When Hud returned to the cave, Bri brushed past him on her way out to freshen up. She wasn’t sure what she expected to feel after the most intimately personal moment of her life. But the emotions and sensations were still so intense they alarmed her. She realized she was falling in love with Hud, despite her good judgment, in spite of her dream of following her adventurous heart and exploring the frontier.
“What are you worried about?” she mumbled to herself as she plunked into the pool. “Hud isn’t interested in commitment and you told him you wanted no strings. You lived in the moment and discovered you like passion. A lot. With him.”
Idiot that she was, she found herself wondering if she measured up to the other women who had come and gone from his bed. Well, it didn’t matter, she convinced herself. She was living in the moment, taking pleasure where she found it. Certainly, Hudson Stone was an honorable man who wouldn’t boast about his conquest so she wasn’t afraid he’d embarrass her at the Ranger camp. Besides, she’d made the decision to seduce him and she’d initiated the tryst. She had conquered him.
Bri splashed water on her face when she blushed profusely, remembering the amazing intimacy between them. By damned, she was not going to face him, acting awkward and self-conscious. She might feel awkward and self-conscious but she didn’t want him to know it. Hadn’t she managed to cover up that revelation the moment she acknowledged she’d fallen in love with Hud? She’d recovered in time to toss out a teasing remark about paying for lessons learned. She could pretend to be as nonchalant and self-assured as Hud if she put her mind to it.
Resolved to remaining nonchalant in his presence, she donned her clothes and returned to the cavern. Hud was sitting cross-legged by the fire, waiting to dine with her. She murmured her thanks when he offered her the tender meat and she ate hungrily. Apparently, passionate lovemaking stimulated all sorts of appetites, she mused.
“How much longer before we reach your camp?” she asked between bites. Small talk would conceal any uncomfortable feelings of embarrassment, she assured herself. She had honed the skill in ballrooms from Austin to Houston.
“About four hours. We’re camped on Angel Mesa. From there, you can see for miles in every direction.”
“Are there interesting landmarks to view along the way?”
Hud shrugged a broad shoulder, and then mentioned a few rock formations and creeks that provided spectacular scenery.
“How often does your battalion break camp and change locations?” she asked interestedly.
“Depends on the amount of criminal activity in the area. We’ve been camped on Angel Mesa for six months. Several bands of Mexican banditos and white outlaws are roaming the area, preying on thousands of head of cattle driven to Dodge City. Occasionally, thieves strike army supply wagons and stagecoaches headed to New Mexico. We’ve also investigated thefts against ranchers and sheepherders.”
“You have a lot of territory to cover with only a few men,” she remarked then took a swig of water from the canteen.
“Minus one good man,” Hud murmured somberly.
“I suppose you’ll be teamed up with someone else now.”
He nodded his raven head. “I’ve never worked with anyone else. It will take some getting used to.”
For certain, Hud faced not only guilt and grief from the recent loss of his best friend, but he’d also require a period of adjustment while working with someone else. He had been comfortable with Speck. Now he had to accept the ways and the habits of another man.
Hud glanced at her. A wry smile quirked his lips. “Is all this chitchat your way of pretending what happened between us didn’t happen?”
The perceptive question took her aback momentarily, but she recovered quickly and displayed what she hoped was a casual smile. “I am very much aware of what happened. I enjoyed it thoroughly and I’m not in denial. Are you?”
“I know your emotions were in upheaval after your near-death experience in the flood.”
“You do?” His attempt to tell her how she felt and what she thought while she was doing her best to appear detached aggravated her.
He bobbed his head. “Yes, I do. Sometimes people do things in a reckless moment they regret later.”
“You speak from personal experience?”
“After a difficult foray against lopsided odds, I have on occasion cast caution to the wind,” he admitted.
She was the most recent occasion, she presumed. Bri stared at him, not knowing what she wanted from him. Was it for him to say he loved her, too? Maybe so. But she knew he didn’t and she’d be crushed if he tried to lie to her.
Ultimately, what she wanted to hear was that he couldn’t resist her any easier than she could resist him, even if he felt nothing more than lust and physical attraction.
