Bride Of Shadow Canyon

by Stacey Kayne

  Her eyes brightened. "Really? I've never wanted a man, period. Until you. You're very handsome, did you know that?" She sat back, raking her fingers across his chest. Her eyes followed her hands, glowing with catlike curiosity as she explored every inch of his chest and abdomen, touching each scar, before slowly pushing her hands back up to his shoulders.

  Forcing his body to remain reclined against the washtub with the heat of her body pressed against him was no small effort. Her light exploration was the most erotic sensual play Jed had ever experienced, and he'd experienced plenty. Every fiber in his body screamed to roll her over onto the short grass and bury himself inside her sweet heat.

  "Rachell-" he rasped.

  His heart kicked hard against his chest as she lifted against him and pressed her mouth to his. She surprised him again by taking his mouth with smooth deft strokes of her tongue. Jed returned the passionate kiss, losing himself in the velvet and satin paradise of her mouth.

  A nagging voice in the back of his mind reminded him that Sumner could be nearby. "Rachell, we have to stop."

  Rachell eased back, her brow puckered in clear annoyance. "You don't like kissing me?"

  "Of course I do! But I know my limit. Much more of this and I won't be able to stop at kisses."

  "I don't want you to stop."

  Jed closed his eyes as she smoothed her hands across his chest. His shudder shook both of them.

  "Don't you want more?" she asked, her alluring tone clawing at his flesh.

  "Hell yes!" he barked out, struggling to gather the remains of his lost control. Opening his eyes was a big mistake. Her frank desire to welcome him into her body was eating him alive. "I want it all," he admitted. "But I don't think that would be a wise decision."

  "Why? I won't protest the annulment, if that's what worries you."

  "That's only part of it. You're also young, proper, and Buck's sister-in-law."

  Her blatant disappointment both amused and flattered him. Jed kissed her sweet nose. "That's just my mind's opinion. My body says we're both adults, quite capable of having an affair. Is that what you want, Rachell?"

  "I ache for you. I only feel better when you're holding me."

  Jed hadn't thought he could be any more aroused, but as she trembled against him, kissing him with the promise of all the pleasure their coupling would bring, his body continued to tighten with unbearable need. His desire to make love to her was about to drive him mad. But he couldn't, not yet, not until he'd checked the canyons for signs of Sumner. He wouldn't let his lust compromise Rachell's safety.

  Despite his body's painful protest, he tore his mouth away from her and eased Rachell off his lap until she sat on the ground in front of him. She gave a frustrated sigh as she leaned back, planting her hands on the ground behind her.

  "Jed, I want you to-"

  He reached out, placing a finger over her lips. "I know what you want. If I was certain Sumner wasn't lurking somewhere nearby, I'd give it to you. Sugar, don't smile at me like that," he said in a pleading tone, again closing his eyes, knowing he couldn't look into her sparkling green eyes for another moment without taking her. "I have.. .to go check.. .the canyons," he said, the words sounding forced, punctuated by his heavy breathing.

  Rachell kissed his finger and wrapped his hand in hers, amazed by the effect she could have on his powerful body. She could hardly believe she had evoked such a response. The realization that he wanted her as intensely as she wanted him was empowering. She released his hand, contentedly watching him as he leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees, digging his hand into his hair-slowly regaining his control.

  "Come on, honey," he said, after a few silent minutes of deep steady breaths. He stood in one swift motion, simultaneously bringing her to her feet. "We have work to do. After I unload our supplies, I won't be back for a while," he said, turning toward her as he stopped beside Sage. "I hate to leave you here, but I have to check for signs of Sumner. Don't stray from the cabin. Keep the rifle at your side."

  "Yes, sir."

  "Sassy," Jed said, shaking his head. His arm snaked out and pulled her against him.

  Rachell reached up, eagerly meeting his kiss. As he straightened, lifting her against his chest, she pulled herself up and wrapped her legs tightly around his waist. Jed groaned against her lips. His hands tenderly caressed her thighs and buttocks, sending sparks of fire streaming through her body.

  "Do what you can with the cabin, but don't overwork yourself," he said between kisses. "I doubt I'll be back before dusk."

