Texas Bride

Clinging to that sensible thought, Jonah released her—and wondered what in the hell he’d been thinking by holding her possessively to him in the first place. That kind of physical contact was tempting and dangerous. It was as if he had needed her warmth and her gentle touch while he faced the onslaught of memories triggered by stopping at this old Comanche campsite.

She pivoted toward him, then flicked a glance at the rolled pallet on the stone ledge. He could practically see her mind churning with curiosity when her gaze returned to him.

“If you have only one bedroll, and I slept on it, then where did you sleep last night?”

He’d wondered when she would ask that question. He’d expected it earlier, but he supposed getting shot at had dominated her thoughts.

“I slept beside you, under the same quilt,” he said, expecting her to start ranting about propriety. But she surprised him by staring inquisitively at him.

“I was so exhausted last night that you could easily have taken advantage of the situation.” Those amber eyes drilled into him. “Why didn’t you?”

“Good question. Maybe because I was plumb worn-out, too.”

“Or maybe because you don’t like me and you don’t find me desirable.”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

That was not it, but he’d be damned if he’d let her know she was getting under his skin and that getting naked with her was a fantasy that was occupying too much of his thought processes.

Jonah scooped up his rifle. “You can enjoy a leisurely bath while I hunt down supper.”

“No rattlesnake steak. Tried it once. Didn’t like it.”

“You’d be surprised what you can eat when left with no choice, princess,” he assured her, more gruffly than he intended. “Believe me, I’ve had worse.”

Jonah descended the trail and vowed he was going to be his old self again when he returned. Sharing his thoughts and emotions made him feel uncomfortable and exposed. He related better to Maddie when he relied on taunts and sarcasm. If he kept this up she might come to mean too much in the short span of a few days. He planned to leave her without regret, because he had regrets aplenty already and revisiting the outer boundaries of the Comanchería was getting him stirred up.

She was getting him stirred up, too.

It was amazing how quickly he had reached the point where just staring at those clingy clothes that accentuated her curvaceous figure made him want her—badly.

He just needed a woman. Any woman would do, he tried to convince himself. He could relieve that problem at the bustling town that had sprung up beside Fort Griffin. The Flat, as the raucous community was called, was known for its saloons, dance halls and harlots. Simple sexual pleasure was what he craved.

Maddie Garret was to be cautiously avoided because she came with all sorts of complications. Hell, he couldn’t even guarantee that she wasn’t feeding him some fantastic lie.

Oh, certainly, he wanted to believe her, wanted to think that he wasn’t that bad a judge of character. But he’d heard too many nightmarish tales of men who were enticed and betrayed by a beautiful woman. Maddie, with her hypnotic golden eyes, sun-kissed hair and honeyed lips could lead him into disaster like a sea siren luring a doomed ship into the eye of a hurricane.

“Well damn,” Jonah muttered as he stalked off to hunt. He was getting allegorical and philosophical all of a sudden, wasn’t he? If this wasn’t an indication that a tempting woman could tie a man up in knots and leave him waxing poetic, he didn’t know what was.

Right there and then, Jonah promised himself that he would be back on solid mental footing by the time he returned to the campsite. He was not going to let Maddie Garret get to him worse than she already had.

As soon as he dumped her off at Fort Griffin he was as good as gone. And you could write that down in stone because he was not going to change his mind. Fort Griffin was the end of the line for him.

Chapter Four

M addie sensed the change in Jonah the instant he returned to camp, carrying three quail that he’d cleaned for cooking, and an armload of firewood. His gaze skipped past her and he smirked when he noticed her recently washed clothes, and his, draped over bushes and outcroppings of rock. Maddie was pretty certain that Jonah felt uncomfortable about sharing a part of himself with her earlier, and had decided that wasn’t going to happen again.

“You didn’t have to do my laundry,” he said curtly.

“No, and you didn’t have to fetch my supper.” She walked over to retrieve the quail. “One good turn deserves another. Maybe next time I’ll fetch supper and you can do the laundry.”

He scoffed at that, as she figured he would. “You can hunt your own game?”

She nodded. “I am not entirely helpless.” She took pride in telling him that.

Jonah stacked the firewood, then grabbed a matchbox from his saddlebag to ignite the campfire. Then he slid his pistol from the holster and handed it to her. “Prove it,” he challenged.

Lips twitching, Maddie focused on a scraggly weed that protruded from a crack in the rock and fired away. She glanced sideways to note Jonah’s stunned reaction after she hit the weed dead center.

