She understood why he’d taken the position. The shaman didn’t hide his concern over her continued plans to hunt down the men who killed her father. She could argue they would never face punishment. They’d killed a marshal and a judge, then fled the open federal lands and Indian Territory for the state of Tennessee. In Tennessee, what her father had done was tantamount to stealing the Ethan Harlow’s property. They hung people for that. Still, the lively debate distracted her from an otherwise long day of worrying about William.
They’d all told her no when she’d asked to go with them. While neither Wyatt nor Quanto explained their negative responses, William had. He’d asked her to wait. The idea that she distracted him exhilarated and worried her in the same breath and when he’d said he couldn’t be sure of anything if she were present on top of facing a town full of strangers, she’d believed him.
It didn’t help her nerves. She’d woke long before first light and heard them leaving. Climbing out of bed, she’d leaned against her window and watched them appear and disappear from the deep shadows around the barn. A part of her was certain that he’d seen her because he’d touched his hand to the brim of his hat and then he’d gone, melting away in the darkness.
Torn between racing out to welcome them home and making sure the meal was ready, she settled for serving out deep bowls of stew. Fortunately, Quanto had made the bread when hers turned out be better suited for brick laying. Cooking, she found, was surprisingly cathartic and, despite her initial resentment at their insistence she learn how to perform the task, she enjoyed it.
It helped that the men did the majority of the cooking and they’d all had a hand in teaching her how to cook. She’d thought she and Quanto would spend the day working on her gift, but he’d avoided it entirely in favor of the debate and the lesson about food and herbs. By the time she heard boots echoing on the porch, she was ready to throw something at them. They’d taken forever at the barn.
The door swung inward and her eagerness dimmed a fraction as Wyatt stepped inside. He balanced a sack of supplies on one shoulder and gestured with his thumb to the porch behind him. “Kid’s out there, if you want to go say hello.”
She hesitated for about three seconds then headed to the door. They could think whatever they liked. Wyatt said nothing as he held the door for her and closed it as soon as she’d stepped out onto the porch. Night on the mountain was dark, but a nearly full moon rose in the east, dappling the landscape in silvery light. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, but she found Kid leaning against a rail, the corners of his mouth tipped upward.
“Well?” she demanded in lieu of a greeting, having been on pins and needles for the entirety of the day. His smile faded and his shoulders lifted. Her heart stuttered. He’d worked so hard and she knew how important it was that he be successful. Disappointment for him threatened to crush her. “William…” Then the corner of his mouth twitched.
“It was all right,” he confessed.
She blew out a breath and swatted his arm. “You scared me.”
“No I didn’t.” He grinned wider. “Though it was very sweet that you were upset on my behalf.” When she would have retreated, he slipped an arm around her waist and brought her closer. It was almost impossible to stay irritated with him when his smile grew by the moment.
“You aren’t supposed to read me,” she reminded him. Perhaps his ability to tell what emotions she experienced at any given time should upset her, but she found security in understanding he would never knowingly hurt her.
“It was all over your face, Evelyn.” His voice dropped teasingly. “I can see with my eyes better than with my heart.”
“Oh.” Settling against him, she slid her arms around his waist. “Well, that’s all right then.”
“Interesting,” he murmured, studying her face.
“What is?” She hoped he intended to kiss her. They’d grown closer and their friendship flourished. The fact that she could touch him without his gift lashing out at him should have meant something more, but she couldn’t complain about the feeling of his arms. She liked being in them.
“You haven’t asked about your present.”
Confused, she frowned. “What present?”
“I went to a town, left you for a whole day, and you didn’t think I wouldn’t bring you a present?” His raised eyebrows and expectant expression were adorable, but she shook her head.
“Why would you bring me a present?”
“Didn’t your father ever bring you gifts when he traveled?” He looked positively appalled by the concept.
Evelyn laughed and the sound startled her, but then she smiled wider. For the first time since she’d seen him die, she could think about her father and smile. “William, I always traveled with my father. He never left me behind. I’m afraid that I am terribly unfamiliar with this custom of bringing gifts back from a journey.”
“Hmmm.” He appeared to ponder the idea. “Then mine will be your first?”
A shiver traveled up her spine. “In a manner of speaking, yes.”
The corner of his mouth quirked up higher and he leaned closer. Her lips parted in anticipation, but instead of kissing her, he turned her around and pointed at a chair. “Your gift is right there.” His lips brushed her ear and a second thrill chased the first. Swallowing a half formed scream of frustration, she peered through the darkness at the brown paper wrapped package, tied with some twine. At his nudge, she edged forward and picked it up.
The package had weight to it. Sitting down, she tried to make out any writing on it, but the brown paper was hardly revealing even if the rectangular shape suggested more about the contents. Glancing up, she found William staring at her almost eagerly. “I don’t understand why you bought me a present.” She fought to keep her tone even and her expression genuinely curious while inside delight bounced away.
“Because.” He tugged his hat off and tossed it on the table next to her before squatting down in front of the chair, brushing her legs with his. “You deserved a present.”