  When his mouth finally broke away, Rachell's lungs were heaving for a full breath, her body shaking with need.

  "Promise me you won't come back mad," she said in a ragged breath. "I won't be able to stand it if you return with your defenses intact and behave as though nothing has happened between us."

  His smile sent another burst of heat rippling through her body.

  "Not a chance, Imp. It's going to be one hell of a long day, knowing I'll be spending the night with you in that cabin."

  Rachell glanced over his shoulder, into the cabin. "Why do I feel like I'm getting the raw end of this bargain?"

  "I'll make it worth your while," he said in his voice of warm velvet.

  "Do you think I need to be bribed?"

  "Uh-huh," he said, brushing a light kiss across her lips. "How does a warm bath sound? There's a hot spring not far from here."

  "A hot spring?"

  "It's like bathing in a giant tea cup. I'll take you there when I get back."

  "If you're teasing me, Jed Doulan, I'll crown you with a frying pan when you return."

  His laughter vibrated through her. "Honest to God. So, do we have a deal?"

  She smiled. "Kiss me again and I'll agree to anything."

  Jed didn't hesitate, giving her a thoroughly convincing, deal-binding kiss.

  "Deal," she gasped, although in the back of her mind, she was wondering how in high heaven she could manage to make that dirt-filled shack livable. But as she gazed into Jed's warm smiling eyes, she vowed to scrub every nook and cranny spotless or kill herself trying. She would not disappoint him.

  Chapter Sixteen

  "What the hell?" Jed followed the burning scent of smoke back to the cabin. She'd actually torched the place!

  In the last bit of twilight left in the sky, he saw dark billows of smoke rising from the chimney pipe. As he rode closer he could see small tendrils of smoke filtering out from cracks in and around the window and the top of the door. He rode Sage up to the cabin, jumped from his saddle and kicked the door open.

  A thick gray cloud rolled over him, out into the yard. He ducked down, saw the source of the billowing blackness and ran blindly across the room, toward the stove where the large cookpot was smoking like a freight train. He found a hot pad, grabbed the handle and ran the hissing pot out into the yard.

  Jed tossed the black kettle into the dirt then glanced around the small empty clearing. He'd come back to the cabin once to check on Rachell and had been snared by the melodious notes echoing from this canyon. She'd been hanging wet sheets on a rope she'd tied between the cabin and the shed as she sang. He'd stood silently in the meadow, mesmerized. It hurt to look at her when she was singing, her voice nothing short of angelic.

  Looking into direct sunlight can damage the eyes, he told himself, and devastate the soul.

  But her clothesline was now bare, the yard deserted. He

  called her name as he checked the horse shed. Finding it empty, he shouted for her again, but his own voice was all that echoed back.

  Where the hell is she ? He hadn't found any trace of Sumner arriving in the area. Could he have missed tracks leading toward the cabin?

  Rage roared through his body at the thought of Rachell being taken from him. They'd never make it off the mountain with her and wouldn't live but a second after he got her back! He ran back to the cabin to search for any signs of a struggle.

  Jed came to a full halt in the doorway.
>
  Hunched over the table, sleeping prettily on her folded arms beneath the cloud of smoke, was Rachell. Relief vibrated through him with such force, he clutched the door frame to steady himself.

  She was safe. Filthy, he noted, but safe. As his pulse began to calm, Jed's gaze swept across the impossibly tidied cabin. No wonder she'd passed out, he thought, taking in the scrubbed flooring. The woman must have shoveled a few inches of dirt from the place. The entire cabin was free of cobwebs. She'd even washed the window coverings which, to his surprise, were white. He imagined the hissing coals fused to the cast-iron pot were to be their supper.

  He crouched beside Rachell and rubbed a hand across her narrow shoulders. What little he could see of her buckskin dress was a mess. Her slender arms and elbows were smudged with dirt. It seemed half the grime from the cabin had clung to her.

  "Honey, what are you doin'?" he asked, gently rousing her.

  "Sleeping," she mumbled.

  Jed's eyes roamed over her filthy face. "Sweetheart, you look like you've been rolling with hogs."

