by Smith, Bobbi
“All right,” she said quietly and watched appreciatively as he stood above her like some great and powerful man-beast of old. When he extended a hand to her to help her up, she took it gratefully. “Does it seem like the storm’s letting up?”
“A little, but not enough that it’d be safe for us to try to travel yet,” he told her, hugging her near for a brief moment, before releasing her. Retrieving his pants he pulled them on and then handed Jennie his shirt. “Put this on.”
She took the proffered garment and slipped it on, buttoning it quickly against the chill. Rick smiled ruefully as he noticed how his shirttails covered all the more delectable parts of her.
“I’ll have to start buying small shirts,” he remarked, grinning at her lustfully, and Jennie smiled to herself. “We’ll eat now while there’s time,” he continued and, as Jennie set about spreading out the rest of their damp clothing before his small but warm fire, he rummaged through his saddlebags to see what they had to share.
Two pieces of jerky and a small quantity of coffee limited their choices, but neither complained as they consumed the sparse fare.
“Cazador?” Jennie finally asked as they sat quietly near the fire, wrapped in the blanket.
Rick longed for the day when she’d learn his true name. “What, Jennie?”
“Do you have to go on and join Malo? Couldn’t we both just turn back, now that Luis and Ray are gone? You said you were a friend of Jake’s. We could tell my father that you rescued me and let it go at that.”
“You’d lie to your family for me?” he asked quickly.
“It wouldn’t really be a lie,” she said.
Rick fell silent again as he debated again how much he could afford to tell her. “At this moment, there is nothing I’d like to do more than take you back. But I can’t, not yet.”
“And you can’t tell me why?”
“No. I’m sorry. I have my reasons. You’ll just have to believe in me, Jennie. Can you do that? Can you trust me implicitly?” His eyes caught and held hers challengingly.
She met his gaze for long thoughtful minutes before answering him truthfully. “Yes, Cazador. I know I can trust you.”
“Remember that always, Jennie, no matter what happens.” His expression hardened as he thought of the dangerous days to come, and he prayed silently that she would not forget.
Chapter Nine
Having vented some of its fury on the hapless canyon, the storm swept forth from the Superstitions’ protective embrace and launched its assault on the unsuspecting desert beyond. Vicious in its rampage, it convulsed with lightning and threw up a barrage of dust and sand in advance of its attack.
The posse had been watching the storm’s rapid approach with considerable trepidation.
“We’d better get to higher ground and fast,” Mac said as he accurately gauged its speed.
“I’ll take care of Carrie,” Todd offered, wheeling his horse around to search her out in the crowd of riders.
With Mac in the lead, they raced across the rugged terrain, heading for higher ground to seek refuge among the scattering of massive boulders. But a short distance from their goal, Carrie’s horse stumbled and she was thrown.
“Carrie!” Todd was instantly at her side, his heart twisting at the thought that she might have been injured. There was a trickle of blood on her forehead and he wiped it carefully away with his handkerchief to reveal a small cut at her hairline. Cradling her in his arms, he glanced up worriedly in the direction of the racing black, ominous clouds.
Steve, followed by Mac and Jake, started toward them to help, but Todd waved them back, knowing that there was little sense in all five of them being caught in the coming duststorm.
“Go on! I’ve got her!” he called.
Carrie blinked in confusion as she opened her eyes and saw Todd peering down at her, his expression worried. “What—what happened?”
“Your horse stumbled and you lost your seat. Are you all right?” His concern was very real.
“I think so,” she said softly, not trying to sit up yet. She had wanted to be held by him for so long that she wasn’t about to waste this moment by reacting too quickly. “My head hurts.” She lifted a shaky hand to her brow and gasped when her fingers came away with blood.
“Here, hold my handkerchief on it. That should help to stop the flow.” He handed her the already bloodied cloth.
“Thank you,” she said as she pressed it to her forehead.
“We’ve got to move or we’re going to get caught out here. Can you walk?”
