My Desperado (30 page)

Travis was silent for a moment, allowing Kat to hear the quiet, melodious voices of the cowboys who bantered not far away.

"You want to continue your lessons?"

"Yes." She lifted her gaze again, feeling suddenly like she might cry, and knowing she must get a firm grip on her emotions or have him suspect her plans. She drew a deep breath, settling her right hand back on the coffee mug and feeling Shadow wriggle a bit closer to her back, as if he might become invisible if he hugged her tightly enough. "I appreciate everything you've done for me."

She knew immediately it was the wrong thing to say.

"What's that?" His brows arched over his azure eyes.

Sweet heavens! She was no actress, she thought frantically, but kept her mouth shut against the sputtering explanations that tried to escape. She shrugged and lowered her eyes, though her heart was pattering a hard pace against her ribs. "I know you think it's ridiculous for me to try to learn to shoot." She sighed. "And perhaps you're right."

He watched her in silence, until she could not keep her eyes from his a moment longer.

"You're a hell of a woman, Katherine Simmons!"

Nothing he could have said would have surprised her more. His expression was very sober, and in his eyes was a mirror reflection of the love she held for him.

Let me go with you, she almost pleaded. Let me fight at your side. And if we die, we die together.

But in the flutter of a moment he had conquered his weakness. His expression went blank and hard, and he rose rapidly to his feet. "Let's go if you're determined."

It took Katherine longer to break the spell, and when she did, she felt as if her heart would shatter as well.

It was near dark when Travis suggested they catch up to the herd.

Katherine nodded, holstering her gun and refusing to look at him.

Instead of her usual target practice, he had found the hoofprints of deer and insisted they track the animal and that Kat shoot a buck.

She had wanted to object, but one look at his face had made her realize he expected nothing else.

In actuality, it had been Shadow that tracked the deer, following the animal's path like a scrawny red wolf on a scent. They had come upon their prey in a clearing, with the sun behind them and the breeze in their faces.

Three deer lifted their delicate muzzles to test the wind, and for an instant the beauty of the scene had held Kat transfixed.

"Shoot," Travis had ordered, placing the gun in her hand; and in that moment Shadow charged toward the deer.

"Shoot," Ryland ordered again. Without another thought, Katherine pulled the trigger and watched the buck fall.

The gun had simply appeared in her hand.

Taking a deep breath now, Katherine shifted her gaze to the buck that lay nearby. Never in her life had she killed anything larger than a beetle. It had been a beautiful beast, with velvety antlers and huge round eyes. Now it was dead, lying on its side in a valley, with the cloud-speckled sky reflected in the lake where it would have once drunk.

Katherine swallowed, wanting to cry and refusing to let herself. She would wait until nightfall, confiscate the wagon, and blubber her head off she decided.

"You didn't think I could do it, did you?" she asked, turning to him. The sun was falling toward darkness, and framed him in its fading light.

Travis kept his gaze on the north and scowled. "I told you never to face the sun. It'll blind you."

"Damn the sun!"

Travis turned, his brows raised, but he was no more surprised than Kat.

"We need to expand your vocabulary."

Katherine felt her face flush but refused to lower her eyes from his. "I've never seen anyone run as scared as you do."

He said nothing for a moment, but watched her until he finally bent to retrieve his saddlebags from the ground. "I never said I was a hero, lady."

Two long strides brought her up behind him. She gripped his arm suddenly, holding on tight and pulling him around to face her.

"I know you love me," she said evenly, feeling an aching desperation to hear the words again, to have them said to her face, to touch him. Katherine's stomach clenched into a hard knot.

"There's a hell of a difference between lust and love, lady. It's time you learned that."

She stepped back, feeling as if she'd been slapped. Her throat hurt, and her body felt stiff, but she managed to turn. Clenching her jaw, she breathed through her teeth, refusing to cry and hurrying away.

"Where are you going?"

Travis's voice was low but carried easily to her. She ignored it, lengthening her strides and setting her sight's on the lake.

"Where're you going?" he asked again.

She hurried on, but in a moment he was behind her, grasping her arm.

Katherine swung about of her own accord. "I'm going to bathe," she shouted. "Is that all right with you? And look..." She straightened and hurried her hands to her borrowed gun belt. "I'm leaving the revolver." She did just that, releasing it from her leg and her waist to let it bump harmlessly to the ground. "I'll be completely unarmed. Helpless." The smile that parted her lips was forced and stiff, she knew, and she took some satisfaction in the glare he directed at her. "So if I get killed, it'll be your fault. On your conscience." The smile smoothed, and her body relaxed a bit. "Forever." She turned easily and strode away.

"Goddamn it, woman!"

She smiled as she unbuttoned her shirt. The air felt warm and titillating against her bare shoulders. "Want to come...and lust?" she called out.

But her only answer was Travis's groan from behind.

Chapter 29

Picking up Kat's discarded gun belt, Travis swore and paced after her. But her back was now entirely bare, which could only mean her front was the same.

