by Lynde Lakes
Nick sent her a sharp glance. “Yeah, if you hadn’t stayed and saved my life, you could have been long gone.”
“I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.” Light rain sprinkled Sara Jane’s face. Thunder rolled across the sky. “It’s just that any minute the clouds are going to burst and let loose a downpour.” An image of the dry creek bed turning into a raging river sent a shiver through her. She rubbed her arms. “I still think we should leave your pickup and ride Midnight.”
His jaw tightened as he assisted her into the cab. “I don’t have time to argue with you.” He slid behind the wheel and to prove his point, he gunned the truck to life and quickly they were underway. The trailer weaved behind them. Nick struggled to stay on the narrow road. He slowed down.
Sara Jane squinted as she strained to see ahead between swipes of the windshield wipers. They fishtailed around the next curve. “Pulling a trailer in a storm is plumb crazy.”
Nick’s fingers curled tighter around the steering wheel, but he didn’t respond. They rode in silence for miles. Outside the wind howled. Sheets of rain blurred the glass, making it almost impossible to see. Her body coiled tight as she watched for a washout. Her fear, like a self-fulfilling prophecy, turned to reality at a dip in the road. The once dry riverbed had turned into a racing stream.
“Nick! Stop!”
“Damn!” He bellowed and applied pressure slowly to the brakes. If he had jammed them, the truck and trailer would have jackknifed.
A patch of asphalt broke loose from the force of the water and bobbed into sight, then joined the other debris that moved downstream. They could be next. She braced herself, her heart pounding in her ears.
Nick stopped the truck as the bumper dipped into the water. Another foot and they would have joined the patch of asphalt. He backed up slowly until they were at about a hundred feet from the stream. He sighed and patted her knee. “You were right, again, SJ. The only way we’ll make it to the ranch tonight is by horseback.”
“Being right isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. I’m not even sure that I am. There’s no guarantee we can make it across by horseback.”
“It’s up to you. Want to try?”
Sara Jane blew upward at a wayward tendril as she considered it. They could head back to the line shack to uncertainty and maybe even get trapped by another washed out road. Or sit here and watch the stream swell. “Let’s do it.”
He squeezed her knee. “That’s my SJ.”
His SJ? With her thigh tingling from his touch, she just stared at him. He handed her the extra gun. The cold steel yanked her out of her trance. “What’s this for?” she asked.
“Extra protection in case we need it.”
She tucked the weapon into her jeans. “Against who? What fools would be out in this downpour?”
“Maybe the guys after you.” He touched his Glock as though reassuring himself that it was in his holster, then grabbed his heavy duty flashlight. As he left the truck she followed, the wind pushing her along.
Nick unloaded Midnight and in the pelting rain they mounted him, bareback. Sara Jane rode in front and Nick behind, his body and thighs pressed firmly against hers. They dug their heels into the horse’s flanks, lay forward, and gripped hands full of mane to stay atop his slippery coat. Sara Jane urged the horse into the rushing stream. Midnight whinnied and bravely fought the currents that threatened to wash them away. He struggled to keep his footing. Water tugged at their shins. If it rose any higher, it would sweep them from the horse.
Sara Jane laughed, her emotion fueled by hysteria. “Maybe this wasn’t the right decision.”
“Don’t give up now when we’re so close,” Nick said.
As though the horse heard Nick’s deep murmur and was encouraged by it, Midnight surged forward and managed to reach the opposite bank. The warmth of Nick’s breath of relief in her hair told her she wasn’t the only one who had sighed in gratitude. Nick’s body heat and his weight pressing down on her comforted Sara Jane as they clung to Midnight’s mane and galloped through the night. Wind tore at their clothes and the blinding sheets of rain, sharp as thin needles of glass, battered them relentlessly. After several miles, Nick said, “It’s getting worse. We’ve got to seek shelter until the storm lets up.”
