Autumn Lover (13 page)

He knew with utter certainty that such a world was here, finally, within reach. Within his arms. Burning.

For him
.

And Hunter was on fire for her in a way far more dangerous than anything he had felt with Belinda.

The knowledge was like being dropped into ice water.

With a savage curse Hunter set Elyssa back on her feet. She stumbled and clung more tightly to him. He dragged her arms from around his neck and set her at arm’s length.

“Hunter?”

Elyssa’s dazed, husky voice undermined his determination. The sight of her creamy breasts and taut, hungry nipples nearly undid him.

The realization that he was so much within Elyssa’s sensual grasp brought control to Hunter as nothing else could have.

“
Damnation
.”

Self-discipline returned to Hunter in an icy rush. Along with it came scorn—at himself for his lack of self-control, at Elyssa for tempting him so mercilessly, and at his own body for being so easily and totally aroused by a little flirt.

When Hunter reached for Elyssa once more, she put her arms around his neck and lifted her face for one of the hot, drugging kisses she had just learned to lose herself in.

Hunter turned his face aside and removed Elyssa’s arms from around his neck.

“That’s enough,” he said roughly.

Elyssa started to speak. No words came.

“Button up your dress before someone comes out of the bunkhouse,” Hunter said.

Confused, off balance, uncertain, Elyssa just looked at Hunter. In the moonlight his eyes were as clear and cold as a winter sky.

“I don’t understand,” she whispered.

With an impatient curse, Hunter straightened Elyssa’s chemise over her breasts. The brush of her taut nipples against his fingers made her breath break.

“H-Hunter?”

Elyssa’s husky whisper tempted Hunter beyond endurance, as did her satin skin and hard-tipped breasts. With abrupt motions he began fastening her bodice.

“Fun’s over,” he said curtly. “I’m through fooling around in the moonlight with an experienced little flirt.”

“I’m not a—”

“The hell you aren’t,” Hunter interrupted roughly. “You like getting all hot and bothered and having your breasts kissed. No innocent girl would have let me do that.”

The flush that suffused Elyssa’s cheeks was visible even in moonlight. She looked down at her bodice. The sight of Hunter’s long fingers buttoning her back into her dress sent an odd weakness through her bones.

“I’ve never done this,” Elyssa said huskily. “You’re the first. Surely you know that!”

“Don’t bother with all the lies about how I’m different from the others. I’m not a boy. I don’t need lies to feel important.”

Confusion, frustration, and flat-out irritation replaced desire in Elyssa. She put her hands on her hips.

“Why won’t you listen to me?” she demanded.

“Keep your voice down unless you want to put on a show for the bunkhouse.”

“You’re acting like I’m the one who started all this,” Elyssa whispered fiercely. “You did! I didn’t have the
least idea what you—what I—what we—damn.”

“Uh-huh,” Hunter said, unimpressed.

He fastened the last button and stepped back, grateful to be finished. The feel of Elyssa’s silky breasts was branded on his hands. His skin burned with the memory of her heat.

“I know it comes as a surprise to a flirt like you,” Hunter said curtly, “but some men can’t be brought to heel by a girl’s soft body, no matter how experienced she is at love play.”

“The only ‘experience’ I have is what you just gave me!”

“Are you saying,” Hunter drawled sardonically, “that I’m so damned irresistible to you that you get all hot and bothered at a few kisses?”

Abruptly Elyssa remembered the lessons her English cousins had taught her. Her reckless temper cooled instantly.

“I’d be a fool to admit that, wouldn’t I?” she whispered.

“Fool or a liar. Either one isn’t guaranteed to attract a man.”

“Really? Is that why you were all over me like a summer rash?”

Hunter’s mouth tightened.

“You wanted me, Hunter.” Elyssa looked pointedly at the fit of his trousers. “You still do.”

The reminder of just how close he had come to losing control didn’t help Hunter’s mood one bit.

“Wanted
you
?” Hunter shrugged. “I wanted a woman, period. You were handy.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“You should.”

“Why? It’s not true. You don’t look at Penny the way you look at me, and she’s a woman.”

“Hell,” Hunter snarled. “Give it up, Sassy.”

“Give up what? The truth?”

“The truth is that a man no more cares who he eases his ache with than a stallion asks the pedigree of a mare before he mounts her.”

Elyssa’s breath came in hard. She fought not to give in to the emotions tearing her apart. Her only consolation was that Hunter, despite his denials, had been as involved in the passionate embrace as she was.