“I don’t know. Help me up and I’ll try.” Carrie regretted moving away from him, but she knew he was right. They had to find some shelter and fast.
As Todd set her on her feet, the first blast of the punishing wind hit them and she swayed against his massive chest.
“Can you make it?”
“Yes. I’ll follow you.”
Todd hurried to grab their horses’ reins and then ran toward the higher ground. They made it as far as the first boulder before the billowing dust reached them, its painful onslaught blinding them temporarily. Skirting around the rock, they finally located a small, low overhang.
“Crawl in there!” Todd shouted over the force of the wind.
“But what about you?” she cried, wanting to stay with him.
“I’ve got to take care of the horses.” He watched as she disappeared beneath the ledge and then quickly blindfolded their mounts with garments from their saddlebags. Tying them nearby, he grabbed their bedrolls and followed Carrie into the refuge.
The sanctuary was neither deep nor high but at least it afforded them some protection from the elements.
“How is your forehead?” he asked as he slid in next to her, stretching out full length facing her.
“I think the bleeding’s stopped. Could you take a look?” She rolled to her back and held the cloth away from the cut so that he could see.
“It’s stopped bleeding, but you’re going to have a bad bruise.” Bending over her, he took the handkerchief from her and wiped gently at the wound to remove the last of the dried blood. “There,” he said smiling down at her. A sudden realization hit him as he stared into her delicately molded features. She was so lovely—and when he’d thought her injured—Shaking himself mentally, he leaned back, breaking the unexpected intimacy of the moment. What was wrong with him? This was Carrie, not Jennie! It was Jennie he loved—or was it?
Carrie had sensed a tension growing within him, but she wasn’t sure how far she could push him. Her ponderings were interrupted as a blast of viciously stinging windblown sand exploded into their shelter, and Todd quickly leaned over her to protect her from its painful bite. Huddling together quietly, they waited until it had died down again before moving apart.
“Has it started to rain yet?”
“Not yet, but it won’t be long.”
“Can we block the opening somehow with our blankets?” Carrie suggested. “If we don’t, you’re going to be awfully uncomfortable once the rain begins.”
“There’s no way to shut off the entrance, but we can wrap them around us,” he told her as he unrolled the blankets.
Shifting back up on his elbow, he lay facing her with his back to the opening. Spreading one cover over their legs, he tucked the other beneath his shoulder and drew it over their upper bodies.
“That should help some,” Todd remarked out loud, but as he spoke the wind gusted into their haven again, and he quickly pulled the blanket over their heads, encasing them in a warm, intimate cocoon.
Carrie was thrilled! Here she was wrapped in a warm blanket with Todd, pressed full-length to his massive body and totally isolated from the rest of the world. The temptation to reach out and touch him was too great to resist, and she reached out to the hardness of his broad chest.
“Todd. Is your shoulder all right?” She kept her voice deliberately soft and feminine.
“Just fine,” he replied tersely, suddenly feeling the need to shift slight
ly away from her. He was finding that being in such close quarters with a woman as attractive as Carrie could be very stimulating, and the seductive way she’d said his name hadn’t helped matters any. Didn’t she realize he was a man, with a man’s desires? Just because he was in love with Jennie didn’t mean that he couldn’t find another woman attractive.
“Good. I was worried about you. That was one of the reasons why I came along on this trip.” She rested her hand over his heart and was pleased to feel its powerful erratic thudding beneath her palm.
“You were worried about me? Why?”
“That was an ugly wound and—” She hesitated for a moment and then rushed on. “And I care about you. I always have.”
Todd was startled by her statement. “I care about you, too, but it was foolish of you to risk your life following us.”
“It wasn’t foolish. I wanted to be with you.” Carrie awaited his response breathlessly.
“You did?” He was totally taken by surprise. He had always thought highly of her, but he had spent so much time with Jennie that he’d never given her serious thought.
“Yes,” she told him throatily, and he suddenly had a flash of the woman beneath her cool exterior. “Do you like being with me?”
