Saber didn't feel the cold wind as he unbuttoned her shirt, but she was vaguely aware of the horses stomping and the jingle of their bits.
"Saber," he said softly against her ear, feverishly hungry to feel her soft skin against him. His lips touched just behind her ear and slid down her neck. "Saber. I need you."
"Yes," she answered in a whisper, placing her hands on either side of his head and pulling it down to her fully exposed breasts. She wanted to feel his lips there, and she almost screamed when his lips touched the curve and slid to the nipple.
She threw her head back, her lower body grav itating toward his. She wanted to be closer to him, to feel all of him.
Reese knew he should stop, but he couldn't. He quickly removed his coat and laid it on the snow, taking her down on top of it.
She moaned with pleasure when his weight pressed her to the ground, and he pinned her with his powerful thighs.
He bent his head and took possession of her lips, but this time less frantically and more leisurely. He nudged her mouth open with his tongue and slid inside. She seemed startled for a moment, so he slowly introduced her to the new sensation. Gently his tongue swept across hers, and he felt hers curl.
Saber was aware that a swirling fog had settled around them, and she could hardly see the horses. The world became enchanted, the fog only adding to her pleasure. She felt Reese's hand at the waist of her trousers, and she arched toward him, wanting him to free her of everything that was between him and his bare flesh.
His voice was deep and resounded through her consciousness. "I have wanted this for so long." He untied the rope that held her trousers up and pushed them over her hips. "I want to feel all of you."
Her flesh quivered when his hand spread across her stomach and moved downward. She felt hot all over and wanted to throw all her clothing off. When he gently spread her legs, she groaned with pleasure that was painful and glorious at the same time.
Her words came out in a breathless sigh. "Oh, Reese, I didn't think you even liked me."
His eyes were crystalline, and she could see her reflection mirrored there. "Like you?" he said softly, touching his lips to the shell of her ear, his hand moving between her legs. "I can't take a breath without thinking of you." He trembled, wanting her, and he realized that what he was doing was wrong. "I know what it feels like to stand at the door of Eden knowing you can't enter."
Desire lingered and played along her nerve endings, and she ached from the touch of his hand. "If I am Eden, I will take you in, Reese."
He suddenly stiffened. What was he doing? He moved away from her so quickly, she slid off the coat onto the snow.
He grasped her arms and surged upward, taking her with him, pulling her shirt together and lifting her trousers. "Saber," he said in a voice devoid of emotion, "you will have to forgive me. I lost my head for a moment. That's no excuse, and it won't happen again."
"Reese, I-"
"You are very desirable, and you made me for get your bridegroom is my best friend."
The implication of his words and the coldness in his tone cut her deeply, and her lashes swept over her eyes to hide what she was feeling. "If you think that I set out to seduce you, you are wrong, Reese. I have never allowed anyone to touch me as you just have."
He walked away from her so she could not see the dampness in his eyes. He shoved his boot in the stirrup and swung onto the saddle. "Mount up. I'll take you back to the house."
Saber quickly buttoned her shirt and straightened her trousers about her waist. She picked up Reese's coat and handed it to him without meeting his gaze. She was hurting so badly, she thought she would die from the pain of it. How could Reese make such an unflattering assessment of her character?
She mounted her mare and nudged the animal forward at an all-out run. Suddenly she felt cold and dead inside. She had offered herself to him, and he had rejected her in a humiliating way. She couldn't get away from him soon enough to suit her.
Her mare never slowed its rapid gait, causing a spray of snow to fly out behind her. Tears were wet against her skin, and she brushed them angrily away. She never wanted to speak to him again as long as she lived!
The sun was going down when they reached the house. Saber rode the mare directly into the barn and dismounted. She knew Reese had followed her, but she refused to look in his direction as she unsaddled the mare and put it in a stall. With her head held at a proud angle, she moved purposefully toward the house.
