Catch a Shooting Star jd edit 03 12 2012 html (28 page)

She looked back to see if Dixie was keeping up and, satisfied that she was, she watched the mare’s footfalls to see if she was limping.  The Appaloosa noticed that her mistress was watching her and she perked up her head and pricked her ears forward and nickered softly.

Savannah turned back around, smiling to herself and said to Travis excitedly, “I can’t believe that she ran all that way.  Poor thing.  She must have thought I’d left her for good.  But, of course, I did.  But she found me!  And just look at her, she’s not limping at all.  It’s a good thing I didn’t let you shoot her.  I shouldn’t have let you talk me into leaving her.”

“It was your decision,” he said without emotion.

“I know,” she said, then looked back at Dixie and said in jest, “She’s not an old bag of bones after all.  And she’s certainly not lame.  I guess you were wrong.”

That did it!  He could put up with the taunting and the rambling about how that damn horse had recovered and had found its way to them.  But there was no way in Hell that he would allow her to tell him that he had been wrong.  He jerked back on the reins, buckling the horse’s back and stopping the Palomino in its tracks.  He reached back and forced Savannah to the ground with such fury that she feared for her life.  Then, he clambered down next to her and took her shoulders into his hands.

With one forefinger shaking within inches of her nose, he growled through clenched teeth, “Don’t ever—EVER tell me that I’m wrong!  I may miscalculate things and I may leave things to work out on their own.  But I’m never wrong and don’t you forget that!”

The look on her face showed him with no uncertain terms that she was both hurt and terrified.  Her shoulders shook beneath his powerful grip and she blinked back tears as she opened her mouth to protest, her own anger replacing any fear that she felt inside.

With all the gusto that she could muster, she drew in a breath and railed right back at him, “How dare you handle me in this manner?  Do you think that you can push me around like some dog in the streets just because I said something that offends you?  I was merely making idle chatter because I was so happy that Dixie had survived and ultimately found me.  There was no call for you to throw me around and shake the breath out of me and shout at me like that.”

She wrenched herself free and turned away, stepping toward Dixie.  But a hand shot out and wheeled her around, slamming her into a strong and unyielding chest.  She tried to pull away again, but he held her fast, his strong arms tightening their grip and his glaring brown eyes boring into hers with untold passion.

As quick as a snake, Travis clamped his mouth to hers, the sting of his teeth on her lips caused her to wince and fight against it.  His arms squeezed her viciously, pinning her to his body and his hand caught her chin, forcing her to face him while his hungry mouth found hers once again.

Savannah stiffened in her anger, in the spite that roiled inside her as hurtful tears trickled down her cheeks.  She whimpered in protest at the biting kiss that he assailed upon her and she balled her fists at her sides in an effort to try to wriggle out of his vice-like grip.

Suddenly, the kiss softened and he loosened his grasp enough to bring his hands up to the middle of her back to caress her spine.  The gentle, undulating motion of his lips caused her to want to forget her anger and acknowledge the sparks of pleasure that shot though her body.  But, the anger flared again when she realized that he was forcing her to feel those things by his touch, by his soft, tender kisses. 

A flashing memory of the night that he had assaulted her while she stood naked and vulnerable in the bathtub gave her the fortitude to turn the tables on him.  She returned his ardor, pretending to enjoy it while she waited for him to loosen his grip just enough for her to squirm free and when that opportunity finally came, she shot out of his arms like a bolt of lightning and spat at him with contempt in her voice, “Keep your filthy hands off of me!  You may think you can have your way with other women but I’m not the harlots that you like to keep company with.  I never will be one, no matter how insistent you are.  So, from now on, keep your distance if you don’t want your head shot off!”

Unmoved by her speech but seemingly amused by it, Travis folded his arms in front of his chest and drawled with a devilish grin, “Now, come on, Bunny.  You know you liked it.”

