Hunter warned me often enough. I just didn’t believe him.
Fool.
I won’t cry.
Autumn Lover Page 24
