No doubt she was exhausted. Perhaps that was making her so compliant. Hell, he could use some sleep himself. The muscles in his arms and legs screamed in agony at the slightest movement. He hadn’t been sure he could move at all after Tori freed him several hours ago, and riding horseback had been excruciating.
It ain’t gonna get any easier.
They’d both had little rest in the last few days, but they’d lingered here enough. Time to find his clean shirt and put some miles behind them.
And some miles between those kisses, Lucas.
He cleared his throat. “I, ah, think we’d best get going. Even someone as inept as Black Sparrow will have found his horse by now.”
Even as he spoke the words, he didn’t move. He couldn’t move. Not with Tori’s fingers scalding the skin along his shoulders, erasing yesterday’s trials from his mind. His eyes seemed to have a will of their own, just like the other morning when he couldn’t tear his gaze away from her when she stood at the lakeshore. He’d never get his fill of looking at her. Damn! What was happening to him?
Tori’s round eyes stared wearily up at him. She needed rest. She looked like she was about to crumble to the ground. Almost imperceptibly, she nodded her head, as if she’d only now heard what he said. Her hands slid away from his shoulders and she stepped back. Her gaze dropped to his chest and her eyes widened. Lucas’ pulse increased in response.
Her forehead wrinkled. “What happened to you?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Her fingers reached out, but she quickly dropped her hand again before she touched him.
Lucas glanced downward. Several angry red marks dotted his chest, some of them blistered and oozing. Dried blood smeared across a few of them. He scoffed. “Just a preliminary of what Black Sparrow and his warriors planned to do to me.” He shrugged.
“They burned you?” She glared at him. Outrage blazed in her eyes.
Lucas gave a quick laugh. “Guess they figured I’d howl like an infant.”
Tori’s eyes remained on his for a second, then she reached her hand up again. Her fingers grazed an old scar above his collarbone from a bullet wound he’d received a little over a year ago. Lucas held his breath. Her feather-light touch, and her eyes on him, seared him hotter than any of the burning embers those warriors had held to his flesh. He mentally shook his head to clear his mind. What the hell was it about Tori Williams that brought on these sensations?
“They look painful.”
“What?” Lucas stared at her. His forehead wrinkled and he tried to focus on her words. Perhaps he was the one who needed sleep the most. His mind wasn’t clear, that was for sure.
“These burns. They look painful.” Remorse filled her expressive eyes. “They’ll leave scars, just like these other ones you have.”
Lucas sucked in a deep breath when her soft fingers traced the old bullet wound. He shrugged again. “I figure a scar means I was stronger than the bastard who gave it to me.”
He tore his eyes away from her, but not before he caught the flicker of annoyance in her gaze. He bent to pick up the canteen he’d dropped a moment ago. It was time to clear his mind and get moving. Their head start on Black Sparrow was no doubt dwindling fast.
“I’ll saddle my horse, and then we’ll be on our way. Go and fetch some water.” He thrust the canteen at her, and nodded toward the creek. Without waiting for a response, he moved around her to retrieve his saddle and gear. Rummaging in his saddlebags, he found his spare shirt and hastily slipped it on over his head, and buckled his belt around his waist.
Minutes later, Lucas leapt onto the Indian pony, gritting his teeth as renewed pain shot through his limbs. Tori mounted the saddled gelding. She looked weary the way she slumped forward on the horse’s back, and was no doubt hungry, but she didn’t utter a word of complaint. Equally silent, he closed his mind to the ache in his arms and legs, and led the way out of the valley. He crossed the creek several times, sometimes heading upstream in the water for a time, then backtracking and going the other way. A few times, he’d instructed Tori to keep riding ahead while he led his own horse along a different path. He never strayed far enough to let her out of his sights. Skirting the lake along the opposite shore from where Black Sparrow had caught him yesterday morning, he finally headed back into the mountains.
“Where are we going?” Tori broke her long silence after wordlessly following him for hours.
