Ten’s own smile flashed briefly. “No, but I’ve discovered that coffee tastes sweeter if you drink out of my cup before I do.”
Diana said his name softly, then bent her head and sipped the hot liquid. Ten flicked off the lights, killed the engine and rolled down his window. Cool air breathed across the cab, air redolent of distance and unfettered land. In silence they passed the cup of coffee between them while spectral light slowly filled the space between clouds and earth, transforming everything, infusing the very air with radiance.
“Spirit light,” Ten said finally.
Diana looked up at him questioningly.
“That’s what Bends-Like-the-Willow, my grandmother, called it. The kind of light that enables you to see right through to the soul of everything.”
“She was Indian?” Diana asked.
Ten’s smile was a thin, hard slice of white in the truck’s interior twilight. “Honey, there aren’t many families that were in America before the Civil War that don’t have Indian blood in them. The first Blackthorns came over from Scotland more than two hundred years ago.”
“Did they marry Indians?”
“Sometimes. Sometimes they just slept with them. Sometimes they fought with them. Sometimes Blackthorn women or children were taken in raids.” Ten shrugged. “There has been a lot of mixing and matching of bloodlines, one way or another. If children were the result of a town marriage, they were raised white. If children were the result of no marriage, they were raised Indian.”
Ten sipped coffee from the shared cup before he resumed talking about the past, because anything was better than talking about the unshed tears in Diana’s eyes and the turmoil in his own mind.
“By now there’s no way to tell who got which genes, native or white or everything in between. Nevada and I have black hair and a copper tone to our skin. Utah has skin like ours, but he has blond hair and black eyes.” Ten shrugged. “In the end, it’s the quality of the person that matters, not the rest. That’s what Bends-Like-the-Willow had. Quality.”
“Was it a ‘town marriage’?”
He shook his head and smiled oddly. “The Blackthorns were warriors. They leaned toward informal marriages. Up until the last generation, we were raised mostly in Indian ways. Bends-Like-the-Willow was quite a woman. Her father was a MacKenzie.”
“As in the Rocking M MacKenzies?”
Thunder belled again, filling the canyon.
“Probably,” Ten said. “Her mother was Ute. Her father was a wild young white who rode out one night and never came back. Luke has a few like that in his family tree. One of them disappeared at about the right time and place.”
“Is that how you came to own part of the Rocking M?”
Smiling sardonically, Ten shook his head. “Honey, a hundred years back, nobody gave a damn about part Indian kids born on the wrong side of the blanket. It’s only in the last generation people have started to get all puffed up and sentimental over Indian ancestors whose skeletons have been rattling in white closets for a long, long time.”
“Then how did you end up here?”
“When I got out of the warrior business, I was like Nevada. Hurting and not knowing what to do about it. Needing a home and not knowing how to get one. Luke’s father was selling off chunks of the Rocking M to pay for his drinking. I bought in. The ranch has been my home ever since.”
Diana waited, but Ten said no more. She followed his glance out the windshield. The land lay beneath the storm like a woman waiting for a lover. Though no rain had fallen, the storm had brought an eerie glow to the air, a timeless gloaming that made all distances equal. There were no shadows to define near and far, no sun’s passage to mark hours across the sky, no waxing or waning moon to measure weeks, nothing but the eye and mind of man to draw distinctions.
“Spirit light,” Ten said, his voice harsh. “When you see everything too damn clearly.”
He looked at Diana and saw too much, his own hunger clawing at him, telling him that he would remember her too long, too well.
Diana looked away from the eerie clarity of the land and saw Ten watching her with silver eyes that burned.
“What are you thinking?” she asked before she could stop herself.
“I’m remembering.”
“What?”
“How you look when your skin is flushed with heat and you’re as hungry for me as I am for you.”
