by Anna Schmidt
She had her hands planted on her narrow hips and tapped one foot impatiently. “And what if you get hurt?”
He tried to laugh off her concern, but could not deny it felt damned good to have someone this worried about him. “I can handle myself.”
“I’ll bet that’s exactly what that prospector thought,” she said, and stalked off toward the house.
He could have easily overtaken her, but he gave her time to make it all the way back before he followed. His plan was to stop briefly to express his thanks to Mrs. Porterfield and then head to Tucson. But when he got to the ranch house, Amanda was waiting for him. Her horse was saddled, and her mother was looking at Seth as if he were the devil incarnate.
“My daughter believes she needs to return to Tucson tonight. She says she needs to be with her students tomorrow—something about a special assignment she forgot she gave them.”
Seth wasn’t sure what any of this had to do with him, and to tell the truth, he was probably as upset as Amanda’s mother about this sudden turn of events.
“I am entrusting her safety to you, Mr. Grover, given that Mr. Matthews and his daughter are already well on their way. I will be honest and tell you that I do so with some concern. I do not for one minute believe that you are a businessman, and I have no idea what it is you are hiding behind that ruse, a fact that gives me pause. But my son tells me I have no need to worry, and I certainly cannot allow Amanda to go off on her own at this time of day.”
Just then, Amanda’s brother Jess strolled into the courtyard, his eyes on Seth, repeating his previous warning to stay away from his sister. Seth wondered if either mother or brother would be surprised to understand that the last thing Seth wanted—or needed—right now was to spend the next several hours alone with Amanda.
“Maybe I could talk to her—offer to carry a note back to Mr. Baxter and his children, explaining her need to stay over.”
“No! I’m going now—with or without you,” Amanda announced as she checked the cinch on her horse’s saddle one last time.
She had to be one of the most pig-headed females God ever gave the breath of life. He knew what she was up to, why the sudden need to get back to Tucson at once. In spite of his plea to allow him to handle the matter, she would confront Eli Baxter. At least he hoped that was her plan and not something more dangerous.
Seth turned his attention to her. “Now, Miss Amanda, I could take care of this for you, and you could stay here and enjoy some time with your family.”
He saw the way she bristled at the way he called her Miss Amanda, but she recovered quickly, batting her lashes and smiling as she said, “Oh, that is so sweet of you, Mr. Grover, but really, the children will be disappointed, and their father made it quite clear that he expects me to put them first.” She climbed into the saddle, settled herself, and turned to look back at him. “Coming?”
Seth glanced at Mrs. Porterfield who threw up her hands in exasperation, while Jess folded his arms across his chest and glared at Seth. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place.
“You go on, miss. I’ll catch up,” Seth said as he strode toward the corral to get his horse, hoisting his saddle off the fence as he went.
“Ma, this is a bad idea,” he heard Jess say.
“I thought you told me he was not…dangerous, so how is this a bad idea?”
“Trust me. It is,” Jess grumbled.
“Then either you go with her, or talk her into staying,” Mrs. Porterfield replied as she returned to the house.
Seth was aware of the marshal headed his way, but he concentrated on saddling his horse. He was already mounted when Jess reached the corral. “I thought we had a deal,” he said.
“We did, and I’m doing my best to keep it, but unless you want your sister riding out there where the varmint who shot the prospector is still at large, I suggest you let me catch up to her and see that she gets back safe and sound.”
“And once you do, that’ll end it?”
Jess’s wife Addie was walking their way. “Stop badgering the man, Jess, and let him be on his way. Seems to me whatever might be going on with him and Amanda is a two-step dance, and you’ve got no say in it, so back off and let your sister make her own mistakes.”
At first Seth had been flattered by Addie’s comments, but when she said that part about letting Amanda make her own mistakes, he understood that he was that mistake. Well, she had a point. A guy like him—working undercover and moving from one place to the next—was not exactly the addition to the family that folks like the Porterfields would want. The truth was that he tended to agree.
As he headed cross-country, he met up with a small detail of soldiers coming to question the prospector. He stopped to fill them in on the old man’s death, told them what he knew of the shooter, and answered their questions about how he’d come to be involved. Finally, they let him go.
He spurred his horse to a gallop, certain he would catch up to Amanda quickly, but as the sun sank lower in the western sky, casting the landscape in shades of orange and rust, he saw no sign of her. There was only one main trail between Whitman Falls and Tucson, and right now, she didn’t appear to be on it. His heart hammered as he pulled his horse to a stop and looked around. Where could she be? What if the guy who’d shot the old-timer had seen her riding alone?
Seth slid from his saddle and searched the trail for signs of recent tracks. Up ahead was a cluster of aspen trees near a creek, probably the same creek that ran through the Porterfield property. He thought he saw movement and then recognized Amanda’s horse. He climbed back in the saddle, and once again urged his mount to a gallop, not yet relieved. He saw the horse, but he didn’t see her.