If all Hunter had in mind was lust, he would have kept on undressing me
, Elyssa told herself.
God knows I wouldn’t have stopped him
.

The realization of her own complex hunger for Hunter dismayed Elyssa. She had never been this vulnerable, even when she was a frightened fifteen-year-old thrown on the mercy of cousins who had no kindness in them.

How long is it going to take for Hunter to get over his wife and admit that he’s falling in love with me
? Elyssa asked herself fearfully.
He’s so hardheaded
.

There was no answer to Elyssa’s troubling question, unless it was Hunter’s broad back as he headed toward the dense shadows of the barn.

Elyssa shivered and rubbed her arms to chase away a chill that had nothing to do with the night air. She watched Hunter until she couldn’t separate him from the overwhelming darkness of the night itself.

With hesitant steps, Elyssa turned to her garden once more, taking what solace she could in the fragrant herbs.

F
or several days Hunter avoided being alone with Elyssa. She told herself it was a sign of victory.

Hers.

Hunter doesn’t want to admit it
, Elyssa assured herself,
but he has strong feelings toward me
.

And it’s more than just lust
.

Part of Elyssa believed what she was telling herself.

And part of her knew that she was whistling in the dark as she walked past a graveyard that she feared might hold her dreams.

Unhappily Elyssa shifted in the saddle. Her very bones ached from the constant riding. But at least there were no flapping skirts to deal with anymore.

She and Penny had ripped apart an old riding habit and thrown out the petticoats. The heavy black silk of the top still fit like a shadow, but she had narrowed the fullness around each leg until the skirt was little more than loose pants. One of Penny’s old wool-lined buckskin jackets completed Elyssa’s outfit.

With her hair tucked beneath her hat, Elyssa looked enough like a man from a distance that Hunter had quit complaining about dragging her all over the landscape like a fancy lure.

Elyssa reined Leopard around a fresh pile of rubble that had collected at the bottom of the gully. The stones and mud and brush had come down the steep slope of the ravine in a small avalanche during the last big rain.

It was a common problem during the monsoon months. The rain came in torrents, boiled down the mountain slopes, hurtled through ravines, and spilled into the marshland out at the edges of the ranch. Often, big chunks of the various ravines came down with the rains.

Elyssa stood in the stirrups, looking for any sign of cattle amid the brush and piñons. The dogs had come up this narrow, damp ravine and not come back.

She wasn’t worried about the dogs. They were fully capable of working alone. Probably they had scrambled up out of the bottom of the ravine to search another of the thousand nameless gullies where cattle fed and sheltered.

As Elyssa settled into the saddle once more, her thoughts turned again to the moonlit garden. Though Hunter’s embrace had lasted only a few moments, those moments had turned her world upside down.

No man with only lust on his mind would have kissed me so tenderly at first. And then so wildly
.

And then stopped
.

Just stopped
.

A blush crept up Elyssa cheeks. Part of the color came from embarrassment at the memory of how wanton she had been in Hunter’s arms. Part of the flush was anger at what Hunter had said while he buttoned her bodice.

And most of the heat in Elyssa’s cheeks came from passion, pure and deep and potent.

Without warning Leopard’s head came up hard. Ears pricked, he stood motionless for an instant.

With an odd, sighing grumble, a piece of the rim slumped away from the side of the ravine.

The stallion spun on his hocks, leaped, and lunged frantically up the steep slope on the side opposite from the avalanche. The abrupt, lurching movements unseated Elyssa. Without knowing it, she screamed. The scream was cut off when she hit the ground and tumbled head over heels.

Even before Elyssa stopped rolling, she sensed that she was safe from the avalanche. The stallion’s catlike quickness had already taken her beyond the tangled rush of mud and stone that was sweeping down the ravine.

Elyssa’s chilling scream brought Hunter at a dead gallop from the next gully to the north, spurring Bugle Boy every step of the way. What he saw when he entered the ravine was a tangle of debris, a spotted stud standing free of the mess, and an empty saddle.

“
Elyssa
!”

Nothing answered his cry.

A fear gripped Hunter that was like nothing he had ever felt. Heedless of the danger to himself, he sent Bugle Boy along the ragged, treacherous edge of the landslide.

Elyssa can’t be buried underneath all that
.

She can’t be
.

But she very well could, and Hunter knew it better than most men. The war had taught him how indifferent death was to human emotion.

“Sassy! Where are you?”