“I did not!” she seethed, putting her hands on her hips.  “I’d rather kiss a rattler than to lock jaws with the likes of you.”

“Well, I’ll be on the lookout for one.  I’d hate to disappoint you,” he said, pretending to search the ground for a snake of her choosing.

When she threw her hands up in disgust, he chuckled and dismissed her reaction to his advances with a shake of his head.  He took the reins into his hands and stepped into the saddle, his anger at her dissipating as he smiled down at her.  He reached a hand down to help her mount.  His smile widened, accompanied by a playful wink, while he coaxed her to forgive him despite her obvious reproach.

She darted daggers of reprisal at him for several seconds before she relented to climb up behind him.  Slapping his hand away, she grabbed the leather straps that dangled on the skirt of the saddle and heaved her body up behind him. 

Travis glared over his shoulder at her before he spurred the horse into motion once again.  His anger returning, he stiffened his back and thrust his Stetson back on his head as he kept his eyes toward the south and the destination that would finally give him freedom from the unrelenting passion that he felt for this woman and her unforgiving disapproval of his advances, which raised that passion another notch each time she rejected him.

Neither said a word as the day turned into evening and when they stopped to camp for the night, they ate in silence and then turned into their respective beds.  And as the stars gathered over head, they kept their emotions and their thoughts to themselves as sleep eluded them both.

When Travis slumped against the saddle, he lay there deep in thought.  He could not, for the life of him, figure out that woman.  He’d tried every way that he knew to get through to her, to show her how he had felt about her, but as soon as he’d get close enough to break the barrier that she had built, she would run away like a scared rabbit.  He’d never met a woman that didn’t come slinking up to him, begging for his attention.  Sure, he’d been testy these past few days, but that was because she was getting under his skin and he could not find a way to make her feel the same way that he felt about her.  She brought it out in him like a bur under his saddle, pricking at him every now and then just to rile him up.  He didn’t mean to take it out on her, but by God, she was the reason that he was in the condition that he was in.

He rolled over and looked at the form that cuddled in the blanket just a few yards away from him.  Maybe he should apologize to her for forcing her to kiss him and for yelling at her the way that he had.  Maybe he should tell her that he was confused and unsure of himself where she was concerned and that her presence was the cause of it and maybe even the cure of it, that is, if she’d ever let him prove it. 

Naw.  He rolled over and stewed in his turmoil until he finally fell asleep.

The night air began to cool the earth beneath Savannah’s bedroll and she snuggled under the blanket and shivered.  She opened her eyes and her gaze fell on the man that held her heart in his hand.  She sighed and wished that she hadn’t have been so hard on him.  A man as handsome as he was is used to having his way with women.  And what a way he had!  With his smoldering kisses and unnerving touch, he sent her reeling with passion each time he had indulged himself with her.  Sure, she had enjoyed the kiss, more than she cared to admit.  And she had wanted more but her pride would not let her give in to him. 

She closed her eyes again and his face was all she saw in the darkness that overtook her. The light of that visage that smiled at her with both arrogance and intensity, passion and hatred all rolled together in his brown eyes and on his lips, which twitched with words that she knew he ached to tell her—words that she longed to hear from a man and to know that they were spoken from his heart.  In her own heart, she yearned for the closeness that this man offered and she wished that she had not pushed him away yet again.  She wished with all her heart and soul that he would ignore her vow of abstinence due to her counterfeit marriage and show her the passion that she knew was bursting inside him and that she would, with all her heart, show him the passion that she felt inside her.

Deep in the recesses of her mind, as it drifted upon fitful dreams of past and future occurrences, she fought against the hateful face of her husband while wrestling with the urge to give all that she had to give to the man that she truly loved.  And somewhere, from far, far away, she heard a vindictive voice of a woman who flaunted the fact that she was the one who held her husband’s heart and that no Georgia gringa was going to take him away from her.  Slowly, the woman’s face came closer and her voice became louder as she told Savannah that Diego loved her and always had. 

