Only You

by Elizabeth Lowell

  “Eden,” Eve whispered. “Or Hades.”

  “What?”

  “I can’t decide if this is a demanding kind of paradise or a seductive kind of hell,” she said.

  Reno smiled strangely. “Let me know when you decide. I’ve often wrestled with that question myself.”

  In silence they watched patterns of light and darkness shift and re-form until the distant mesas looked like stone ships anchored in a shadow sea.

  “It’s so unbelievable.…” Eve’s voice faded into silence.

  “It’s no stranger than men building a boat that carries four people and goes under water.”

  Eve gave Reno a startled look, but before she could say anything, he was talking again.

  “It’s no stranger than the New Madrid earthquake that changed the course of the Mississippi,” he said. “It’s no stranger than Mount Tambora blowing its top and bringing the Year Without a Summer to Britain.”

  “What?” she asked.

  “It’s true. Byron even wrote a poem about it,” Reno said.

  “Good Lord. If one little volcano was worth a poem, what would he have written about this?” she demanded, gesturing to the view in front of her.

  Reno smiled wryly. “I don’t know, but I would have enjoyed reading it.”

  The smile faded from Reno’s face as he said, “The world is all of a piece, all connected. It’s big, but it’s still only one place. Someday Rafe will figure it out and stop roaming.”

  “And until then?”

  “Rafe will be like the wind, alive only when he’s moving.”

  “What about you?” Eve asked softly.

  “I’ll be what I’ve always been, a man who puts his faith in the only thing that’s as valuable as it is incorruptible…tears of the sun god, the transcendent brought down to earth, the one thing that a man can count on in life. Gold.”

  There was a long silence while Eve looked out on the land with eyes that would rather have cried. She should have expected Reno to say nothing else, but the depth of her pain told her that she had.

  She had been seduced by passion and love. The passion had been returned to her redoubled.

  The love had not.

  Becoming Reno’s woman had changed the world for Eve. But not for him. He still had only one Golden Rule:

  You can’t count on women, but you can count on gold.

  Reno stood and held out his hand to Eve. He pulled her to her feet with an ease that made her wonder if he ever grew tired, ever felt he couldn’t take one more step, ever knew hunger or cold or sleeplessness.

  “Time to go, sugar girl.”

  “We’re not camping here?”

  “No. The shaman was right about the trail. It’s so easy, we can do it by moonlight.”

  As Reno walked back to the horses, Eve looked out over the beautiful, enigmatic maze once more.

  “Ships of stone,” she whispered. “Why can’t Reno see you?”

  17

  E VEN after the moon set, the stars burned in such radiant profusion that ghostly shadows formed. Though as sheer as a veil, the shadows were nonetheless real.

  Unhappily Eve concluded that, no matter how vague, starlight wasn’t exempt from Reno’s list of impossible demands.

  A stone ship, a dry rain, and a light that casts no shadow.

  She might have found an armada of stone ships, but the dry rain was as unattainable as ever. The shadowless light was also beyond her reach.

  One of the hobbled horses snorted, disturbing Eve’s gloomy thoughts. She turned in her bedroll, blaming her sleeplessness on the hard ground rather than on her depressing reflections.

  But the ground wasn’t any harder than it had ever been. Turning over didn’t make her more comfortable. It simply gave her a better view over the ashes of the campfire.

  Reno’s powerful, broad-shouldered silhouette was looming unmistakably against the stars. His bare chest and feet were a lighter shade of darkness. Obviously he was ready for bed but not ready for sleep.

  Reno was standing quietly, watching Eve rather than the slow wheeling of the stars overhead. She wondered where he had been, and why he had told her to go to sleep when he walked out of camp alone, and if he knew she was awake now.

  Then he spoke to her, answering one question; he knew she was awake.

  “Can’t sleep?” Reno asked in a low voice.

  “No,” Eve admitted.

  He walked over and sat on his heels next to her bedroll.

  “Know why?” he asked.

