Nothing But Trouble

by Lisa Mondello

  She’d been the one to hire him. She was the one in control. But only to a certain degree. Text book theory wasn’t going to match what she’d learn once she was actually up in the mountains.

  She carefully packed her saddlebag with juice, hard candy and dried fruit. To keep her diabetes under control, she always tried to keep a strict eating schedule, paying attention to what and how much she ate. Since she didn’t know when they’d be stopping, it was a safe bet to keep something close by to grab while they were riding.

  By mid-day they were heading across an open pasture filled with the fragrance of wild blue lupine and red Indian paintbrush. Above them was the crystal blue Wyoming sky that seemed to go on forever. Beyond the pasture lay the wondrous Wind River Mountain Range, all its peaks and valleys just waiting for them. The sounds of the horses hooves clopping on the soft earth and the buzz of nature all around them was like music as they rode.

  A sense of calming seeped into Melanie’s bones. She was on her way to spend a full month without any interference from her father. When had she ever had that? Never, she thought. Her parents had always been one step ahead, calling the shots for her.

  You can do this, she told herself. You’re in control.

  Now if she could only manage to have a good time despite her moody guide.

  Stoney took the lead on Thunder, with Chester trailing alongside of him.

  “Where are we headed, anyway?” she asked, pulling up until she and Dolly were trailing beside Chester.

  “That’s up to you and how deep in the mountains you want to go,” Stoney replied, giving her a quick glance. “We could head up high into the mountains or camp in the lower plains.”

  He kept riding, his cowboy hat dipped low to shield the sun as his eyes grazed the scenery. It may have been her imagination, but his voice seemed to have lost its rough edge. He had the same easy expression he’d had earlier when he was joking with Mitch and Wally. It was as if he’d come home and left a hard day’s work behind him.

  “You know the mountains. I’ll follow your lead.”

  He twisted in his saddle and threw her a crooked grin that made her mouth go dry. “For a change?”

  She dipped her head and tried not to give him the satisfaction of seeing her blush. “I’m not always difficult,” she said.

  He laughed hard. “Somehow I doubt that, Sunshine.”

  “I promise to be on my best behavior.”

  “Good. We might actually manage to have a good time while we’re at it then.”

  “Well there is that matter of the hot springs map Gerald Hammond gave me,” she called out to him, laughing.

  He glanced back, throwing her one of the most sexy grins she’d ever seen on a man. It was a good thing she was sitting in a saddle and not walking the trail because her knees suddenly felt like mush and she’d most surely would have fallen. Everything about Stoney was strong and male and incredibly sexy. She stirred in her saddle, trying her best to force the unbidden images of Stoney out her mind.

  “Put that thing away. I don’t need a map,” he said.

  She glanced out at the mountains ahead of them and realized her dreams lay just beyond.

  Despite the way they’d fought over her independence over the years, Edmund T. Summers III was a man of his word. He’d agreed to Melanie’s wager simply because he was sure she’d fail or because he thought he could buy off anyone who tried to help her. But she’d prove herself and he’d have no choice but to keep the funding for the Kenya project in place and allow her to go as well.

  Most of the next four hours were spent in virtual silence. It wasn’t hard to lose themselves in the scent and the sights of the mountain’s majestic panorama. Melanie felt giddy, as if she’d just been freed from the cage she’d spent her whole life. She wondered how the world she’d always known could exist while this beautiful land around her had been here and she didn’t know it.

  They rode through a lowland pasture and Melanie was mesmerized by the colors of the wildflowers. Clusters of wild irises were scattered among the dandelion cotton. With each gust of breeze, the wind lifted more of the cottony seeds in the air and blew them like a carpet of white.

  It may have been her imagination, but Stoney didn’t seem as intense as he had earlier in the day. More than a few times she’d found herself just staring ahead at the way his body sat tall in the saddle, looking at his profile as he lost himself in the world around them.

