Her large, apprehensive eyes flicked to his. Jake met her gaze, determined not to shut himself off from her this time. How could he expect complete honesty from her until he was ready to risk it himself? He couldn’t continue to cloak all the good in his heart to conceal one miserable secret. There were other things within him that she needed to see—mainly the love and tenderness he felt for her.
He sensed that his repeated reluctance to let her delve too deeply had troubled her. In a way, he understood why. As bewildered and wary as she was, as hard as she tried to camouflage that, her eyes were like windows. Perhaps that was an inherent part of the gift God had given her, and she couldn’t help how communicative her eyes were. Regardless, though, she shared all that she was when she looked at you, and it was bound to make her feel leery when another didn’t. He had given it a lot of thought and decided he’d rather have her know he had secrets than to think he was hiding something worse.
“It’s a special gift, your being able to communicate with creatures. Don’t you realize that? Even if I can never learn how, won’t you at least try to share it with me?”
Her mouth tightened. “If you’re so convinced such a communication exists, let Sonny teach you.”
Jake chuckled. “He’s too busy chasing bugs. Besides, I don’t want him to teach me.” He drew her closer. “Please?”
She nibbled her lip, looking as though she felt cornered. “It’s not something you can teach, Jake. It just happens.”
“So you do talk to the animals?” He held her gaze, praying she would find the courage to say yes. “That’s why Toothless trusts you, isn’t it? And why you have no fear of him. You’ve looked into his heart, haven’t you?”
By her expression, Jake knew he had finally hit on the right words. She could deny that she “talked” to the animals. That wasn’t really a lie, because it wasn’t a verbal communication.
“It’s done with feelings, isn’t it?” he pressed. “Not something you hear—not messages that can be expressed with language—just a sharing of emotion.”
He saw her small hands curl into fists. “Why does it matter to you?”
Jake smiled. Wasn’t that the entire problem? She was terrified that it would matter. “It’s no crime to be different.”
She averted her face and closed her eyes.
“You can’t hide what you are,” he whispered with gruff tenderness. “Don’t you know how precious you are to me? I’ve known you talked to the wild creatures since the first.”
“It’s not really talking. It’s—” She turned frightened eyes to his. “It’s not like that at all.”
He ran his fingertips over the delicate vertebrae in her upper spine. “Why are you afraid to tell me about it? I’m not so different from Toothless, am I? If you can trust a cougar, why can’t you learn to trust me?”
She pulled away. “I trust you.”
His hand still poised in midair, Jake curled his fist around the nothingness and accepted that he had once again failed to reach her. It was ironic that a girl who could so easily delve into the hearts of others couldn’t find the truth within her own.
He fixed his gaze on some distant trees. From the corner of his eye, he caught movement, but preoccupied as he was, he didn’t pay it any heed. As it drew closer, however, the flash of black and white kicked his sixth sense into gear and a tingle of alarm shot up his spine. He glanced past Indigo and saw—Damn, it was a skunk, and it was marching right up to them as if they’d sent it an invitation to dine.
Jake tensed, then forced himself to relax. A skunk. Of course, a skunk. He had nearly forgotten he was sitting there with Indigo, the champion of creatures, large and small.
“Honey, we’ve got company. A friend of yours, I hope.”
She glanced over her shoulder, “Oh, it’s Stinky.”
“How apt.” Jake sniffed, then wished he hadn’t. “He won’t spray me, will he?”
“No, of cour—” Before she could finish answering, Sonny leaped out from behind some brush and cannoned toward the skunk, snarling and snapping the air. With a horrified expression on her face, Indigo cried, “Sonny, no!”
Jake immediately guessed how the wind was going to blow. Already tensed to run, he shot to his feet, snagged Indigo’s arm, and tore away with her. He heard Sonny yelp. The next instant, he was running blind. His eyes felt on fire. His lungs convulsed on the most awful smell on earth. Then a horrible, gut-wrenching nausea struck him. He heard Indigo gag beside him.
“Shit!”