  "I'm too tired to care," she moaned, her closed eyes never flinching. "I just want to go to bed."

  Jed glanced toward the bed covered in the crisp clean sheets she'd surely spent a good deal of time scrubbing. "You're not getting near the bed in these clothes. I've seen coal miners in cleaner attire."

  Rachell winced as he lifted her into his arms, undoubtedly plagued by sore, strained muscles. Soaking in the hot spring for a while would ease her discomfort. Soaking in the hot spring together could certainly ease his.

  As if she'd heard his thoughts in her sleep, Rachell's lips turned up into a smile as she sighed and snuggled against his chest. "I'd rather have you hold me while I sleep."

  He'd noticed. He lifted a sheet from the bed, reached into his saddlebags on the table for the pink bar of soap he'd picked up at Gran's place then grabbed the lantern as he carried Rachell out the door.

  "Wake up, sugar," Jed said as he lowered to one knee, setting her bottom on his raised thigh. "We're at the hot spring. You'll feel better after a warm bath."

  He jostled her in his arms, but Rachell only moaned in her sleep, burying her face against his chest.

  "Honey, I'm not against bathing you in your sleep, but I think you'd enjoy it more if you were awake." He sure as hell would.

  Rachell's lips curled into a snarl when Jed tried to ease her away from him. She pressed harder against his chest. "Fine. We'll do it your way."

  He fanned the sheet out on the short grass then with her leaning against his chest, he fisted the bottom of her dress in his hands and worked it up past her hips. Rachell moaned sleepily as he eased her arms from the sleeves and whipped the buckskin up and over her head. Having her skin exposed to the cold night air caused her to huddle even closer to Jed. "Hold, on, sweetheart," Jed soothed, easing her onto the sheet so that he could strip himself of his own clothing. As he laid her back, the full sight of her ivory skin glowing like fine porcelain in the moonlight stole his ability to breathe and removed any desire to keep away from her.

  The air hissed from his lungs as his body hardened in a rush. "So beautiful," he whispered, pressing his lips to her perfect shoulder.

  Later, he silently commanded, forcing himself to pull away from her sweet skin. She'd waited long enough for a warm bath. He would enjoy giving her one, whether she was awake or not.

  A cold chill pricked at Rachell's skin, intruding on her peaceful slumber. Something smelled musty. Begrudgingly, she opened her eyes and gazed sleepily at a dark, star-flecked sky.

  Why was she outside?

  "Jed?"

  "I'm right here," his deep voice answered from somewhere nearby.

  I thought we were sleeping inside? The chill in the air demanded her attention. She reached a hand across the ground beside her, blindly searching for her blanket. Finding it, she gripped the fabric and pulled it over her cold body as her heavy eyelids drifted back down. Hearing the hiss of a lantern being lit, she forced her eyes open again.

  Jed stood a mere foot away, placing a lantern onto a high boulder. As he turned toward her, the bright golden light spilled across his amazingly nude and very male body.

  Rachell sat up in a rush. The cold air against her skin caused her to drop her gaze to her own body.

  Oh my God! Where were her clothes?

  "Jed!" she cried, just as he knelt before her.

  "The water will warm you up real quick," he said, scooping her into his arms, and away from the sheet.

  Rachell trembled violently as the incredible warmth of skin surrounded her.

  "Damn," Jed said in a harsh breath. "I'm sorry, honey. I forget how susceptible your tiny body is to the cold. I should have stripped myself first."

  The cold air wasn't making Rachell shiver, it was her nudity pressed against his!

  "Jed!" she gasped, on the verge of panic.

  "Don't worry, sugar," he said as he stepped down. "I won't let go of you."

  Before she could tell him that that was precisely the problem, a nearly intolerable heat rushed across her cold skin. "Heavens," she breathed raggedly, her eyes clenching shut as Jed lowered them further into the pool of liquid fire.

  The hot spring, her mind echoed with sudden clarity. They were at the hot spring.

  "Too hot?" Jed asked, his arms tensing around her, obviously ready to lift her from the water.

  Caught up in the rush of sensation, Rachell was incapable of giving an answer. It did burn, but the initial sting had already begun to ease, her body adjusting to the drastic change in temperature.

