Whispers of the Heart

by Woster, Barbara

  “For one, I suppose,” Kat sighed. “I guess I’ve been out of circulation for so long, I forgot the rules of the game. It seems I remember though that if a woman doesn’t return the interest, a man is supposed to turn his attentions elsewhere. You don’t seem to be catching the hints.”

  “To be honest, Kat,” Dalian said, “your words are mixing with your signals, which can confuse a body something fierce.”

  She cringed a little, because Chloe said something along the same lines earlier. “Have you ever thought that your radar might simply be broken and you’re reading me all wrong?”

  “Not likely,” Dalian retorted. “My radar may have been out of service for a couple of years, but it’s hardly broken. Besides, our radars help us men locate a mate, so keeping them working is in our best interest.”

  Kat laughed, preferring this form of conversation to the overly intimate ones of late. A healthy debate was always a good way to control raging hormones. “If men’s radars were so accurate, there would be far fewer offended people in the world. I mean, all men have to do is catch the clue when we toss it at them and move on, but do they? No! They take is as a sign to pursue at all costs and then they end up hurt or offended when they realize that the very radar they relied upon was reading all wrong. It would be easier just to accept the fact that the radar is flawed and tune it towards someone else.”

  “Sometimes our radar is working just fine,” Dalian rejoined, “but the woman simply refuses to accept the fact that a mutual attraction exists – for whatever reason.”

  Kat’s hair prickled along the nape of her neck when she realized he’d turned the conversation back into an intimate one. It wasn’t in the words, so much as in his tone. She glanced up and quickly berated herself for doing so. Those damned dark chocolate eyes, she thought and tried to look away. I love chocolate, she thought inanely.

  “Isn’t that true, Kat?” Dalian whispered, leaning closer.

  “I’d better turn in,” Kat whispered breathlessly.

  “Prove me wrong, Kat,” Dalian said quickly, softly, leaning closer still. “Prove to me that my radar is broken, and I’ll leave you be for the next six weeks. Not even a sideways glance. You have my word of honor.”

  “I don’t...”

  “One kiss,” Dalian interrupted, closing the gap between them with each word.

  “Kiss?” Kat croaked. Her throat constricted and she felt a strong desire to run, but that desire was overpowered by a deeper yearning that slowly enveloped her.

  “You can hide behind words, Kat, but a kiss bears your soul,” Dalian whispered, lifting his hand and tenderly stroking her cheek. Kat’s eyes instinctively fluttered closed and she leaned toward him.

  Dalian smiled at her response, moved his hand beneath her hair, and lightly grasped her nape, pulling her toward him. “Prove me right,” he whispered and closed his mouth over hers.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Dalian reluctantly broke the kiss, more shaken than even she appeared to be, although from the sound of her ragged breathing, he doubted it – or was that his breathing that was ragged? It was hard to tell. They both seemed to be panting in unison. He opened his eyes. She was watching him, her gaze clouded with desire. He slid his hand from her nape and stroked her cheek. Once again, she closed her eyes, her lips parting slightly. He was certainly not one to refuse an invitation. The experiment was over, his case was proven, and now he intended to enjoy the victory of being right. His radar wasn’t broken.

  He pulled his foot from the fence and turned toward her, slid an arm about her waist and pulled her flush against him. The other hand that had been stroking her cheek returned to her nape, tangled in her hair, and tilted her head to meet his need. His mouth captured her gasp and his tongue began that age-old lover’s duel, but he wanted his tongue to caress more than hers. He wanted it to light her skin afire with desire; one that she couldn’t deny. He broke away from her mouth, slid his tongue along the side of her neck, and then caught her earlobe between his teeth, nibbling softly. Kat’s head fell instinctively to the side, and a groan of desire escaped. Her hands clung to his sleeves like a swimmer to a life preserver; but it was no use. She was drowning – fast.

  As if sensing her dilemma, Dalian slid his hands down her back and cupped her rear, pulling her in tighter still. She moaned in acquiescence and Dalian felt himself suddenly sinking. He picked her up and moved backward until he felt the fence bump into his hands, and then released his grip from her rear and grabbed hold of the top of the rail, leaning into her. If his shirt was her life preserver, the fence was his.