This time a faint groan answered Hunter’s call. He reined Bugle Boy around with a fierce movement and sent him scrambling over to the far side of the ravine.

Elyssa lay on her back, tangled among willows. Her arms were flung out and her eyes were closed.

Before Bugle Boy could come to a lunging stop, Hunter kicked free of the stirrups and knelt by Elyssa’s side. He could see that she was struggling for breath. At first it reassured him.

Then it frightened him.

“Sassy?” Hunter asked gently. “Honey? Where does it hurt?”

At first Elyssa thought she was in bed, dreaming.

Surely she couldn’t be awake and hearing such tender concern in Hunter’s voice.

She opened her eyes, prepared to be disappointed. The concern on Hunter’s face was even greater than in his deep voice.

Shakily Elyssa caught his face between her hands and smiled despite the pallor of her lips. Knowing that Hunter cared about her was a warmth stealing through the chill in her bones.

“I’m—fine,” she said raggedly.

As Elyssa spoke, she stroked Hunter’s face. It was meant as a gesture of reassurance, but it quickly became something more.

She loved the masculine texture of the stubble that lay beneath his freshly shaved skin. Her pleasure showed in her lingering touch, in her face, in her blue-green eyes searching his.

Hunter took a breath that was almost as jerky as Elyssa’s.

“You screamed,” he said hoarsely.

“I—fell. Knocked—the wind—right out.”

“You don’t hurt anywhere?”

She shook her head. “Just—here.”

Hunter followed the line of Elyssa’s fingers to a point right below her breasts.

“Here?” he asked.

He brushed the back of his fingers over Elyssa’s breastbone.

Her quickly indrawn breath owed nothing to pain and everything to the memory of Hunter’s mouth caressing her breasts.

“Hunter,” Elyssa whispered. “I—”

With a throttled sound, Hunter lowered his mouth and took her trembling lips in a kiss that he meant to be comforting.

And it would have been, if she hadn’t moaned and shivered at the first touch of his lips. The kiss changed in an instant, becoming hard rather than gentle, demanding rather than comforting.

Elyssa didn’t care. She put her arms around Hunter’s neck and lifted herself into his embrace. The feel of his body against hers made her moan again. The adrenaline of fear flashed into another kind of response.

Wildfire raced through Elyssa, burning her until she moaned once more.

It was no different for Hunter, wildfire consuming him, making him forget all the reasons why he must control himself.

Wrong girl
.

Wrong time
.

Wrong everything
.

Yet Hunter let himself be pulled down on top of Elyssa. Then he fitted himself to her until he lay between her legs. Every swift, hard movement of his hips told of his arousal, and every movement of his tongue was a blunt statement of his intent.

Hunter’s hand swept up between Elyssa’s legs until he held the hot center of her in his palm. His hand flexed and she gasped, arching up into the unexpected caress.

Even through layers of clothing, Elyssa’s heat shocked Hunter, delighted him, made him shudder with raw need. He cursed as he searched for a way through her clothes.

And as he searched, he caressed.

“Hunter,” Elyssa said brokenly. “Oh, Hunter, what are you doing to me?”

“What does it feel like?” he asked, his voice thick.

“Heaven.”

Hunter shuddered as a bolt of desire went through him, a pleasure just short of pain.

Elyssa twisted slowly against Hunter’s hand, increasing the sensuous pressure of his palm between her legs.

“Pure…wild…heaven,” she said.

Hunter took Elyssa’s mouth again, grinding against her, desperate for her. The ragged sounds of pleasure she made drove him like a whip.

Sanity returned in the form of three spaced rifle shots.

With an effort that left him shaken and furious with both of them, Hunter pushed away from Elyssa.

Blindly she reached for him. He grabbed her hands.

“Stop it!” he hissed.

At first Elyssa didn’t understand.

“What?” she asked, dazed.

“Stop chasing after me,” Hunter said in a raw voice.

“But—”

“Unless you want a roll in the hay,” he said, ignoring Elyssa’s attempt to speak.

“What?”

“This!”

Hunter slid Elyssa’s hands down his own body until they caressed the rigid, hot flesh she so easily aroused in him.

Elyssa’s eyes flew open.

“If you want a fast roll,” Hunter said with deadly contempt, “I’m ready, willing, and by-God able to oblige. But that’s all it will be, Sassy. Fast sex.”

Hunter thrust Elyssa’s hands away and went to Bugle Boy. He pulled his rifle from the scabbard. An instant later he fired three rounds into the air.

“Get up,” Hunter said.