* * *
For the first mile or so, Amanda fully expected to hear Seth’s horse coming behind her at any moment. But she saw no one and heard nothing except the muffled beats of her horse’s hooves hitting the soft dirt of the trail. The sun was lower in the sky now—not yet setting, but late in the day. By her calculation, Tucson was at least an hour’s ride away, assuming she kept pace. As the shadows of the hills lengthened and stretched across the range, she imagined she saw movement, and her anxiety grew in direct proportion to the fading light.
She had been so certain that Seth would come. What could be keeping him?
When she saw the place where the creek narrowed and all but disappeared, she turned her horse in that direction. At least the animal would have water, and she would have cover where she might observe the trail. Of course, if she lingered there too long, it would be dark, and then what would she do? She thought about the prospector. If she hadn’t been there…if she hadn’t witnessed…
And that, of course, was the problem. The shooter had seen her.
She dismounted and led her horse to the edge of the narrow stream. She took advantage of the clear water to wash her face and hands. She was tightening the cap of her canteen after taking a long drink when she heard two things—a horse coming down the trail, and the telltale rattle of a snake not two feet away from where she stood.
Her horse shuffled behind her, clearly aware of the danger. The snake remained coiled on a rock at the edge of the creek. The hoofbeats came closer, and at this point, she really didn’t care who the rider might be. The rattle sounded again—a warning—as the snake seemed to lock eyes with her. She stepped back slowly and bumped into the side of her horse, which whinnied and shifted. In fascination, she watched as the snake’s body began to move, its muscles rippling as it prepared to strike.
“Please,” she whispered, unsure of whether she was uttering a prayer to the heavens or a plea to the snake.
She no longer heard the rider behind her. Had he passed her, unaware of her presence? She couldn’t recall. And then suddenly, she was shoved aside as a shot rang out, and when she opened her eyes, Seth was standing over the corpse of the rattler, and he was furious—at her.
&
nbsp; He yelled, his voice carrying across the deserted land. “Are you satisfied? Two times in one day you could have gotten yourself killed, and still you insist on going out looking for trouble. You are an impulsive and mulish woman, Amanda, and sooner rather than later it’s going to get you killed. I have known some characters when it comes to taking unnecessary risks, but you take the cake. I mean, what was the point of…”
She really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She decided to do neither. Instead she stood, brushed herself off, and headed for her horse.
“Well, it certainly took you long enough to catch up,” she said. “Thank you, by the way. That could have turned out badly.”
His mouth dropped open. “Badly?”
He mocked her as he holstered his gun and kicked the carcass of the snake aside. Of course, he was right—she had been foolish to take off on her own like that, especially so late in the day, but the prospector’s violent death had stirred memories of what her father must have once suffered, and she knew she couldn’t stay one more minute at the ranch. Of course, she wasn’t about to admit that to Seth or let him see how truly terrified she had been.
“We should get going,” she said as she put her canteen away. “It’ll be dark before long and—”
Before she could utter another word, he had taken hold of her and pulled her close. “Stop doing this,” he said, his voice husky.
“What do you mean by ‘this’?”
“Scaring the bejesus out of me,” he replied as he tilted her face so she looked at him.
He still held her. She could feel his heart beat against the palm she pressed to his chest in a half-hearted attempt to put some distance between them. She felt her own heartbeat quicken at the very suggestion that he might care.
But then he went and spoiled the moment. “I don’t have time for this, Amanda.”
Now, she struggled to put space between them. “Nobody is asking you to do anything. Thank you for killing the snake, of course, but other than that…”
To her surprise, instead of loosening his hold, he tightened it. Now his handsome face was so close she could count each whisker of the stubble on his jaw. “Do you really not have the good sense God gave you to be afraid when danger is staring you in the face?”
“The only thing staring me in the face at the moment is you,” she snipped. “Now—”
He cradled the back of her head with one hand and kissed her—kissed her as she had never in her life been kissed. This was no boyish, experimental slobber meant to test the waters. This wasn’t even that first, truly adult kiss they’d shared earlier. This was a kiss that announced, loud and clear, his desire and his intention to act on that desire, unless she stopped him.
So what did she do? To what she was well aware would be her mother’s horror, she kissed him back, giving what she was given. When his lips parted, so did hers. When his teeth collided with hers, she did not pull back. When he stroked her teeth with his tongue, she opened wide to allow him the access he was clearly requesting, and when she heard him exhale, she could not help but feel as if she had won. Everything about the way he deepened that kiss told her he did care—he cared far more than he had allowed himself to admit. She had no doubt of that, and definitely no doubt that she cared as well.
Instead of pulling away, she leaned into him, allowing his arms to wrap her in his strength. For the first time in a long time, she felt shielded from the fears and anxieties about what the future might hold, which she’d held inside since her father’s tragic death. She had found her future in this man’s embrace. She had never been more certain of anything in her life.
He broke the kiss finally and gently stroked her lips with his thumb. “Amanda?”
“Right here,” she said softly, and snuggled closer to him.
“We can’t… I mean, this is insanity and…”
She framed his face with her hands and pulled him to her. “Kiss me again and then tell me about insanity,” she whispered as she pressed her lips to his.
