Mountain Moonlight (12 page)

"They'll still be waiting for us even if we don't hit the trail until tomorrow," she said.

"I have things to teach you, boy," Pauline put in. "You were too sleepy yesterday to understand. Besides, pain doesn't make for a good listener."

"What things?" Davis muttered.

Pauline cast a pointed glance at Bram who was busy stirring oatmeal on the stove. Then she looked at Vala before fastening her gaze on Davis. "Secrets." She hissed the word at him.

His eyes widened. "Really?"

Pauline nodded. "As soon as we get rid of those two. They didn't bring me back the roots I need so they got to hunt for them today. Once they're gone...." She let her words trail off and smiled conspiratorially at Davis.

He smiled back, obviously impatient to be rid of
Bram and her, Vala thought, admiring Pauline's deft handling of her son.

But when breakfast was over, cleared away and she and Bram were saddling the horses, Vala wasn't so sure it was a good idea for the two of them to go off alone together. Not that she expected or anticipated a repeat of last night, but for the first time since they'd met again in Apache Junction, she didn't feel at ease with Bram.

Once they were mounted, the trail he took only allowed for single horse passage. She followed, not attempting conversation. Pauline had given Bram the directions and her the basket with the digging and clipping gear. All Vala had overheard was Spanish something.

They rode farther than they had yesterday, through rocky defiles and between huge clumps of cacti, until Bram made a sharp right turn between two mesa-like rises. She was surprised to see a clump of paloverde trees. Before they'd only been visible in the ravines and crevices where they'd get the most water, but here they were on the flat.

Bram stopped in the midst of the trees where a tiny spring seeped out and ran into a shallow depression in the rock where it trickled over the edges. It wasn't big enough to be called a pool, but it was water and she gazed at it with avid interest. She hadn't had a decent wash since their second day on the trail.

"Bet I can read your mind," Bram said, dismounting and letting his horse have a drink, tugging him away and tying him to a tree before the gelding bloated himself.

Once Susie-Q had her turn at the water and was tethered, Vala said, "We don't get in that pool together."

"You don't get your back washed by yourself," he said, grinning at her.

"My back is the least of my worries. What if someone else is in the vicinity and shows up? One of us needs to stand guard."

"Not everyone knows about Spanish Horse Spring. A chance traveler isn't likely."

"Maybe not, but it's still no."

"That sounds regrettably final. Too bad. Ladies first, then."

"You can't look," she told him before starting to undress.

"Why not?"

Maybe it was unreasonable of her, considering what had happened between them during the night, but she couldn't bring herself to take her clothes off in front of Bram.

"I'm not used to--I mean, I'd be, well, embarrassed," she stammered.

He raised his eyebrows, sighed and turned his back to her. To make sure of as much privacy as she could in case he peeked, she also turned her back to him as she undressed. Naked, she splashed into the shallow pool.

"I forgot to give you Pauline's soap." Bram's voice sounded so close behind her that she whirled.

Soap in hand, he was just stepping into the pool--as naked as she.

Chapter 8

"You may not need someone to wash your back, but I sure do," Bram said, handing her the soap as he turned his back to her.

With him standing in the small, shallow pool next to her, no room was left. "I thought you promised you wouldn't come in until I was done," Vala scolded.

"I didn't promise, you made that assumption," he countered. "My rule is, no promises, no grief. You told me your objections and I appeared to agree, that's all." Deciding she'd been out manoeuvred, Vala muttered, "Never tangle with a lawyer."

Making the best of it, which wasn't all that difficult to do, she crouched and splashed water up along Bram's back. "Cold," he complained.

"You're here on sufferance. Don't disturb the back-scrubber with trivia," she warned as she soaped his back. Running her hands over his smooth skin and feeling the powerful muscles bunched underneath, she found, was really disturbing. She'd never realized touching a man could be so erotic. Hurriedly handing the soap back to him, she said, "I'm through. It's all over."

"That's what you think," he said as he turned and splashed water on her, then started soaping her breasts. "That's not my back," she complained.

"Lady, I wash whatever part's presented," he told her. "Nice parts, by the way."

"You're a wicked man," she said, concealing her amusement as she twisted away from him.

She slipped, grabbed at him and they both fell into the shallow water. Warmed by the high-altitude sun, the water was cool but tolerable once they got used to it.

"Not the biggest bathtub in the world," Bram said. "Nor the warmest water. Wait'll I get you in my Jacuzzi."

Vala, taken aback--when did he expect to do that?  

She started to get up. Bram caught her arm and pulled her down again, this time on top of him. Holding her firmly against him, he kissed her.

All her concern about the possibility of somebody coming and finding them in the pool fled as she melted into the kiss.

Bram had her just where he wanted her--in his arms and naked. Her skin was so very white where the sun didn't reach, white and soft and arousing to caress. Pauline's soap had a faint herbal aroma which mingled pleasantly with Vala's own scent. He wanted her as acutely as he had the night before, with the added edge of having learned how passionate she could be.

He'd had vague dreams when he was young of finding out what she was like under that aloof manner of hers. What he'd finally discovered all these years later was beyond his wildest imaginings.

She was not going to be easy to forget.

Once they were locked together, the world vanished, except for Vala. Rockets didn't begin to describe the way she made him feel. He couldn't get enough of her. He wanted their love-making to last and last. Forever.