Jake tripped over a limb and crashed to his knees. The next moment he was vomiting. Between heaves, he kept calling to Indigo, but she didn’t answer him. When his sight finally started to clear, he saw that she was lying on her side nearby, looking as green as he felt. Sonny was rolling and scrubbing his nose in the dirt, whimpering pitifully.
“He got us,” Indigo said weakly.
For some insane reason, her statement of the obvious struck Jake as hysterically funny and he started to laugh. His arms buckled, and he rolled over onto his back. Slanting an arm across his eyes, he finally managed to say, “I think you’re right,” between breaths.
“I’m sorry. I should never have made friends with a skunk.”
“Better a friend than an enemy.” Jake started to laugh again. He clamped a hand over his stomach. “Oh, God, I’m sick.”
She slowly sat up. “So will everyone else be who dares to get near us. It doesn’t wash off.”
Jake sobered. “For how long?”
“Days, sometimes weeks.” She plucked at the back of her shirt and gagged. “Oh, Jake, I’m sorry. I think Ma’s got some remedy made from tomatoes. Maybe that will work.”
He sniffed. “I don’t think he got us straight on.”
She managed a quavery smile. “You’re just getting used to it. In an hour or so, you won’t even realize you stink.” She worried her bottom lip. “Are you angry?”
Jake chuckled. “Honey, if there was anyone on earth I would choose to be exiled with, it’d be you. I do think we’d better teach Sonny some manners with your friends, however.”
She pushed unsteadily to her feet and glanced toward the remains of their meal.
“Just leave it. The basket’s ruined anyway.”
She nodded. “I know. I was just looking for poor Stinky.”
Poor Stinky? Jake started to laugh again.
Chapter 20
“OH, LANDS! STAY BACK!” LORETTA PUSHED the door nearly closed, then peered out at Jake and Indigo through the crack. “Indigo, I swear, when will you ever learn?”
“Stinky wasn’t aiming at us, Ma. It was Sonny.”
“Aiming or no, he got you good.” Loretta waved her hand.
Indigo plucked at her shirt and wrinkled her nose. “Do you have something that might help?”
Loretta sighed. “I’ve got some tomatoes preserved. But mind, don’t get any in your mouth and wash with soap after.”
“I thought they proved tomatoes weren’t poison,” Jake said.
Loretta shot him a challenging look. “Have you seen anybody eat one and live to tell it?”
Jake and Indigo chose bathing spots along the creek some distance from each other. It immediately became apparent to Jake, however, that he couldn’t reach the places where he had been sprayed the worst. After donning his soiled pants, he sought out Indigo, whom he found bathing in a bend of the stream, shielded from view by brush and still wearing her chemise. Without a doubt, the girl trusted him with her life.
He smiled and picked his way down the bank toward her, happy for once to live up to her worst expectations. After all, he had tried the other route, proving her wrong about him at every turn.
“I’ll scrub your back if you’ll scrub mine.”
At the sound of his voice, she started and let out a squeak. “Jake! What’re you—” She sank in the water and stared at him, looking more adorable than she had a right to with her unbraided hair hanging in wet ropes over her face. “I’m not decent.”
>
He had noticed that, yes. Scratching his ear, Jake eyed her with dry amusement. Sonny scampered by him, stopping every few steps to shake and scrub himself dry on the grass. From the wet condition of his coat, Jake assumed she had already bathed him. “Are we going to let the culprit of all this be the only one to come out smelling like roses? You’re wearing your chemise. I can reach under it to wash you. And I’ll keep my britches on.”
He made it sound safe enough. The trouble was that he didn’t look harmless standing there in wet jeans and no shirt. He looked everything but, all bronzed maleness and rippling muscle, his ebony hair tousled and dripping water. She cast a glance at the lapping current. What could happen in the creek?
“All right,” she finally agreed.
He came wading toward her, his jar of tomatoes held high in one hand. “I’ll go first.” He handed her the jar and turned his back to her. “Get the back of my neck and shoulders good. I think that’s where I got it the worst.”