His narrowed gaze swung to her. “Where did you learn to do that?”

Maddie blew on the smoking barrel of the gun, then returned it to Jonah butt first. “Our ranch foreman, Carlos Perez, taught me. At my insistence. After my father disappeared and rustling escalated, I decided I needed to be able to defend myself.” Her smile faded. “I should have encouraged Chrissy to take lessons, as well. Perhaps she could have escaped capture if she had been armed.”

Jonah handed the pistol back to her. “Take this with you while you lead the horses to the river to drink. I’ll bathe while dinner is cooking.”

Maddie grinned impishly into his expressionless face. “What’s wrong, Danhill? Afraid I’ll sneak peeks at you?”

He cast her a withering glance as he peeled off his shirt, exposing the rippling muscles that had captured her rapt attention the previous day. “Go away, Garret. And watch what the hell you’re doing down there. I scouted the area, but that doesn’t mean someone won’t sneak up on your blindside while you’re dawdling.”

Maddie tucked the pistol in the band of her breeches, then snatched up the empty canteen. Leaving Jonah to his bath, she followed the path to retrieve the horses. She smiled to herself, thinking what a refreshing change Jonah was from the other men of her acquaintance. They fawned over her, flattered her incessantly. But Maddie was no one’s fool. She knew her suitors saw her as a means to an end. They lusted after her prize property. But not Jonah. He resented the fact that she owned land that had once belonged to his people. In addition, he didn’t trust her. She had to earn his trust and prove her worth.

She had likely made him more cautious of her by assuring him that she could handle firearms. Maddie suspected he wouldn’t turn his back on her, for fear she’d shoot him. She wondered what it was going to take to convince him that she was telling him the truth.

Ah well, what did it matter? she asked herself. Jonah wasn’t going to stick around.

A rumble of thunder caught Maddie’s attention as she waited for the horses to drink their fill. She glanced southwest, noting that the bank of gray clouds she’d seen earlier was rapidly approaching. She knew spring thunderstorms could wreak havoc in this part of Texas, because she’d endured her share of sandstorms and windblown rains that transformed gullies into roaring rivers. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be perched on that cliff when lightning bolts speared from the threatening clouds.

Maddie tethered the horses on a patch of spring grass so they could graze, filled the canteen, then made the strenuous climb to the cliff. By the time she returned, Jonah had changed into the clean clothes—another black ensemble—that she’d draped over the scrub. He flicked her a glance while he was hunkered over the fire.

“Storm’s coming,” she said. “We may have wasted our time bathing because we’ll probably get drenched.”

Jonah gestured a brawny arm to the east. Frowning, she wandered around the jutting boulders, then halted in surprise when she noticed a wide-mouthed cavern tucked beneath the overhanging rock ledge. It wasn’t an enclosed space, which would have left her with that hemmed-in feeling and made her uneasy—thank goodness.

She noticed that Jonah had unrolled the pallet, and she was relieved that they could bed down without dodging lightning bolts during the night.

When she rejoined him and made an attempt at casual conversation, he wasn’t the least bit responsive. Since he didn’t seem to be in the mood for idle chatter Maddie decided to explore the foot trail that led to higher elevations.

The grumble of thunder overrode a low warning growl, and Maddie recoiled in alarm when she finally noticed a sleek mountain lion crouched on a ledge ten feet above her head. The big cat snarled and swiped the air with its paw.

Heart in her throat, her pulse pounding like hailstones, Maddie retreated several steps. She realized too late that she had only provided a better angle for the mountain lion to pounce—if that was its wont. Wild-eyed, Maddie watched the great cat gather itself, and she frantically grabbed the pistol tucked in her waistband. With a screeching snarl the tawny mountain lion lunged from its perch.

Maddie screamed her head off as the two-hundred pound beast plunged directly at her.

Jonah was on his feet the split second he heard the wild, inhuman screech and recognized it for what it was. When Maddie’s terrified shriek erupted, his heart nearly beat him to death. Fear for her safety sizzled through him as he raced up the winding path. Jonah sprinted around the outcropping of rock, then instinctively leaped sideways when a gunshot exploded. The sound echoed down the rugged peak, then died in a rumble of thunder.

Rounding the bend, Jonah braced his arm on the wall of rock and glanced up to see Maddie sprawled, half on, half off, a chair-size boulder. Panting for breath, Jonah stared at the unmoving mountain lion that lay across her knees.

“Maddie?” he called softly.