Lucas glanced over his shoulder. His primary focus all morning, besides continually pushing thoughts and visions of Tori from his mind, had been on confusing Black Sparrow enough to keep the warrior guessing as to which direction he was heading. Had he been alone, he would have waited and met the Blackfoot head on. He wasn’t going to risk it with Tori along. What he’d done when she came to his rescue, alerting the Indians that he’d escaped, had been a foolish thing to do. Not foolish if he were alone, but his selfish pride had put Tori’s life in danger, and he regretted his actions now.
You’re afflicted, Lucas.
Damn. The idea had nagged him all morning, perhaps even sooner. There was no other explanation to his unfocused thinking, the way he reacted in Tori’s presence, and the thoughts and feelings she evoked in him. A powerful jolt of awareness, something he hadn’t experienced before, had hit him the instant he realized he was straddling Tori and not some enemy warrior back at that Indian camp after she cut him free. The thought that the sentry had cut him loose only to toy with him had been his first assumption, and Lucas had acted without thought to the pain in his arms and legs from being held in an unnatural position for all these hours. He’d simply reacted.
When his mind had cleared that the person beneath him was not a warrior, and he’d quickly realized it was none other than Tori, whatever swept over him in that instant was something he couldn’t explain at the time. That she’d come back for him, risked her own life, and the fearless way in which she’d ridden with him through the night solidified those odd sensations. Sparks of the same feelings had sizzled on more than one occasion since meeting Tori Williams, but he’d simply shrugged it off as his body’s desire for female company. Her spirited nature had appealed to him from the first day. Yesterday, seeing her by the lake had awakened something deeper in him. He hadn’t fully realized it until he hung from that tree, the visions of her burned into his mind.
Tori was an incredible woman, unlike any female he’d ever met before. Memories of her standing by the lake had fueled him throughout the long and cold hours of the night. He’d been working on the ropes that bound his hands above his head from the moment those warriors strung him up. By the time Tori cut him loose, he’d already had one hand free. Black Sparrow and his band of warriors would have to do more than hang him like a piece of fresh meat from a tree if they wanted to kill him.
The corners of his mouth twitched. Never in his wildest dreams had he expected Tori to come to his aid and free him. It had troubled him at the time that Black Sparrow had returned to camp shortly after dark without her slung over his shoulder. The thought that the Blackfoot had perhaps killed her drove him to greater effort to free himself from his bindings before the night was over. In all the years he and Black Sparrow chased each other through the mountains, he’d never wanted to kill the warrior. Until now. Their rivalry had certainly escalated over the years, but yesterday had been the closest the Blackfoot had come to killing him.
“Are you going to answer me, Walker?” Tori nudged her horse up alongside his. She glared at him. “Why are we heading back into the mountains? I thought I couldn’t go back to my cabin.”
Lucas appraised her for a moment. Gone was the soft woman who looked at him with wonder and concern in her eyes when she saw those burns on his skin. His lips twitched in amusement. He wouldn’t expect anything less from her.
“We’re not heading to your cabin, Tori,” he drawled. “After what you did last night, Black Sparrow would just as soon kill you. A woman playing him for a fool isn’t something he can live with.” His eyes locked on he
rs, and his mouth widened in a grin. “Me on the other hand, I can handle it.”
Tori’s eyes grew round, a spark of triumph passing through them. A slight smile lit up her face, something he hadn’t seen her do.
“Are you admitting that I bested you, Walker?”
Lucas chuckled. “I’m admitting that what you did was pretty gutsy. I only hope you’re done running away from me now. I’d hate to have to chase you while that Blackfoot is chasing us.”
Tori turned her head to stare straight ahead. Her shoulders slumped, and she swayed slightly in the saddle.
“There are some narrow canyons further up ahead. Good places to get lost in. There’ll be shelter, and a place to rest for a while. That’s where we’re headed.” It probably wasn’t the answer she really wanted, but it’s all he would tell her for now to avoid further sparring.
