CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Cañon del Sangre de Cristo
April 14,1884
Anna’s first consciousness was of Quinn Ryan’s voice beside her
. Too exhausted to open her eyes, she rested, listening.
“I meant what I said before
. I want you to be my wife.” Quinn paused. “Hell, that’s not romantic. Sounds like I’m issuing an order to my deputy.”
“How ‘bout this?” he continued
. Apparently, he spoke only to himself, for the only other sound she heard was that of pine boughs in the distance, stirred by a crisp breeze.
Anna heard movement, and she peeked from beneath her lashes to watch him get down on his knees
.
She couldn’t tell for certain, but the light looked strange, fragmented
. Where were they, she wondered? She didn’t ask though. As her strength returned, it felt more pleasant to listen to Quinn’s rambling monologue.
“I love you, Anna
. Will you marry me?” he asked. Apparently not satisfied, he tried again. “Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
His words so completely lacked his usual cocky self-assurance that he sounded like a boy
. As if to underscore the point, impatience rumbled to the surface.
“Damn it, will you wake up, Anna, so I can get this humiliation over with
? I messed this up the last time, and I’ll probably mess it up again — but I want you. I want you, darling. Wake up!”
Anna’s pretense of sleep erupted into helpless laughter
. Laughter that shook her shoulders and made her head ache. Still, she couldn’t help herself. With Quinn, she never could.
“That’s what —” She tried to catch her breath but had to start anew
. “That’s what I’ve always liked about you, Ryan. You always make me laugh.”
Opening her eyes, she took in the rounded framework of hide-covered sticks that gave them shelter
. In an instant, she realized they were inside a Navajo hogan and she was lying on thick sheepskins, nude but for a blanket. But that hardly mattered as compared to the swift play of emotion in Quinn’s eyes.
He pulled her into his embrace and rocked her
. “Sweet Jesus, Anna, I was so afraid you’d never wake up. An old Navajo woman and a child brought me here. The old woman stitched your forehead —”
“— How’d she do?” Anna asked, feeling at the bandage. Thankfully, the swelling beneath it seemed minimal.
“I checked earlier. It looks fine. I think it’s healing well. She made you drink something and then put on some kind of medicine. I have to admit I was a little disappointed.”
“Disappointed?”
The Ryan grin she knew so well reemerged. “Yeah. I was hoping to put on a goat turd poultice, like you did to me. After she tended you, the woman and the little girl disappeared.”
“They disappeared?”
“Must have just walked off. Didn’t even say a word. I don’t know if they would have understood me, but I wanted to thank them just the same.”
That fit with what she knew about the Navajo of the canyon
. They’d experienced enough unpleasantness with Americans to make them wary.
“What about the others?” she asked
. “Hamby and —”
“— Dead, all of them
. Even Ward Cameron. Did you know he was here?”
She shook her head, careful of the soreness
. “What happened to my clothes, Quinn?”
“It’s awfully quiet around here
. A man needs some entertainment.”
She slapped at his arm.
“You were so sticky with blood, I decided to try to clean you up a little,” he explained.
“A likely story.”
Quinn looked at her, and once again the humor faded from his eyes. In its place, she saw the strain of worry, and of want.
Despite the tenderness of her wound, she wanted nothing more than to reassure him there was no need to worry anymore
. Gently, tentatively, her mouth sought his for a kiss.
He responded in an instant, deepening the kiss with all the emotion he’d held in check while she lay ill
. It was a kiss that bared all his desires, a kiss that did not falter in the struggle to find words.
Her own passion flared in answer, and she eagerly accepted the questing of his tongue, the blazing sensation of his fingertips stroking the warm flesh beneath her blanket
. Her nipples hardened with his teasing, and she felt that she must have him soon or die.
She drew strength from his caresses, strength enough to begin unbuttoning his shirt.
Pausing, he tried to help her, but she pushed his hands aside.
“You undressed me while I was sleeping.” She gazed boldly into his eyes
. “Now I’m rested, and I’m ready for my turn.”
Working with deliberate, excruciating slowness, she loosened each button, moving steadily downward
. She paused to kiss each inch of chest that she exposed and to listen to his gasps of pleasure.
“Oh, dear,” she said as the two sides of the shirt parted at last
. “It seems I’m out of buttons.”
She put her thumb and a forefinger on a new one at his waist, the first of several that secured his trousers
.
“Perhaps these will do as well,” she suggested, her honeyed voice all innocence.
To her utter shock, he rolled away.
“Lord, Anna
. I hope I don’t spend my whole life regretting this, but this isn’t what I want.”
She glanced down but did not point out the evidence that suggested he was lying
. Instead, heart pounding, she waited for him to explain.
“I don’t want this to have to last me through a thousand lonely nights
. I need this to be forever. I want you to be my wife. If you’re going to stay alone in this canyon, I won’t — I can’t.” He shook his head, then filled his eyes with her. “You’re the most beautiful, amazing woman I have ever known. I know I’m going to regret this, Anna, but I have to tell you to stop.”
“No, you don’t,” she told him, offering a smile
. “You don’t. This
is
forever, Ryan, because the Bard was wrong in our case. For us, as long as there is love, it’s not too late.”
He looked as stunned as she had felt just moments before
. “Then you’ll —”
She nodded
. “— I’ll marry you, Quinn. We’ll work to straighten out things so you can do your job in Copper Ridge. I’m sure the town can always use a midwife, enough so people won’t worry about what happened years ago. We can ride out here once a month or so to see those homesteaders who need me. I don’t care if Cameron found a vein of pure gold in my canyon. There’s not going to be a mine here. I can’t let greed drive the Navajo from their hogans or the ranchers from their spreads.”
Careful so as not to hurt her, he kissed the top of her blond head
. “I have all the gold that I need here, enough to last forever.”
She kissed him deeply, her fingers making short work of the final buttons
. And as the spring winds whispered through the red rock canyon, Anna made each caress a promise, each kiss a sacred vow.
THE END
Copyright ©
2014 Gwyneth Atlee
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions
Original publishing date: 2000, Zebra Books
Kensington Publishing Corp.
ISBN#0-8217-6746-1
By payment of required fees, you have been granted the
non
-exclusive,
non
-transferable right to access and read the text of this book. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented without the express written permission of copyright owner.
Please Note
The reverse engineering, uploading, and/or distributing of this book via the internet or via any other means without the permission of the copyright owner is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.
Cover Design and Interior format by The Killion Group
Thank you.