Once inside the front door, she allowed the tears to fall. She had most certainly acted in an unladylike manner. Why had she allowed him to take such liberties? How he must despise her! He would never have touched her if she hadn't encouraged him. And he would never believe that she hadn't set out to entice him.
Moments later Reese entered, and their eyes met. He noticed the forlorn expression on her face and knew he was responsible for hurting her again. She didn't know that by hurting her, he'd wounded himself to the very core of his being. At the time he had used the only means he'd had to fight against taking her there in the snow. He had forced himself to say those hateful things to drive her away from him, because if she had touched him one more time, he would not have been able to stop until he was inside her.
He came up to her and removed her coat, draping it over his arm while he led her to the fire. "You are cold as ice. I don't want you sick."
She shook her head, and her stomach tightened in a knot. She could hardly draw a breath, her heart was pounding so hard. "How can I ask you to forgive me for what I've done? I feel so miserable, and I most humbly ask for your forgiveness."
His voice was deep and strained, his eyes intense. "It wasn't your fault. Don't you know that?" he asked gravely.
"You said that-"
"Forget what I said. You are an innocent. You only reacted to what I was doing to you. I'm the one who should ask your pardon." He moved to the coatrack and hung the coat there, keeping his back to her. "Will you forgive me, Saber?"
She frowned and walked over to him, forcing him to look at her. "Tell me what you want from me."
"I think you know."
His eyes were like hot silver, and she could no longer look into them. "How can I know unless you tell me?"
Reese drew in an impatient breath. "Nothing. I don't want anything from you." He turned away from her, but not before she saw the muscles in his neck cord and his teeth clench.
Saber had thought that she was beginning to know him so well. But there was a part of him that he kept hidden from her.
"You certainly have nothing to blame yourself for," she said.
"Yes, I do. I knew what I was doing you didn't." Frustration was reflected in his eyes. "Believe me in this, if you never believe anything else I say, Saber: I was manipulating you, so don't take the guilt that belongs to me alone."
She moved closer to the fire and held her hands to the warmth. "You are a gentleman, so therefore you are attempting to free me of my part in what happened." She glanced back at him. "It won't work." She licked her lips, deciding to tell him exactly what she had felt. "I liked what you did to me, Reese. I didn't want you to stop. You were the strong one not me. It was you who stopped it before it went too far."
He took a step toward her, trying to ignore the desire to throw honor to the wind. He had made her desire him because he wanted her to. He knew just what a woman liked, and she had responded to his prowess.
Her eyes were wide and innocent, and he saw the hurt she tried to conceal. It had been his duty to protect her, and he had very nearly stepped over the line and become the one she needed to be protected from.
"We could talk about this all night and still come to the same conclusion. I instigated what happened, and that's the end of it."
She was silent for a long time, not knowing what to answer. There was no warmth coming from him, and no sign of the man who had held her in his arms and kissed her that afternoon. "Then I will say good night."
His voice stopped her as she moved t
o the bedroom. "Saber, I will be gone when you get up in the morning, and I don't want you to be in the house alone. I will leave instructions for Jake to sleep here by the fire. I trust him with my life, and you will be safe with him. Have you any objections to him staying in the house with you?"
She paused in the doorway and turned back to him, frowning. "Do you expect trouble?"
"Not really. But I will not take a chance on your safety." He forced a smile. "Matthew would never forgive me." His eyes suddenly took on a serious expression. "And Saber, I don't want you to go out riding alone. If neither Gabe or Jake can go with you, then stay near the house."
She nodded. "I understand." She gazed past him, unable to look into his eyes. "How long will you be gone?"
"I don't know. Several days, a week, maybe more. It's hard to say."
She turned away, feeling that any time spent without him would seem like a lifetime. "Good night, Reese. Have a safe journey."
"Good night, Saber." When the door closed behind her, Reese stood for a long time staring at nothing. He closed his eyes and lowered his head. The hardest thing he'd ever had to do was walk away from her today, and the second hardest would be to leave her tomorrow.