“The only place between here and the ranch is Eterno Cave. And it isn’t safe.” With sopping hair plastered to her head and clothing soaked clean through, she would have loved to take shelter until the storm passed. But not in Endless Cave where pits dropped miles into the earth. She’d heard that many people who dared to enter the tunnels were never seen again. She’d been in the cave with her dad, but would never go alone. “I want to keep going. Dad might have new info on Alicia.”
Lightning scrawled silver etchings across the sky. A spear shot to the ground and split a tree in half and it came crashing down right behind them. “Our choices just narrowed.” Nick said. “It’s the cave or risk getting fried by a lightning bolt.”
****
Sara Jane flicked on the heavy-duty flashlight Nick had grabbed from his truck and led him and Midnight into the stone tunnel of the dank Eterno Cave. “This cave is on Ryan land. I’ve been in this part with my dad. Stay far to the right. There’s a crevasse to the left.” Her stomach knotted. “Saying the gap in the stone floor is deep is a big understatement,” she said, putting sass into her words to buoy up her courage. “When we dropped rocks inside, we never heard them hit bottom.”
“Good thing you aren’t still trying to get rid of me. You’re not, are you?” His teasing tone soothed her like a supportive hug.
Her nervous spurt of laugher echoed through the passageway. “What do you think? I stopped Hawk-eye from shooting you, didn’t I?”
“That you did, SJ. That you surely did.”
The pride in his voice surprised and warmed her.
“There’s a safe room ahead with a stone floor and no pits to worry about,” she said.
She eased along the tunnel, keeping Midnight as close to the wall as possible. At the break in the smooth rock surface she turned right into a stone cavern with about a thirty-foot ceiling and stair-step ledges on the center wall. “Dad always keeps this room stocked with camping supplies and packaged food for emergencies. When the weather’s bad, sometimes cowpokes camp out here to keep from riding back to the ranch at night.” She pointed to an indentation in the right wall which served as a one-horse stall. “He even keeps straw and feed.”
Nick lit the lantern on the rock table. “That’s Matt, always prepared. This is more than I hoped for. It has all the comforts of home.”
She laughed. “Comforts? I’d like to see your home.”
“You’d be disappointed. I don’t really have one, just a studio apartment where I hang my holster.”
“Don’t you miss having a real home?”
“You don’t miss what you never had.” His hard tone rang with denial. “Speaking of your dad”—which they hadn’t for several minutes but was obviously a quick escape from a subject that made Nick uncomfortable—“I’d better give him a call and let him know we’re delayed so he won’t worry.”
“Forget it. The cell won’t work in here. And during a storm like this…probably not outside either.”
“I’d better check,” Nick said
She rolled her eyes. “It’s a waste of time.” When a tendon pulsed in his jaw and determination hardened his gaze, she handed him the flashlight. The touch of their fingers sent her heart racing. “Going back you have to stay to the left.”
“No kidding, Einstein. Your lack of faith in my intelligence is showing.”
“I have complete faith in you, but I’m a worrier.”
He laughed. “So we’ve established.”
Her nerves had her repeating herself. She clamped her mouth shut and led Midnight into the stall. She heard Nick’s booted footsteps clomp across the stone floor, and as he turned into the tunnel, they faded away. Silence wrapped around her. She shivered and rubbed her arms. She’
d never been in here by herself before. What if Nick didn’t come back? Ridiculous. He would never leave her. He was hired to stay with her. Hired. It was a job. She had to keep reminding herself of that.
Using a blanket from the nearby stack, she wiped water from Midnight’s coat. She kissed his neck. “You crossed that stream like a champion, Midnight. I’ll see that you get something special when we get home.” Midnight wasn’t trained to participate in all rodeo events like her horse Demon. A horse trained in all-around rodeo skills like Demon was super-extraordinary and very valuable—but, of course, Demon was more than just an outstanding horse to her. When he was first born she had pledged her first loyalty to caring and loving him. But Midnight had just earned a lot of extra attention, and she would see that he got it.
Just as she finished drying the horse, Nick returned. With his powerful stride and dripping clothes, he looked like a storm-ravaged warrior who had braved the regions of the damned to find his beloved. She fought her urge to race into his arms. She locked her gaze on his unsmiling face. “Was the cell phone reception any better outside the cave?”