“How does one deserve a present?” Her fingers tightened on the brown package, letting the harder edges bite into her flesh to keep her expression still. If he wasn’t reading her, he wouldn’t sense the game—she hoped.
His frown betrayed him and he started laughing. “All right, you almost got me. Open your present.”
Making a face, she indulged in a childish urge to stick her tongue at him before ripping off the paper. “That’s cheating.”
“No, that’s who I am.” Warning echoed in the quiet words and she paused to look at him.
“I know that, William.”
“Do you?” He braced a hand on the side of the chair. “I feel other people. I am always going to feel them. I may control it better, I may be able to block it out some, but reading them, feeling what they’re feeling? Feeling what you’re feeling? That’s who I am. It can make people uneasy. I need to know you understand that you really can’t lie to me.”
Her stomach clenched. Everything about this moment was important. “I know. Maybe it should bother me.” She licked her lips, searching. Then she stopped trying to find the words and held out her hand to him. “Read me. Does it bother me?”
A flicker of uncertainty danced in the shadows around his eyes, but he took her hand and lifted it to his mouth, turning it over so he could press a kiss to her palm. His gaze never left hers. Need plunged through her riding a wave of wild, almost indescribable heat, and her breath caught in her throat.
William was safety in the storm, but he was also a comfort—one who made her laugh when he teased her out of black thoughts. He helped her when he didn’t have to and he was always unfailingly kind. When she hurt him, he came back. Though being around her could be difficult for him, he never blamed her. Even knowing her intimately, he never pressed his advantage. If anything, his reticence made her crazy.
She hid none of it, letting the torrent of emotion flow through her. Uncertain of how much of her message would come
through, she leaned forward in the chair, nose to nose. “I trust you.” The three words said everything as far as she was concerned. She trusted in him.
His eyes fluttered closed and she held her breath. When they opened again, she couldn’t mistake the raw vulnerability in them for anything else. He’d needed to hear those words, to feel them. Forgetting the present entirely, she cupped his face and closed the final gap between them to press her lips to his.
At first he stiffened, but his mouth opened under her innocent caress. He fisted his hand in her hair and tangled their tongues together. The heat raging through her turned liquid and she wanted to crawl onto him, hold on and never come up for air. A groan rolled through her as his tongue slid along her teeth and then stroked hers. Somehow her hands moved to his shoulders and the taut muscles beneath his shirt clenched.
The lightest of tugs against her hair held her in place as he broke from the caress and stared at her. His gaze fastened on her lips and she couldn’t seem to catch her breath. “Everything about me makes sense when I’m right here,” he whispered and his honesty turned her upside down. “I want to show you something and I need your permission to do it.”
“Anything,” she dug her fingers into his shoulders. “Anything you want.”
“I’ve never tried to do this before, not like this.” The tips of his fingers massaged her scalp as his hand fisted and released her hair over and over. He glanced from her to the quiet house behind her and then back.
“It’s all right.” She let her trust for him shine in her eyes. Shivers rolled over her when he ran the knuckles of his free hand down her cheek. His eyes darkened and pleasure, deep, and robust trickled through her followed by a wave of delight and then warmth, tempting and decadent. Her breath came in reedy gasps as the emotional explosions detonated within her.
“This is how I feel about you,” he murmured. “I want you to know how much I want you.”
She swayed under the waves as they eddied, washing over her and retreating like a thousand butterfly kisses setting of a chain reaction in every part of her body. “It’s beautiful.”
William smiled. “So are you. So very, very beautiful.”
Trembling from the weight of it, she bit her lip. “It’s too much.” And the blasts of delight muted and retreated, but they couldn’t all go away. The sense of his regard, of his deep affection, wrapped her up and, even as his fingers relaxed, she knew he would show her again if she asked. “I don’t know what to say to all of that.” Giddiness left her dizzy.
“In this, I don’t think words are all necessary. Not even your big ones.” The teasing helped float her back to earth and she giggled.
“I think I shall have to learn one just for the occasion.” The depth of his emotion, the wealth of it, was so amazing. She wanted to keep it tucked up against her heart, to protect it for how precious it was.
“Well, while you work on that—would you like to look at your present?”
Another laugh escaped, this one more self-conscious than the first. “I can’t imagine what it could possibly be better than what you shared with me.”
“I like a challenge,” he grinned.
Still quivering, she peeled her hands from his shoulders, grateful he stayed where he was and for the feeling of his fingers combing through her hair, playing with the strands. It was both erotic and soothing at once. Tearing away the rest of the brown paper, she looked down at the first book—for there were two. So she’d been right about the shape.
“Mythology of the Greeks and the Romans,” she read the cover aloud. The second one made her laugh loudly. “Animals of the West, Warnings and Advice for the Traveler.”
“You like to read. Also, these were the only two they had.” The rueful note beneath the smile in his words tickled her.
“I love them,” she mouthed the words and leaned forward to kiss him, a tender, soft buss on the corner of his mouth. “Thank you very much for my present—though should you leave again, I expect I shall want another.”
The playfulness in his grin grew. “Then you shall have to receive another.” The silence stretched between them as she split her attention between the books and his face. When his stomach made a rumbling noise, her eyes widened.
