Rue Allyn (13 page)

However, the man before her wasn’t a subject of a photograph, a stud, or one of Madame Duval’s clients. This was Ev, her friend and her enemy. The man who’d cared for her when she was sick, who held her when she wept, who kissed her with a passion beyond anything she could recall, and who would turn her over to a judge and jury that in all probability would hang her by the neck until she was dead.

She couldn’t blame him for doing what he believed was right. He honestly thought that justice would prevail. He was wrong. The past three years only underscored what she’d learned growing up — that justice had little to do with innocence and everything to do with greed, influence and money. Nonetheless, she decided that for now, in this moment, nothing mattered but having Evrett Quinn’s arms around her, his kisses on her lips, and his body joined with hers. She wanted to give him a gift as great as the one he’d given her. She couldn’t save his life, like he had hers, but she could love him, if only for a little while.

“Are you going to stand there all day?” she asked.

He shook his head and stepped from his clothing into the pool.

“Are you certain about this?” his voice a low rasp.

She reached out her good hand to him. “As certain as I can be.”

“I’m not the kind to settle down, Kiera.”

“Neither am I.” She was certain that
settle
meant something different to her than it did to him. She drew him closer so he stood between her knees, in waist high water.

“Then why?”

“Because I nearly died out there.” She tilted her head toward the cliff. “I need to know I’m alive, to feel that living connection with another human being, with you.” She released her hold on the spring’s edge, suppressing a hiss of pain when her lacerated palm encountered the minerals in the water. Using her grip on his hand, she drew herself closer, surrounding his hips with her legs.

The hair of his upper legs abraded the sensitive skin of her inner thighs, and she shivered. She locked her ankles behind him, resting her heels on his buttocks and applying an easy encouraging pressure. She looked up at him to see barely leashed desire conquer his face. “Kiss me, Ev. Please.”

He didn’t speak or hesitate but bent, brushing his lips across hers. The shift of his hips brought his erection close enough to tease her with the treat of pleasures to come. Then taking her in his arms, he kissed her fully, licking and nipping.

Her lips tingled, and seeking relief from the torturous pleasure, she opened her mouth. She wanted him inside her. Her arms went around his neck, fingers tangling in the damp locks at his nape.

His tongue circled her lips. His hips shifted away, withdrawing his teasing erection.

Her eyelids drifted shut, and she moaned a protest.

The moan of protest became a moan of urgent satisfaction as tongue and cock plunged in concert.

Her hips lifted to meet his thrusts; her mouth suckled his tongue. Pleasure streaked from lips, breasts, and groin, enveloping her body with yearning delight.

He lifted her higher with one arm, exposing her wet breasts to cool air.

Her head fell back.

His mouth fastened on one nipple, tugging and sucking. His fingers played with the other breast. The combination of heat and cool, touch and tongue nearly drove her mad. Her back arched, and her hips writhed. She wanted, wanted … she wasn’t certain quite what she wanted, but she knew in her soul only Ev could give it to her.

“Ev, please, please. Ev.”

His thrusts quickened.

Each stroke prompted a sweet, exquisite ache that she wished would last forever, even as she knew she couldn’t take much more.

“That’s it, Kiera, say my name. Look at me and say my name.”

She opened her eyes and saw in the honeyed depths of his gaze the same passion that built inside her. She smiled at him.

Incredibly he thrust faster, harder, deeper, and in the moment when sensation overwhelmed, when desire cast her from her body to some Elysian field where only the two of them existed, she screamed. “Ev!”

Climax quaked through her in waves, pleasure leaked from every pore, and Ev’s arms formed the only reality.

Slowly, so slowly, she became aware of the warm water soothing her body. Of Ev reclining beneath her, keeping her above the rocky bottom of the pool. Of harsh ragged breathing and a soul deep sense of rightness that she belonged here in this moment in this man’s arms.

She lifted her head, smiling at Ev and froze.

“What? What is it? Kiera, are you all right? Did I hurt you?”

“Sssh. Do you see that?” she whispered.

“What?”

“A pair of wolves, beside the spring next to this one.”