  Dolly veered off toward a patch of high grass for the umpteenth time and she realized she’d been daydreaming about Stoney. Dolly nickered and her ears flashed back.

  “Whoa, Doll. What do you hear?” Melanie said, easing back on the reins.

  By now Stoney had stopped and was looking at the area immediately surrounding them. “I don’t hear anything, but maybe something got her spooked.”

  Melanie threw her head back, lifting her face to the big sky and drew in a deep breath. The smell of aspen pine and sagebrush filled her nostrils along with the smell of the horses and warm leather. She listened to the sound of the forest and let herself become immersed.

  * * *

  Stoney watched Melanie like she was a goddess. With her head raised to the sky, her full lips pursed like a woman waiting for a lover’s kiss, she was irresistible. Dammit, she was incredibly fascinating, tempting every bit of his manhood just watching her. This would be so easy if every time he glanced her way he didn’t have the longing to reach out and pull her close to him. Even with her lipstick half chewed off after a day of riding, even with the sweat clinging to her face and neck, and making her blue cotton shirt cling to her body, she was beautiful. And he couldn’t keep his body from responding no matter how much he tried to tell himself this woman was off limits.

  Melanie Summers was not just another rodeo girl looking for a quick roll with a cowboy. She had a softness as well as a polish that was foreign to him. He guessed she wasn’t the type of woman to lend herself out for a night with no promise of something more the next morning.

  He’d been so angry watching Mitch with Melanie that morning. He hadn’t been fair in his treatment of either of them. Yeah, he could admit that now. It would hardly be right if Mitch hadn’t noticed a woman as beautiful as Melanie. But watching his slow, easy appraisal of her assets caused jealousy to kick him straight in the gut. He’d never wanted to slug Mitch, but at that moment, he’d actually considered it, as if Melanie was something he’d branded as his own.

  He held on to the anger, finding it was easier to keep the boundaries between them in sight if his body was tight with fury. It was better than the fire he was caught in every time her full lips stretched to smile. That damn near did him in. The simple act of her flipping a stray lock of hair behind her ear, brushing her delicate fingers against her cheek to wipe off some drops of sweat made him long to be the one doing it.

  And now, looking at her all lost in the sounds of the mountains, he had the unbidden image of her wrapped in his arms, making love in a mountain meadow blanketed only by the heat of the blazing sun.

  Abruptly, Melanie’s eyes flew open and she suddenly looked at him with the wonder of a child. “Do you hear it?”

  He took his attention away from his nagging body, caused by the lingering thoughts of Melanie in his arms, and he listened. He heard the call of a Western Meadowlark in a nearby tree, no doubt perturbed that they’d chosen a spot close to its nest to stop for a rest. Through the buzz of insects and the breeze, he finally heard the rustle of trees and something trampling on the dry ground that had caught Melanie’s attention.

  “Hooves.”

  She nodded and whispered, “Do you think it could be some other people trailing?”

  Stoney thought about it a moment. “Possibly, these trails are used by a lot of outfitters in the area. If we stay on this trail we may meet up with some of them at one of the camps.”

  She frowned. “Oh, with all this space, I just assumed we’d be alone out here.”

  “Is that a problem? Be
cause if it is, we don’t have to stay at a formal camp. We can just find our own way.”

  “How well do you know the mountains outside the trails well-traveled?”

  “Josh and I practically lived in these mountains when we were younger. I suspect that is why Hammond sent you to me.”

  Her face took on a dreamy quality, her eyes dark like the depth of a mountain pool.

  “Where’s the prettiest place you’ve ever seen?”

  He didn’t have to think about it. He and Joshua had been there enough to know that once you’d been to the high plateau’s and caught a glimpse of the view, it ruined you for any other place in the world.

  “That would be the high country. The Wind River trails that lead up to the plateau.”

  She seemed almost giddy with excitement as she spoke. “What’s it like up there?”

  “It’s rough trailing. Like nothing you’ve ever known. But when you get there...Lord, that view is like nowhere else in this world.” He felt a smile tug at his lips just thinking about it. “I swear it feels like you can reach your hand right up and touch heaven.”

