Fear streaked through her as the mare sidestepped. She prayed for the strength to force her body to do her bidding and get her out of this awkward position.
The heat of his body warned her how close Luke was before she heard him.
“Useless as teats on a boar.”
“Maybe not. A traveling circus would pay handsomely to display a freak of nature.”
“Ridin’ hasn’t curbed your tongue.” He slid one arm around her waist. “Let go. I’ve got you.” He took her full weight against him and used his hand to free her foot from the stirrup.
“Your arm,” she murmured in protest.
“Hurts like hell’s on fire, but I’d bet you’re hurting more.” He was thankful that she couldn’t see him. Her slender waist felt good beneath his arm. He had all he could handle not to slide his hands to her hips and pull her against his thighs, easing and arousing rigid flesh that pressed the black cloth of his pants.
“You’d win, Luke.” The smile on her lips at finally being off the horse died. She unconsciously moved closer to the warmth of his body. He’d told her the sun had risen, but within the dim light filtering down through the thick pine branches, Domini couldn’t tell.
This time she didn’t hold back the groan as he lowered her to her feet. The chafed skin between her thighs burned. From her toes to the small of her back, bones and muscles refused to cooperate and hold her up. The feel of his breath on her bare neck sent shimmering sensations flooding from her breasts to her knees.
The sudden move he made to snatch her off her feet and swing her up into his arms made her cry out.
“Quiet!”
She closed her eyes as the world tilted and swirled. She could remember her father picking her up, swinging her around to shrieks of laughter, but she had been a child, not a woman far too conscious of the man who held her in his arms. She turned her face against Luke’s muscular chest, her fear of falling eased. Releasing the breath she held, Domini tried to fight the feeling of helplessness. That, too, was a haunting memory from the past she needed to keep buried.
Luke found a deadfall, the trunks nearly three feet wide, and set her down. He stood there, looking at her, absently rubbing his chest where her breath had slid beneath the cloth and warmed his skin.
Domini sighed deeply and looked up at him. “Thank you. I don’t think I could have—”
“Save your thanks. I didn’t do it for you. The horses needed the rest.” Clipped and sharp, his voice echoed the hard look in his eyes. “Rub your legs, then get up and walk. If you want coffee, there’s some in my canteen. But you’ll have to get it.”
She hadn’t realized she had already obeyed him to knead her thigh until she followed the lowered direction of his gaze. Just like that, her body was suddenly alive with a quivering, sensual awareness that she couldn’t fight. She looked at his hands and knew the strength in those long fingers would have her tight muscles soft and screaming with pleasure, not pain, in minutes. The mere thought of having him touch her sent warmth curling through her. Her hands stilled as she looked up at him again.
“Wasn’t the bacon and beans we ate enough for you?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Your look, your voice, Luke. You’re tearing strips out of my hide, and I don’t know what I’ve done wrong.”
“Back to that?”
“Answer me. If you explain, I’ll stop.” She stared into his eyes, seeing for herself the flare of hunger within the black depths.
“You gonna stop breathing?” he whispered, “ ’cause that’s what’ll take.”
With his abrupt turn she almost called out to stop him. Almost. She had finely honed instincts to protect herself. Teasing a long wolf was not in her best interest. But as she worked her sore muscles as hard as she could, her gaze strayed time and again to where he was stripping off the saddles and rubbing down the horses.
Domini stood up and made herself walk, knowing that he was right. If she didn’t keep moving, she would stiffen up just like a corpse. The area wasn’t exactly a clearing, for the sun was shut out by the tangled growth above her. The lowest limbs of the sweeping pines were man-high, measured against Luke’s height.
She avoided walking near where he stood leaning against a tree, sipping from the canteen. He had made the coffee this morning, thick and black, but despite its bitterness she had welcomed its heat. She wouldn’t have minded a little of that warmth now. She realized they were steadily climbing, and the air was thinner and colder.