“Wolves!” He released her and headed for the edge of the pool.

“No, don’t get out. The mineral odor is blocking our scent. If you leave the pool they may think you’re a danger to them. Stay put.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Get your gun, if you have to. It’s close enough. Move slowly and don’t startle them.”

Ev retrieved his pistol, keeping his eye on the wolves. Even he could tell they were a mated pair. One was heavily pregnant and limping. The other, a male, kept close to the first, frequently scenting the air as if keeping watch.

The female approached the spring that sat roughly fifty feet from the pool occupied by Kiera and Ev.

At the edge of the spring, the female wolf lay down and extended her left paw into the steaming water. She whimpered a bit but soon lowered her head to the ground and appeared to sleep.

The male paced back and forth occasionally circling the area around the spring where his mate lay. Eventually he went over to her and nudged her with his muzzle.

The female lifted her head and stood. She shook the wet paw then put it on the ground testing her weight on it. She let out a short yip and bounded off with the male following.

“Well, if that don’t beat all. I’ve never seen a wolf act like that. Have you? I could swear that paw was broken when she put it in the water.”

“I’ve never seen a wolf come this close to people, but I’ve heard of incidents like this. The Shoshone consider the wolf to be very wise. I’ll have to ask Spirit Talker what he thinks about this encounter. As for her paw, take a look at my hand.”

She extended her left hand to him.

He holstered his gun then took her fingers in his. There wasn’t a mark on her palm. No scrapes or cuts on her arms and her bruises were almost entirely gone. He turned his head staring in the direction where the wolves disappeared. “Amazing.”

“Yeah, amazing.” But Kiera was looking at Ev.

In the pre-dawn light, Ev watched Kiera sleep. She was unlike any woman he’d ever met — practical, forthright and unashamed of her actions both private and public. They’d made love repeatedly over the past two days. Each time he swore to himself would be the last time, and each time he was unable to resist the lure that was Kiera. Today their intimacy would have to end. Justice required that he bring Kiera to Laramie for trial, and Boyd’s life depended on their return. Even though the deadline was two weeks or more away, Ev knew they should leave for Lake Yellow Stone today.

“You’re frowning. I can’t have that.” Laughter sparkling in her eyes, Kiera rose above him and leaned down to kiss him.

His response was instantaneous — inhaling, absorbing her essence as if he’d never get enough. He shifted her onto her back.
Where has all my resolve gone?

With that thought, he tore himself from Kiera’s arms and the bed, reaching for his clothing before her protest could hit his ears.

She lifted up on her side, her head supported by one hand. “Is something wrong?”

He shook his head, looking at her lovely face. “We need to get back to Lake Yellow Stone.”

“Why?”

Ev thrust a hand through his hair. “Because this … ” he gestured toward the bed. “Nice as making love with you is, this isn’t right. We’ve both got responsibilities, and we can’t ignore them for very much longer.”

She shuttered her eyes and lay back down. “You’re right.”

Her tone was flat. Her whole body spoke of resignation and regret. He hated that he’d caused the change, extinguished the spark of easy delight in her eyes. What choice did he have? With all his heart, he might want to believe her innocent of all accused crimes, but his belief wasn’t enough. She had to stand trial and be declared innocent in a court of law before he could allow himself to imagine any kind of future for them.

Why that mattered he wasn’t sure. What kind of life could there be for a woman with a man who wouldn’t put down roots? The kind of life his mother had? He’d never allow that. He’d live his life alone to prevent it. But Kiera … Even after the trial, he couldn’t see them together. They were both too independent — too restless and stubborn — to be able to build an enduring relationship.

He finished dressing. “I’ll tend to the horses.”

She shifted, swinging her feet over the edge of the bed and reached for her buckskins. “I’ll get breakfast started. We can make plans for returning to the Shoshone village while we eat.”

After breakfast, he left closing the cabin door harder than he’d intended.

• • •

Kiera started at the loud bang of the door closing. She’d wanted to object, to argue, when Ev made his pronouncement about returning to Lake Yellow Stone. She hadn’t. She knew their time together was limited. Ev’s declaration that they needed to return indicated more than awareness of the days left before Boyd’s time ran out. Clearly Ev was bothered by the contradictions of making love with a suspected criminal. While she didn’t like the decision to leave, she respected his feelings. Staying longer would be worse than leaving.