“Well, of course.”
“How much?” she asked as she encircled his neck with her arm and drew his head down to hers.
Todd was startled by her flagrantly seductive move, and he knew he should pull away, but he was mesmerized by her metamorphosis. And when her lips touched his in a featherlight caress, he felt the stirrings of desire deep within his loins.
It seemed perfect to Carrie that lightning cracked overhead just as they shared their first kiss. Her love for him was as powerful as the unleashed storm that surrounded them. Suddenly weary of waiting, she wanted Todd to know the depths of her feelings for him. With practiced finesse she pressed closer to him as her mouth found his in a rapturous exhange.
“Oh, Todd,” she sighed against his mouth as she felt the strength of his manhood against her. Carrie wanted to caress him, to bring him to the peak of passion, but common sense ruled her actions.
Todd’s senses were reeling. This was Carrie who was kissing him—Carrie who was lying next to him. And the kiss they’d just shared had been more potent that the most heady brew. She was bewitching him, enchanting him. Suddenly the feel of her small womanly body so close to his was too exciting. With gentle yet restrictive hands, he gripped her forearms.
“Carrie.” Her name was almost a groan.
“What?”
“We’ve got to stop.”
“But why? You make me feel so good—so safe and protected.” She tried to move closer to him, but he held her at bay.
“Believe me, if we don’t stop now, there’s no way I’ll be able to protect you from me. I’m sorry, but I can’t hold you like this.”
“Why?” she asked with seeming innocence.
“Because you’re a very beautiful woman, Carrie, and I don’t want to do anything we might both regret.”
“What is there to regret? If you find me attractive, why is it wrong to kiss me?”
“Because I’ve proposed to Jennie.” He said it quickly, and the silence that stretched between them was painful.
“Oh—I didn’t know. She hadn’t told me.” Carrie fought to keep the hurt out of her voice. Damn Jennie, anyway! She seethed.
“It isn’t official. She wasn’t sure that she was ready to get married yet, so we agreed to wait a while.”
“Oh.” Carrie’s mind was racing. Todd might have proposed to Jennie, but she hadn’t said yes. Carrie could see absolutely no reason why she should stop her pursuit of him. She would just have to be more subtle, more helpless. Todd reacted well to those feminine wiles that she had so artfully polished. A smile lifted the curve of her lips as she plotted further strategy, for she knew after the embrace they’d just shared that there was no way she’d ever give him up. “Well, I’m sorry. I hope I haven’t made things uncomfortable for you. I hadn’t meant to.”
“No. Nothing’s changed between us,” he told her, but in his heart, as he remembered the ecstasy of their kiss, he knew he was lying. His cool, detached feelings for Carrie were gone. He knew her as a full-blooded woman now, and he liked what he’d discovered.
“Good.” She smiled openly in their darkened hideaway.
They fell silent for a moment, listening to the sounds of the tempest as it roared overhead, angrily lashing out at the barren land.
“Will we be able to find their tracks after this rain?” Carrie asked the question that Todd had been avoiding in his own thoughts.
“No. Not unless Steve is a miracle worker.” He voiced his disgust with the weather.
“What are we going to do?”
“We were pretty sure that they were heading up Willow Canyon; so, I guess we’ll start looking there and hope we can pick up their trail again.”
“Surely the storm slowed them down, too.”
“I’m certain it did,” he answered. “But even so, they had quite a head start.”
Now it was Carrie’s turn to play the supportive one and she touched his arm reassuringly as she told him, “I’m sure you’ll find her, Todd.”
“I hope so, Carrie.” His tone was flat as his thoughts went to the stories he’d heard about the women who’d been taken captive and abused by desperadoes. From what he understood, the lucky ones died right away.