“I made you dinner, a stew. Quanto showed me how.”
“I can’t wait.” But he didn’t move away.
The banter and the mischief in his smile couldn’t ease the naked desire in his eyes and she didn’t want them to, but they weren’t alone and all it would take was Quanto or Wyatt opening the door. “Later.” She promised and if her boldness surprised him, he didn’t let it show.
With reluctance, he let go of her hair and rose, pulling her up, careful of the books. Her legs felt like jelly and she worried they wouldn’t hold her, but his strength was there. His arm supported hers and he leaned down to brush his mouth against hers once more. “Tonight.”
Now her legs definitely wouldn’t hold her and she leaned on him, heart racing. “Yes.” It was the only word that would do. She wasn’t sure they’d make it to the door, but once there, she paused and looked at him. “William?”
“Evelyn?”
“Tonight.” No question, no hesitation. The need crawling through her was damn near unbearable.
“Yes.”
Chapter 19
Kid, The Mountain
The beat of his heart was a loud, deep, gong resounding every moment of the lengthy dinner. In the rational part of his mind he understood the conversation composed of normal exchanges, such as plans for the coming weeks, Ike and Rudy’s intention to leave for Mexico the following day, and the weather turning to the warmest days of the year—though in truth, heat on the mountain couldn’t compare to sultry summers on the ranch. He barely listened to any of it, his attention nearly wholly preoccupied by the woman sitting across from him.
For her part, Evelyn kept flipping through the books he’d given her rather than participating in the conversation. The other men noticed, because Evelyn didn’t typically act as the uninvolved bystander. Each time her gaze lifted to collide with his, a volatile reaction of emotion rocked his body and it didn’t come from her. It came from an unfamiliar and unexpected source. Him.
In between bites of stew, he kept checking the new shield,the one he’d layered inside the other. He’d been experimenting with different layers, each one successively muting out others reactions. Sharing his feelings with her on the porch lit him up like an incandescent beacon and when he worried that it would bleed out onto everyone around them, he’d begun adding another layer. The practice gave him something to do other than imagining stripping her out of her clothes and taking his time to feast all of his senses on her.
Soon. The promise burned in her eyes and he smiled as he took another bite. He planned to take her up on her promise as soon as the other men settled for the night. Fortunately, Wyatt didn’t linger in the shadows of the house any more and retreated to his own set of rooms, located above the barn. Apparently, staying in the house wasn’t his custom. With Kid’s control growing each day, he no longer watched over him like a sparrow hawk awaiting his gift to scurry out of control so he could swoop in for the kill.
The dreamwalker had plans to check on his other children, which meant he’d be occupied for hours. Kid grinned against the spoon. Hours and hours.
“Glad you like the plan.” Wyatt’s dry observation pulled Kid’s attention from his passion-drenched thoughts. “Considering it will be a lot of work.”
Uncaring at this point what plan he’d agreed to, Kid shrugged. “Hard work doesn’t scare me.”
Wyatt’s look spoke volumes, but Kid ignored it. He understood the other man’s reservations, but it didn’t mean he had to share them. He’d listened to all the reasons he should stay wary of Evelyn, yet the simple truth was he only needed one reason to not be—she’d listened to his story, heard all of the things that he had done, and yet she continued to trust him. It was a gift he could not and would not ignore.
/> Evelyn excused herself first and Wyatt shortly thereafter, but Kid forced himself to remain at the table. He knew Quanto wanted to speak to him. He could even imagine the subject. Quanto had warned him off once and he’d respected the request…until now.
“You are doing well,” the shaman began, his hands folded together on the table. Kid inclined his head, acknowledging the compliment, and waited. Unlike Wyatt, Quanto always began from the positive perspective and worked his way up to discussing whatever issue he may or may not have. “Wyatt said you handled being in town.”
Another nod. “It wasn’t easy and I think the hour I spent in the saloon was the most I could take. But I also learned more…” Like adding another layer of shielding. He couldn’t afford to be emotionally blind to threats around him, but using the shields to mute the bleed could filter the information he needed and keep him from being overwhelmed. It seemed simple enough, but he knew it would take time to acclimate. As eager as he was to have absolute control, he wasn’t willing to rush it and hazard making mistakes.
He’d made enough.
“Then I have a question for you.”
Kid waited.
“What do you want to do next?”
Evelyn… Kid kept that thought private. “Continue to train, to test my limits, to see the finite lengths to which my control can go.” Because, as he’d told Evelyn on the porch, his gift was very much a part of who he was. He would always feel others and he could admit he needed that aspect of himself. Like his sight and his hearing, his empathic senses were a vital part of him. “I want to go home eventually, but not until I’m certain I won’t hurt them or be overwhelmed again.”
A bitter truth—his love for his family might very well prove the most fatalistic flaw. He cared about them and what happened to them. Staying out of their emotions would be harder than anything he’d attempted. He hated it when they hurt.
“Understanding your conflicting desires is the first step toward controlling them.” Approval rang in his voice. “Do you have any messages you wish me to pass along?”
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