She decided to test her theory, here and now. This night was far from over and she yearned to become as familiar with Hud’s incredibly masculine body as he was with hers. She wanted him to understand how it felt to be so desperate that need obliterated all other thoughts and emotions.
What she lacked in experience, she vowed to compensate with creative ingenuity because her feminine pride demanded that he remember her in the years to come. She was definitely going to remember him and she couldn’t bear the thought of being one of those occasions when he recklessly cast caution to the wind, then couldn’t remember her name a month later.
Playing with fire, he’d said. Indeed. They would see how hot passion burned when you struck a match to it. Keeping that in mind, Bri removed her blouse and reminded herself that she shouldn’t be embarrassed because it was too late for modesty.
“What are you doing?” Hud croaked, frog-eyed.
“Conducting an experiment.”
She swallowed a chuckle when he stared at her breasts, her face, then her breasts again. His eyes turned a darker shade of gold. When she leaned forward to unbutton his shirt, he glanced warily at her.
“Bri—” he choked out, gaping wide-eyed at her.
She tossed his shirt toward his saddlebags then kissed him into silence. Rising, she clutched his hand and led him to the pallet. She noticed he didn’t put up much of a fight. However, he did try to forestall her when she reached down to unfasten the placket on his buckskin breeches. Not to be deterred, she moved his hands out of her way.
“This is not a good idea,” he rasped as she pushed his breeches over his hips and left them pooling around his feet.
She was pleased to note that he was already aroused. “No? Why not?”
“Because I—”
His voice dried up when she curled her fingers around his erection then glided her hand from base to tip. Steel sheathed in satin, she thought as she caressed him. Fascinated by the rumbling purr she drew from him, she stroked him repeatedly.
She urged him to the pallet then directed him to prop his back against the wall, the same way he had done when he worked his phenomenal magic on her body. Still holding his pulsating flesh in her hands, she knelt beside him to trail a row of featherlight kisses from his lips to his chin and down his muscular chest.
His hand slid around her neck to bring her head back to his devouring kiss. He brushed his fingers over the rigid crest of her breasts, making her burn with pleasure. But she was determined not to become sidetracked. This time she would know him by sight, by taste, by touch and by heart.
She broke the scalding kiss and angled her head to brush her lips over the dark furring of hair that descended over his washboarded belly to his abdomen. Hud growled hoarsely and wrapped his hand around her hair like a rope to bring her head back to his.
“I can’t take much more of this erotic torment,” he rasped against her lips.
“Don’t sell yourself short.” She smiled impishly as she stroked his throbbing length. “That would be inaccurate. A big strong Ranger captain like you? You can endure. Challenge yourself.”
She pulled her long hair from his hand and leaned down to take him into her mouth. Hearing his ragged groan of pleasure wasn’t enough to satisfy her. She wanted to watch him surrender to her intimate touch as helplessly as she had surrendered to him.
Bri nudged his muscled legs apart then she looked up to see that he was watching her suckle him. His long-lashed eyes glowed like molten lava. His jaw clenched, as if he was battling for hard-won control and he was on the brink of losing the fight. She flicked her tongue at him and heard his breath rush out on a hiss. She saw his chest expand then shudder and she reveled in the power she held over him.
“You’re killing me,” he whispered raggedly. “Aw…damn…”
His voice trailed off when Bri nipped at him with her teeth. She delighted in hearing the growls of pleasure that tumbled from his lips each time she stroked him provocatively with her hand, her lips and her tongue.
When a silvery drop of need escaped his control, she caressed her way up the masculine contours of his body to offer him a taste of his desire for her in a scorching kiss. Suddenly she found herself flat on her back while Hud hovered over her like a powerful mountain lion pinning down its prey.
“I’ve reached my limit,” he rumbled as he peeled off her breeches then nudged her legs apart with his knees. “What is it that you want to hear, temptress? That I can’t resist you, no matter how hard I try? Is that what your experiment is all about?” He pressed intimately against her, filling her with his throbbing length. “You’re right. I can’t resist you, Bri. You utterly defeat me because I can’t see past my obsessive need for you.”
