Only His o-1

by Elizabeth Lowell

  «Much.»

  Willow smiled and made amurmurous sound of approval as she smoothed her hands over Caleb’s warm chest. Within a few moments, she had picked apart the button just above his belt buckle and eased one hand inside to rest against the heat of his skin. His breath hissed in as her fingers tangled gently in the line of hair that ran down his torso.

  «You’re better than any fire,» Willow whispered as she turned her hand over to warm the other side. «Heat but no smoke to give us away.»

  «Keep that up and there might be.»

  «Really?» she asked softly, laughing up at him. «Where?»

  «Don’t tempt me, honey.»

  «Why not? I’m so very good at it.»

  Caleb’s eyes narrowed and his heart beat with redoubled force. In the sudden, hushed silence between Caleb and Willow, the sound of the tiny creek was like a river, but it wasn’t loud enough to cover the break in his breathing when her cool fingers dipped below his belt. The width of thegunbelt defeated her attempts to touch him.

  Smiling, Caleb removed hisgunbelt and big knife and set them aside. «Try it now.»

  Willow nibbled at the dimple in his chin and the beard stubble that had grown once more. He caught her teasing lips in a hard kiss that made him forget for a few moments the bleak future that was coming closer with every moment they looked for Reno. When her cool fingers slipped inside the waistband of his pants, Caleb made a hungry sound.

  «Much, much better,» she said approvingly as she ran her fingernails down the long muscles of his torso.

  «I’ve got an idea for making it even better.»

  Caleb smiled as he unfastened Willow’s coat and tugged at buckskin laces until he could ease his fingers between folds of cloth and buttons to brush the silky flesh beneath. Her breath caught, broke, then came out in a rush of pleasure.

  Yet Willow’s greatest pleasure was in watching Caleb respond to her. She loved seeing the darkness and tension of his expression change as the result of her touch. She loved taking shadows from his eyes, replacing them with fire. She loved caressing him, feeling his body change. She loved bringing him laughter and release. She loved…Caleb.

  And someday soon he would realize that he loved her in return. Willow was certain of it. No man could come to a woman with such intense passion, such overwhelming tenderness, and not love her at least a little.

  Smiling, watching Caleb, Willow stood on tiptoe, asking for his mouth, needing to taste him once more, to have the small consummation of his kiss. With a growling sound, he took what she offered and gave what she needed, joining their mouths hungrily.

  «Well,» said a sardonic male voice behind Willow, «now I know what you were doing for the weeks you were missing.»

  It was too late to reach for thegunbelt and Caleb knew it.

  «Matt?» Willow cried, spinning around, facing the voice.

  The man had come from downwind of the horses, taking Willow and Caleb by surprise. She peered into the shadows, then made a choked sound and ran into the stranger’s arms.

  «Matt!» she said in delight, hugging him. «Oh, Matt, is it really you?»

  «It’s really me, Willy.» Reno hugged her in return, but there was anger as well as relief in his expression. After a few moments, he set her aside and measured the tall, hard-faced man who was at the moment flipping agunbelt into place around his hips. «Caleb Black.»

  Caleb didn’t acknowledge the question buried in the two words. He simply settled hisgunbelt with a smooth movement and faced the bitter future. «Matthew Moran.»

  Reno’s pale green eyes narrowed at the bleak hatred in Caleb’s voice and at the violence implicit in the other man’s stance — legs braced slightly apart, hands loose and relaxed at his sides, ready to draw the six-gun whose thong had already been slipped off.

  «Looks like Wolfe was wrong about you,» Reno said bitterly. «But much as I’d like to beat the hell out of you for turning my sister into a —»

  «Don’t say it,» Caleb interrupted in a voice as savage as the light in his eyes. «Don’t even think it.»

  With dawning horror, Willow watched the two men she loved. She tried to speak, but the words stuck in her throat. She had expected joy, not anger, when she met her brother once more.

  «Matt?» she asked finally, looking at the brother who was as tall as Caleb, as strong, and every bit as furious. «What’s wrong?»

  «Are you married to him?» Reno demanded.