Knowing he shouldn’t, unable to stop himself, Ten slid partway across the big seat, took the coffee cup from Diana and set it on the dashboard. Her dark blue glance went from his eyes to the clean, distinct line of his mouth. Even as she leaned toward him, he pulled her close, lifting her, turning her so that she was half lying across his lap. His mouth came down over her parted lips, filling her with his taste and his hunger, wordlessly telling her about the need that would make the coming days restless and the nights endless.
Diana gave back the kiss without restraint, loving the taste of Ten, coffee and man and passion. The kiss deepened even more, becoming an urgent mating of mouths. When she felt the hard warmth of his palms sliding beneath her sweater, she twisted sinuously, bringing her breasts into his hands. His fingers stroked, caressed, teased until exquisite sensations radiated from her breasts to the secret core of her, melting her in a few shuddering moments.
With a soft whimper Diana began to move against Ten’s body. She felt rather than heard the rasping groan he gave when his hands released the catch on her bra, allowing him the freedom of her breasts. He pushed up her loose sweater and bra and looked at her. Flushed by passion, soft, creamy, resilient, tipped with tight pink buds of desire, her breasts begged for his mouth.
“Baby?”
“Yes,” Diana whispered huskily, raising her arms and arching her back as she reached to remove her sweater.
Ten didn’t wait for her to finish. He kissed one peak, licked it with catlike delicacy, then gave in to the need driving him. His mouth opened over her in a caress that sent sensual lightning glittering through her. With a ragged cry she threw off the sweater and held his head against her breast, asking for and receiving a different, harder caress.
Even as Ten’s mouth sent forerunners of ecstasy shimmering through Diana, his hands closed on her hips, shifting her until she was sitting astride his lap. One hard palm slid between her legs, cupping her, stroking her, making her burn. Sweet cries rippled from her, cries like fire consuming Ten, cries that made him wild with need. He unfastened the front of Diana’s jeans and pushed his hand into the scant space between denim and her body. Hungrily he forced aside cloth until he could search through the warm nest to find the sultry woman-heat he needed to touch more than he needed air to breathe.
And then Ten found what he sought. He took as much as he could of Diana’s softness and wanted more, much more, his body straining and his breath a groan.
The hoarse sound Diana made and the feel of her struggling against his hand brought Ten to his senses. He closed his eyes and took a tearing breath, afraid to look at her, afraid to see the fear and horror in her eyes as she remembered another out-of-control man, the front seat of another vehicle.
“God, baby, I’m sorry,” Ten said hoarsely. “I’ve never lost control like that.”
He heard Diana take a broken breath, then another, and felt her incredible softness pressing intimately against the hand that was still tangled in her jeans.
Very carefully he dragged his hand free. Another broken sound from her scored him.
“Baby, I’m sorry,” Ten whispered, looking at Diana’s wide eyes, wanting to cradle her and yet afraid to touch her. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“You-didn’t.”
The words were like Diana’s breathing-ragged. Ten shook his head slowly, not believing her.
“I heard you,” he said flatly.
“I wanted you-so much-it hurt. I didn’t know-it could be like that.”
The last word was spoken against Ten’s lips just before he brought Diana’s mouth o
ver his own. The kiss was deep, searching, wild. She returned it with a hunger that made both of them shake.
“If you kiss me like that again,” Ten said finally, breathing hard, “I’m going to start taking off those boots you’re wearing.”
“My boots?”
“And then your jeans,” Ten said, sliding his hand inside denim once more, searching for Diana’s softness, finding it, drawing liquid fire and a ripping sound of pleasure from her. “I want you. Right here. Right now. Do you want me like that?”
With fingers that trembled, Diana reached blindly for her bootlaces. Ten made a low sound as his hand slid more deeply into her jeans. He smiled almost savagely, savoring her heat and the ragged breaking of her breath. Each movement she made as she worked over her laces increased the effect of his hidden caress. Ten made no move to help with the boots, for his other hand was too busy stroking the firm curves of her breasts to be bothered with such unrewarding objects as boots and socks.