Jennie sat on the blanket near the fading fire; her dark-eyed gaze on Cazador as he stood at the opening staring out across the rain-drenched canyon. Her eyes lovingly traced his handsomely carved features, and she shivered in delight as she remembered the touch of his lips on hers. He was a magnificent specimen of a man, and she knew a quickening of her pulse as she savored the sight of his bare chest and powerful arms.
How had it happened so quickly? Yesterday he’d been a terrifying stranger and today—today he was the man she loved. The realization startled her for only a moment and then settled over her thoughts in a warm cloak of tenderness. Yes, she admitted honestly to herself, she did love him.
Jennie reflected with wonder on the joy they had just shared. It had been a mutually giving interlude—a time of discovery and ecstasy, and she never wanted it to end. There was so much about this man she didn’t know: who he really was; where he’d come from; what the terrible secrets were that he kept locked so deeply inside of him. And caring for him the way she did, she wanted to learn everything about him, to know him as well as she knew herself.
Sighing quietly, Jennie got up and moved to stand with him at the entrance. Though she wanted to slip her arm about his waist, she stood slightly away from him unsure just how one behaved after having made love.
“Cazador? Is it still raining?”
“Yes, but it’ll be over in a few minutes.” He glanced down at her, distracted from his purpose by her nearness.
“I guess we’d better get our clothes ready, then.” She started to turn back to the fire when his hand snaked out and grasped her by the arm.
“Not yet. There’s time,” he murmured as he pulled her tightly to him and then reached down beneath the shirttails to cup her buttocks.
Damn! But he couldn’t keep his hands off of her. He had hoped that, having once made love to her, he would be able to put her from his mind. He had expected her virginal ways to leave him uninspired, but just the opposite had happened. Instead of being able to casually dismiss her from his thoughts as he had done with so many other women, Jennie had become like a fire in his blood, and the feelings she aroused seemed nearly unquenchable.
“Time? For what?” Her eyes were luminous as she stared up at his beloved face so serious above hers.
“For this.” His head dipped to hers and their lips met softly, once, twice and then again with increasing ardor.
Ending the kiss, Rick swung her lightly up into his arms and strode back to the blanket. His eyes locked on hers searchingly, her earlier moment of nerv
ousness giving him pause, but when she slipped her arms willingly around his neck he put aside his concern. Kneeling, he lay her gently on the bedroll’s softness.
Jennie’s color was high and her eyes were shining with the promise of his kiss. Under his heated regard, her lips curved in a sensuous smile of invitation that sent his senses reeling. Her womanly instincts were directing her moves now and with lazy seductiveness, Jennie began to unbutton the shirt. As she finished the last button, she glanced up at him from beneath lowered lashes.
“Cazador? Will you help me slip this off?” Her voice was husky and grated provocatively on him.
Without speaking, Rick went to slip the garment from her, but her arms entrapped him, bringing him to her with surprising ardor. Their lips touched, their mouths blended; savoring, tasting, challenging.
Jennie’s heart beat wildly as his hands separated the shirt and slipped within to caress the ivory-tinted loveliness of her bosom and then wander lower to the very heat of her. As Rick’s stroking touch built her desire to a feverish pitch, Jennie rubbed restlessly against him, intertwining her legs with his and straining to get closer to him. Her boldness increased as her excitement grew and she ran her fingers through the matted hair on his chest before following its downward, narrowing line to the top of his breeches. With sensuous intent, she traced the waistband’s edge with a single, teasing finger and at his sharp intake of breath she felt a surge of feminine pride.
“Love me, Cazador,” she whispered as her lips sought his once more, and he answered her with a heart-stopping kiss.
All time seemed suspended in that moment. It was as if they had been transported to another world. A world consisting only of enchanted ecstasy where tomorrow didn’t exist and yesterday had never happened. They were together. They were alone. They were one.
All thoughts of desperadoes and Malo and danger fled Jennie’s mind as she gave herself up to the maelstrom of his love. Together they shed their clothing, each helping the other. Holding her arms out to him in welcome, she purred in contentment as he came to her, parting her sweet thighs and moving between them to press deep within her.