  The cold chill of the wind reminded Willow that her jacket was undone. She buttoned it and held her head high despite the flush spreading hotly across her cheekbones.

  «No,» she said.

  «Are you promised?»

  Angrily, Caleb started to speak.

  She cut him off. «No.»

  «Christ. And you ask me what’s wrong. What happened to you, Willy? What will Mama say when she knows —»

  «Mama’s dead.»

  Reno’s eyes widened, then closed. «When?»

  «Before the war ended.»

  «How?» he asked roughly.

  «She never was very strong. After Papa was killed, she just gave up.»

  «Where areRafe and —»

  «I don’t know,» Willow said harshly, interrupting. «I haven’t seen any of my brothers for years. The only family I really had was my memory.»

  The expression on Reno’s face changed, all anger draining out, leaving only sadness. He reached for his sister again, folding her into his arms. Putting his cheek against Willow’s hair, he rocked her gently.

  «I’m sorry, Willy,» he said. «I’m so damned sorry. If I’d known, I would have come back. You shouldn’t have had to face it alone.»

  With a choked sound, Willow threw her arms around Reno and held on. Caleb watched throughslitted eyes, remembering the instant when a half-asleep girl had reached for him.

  Matt, oh Matt, is it really you? I’ve been so lonely….

  After a long time, Reno released his sister, blotted her eyes with his dark bandanna, and kissed her cheek. Then he looked over her head at Caleb.

  «You and I will talk later,» Reno promised flatly. «Right now there are ten men out there, and they’re aching to get their hands on me, Willow, and that sorrel stallion of hers. They’d like a piece of your hide, too, but they’re going to have to stand in line. I have first call.»

  «You won’t have to call. I’ll be stepping on your heels every inch of the way.»

  Reno’s left eyebrow rose in a dark arc, but he said nothing, even when Willow went back to Caleb, took his right hand in hers, and kissed its broad palm before lacing her fingers deeply through his. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could speak, Ishmael’s head came up. Ears pricked, nostrils flared, the stallion drank the wind coming down the small, brush-choked ravine.

  Caleb’s right hand jerked, but his fingers were tangled with Willow’s. Reno had no such problem. With shocking speed a gun appeared in his left hand. Willow stared, unable to believe what she had seen. One instant Reno had been standing with his hand at his side. The next instant, there was a cocked gun in it. She had seen nothing but a blur between.

  «Matt…?» she whispered, stunned.

  Reno made a curt gesture with his right hand, silencing his sister. Slowly, he started forward. Caleb’s hand shot out, restraining Reno.

  «No shooting,» Caleb said, his voice a bare thread of sound. «There’s a quieter way.»

  He pulled off his boots, drew his long knife, and glided into the brush on stocking feet with the muscular silence of a cougar.

  A movement from Willow caught Reno’s eye. He watched as she picked up a shotgun and came to stand with her back to him. Together they waited for Caleb’s return, each one guarding a different route out of the ravine.

  The long minutes of waiting gave Reno plenty of time to realize how many ways his sister had changed. The girl he remembered was a laughing, teasing whirlwind who had looked to her older brothers to protect her from their father’s uncertain temp
er. The sister who stood with her back to him was an unsmiling woman prepared to fight for her own life. And her man’s.

  Willow never knew how long it was before the ghostly cry of a wolf sifted through the ravine, announcing Caleb’s return. She faced toward the sound just as he stepped from cover. Swiftly, she went to him, her eyes going over him like hands. When she saw the blood on his coat, she made a low sound.

  «Easy, honey. I’m all right,» Caleb said, taking the shotgun from her suddenly shaking hands.

  «Blood,» she said.

  «Not mine.» He bent and kissed Willow fiercely, holding her. «Not mine.»

  She nodded to show that she understood, and she clung to him.

  Reno’s pale green eyes missed none of the currents surging between his sister and the grim-faced man who was holding her with surprising tenderness. Reluctantly, Reno conceded that Wolfe had been right — Caleb was a hard man, even a ruthless one, but he was careful of those who were weaker than himself.

  «All clear,» Caleb said to Reno over Willow’s head.

  Reno arched a dark eyebrow. «How many?»