One boot, then the other, fell to the floor of the truck, followed by the rustling whisper of socks. Slowly Diana shifted her body to the side, not wanting to end the wild, secret seduction of Ten’s hand, but at the same time wanting to be free of the confinement of her jeans.
This time Ten helped, lifting Diana and peeling the rest of her clothes away, letting them fall to the floor. She shivered with heat rather than cold as she sat astride Ten once more. He looked down at his lap and the woman whose body was flushed with the passion he had aroused.
Slender hands reached for Ten’s belt buckle.
“Baby, if you start there, that’s where you’ll finish. I want you like hell burning.”
Diana looked into the hot silver of Ten’s eyes and knew if she didn’t take his boots off first, they wouldn’t get taken off at all. His hand slid up her thigh, touched, tested deeply, knew the scalding need of her body.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Like hell burning.”
Watching Ten’s face, Diana opened the buckle. Leather pulled free of the loops with a sliding, whispering noise. Metal buttons gave way in a muted rush of sound. She reached down only to find that he was there before her, his hard flesh parting her as he watched her take him, and he was filling her even as she watched. Her breath unraveled into a low moan as she was hurled into ecstasy. He drove into her again, burying himself in the clinging, generous heat that had haunted his dreams, and then ecstasy convulsed him and he held her hard, deep inside her, his mouth against her hot skin and her cries washing over him, echoing the sweet lightning of his own release. Locked within ecstasy, surrounded by the cruel clarity of spirit light, Ten knew this was the way he would always remember Diana, and the realization was a knife turning, teaching him more about pain than he wanted to know.
17
The knock on the door was both unexpected and the answer to Diana’s secret hopes. Even as her heartbeat doubled, she told herself that she was being foolish.
It isn’t Ten. He hasn’t so much as telephoned in the weeks since I left the Rocking M, so what makes me think that he would waste a Friday driving all the way to Boulder to see me?
The cold, rational thoughts didn’t diminish the fierce, hopeful beat of Diana’s heart. She pushed away from her drawing table, took a deep, steadying breath and walked the few steps to her studio apartment’s front door.
“Who is it?” she asked.
“Cash McQueen. Carla MacKenzie’s brother.”
With hands that weren’t quite steady, Diana unlocked the door and opened it. Once she would have been unnerved at the sight of the big man who almost filled her doorway. Now the only emotion she felt was a disappointment so numbing that it was all she could do to speak. She forced her lips into the semblance of a smile.
“Hi. I thought you were in…South America, wasn’t that it?”
“It was. I got back last week.”
“Oh. Did you find what you were looking for?”
Cash smiled slowly, transforming his face from austere to handsome. His eyes lit with a rueful inner laughter. “No, but not many of us do.”
Diana felt a flash of kinship with the big man. “No, not many of us do.”
“May I come in?”
“Of course,” she said, automatically backing away from the door, allowing Cash to enter. “Would you like some coffee? Or perhaps a beer? I think one of the grads left some here last night.”
“Thanks, but I’ll have coffee. Party last night?” he asked, looking around with veiled curiosity.
Diana’s mouth curved in something less than a smile. “Depends on your definition of party. If it includes chasing elusive potshards through mismarked cartons, we had one hell of a party here last night.”
“I thought all the September Canyon stuff was staying at the Rocking M.”
“It is. This is from a different site. Still Anasazi, though, as you can see. They’re my first love.”
While Diana disappeared into the kitchen, Cash walked carefully around the apartment. It was in a state of casual disarray that resembled an academic office more than living quarters. Scholarly periodicals, books and photos covered most flat surfaces, except for a worktable. There, potshards and partially reconstructed pots reigned supreme. Photos and sketches were tacked to the walls. A bin full of sketches stored in protective transparent sleeves stood in a corner.
“Cream or sugar?” Diana called from the kitchen alcove.
“Black.”
