“’Tis a surprise.”
“A hint, then?”
Squeezing with his legs, he urged Ayegi to go faster. With an unladylike curse that almost made him laugh aloud, she urged Galiha into a trot and caught up.
“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you,” he said.
“Come now, just a hint is all. That’s not telling me.”
She went on to ask every manner of question conceivable about where they were going and why. Her renewed energy was reward in itself. He played along, giving her vague answers that kept her asking more questions. It did him good to see her so animated again. The chatting kept her distracted enough that she didn’t even notice the slight incline they started up.
Galiha nearly gave it away when one hoof slipped on the smooth rock. “Is this path safe?” she asked.
“Aye, just let him choose his steps. He’ll get you there safely,” he assured her.
Not wanting her to get ahead, he urged Ayegi into a brisk walk that soon had him moving out ahead of her. A cool, clean scent that he could taste on the back of his tongue touched the air just as the ground leveled out. The moon illuminated the small plateau they had ascended. Boulders framed two sides of the plateau, hiding them from anyone who might be in the valley below looking up. Nearly as important as that was the spring-fed pool of water nestled between the hollow of two boulders. At only half the size of a water trough, they wouldn’t be able to submerge in it, but it would be more than adequate to water the horses, refill their canteens, and even wash their clothes.
As Galiha stopped at the edge to drink, Cat swung down from the saddle.
Much to his surprise—and delight—she began peeling her boots off.
“A dip in the river would have been welcome, but this gives us cover from prying eyes. ’Tis perfect,” she said.
Rick dismounted beside her as Ayegi joined Galiha in trying to suck down the entire contents of the pool. A moment later Lincoln stuck his head between them both and lapped at the water.
“I’m glad you’re not disappointed.” He removed his boots and gun belt. “You may want to turn away, for the sake of propriety. I’ve endured the heat for far too long, and ’tis long past time for me to wash up,” he said.
She surprised him by reaching for the waist of her breeches. “Aye, that makes two of us!” she said with a delighted laugh as she turned away.
That laugh did sinful things to his body that made him roll his eyes closed and beg the saints for restraint. He couldn’t help but wonder if her idea of a stitch matched his own. She had pulled her tunic free of her breeches and had the hem pulled up several inches before he finally forced himself to turn away. Apparently, the saints weren’t listening. In a desperate attempt to stop himself from growing any harder, he set to removing Ayegi’s saddle, then moved on to do the same for Galiha and their packhorse. He removed the bridles and halter as well. They wouldn’t wander far, not with the grain they could surely smell tucked away in the saddlebags. The monotonous routine helped him gain a bit of control over his rebellious body.
Bellies full of water, the horses moved off to graze on the grass that grew around the plateau. Droplets of water splattered him as Lincoln bounded around him then dashed off to circle around the horses. Laughing at the pup, he stripped down to his undergarments. Cool air rippled across the thin cotton of pants, hitting his scrotum, and helping tame his erection a little.
“You can clean up first, I’ll step around the boulder to give you some privacy,” he said over his shoulder.
“Will you help me with my corset?” she asked. The sultry sound of her voice undid all the good the cool air had done him.
“Of course,” he said before good sense could stop his words.
He started to turn, but hesitated.
“Don’t worry. The darkness will preserve your modesty,” Cat teased.
Her voice had a lovely, lazy sound to it that pulled at things deep inside him, things that he feared would never reawaken completely. It wasn’t just desire she stirred in him. That scared him, but it also thrilled him to know that part of him wasn’t dead.
“Me modesty? ’Tis hardly me modesty that I’m concerned with,” he said as he turned.
All her long, wavy, red hair hung loose and draped over a shoulder, exposing her back to him. Moonlight shimmered across the silky laces of her corset, crisscrossing in a mesmerizing pattern. The pattern led his eyes down to the curve of buttocks, covered only in cotton drawers. A strangled sound escaped him before he could mask it. Cat let out a wonderful giggle that sent tingles straight down to his erection. It took all of his restraint not to moan. Saints, if her voice could do that…
His eyes rolled back so he closed them and took several deep breaths. It had been a very long time since he’d lain with a woman, but that wasn’t it. None had elicited this response from him since his bride-to-be. Even then, his desire for her had been different, more basic. Cat pulled at something deeper inside him, something more than just the need to copulate.
“Are you implying you’re not modest, Mr. Fergusson?” she asked in a teasing tone.
“Not as modest as I should be in this situation,” he admitted.
She took a step forward. At first he thought maybe she was reconsidering disrobing. He let a long breath out. It would be for the best. But then she bent over and he thought he might lose his mind. Water splashed. A few cool droplets flew past her and landed on him. Drawn in by a force he could no longer fight, he walked up behind her. His fingers made short work of her corset ribbons. She took a deep breath, and the confining device loosened. Her head turned toward him just enough for him to see the mischievous smile lifting one corner of her lips.
“Will you help me slide it off?” she asked.
Her hips wiggled in a wonderfully enticing way as he slid the loose corset up over her head. He tried to fight the urge to touch her any further, he really did. But his hands had a mind of their own. They trailed back up her half-bare legs, over her hips, and to the curve of her waist.