Bri realized that was what she longed to hear. She needed to know that he couldn’t resist this ardent passion that billowed between them any better than she could. She needed to know that she could make him want her to the same maddeningly desperate degree that she had ached for him earlier that evening. For her, the feelings and sensations transcended mindless lust, even if that’s all she had wanted in the beginning. Now it delved deeper and burned brighter than any emotion she’d ever experienced.
Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to make demands on Hud. She had to be satisfied with his compelling passion for her and to expect nothing more. At least he acknowledged that they were drawn inexplicably together by the kind of desire that defied their fierce will.
“I want you like hell blazing, Bri,” he whispered as he moved urgently inside her.
“I want you the same way.” She looped her arms around his neck and matched him thrust for penetrating thrust.
The world went completely out of focus as they moved in frantic rhythm, chasing the erotic sensations that built one upon the other until intense pleasure burst like a shooting star that scattered flames across the night sky. Hud couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. All that mattered was that he had become a living breathing part of her as they held on to each other, spiraling through vibrant sensations that left him spinning helplessly out of control.
The dizzying freefall of ecstasy depleted every ounce of his strength. He shuddered then collapsed beside her on the pallet, exhausted but completely sated.
“No more experiments,” he whispered breathlessly against her ear. “That one damn near did me in.”
She smiled drowsily as she cuddled up against his laboring chest. “Whatever you say, Captain Ranger.”
“Whatever I say?” he murmured, and realized that he could speak freely now because she had faded off to sleep. “I lost control of the situation when I stepped into this cavern after my first bath. I’ve been battling this tormenting conflict of wanting you when I know I can’t keep you since the day I met you. Now look what’s happened.”
So much for the higher standard he’d set for himself, he thought with a self-deprecating snort. He’d shot it all to hell. He eased away, cursing his insatiable weakness for her all the while. Then he picked up his pallet and moved it to the far side of the cave so he’d keep his hands off her luscious body. She needed uninterrupted sleep and she wouldn’t get it if he remained within touching distance.
It shook him to the core that he’d allowed her to touch him in the most intimate ways imaginable—in ways he’d never permitted another woman to know him. She’d made him lose complete control—and not even care. She had shredded his willpower as if it never existed and assured him that his noble restraint was nowhere near as invincible as he previously thought.
The moment she’d placed her hands on his body, he’d melted like lard in a hot skillet. He’d become a willing slave to the kind of obsessive passion he’d never experienced.
Now there was a tidbit of information he could have done without, he mused as he spread out his pallet. Even if he had never known such incredible pleasure, he did know their wild forbidden tryst began and ended this evening within the shadowy confines of this cavern in the middle of nowhere. That’s where the memory of this erotic interlude had to remain, too, he reminded himself as he tiptoed outside to check on the horses and clean his waterlogged pistols.
When something cold and wet nudged his cheek, Joe Jarvis groaned groggily. He pried open one bloodshot eye to see his horse standing over him. Joe yawned broadly and scratched his aching belly. He’d ridden out the violent storm in a drunken stupor and the sun was still hours away from rising.
Levering himself up on one elbow, he stared into the darkness. He tried to remember the last time he’d been awake this early. Never, he decided. This was usually the time he staggered to bed and collapsed after a bout with whiskey.
Ray Novak, the rancher who’d hired him and Pete, had ordered him to drag himself up at sunrise to steal cattle from his neighbors. But Joe preferred to prowl the darkness, drink his fill and sleep until noon.
Today he had good reason to get up and get moving. As soon as he captured that female who was worth a double ransom, he could head to Montana or Idaho or wherever he wanted with a fortune stuffed in his saddlebags.
The thought prompted Joe to climb to his feet. His head throbbed but he grabbed the reins and led his horse from the makeshift shelter. All he needed was a drink to get his juices flowing.
“Hell,” he muttered when he realized he’d finished off his last bottle of whiskey.
Well, he could buy all the liquor he wanted if he succeeded in snatching up that female who couldn’t be more than a few hours ahead of him.
This time he was going to have some fun with that woman who had sharply rejected him that night in the hall of the hotel. She wouldn’t deny him this time, he promised himself.