  His mouth made a return voyage and claimed her lips in another breath-stealing kiss. Kat wrapped her arms around his waist and clutched his shirt with what strength she had left. Never had she felt such intense heat pounding through her body. It was as if someone had bound the two of them together and lifted them over a roaring flame of desire.

  “I can’t...” Kat panted, when his lips finally broke from hers.

  Dalian stiffened, lifting his gaze to meet hers, “Can’t what?” he asked, his own breathing heavy.

  “I can’t breathe.”

  Dalian took a quick, unsteady step back, but Kat’s hands were still clutching his shirt and he dragged her with him. She collapsed into him, her legs giving way. He reached down and scooped her into his quivering arms and, on unsteady legs, made his way toward the barn. With a barely balanced sway, he kicked the door open and moved toward an empty stall, carefully laying her down upon the fresh bed of hay. He knelt over her, examining her with his eyes. “Are you okay?” He asked, stroking her face.

  “I’m fine,” she whispered. “I think.”

  “You need to explain better than that. You’re extremely flushed.”

  “So are you,” Kat whispered.

  “But I can breathe.”

  “It’s just that I’ve never felt anything so intense before and it took my breath away – literally,” Kat breathed. “I’m okay now. I think. I’m sorry I worried you.”

  Comprehension dawned and Dalian grinned, and then stretched out beside her, “I’ll admit I was having a hard time too. Damn, but you’re the most powerful presence to enter my life, Kat. I’ve never experienced anything like I did when I kissed you. Guess that means my radar isn’t broken.”

  “No,” Kat grinned. “I’d say everything about you is in working order.”

  “How would you know?” Dalian purred. “You haven’t even tried out the whole package yet.”

  “Yet?”

  “Hell yes, yet!” Dalian grinned, planting a quick kiss on her lips. “You don’t think I’m going to let you get away, do you?”

  “I don’t think I’d get far,” Kat murmured. “You’re like a gigantic magnet, do you know that? I felt drawn to you from the minute I saw you.”

  “Same here.”

  “I guess it’s time to stop running.”

  With a suddenness that startled her, Dalian jerked upright and flipped atop her. His legs were spread eagle on either side of hers and his hands were positioned beside her head. His arms, rigid with the exertion, were holding his muscled frame elevated above her. He grinned and she laughed.

  “If I wasn’t lying here beneath you, I’d say you were preparing to do pushups.”

  “I am,” he said and laughed when her eyes widened. “You shock easily, do you know that?”

  “I don’t know why I would. It’s not like I’m an inexperienced teenager,” Kat said. “I guess I’m just not used to someone as flirtatious as you coming onto me so strongly.”

  “Women flirt, men pursue.”

  “You’ve definitely been doing that,” Kat said softly. “How much do you weigh?” She asked suddenly in a deliberate change of subject.

  “I don’t know exactly. About one hundred-eighty-five.”

  “All muscle, no doubt,” Kat murmured in such an admiring tone that Dalian laughed. “Would you mind not laughing,” she said, concernedly. “You quiver when you laugh. Exactly how lo
ng can you hold yourself upright like that?”

  “Afraid I’ll squash you?”

  “Like a bug,” Kat admitted. “I only weigh one-hundred-twenty pounds, and can only bench press forty. If you pass out, I wouldn’t be able to get you off of me.”

  “If my muscles tire, I’ll roll away,” Dalian said, bending at the elbow and lowering slowly. He stopped a mere inch from her mouth and grinned before dropping the rest of the way and placing a thorough kiss on her lips. “One,” he said, when he raised himself.

  Kat laughed breathlessly. “How many pushups do you do a day?”

  “At least fifty,” he said, lowering himself again. “Two,” he counted, after another searing kiss; however, instead of extending his arms again, he collapsed – pinning her helplessly beneath his weight against the bed of straw.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  All of Kat’s senses were on high alert. She heard the muted thump, saw an indistinguishable figure scurry away, and smelled the concentrated aroma of fuel as it started to permeate the air. Although fear bounded about in her mind, seemingly out of control, her greatest urgency was that a one-hundred-eighty-five pound man lie unconscious atop her, restricting her breathing. No matter how hard she tried, she didn’t have the ability to draw air into her compressed lungs. She tried not to panic; tried to form a rational thought as her brain began misfiring from lack of oxygen. Soon, spots began to cloud her vision.