  "Rachell?"

  She could barely force a squeak past her throat, her groggy mind occupied with the heat penetrating her body, and the man holding her.

  "Talk to me, honey," Jed urged, rubbing his hand over her shoulder and down the length of her arm. "Is the water too hot for your delicate skin?"

  "I.. .no," she panted. She pulled in another breath which unraveled around the words, "Oh, my," as Jed's hand came to rest on her bare hip. He eased further down, the warm water rising toward her shoulders as he settled her on his lap.

  The soothing warmth of the hot pool kept distracting her from the distress of being nude. A continuous trickling sound of droplets hitting the water echoed around them. Her sore muscles couldn't help but relax as the water eased the strain of too many days in the saddle and her battle with the devil's cabin.

  Ultimately relaxed and flushed with heat, Rachell opened her eyes. White mist skated across the black pool. Surrounding the ten-foot circumference of water were giant boulders that glowed white in the moonlight. The giant rocks were as bright as the moon shining overhead. The source of the dripping water, she saw, was coming from across the pool. Dark streaks ran down the large rocks

  "Feel better?" Jed asked, reminding Rachell that she wasn't alone, and that the large palm closed over her hip was holding her securely on his lap.

  Rachell stiffened as her thoughts drifted back to her nudity.

  "I've got you. Don't be frightened," Jed soothed, obviously feeling the tension in her body.

  Of course he felt it!

  His free hand rose from the water, holding a white cloth. He clenched a fist and water streamed from between his fingers. He opened his hand then lifted the damp cloth toward Rachell's face.

  "What are you doing?" she gasped, her dazed mind still trying to focus on what was happening.

  "Bathing you," he said in a low voice as he swabbed the cloth across her face and down her neck.

  Reflexively, she clamped her arms around her breasts. The fact that the steaming water reached her collarbone didn't seem to matter. Nor did the internal reminder that she didn't have anything worth hiding. Dear God, how long had she been exposed to him before she'd awakened? She closed her eyes, embarrassed and too frightened to look up.

  "A little late to be modest," Jed bemused as he slid the cloth across her shoulders.

  "I suppose it gives you great pleasure to humiliate me,"
Rachell said in a shaken voice. She tried to turn her back to him, but his powerful hands clamped onto her shoulders. Startled, she glanced up. His face was fixed with shock.

  "Humiliate you? How is bathing you humiliating?"

  "As Miss Delilah so delicately pointed out, I have the build of a ten-year-old boy."

  His low rambling laugh increased her anger and embarrassment.

  "No, you don't, sugar. Delilah was just trying to rile you." The softness of his tone sent shivers down her spine. "I've never gotten hot and bothered over a boy of any age. You are pure woman."

  Jed rubbed his hands over her tense shoulders. He wasn't sure how to react to her rigid response. He was certain he could have made love to her this morning and she'd have been crooning the whole way. At the moment, however, her signals clearly stated hands off.

  "Honey, I'm confused. This morning you gave me the clear impression you wanted my attention."

  "I did. I do. I just didn't think I would be so...undressed."

  She wasn't making a damn bit of sense. Had she expected him to bed her with her clothes on? "You didn't know we'd be naked when we made love?"

  Her stunned expression shocked him.

  "I wasn't last time."

  "Last time? Honey, I'd sure as hell remember making love to you, and you damn sure would have been fully naked when I did."

  "In Running Bear's camp, when you...touched me, I was wearing a dress."

  Jed grinned. "If we hadn't been interrupted, that dress would have come off at some point, guaranteed. The vision of your perfect body has been haunting me since the moment I first laid eyes on you."

  Rachell's eyes widened a fraction but she didn't appear the least bit convinced. She continued to stare up at him, her gaze uncertain, her brow puckered in contemplation.

  James Carlson had deserved the bullet that took his life, Jed thought. Not only had he deprived his young bride of sexual fulfillment, their brief encounters had clearly left Rachell with a poor opinion of her body.

  Not seeing a change in her tense expression, Jed dropped his hands away from her shoulders as he eased back against the rock, holding her gaze. He'd known all along she wasn't for him. This was a hell of a time for her to finally realize it.