The Bounty

by Beth Williamson

  They ate Tyler’s simple meal in silence. He helped her when she couldn’t help herself. Nicky tried not to be embarrassed, but it was hard to be beholden to anyone. Tyler shoveled the food in like he hadn’t eaten in days while Nicky picked at hers. When they were finished, he stacked the plates beside the fire.

  “You’d best get some rest,” he ordered as he stood up abruptly. “I’m going to scout around to make sure there’s no trouble. You never know if Nate’s foot or Rusty’s face will heal enough to come after you again. Woman, you sure do inspire men to chase you.”

  As he walked away from the circle of firelight, Nicky felt her heart squeeze a little tighter. How could she have fallen in love with such a complex, haunted man? The bond between them had grown stronger no matter how hard they fought it. There was a reason they were drawn together, two kindred souls in pain, lonely and suffering. They had found each other, and circumstances were pulling them apart, to shatter into pieces.

  ———

  Tyler walked in the darkness, and took a deep breath to clear his mind. What in the hell prompted him to tell her things he’d never told a soul? And why couldn’t he picture his life without her now? Somehow, God help him, he had come to love this woman more than he ever thought possible. And soon, he’d have to let her go because he couldn’t bear to watch her die, along with his heart and soul.

  He walked on blindly, running from his heart, his destiny, his wife.

  ———

  The bright sunlight pricked at his eyelids, forcing his short slumber to an end. Tyler’d had a hell of a time going to sleep and it felt as if he’d just closed his eyes moments before. A weight had settled on his left shoulder. He opened his eyes and was pleasantly surprised to see his wife’s head resting on him.

  Her face was tilted slightly toward him. Without thinking, he leaned forward and kissed her on the neck just below her ear, inhaling her unique scent.

  “Tyler.”

  Her eyelids slowly opened. Oh, those beautiful green eyes. “How do you feel?” His voice was tinged with sleep. He muffled a yawn against his hand.

  “Much better.”

  “You sure?”

  She smiled deeply so her eyes crinkled up at the corners. His heart lurched as he bathed in the glow of that smile. How could this have happened? He had truly lost his heart to this woman.

  She ran her tongue along her lips, the gesture provocative in her innocence. His blood began to thrum in his ears as his awareness of her potent sexuality began to take its effect. He had tried to ignore her nude body as he washed and tended her for the past four days. It was damn hard too. Now she was awake and nearly naked under those blankets. He was as randy as a young buck snorting after a doe in heat. What madness.

  “You want some water?” He started to rise, but her gentle pressure stopped him.

  “No, stay. I like this.”

  She snuggled into the crook of his shoulder, resting her injured arm on his chest. He was relieved to see color in her cheeks and a sparkle in her eyes. She reached up with her hand and slowly caressed his stubbled cheek. She traced the outline of his lips with the tip of her slender finger. A shiver of anticipation raced through Tyler at her touch and his groin began to throb more insistently.

  “Doesn’t that hurt your arm?”

  “No, it’s okay. I’m being careful.”

  Nicky touched the buttons in his shirt and looked at him with one eyebrow raised. His large hand gently pulled hers away, unbuttoning and then shedding his shirt. Nicky stared at his chest with wide, hungry eyes. He knew what she saw, but it wasn’t that different from any other man. She focused on his navel, just visible over the waistband of his pants. She slowly traced the perfect circle with her finger. Goose bumps broke out on his arms and his nipples hardened instantly. Her finger followed the trail of goose bumps and felt the hard nubs of his nipples. He grasped her wrist tightly, stopping the meandering finger.

  “Nicole.” His voice was barely reined. “What are you doing?”

  She looked up at his face. His jaw was clenched so tightly that his pulse throbbed at his temple. Her eyes reflected passion so fierce it was almost a physical blow. She smiled slowly, knowingly. She pulled her wrist free, then licked the tip of her finger and rubbed it over the hardened male nipple. He hissed and closed his eyes.

  “We can’t…I mean, you’re hurt,” he ground out.

  Nicky raised her head and placed her lips ever so gently on his nipple. He wanted her. God, he wanted her so badly it was painful. She didn’t know how desirable she was, how her soft touches were driving him past the point of no return.