Sitting up in her blanket, her body covered in perspiration, Savannah replayed the dream in her mind.  But, it had really happened!  She remembered hearing Maria’s voice taunting her as she lay paralyzed in that bed where she and Diego had kept her drugged and unable to fight against them.  She remembered the hateful face that moved closer to her as it administered more laudanum and then laughed at the stupor that it caused in her.  And she remembered seeing her husband take that woman into his arms as Savannah lay motionless and kiss her as if his wife did not exist. 

A surge of anger swelled through her as she sat on that cold, hard ground and vowed to herself that she would make them pay for the pain that they had caused her.  On that night, upon all those stars and that brazen moon, she promised herself that she would no longer be a prisoner to the falsity of her vow to cleave only to her husband and guaranteed that the next time the opportunity arrived, whether it was forced or if she asked for it, she would kiss the man who seemed to be drawn to her and, if it so happened, she would allow him to thrust upon her all the passion that tore at his own body and translate it to her in a way that she longed to discover.

With a sigh of yeaning, she lay down and closed her eyes against the urge to go to him and tell him, to show him, how she meant to make amends with him once and for all.  And soon, new dreams overtook her, dreams of him showing her just how much he wanted to make amends with her once—and then again and again—and, if she had her way, again.

Chapter Sixteen

If the sun had not been so hot, it might have been a nice day.  The wind, which blew a cooling breeze from the east, whipped at the two riders and their mounts.  Savannah had tied her flying hair with a kerchief, trying in vain to keep it from slapping at her face.  And as she held the reins with one hand, she smoothed down the silvery mane of her mare, which popped in the wind in front of her, smacking her in stinging strikes.

After determining that Dixie was able to support a rider that morning, Travis had thrown the saddle upon the Appaloosa’s back and then mounted the bare back of his Palomino while Savannah rode the mare.  The mended mare pranced and strutted beside the golden stallion without missing a step.  Her nostrils flared and her head dipped excitedly as if she was glad to be ridden again. 

Travis looked across at Savannah, who sat proudly and confidently in her saddle, as if glad to be away from him and back in control of her quest to rid the world of the man who had done her wrong.  Her back straight and her shoulders pitched back below her black mane of hair, which she held high like a princess riding among her subjects, she seemed to him to be just that.  Her amethyst eyes stared forward, never catching a glimpse of his gaze as she sat upon her gentleman’s saddle with little effort on her part to keep the horse beneath her in complete control.  He could not keep back the smile that creased his face despite the feeling of inferiority that this tiny woman suddenly instilled upon him when she finally turned her glorious head toward him and smiled sweetly as if to silently ask of him, “Why aren’t you begging for mercy?”

It had been three days since he had kissed her, and since she had pushed him away again, and he still wondered if she had really wanted him to stop kissing her or if she was just as confused about their relationship as he was.  He had not tried it again, had not even come close to touching her unless she needed his help to mount the Palomino behind him for the first two days that they had agreed that the mare should rest as they lead her with the rope.  And, now that Savannah was riding alone again, there was no further need to help her, for she insisted that she was perfectly capable of getting on her own horse and therefore, it was not necessary for him to even stand behind her on the ground in case she fell backward.   True, the mare was at least three hands shorter than his own mount, which took her stretching her entire body in order to reach up and then step up into the saddle when mounting the Palomino and it only took a small hop for her to swing herself onto her mare’s back.  Still, he felt the need to wait to mount until the tiny woman had settled in the saddle, a deed that perturbed Savannah so much that she would spur the mare into a trot and leave him behind. 

More amused than angry at her for her actions, Travis would just shake his head and chuckle to himself before slipping onto the back of his own horse and trotting after her.  And then, after hours of resisting the urge to reach over and drag her down to the ground where he would ravage her whether she resisted or not, he finally resigned himself to settle into the saddle and ignore her altogether.