* * * * *
Lucas held his hands under the cool water that trickled from between several cracks in the large boulders. He splashed the refreshing liquid onto his face, running his hands along his whiskered jaw. The roar of a nearby waterfall nearly drowned out the sounds of ravens clucking in the trees around him. The black birds took to the air, only to land again amongst the branches of the sparse conifers that grew from between the rocks in this area.
He grabbed his rifle up off the ground, and headed further along a narrow path that led to an outcropping of jagged rocks overlooking a steep canyon. Some fifty feet below, a small but deep pool surrounded by tall reeds marked the beginning of a river that roared through the gorge. Miles downstream, it would meet up with the wider Snake.
Reaching the river was his objective after Tori had some rest. It would lead them straight to the Jackson Valley. Once they made it to the lowlands, it was doubtful that Black Sparrow would chase him further. They would be in Bannock territory by then, and with only five other warriors, he wouldn’t risk a raid.
Further up ahead, where the water rushed from the mountains and plunged vertically into the pool below, the trail came to a dead end. Come morning, after some much needed sleep, he would trade horses with Tori. The Indian pony he rode seemed much more sure-footed and reliable than his skittish gelding, and the steep and narrow trail to reach the bottom of the canyon was almost too treacherous for horses to traverse.
Lucas had chosen this side canyon for just this reason. If Black Sparrow was at all familiar with the area, he would realize that there was no way out of here, and he would never suspect Lucas of coming this way to escape him. What very few people knew, however, was that an almost imperceptible trail, probably used only by deer, did exist to the bottom of the gorge to the river. He and his brother Joseph had come this way many years ago by accident, and had dared each other to get to the bottom of this canyon the quickest.
Joseph, ever the sensible one, had managed to traverse some treacherous switchbacks to reach the bottom. Lucas smiled at the memory. He had boasted that the quickest way was straight down, and had chosen quite a different route.
“You cheated, Lucas,” Joseph had scoffed when Lucas stood waiting for him at the edge of the fast-flowing river, dripping wet but grinning from ear to ear. “I could have jumped off this waterfall, too. You’re damn lucky you didn’t break your fool neck.”
“I won the dare fair and square, brother. The agreement was the first one to reach the bottom wins. It didn’t matter how. You owe me a new rifle.”
Joseph had shot him a look of pure disgust, then his face had lit up in an evil grin. “Fine, Lucas. I’ll give you my rifle.” He pulled it from its scabbard and tossed it to him. “I hope you enjoy the walk home from here.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Seems to me you forgot your horse.” Joseph pointed skyward to the top of the canyon, then mounted his own animal.
“The dare was to see who could get down to the gorge first. I showed you the quickest way. I plan on climbing back up to get my horse.”
Joseph nudged his mount into a walk along the riverbank, and headed downstream. “While you go and get your horse, I’ll be waiting at home. What good is getting down here the quickest if your ride is still up there?” Joseph shook his head. “When are you going to start using your head for practical things, rather than always trying to prove how unbreakable your neck is? Since you don’t have your horse, I win.”
“Joseph. Wait for me,” Lucas had called after him, cursing and calling his brother every vile name he could think of.
“Hand me back my rifle, and I’ll wait.” Joseph had held out his hand and grinned broadly. Lucas handed over the prized weapon, and vowed he’d win their next bet. By the time he’d climbed back up the canyon to retrieve his mount, he’d conceded that his brother had outsmarted him, and had worded the dare in just such a way to be in his favor. There was no doubt in his mind that Joseph had known Lucas would reach the bottom first.
Smiling at the memory, Lucas glanced toward the large crack between several boulders where Tori sat, staring off into the distance. The small, natural shelter would keep them warm and out of the weather for the night, and they could get some much-needed rest. A soft breeze lifted some of her hair from her shoulder and blew alongside her face. She swiped at it with the back of her hand. She turned her head to look in his direction, and their eyes met. Lucas clenched his jaw. He inhaled a deep breath, swallowed the growing lump in his throat, and headed toward her. Even from a distance, she had a tired look in her eyes.