* * *
Seth was pretty sure that giving in to Amanda Porterfield’s kiss was possibly the most dangerous thing he had done in a long time. He understood that kissing her would satisfy his need to have her, to make her his, for only so long, and then he’d be ready to move on to serious lovemaking—ravishing the rest of her as he was currently ravishing her sweet mouth.
He had already managed to pull her hair free of the pins that held it. He could smell the pine of the soap she had used to wash it. He imagined her soft hair streaming over his bare chest as they lay together. Feeling her full breasts pressed against his chest, he thought about what she would look like naked—that skin, so fair in the few places exposed to the world, would be like milk. The image made him groan with desire.
“I want you,” he whispered as he feathered kisses along her brow, waiting for their breathing to ease back to normal.
“Yes,” she said.
“But…”
“Seth, I said yes. It’s almost dark. Let’s build a fire and stay here by the creek, and we can…”
Gently, he set her away from him and then removed his hands from her shoulders and held them stiffly at his sides. “You don’t know me, Amanda. You would be making love with a stranger.”
“I do know you, and you know me. We may have met only a few weeks ago, but—”
“I’ve lied to you and the others, Amanda.”
“I don’t understand. Are you telling me your name is not Seth Grover?”
“No. I mean, that’s my name, but who I am and who I pretend to be—that’s the lie.” He could see she was near tears, the stress of the day and the depth of her passion for him taking its toll. He wanted to tell her the truth, but he’d sworn an oath, and until this job was done and he was free to walk away and live the life he hadn’t realized he wanted, he could not break that oath.
“Tell me,” she pleaded, her eyes growing wide with doubt—in him and herself.
“I can’t do that now. You have to trust me. There are good reasons, and one day soon, I promise I’ll be free to tell you everything.” He took a step toward her and knew when she retreated that it was a mistake.
Abruptly, she turned away and began unsaddling her horse. “It would be foolhardy to try to make it back to town in the dark,” she said. “I believe I know you well enough to trust you are a gentleman, and if we stay here until first light, nothing will happen. That is, there can be no repeat of…”
“I’ll take first watch,” he said as he unbuckled his horse’s cinch, pulled the saddle free, and carried it to a place where he could keep a lookout. “You bed down over there and get some rest. Those Baxter kids will be waiting for you in the morning.” He worked hard at keeping his tone light, trustworthy, that of a brother or good friend. He even put a twang into his words, hoping to give her some comfort.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Seth, you don’t have to treat me like I’m fragile crystal. We kissed and got momentarily carried away. Fortunately, we both managed to come to our senses. Wake me when it’s my turn to watch.”
She spread her saddle blanket on the ground, lay down, and tried unsuccessfully to wrap the cover around her.
“Here,” he said, taking his blanket and opening it as he walked toward her. She didn’t protest when he placed it over her.
She also didn’t protest when he bent down to pull it over her shoulders. Unable to stop himself, he touched a curl of her hair, allowing his fingers to sift through it as if it were sand—or strawberry gold.
“Get some sleep,” he said before returning to where he’d propped his saddle against the thick trunk of a tree near the creek.
As the night deepened, he stared up at the stars and thought about the future. What he had wanted when he left Chicago three years earlier had changed. Problem was, what he wanted now didn’t fit with the life he’d made for himself. Wha
t he wanted now was the life he’d seen as boring when he thought about his parents—a home and family and a woman at his side who would be there no matter what.
A woman like Amanda.
“No,” he whispered to the dark. “Not a woman like her. Only Amanda.”
He could tell neither of them was sleeping. She moved restlessly, as if trying to find comfort on the hard ground. He got up and, although he was fairly certain he was making a mistake, went to her.
“Amanda?” He knelt next to her.
“What?” she grumbled, pretending he had awakened her as she pushed herself to a sitting position and covered her shoulders with the blanket.
“I don’t want to fight with you.”
“No,” she admitted. “Me neither. I just wish…”
“I trust you—more than trust you, Amanda. The truth is I think I’m falling in love with you.” He ran his knuckles over her cheek. “Couldn’t come at a less opportune time, but there it is. Look, I know I’m not what your family wants for you, but…”
“Shhh,” she whispered, silencing him by placing her finger on his lips. “You are the man I want for me, and that is all that matters.” She ran her fingers through his thick hair. “In time we’ll find our way, but for tonight, Seth, let’s not waste the one chance we may ever have. Teach me how to love you.”
He settled himself beside her and guided her hands to the buttons on his shirt. Following his lead, she opened each in turn, and then spread the fabric to expose his bare chest. He placed her palms on his skin. She leaned closer so a trail of her kisses could follow the path of her hands exploring him. She started to open the shirt she wore, pulling it free of her riding pants.
“Let me,” he said, his voice raw with need. He opened each button and then pushed the garment off her shoulders, exposing her breasts pressed against the lacy fabric of her chemise.
He lay down next to her, and instead of caressing her or kissing her as she had expected, he opened the closing on her pants, pushed them down, and slowly began his sweet torment—stroking her inner thighs—up and around her womanhood, until she squirmed with pleasure.