Forbidden Spirits (8 page)

Ignoring her request,
Tyler kissed her, this time with more confidence, and Rose responded
again
, all the while wishing she had more control, even as she found herself being drawn more tightly into Tyler's arms, until she felt the beating of his heart against her breast, and his mouth angling over hers first one way, then the other, and still she had no will to shove out of his arms. Instead she let out another little moan of pleasure and finished the kiss, then remained in his arms with her face against his chest while he rested his cheek against the top of her head, and as he silently held her, she had no desire to be anyplace but where she was.

After
a couple of minutes ticked by, Tyler tipped his head so he could look at her, and said, "I don't get the impression you're too concerned about this cultural divide you seem to think we have. We just connected and communicated and shared a special moment and there was no time during that kiss or afterward when I felt you resisting me."

"
That's because I didn't," Rose said, "but that's why you need to take me back before this goes any further because I really do need to think about things. What we have going may not seem problematic to you, but it's very problematic to me, and at this point I can't even begin to explain to you why it is because your mind is simply not open to what I'd say."

Removing her arms from around him,
she turned and headed down the passageway in long, determined strides while hoping she'd get her sanity back once she was away from Tyler where she could attempt to make sense of things, because when he was near, all logical reasoning went by the wayside.

***

The following Sunday, when there would be no guests at the ranch to wander up to the cavern to sit in the spring, Tyler set two battery-powered lanterns close to where he'd be drilling, which was a section of the cavern that snaked around a bend, putting it a short distance away from the area where hot spring pool and petroglyphs were located. He hoped the sound of the drill would not funnel down to the ranch. He reasoned that he was far enough into the mountain that it would be muffled at best. He also picked a time when his dad was operating a chainsaw while cutting firewood for the house and the lodge for the following winter, which would drown out any sounds coming from the rock drill.

W
ith a small light strapped around his head and plugs stuffed into his ears, he pulled the cord that started the rock drill and positioned the bit into a fissure that he'd partially opened with the hammer and chisel before leaving for Wyoming. Even with a gas-powered drill it was slow going because he was drilling into granite, but it was considerably faster than using hand tools.

B
ut while the drill, bit by bit, made its way through rock, his mind was divided between hanging onto the 50-pound piece of equipment, and Rose's reaction when he kissed her at his place, four days before. He hadn't talked to her since he dropped her off at Marc's house that same day because she asked him to stay away, claiming she needed time to think. He suspected she'd learned about his dyslexia, or decided on her own that he was different from other people, and she wasn't sure what to do about it.

But h
e'd had time to think too, and although he hadn't spoken to her, he had wandered over to the museum on several occasions to stand with the visitors and listen to what she was telling them, mainly because he wanted to learn about her culture and traditions, but most of what she said escaped him because every gesture of her hands as she talked, or look in her eyes when they darted to him for an instant, or the rise and fall of her chest when she held his gaze on occasion, had him thinking about how she'd felt in his arms, and how much he wanted to hold her again.

It was all new to him, wanting a woman with him day and night
, especially night. It seemed lonely lying in bed while thinking about how it would be with her in his arms, naked and clinging to him after they'd made love, then simply lying in his arms for the rest of the night. Things had definitely escalated for him during the past four days.

At best, when he
'd invited her into the pasture to meet his mares, he'd done so to see if she was interested, nothing more, but even before he tried to kiss her she'd let him know in a dozen different ways that she was, and now he couldn't get her out of his mind, and he spent his evenings drawing pictures of her because it helped fill the void.

What came from all of
it was a clearer understanding of Jeremy's motive for giving up everything, including a rodeo bull-riding career he'd worked hard to establish, and disappearing from his family's lives, maybe forever, because he couldn't live without the woman he loved.

But as attracted as
he was to Rose, Tyler wondered to what extent he'd go for any woman. Leave his home and family and go into witness protection, not knowing if he'd ever return? Give up his mares and follow Rose to places unknown because circumstances demanded it? He didn't think so. But he did understand Jeremy's reasons. For him, life without Billy wasn't worth living.

On returning to the ranch from Cody
though, it was all he could do to keep from telling his parents and the rest of the family that he and Josh had seen Jeremy and Billy and little Amy, their latest grandchild. He'd thought about Amy too. In fact, she'd made a lasting impression on him. She had a sweet smile and trusting eyes. Maybe it was the trusting eyes that got to him, big brown innocent eyes that held no secrets. They told him clearly that she liked it when he held her and she trusted that he wouldn't drop her or harm her. It came to him what an enormous responsibility Jeremy and his other brothers had as fathers. He'd never given it much thought before, though he reasoned it was not unlike the responsibility he had for his mares...

After a while, he killed the engine
and set the rock drill down, and lowering himself to his knees, moved the rock fragments away from the hole. After removing one of the ear plugs, he put his ear against the opening and listened. At best he might hear a hissing sound as steam escaped from inside the mountain if the cycle of sounds started up. At worse, he'd hear the usual wails tapering off into sighs. But after a few minutes, when he heard nothing, he concluded that he was between cycles of sounds and started up the drill again.

He hadn't been drilling long when
a shadow fell over the area, throwing him into semi darkness. Cutting the engine, he laid the drill down, removed his ear plugs and turned, startled to find his father standing not more than eight feet behind him.

"What's going on in here?" Jack asked.