  She turned her head to peer beneath the wall of her stall when the horses began whinnying in terror within their confines, her eyes widening in renewed alarm. All attempts to remain calm fled, when she saw the smoke and flames consuming the hay in a stall nearest the doors.

  She struggled mightily, managing to free her arms from beneath Dalian’s inert body. Her body was weakening fast, and the spots before her eyes were increasing in number as her oxygen-deprived mind continued shutting down. She pushed against his shoulders, but as she’d joked with Dalian less than ten minutes prior, she simply did not have the upper body strength to move one-hundred-eighty pounds of dead weight. She felt the tears well in her eyes as dizziness invaded her head; and numbness crept into her limbs. She was rapidly swimming towards unconsciousness.

  “Help,” she breathed, wondering if anyone would ever hear such a pitiable cry. The alarm bells ringing in her head, as she saw the flames consume the first stall and move to the next, slowly diminished; and then the darkness overtook her brain and her eyes drifted closed. Her last conscious thought was that she was going to die beneath a man in a blaze of searing heat.

  Dalian moaned, but she could no longer lift her arms, could no longer breathe the words that he might hear. Her body went limp, a lone tear the only escapee from the approaching conflagration. The nerve endings in her brain were firing faster, as if arguing with her lungs to do something before it shut down all together, but there was no answer forthcoming, and soon she felt herself floating away from her body, sadness enshrouding her spirit.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  “Breathe, damn you!” Dalian breathed another round of oxygen into Kat’s unresponsive lungs. “Breathe,” he yelled when he came up for air.

  “I still don’t have a pulse, Dalian,” Chloe exclaimed softly, her fingers frantically roaming around Kat’s wrist, trying to find any sign of life.

  Dalian pushed his rigid arms up and down on Kat’s chest, keeping a steady pace, a steady count. When he reached thirty, he shifted position, lifted her neck, pinched her nose, and breathed into her mouth, twice in rapid succession[1]. He couldn’t really remember if he had the count right, but he didn’t care. His only concern was to keep trying until the medics arrived. His head pounded; the ache so strong that his vision blurred from the intensity of trying to revive Kat, but he pushed aside his own discomfort and all offers of help from those standing around.

  “Breathe baby, breathe,” He whispered, moving his ear beneath her nose. Nothing. He looked at Chloe who was keeping vigil on Kat’s other side. “Anything?” He asked, and Chloe quickly felt along Kat’s wrist again. She shook her head, tears streaming slowly down her face. “Don’t cry,” Dalian whispered harshly. “Crying means we’ve given up.” He moved back to start compressions on Kat’s chest again. “We can’t give up. Don’t give up, darling,” he pleaded with Kat’s inert form. “Please don’t give up.”

  “Dalian,” Chloe whispered.

  “No!” Dalian refused to accept what everyone standing around felt was inevitable. “Breathe, Kat. If not for your own sake, then selfishly for mine,” he cried, each word punctuated in time with the compressions.

  One of the cowhands walked up, “All the horses are safe, rounded up into the exercise corral. How is she?”

  “Not so good,” Mrs. Guthrie whispered. “We’ve never had such a horrible accident happen to one of our guests before,” she continued, wringing her hands in her nightgown. “It’s a sad day.”

  “I have a pulse,” Chloe exclaimed, and then her brow knitted in confusion. “I think. I’m not sure. It’s so faint.”

  Dalian grabbed Kat’s wrist away from Chloe, his calloused hand searching, his eyes closed in supplication, “Please be there,” he whispered. “Please.” When he felt nothing, he laid her arm on his lap and leaned across it, his eyes tightly closed against the pain pounding in his head, and his heart. He placed his fingers on her wrist where a pulse should be, and for the first time, since his wife died, began to pray, “Please, Lord, don’t take her away. Let her stay with me. Please. I promise to love her and protect her forever, just please let her stay.”