  She kissed her way up his chest to his neck, then his cheek, then his mouth. Her tongue licked his lips from one side to the other, gently nibbling on the corners. He groaned. It was a deep guttural sound. She responded with one of her own. Tyler felt his control snap like a dry twig. He opened his mouth to her probing tongue and devoured her in an endless, breathtaking kiss. His body cried out for her. She dug her fingers in his muscled back as she pressed up tight against him.

  He trailed kisses down her jawbone to her ear, light flicks of his tongue on her earlobe and down the side of her neck. She tasted like honey, so sweet. He paused as his lips reached her collarbone. She was shaking.

  He raised his eyes to look at her. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  In response to his question, she reached down and squeezed his hardness, once. It was enough. He looked at her chemise, the dark outline of her nipples visible through the fabric. He reached out and caressed her breasts, the nipples instantly hard pebbles of desire.

  “Help me,” she whispered.

  He pulled the blankets back completely, slipped the chemise carefully over the splint, then up and over her head. She was nude. Beautifully, deliciously nude. He stared at her, drinking in the long, creamy legs, her flat stomach, her full breasts, her mane of softly curling hair, and her face. Ah, her exquisite face.

  “What are you doing?” She sounded concerned.

  “Looking. You are so goddamned beautiful, magpie.” His voice was hoarse.

  “Only to you.”

  He shook his head and smiled slowly as he ran his hand up her calf to her thighs and stopped at the junction of her legs to that soft place. When one finger touched her there, she jumped, startled by the sensation. He moved his fingers against her, stroking, caressing, teasing. His mouth found her already hard nipple and she gasped. Tyler licked, nibbled, and suckled at one breast, then the other. He wanted to pleasure her. His hand worked like magic to bring her to a climax. She stiffened, crying out as his fingers plunged in her.

  He gently kissed her closed eyelids. They fluttered open, her pupils wide, the green darkened with passion. She fumbled for his jeans, but he stood and took them off. Nicky stared at his maleness. It stood straight and large in a dark patch of black hair. She reached out and closed her hand around it. He felt himself sway under her inexperienced fingers as she ran her hand up and down his staff.

  He lay down quickly, out of her reach before he lost control, nudging her knees open. He paused at the entrance to her womanhood, panting, wanting to look in her eyes as he plunged into her. She stared back at him and her mouth formed the word Tyler. Her hand grasped his hip to guide him. When he was deeply inside her, he knew the ultimate ecstasy. The pleasure was nearly enough to kill him. He was glad she wasn’t a virgin any more for he had no restraint. It was almost too much. Her moist tightness enveloped him as pleasure ricocheted through his body. He fought to regain control then began to move in and out slowly. She rose to meet him, consumed by her own passion. She moaned his name as he pushed deeper. Suddenly, she pulled her legs back, opening herself completely to him.

  “Oh, Nicky.” It was more of a prayer than anything.

  “Nicole,” she corrected him breathlessly.

  “Nicole,” he moaned as he moved in her faster. She quivered around him as she reached her peak again. As her fingers dug into his side, he felt his own
climax building. He claimed her mouth in a reverent kiss as he spilled his seed into her. His beloved wife, Nicole.

  ———

  After they made love, they made love again. They spent the morning teasing and pleasuring each other. If she had her druthers, and a hell of a lot more energy, she’d never stop making love to him. She felt weaker than a new foal. As it was, he was doing all the work pleasuring her. Nicky felt a twinge of guilt, but pushed it aside. He was certainly gaining his own pleasure too.

  As they lay in each other’s arms, Nicky’s stomach rumbled noisily.

  “I see you need to be fed. It’s nearly noon, no wonder you’re hungry.” His smile was potent as Nicky melted under her husband’s gaze.

  After a quick kiss, he stood up and pulled on his clothes. Commanding her to sleep, he went to rustle up some game to eat. She smiled at his concern. Tyler Calhoun turned sweet. Who would have thought?