But she wouldn’t go near him. “Can you stop breathing? ’Cause that’s what’ll take.” Even silently repeating his words reinforced her decision. Luke would have to wait until the sun stopped rising. She had to find out why she’d been sent for. Sister Benedict had been vague about the reason. She had accepted the nun’s word that Toma Colfax had paid for her keep all these years out of friendship for her father. And perhaps that was part of the reason she had agreed to come and meet him.
This was the land that had captivated her father. The land where he had come hunting gold to give them a better life. Only it hadn’t worked out. And … With an abrupt turn of thought Domini remembered Luke’s reaction when she had told him who she was. “Jim Kirkland’s daughter?”
With a whirling turn that made her wince, she forgot her decision not to go near him. “Luke?” she called, heading for him. “Did you know my father?”
She stopped short a little behind him. He had stood there listening to every whisper of sound that she made, and now he stalled her by handing back the canteen.
“Have some. It’s still warm.” When she didn’t take it immediately, he added, “Bother you to drink from the same canteen?”
“No. No, it doesn’t.” But as she closed her hand over it, Domini knew she lied. It did bother her, but not the way he meant. Placing her lips where his had been was sharing an intimacy with a man who didn’t want any. Not true. He’s made it clear enough that he’ll share a far greater intimacy any time you let him. But Domini countered her own thought. Luke would share his body, but it would be an empty mating. Even animals came together to create life.
Despite the temptation he offered, she had to keep her vow of chastity or she would make a mockery of what she had learned to believe. A rueful smile curved her lips. If Sister Benedict could meet Luke, she wouldn’t have instructed her how easy it was to remain chaste. But the gentle-tempered nun was far away, too far to help Domini now.
“Finished?” he asked, still without turning to look at her.
Domini shook the canteen. “There isn’t much left. Not that it matters. I want an answer this time, Luke. Did you know my father?”
“I met him.” His voice was guarded. “He was real easygoing, and he laughed a lot.”
“That’s not the answer I wanted.”
“Too bad. It’s all you’re getting. Time to mount up.”
She glanced from him to the saddled horses and back again. His forbidding expression challenged her to push him. Domini had learned that pride was a sin, but she summoned every ounce of pride she possessed to walk away from him. She consoled herself with the thought that if she had waited this long for answers about her father, she could wait to meet Toma Colfax to hear them.
She made two attempts to mount before he came up behind her and lifted her up, setting her on the saddle. She bit her lip to stifle the cry when her inner thigh met the hard leather.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you do it on purpose.”
“What? What am I doing now? You told me to mount up. I’m up.”
He smiled at the flare of temper lighting her green eyes, and inched the brim of his hat back. “Every time I’ve turned around I’ve had to put my hands on you. If I was another man, I’d take it as an invitation.”
“But you’re not another man, are you, Luke? And you do know better.”
“That’s the hell of it, honey. I do.”
Domini close
d her eyes. Two or three days? Dear Lord, help me to survive him that long. When she opened them, he was taking a thick wool shirt from his saddle bags, walking back to her.
“Lift up.”
“What are you doing?”
He slipped the shirt sleeves around her waist, tying them in a bulky knot. He had just slid his hand to her thigh when Domini bolted upright, all her weight resting on the stirrups. To keep her balance she had to grab hold of his shoulder.
“Now sit,” he ordered, sliding his arm across her stomach to match action to word.
Domini snatched her hand away and gripped the horn. Her seat was considerably eased.
Luke seemed to think so, too. “That cloth’s heavy enough to cushion that sweet, curving bottom or come nightfall you’ll have so many blisters I’ll be forced to handle you again.”
“Your kindness is touching. But animals get handled, not women.”
“When you’ve been handled by a man, honey, try telling me that again.”
Don’t answer him! Not one word. Not a sound. Domini took her own warning to heart. But the curl of heated awareness surged deeper. She was tantalized by the thought of Luke holding her as he had last night, kissing like a wild storm unleashed, and she the sapling bending to its fury.