“You have an effect on me,” he admitted.
Her hands reached back and touched his legs. The gasp that pulled from him was beyond his power to stop. Only inches lay between them. He froze.
She leaned her head back close to his shoulder. “As do you on me,” she whispered in a husky voice that told him she fought the same battle of restraint as he did. Knowing that only made his battle harder—among other things.
One move and he could be pressed up against her. His muscles shook with the effort of holding back. Her hand moved up his leg and to his arm, almost scattering his restraint. Almost. His soldier training kicked in.
He took a step back and squeezed his eyes shut tight. “Cat, I want you, so much. But more than that, I want to show you the honor and respect you deserve.” The sound of cloth moving over flesh made his knees weak, and his will weaker still. Saints, what had she taken off?
“And I want you to know that I am a respectable woman, one who takes this courtship quite seriously. But I am still a woman, one with desires and wants. One who wants you,” she said in a soft voice that tingled across him.
His hands reached out and found her bare waist. Not a stitch. “Nothing could question your respectability in my eyes,” he said in a tone that was scarcely more than a moan of desire.
Both of her hands now worked their way up beneath his shirt. He lifted his arms and allowed her to pull it over his head. Her wet hands trailed down his bare chest. The sensation made his erection jump. Despite his best efforts to keep them shut, his eyes shot open. Shadows and long hair hid enough of her curves to leave him wanting so much more.
“Rick, do you intend to abandon all attempts to court me if we lay together?” Her voice was low and sultry, sliding over him as easily as her wet hands.
“No.”
“Will you do so if our joining is less
than perfect?” she all but purred near his ear. Her fingers worked at the laces of his breeches.
His voice came out strangled. “No. Such things can be worked on. It isn’t the copulating that I desire most, but you.”
“And I you,” she purred as her hands locked behind his neck.
Her bare breasts rubbed across his chest, her hard nipples causing pinpricks of desire to shoot straight through him. The tip of his cock brushed her stomach. She pressed closer until it was trapped between them, the length of it rubbing against her soft skin.
“You listen to me, Rick Fergusson. All my life I’ve done what others wanted me to do, living my life to please them. I’m finished with that. It would please me to have you right here, right now, and that’s what I aim to do,” she said in an authoritative voice that sent delicious thrills through him.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. Because, what else could he say?
He had awakened this amazing woman and he wasn’t about to do anything that would put her back to sleep. Still… “Sean will have me bullocks for this,” he muttered.
Cat giggled. “Not before I do.”
She reached down and took hold of his erection, shattering any lingering restraint he had.
Chapter 23
Both silky smooth and iron hard, Rick’s erection was a wonderful contradiction that felt oh so right in her hand. He was big enough to thrill her, but not frighten. Her hand moved up and down Rick’s cock. The resulting moans that tore from his throat as he threw his head back made her wet.
One of his arms went around her back, the other found her left breast and began to massage it. Pleasure pulsed through her breast and down between her legs. He rolled her nipple between his fingers, causing her hand to convulse around his erection. They cried out almost in unison. This caused her to fall into a fit of delighted giggles. Rick’s responding laughter vibrated against her skin as he began to kiss her neck. One arm around her waist, he lifted her onto one of the boulders. Soon he sucked and nibbled in a way that made her long for him to do it to other parts of her.
Back arching, she pressed against him, thrilling at the feel of his hard chest rubbing against her nipples. His kisses trailed down. She shook with anticipation as his mouth hovered over her breast.
“Are you certain?” he asked in a wonderfully husky voice.
In answer she arched her back and pushed her breast into his mouth. He sucked and nibbled until she thought she might climax before he entered her. Was such a thing even possible? Then his hand moved down between her legs and she knew all things were possible. As she shuddered and convulsed around his fingers moments later, he whispered sweet things in her ear about how amazing she was.
When she could finally utter something besides cries of pleasure, she told him, “Me? Hardly. You’re the amazing one. I didn’t even know such pleasure was possible.”
With a laugh, he resumed kissing her neck. “It pleases me more than I can tell you to know I’ve pleased you,” he murmured.
This shocked her to silence for a moment. The idea of a man finding joy in her own pleasure was foreign to her. But very much a welcome idea. Since he was open to such forward thinking, maybe he’d be open to more experimental ideas. She had seen something in one of Deirdre’s books that put a woman in a position of power. Such a position would ease the anxiety snaking around her heart.
At her urging, he sat down on the boulder next to her.
“Then perhaps you’ll indulge me a little more,” she said.
She put her knees to either side of his legs and hovered just over his erection. Moonlight lit his face, revealing wide green eyes filled with excitement. It was all the permission she needed. Slowly, she lowered herself onto his erection until he was buried deep inside her. The supporting hand around her back helped her rise and fall onto him, but allowed her to find her own rhythm. Even in this he allowed her independence. That was almost as breathtaking as the feel of him moving in and out of her.