“What?”

“Get up! I’m warning you, Sassy. If you push me into touching you right now, I’ll take you where you lie on the ground and to hell with whoever rides up.”

Elyssa scrambled to her feet with more speed than grace. She was shaking with a combination of anger, hunger, and the aftermath of fear.

“You wanted me as much as I wanted you!” she snapped.

“Not quite. I stopped. You wouldn’t have. Next time I won’t, Sassy. I’ll give you what you’re begging for. Count on it.”

“Fancy man, I wasn’t begging for anything!”

“The hell you weren’t. You were twisting and crying and—”

The sound of a horse galloping closer cut off Hunter’s incautious words.

He was grateful. The memory of just how hot Elyssa had been was bad enough. Talking about it made him ache to his back teeth.

“Can you ride?” Hunter said through clenched teeth.

As an answer, Elyssa turned her back on him and walked to Leopard.

Hunter let out a quiet sound of relief when he saw that she didn’t limp.

So help me God, next time I’ll take what she’s offering
, Hunter vowed.

It’s not like she’s a virgin looking for a husband. She’s an experienced little flirt who is no better than she has to be
.

And in bed, she would be damned good
.

“I’m going to check on something,” Hunter said. “Mount up, but stay here.”

Elyssa didn’t respond.

“Morgan will be along in a few minutes,” Hunter said. “Wait for him.”

Silence.

“Do you need help mounting?” Hunter asked reluctantly.

Without a word Elyssa positioned Leopard on the downhill side of her. She got into the saddle with less than usual grace, but she got on alone.

“You better be over your sulk when I get back,” Hunter said, swinging on board Bugle Boy. “I can’t abide sulking.”

“Fancy man, when I have something to say to you, you’ll be the first to know.”

Hunter’s mouth flattened. He reined Bugle Boy around and headed up the far side of the ravine. Soon he was out of sight among the boulders and piñons.

He quickly found what he had hoped not to find—signs that another rider had waited at the lip of the ravine. After a quick reconnoiter to be certain the man was gone, Hunter went back to the place where the rider had waited.

Dismounting, Hunter sat on his heels as the other rider had. The boot tracks the man had left were quite plain, as were the tracks of the man’s mount grazing aimlessly at the top of the ravine. Hunter had seen those horse tracks before, in the ravine where Bedamned had been before he burst out and tried to gore Elyssa.

There were marks along the rim of the ravine. The man had pried at a group of bounders on the unstable rim of the ravine. Then he had stood back and watched while boulders, brush, and earth hurtled down toward Elyssa.

That murderous son of a bitch
, Hunter thought.

Rage ran through Hunter, a rage as great as the day when he learned how his children had died.

And why.

Grimly Hunter mounted and backtracked far enough to assure himself that the rider had left the scene in one hell of a hurry. Eyes narrowed, Hunter judged the direction the rider had taken.

Hunter wanted to follow, but he needed to be certain
Elyssa was safe. With a searing curse, he reined Bugle Boy back down the ravine.

Morgan came riding up the gully at a canter.

“Yo!” Hunter called.

“Got something to show you, suh,” Morgan shouted. “Next ravine to the north.”

“I’ll meet you there.”

With eyes that glittered like blue-green gems, Elyssa watched Hunter vanish back into the piñons. The man could set fire to her body—and her temper—with maddening ease.

But I’m getting to you, too, you stubborn son of a Missouri mule
, Elyssa told herself with satisfaction.
You get on your high horse and get all insulting and then you ignore me, but I know better
.

I’ve felt how much you want me
.

The memory of how Hunter had felt beneath her hands made Elyssa’s breath shorten and her cheeks flame.

Morgan reined in beside Leopard.

“Is something wrong?” Elyssa asked him.

“Nothing you need to worry about, ma’am. Just a contrary critter.”

“That’s Hunter, all right.”

A smile flashed on Morgan’s face. He turned his horse around. With Leopard following, Morgan took the easy way out of the ravine.

“Have you found some cows?” Elyssa asked hopefully.

“None to speak of, Miss Elyssa.”

“But these gullies are usually full of cattle.”

“I can see the signs all around,” Morgan said quietly. “But signs are all there are. No beeves. Just an old barren cow or two.”

Elyssa tried not to show the cold that settled in the pit of her stomach at Morgan’s words. Despite the lush
grass and clean seeps pooling in the gully, there were few cattle around. Of those, none had been what the cowboys called “beeves”—steers at least four years old.