Without another word Luke went to where Devil waited. Using the same fluid grace as he had this morning, he stepped up into the saddle, and with a touch of his blunted spurs he set the big gelding moving.
Domini started to call out and stopped herself. She eyed the knotted reins draped on either side of the mare’s neck. She had managed to conquer her fear of being so far off the ground, but wasn’t ready to handle the horse on her own. Luke, already disappearing down a path he alone could see, wasn’t giving her any choice.
“Well, honey,” she snapped in imitation of his sarcastic tone, “let’s see if I can handle you.”
As she lifted the reins in one hand, she thought she heard the faint sound of masculine laughter. The raucous cry of a jay overhead made her dismiss the thought. Luke hadn’t given her one genuine smile, so how could she think he’d heard her and laughed?
Like the burning memory of the kiss they’d shared, the idea of handling Luke continued to tantalize her. She found that the mare needed very little guidance from her, and she quickly caught up to the black-pointed horse he rode.
Domini grew tired of trying to stare a hole in his back. The added padding of his shirt lessened the pain, and she found herself taking more interest in her surroundings. There were so many questions she wanted to ask him, but kept his order in mind that there would be no talking on the trail.
She caught brief glimpses of a cobalt sky, the color intense, and the line between shadow and sunlight as sharp as the cut of a knife. A low line of clouds smudged the far horizon, and abruptly they were once more riding in the shadows of the giant trees.
There were men on the ship who had called this God’s country, and she understood a little better why they had. The land had not known the touch of men. She found no signs to mark the trail he followed, and she looked hard for them.
They were soon climbing again. Domini had found that the horse would pick her own way, and she clung to the saddle horn as the path grew steep. A dulling numbness overcame her, and not even the land drew her attention.
Just hang on, she told herself. He’ll have to stop soon. He wouldn’t care that she couldn’t feel her legs, but he’d stop to rest the horses again. And when he does, I’ll show him I’m not as useless.
Clinging to the thought, Domini never saw Luke lift his head and catch the faint curl of smoke rising from a campfire. She wasn’t aware that he changed their direction deeper into the forest of pines, or that he looked back and saw not a woman too tired to care where he was heading, but a green-eyed little girl with the same infectious joy that had filled her father’s eyes.
Luke knew the debt that he owed Jim Kirkland. He had thought long and hard about it. If it wasn’t for Jim, he would have run and kept running, likely riding the outlaw trail and ending up in jail or swinging from the gallows. It had been Jim who gave him the secret hope that someday things would change. Luke often wished he could bury that hope.
As he added another two hours to their riding time, he wondered if it was the debt or his desire for Domini that brought a surge of possessive protectiveness to keep her safe.
But who’s going to protect her from you?
He’d silently voiced the question. And silence was all that came in answer.
Chapter 5
“Suppertime, honey. Your mare wants to eat even if you don’t.”
Chilled to the bone, Domini barely lifted her head. There was a faraway sound to Luke’s voice, and it took her long moments before she realized they had stopped. She repeated his words, but all she smelled was the ever present scent of pine. It could have been dusk or the middle of the night for all she could tell. Not that it mattered. She couldn’t move.
“You’ve been mumblin’ for the last hour that you’ll show me you’re not useless as teats on a boar.”
She was too exhausted to hear the teasing, almost compassionate tone in his voice. “Don’t believe me. I lie a lot.”
“You do? That’s something you’ll have to tell me about. Guess you’re not gonna show me anything, so let’s get you settled.”
He had to pry her hand from its grip on the horn, and untangle the reins she had twisted around her fingers.
“Easy, girl. Easy there.”
Domini couldn’t decide if he was murmuring to her or the mare. She struggled against a leg tingling with a hundred needles pinching it to kick her right foot free of the stirrup when Luke asked. He coaxed her with a gentle voice that soothed, and there wasn’t an ounce of pride in her when she felt the caressing glide of his hands closing around her waist to lift her out of the saddle.