Indigo was freezing, so she didn’t waste time. She quickly scrubbed him with tomato, then, while he rinsed, grabbed her bar of soap off a nearby rock and lathered her palms. Beneath her massaging fingers, the bunched muscle in his shoulders and back felt as hard as steel, yet silken and warm. She ran her fingertips up the thick column of his neck, marveling at how he was made. Where she had bones poking out, he was padded with strength.
After she finished lathering his hair, he dove under to rinse, then surfaced to shake. A spray of water fanned across her. He grabbed the second jar of tomatoes. “Okay, your turn.”
He waded up behind her and groped for the hem of her chemise. When his hand grazed her bare fanny, she leaped.
“What’re you doing?”
He chuckled. “I can’t see under the water. Sorry.”
He didn’t sound very sorry. She held her breath as his warm, leathery palm skimmed up her back. He didn’t give her time to worry as he smeared on the tomato and began scrubbing.
“I’m afraid your chemise is ruined.”
His voice sounded oddly tight and a little hoarse. Indigo decided it was probably from the cold. “I’ve got others. It’s bloomers I’m short on.”
She thought she detected a smile in his voice when he said, “What a shame.”
There was laughter in his tone, and an unspoken challenge as well. “Ma’s got muslin in her yardage barrel. I’ll buy some from her and whip up some more bloomers on her Wheeler-Wilson.”
“I don’t know . . .” He curled warm fingers around her nape. “I can think of better ways to spend my money.”
Indigo’s pulse quickened. Trying to gauge his mood, she glanced back as he gathered her thick tresses in a fist. His expression was unreadable. When he finished working the remedy through her hair, he told her to hold her breath and dunked her to rinse her off. Then he led her to the shallows.
Indigo plucked at the front of her chemise, feeling self-conscious. The wet muslin was nearly transparent and clung to her skin. It made little sucking sounds when she pulled it away from her breasts, then immediately cleaved to her when she let go. Jake’s dark eyes slid slowly over her.
“Honey, relax. I’m not looking.”
Indigo had just seen him look. She eyed him suspiciously. There was a mischievous twinkle in his gaze. He seized her wrist and drew her to her knees. His fingers on her scalp felt wonderful. The only other person who had ever washed her hair was Ma, and she had tiny hands. Just one of Jake’s covered Indigo’s head. His touch was as gentle as her ma’s, but firmer, his fingertips moving in circular motions that pulled at the muscles in her neck. Lulled by the sensation, she let the tension flow from her shoulders and surrendered to his strength.
After several latherings and rinsings, he pronounced her hair clean. Wringing it out and drawing it forward over her shoulder, she stood so he could wash her back.
She wasn’t prepared for the slick heat of his hands on her bare skin. Her breath caught as his fingers skimmed across her.
“God, you feel like satin,” he whispered next to her ear.
Indigo’s stomach clenched, and a fiery heat began to build deep within her. She closed her eyes. She felt his hand slide up her side. Had she been sprayed by the skunk there? She supposed the stench was all over her. His hand, slick and hot, glided over her hip to her belly. The heat of his chest and flat stomach pressed against her back. His fingers gently kneaded her abdomen. Then he dove a fingertip into her navel.
Indigo gasped and stiffened. He dropped the soap and slipped his other arm around her. “Just be still,” he said hoarsely. “You said you trust me, remember? Just before Stinky came along.” The smile still lingered in his voice. “And if you trust me . . .”
He left the sentence unfinished. Even if she had tried to move, she couldn’t have. His right arm was like a vise around her. Feeling weak, she leaned her head back. He sank with her into the water to rinse the soap from her skin. The cold curled around her, but his heat held the bite of it at bay. His mouth found hers, his lips wet and cool, yet laced with fire. She moaned when his tongue touched hers. The world went into a spin, the sky, the water, the trees all blurring in a kaleidoscope of color. Then he slid his hand from her belly to her breast.
Hardened against the cold, her nipple was shocked by the warmth of his palm. His fingertips felt like fire when they clasped the rigid peak. She whimpered at the jolt of sensation that zigzagged through her. In the back of her mind, she knew she should at least try to twist away, but she couldn’t find the strength of will to make herself do it. He was making her feel so wonderful, weak and trembly, deliciously warm yet shivering.