  She shook her head and asked, “Can’t you sleep?”

  “No.”

  “Know why?” she asked, echoing him.

  Reno’s smile flashed faintly in the starlight.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Are you worried about Slater?”

  “I ought to be.”

  “But you aren’t?” Eve persisted.

  “Not enough to keep me awake.”

  “Then why aren’t you sleeping?”

  “You.”

  Eve propped herself up on her elbow and stared at the darkness and thin starlight that hid as much as they revealed of Reno’s expression.

  “Am I that noisy when I roll over?” she asked wryly.

  He laughed. “No. You’re as graceful and quiet as a cat.”

  Eve waited, watching him with eyes that gleamed in the dim light.

  “But every time you move,” Reno continued, “I get to thinking how warm you are under the blankets, and how much I’d like to be lying beside you, touching all that sweet warmth.”

  “I thought you didn’t want…” Eve’s voice faded.

  “You?” Reno asked.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “You hardly even looked at me while we made camp.”

  “I didn’t dare. I wanted you too much.”

  “Why does that make you angry? Do you think I’ll refuse you?”

  Reno let out his breath in a stifled curse.

  “I haven’t been like this since I was a boy,” he said roughly. “I don’t like it one damn bit.”

  “I’m not teasing you. I lov—” Eve corrected herself instantly, “I want you too much to be a good tease.”

  She held the blankets aside in silent invitation.

  “You’re tired, and so am I,” Reno said in a curt voice. “Tomorrow is going to be another long day. I should have enough self-control not to bother you.”

  “I want you,” she repeated.

  “Eve,” Reno whispered, trying and failing to control the wild rush of heat that had taken him at her words.

  With an almost soundless groan of hunger and need, he knelt and then stretched out next to Eve beneath the blankets. She felt the fine trembling of his hands on her face and was amazed that she could affect his strength so much.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said hoarsely. “I want you so damn much, and you were so tight.…”

  “It’s all right.”

  Eve moved her head, kissing both of Reno’s hands in turn while he breathed her name into the fragrant warmth of her hair.

  “It’s all right,” she repeated with each brush of her lips over his skin. “I want to be a part of you again.”

  “Sugar girl,” he whispered. “Sweet and hot.”

  He discovered within the yielding luxury of her mouth a feminine hunger and demand that raced through his blood and brain like straight whiskey. The kiss began gently but quickly changed, becoming a hungry, searching prelude to the deeper joining that would soon come.

  Reno tried to rein in the wild need that had been eating at him since he had first tasted Eve in the liquid embrace of the pool, but control kept sliding away from him. He took the velvet heat of her mouth with deep, repeated movements of his tongue, probing and stroking, wanting her with a violence that was like nothing he had ever known before.

  When Reno finally forced himself to end the kiss, he was wholly, painfully aroused. He braced himself on his elbow and closed his eyes, fighting for control.

&nb
sp; It was impossible. Every breath he took was infused with the delicious scent of lilac and a woman’s secret warmth.

  “Reno?”

  The huskiness in Eve’s voice was another caress, making him want to groan. He touched her cheek with fingers that weren’t entirely steady.

  “I hope you want me half as much as that kiss suggested,” he said in a low voice.

  Eve took his hand and slowly moved it down to her breasts. Reno’s breath broke when he felt the nipple changing at his touch, becoming a tight velvet peak in a single rushing instant.

  “I wish it were full sunlight,” he said.

  “Why?”

  Instead of answering, Reno bent and caught the tip of Eve’s breast between his lips, then took her deep into his mouth, pulling on her with hot, shifting pressures.

  She made a throaty sound as her back arched in passionate reflex. His hands slid beneath her, holding her while he fed on the sweet flesh she had offered him. Her breasts were seduced and shaped by his mouth until they were full, flushed, and crowned by nipples that stood up hungrily against the sheer camisole.

  Reno raised his head and looked at the proof of Eve’s desire. The sight did nothing to cool the savage hunger of his body.