“We’ll be safe here for tonight.” He knelt to the ground beside her. “I’m confident that Black Sparrow won’t consider that we came this way. He’s still chasing circles around the lake.” He offered a reassuring smile. “But I don’t want to risk a fire.”
“Black Sparrow seemed so nice to me last summer. He asked me then to go with him, but I told him I couldn’t leave. He acted as if he accepted it.” Tori spoke softly, as if to herself.
“Guess he had time to think about it over the winter months. I’m sure when he came back to your cabin, he didn’t expect to find me there.” Lucas grinned broadly. “No doubt he decided right then and there that he would have you no matter what.”
Tori stared at him blankly. She seemed to be too tired to comprehend his meaning.
“I guess we’re even now, Walker.”
Her voice was so soft, the words so quietly spoken. Had she even realized she’d said them out loud?
“How do you figure that?”
“You saved my life, I saved yours” She shrugged listlessly.
Lucas chuckled. He leaned toward her. “I don’t think so. I’m not the one who left you to get caught by that wolverine. You did that all by yourself. So, the way I see it, you still owe me for leaving me stranded without my clothes or rifle.”
Tori’s eyes narrowed, and he noticed a glimmer of apprehension, or perhaps even fear. What was she afraid of? Him?
“I wouldn’t have stolen your clothes if you hadn’t kidnapped me from my cabin.” That familiar spark of defiance was back in her eyes. She sat up straighter, and raised her chin.
The corners of Lucas’ lips twitched. It was much easier bantering with her and getting her feathers ruffled than what had happened this morning.
“I was only doing what’s best for you, Tori.”
She glared at him. “Best for me? I’m more than capable of taking care of myself.”
“I can see that,” he said in a low tone. “But why are you so adamant about it?” His eyes roamed her face, committing every line and contour to memory. The hard look in her eyes told him not to expect a response. This wasn’t the time, but soon he would demand some answers from her as to why she hid away from other people.
As if acting independently of his mind, his arm reached out to her. His hand cupped the back of her head, drawing her to him. Lucas covered her mouth with his while his fingers weaved through her hair.
Tori’s hands braced against his chest, but there was no resistance. A soft moan escaped her lips, and she collapsed against him. Lucas
intensified the kiss, and leaned in closer. She was so soft, so compliant, it would be easy to lay her on the ground beneath him and . . .
Lucas abruptly pulled away from her. Taking in a deep breath, he all but leapt to his feet. Dammit! He hadn’t been able to stop his actions any more than he could have stopped from breathing. He needed to keep his wits about him if he was going to keep her safe, not have his way with her. Her mind and body were so fatigued, she didn’t even know what she was doing.
He ran a hand across his face, then headed for his horse and untied the blanket from the back of the saddle. Tori still sat where he’d left her, her unfocused eyes wide and shimmering.
Lucas held the blanket out for her. “Get some sleep, Tori. Tomorrow we’ll be safe.”
Chapter 13
Lucas’ body jerked, and he swore under his breath at the pain the quick movement brought to his aching muscles. Fully awake, he reached for his rifle that he’d laid next to him when he crawled into the sheltered crevice earlier. He raised his eyelids slightly. Bright light shone in from the opening.
What had startled him awake? All was quiet except for the distant roar of the waterfall and the echoing screech of an eagle soaring somewhere overhead.
He shifted his weight to the side, and hissed at the sensation of sharp pinpricks jabbing his flesh, radiating from his right arm into his hand. A heavy weight anchored his shoulder to the ground. Without raising his head, Lucas glanced to the side and downward. As if struck by a match, his insides ignited instantly, and the blood rushed to his gut.
Tori.
A slow smile spread across his face. Her head rested on his shoulder in the crook of his arm. Her face was obstructed by long strands of golden hair that hung in a tousled mess down her head and past her shoulders. Some of it fanned out over the buffalo hide covering them. The rest of her soft body lay molded along his side, and one of her hands rested on his chest.
Did you ever expect to wake up with her sleeping in your arms?
Teton Romance Trilogy Bundle: Includes Yellowstone Proposal (Short Story) Page 58