Saber had tried to keep busy cleaning house and reading, but the day stretched on endlessly. She made the evening meal for Jake and Gabe because it gave her something to do, and they were always so grateful.
When Jake came in with an armload of wood, she was reading by the dim lamplight.
The young boy smiled shyly as he placed the wood in the bin. He stacked two logs on the fire before he spoke. "Miss Vincente, Reese said he wanted me to sleep in the house tonight, that I was to make my pallet by the fire."
"Yes, he told me, too."
She laid her book aside and smiled at him, trying to put him at ease. "Did you find anymore frozen cattle today?"
He nodded grimly. "Five head. We haven't checked by the mesa yet. I'm hoping some of the cattle took shelter there. It's enclosed on three sides, so they might have survived there."
She shook her head. "It is such a tragedy."
He eased his tall frame down beside the fire and folded his arms. "I'm sorry it had to happen to Reese. He's fought so long and hard to hold this place together. He's a good man and deserves better."
"Nature knows no friend when she's on the rampage, Jake."
"No, she don't," he agreed, bracing his back against the wall.
"Have you lived here long, Jake?"
"I'll be fifteen next month, and Reese found me when I was thirteen and brought me here to live." He looked pensive. "That would be two years come this April."
"You say he found you?"
"Yes, ma'am-that's exactly what he did. I don't know what would have happened to me if he hadn't taken me in and given me a home. My ma and pa were dead, killed by a fever along with my brother and two sisters. I'd fallen in with a rough bunch who were bound for trouble. I had me a gun, and I wanted to prove that I was as mean as anyone."
She leaned forward, enthralled by his story. "How did you meet Reese?"
"He was fresh out of the war; in fact, he still wore his tattered gray uniform. Me and my three friends got drunk and rode into San Antonio, shooting out windows and yelling and whooping it up, thinking we was big men. I don't know how we kept from killing someone with a stray bullet, but I'm glad we didn't. As it was, a bullet hit Reese in the upper arm while he was mounting his horse. I saw right away that I was in trouble because it was my bullet that struck him. The sight of his blood was enough to make me think twice about what I was doing."
"What happened?"
"Well, Reese ignored my friends and came right for me with a look of murder in his eyes. You know how powerful his eyes can be when he's mad. Well, he was mad at me. He yanked me off my horse, drug me over to the horse trough, and doused my head. He held me under till I almost drowned, and then he pulled me up again, and then dunked me again. By the time the sheriff got there, I was nigh onto sobering up. Reese refused to have the doctor take the bullet out of his arm until he talked to the law about me. When he learned I had no family, he wouldn't let them lock me up, and he brought me here. I ain't never had no one care if I lived or died since my family was buried. I guess Reese is about the best man I ever met. I'd do anything for him even die for him, if I had to." He grinned, feeling he was being too serious. "I guess the day I shot Reese was about the luckiest day of my life."
"That is extraordinary. Why do you suppose he cared what happened to you?"
"I asked him that very thing myself. He said I reminded him of himself as a boy. His ma ran off with his pa's most trusted friend, and Reese kinda raised himself and took care of his pa until he died. Reese was only fourteen at the time, but he kept this ranch. I can only imagine how hard he must have worked. He's been on his own since then."
Saber's heart wrenched inside her. Reese had never really had a proper family life; she could understand why the ranch was so important to him. If only he'd let her, she could help him. But he was such a proud man, he probably wouldn't take help from anyone.
She stood and replaced the book on the shelf. "Good night, Jake. I am comforted just knowing you are nearby."
"You don't have anything to be afeard of, Miss Vincente. If you need me, just call out, and I'll hear."
She smiled warmly. How perceptive of Reese to see that Jake only needed guidance and a home with someone to look up to as his hero. And it was clear Reese was the boy's hero. Just as Reese was her hero and always would be.