  «Just one. I was going to let him go, but he picked up the track of the horses.»

  Willow didn’t ask what had happened. She had no doubt as to the man’s fate.

  «Recognize him?» Reno asked.

  Caleb nodded. «I had words with him in Denver. He made his choice. So be it.»

  A half-amused, half-feral smile crossed Reno’s mouth. «Wolfe was right about that, too.»

  «What?»

  «You’re an Old Testament kind of man. Was it Kid Coyote out there?»

  «No. Just some no-account claim jumper from California.»

  A sudden stillness came over Reno. «Claim jumper?»

  «As ever was.» The smile on Caleb’s mouth was like the blade of a drawn knife. «I suppose he had a notion about some fool finding gold up here.»

  Reno gave Willow a cool glance. «You told him.»

  «She didn’t have to,» Caleb said curtly. «Only one reason a man risks his butt up on these peaks. The golden whore.»

  «There’s nothing base about gold,» Reno countered softly, his voice low and his eyes vivid against his tanned face. «Indians believed gold came from the sun god’s tears. I’m inclined to agree with them.»

  Caleb made a disgusted sound. «More likely the water came from lower down the body.» He looked at Willow. «Sorry, honey. I know you’re tired, but we better find another camp. I stripped the claim jumper’s horse and sent it off on down the mountain at a run, but Jed Slater is a good tracker. Sooner or later he’ll catch us unless we keep moving or a good rain comes.»

  «It won’t rain tonight,» Reno said.

  «Maybe by morning,» Caleb said, looking at the sky.

  «Maybe.» Reno shrugged. «Nothing to do for it either way except get out of here. I have a camp nearby. We’ll wait for Wolfe there.»

  «What’s Wolfe doing up here?»

  «He got to fretting about the odds against you,» Reno said. «About three weeks ago he turned up at my camp and told me you were bringing my ‘wife’ to me and might need all the help you could get.»

  Silently Caleb absorbed the fact that Wolfe had known where Matt Moran was holed up and had said nothing to Caleb.

  You’re too evenly matched.

  Grimly, Caleb admitted that Wolfe had been right about that. Reno was as quick and cool on the draw as any man Caleb had ever seen. The chance of either one of them surviving a duel in any shape to help Willow get out of the mountains was damned slim.

  And if they died, she died. Only not quickly, not cleanly. Willow would die cruelly at the hands of outlaws who cared nothing for her laughter, her quick wit, her courage.

  «Where’s Wolfe now?» Caleb asked.

  «Out there, dogging Slater. Wolfe figured if Slater found you before I did, you’d need help. If he’d known that you were going to take advantage of Willow’s innocence…» Reno bit back an ugly word and looked at the gun in his hand. «Wolfe would have come looking for you with a whip. He was so sure you were an honorable, decent man. First time I’ve known him to be wrong.»

  Willow’s breath came in harshly, but before she could speak, Caleb did.

  «You’ve got no call throwing stones on the subject of seducing innocent girls and you goddamned well know it,» Caleb said savagely to Reno. «Now, are we going to get out of here or are you planning on waiting for Slater to find us and start shooting us like fish in a barrel? Or maybe you’re planning on using that gun on me right now and to hell with Willow’s safety?»

  Reno returned the six-gun to its holster with an effortless motion. «I’ll wait. Slater won’t. Let’s ride.»

  RENO’S temporary camp was so well concealed by the land itself that Willow wondered how he had ever found it in the first place. The narrow, spruce-and aspen-choked ravine that opened onto a swiftly racing creek looked impassable. Nor was there any obvious reason to force a passage into the ravine. There were many such blind gullies on the mountainside, places where water flowed only at the peak of the snowmelt or after an especially heavy storm. There was nothing about this particular ravine that looked any different. There was certainly no reason to think that it eventually opened onto a high, small bench where part of the mountainside had slumped away from the main mass of stone.

  Before entering the ravine, they had walked the horses in the icy mountain stream for more than a quarter mile, hoping to throw off any trackers. Nothing could entirely conceal the passage of the eight horses, however, except time and a good rain.