  She dozed on and off, but she felt a niggle of doubt when Tyler didn’t return. Awkwardly, she dressed herself and rose to her feet. After a few shaky steps, she looked around the ravine, but saw no trace of him. The doubt turned to concern. She eyed the rope hanging down the side and shrugged. With a bit of struggle, she climbed to the top of the ravine using only one hand. Her sprained arm throbbed some, but it wasn’t too bad. It was her body’s weakness that surprised her.

  Winded, Nicky sat on her knees until she caught her breath. Tyler’s horse grazed on the thin brush. Her saddle sat on a rock, and hanging from the side was her gun belt, the pistols tucked into the holsters. She stared at it, her heart doing double time. He obviously hadn’t expected her to climb up here. She licked her lips and approached the saddle. A cool breeze caressed her face as she reached out her shaking hand to the gun belt. Jack’s initials gleamed in the sun on the handles of the Colts. J.M. That’s why she’d picked the name Jesse Miller. Her alias had to match the pistols.

  Oh, Jack, I miss you, all of you. I want a normal family again. I want Tyler. I want to have Tyler’s babies.

  “Go ahead and take ‘em,” said Tyler from behind her. Like a streak of lightning, she grabbed the pistol and whipped around toward Tyler with an instinct born of being on the run, a surge of adrenaline coursing through her veins. Tyler didn’t flinch from the gun barrel, but his eyes looked like blue ice.

  “Tyler, you scared me,” she said shakily as she lowered the pistol and replaced it in its holster.

  “I see you’re feeling better.” His cold eyes raked her up and down with a slight sneer to his lips.

  She nodded silently, shifting from foot to foot. Where was the Tyler that had made such sweet love to her? This cold-eyed stranger had taken his place again.

  “I said, take ‘em.” His voice was even colder than his eyes. “You’ll need them. I’m not taking you back to Cheshire.”

  With that he turned on his heel and shimmied down the rope into the ravine again. Scowling, she followed her husband, slowly descending to the ground using her one good arm. Ignoring her body’s protest, she was fueled by confusion and hurt caused by Tyler’s behavior. What was going on?

  Tyler had snared a rabbit and was readying it for cooking as Nicky approached him.

  “What do you mean, you’re not taking me to Cheshire?”

  His gaze shifted to hers for a brief moment. She gasped at the deadness in his eyes. Her confusion began to turn to anger.

  “Tyler,” she said more forcefully. “Are you letting me go?”

  “Yes, woman, are you dense?”

  For a full minute, Nicky merely stared at him while he worked. She couldn’t speak just yet. Her mind whirled with a thousand questions. And she was trying desperately not to hit him upside the head.

  “What about us? I mean, we’re married in every sense of the word.”

  “Not every sense. I’ll have it taken care of when I get back to Houston.”

  “Calhoun, you…you just can’t do that. You’re going to just cut me loose? Thanks for the tumble, but so long? I don’t think so.”

  She was absolutely furious, and felt as if her heart was tearing in two at the same time. She yanked on his shirt to try to make him stand and fight. It was like pulling on solid rock.

  “Stand up.”

  He did as she bade, rising to his full height, staring down at her. Only the telltale twitch in his cheek spoke of his inner turmoil. Was it only a short time ago that they had lain in each other’s arms?

  “You will not just let me go. You will help me prove my innocence and then, and only then, will we decide what to do about this marriage.” Tyler’s expression did not change. “What’s the matter, Calhoun? Afraid?”

  His jaw tightened as he extracted her hand from the front of his shirt.

  “Look, you want to go, so just go.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Nicky, I’m not a fool. Don’t treat me like one.”

  Nicky wanted to scream in frustration. “Tyler, are you angry with me? Please, tell me what’s going on.” She tried to touch his arm, but he stiffened and pulled away from her.

  “You can’t bear for me to touch you now? This morning must have meant a helluva lot more to me than to you, Calhoun.” She couldn’t completely disguise the hurt in her voice.

  “What do you want me to think? You try to run away again even before you’re fully healed from the last try, then you pull a gun on me, and somehow you plead innocent.”

  “Run away? Run away?” she parroted. “Is that what you think?”

  Tyler’s silence confirmed her question.

