by Nancy Martin
Carly didn’t seem to notice any signs of his physical weaknesses. She blathered on about how exciting and dramatic her first roundup was, how she’d never seen anything as breathtaking as Hank riding into the brush with his rope around the cow’s neck.
“Steer,” Hank corrected her.
“Oh, really? I suppose you think I’m a complete greenhorn.”
“Everybody’s a greenhorn at the beginning.”
“Except you,” she pointed out. “You’ve lived and breathed this life from the cradle, haven’t you?”
With time out for the real world, he wanted to say. But he allowed Carly to rhapsodize without interrupting after that. He decided he rather liked listening to her voice. It kept his mind off his injuries, at least.
They found their way out of the tangled brush and ended up on a trail Hank didn’t recognize at first.
“Where are we?” Carly asked, holding up one hand to shield her eyes from the sun. “Is the ranch very far?”
“This way, I think.”
“You think?”
“The land is constantly changing,” he told her. “Grass grows, streams change course, trees fall.”
“Oh, yes, of course.” She nodded sagely. “This isn’t exactly a suburban backyard, is it? There must be thousands of acres to memorize.”
“You learn to look for landmarks, that’s all.”
She pointed. “Like that stream down there?”
“Exactly. Let’s go.” Hank led the way, with Carly and Laverne following behind.
They scrambled down a hillside and ended up by a stream that Hank felt pretty certain they had not crossed earlier. But Laverne was happy to slurp up water and almost pulled Carly into the stream as she waded knee-deep for a drink. Hank caught Carly around the waist just in time to save her from falling in.
“Oh, thanks,” Carly gasped, leaning back against him as he gripped her body.
“Don’t fall,” he cautioned, unwilling to let her go just yet. “Hand me the reins.”
Obediently Carly shifted Laverne’s reins to his hand, and Laverne chose that moment to plunge deeper into the stream. Yanked off balance, Hank teetered on a stone. He felt it tilt under his weight.
Carly felt it, too, and yelped. She twisted in his embrace and seized Hank in a bear hug. “Hang on!”
He almost went into the stream. One boot slid off the slippery stone, sending him downward, but Hank managed to land his butt on the rocks and avoid getting soaked. Then Carly crashed down beside him and slithered out of control toward the water. Hank grabbed her arm, braced himself on a stone, and they both stopped just inches from the stream.
“Wow,” Carly panted, laughing. “This is a real adventure, isn’t it?”
Hank held back a few choice curses and hauled Carly back up to safety. They collapsed on the bank together in a tangle of arms and legs.
Her laughter faded. Abruptly Hank found himself sitting with his nose barely six inches from Carly’s and her startled gaze wide on his.
Hank’s mental circuits once again went on the fritz. Carly’s full mouth suddenly looked quite delectable, and Hank wondered if those lips tasted as delicious as they looked. For a painful heartbeat, he thought about kissing her to find out.
The moment lengthened, and Carly didn’t move. She felt pliant in his grasp and didn’t draw back.
Kiss her, you idiot, screamed his inner voice.
But a sudden snort brought them both back to reality. In unison, they looked toward the source of the snort.
Laverne stood in the water and looked placidly at them as if enjoying a mildly entertaining vaudeville show. Water dripped from her mouth, and her reins trailed downstream.
“Oh, dear,” Carly moaned. “I shouldn’t have let her loose. She’ll run away, won’t she? And take our lunch!”
Losing the horse didn’t bother Hank. But the idea of losing his lunch was a different proposition altogether. Suddenly he was famished.
“C’mere, Laverne,” Hank coaxed, getting up on one knee. “There’s a good girl.”
“Here, Laverne,” Carly cooed.
Hank yanked a handful of succulent grass from the ground and held it out temptingly to the horse. “See, Laverne? A nice snack. Come and get it.”
Laverne looked at the two of them down her long nose as if to say, “I’m not as stupid as you think I am.”
“Laverne!” Carly commanded, sounding like a dog trainer. “Come!”
But Laverne shook her head and took a giant step backward in the water.