Swiping rain from his brow with his sleeve, he laughed without humor. “Still nothing but static.”
“Hasn’t the storm eased up at all?”
“If anything, it’s worse. The sky looks like two giants are throwing lightning bolts at each other. I think we’re stuck here for the next few hours.” He gave her a long searching look. His lashes glistened with raindrops. His gaze lowered. “You’d better get out of those wet clothes.”
She glanced down at her drenched shirt clinging to her breasts. Quickly, she folded her arms over them.
“I’ll get a fire going so we can dry everything,” he said. He stared at her a moment longer. She sensed he wanted to draw her close. She waited, longing for his arms to close around her. He stared at her a moment longer, then turned and walked away.
Shaken and disappointed, she followed him. “You expect me to take off my clothes right here? Right now?”
He grabbed a log from the stack of firewood and tossed it into the blackened circle used for campfires. “I’ll put up a blanket to screen you while you get undressed.”
“Are you stripping, too?”
He laughed. “Eager to see me in my birthday suit?”
“What an over-inflated ego!” If he only knew. At the line shack when he’d bathed behind the blanket, she had imagined him wearing only a smile. Damn. All this nudity was too much for her vivid imagination and vigorous hormones.
Nick piled kindling around the log. She crouched beside him and helped. When the base satisfied him, he lit the fire with his lighter. Firelight glowed on his tanned face and leaping shadows emphasized his strong features. His thick, glistening wet hair curled ruggedly at his collar. She had an urge to comb the clumped strands with her fingers. “How come a man who doesn’t smoke carries a lighter?”
He laughed. “Learned that handy trick in the air force. Matches won’t light when they get wet. But this lighter never fails.”
“Dad always carries a lighter. But he keeps fireplace matches here for those who aren’t as prepared as you two.”
“You keep mentioning your dad. He must be on your mind, too.”
Sara Jane didn’t miss the word “too”—hmmm, so Nick was thinking of him as well. Maybe that was why he hadn’t touched her. “My whole family’s on my mind. I hate that I’m trapped here when they need me.” She closed her eyes for a moment. “Alicia must be terrified. And I can’t even find out what’s going on.”
“When the storm eases, I’ll try to call again.” The gentleness in his tone touched her. He was a good man, an honorable man.
When the fire took hold, Nick hung a blanket, using two large rocks to anchor it. When he had it in place, he said, “Your dressing room awaits, milady.”
Smiling, she slipped behind it and stripped. The cavernous room hadn’t yet warmed and she shivered from the cold dampness. She dried her hair and wrapped a dry blanket around herself like a sarong.
When she walked from behind the blanket with her wet clothes in her hands, her breath caught. Whoa! Nick was already naked under that wool toga! Sara Jane’s heart galloped in hard thuds. She glanced away and saw his Glock lying on a rock and his holster drying next to it, reminding her that she was with an FBI man. Nearby, he’d draped his wrung-out duds on the lowest stone ledge. She quickly crossed the room and placed her wet things beside his—then it hit her that their clothing lying side by side provided an undeniable sense of intimacy.
She turned to face him, her breasts rising and falling with her uneven breath. His gaze blazed with desire and intensified her own need. Only a few steps and she would be in his arms. The soft glow of the leaping flames dancing on the stone walls and ledges weaved a trance-like magic that touched her to the depth of her heart. She wanted this man. But if she allowed Nick to cross the intimacy line, it would change everything. She had to get out of here. She was lusting for a wonderful man—but a forbidden man—a man who would leave her. She began to tremble.
“Cold?” he asked. Without waiting for an answer he drew her into the warmth of his hard, lean body. It felt so right, like coming home.
“We’re here together. Safe,” she said, “but—”
“I know you’re worried about Alicia.” He tilted Sara Jane’s head up and looked into her eyes. “It’ll turn out all right.” His husky voice vibrated through her.