  “That’s why I wish it were sunlight,” he said huskily. “I want to see the pink buds swelling on top of your breasts.”

  He laughed softly when he felt the wave of heat climb tangibly up Eve’s body at his words.

  “And the sweet blush that comes when I talk about what I’m doing to you,” Reno said. “I’d like to see that, too.”

  Eve made a sound that was half laughter, half embarrassment. Smiling, he bent down and took between his teeth one of the laces that tied her camisole. With small motions of his head, he tugged until the bow came undone.

  “Take off your clothes, sugar girl.”

  Reno felt the tremor that went through Eve as clearly as she did.

  “I could do it,” he coaxed softly, “but then I’d have to let go of you. I don’t want to do that. You feel too damn good right where you are.”

  He flexed his hands and tightened his arms, deepening the arch of Eve’s back until her nipples just brushed against his mustache. His smile was a lighter shade of night as he watched her shiver and twist restlessly, seeking a deeper caress.

  “Gata,” Reno said thickly. “All supple and graceful. Undress for me. Want me as much as I want you.”

  Eve’s fingers were clumsy as she undid the camisole. But even when wholly unfastened, the cloth didn’t slide free of her body. Damp from his mouth, the cotton clung to the hard nipples Reno had drawn from her breasts.

  Hesitantly Eve peeled the thin fabric from her body. While she did, Reno kissed her breasts, her throat, her lips, taking tiny bites of her in between each nuzzling caress. He shifted just enough to allow her to get free of the camisole, but he never released her completely.

  Soon the camisole lay beside the bedroll like a pale reflection of starlight.

  “Keep going,” Reno whispered. “This time I want you to be completely naked.”

  With shaking fingers, Eve undid her pantalets and pushed them slowly down her legs until she was as Reno wanted her, completely naked. Her skin glowed like the creamy petals of a night-blooming flower.

  “Yes,” Reno whispered. “Like that. You’re beautiful. You should always be as God made you.”

  He drew his mustache across Eve’s breasts as he lowered her back to the warm blankets. She shivered and bit back a cry of pleasure as heat shimmered through her in the wake of his caress. When the tip of his tongue fenced with her taut nipples, she twisted again, harder, wanting more than his teasing.

  Reno gave Eve what she asked for, his mouth both caressing and demanding, his hand sliding down her body, seeking the sultry, delicate flesh that lay concealed between her legs. When he found her and touched her once, very lightly, she cried out.

  Instantly Reno withdrew, for the memory of making Eve bleed haunted him. He clenched his teeth against the pain of wanting her and not having her.

  “I’m sorry,” Reno said, sitting up. “I never meant to hurt you.”

  “You didn’t.”

  “You cried out.”

  Eve touched his chest with fingers that trembled.

  “Did I?” she asked huskily.

  “Yes. Did I hurt you?”

  “Hurt?” She shivered. “No.”

  The masculine textures of muscle and hair lured Eve. She stroked Reno, liking the feel of him beneath her palm.

  “Lie next to me again,” she whispered. “You make me too dizzy to sit up. Especially when you touch me like you just did. If I cried out, it was because your touch took the world away.”

  Reno’s eyes narrowed against the sudden clenching of desire deep in his loins, a knife turning, bringing pain.

  “You aren’t tender?” Reno asked.

  As he spoke, he touched the thicket of hair that shielded Eve’s hidden warmth. Her breath came in brokenly, soft echo of the tongues of fire licking up at his touch.

  “Sugar girl? Talk to me. Are you sore?”

  “No. I ache, but it’s not…” Eve’s voice faded. “That is, it isn’t…”

  “Isn’t what?”

  “I…” She took a ragged breath. “I can’t…I don’t know how…to say it.”

  “Embarrassed?” Reno asked gently.

  She nodded.

  “Try to tell me,” he coaxed. “I want to know if I do anything that hurts you.”

  “How could you?” she muttered. “You’re not doing anything at all.”