  “Then that’s where we’ll go.”

  He laughed wryly. “No way.”

  “You said it was up to me,” she shot back.

  “To a point.”

  “Oh, come on. You can’t tell me about the most wonderful place on earth, then not take me there.”

  “We can head out into the mountains, but not there. The weather can be brutal in the high elevations, freezing temperatures, whitewater streams to cross, thunder and lightning that’ll zip so close your hair will stand on ends.”

  “Are you telling me we're not prepared for to go there? Even with all this gear?”

  “I’m not going to let you get yourself killed. That’s tough trailing even for someone who’s experienced.”

  She nodded her head, clearly annoyed as she straightened her spine. She gave a gentle kick to Dolly's side and pulled up alongside him.

  “Are you saying you don’t think I can do it?”

  “The thing is I don’t know what you’re capable of handling. Josh and I used to trail there, but-”

  “You had to do it for the first time once.” She lifted her chin and pursed her lips. He hated that he suddenly was focusing on how much he wanted to taste them instead of what she was fitting about. “I want to head to the plateau tomorrow.”

  He stared at the determined fire in her cinnamon eyes and knew she wasn’t going to back down. How could he know what she could actually handle unless he let her have a go at it?

  “Okay,” he said. “But if it gets too rough, if I think you’re in trouble, we’re heading back. You hear? No arguments.”

  She smiled, seemingly satisfied with the arrangement. “Lead on. But do you think we can try to find whatever is out there? I’m dying to see some of the animals in their natural habitat.”

  He drew in a deep breath and tried his best to squash his feelings of longing, but they just kept washing over him until he felt himself grow hard. He couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to have Melanie’s luscious legs wrapped tight around his waist as he kissed her...everywhere. He wasn’t on firm ground with this woman. Quicksand was more of what he was sinking deep into.

  She may be dying for adventure.

  He was just dying.

  He cleared his throat. “If we’re going to head up into the high country, we can’t go after every little rabbit sound in the forest. I want to set up camp before sundown, so we’d better get moving.” He heard the harshness in his voice and silently chided himself for it. It wasn’t Melanie’s fault he was in over his head with lust for the woman.

  He caught her soft smile fade to bewilderment before he twisted back around in his saddle and dug his heels into Thunder’s side. The horse kicked into motion, with Chester following. He could only imagine the daggers Melanie was throwing at his back with her eyes as they rode. And he knew every one of them was deserved.

  It was a lot easier in the saddle, riding ahead of her through the mountains. Just the thought of her perched in her saddle, hips rocking back and forth with the sway of the mare carrying her, was enough to give him a heart attack. If he’d been with Joshua or even alone, he would be able to relax a little more.

  Stoney would have liked to push on for another hour or so before setting up camp. But he knew that setting up camp would be tiring. As the sun cast a golden gleam over the mountain tops, painting colors of copper and amber against the wide Wyoming sky, he braved a look back at Melanie. One look and he saw how her first day was beginning to take toll.

  She hadn’t complained. He knew she wouldn’t. He’d already figured she was much too stubborn for something like that. She’d push on if it killed her just to prove to him wrong.

  He pulled hard on the Thunder’s reins until both horses came to a halt. “This is a good spot to camp for the night.” It was a nice flat spot by the river with plenty of grassy area to picket the horses and let them graze.

  Melanie dismounted and stretched her legs, walking funny for the first few minutes.

  “I don’t know if I’m ever going to walk straight again,” she said, holding on to Dolly’s reins as she led her to the water’s edge.

  Stoney kept his back turned to her and proceeded to untie the packs that were loaded on Chester.

  “I guess I should get use to this, huh? We’ll be doing a lot of riding.”

  He didn’t say anything, despite her attempt to converse with him for the first time in the last few hours. They’d been silent for most of the ride and he found it was easier to concentrate on the clopping of horse hooves than the beating of his own heart. He quickly set up the picket while the horses got their fill of water, and then secured them inside.