“You stay here,” Hank commanded Carly as he got to his feet.
“What are you doing?”
“I’ve got to catch her. She’s got our lunch.”
“Let me help.”
“Any suggestions?”
Carly thought the situation over for two seconds, then said, “I can climb over those rocks and circle around behind her. We’ll have her trapped.”
“Not a bad idea.”
“I’ll go over this way.” Carly pointed downstream.
Hank nodded. “Just don’t scare her.”
“Right.”
Unsteadily Hank inched his way down to the stream again and stepped cautiously onto a large flat stone. He hopped none too gracefully to another stone, conscious that Laverne never took her suspicious brown eyes off him. He made a flying leap for the other bank. He landed with a squish in some mud, pirouetted and made a grab for Laverne’s reins.
At that moment, Carly gave a bloodcurdling scream.
Four
Laverne gave a terrified squeal and nearly knocked Hank over as she thrashed out of the water. Luckily, Hank got a grip on one rein and managed to prevent the horse from galloping back to the ranch with her stirrups flying. Then he spun around to face whatever danger Carly confronted.
But she was splashing clumsily through the icy stream toward him, blathering in terror. “It’s dead, it’s dead, it’s dead!”
“What? What’s dead?”
“It—it—it!” She threw herself into his arms and nearly knocked him off his feet again.
Hank spun her around and plunked her on the bank. “Easy, easy. What did you see?”
She pointed a trembling forefinger toward the rocks across the stream. “I...it... I think—”
Putting his hands on her shoulders, Hank squeezed her into calm. “Take a deep breath. Whatever it is, if it’s dead, it can’t hurt you.”
Carly nodded in panicky jerks. “Right. I know that. I know that.”
“Want me to go look?”
She reversed her nods into sideways shakes of her head, her hair spraying water. “No. No, it’s a wolf. At least, I think so.”
“A dead wolf?”
She shuddered and managed another nod. “It must have been shot or something. It’s right over there—”
“Okay, I’m going to check. Can you hold Laverne?”
“I think so.” She accepted the reins, but her hands were shaking.
Hank steeled himself for the worst and climbed back across the stream to locate the animal that had frightened Carly. Among some tumbled rocks, he did find the carcass of a wolf. The gray fur was unmistakable. The animal lay half in the water, half on the bank as if it had come to drink and simply fallen in exhaustion. But when Hank put on one of his gloves and pulled the wolf the rest of the way out of the water, he saw differently.
He hunkered down, half to settle his roiling stomach. Bullet wounds had ravaged the magnificent animal.
The wolf hadn’t been dead long enough to start decomposing, he noted, so it must have been shot recently.
From across the stream, Carly called timidly, “Is it really dead?”
Hank stood up. “I’m afraid so. You were right. Someone’s shot it.”
“Is that legal?”
Hank wasn’t sure what laws existed in the state anymore, so he decided not to answer. He made his way back across the rocks to Carly and Laverne. “We’ll have to see that it gets buried. I’ll come back later with a shovel.”
Carly shivered. “How awful.”
Putting his arm across her shoulders, Hank said, “We can’t do anything to help it now.”
“Do you think it was the wolf we heard last mght?”
“Possibly,” Hank murmured. Then, seeing that Carly was about to cry, he said, “Maybe not. Look, we’d better get back to the ranch. You’re soaked to the skin.”
Carly finally noticed that she had managed to get completely wet when she ran through the stream. She stepped shakily out of his embrace and swiped her hair from her eyes. “You’re right. Sorry. Ugh, even my sneakers.”
She took a couple of steps backward, shoes squishing. “Boy, I’ve really made a mess of things, haven’t I? I’m not usually skittish, but—”
She interrupted herself to scream again.
This time, Hank almost screamed, too. From beneath her sneaker jumped a small, furry animal. It yipped and latched its teeth onto Carly’s jeans. She yelped and tried to shake free of the attacking beast. With a sudden, squealing cry, it let go and plunked back to earth.
“What the hell?”