“I want to believe that,” she whispered. Her lips quivered from the bottled up emotion. Nick covered her mouth with his, giving her his strength. In spite of the inner warning that told her to move away, she pressed her breasts tightly against his firm chest and drew his head down closer, deepening their kiss until their tongues entangled. He stroked her back and sides. She turned her body to bring his hands closer to her breasts and actually felt his control shredding. The evidence of his arousal pressed against her. Her head felt light. Her heartbeat quickened and a steamy flush rushed over her body, making rational thought impossible.
He lifted his lips from her mouth and whispered, “I’m fighting this. But God help me, even a saint would lose this battle.” Eyes glazed with blazing desire, he backed her up against the stone wall. She leaned back, her arms spread wide. “Tell me now if you want me to stop,” he murmured huskily.
She drew his mouth to hers again. Groaning, he pressed her tighter against the stones. He caressed her breasts until her nipples hardened and poked the cloth. Then he inched the lower edge of the blanket up to her thigh. His hands felt warm as they stroked the inside of her leg. She froze at the sound of voices echoing from deep within the cave’s tunnel. “Nick! We’re not alone!”
Chapter Eight
Guilt rocked Nick as he clawed his way out of his fervor. Had Matt arrived with a search party? But how could Matt know they were in here? Matt’s words echoed in his head, I trust you. Nick closed his eyes for a moment. It had been a mistake to take Sara Jane in his arms. He focused on her face. A pulse throbbed near her temple. He wanted to smooth it, and trail kisses to her moistened lips. But that was where he’d made his first error—touching her. He had to face it, he felt more for this woman than he’d ever felt for anyone in his life. Her power over him had almost lured him to abandon good sense and his anchor of honor—and without his principles he’d have nothing. He couldn’t let anything like this happen again. With his job, he couldn’t promise her forever, and she deserved a man who could. From now on his behavior toward her would be by the book. “Didn’t you tell me there was another entrance?” he whispered in a low, all business tone.
Hurt flickered briefly in her eyes and she moved out of his arms. “Yes, on the other side of the mountain.” They kept their voices hushed so the sound wouldn’t carry out into the tunnel. Sara Jane quickly gathered her clothes and stepped behind the blanket. The soft flutter of the wool as it fell back in place had the same emotional impact as if she’d slammed a door in his face.
Damn. He should have at le
ast kissed her forehead or given her that last little hug to prove that what almost happened between them meant more to him than lust. But her anger worked better. Now she would avoid him like a failed one-night stand. He stepped into his damp jeans and zipped them up, the hiss of the metal sounded loud even to his ears. “Would your dad look for us here?”
“No way,” Sara Jane said from behind the blanket. In spite of speaking in low tones, the spunk in her Texas drawl rang strong. “Even if he did, he wouldn’t use the back entrance. It’s several miles out of his way, and far too dangerous. Whoever those guys are, they know the cave well enough to risk its maze of tunnels. Or they’re a bunch of lost fools.”
“Or they’re after us,” he said, shrugging into his shoulder holster. “Hawk-eye might not be the only guy backing up Wally and Babbling Brook.” Nick wiped off his Glock with a handkerchief and tucked it into its holster. “Bring your gun out with you. We’d better be ready for anything.” He shoved his folded knife and other loose items into his pocket.
Sara Jane stepped from behind the curtained area, her face still flushed and beautiful. He’d love to wake up to that face every morning for the rest of his life. She shook her head. “You’re as paranoid as Dad.” In spite of her doubt about the danger, she tucked the gun into her waistband.
“Goes with the job. Either we’re a tad paranoid, or we’re dead.”
“I couldn’t live that way.”
His low laugh sounded bitter and harsh even to his ears. “Because some of us do, you don’t have to.”
“Don’t act like it’s this big chore,” she shot back. “You love every minute of it.” Her resentment hung there between them vibrating the air. He knew how much she hated his job and how much she loved the ranch. That was why, although in every other way they complemented each other, he couldn’t make love to her. Ever.
Nick tightened his jaw and watched smoke curl upward from the bonfire. “We’d better do something about this fire. The smell could find its way into the tunnels and alert the intruders.”