Saber closed the bedroom door and undressed. She pulled Reese's flannel shirt over her head and felt it fall softly about her like a smooth caress. She missed him so desperately. When she left here, they might never see each other again. How would she live the rest of her life without knowing what was happening to him?
It was a long time before Saber fell asleep, because for the first time in her life passion had stirred her body. She knew what it felt like to have a man touch her with such gentleness that she wanted to cry. She knew that she was capable of stirring that same passion in Reese. He'd wanted her; she knew that.
She felt strangely empty and unfulfilled. She was consumed by a desire and a need that she could not understand. But one thing she did know: NO other man, not even Matthew, could satisfy the hunger Reese had awakened in her.
She closed her eyes, imagining he was touching her. Then she turned her head and sobbed into her pillow.
Midnight had come and gone before she closed her eyes in sleep.
Reese left his horse at the stable and started for the hotel, where he expected to find either Matthew or some of his family. He hoped to hell Winna Mae was still there, because he could no longer trust himself alone with Saber after what had happened between them. He couldn't get the feel of her satiny skin out of his mind, or the way her blue eyes shone with passion when he had touched her breasts.
Thinking about her now made him want to get on his horse and ride back to the ranch. He paused at the door to the hotel. He had to have a woman to help him forget about Saber-he had to have one now!
He walked purposefully toward the saloon and thought of Edith with the large breasts that looked like they would fall over the top of her gown if she bent over. Then there was the redhead, Dotty, who had tempted him on occasion. Hell, he didn't care which one it was. He just wanted a woman!
When he entered the saloon, he found it crowded. He walked directly to the bar and ordered straight whiskey. Edith came up to him, touching her hip to his and smiling alluringly. "Well, well, Mr. Starrett, what can I do for you tonight?"
Her cheap perfume made his senses revolt, and he remembered Saber's clean, sweet smell.
Edith pressed more tightly against him, her breasts brushing his arm. "I have been waiting a long time to get you into my bed. I have heard stories that when Reese Starrett loves a woman, she compares every other man to him afterward." Her eyes dilated with expectation, and she leaned closer to him, whispering in his ear, "I al
so hear you're big and thick. I'd like to find out for myself."
Reese felt nothing but disgust for her. This woman and ten others like her wouldn't ease what was bothering him. No one would ever satisfy him but Saber.
"Let me buy you a drink," he said to Edith, moving a bit away from her.
"Then afterward we could go to my room," she suggested.
He downed his whiskey effortlessly and threw money on the bar. "I'm not your man, Edith. Your hair's the wrong color, and your eyes are not blue."
She watched Reese leave the saloon, puzzled and disappointed. Just what woman gave him his itch? Well, whoever it was, she wasn't going to get to scratch that itch for him-he just wanted the woman who was eating at his insides. She'd seen his symptoms before. Reese Starrett was in love, damn it!
A weak sun shining through a gray sky did little to banish the chill from the air. The people of Fort Worth were still pondering what had happened to Saber Vincente, and they were even more curious when they realized that her brother, Noble Vincente, was staying in town.
A group of women huddled near the general store watched Noble when he stepped into the sheriff's office. They put their heads together, each coming up with a valid reason for his visiting Sheriff Davis.
Noble found the sheriff asleep behind the desk. He leaned forward and said in a com manding voice. "Wake up, Davis. I hear you caught one of the Miller brothers."
The sheriff, Bud Davis, opened one eye and then the other. He thought the tall man dressed in Spanish trousers and a bolero jacket looked familiar, but he couldn't place him right off.
"Yeah. We got the youngest. Name's Sam, and he's plenty scared." The sheriff got to his feet, hiking up his holster where it had slipped beyond his ample belly. "And who might you be, stranger?"
"I'm Noble Vincente, and I want to question Sam Miller."
Bud Davis nodded, impressed by the importance of his visitor. "You got the right to talk to him if anyone does. You want me to bring him out here, or you want to go back to his cell?"
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