The unique position and freedom of movement stimulated parts of her in a way she’d never imagined possible. Before long she climaxed again, this time so powerful that her vision went white. She collapsed against him. He whispered to her about how amazing and beautiful she was. All the while, he held her close and let her regain her breath. Once her heart started beating something close to a normal beat again, he began to move. Together they found a perfect rhythm. Not long after, he shuddered inside her and cried out her name.
He held her close and tight as if he never wanted to let go. More soft, wonderful words poured from him, as did lazy kisses that trailed across her shoulder and neck. It made her feel precious and cherished. She had thought such experiences were only stories told in Deirdre’s forbidden books from India. But then, before this trip, she would have never believed men like Patrick Fergusson existed outside of fae tales, either. She had never been so glad to be wrong.
Chapter 24
Day Forty-One
For the last quarter mile or so, Rick’s attention had shifted from her. It was subtle, and he was trying to hide it, but it was impossible not to notice. Up until now he hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her. She steered Galiha closer to him, stepping up out of the wagon wheel rut on her side of the road. “You’ve been looking over your shoulder for the last quarter mile. What is it?” she asked.
The last light of day flashed across his half smile. The smile faded as he glanced over his shoulder once again as if his body were trying to give him away. Her own gaze flicked in that direction. Dusk obscured much of the horizon behind them, but not so much that she couldn’t make out the shapes moving in the distance.
“Native or Ainsworth’s man?” she pressed when he didn’t answer.
“Too clumsy and obvious to be natives. It has to be Ainsworth’s man. Do you feel up to a run?”
She straightened in the saddle and took up her reins. “No.”
Rick looked at her with open-mouthed shock. It was early in their evening’s travels, barely an hour in. He would know she wasn’t worried about Galiha’s constitution yet.
“Um, ah…” His voice trailed off.
She lifted her chin. “I’m finished running. We put ourselves at risk when we run. ’Tis best to make a stand in the place of our choosing. I know you don’t want to kill, and I respect that. But these men want to kill us, and I’m tired of giving them chances to do it,” she said.
Her head turned his way, but the pale light of the half moon wasn’t enough to reveal her expression. But he shouldn’t need to see it. Her tone should be enough to tell him all he needed to know. She would not be swayed by anything short of him throwing her over his saddle. Appealing as that sounded at any other time, she wouldn’t allow it.
“Can we buy him off?” she asked.
Rick shook his head. “No. Ainsworth is not only wealthy, but he’s powerful and ruthless. He inspires a certain amount of fear in his employees.”
“Then we need to be scarier. I’m not suggesting we kill them, but I’m prepared to do what it takes to stop them from trying to kill us,” she said.
“Well, maybe if it’s Cofield…”
“You don’t really think that man would have the bullocks to come after us again after what happened last time, do you?”
Rick shook his head. “Not the bullocks, no. But I think he’d be afraid of Ainsworth enough to try again. Ainsworth likely has something over the man. He always has something over his men.”
They couldn’t just strip him and leave him again. At over a hundred degrees during the day, a man would almost surely perish before anyone else came along to help him. It would be a death sentence. She wasn’t entirely sure she could do that any more than pull a trigger. But, if the man was threatening them directly, that would be a different situation altogether. Not only did she have the land and winery, but possibly even a future with Rick. Every moment, she feared ambush o
r one of them being shot in the back. She was tired of being afraid. More than that, she was tired of risking her future because of that fear.
“Wait…where’s Lincoln?” Rick asked as he scanned the moonlit landscape.
While he wandered off a bit now and then, the pup never got out of sight. Until now. The low scrub and sagebrush couldn’t hide Lincoln’s tall, gangly form. And yet he was nowhere to be seen.
“Bullocks,” he cursed in a harsh whisper.
With the mounted forms she’d seen in the near distance, they couldn’t risk raising their voices to call out. Rick whispered the pup’s name quietly in several directions. Not so much as a rustle sounded in response. It wasn’t like Lincoln not to at least respond with a bark.
“Something’s wrong,” Rick whispered to Cat.
“Bastard. If he has hurt a hair on that pup’s head, I’ll shoot him myself,” Cat hissed beneath her breath.
Gaze flicking back to the figures in the distance moving ever closer, Rick moved his big buckskin over until he walked so close he almost brushed her horse. Without looking, he touched her arm. “If I don’t first. Go to the trees to our left, hide,” he said.
“No.”
His wide-eyed gaze locked onto hers. “Don’t be stubborn about this. If they hurt you…” He swallowed hard and closed his eyes.
She put her hand on top of his. “You saw how that ended for Cofield last time, and he ambushed us. This time I’ll be ready. Don’t look at me like that. I can handle myself. And I won’t kill him unless I have to,” she said.
Part of her loved that he wanted to protect her. Another part of her needed to do this, not just for Lincoln but for herself. She was finished letting others control her life. The pinched look on Rick’s face made it clear he wasn’t convinced.
“Rick, I can’t let anything happen to you because this Ainsworth wants my land,” she said.
If anything, his look became more pained. He took hold of her hand as they rode toward the trees. “He wants my land, too. Part of the reason Sean asked me was because you and I will be neighbors. My land lies on one side of the creek while yours lies on the other,” he said.
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