It would take her a day to get ready, so they’d leave the following morning. Maybe she could convince him to give her one more night. If he did, that one night’s desire would have to last her a very long time, perhaps even a lifetime.

Late that afternoon, Kiera checked her preparations for the return journey to Lake Yellow Stone. She had enough supplies for five days on the trail. Her precious photographs of the horses — taken last year when Muh’Weda trained the ponies — were sealed in a waterproof packet. She had one last task to perform. Ev was out in the stable checking the horses’ tack and mending any worn pieces. Knowing she’d be back before he missed her, she buckled on her gun belt out of habit and set off for the ghost town’s bank.

As she walked, she considered the various twists and turns her life had taken. She’d learned from each experience and strongly believed that she could now stand up to her grandfather, the wealthy and almighty Carlton Rosencrantz Alden IV of the Boston Aldens. She’d encountered much worse than his dictatorial misogyny. First, she’d deal with Big Si’s accusations, then she’d set out for Boston. It was past time that she brought Edith and Mae to Smoke Valley, saving her sisters from their grandfather’s brutality, deprivation, and parsimony, just as they had saved her three years ago when they helped her escape.

However, in order to travel to Boston and back she needed money, so she headed to the deserted town’s bank where she’d hidden the stash of gold nuggets she’d found during her photographic jaunts around the area. Beating her grandfather at his own game by having her own money would be a real pleasure.

She was through the door into the bank before she realized that someone else was in the building — three someones, to be exact.

“Well lookee what we got here.” A tall man with a dirt-streaked duster thrown over his plaid shirt and worn denims stared hard at Kiera. His voice was raspy, like he didn’t talk much. The lust in his eyes sent a chill down her back and tightened her throat.

“She a squaw or a white woman?” Sporting snakeskin boots, the shortest of the three squinted at her and spoke in a high, thin whine.

Kiera shook off fear. She needed to survive, not shiver in her moccasins.

A pearl handled colt rested against the thigh of the third man whose gaze traveled over Kiera from top to toe and back.

“She may be wearing buckskins, but I never seen no squaw with hair that red. Wonder if it’s natural?” He spoke calm in tones smooth as cream. His yellow eyes gleamed, and a lewd grin spread across his face. “Let’s find out.”

Before he took half a step in her direction, Kiera had her pistol pointed at him. Her blood chilled at the image his suggestion inspired.

He halted in mid-stride. Behind him jaws dropped, and eyes widened on Whine and Rasp.

Cream-voice raised his hands, palms out, and shifted his balance. The other two followed suit. “Ain’t no call to be wavin’ that handgun around, miss. I’m just being friendly.”

Kiera ignored the euphemism. “Keep your hands up. All three of you get inside that teller’s box then lock the door behind you. I want to hear the lock click.”

The three studied her. Then Cream nodded. “Go ahead boys. Let’s do what the little lady says.”

They trooped into the box and stared out at her from behind the barred window.

“Lock the door.”

Raspy lowered his left hand and reached for the door.

The snick of the lock broke the silence. She’d bought herself about five seconds’ head start. Which was good. She only needed two.

Still facing the men, she commenced backing toward the open door she’d just come through.

“I see you gentlemen got the same information I did from the assay office.” She wanted them to think she was just like them, a claim jumper, and hadn’t walked the entire town and valley over the past year and a half. “Since you’re here first, I’ll be on my way. I’ll leave you to your business and thank you kindly to leave me to mine.”

She stepped out of the bank and onto the aged planks of the boardwalk. Then she ran.

Left to the corner of the bank then left again down the alley between the bank and the mercantile. Halfway down the alley, she leapt into a narrow space between the bank and a row of rain barrels. Then, making herself as small as possible, she hunkered in the shadowy area formed by the barrels, the wall of the bank, and the cantilevered second story.

Bootheels pounded on wood then thudded against the earth of the alley. All three men ran past her.