  A barely perceptible thump tapped against his fingertips, then increased in rhythm and strength, until he felt a steady pulse. His eyes flew open, tears blurring his vision, “She’s alive,” he whispered, gathering Kat into his embrace. “She’s alive,” he laughed.

  Mrs. Guthrie clasped her hands together, “Thank the good Lord above,” she exclaimed.

  Chloe closed her own eyes and breathed a sigh of relief, her own tears quickly turning into full-fledged blubbering. She clasped Kat’s other hand and kissed her knuckles. “I’m so glad you’re going to be okay,” she whispered. “You’re the last person that should be taken off this earth.”

  Just then, the sound of approaching sirens reached their ears. “Chloe?” Dalian whispered.

  “Yes, Dalian,” Chloe sniffled loudly, wiping her arms across her eyes.

  “Could you ride with Kat to the hospital?” He asked, reluctant to release Kat into the care of anyone. “I’ve got to stay and talk to the sheriff.”

  “I’ll make certain that no one gets near her,” Chloe said. “You have my word.”

  Dalian nodded. He leaned down and placed a kiss on Kat’s immobile lips. Kat’s eyes fluttered open, startling him.

  “Kat?”

  “Dalian,” she breathed, barely audible. “I can’t breathe.”

  “You can now, sweetheart,” Dalian whispered, placing another kiss on her forehead. He stroked her hair, “How are you feeling?”

  “Squashed.”

  Dalian groaned, pulling her against him, “I’m so sorry, baby. I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I’d never hurt you.”

  “Dalian,” Kat whispered. “Someone hit you on the head.”

  “I know, baby,” Dalian said, kissing her again. “I’ve got a rather large goose egg.”

  “Why?”

  “Because someone hit me on the head,” Dalian answered.

  “Why would someone want us dead?” Kat whispered.

  “I don’t know, darling,” Dalian replied, “but I plan on finding out.”

  The ambulance pulled to a stop in front of the barn and two paramedics leapt out. “Step aside, please, folks,” the elder of the two said, pushing his way toward Kat. Chloe stood and moved aside, making room for him to kneel at Kat’s side.

  “How are we, little lady?” He asked, noticing Kat staring at him.

  Kat shook her head, barely perceptible.

  “What happened here?” He a
sked, taking Kat’s vital signs.

  “There was an accident,” Chloe answered, pointing toward the burnt-out shell of the barn.

  The paramedic looked up and nodded. He pulled his stethoscope and placed it on Kat’s chest. “Can you take a deep breath for me, please?”

  Kat complied, but it pained her and she coughed.

  “Okay. Peter, let’s get her loaded into the ambulance.”

  “Sure thing, Jake.”

  “Anyone else hurt?” Jake asked, looking around.

  “Dalian was clobbered upside the head,” Mrs. Guthrie answered, when it didn’t look as if Dalian would.

  Jake nodded, turning his attention to the ranch’s owner, “Let’s have a look-see.”

  “I’m fine,” Dalian protested, his gaze following Kat, as she was loaded into the back of the ambulance. “Just take care of her.”

  “We’ll see to it that the lady gets to the hospital safely, but I need to make sure you don’t need to join her,” Jake said, pulling a flashlight from his belt. “Now look at me. Peter’s taking real good care of your woman,” he added when Dalian didn’t immediately comply.

  “Do what he says, Dalian,” Sheriff Jonathan Masters said, stepping from his patrol car, “and if you have to go to the hospital, I’ll be right behind you.”

  Dalian did as he requested, silently willing him to hurry. He felt fine, but he knew how quickly concussion could knock a man down, so he didn’t argue. He winced when the paramedic felt along the back of his head, encountering the knot forming.

  “You’re going to have a headache for a few days, but I don’t see any signs of concussion. Put some ice on that bump as soon as you possibly can.”

  “I’ve got it,” Mrs. Guthrie said, scurrying toward the back of the house.

  Jake continued, “And if that bump hasn’t receded in a few days, you’re to take yourself on down to the hospital and have a doctor check you out. Understand?”