He thought of his family and wished for a moment to be with his dad, his uncles, Conner and Ty. They would understand why he had to think this through.
But he couldn’t forget that when threatened, those same men who taught him to never point his gun unless he meant to use it, had done whatever was needed to protect the Kincaid holdings and their women.
But Isabel isn’t your woman.
And a little devil’s voice answered: She could be.
They were both truths. He wouldn’t deny them.
Kee raked his hands through his hair over and over. Then he dropped his hands to his sides and stood still, head thrown back as he stared up at the night sky.
Nothing mattered but the fact that he had given her his sworn word. He’d never go back on it.
She was a woman alone in need of his help.
For him, that was the beginning and end of the matter.
He tasted the sweet drops of rain on his lips, welcoming the coolness that the chill of night brought to his temper.
He stood that way for a few minutes more, then thoughts intruded. Thoughts of what had driven Isabel to explode with fury. What other fears did she harbor that she had not shared?
Wasn’t finding out the answer part and parcel of giving her his help?
Trouble was, his need to give to Isabel was a fever in his blood and interfered with sane reasoning.
He could understand what it felt like to be a wild mustang caught in a trap.
He had nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. Nothing to fight but himself.
Isabel proved him wrong.
She came out of the night to stand behind him and with her light touch against his back, Kee knew he might have found control of his temper, but that’s all this time alone brought him.
“If you intend to remain a virgin for your precious wedding night get the hell away from me.”
The tremor that went through him was felt by both of them. He pulled away with a sharp move.
All she wanted was to smooth the edges of tension from him. All she had done was sharpen them.
“I was afraid you had left, Kee.”
“Right. I walked away from my horses and gear. After giving you my word, I walked away from you, too.”
“You have every right to be angry with me.”
“Damn straight I do.”
“Come back to the cave with me. If you will not think of your wound, I will. This damp and cold might bring on a fever.”
He spun around only to find her too close.
I shouldn’t touch her, he thought.
But he did.
“You’re worried about me getting a fever. Let me show you fever, Isabel.”
Isabel released a soft, quick breath, then she felt the heat of his mouth on hers. She expected to be overwhelmed by his greater strength in the face of his anger and instinctively stiffened, ready to fight him.
But Kee would never use his strength against her.
He gave in to the need to taste her with a gentle restraint that shocked her with its leashed intensity.
Part cry of denial, part moan of desire escaped her lips, only to be taken by his. Bravely then, she returned his delicate, questing touch with the tip of her tongue.
Kee had taught her that passion had a special taste all its own.
It tasted of him.
And tasted of her.
Blended with heat until it tasted like both of them.
She could no more resist his kiss than a moth could resist the lure of flame.
His lips brushed over hers, sipping at the lush, feminine curve of her mouth. His fingers eased into her hair, finding the warmth beneath the cool strands.
He held her head cupped in his hands, gently directing a teasing dance of the softest touches.
Mouth to mouth. Breath to breath.
Need to desire.
Man to woman.
And Isabel knew she had no guard against this most tender enticement.
Nor did she want one.
She heard a faint, ragged cry. Her own. She reached for his shoulders, needing something solid to hold on to. Her hands slid upward through the damp thickness of his hair and she brought his head down to end the teasing.
She tasted his kiss with nothing held back, and for long moments lost herself in the dizzying storm of emotion that besieged her.
Kee broke the kiss and roughly held her away from him. “Do you know,” he demanded through harsh, ragged breaths, “that a man’ll do and say anything when all he’s got is seduction on his mind?”
“No. Yes. I—I only know what you make me feel, Kee. I cannot think, I cannot reason. I—I can only want.”
“You play hell with a man, Isabel. I’m trying hard to do the right thing here. Go back. Stay away from me. Go,” he released her with a small push. “Get.”
Confused, she started to run, but she had forgotten the rocky ground, and the rain puddles. She stumbled, tried to catch her balance, slid and went to her knees with a cry. She clawed at the earth in an attempt to pull herself up, and brought up a fistful of mud. She tried to find purchase with her boot tips, but each try only sent her sliding farther down on the slope.
She heard Kee’s cursing, but that quickly changed to concern as he called her name.
“Here. Down here, Kee.”
She had no thought of pride when she felt his hands close over her wrists. She heard his grunt as he dragged her upward until she could stand.
“You’re muddier than a spadefoot toad.”
“Toad? You dare to call me a toad?” It was utterly ridiculous for her to feel insulted, but she did. If it hadn’t been for him, she would never have fallen.
“Yeah, a toad,” he muttered, running his hands quickly over her to make sure she wasn’t hurt. “What were you trying to do?”
Isabel took one cautious step away from him. “I was running away. From you, Kee. Running from you and your temper. And your most contrary, confusing, yes, you want me and no, you do not!”
Her voice had grown shrill at the end, but she did not care. She swiped at the mud on her face. And she did not care that she flung a good deal of it at him.
Kee threw back his head and his rich masculine laughter floated on the night air.
Isabel did not think, she acted from the sudden flare of temper. She slapped him.