He lifted his head, momentarily freeing her mouth. On a jagged breath, he whispered, “My God, you’re precious.”
Entrapped by the tangled sensations erupting inside her, she couldn’t find her voice. Jake looked down at the stunned expression on her small face and smiled as another shiver ran over her. With her head tipped back, he could see the wild pulse in her throat. He hated to shatter the mood, but it was too damned cold to make love to her in the creek.
Reluctantly, he moved his hand from her breast and bent to gather her into his arms. Water streamed from their bodies as he carried her from the stream and up the bank. He knew the exact moment when passion lost its hold on her. Her body snapped taut, and she curled an arm around his neck, straining to see.
Jake covered ground fast, his aim to get her into bed as quickly as he could, before she had too much time to think. Despite his haste, she looked wide-eyed and wary when he carried her through the house and into the bedroom. Not that he was surprised. She was innocent, not stupid. When he lowered her feet to the floor beside the bed, she tried to move away.
“Oh, no,” he said huskily. “Not this time.”
Ignoring the alarm on her face, he grasped her chemise. She foiled his attempt to disrobe her by hugging her breasts.
“Indigo . . .” After her reaction to him in the creek, he knew she was ready; she just didn’t understand the signals her body was sending her. “Raise your arms, sweetheart.”
She stared up at him. For a moment, he thought she might choose now, of all times, to disobey him. But after a moment, she did as he asked. He jerked the chemise up to her elbows, left it there to entangle her arms, and bent his head to her breasts as he lowered her to the bed. The instant his mouth homed in on its target, she gasped and bucked with her hips, flailing to get her arms free from the wet muslin. Sensing her panic, he drew back.
“Whoa,” he soothed. “Just be still.” He peeled the dripping muslin off over her hands. “There, you see? There’s no need to feel frantic.”
Her huge blue eyes sought his through the evening gloom. He could feel her breasts swelling against his chest with every breath, and the longing he felt was so sharp, he shook from it.
“Jake?” she squeaked. She strained to swallow, then licked her lips. “Y-you’re getting our bed wet.”
Her attempt to distract him was so obvious that he would
have chuckled had there been a trace of humor left in him. “I don’t give a damn about the bed.”
Her eyes grew rounder. “What are you going to do to me?”
Indigo knew, of course. The smoldering heat of his gaze left her in no doubt. Her numb brain registered her nakedness and the warmth of his chest against her breasts. The breadth of his glistening bronze shoulders filled her vision.
“I’m going to make love to you,” he whispered silkily. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. I promise you that.”
And with that pronouncement, he began.
He started off with a kiss that stole her breath. An airless pounding began in her temples, and dread built within her. His heartbeat, quick and hard, thrummed through her. He slid a hand over her hip. She knew by the rigidity in his body and the fast sound of his breathing that he wasn’t going to stop.
She wrenched her mouth from his, wanting the kind, gentle Jake she knew, not this hungry, frenzied man who was squashing her into the feather mattress. “A-are you g-going to hurt me?”
“I’ll tell you before that happens. Trust me, honey.”
Trust him? Indigo strained to keep her mouth away from his.
When he had made several unsuccessful attempts to kiss her, he raised his head. “Indigo, look at me,” he whispered.
She forced herself to comply.
“I want to make this beautiful for you.”
Indigo didn’t see how pain could be made beautiful.
“Have I ever deliberately hurt you?” he asked.
“No.”
“Then trust me now,” he urged in a husky voice. “Just lie back and trust me.”
Just lie back? Franny had said that. Just lie back in a field of daisies. It’ll be over before you know it. Indigo closed her eyes. Daisies. A huge field of daisies. A gentle breeze. And warm sunshine on her face. Ah, yes, daisies. Daisies and birds singing. Daisies and the babbling of a nearby brook. Daisies and Jake’s tongue teasing the tip of her nipple.
Her eyes flew open, and she gasped. Making fists in his hair, she gave him a violent shove. “Don’t!” she cried. “Please, don’t, Jake. I—I can’t think when you do that.”
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