  Reno’s soft laughter was a rush of warmth across Eve’s breasts as he bent down to her. When he kissed the hardened tips, they tightened even more.

  Sensual lightning went from Eve’s nipples to the pit of her stomach and beyond. In the wake of lightning came a twisting need that was close to pain.

  “I ache, but not from what you’ve done,” Eve said, biting back a moan. “I ache from what you haven’t done.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes!”

  Still Reno hesitated, remembering the bright blood and the terrible realization that he had taken a virgin too hard, too fast, tearing the very flesh that gave him such pleasure.

  With great care he stroked Eve, smoothing over the tawny cloud that looked dark in the starlight. He heard the hesitation in her breath, the break, the ragged sigh as his fingertips sought and found the soft, warm petals.

  “Do you like that?” Reno whispered.

  A small, throaty cry was her answer.

  He brushed his fingertips over her thighs, pressing lightly. Her legs shifted until they no longer protected her from a more intimate caress. When he traced the shadowed crease between her legs, he felt her pleasure as a hot kiss over his fingertips. The heady fragrance of her response sank into him like sweet talons, raking him into an arousal that was pain and pleasure savagely combined.

  Before Reno realized what he was doing, he had unfastened his pants. When he realized how close he was to taking Eve, he rolled away and surged to his feet in a single movement.

  Fists clenched at his side, he breathed hard and fast, as though he had run for miles to get where he was. He looked down at the girl lying at his feet, watching him with night-darkened eyes. The quick rise and fall of her breasts with each breath she took made him want to tear off his few clothes and bury himself in her.

  The violence of Reno’s need was greater now than it had been when he first took Eve. The knowledge shocked him. He shouldn’t want her that much. He had sworn never to want a woman that much again.

  “Reno?” Eve whispered.

  “I’m afraid of hurting you,” he said roughly. “I want you too damn much.”

  She held out her arms.

  “Eve…damn it…you don’t know what you’re doing!”

  Yet Reno’s hands stripped away his clothes even as his mind told him to leave Eve alone until he was less aroused, more certain of his own control.
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  Through half-lowered eyelids, Eve watched Reno undress. His body gleamed with heat. Power rippled darkly beneath his skin each time he moved. When he peeled away the last of his clothing, the evidence of his arousal stood out boldly.

  “Finally afraid?” Reno asked, his voice rough.

  She shook her head.

  “You should be,” he said flatly. “I’ve never wanted a woman like this.”

  Eve’s only answer was a sinuous movement of her body. Her hips lifted in silent plea.

  Slowly Reno knelt between her legs.

  “You don’t know…” he said, but he couldn’t finish.

  “Then teach me,” she whispered.

  With a word that was both profane and reverent, Reno reached for Eve. He forced himself to move slowly despite the hammering of his own blood. The back of his hands caressed her from ankle to inner thigh, sensitizing her skin and parting her legs even more. He tried to resist the scented temptation that opened to him, but he could not prevent himself from stroking her just once.

  Eve was softer than silk, hotter, and she trembled at his touch. Reno eased his fingertip between the sleek petals. A fragrant, searing rain licked over him as he slid into her.

  Slowly Reno withdrew, knowing that he was shaking and knowing there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. He hadn’t expected her to be so ready to take him, so hungry for the coupling that had hurt her before.

  “I’ll try to be gentle,” Reno said through clenched teeth.

  “I know,” Eve whispered. “But don’t try too hard. Cats have more than one life.”

  He smiled despite the sweat sliding down his spine from the fierce tension of his body.

  “You’ll be the death of me, gata.” Then, his voice harsh, he added, “Help me.”

  “How?”

  “Bring your knees up.”

  Long legs shifted.

  “Higher. Yes, like that. God,” Reno said heavily, “I wish I could see you.”

  Eve made a stifled sound as she felt his fingertips trace every part of the night-blooming flower that was fully revealed to him. It was as though he wanted to memorize with touch what he couldn’t clearly see.