“Oh, my goodness!” Carly cried. “It’s a puppy!”
“It’s a wolf!”
“Oh, what a darling!”
“For godsake, don’t pick it up!”
But Carly wasn’t listening. Suddenly turning into a saint of the Humane Society, she bent down and scooped up the whimpering beast. It fought against her grasp. “Oh,” she cooed despite the animal’s obvious dislike for humans. “Isn’t she wonderful?”
“It’s a wild animal,” Hank snapped. “It’s not a pet. Put it down!”
Carly buried her nose in the pup’s fur and didn’t appear to notice that it began snapping at her hair. “Oh, you poor, poor sweetheart!”
“Watch out. It might eat your arm.”
“Oh, she can’t hurt a fly. Look at her sweet face!”
Sweet was hardly the word Hank was thinking of. “Put it down before it starts thinking you’re friendly.”
“I am friendly.” Carly held the pup away from herself and looked into its eyes with a sappy smile on her mouth. The pup was suddenly entranced by Carly’s face. “What will you do without your mama? We can’t possibly leave you here alone, can we?”
“Of course we can,” Hank said ominously. “What are you thinking, Carly?”
“That she’ll die out here alone. If she doesn’t starve, some idiot will shoot her.”
“Wait a second. You’ve got to be sensible about this!”
She looked up at Hank and tucked the squirming pup under her arm like a football. “You’re not going to suggest we abandon this poor baby?”
“I’m not suggesting—I’m telling you straight out! We can’t take that animal home like it was a cocker spaniel from the nearest pet shop!”
“She’s too young to survive on her own.”
“It’s not an infant,” Hank pointed out. “It’s young, but it’s old enough to kill a few field mice to eat. Look at that thing! It’s actually chewing you!”
Indeed, the pup was gnawing on Carly’s wristwatch. She laughingly pushed its snout away. “Teething, that’s all it is.”
“Those are some teeth,” Hank observed darkly.
“I’m taking her back to the ranch,” Carly said, and the look in her eye indicated there would be no argument.
Laverne, being a sensible, domesticated animal, refused to get close to the pup. She stretched out her rein as far as she could to get away from the wolf, snorting and shying and otherwise making her message very clear. Either the pup goes, she seemed to say, or I do.
To Carly, Hank said, “How do you propose to do it? Laverne won’t let you in the saddle while you’re holding that thing. And you’re soaking wet. You’ll probably catch pneumonia before we get home.”
“Then we’ll have to build a fire and dry out, I guess.”
“That will take hours!”
Carly glared at him. “I’m not leaving this baby!”
Hank glared back at her. For a long moment he considered his options. Climbing aboard Laverne and heading back to the ranch for help seemed like a logical choice, but leaving a woman out in the wilderness was hardly the gentlemanly thing to do. Besides, Hank wasn’t absolutely sure he would be able to find her again if he left the area. As he glared at Carly, her teeth began to chatter with cold.
He sighed. “All right. I’ll build a fire.”
Carly smiled through the chattering. “Thank you. What can I do to help?”
Hank left her sitting on a fallen log, cuddling the pup in her arms and talking baby talk to it. As he tied up Laverne and set about gathering kindling and a couple of chunks of firewood, he could hear Carly laughing softly at her newfound friend.
Well, he thought, at least we’re out of Becky’s way today.
With that thought to comfort him, it didn’t take long to locate enough dried sticks and bits of wood to make a decent fire. In time, Hank cleared a spot and carefully laid the wood in a Boy Scout-approved pattern. All his time hiking and climbing in rough country had taught him the value of a well-laid fire.
Carly produced a cigarette lighter from her pocket to start the blaze, and soon they were watching smoke rise from the snapping flames.
But the fire wasn’t going to be enough, he saw. Carly was soaked and still shivering.
“You’d better take off some of those wet clothes,” Hank observed. “They’ll dry faster that way.”
“You’re right,” she said, looking miserable. “Will you hold her for me?”