Having prepared for such a scenario, even though he'd hoped to avoid it, Tyler said, "I'm trying to open up a fissure and see if the sounds in here change." After explaining his geothermal-geyser theory, he added, "The sounds are nothing more than steam seeping through cracks and fissures, and that same steam could turn a turbine and power a generator and convert the geothermal energy into electricity to run the ranch, and with the hot water already at the surface, it would be relatively inexpensive to set up a hot-water heating system. But right now all I want to do is see if there's anything to my theory."

"Have you talked to Marc about this?
" Jack asked. "This cavern is his domain."

"I
haven't mentioned it," Tyler replied, "but I won't be drilling anywhere near the pool or the petroglyphs. All I'm trying to do is open up a few fissures in this area, which is where I'm sure the sounds are coming from, and see if the sounds change, nothing more."

Jack
looked askance at the drill, then at Tyler, and said, "How much longer do you intend to do this?"

"
Not long," Tyler replied. "Is the drill making a lot of noise back at the ranch?"

"No," Jack
said. "I didn't hear it until I got to the foot path leading here, where I came to cut up a tree that fell across the riding trail."

"Then
is it okay if I go at it a little longer?" Tyler asked.

"I suppose, as long as you don't move out of this area
," Jack replied. "But the spring and the petroglyphs must remain undisturbed."

"They will," Tyler assured his father.
"This shouldn't take much longer and when I'm done, I'll shove all the rock fragments back and it will look like it was when I started."

"See that
it does," Jack said, then turned and left. It wasn't long before Tyler heard the buzz of his father's chainsaw on the riding trail below and knew he was sectioning the downed tree.

Somewhat surprised that his father hadn't objected to what he was doing—maybe because he too saw the merit in using geothermal energy to run the ranch—Tyler stuffed the plugs back into his ears, picked up the drill and started in again. With another hour he might get deep enough into the mountain to make a difference.

Sometime later—he didn't know how long because he'd lost tract of time—h
e was again clearing away rock fragments, but in the silence he realized his father was no longer cutting up the tree, and beyond the cavern it was quiet, so quiet that even with the ear plugs still in place he began to hear the eerie sequence of sounds emanating from inside the mountain. He removed the plugs and listened intently this time, trying to discern if they had changed pitch or duration, but the sounds went through their usual cycle and died.

He had just picked up the drill and was about to start i
n when a shadow again fell over the area where he was, so he assumed his father was back to check on him, but when he turned, he was disturbed to find Rose instead. Her gaze immediately went to the drill in his hands, then to the rock fragments he'd shoved into a pile. "Don't jump to conclusions," he said, while removing the ear plugs. "I'm opening up a few fissures, nothing more."

"You're
drilling holes into the mountain," Rose said, in a plodding voice. "You told me you'd only be using a hammer and chisel."

Tyler set the drill down
. "That was my initial plan, but when I got a chance to buy a used rock drill I decided to give it a try."

"
Please don't do this," Rose said. "It's wrong."

"I
'm not drilling near the spring or the petroglyphs," Tyler replied, while removing his head lantern. "In a week or so I'll give it up if the sounds don't change, and that will be that."

"
It's not that simple," Rose said. "Just because Marc designated this a gathering place instead of a sacred one doesn't change the fact that there are spirits in this mountain, and your drilling into a cavern where there are petroglyphs is asking for trouble."

"I'm only opening up a few fissures," Tyler
argued. "How much trouble could that cause?"

"
More than you can imagine," Rose said. "I can't even begin to explain to you why because you've closed your mind to it, so please, just don't do this. Something bad could happen to you."

The look on Rose's face was one of worry
more than anger, and her words led Tyler to believe she really did care about him, even if he was different in ways that even he didn't understand. Walking over to where she stood, he took her by the shoulders and kissed her lightly, and said, "If it makes you happy, I'll sit in the pool and listen to the sounds and talk to your spirits so if it turns out that I'm wrong about geysers, and you're right about spirits, maybe nothing will happen."

"You don't believe any of this," Rose said. "Is there no way I can convince you to leave this
place in peace?"

"
I won't be going at it much longer," Tyler assured her. "After I'm satisfied about my theory I'll quit and you can educate me about spirits and I'll listen and learn."

"
You'll be listening because I'm making you feel obligated to do so," Rose said, "but it won't be coming from your heart so it won't work." She pressed her lips together, like putting an exclamation point on things.

"
You're wrong," Tyler said. "Whatever you tell me about spirits I
will
try to take to heart because I want to understand you because you're the first woman I've ever been interested in." His thumb moved up to stroke her bottom lip and soften its firm line. "Do you believe me?"

Holding his gaze,
Rose said, "About your taking to heart what I tell you about spirits, I'm not convinced, but about my being the first women you've ever been interested in, you convinced me of that the first time you kissed me."

Tyler looked at her,
baffled. "Why then?"

"You didn't kiss very well."

Tyler didn't know whether to be angry, flattered, or annoyed because Rose nailed the truth. He'd had sex on occasion after a rodeo performance—buckle bunnies who found their way into his rig and got him aroused—but he never kissed them because he felt nothing for them, and after a few times he decided sex wasn't worth it and chose to send them away.

With Rose though, it was different, and he wasn't sure why because she brought a level of complication
into his life that he hadn't expected. Until meeting her he'd been contented with his simple, uncomplicated life, living with his mares, and preparing for a line-up of performances that would begin to pay his bills. But following the instance with Rose in the pasture and her response to him afterwards, along with her concern for him now, things were changing.