  There was no trail into the ravine, no broken brush or scarred trees to mark the passage of man. Reno dismounted from his horse and went to the mouth of the ravine. There he untied thongs that had been subtly weaving together two spruce trees. The trunks of the spruce grew almost parallel to the ground, legacy of the crushing weight of winter’s deep snow. As soon as the thongs were released, branches sprang apart, revealing a dim passageway into the ravine.

  «You’ll have to walk the rest of the way,» Reno said.

  Caleb dismounted and went to help Willow. Before he could, Reno had already handed her down from the saddle. It wasn’t the first time Reno had moved to stand between his sister and the man who was obviously her lover rather than her husband.

  Caleb’s mouth thinned to a grim line, but he said nothing. He didn’t want Willow to be present when he and Reno thrashed out the subject of sisters and seducers.

  Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.

  Unfortunately, the rough justice in the situation didn’t make Caleb feel any better about his position as a seducer.

  I’m begging you now, Caleb. Don’t stop. If you stop touching me I’ll die.

  He wondered if it had been that way for Rebecca, a hunger so deep that she begged for Reno. Had Reno tried to pull back from Rebecca, only to find that he could not?

  Willow. Push me away. Oh, God. Willow, don’t.

  I can’t help it. I’ve needed you all my life and didn’t know it. I love you, Caleb. I love you.

  Caleb closed his eyes and bowed his head as memories sleeted through him, heaven and Hell entwined.

  Am I hurting you?

  No. It’s good — so good. Like flying. Like riding fire. Don’t stop — don’t ever stop.

  And he hadn’t.

  When his eyes opened, Reno was watching him, noting Caleb’s fist clenched so hard on the reins that the leather buckled, seeing the savage, whiskey-colored eyes where ecstasy and anguish were inter-locked like flame and shadow.

  Curtly, Reno gestured for Caleb to begin leading the horses through the narrow passage.

  When all the horses were in the tiny valley, Caleb and Reno returned to remove what evidence they could of the passage of so many horses. By the time they got back to camp, it was dusk. Willow was just picketing the last horse in the valley’s deep grass. When Caleb and Reno walked into camp, she was struck by the similarity between the two men. Both were broad-shouldered, both were lo
ng-limbed, and both moved with the muscular coordination of healthy animals.

  The memory of Reno’s speed with a gun returned to Willow, telling her that the two men were alike in one other way as well. They both were dangerous.

  It frightened her.

  «Caleb,» Willow said, «I’m worried about the shoes on my Arabians. Would you check them for me?»

  Surprise showed briefly on Caleb’s face, but he said nothing. Although he always helped with Willow’s horses, it was the first time she had asked him to do so.

  «Sure.» Caleb glanced swiftly at Reno, then returned his attention to Willow. He smoothed the back of his fingers lightly down her cheek. «I won’t be far, honey. If you get tired of the company, come and get me.»

  She smiled despite her fear. «I’ll be all right.»

  Reno waited until Caleb was out of earshot before he turned to his sister.

  «All right, Willy. What the hell happened?»

  The icy green of her brother’s eyes told Willow how much of his rage he had been concealing. Numbly, she wondered how to begin.

  «Remember the summer evenings?» Willow asked finally, her voice low and husky. «Remember the dinners when the table was crowded with food and the air was filled with talking, and you andRafe would see which one of you could make me giggle first? Remember the sound of crickets and the smell of new-mown hay?»

  «Willy —»

  She continued talking right over Reno’s attempt to interrupt. «Remember the warm nights when the men of the family sat on the veranda and talked about blooded horses and field crops and faraway places and I would sneak out and sit and listen and everyone would pretend I wasn’t there because girls weren’t supposed to care about horses and crops and faraway places?»

  «What does that have to do with —»

  «Do you remember?» Willow asked in a voice that trembled with suppressed emotion.

  «Hell, yes, I remember.»

  «That’s all I had. Remembering. Memories and a box full of Yankee notes and Confederate scrip that was worthless except for starting fires. The moon still rose, but the hayfields and white-fenced paddocks were gone. The veranda and house burned one winter night. The little church where Mama and Papa were married and we were allbaptised burned, too, nothing left but crooked headstones looking like ghosts rising out of the weeds.»