Hank didn’t have much choice. Carly thrust the pup at him, and he automatically accepted the bristling bundle. Awkwardly, however, he held the pup’s squirming body away from himself and hoped it wouldn’t bite his thumb off. The wolf’s beady gaze had latched onto the thumb like a guided missile homing in on a target.
“She can’t hurt you,” Carly said, not trying very hard to hide her grin as she unzipped her down-filled vest.
“Have you explained that to her?” Hank asked.
Carly couldn’t answer, since she was in the act of pulling her wet cable-knit sweater over her head. As the sopping sweater came off, Hank couldn’t help noticing how snugly her remaining wet shirt clung to her figure. She was literally soaked to the skin, but somehow she managed to look very attractive at the same time.
She draped the wet sweater over the spare firewood and regarded her shirt. “Boy, I really did a number on myself, didn’t I?”
“You’re awfully wet.”
“Not to mention uncomfortable.”
“At the risk of sounding like a desperate man at last call, let me say that you should probably take all those wet things off.”
She bit her lower lip, considering the problem for a moment, then lifted her bemused gaze to his. “We can be adult about this, can’t we?”
“I haven’t leered at a half-dressed woman in at least a decade.”
“For some reason, I doubt that.”
“Well, I haven’t leered in several months, at least.”
“That sounds more realistic.” She reached for the buttons on her shirt. “Here goes, anyway. I’m sure my clothes will dry faster if I take them off.”
“Right.” Despite his good intentions, Hank was quite unable to tear his eyes from the sight she made standing there with the sunlight rendering the wet shirt nearly invisible.
His mind whirled and blocked out all other thoughts when Carly’s shirt came off. Her bra was pale pink satin and looked as expensive as it did sexy. The garment perfectly shaped her breasts and covered them with delicate lace that made Hank’s mouth go dry.
Clearly, she had taken time to select her underclothes with care, and Hank’s imagination began conjuring up scenes of Carly shopping for lingerie. Did she try on everything, he wondered, in dressing rooms with lots of mirrors?
When she sat down and took off her boots and socks, he discreetly turned his back and congratulated himself on being a gentleman after all.
/> “I can’t very well take off my jeans,” Carly said from behind him. “I’m not that brave.”
“Don’t let me stop you.”
“I’m just a little damp.”
Hank risked a peek and noticed that her jeans were every bit as soaked as the rest of her clothing. But he refrained from pointing out the obvious. He handed her the pup. “I’ll check Laverne’s saddlebag. There’s bound to be something you can wrap up in.”
“That would be great. Thanks.”
He almost fell over the log on his way to look into the saddlebag. Laverne turned her head and glowered witheringly at him, however, which shamed Hank into pullmg himself together. There was no sense acting like a hormone-incensed schoolboy. Within moments, he had rummaged through some of the gear Becky had packed and found two red plaid blankets. He carried them back for Carly to use.
She had put the pup down on the ground, and it was determinedly pouncing on one of Carly’s wet socks. Carly had picked up the other end of the sock and they played tug-of-war. She looked up at his return. “Any luck?”
“More than I expected. There are two blankets and a tent, too, if you’d like total privacy.”
“Do you know how to put a tent together?”
“Of course.” Unfolding the first blanket for her, he said, “Your wish is my command.”
“To be honest, I’d rather have some lunch. I’m really starving. I packed a picnic, you know. I hope it wasn’t on the other horse.”
“I’ll check Laverne’s other bag.”
He located the picnic, which consisted of wrapped sandwiches, four bottles of beer and a thermos of something hot. It only took a couple of minutes to unsaddle Laverne and leave her tied close enough to a thatch of grass to keep her happy for an hour or two.
Meanwhile Carly had stretched the first blanket out on the ground, and she reclined on it, loosely wrapping the second one around her shoulders. It was determined to slip off as she continued playing with the pup. With the sunlight spilling over the red blanket, her body looked slim and white. Hank hesitated, standing over her.
“Come on, sit down,” she said, moving aside to make room for him beside her in the glow of the fire. “Down here out of the breeze, it’s really quite warm. Don’t you think so?”