When he finally peaked and came down, he still didn't want to let her go, but he was afraid she might be getting cold, wet as they both were. With considerable reluctance, he released her
.

As they quickly finished washing, she said to him, "I'm perfectly aware you planned this from the very beginning. What does it take to stop you from doing something you've made up your mind to do--a legal document?"

He grinned at her, "Are you complaining?"

She flushed, but looked him in the eye. "Wouldn't you be surprised if I said yes."

"Under oath?"

"This isn't a courtroom."

"And I couldn't be more grateful. After all, I don't have my tie handy."

"I doubt the judge would be any more lenient if you did have it here." She giggled. "I can just see you naked, but wearing the tie, trying to explain how you seduced a poor innocent maiden."

"Easy. I'd explain you were a princess and so everything that happened was your fault because I was a carefree frog until you kissed me."

It warmed him to watch Vala laugh.

When they were dressed and had remounted the horses, she asked, "Do you think you'll ever go back to being an attorney?

"I don't rule it out. But not at the moment. Why?"

"Curiosity. I know it must have taken a lot of hard work to get that law degree and pass the bar exam."

"In a way, you drove me to it."

"Me? What on earth do you mean?"

"Once I was a lawyer, the Channings would no longer think I wasn't good enough for their daughter. Something like that."

Taken aback, Vala said, "I can't believe I was that important to you in those days."

"Actually, what I needed to do crystalized for me after our unhappy night of misunderstandings. At the time, it seemed to me law school was the answer."

"So it wasn't me, exactly."

"Don't abdicate responsibility for turning me into a respectable citizen."

"Which you didn't enjoy being?"

"There's such a thing as too respectable. If I hadn't learned that on my own, Sheba, my Siamese cat, would have taught me in her own fashion."

"Back then you always acted as though you knew what you were doing, but I was such a wimpy kid," Vala said. "Not till I divorced Neal did I finally learn to stick up for myself. If I'd learned it before I met him, I'd have had enough sense not to marry him."

Bram knew he might be pushing it, but he really wanted to know. "Did you love him?"

She hesitated before answering. "Looking back I'd say no. Infatuated is closer. Neal was a take-charge person and I realize now I simply let him take charge of me, of every facet of our life--until Davis was born. You might say mother love gave me a clear look at the man who was my son's father and I didn't like what I saw. But it took me two more years to get up enough courage to end the marriage."

"You seem to be standing pretty firmly on your own feet now."

"Thank Davis for that. Single moms have to learn to be assertive. Now it's my turn to ask you. Have you ever been in love?"

"To use your term--an infatuation or so, nothing lasting."

Vala didn't say anything for a bit, then she zinged one at him. "Was Lori the Ice Maiden one of them?"

He laughed. "Frozen sherbet's never been one of my favorites."

"You kissed her."

"To win a bet, as you reminded me. I kissed a lot of girls back then."

"But not me."

"Whose fault is that?"

"Maybe the Trickster's."

Vala's tone was light but her words triggered a memory he didn't know he had. The two of them, his father and him, a child, somewhere in the desert on a hot day, driving to see his grandmother.

"Mom misses you," little Bram had said.

"I miss her, too," his dad replied.

"Then how come you don't stay home?"

"The Trickster made me a wanderer and your mother a homebody. I can't stay in one place any more than she can put up with always traveling. It's not easy for either of us."

The child Bram had been didn't quite understand, even though he knew about the Trickster.

He thought he understood now. They must have loved each other, his mother and father, but had been too different to be able to live together.

What other memories of his father had he repressed into forgetfulness? He'd always blamed his old man for making him live like a kid without a father. For not being there to applaud his successes or help him through his failures.

For neglecting him.

Unsettled by the direction his thoughts were taking him, Bram shoved them aside.

"How are your parents?" he asked Vala.

"My dad's still alive. Retired and living in Florida. Mom's been dead three years. I really miss her. She's the only one who supported my divorcing Neal. Dad thought I was giving up security for chaos. Which wasn't far from the truth for a while there. How about your mother?"

"She's living in California with her sister. My father died before I finished law school."

How, he thought, can you miss a man who was never there? A man you resented? Yet he did.

At last they came to the place where Pauline had told them the plants would be growing and found she was right.

As Bram grubbed for the roots, he said, "We did this backward. Should've done the digging first, then the bathing. Of course, we could stop on the way back...."

"In your dreams."

He put down the trowel, made a grab for her and kissed her so thoroughly he managed to get himself aroused. "Guess it'll have to be here, then," he murmured into her ear, only half teasing her.

"You are so bad," she told him, pushing away. "What's Pauline going to think when we come back with only two roots?"

"The truth, probably. I figure she deliberately split our search for the plants into two so she could send us off twice to be alone together."

Vala blinked, then nodded. "I should have realized that."

Her unconcern--she didn't care if Pauline knew they'd been making love--puzzled her. Meeting Bram again had turned her world upside down, no doubt of that. Proper Vala had shed inhibitions like leaves from a maple in the fall. And had fun doing it.

Although fun wasn't exactly the right word. Not even close, really. Making love with Bram was like nothing she'd ever experienced. It was so addictive that she kept wanting more and more.

"We can't keep on doing this," she protested when he reached for her again.

"Why not? Tell me you don't want me."

She'd have to lie to do that. About to succumb to the magic of being in his arms, she caught movement from the corner of her eye and froze, staring at a huge black and hairy spider no more than a foot away.