  “Jesus, you think very little of me, don’t you?” She squeezed the words out of her throat. “Tyler, I was not running away. The pistols used to belong to my brother, Jack. I was…wishing I could be part of my family again. To feel loved, to feel wanted. To have a future beyond the next ten minutes. To not have to know people like Hermano. To stop running.”

  She hugged herself with her good arm as she walked a few feet away from her husband. She kept her back to him so he wouldn’t see the pain she knew was shining in her eyes. She couldn’t completely blame him for his accusation since she had tried to run away more than once.

  “I have a proposition for you, Tyler. You come with me to North Platte, Nebraska and meet the two women I helped to escape from that bastard, Owen. If you still don’t believe me, then take me back to Cheshire. If you do…” Her voice trailed off. “Then I don’t know.”

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Don’t you want your freedom? Why do you want me to go with you, to help you?”

  Because I love you. Nicky’s mouth opened to speak, but she couldn’t voice the words her heart was screaming so loudly. How could she tell him she loved him? He obviously didn’t feel the same way, and she wasn’t about to put her head in that noose. She turned back toward him.

  “Because I can’t do it alone. And I need you to believe me.” She opted for a partial truth.

  The sincerity in her voice apparently made Tyler hesitate from his resolve to rid himself of his wife. After a moment of studying her face, he spoke.

  “All right. To North Platte then. And no tricks.”

  Her anger licked at her again. It was just like him to assume she was going to try something underhanded. She could’ve saddled his horse and been halfway to somewhere else before he came back. But she hadn’t…couldn’t.

  “Agreed. And no shackles either.”

  She smiled then, relishing the anger that passed over his face. She’d show Tyler Calhoun what she was made of…and hoped he’d love her for all she was.

  Chapter Thirteen

  He ate the food, but didn’t taste it. He was silently licking the wounds she’d intentionally, or unintentionally, inflicted upon him. After they ate, they began to gather everything up to leave the ravine. Each time their hands accidentally brushed, Tyler thought he saw Nicky flinch. Each flinch was another injury to his heart.

  As they climbed up and out for the last time,
he tried not to think of the wonder and heaven he’d found in that dirty ravine. He tried not to think about the injured woman who was climbing up with one good arm. Tyler was climbing up behind her, and he tried not to stare at her behind and remember how it felt to caress it, kiss it. Get a hold of yourself, Calhoun.

  As he brushed himself off, he watched her approach her saddle. He could sense her hesitation.

  “I hate to leave it behind,” Nicky said, biting her lip.

  “Do you expect me to carry it on my head or strapped to my back?” Tyler’s voice was laced with sarcasm. He was angry and hurt and she was the nearest target.

  “You don’t need to be so mean about it. I’ve had this saddle for more than ten years. My papa had it made especially for me.”

  Tyler rolled his eyes in frustration. “I’ll buy you a new one.”

  She shook her head and frowned at him. “It’s the last tie to the girl I was. When I leave it behind, I’m leaving Nicky Malloy behind.”

  Tyler gritted his teeth together and swallowed the sharp retort. He needed to stop taking his anger out on her. It wasn’t helping their situation at all. “You’re not Nicky Malloy anymore. You’re Nicole Calhoun.”

  “Nicole Calhoun,” she repeated as if tasting the name. “Yeah, I guess I am…for now, right?”

  Tyler didn’t respond to her jibe. He didn’t expect her to stay with him, didn’t dare voice the little thought running through his brain. Nicole Calhoun, always. He loaded their saddlebags onto Sable. “Are you ready?”

  Her gaze jumped to his broad back and she narrowed her eyes. “In a hurry to get rid of me?”

  He ignored her.

  “You can’t ever give a little, can you? Give someone a little, they take a lot.”

  Back off, magpie. There is no future for us.

  She turned and approached him with sure steps. “This is from the man who hunts killers and thieves. You know what you’ve seen, but you don’t see me,” she stated, poking him with her finger sharply.

  Almost against his will, he looked her in the eyes. She was angry, but he also saw pain and fear. He had put a good deal of that pain there, but he couldn’t take it away. She wasn’t meant to be with him for the rest of her life. It just couldn’t be.