  He grabbed the hatchet. “You might as well set up your tent and lay out your bedroll while you’re waiting. It’s going to be a while until supper is ready. Can you cook on a camp stove?”

  She dipped her head and blushed. “If you give me instructions I can probably make just about anything.”

  Wonderful. He picked up the side of one of the duffels and tossed it a few feet in her direction. “That’s okay. Just sift through this pack until you find something that sounds appetizing. Those dry food rations are pretty easy to prepare. You just added boiling water. You know how to do that, right?”

  She glared at him, jamming one fist on her hip.

  He ignored her frown. “Dinner will be sooner if you can find enough dry wood scattered on the ground to get the camp stove going before I get back. It won’t need much wood to cook. You’ll find a sturdy pot in one of the packs, too.”

  She’d straightened herself, a questioning look filling her tired features. She looked vulnerable, afraid as he turned to walk toward the tree line. “Where are you going?”

  “Just to gather some wood for a campfire. Despite the time of year, it gets pretty cold up in the mountains at night.”

  He stalked off, not sure why his gut felt as tight as it did. All he knew was that he needed to get away from Melanie, if only to have a moment or two alone to collect himself.

  He was acting like the backside of his horse, but he couldn’t help it. Why, oh why did he agree to spend the month alone with this woman? Every time her soft brown eyes flashed bright with excitement, his breath caught in his throat. She had a fire that flared with the slightest push, but beneath that, there was a vulnerability he found endearing.

  He walked a few yards beyond the tree line and found some old dry branches. Pulling out his hatchet, he positioned the branch over a low rotted stump and took out his frustration on the wood. With every thrust of the ax against the wood he’d hoped his tension would ease. But to his dismay it remained.

  When they’d first set out this afternoon, he’d actually been excited about going. As they trailed deeper and deeper into the mountains, the old familiar feeling of tranquility washed over him. Then Melanie would say something and he’d remember that he wasn’t with J
oshua this time. He was with a woman who was stubborn minded and clearly out of place in a world where she had no business being. He should have felt guilty about ignoring her, but he couldn’t. It was the only way he could forget how much he wanted to kiss her every time she smiled.

  #

  Chapter Five

  Melanie brushed her hand up and down her arm in an effort to warm herself. The increased chill in the air and the darkening indigo sky was a clear sign that night was quickly on its way. Night predators would be out hunting their game and the meadowlarks that sang so sweetly during today’s ride would turn in for the evening. Long Island seemed as far away as the moon, and that thought gave Melanie a subtle peace.

  Stoney, however, was just around the corner, splitting wood for the fire they’d use to prepare dinner. Melanie was like a whirlwind, pulling gear from each pack and quickly deciding where it should go. Her muscles screamed at her, compliments of the long, bumpy ride in the hard saddle, but she knew there would be no dinner if she didn’t try to set up the camp stove and get the gear unpacked. Dinner was already going to be later than usual and she needed to at least try to keep on her eating schedule.

  She pulled a wool cardigan sweater from her knapsack and put it on before digging into her saddlebag for some dried banana chips. After popping a few of them into her mouth, she found where the tents were packed easy enough. Setting them up was another story. But despite her lack of camping skills, Melanie was determined to get the tents erected and the bedrolls laid by the time Stoney came back with the firewood. She looked at the stakes and bounced the empty bag up and down, hoping some instructions would fall out. Nothing.

  She groaned, tossing the stakes to the ground and propping her hands on her hips. “This ought to be good,” she said, staring at the horses now grazing inside the picket Stoney had set up before he left for the firewood. “I’ve never set up a tent in my life but it can’t be too hard, huh guys?” And she’d rather choke on her dinner than ask Stoney to help her do it.

  The horses continued munching, seemingly unaware of her presence, and the fact that she was talking to them. She heard the sound of a thwack against wood in the distance and guessed that must be Stoney chopping wood.