Held against him, she snuggled close to his shoulder.
“That bad, huh?”
She managed a murmur, sinking into the heat of his body. His masculine scents were on every breath she drew, horse and leather, and something more that she couldn’t name.
But the longer he held her, the more her senses came alive with a curious weak feeling that overtook the pain of blood flowing again to numb, aching body parts.
“Luke?”
Her husky, warm whisper tore through him, and he couldn’t fight the swift rise of hunger to hear her call his name after he’d pleasured her and himself and neither one of them could move. His lips hovered above her mouth. It would be so easy to cover her mouth with his and slide his tongue inside for a taste of sass and honey.
She burrowed deeper against him, giving him total trust and sighed a blend of contentment and discomfort.
He knew men who’d call him a curious kind of fool for not carrying her over to the bed he’d made and claiming the wild feminine heat that waited. He clenched his teeth against temptation and carried her to a place beneath the sweeping branches of pine. He’d made a nest, thick and warm, of the dry pine needles covered with his blanket.
Lowering her down, he slipped his arm free, to her sleepy protest. Luke couldn’t wrap the blanket around her fast enough or tight enough. But as he walked away, he knew he’d only hidden her from sight for now. Too bad he couldn’t hide the scent and feel of her from his mind.
He stripped the gear from the mare, using the tall grasses he’d picked near the hip-wide stream to dry her coat. He grabbed the coffeepot and led her to the rope picket fence he’d made using the saplings on both sides of the stream. Devil lifted a dripping muzzle from the water, a soft nickered greeting welcoming the mare. Luke retied the rope and walked upstream to fill the pot.
Domini woke to the scent of sizzling bacon and the tantalizing smell of coffee. With a barely stifled groan she struggled to sit, rubbing her eyes and sniffing with a smile of appreciation.
“Suppertime,” he whispered.
Domini glanced at
a fire no bigger than a pitcher’s opening. Suspended above it was the coffeepot hanging from a tripod of branches. Luke lifted the crisp bacon from the black frying pan, setting it aside on a slab of rock. While she watched, he mixed flour and water into the drippings and set it back on the fire to bake.
Beyond the small scurrying sounds coming from the forest behind her, Domini listened to the wind high above them. She shivered as she came fully awake. There was no sign of the horses. She saw that Luke had chosen to make their camp beneath two close-growing pines. Someone would have to stumble upon them before they would be seen.
She glanced at him, seeing the play of light and shadow over his hard-cut, handsome features, and remembered vividly the moments when he had held her. Her stomach rumbled with hunger, and he looked up then.
“There’s another camp about a mile upwind of us. Keep your voice soft and low, honey. I’m in no mood to fight off three men.”
She crawled from the warm nest and instantly wished she had stayed there. The bite of cold mountain air cut through her clothes. Trying to untwist her shawl, Domini found that she still had his thick wool shirt tied around her waist. A quick look showed that Luke had donned a hide vest, as dark and unadorned as everything else he owned. He also appeared as warm as the bed she had just crawled from.
“Would you mind if I wore this?”
He had to look at her again. Some of her hair had escaped its pins and fell on either side of her face as she struggled with the bulky sleeves. Her fingers were stiff and awkward. Would he mind? Hell, no. He wasn’t about to torture himself by wearing a shirt that had absorbed her heat and scent for hours.
“Sure, put it on.” And he listened to her deep, appreciative sigh as the wool cut the cold, thinking of other hotter, more pleasant ways he could have warmed both of them.
With narrowed eyes Luke watched her roll up the cuffs. He knew the ride would be hard on her, and he wondered who it punished more, her or himself. If he had been alone he would have pushed on until he was certain there wasn’t another man within shooting distance, but she had been about to fall out of the saddle.
Whisper My Name Page 5