It was a sobering moment.
Kee no longer laughed.
Isabel instantly regretted what she had done.
Kee rubbed his cheek, not caring that he smeared the mud. I should walk away, he told himself, despite the hard, heavy running of his blood.
But once more he ignored the voice of reason.
“You know, lady, you’ve got one hell of a lot of nerve calling me contrary. You run hotter and colder than day and night in the desert. All I’m trying to do is protect your precious virtue.”
“Who asked you to? I can protect it myself.”
“Good. Never say I didn’t give you the chance.”
Isabel felt herself picked up with dizzying speed before she could draw a single breath. The world shifted crazily, and when it settled, she was in Kee’s arms, being carried toward the cave. She knew better than to struggle with him on such uncertain footing. She was not about to send the two of them plunging down that muddy slope. But she had to brace herself against the lure to rest her head on his shoulder. And the muscular resilience of his chest was pure temptation to her aching body. She sighed. Kee had strength to spare.
Kee held her a little too close, enjoying the warm and supple feel of her against his body. He shifted her weight, silently urging her to relax.
He paused before the cave’s entrance, but it was too dark for her to see his face clearly. He made no move to go inside as the horses stirred restively and his whisper calmed them.
A cascade of water fell to the side and Isabel grew alarmed.
“Kee?”
“Well, it’s going to be colder than a miser’s heart, but it’s all we’ve got.
So hang on.”
He plunged them both beneath the icy fall that stung like needles. Isabel bit down hard on her lip not to cry out as every bit of warmth was stolen from her body. It lasted no more than a minute or two before he swung them around and away from the falling water.
“Now what, Kee?” She shivered, and barely managed to stop her teeth from chattering.
“I’m going to show you what happens to muddy spadefoot toads when it rains.”
It was a flat, calm statement that belied the heat and sudden tension of his body. He ducked beneath the cave’s overhang and everything dipped and swayed for her. She tightened her hold around his neck as he started past the horses.
Her breath caught and held, then came out in a rush just as she turned her face toward his open collar. The water there that touched her lips was no longer cold. She felt the ripple of response that went through him when her lips touched his bare skin.
“Keep that up and you’ll have an even better chance—”
“Of what, Kee?” She wanted it a demand, and heard her own breathless whisper. “Of learning what happens to spadefoot toads when it rains?”
“Yeah.”
She shifted subtly in his arms and found him watching her with that dark intensity that arrowed right through her.
“Tell me.”
And very, very softly came his husky promise.
“They mate.”
Chapter Seventeen
Kee kicked a few pieces of wood on the fire and waited until they had blazed high before he set her down.
She looked like a half-wild gypsy with those dark-blue eyes pinned on him, her braid nearly undone and tangled to frame her face. The firelight tinted her high cheekbones and reddened her lips. His gaze slid down. The soaked shirt and pants clung to her body, concealing nothing from his eyes. The icy water had drawn her nipples into hard pebbles and his breath lodged somewhere in his chest.
“Let’s get you out of those wet clothes before you shiver yourself to pieces.”
He waited, half hoping she would do it herself, half praying that she wouldn’t. He waited, too, for one word of protest, one word of denial. She knew what was going to happen. He’d warned her. And he told himself there was still time. He could still walk away.
But when Isabel made no move to undress, he took the step that separated them. His fingers went to the first horn button of his shirt that she wore. Then Kee knew he had just lied to himself.
A herd of wild horses couldn’t have driven him away from her now.
Isabel pushed aside her wet hair. She was shivering, but she was not sure if it all came from the cold bath. Her body still held the imprinted shock of feeling how aroused Kee was. Warmth stole through her, tiny pulses of heat that came from the secret places of her body. She could feel the flush that blazed across her cheeks.
If these last days with Kee had taught her nothing else, she had learned how hard and powerful Kee’s body was and how soft her own became when he was near. The weakness melting her bones right now had nothing to do with fear or cold. It owed everything to Kee. A man whose heat reached out to her, surrounding her until she lost all desire to escape. She took one breath, then needed another.
Kee slid open the second button. Her skin gleamed in the fire’s light. He thought of bending down and caressing her breasts with his tongue and teeth, drawing out her nipples until they felt like hot, hard satin, and she cried out for release from the passion that stirred between them.
But he knew it was a rare woman who wanted a man like that. Not so deep and hard that she forgot her name and his, and all that existed was the world of fire they created together.
She whispered his name and his fingers shook as he opened the next button. Blood pulsed and gathered hotly, driven by the thudding beat of his heart and his passion for this one woman. Only woman. And that knowledge swept through him with relentless force.
Kee blocked that mental door. He wasn’t going to think about tomorrows, not when she stood before him.
Nearly sheer cotton hugged the small curves of her breasts. Kee touched the backs of his fingers to her chin, lifting it slightly, then he ran them slowly down her bared throat to where the pulse beat with its own maddening rhythm.
Like his heart. And his breathing. Like the blood pooling heavily with a throbbing demand that he no longer could deny.