Cash walked over to the bin and began flipping slowly through the contents, studying various drawings. When Diana returned, he looked up.
“These are very good.”
“Thank you.” Diana set a mug of coffee on a table near Cash and cleared periodicals from a chair. “But photos are preferred by most scholars, unless they’re trying to illustrate a point from their pet theory. Then they’re delighted to have me draw what no one has yet had the good sense to discover in situ.”
Male laughter filled the small room. Diana looked, startled, then smiled self-consciously.
“I didn’t mean that quite as peevishly as it came out,” she said, clearing away a second stack of periodicals and sitting down. With a casualness that cost a great deal, she asked, “How’s everything on the Rocking M?”
“That’s why I’m here.”
Diana’s head turned quickly toward Cash. “Is something wrong?”
“You took the words right out of my mouth.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Neither does Carla.”
“Mr. McQueen,” began Diana.
“Cash.”
“Cash,” she said distractedly. “You came here for a reason. What is it?”
With a characteristic gesture of unease, Cash jammed his hands in the back pockets of his jeans, palms out. He looked at the small woman with the haunted indigo eyes and lines of strain around her full mouth. Cash didn’t know what was wrong, but he was certain that something was.
Carla, what the hell have you gotten me into this time? You know better than to try and set me up with another female in a jam.
Cash looked closely at Diana. Despite her abundant femininity, she wasn’t sending out the signals that an available woman did. She had smiled at the sound of his laughter, but then, a lot of people did. They hadn’t learned that laughter was a perfect camouflage for his view of people in general and women in particular. One woman, however, was exempt from Cash’s distrust-Carla.
“My sister would like to see you again,” Cash said, “but apparently you’re angry with her.”
Diana started to speak. No words came out. All she could do was shake her head.
“Does that mean Carla has it all wrong and you’d be glad to come out to the Rocking M next weekend?” Cash asked smoothly.
“No.” The stark refusal was out before Diana could prevent it.
Not that it mattered. She wasn’t going back to the Rocking M. Not this weekend. Not the weekend after. Not ever. She couldn’t bear seeing Ten again and pretending that nothing had
ever happened between them in September Canyon. Nor could she pretend that his baby wasn’t growing day by day within the loving warmth of her womb.
“Carla’s right,” Cash said. “You’re angry with her.”
“No.”
“With Luke?”
“No,” Diana said quickly. “It’s nothing personal.” She licked her lips with a tongue that was dry. “I’m-I’m very busy. The school year is just getting rolling. There are a lot of things I have to do.”
Cash’s eyes narrowed to brilliant blue slits. “I see.” And he did. He saw that Diana lied very badly. “Surely you’ll have everything under control by, say, November?”
“I don’t know.”
“Probably?”
She gave him a dark look. “I don’t know!”
“Well, I know that Carla will have a strip off my hide if you don’t turn up for Thanksgiving. Now I can probably finesse my little sister, but I’d hate like hell to try finessing the Rocking M’s ramrod with anything less than a bulldozer.”
Color drained from Diana’s face, silently telling Cash that Carla’s guess had been correct: it was Tennessee Blackthorn who was keeping Diana away from the ranch.
“I can’t see that the…” Diana’s voice dried up. She swallowed painfully and continued. “What does Ten have to do with this?”
“You tell me.”
“Nothing.”
“Whatever you say,” Cash muttered, not believing Diana and not bothering to disguise it. “Ten has developed a passion for all things Anasazi. If the recent past is any example, he’s going to be a miserable son to live with until that kiva gets excavated.”
Diana’s eyelids flinched, but her voice was under control when she spoke. “Then by all means he should have the kiva excavated as soon as possible.”
“Amen. How long will it take you to pack?”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“You’re not making any sense, either.”
“Mr. McQueen-”
“Cash.”
“-the kiva can be excavated by any number of qualified archaeologists. I’m sure Ten knows it. If not, he’ll know it as soon as you go back and tell him.”
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