Bri awakened shortly after dawn to see that Hud had moved his pallet a noticeable distance away from her. The implication of the wide space he had placed between them stung her pride. He might as well have come right out and announced that once the passion between them fizzled out it was back to business as usual. Any sentimental attachment he felt for her lasted no longer than their reckless trysts.
Well, two could play that game, she mused as she dug into her satchel to retrieve several large bank notes. While Hud slept soundly, she walked over to place the money on his chest. She had paid him in full for his lessons in passion. If that insulted him as much as the implication of the distance he had placed between them insulted her, then all the better.
Satchels in hand, Bri exited the cave to bathe. She descended the slope to take a chilly dip in the makeshift pool then donned her clothes. Since Hud still hadn’t exited from the cave, Bri decided to check on the horses.
Bri saddled the sorrel gelding and led him across the grass-covered mesa. She noticed the clump of willow and cottonwood trees that overlooked another scenic canyon. She decided to gather up some tree limbs to leave behind in the cavern for the next hapless travelers who needed to make use of the shelter.
She ambled into the underbrush that encircled the buffalo wallow to pick up branches. She tensed apprehensively when she saw a horse tied to a tree on the far side of the hollowed-out basin that stood full of water after the downpour. Whoever owned the mount was around here somewhere and he could dash through the shallow water to attack her. Hurriedly, Bri turned back to her horse, hoping to retrieve from her satchel the pistol Hud had given to her. She froze to the spot when a familiar face, embedded with slate-gray eyes and surrounded by straggly hair, rose like a demon from the scrub bushes. To her dismay, she didn’t have time to grab the handgun before she found herself staring at the speaking end of the outlaw’s six-shooter.
She shifted her gaze to the left, trying to calculate her chances of diving for cover before Mad Joe Jarvis, who had gunned down Speck Horton in cold blood, shot her, too. Damn it, how did he know where to find her? And where, she’d like to know, was his sidekick? She looked around discreetly, wondering if Pete Spaulding had a pistol trained on her, also.
“Don’t try it, lady,” Jarvis growled menacingly.
Bri thought it over and decided she would try to escape. If nothing else, the discharging pistol would alert Hud that unwanted company had arrived. Even better if Hud confronted the man he’d been chasing all over creation, here and now.
When she launched herself toward the bushes and rolled sideways, she expected to hear a gunshot. To her frustration, Jarvis didn’t fire at her. Instead, he pounced from the underbrush and raised his arm to strike her. Bri shoved the heel of her hand into his chin, then kicked with her legs, knocking Jarvis off balance.
He landed with a thud and spouted the foulest curse she’d ever heard. Then he hurled himself on top of her before she could crawl to her hands and knees. Bri chastised herself for leaving her dagger in her satchel after bathing the previous evening. The one time she had ignored her rule of carrying a concealed weapon had come back to haunt her. All she had for protection was her wits. Considering his strength and violent temperament, she would have preferred to be holding a loaded pistol and a very large, very sharp knife.
When Jarvis backhanded her, her head whiplashed and her senses reeled. By the time she could think straight again, he’d shoved the barrel of his six-shooter between her eyes and smiled victoriously, displaying his discolored teeth.
“Good to know that you learned how to fight back, hellion. Yer daddy must’ve taught you,” he sneered at her. “I’ll remember that.”
Icy dread slithered down her spine. This ruthless desperado knew who she was. That was not a good thing. He looked entirely too pleased with himself for capturing her. If she didn’t escape immediately, she’d be in serious trouble.
Knowing that, Bri shoved the barrel of his pistol away from her face abruptly and simultaneously jerked up her leg. She kicked Jarvis in the side of the head then slammed her boot heel into his ribs. When he yelped and swayed sideways, momentarily dazed by the blow, she rolled away and scrambled onto her hands and knees.
But she didn’t get far before she heard his enraged snarl fill the air. He leveled a hard blow to the back of her head with the butt of his pistol. Pain exploded through her skull. Nonetheless, she crawled forward, hoping to startle her horse and send it trotting back to Rambler.
Her attempt to alert Hud was a wasted effort. Jarvis delivered another brain-scrambling blow to her head. She collapsed facedown in the water that filled the buffalo wallow. The last thing she remembered was the sound of wicked laughter accompanying her into the wet, swirling darkness.