And he knew how close to the edge he was of losing whatever control he had.
He trailed his fingertips down the open V of the shirt. His gaze followed. Her skin captured the tint of ancient gold. Warm, so warm and teased with dusky shadows.
His gaze flickered upward to catch the prideful lift of her chin and the sultry brilliance of her eyes, but then her gaze lowered.
Isabel kept her eyes locked on his still hand. She was unable to look away, unable to control her ragged breathing or the trembling that beset her body.
She had sought him out. No matter what words were spoken or held silent, she had gone after Kee. She had known what it would mean. He never made it a secret that he wanted her. No, not you, not all of you, just your body.
It did not matter. The moment he was gone, she had thought of Clarai wanting to kill him, and then of her desire to see Isabel dead as well. He intrigued her. And she wanted a man for the first time. What if she should die tomorrow? She would never have known what it was like to be loved by him. And she knew he would make love to her and with her, not take.
Was all that reason enough to cast aside every moral teaching and belief? She did not know. She did not care. Some deep, imperative inner urging had sent her out into the night to find him.
And now…soon now…the waiting would be over. The hunger he had created would be stilled.
She stood proud and quiet when he pulled the shirt free of her pants and opened the last few buttons. She could not help notice the slight tremor in his hands. A small core of feminine pride made her rejoice to see that she, too, could stir him so.
She wanted to touch the glistening drops of water on his hair. She was afraid to move. To do, or to say the wrong thing. She watched as he spread the cloth aside and wished she could see what was in his eyes.
At such a moment a woman wanted to be beautiful for her chosen man. She closed her eyes and fought the images of silken sheets and flower-strewn bower that would have been hers on her wedding night. She tried not to see the lace of the bed’s canopy, or the flickering of dozens of candles that would have hidden and revealed the joy about to be shared.
And then she realized that there was no true regret in her heart or mind. She believed that no bride could be so cherishingly seduced as she.
The warming blaze of the fire touched her arms as the shirtsleeves slid free under Kee’s hands and pooled at her feet.
But thought and belief were one thing. Isabel looked down at herself. Nothing was hidden from his eyes. Her tiny gasp was loud in the silence; her move instinctive to cover herself, but Kee was holding her wrists in a gentle vise.
“No, don’t,” he whispered. “I was going to bathe you like no lady’s maid ever could, lovely one.”
“Was, Kee?” Breathless with the last remnant of fear, and hesitant because she was unsure what to do, she barely managed those two words.
“I feel as if I’ve waited for you my whole life and now—” he looked up and held her wide, dark-blue eyes with his “—now, lovely, I can’t wait any longer.”
His head dipped, his lips drawn to the velvet shadow between her breasts.
He heard her soft cry as she arched slightly against him.
“That’s it, lovely, come to me.”
He blew gently, his warm breath feathering over her skin and tasted her tremble with his mouth. He licked the drops of water that fell from her hair. Drops that glistened on her skin and that he tasted like a man who knows the treasured value of sweet, cool water, the only kind that quenched a man’s thirst.
He lifted his head and saw that the tips of her breasts had peaked the thin cotto
n of her wet camisole. Kee barely stifled a groan of raw passion.
“Sweet, sweet hell. You just might burn me alive.” His husky voice was filled with emotions he didn’t dare name.
“No. Not you.” Soft, almost choked sounds. If anyone was burning, it was her. Like a fever had swept over her and deep inside. But she could not tell Kee about the fire that had built and built until she shook from its hot demand. She did not know how to put such things into words for a man.
All she could do was feel.
“Lie down for me, Isabel. I need to get these wet things off you.” And I need to bury my flesh in yours. I need to rid myself of this ache that’s eating me alive.
He wanted to say them to her, but bit the words back. In her innocence she’d run as if the devils of hell were chasing her. Instead of just one man. Him.
She seemed frozen where she stood. Kee lifted her hands to his mouth and blew warm air over her chilled flesh. Her breath caught and rushed out. He nipped the delicate fleshy pad below her thumb and then raised her hands to his chest.
Her broken breaths acted like a silken caress over his skin. The softer sound she made came from deep inside her when he brushed back the wet strands of her hair and caught her earlobe between his thumb and forefinger. He pressed and could almost feel the heat that spread from her tiny whimper as she pulled back. The sultry darkness in her eyes entwined him in a velvet captivity that he couldn’t, wouldn’t break free.
He warned himself to keep his hands from her body. Sanity had to prevail. He had to get both of them out of their wet boots and pants or the kind of trembling that they would be sharing wouldn’t be coming from satisfying hunger.
She played hell with his good intentions. She managed to open two buttons on his shirt before she curled her fingers into his chest hair.
Kee went still. Her fingertips were cool, but they burned him where they touched his skin, and that made him burn hotter as well.
Isabel looked up. The days of beard stubble only enhanced the rough, masculine cut of his lips. She stared at his mouth with all the hunger that teased her before she knew what intimate kisses tasted like. And what they could do to her.
Once a Hero Page 15