He gripped the leather in his hands and gritted his teeth. In three days' time he would be leaving her—forever. And he would not confuse her life further by touching her again.

He jerked his gaze abruptly toward the west, where the sun had just sunk below the uppermost peaks. The remaining light was no longer bright, but had faded to a rosy blush that painted the world for a few minutes of glory before nightfall.

Travis swore again then swung his gaze back to Katherine's retreating back, which was smooth-skinned and curved down to her waist. Below that her jeans were still blessedly in place, but they swayed dramatically with her rapid hike through the coarse grass as she neared the lake.

His grip on the gun belt tightened even more. He would not be tempted by her this time. He would stay where he was, watch for trouble, and keep his eyes averted.

He resolve lasted for nearly five minutes, and then he was at the water's edge, still holding her weapon tight in his hands and trying to breathe with some semblance of normalcy.

But she was naked, and though her back was turned toward him, she stood only thigh-deep in the water.

Travis shifted his gaze to Soldier and did his best to forget the pale, curving slopes of her buttocks above the surface of the lake. "It's time to get back to camp," he said, his tone strained.

"What?"

He knew immediately that it had been a mistake to speak, for with some kind of sharpened sixth sense he realized she had turned to face him.

Soldier blurred in his vision, but Travis kept his eyes on the stallion. "Time to get back."

"I take this to mean you have no desire to bathe."

Her words shot fire through his system, causing his blood to boil through his veins like water into a thermal pond. Nevertheless, he took a deep breath and remained motionless. "Don't go looking for trouble, lady."

"Trouble?" Her laughter was like liquid silver. "Isn't it time to stop running, Ryland?"

"Get the hell outta there, and get your..." An image burned across Travis's mind. An image of her bare buttocks perched upon Moondancer's back, her mile-long legs gripping the mare's black hide. "Get on your horse," he rasped.

"But I'm not dressed."

"I know you're not—" He swung about. His gaze slammed into her. "Katherine." He could do not more than breathe her name, for her breasts were full and high, painted a rosy hue by the sinking sun.

Her waist was small, and accented by her tiny navel at its center. It was that indentation that held his vision, for he could not, for some reason, dispel the idea of slipping his tongue into that narrow hole, of feeling her body jump beneath him.

"I'm no good for you, Kat. I'm leaving soon. You'll be free. Go back to Boston. Marriage. Children." He was babbling incoherently, he realized, but feared if he stopped speaking, he would act. At this moment in time there was only one action worth doing. "Get dressed before—"

"If it were simple lust, Ryland," she interrupted softly, "you would have no reason to hold back. But if it was love..." She moved toward him as if the current carried her forward, like a fairytale mermaid Rachel had once told him about, with her skin slick and gleaming and her sable hair glossy with droplets of water. A thigh slipped above the surface, showing pale and smooth in the evening light. "If it was love, you'd run like hell."

He stepped back involuntarily. "I don't know nothing about love, lady. Don't you think I do."

"You lie, Travis. But not very well."

He tried to back farther away, but his legs refused to move, for his legs were attached to other parts of his anatomy that demanded satisfaction from their burning frustration.

"I can't give you what you deserve."

"Have I asked for anything?" She stopped. Water dripped from the dark triangle of hair between her legs, running in tiny rivulets down her thighs to merge into the lake below.

"You deserve—"

"I deserve to have the man I..." She stopped abruptly, not wanting to scare him away with her admission of love, and drew a heavy breath, her gaze not leaving his. "The man I want."

She was moving again, barely causing a ripple in the water as she glided toward him.

"You don't know what you're doing," he said hoarsely. Now would be a good time to saddle Soldier and head out, he thought, but his feet had become rooted to the ground.

"You don't give me much credit, Travis," Katherine murmured. She was close now, only a couple feet away. "I'd like to think I learn fairly quickly. I know what you are," she whispered. "I'm not asking for more than you can give. Just this one time." She shrugged, looking suddenly very innocent and small. "Life's too short, Travis. Too uncertain to waste the good that comes along." She reached slowly, touching his rough cheek with her fingertips.

Against his will, Travis's eyes fell closed. Raising one hand, he crushed her fingers to his face, feeling the aching burn of her tenderness against his flesh. "You'll regret this," he rasped.

"No," she said, and he opened his eyes to watch her shake her head and smile. "I won't."

Perhaps not, he thought. But he would, for he would compare every day of his life to the fleeting seconds he spent in her arms. And nothing would ever come close to that ecstasy.

Katherine saw him weaken, and could not contain a silent prayer of thanks. Maybe it was sin. But maybe it was the highest form of pleasure allowed a woman and a man in love.

Stepping forward, she raised herself on her tiptoes and kissed him very softly on the lips before drawing back to watch his face.

"If I was any good, I'd leave. Right now," he rasped. But he stayed as he was, and Kat smiled.

"You wouldn't want to disappoint a lady. It would be ungentlemanly."

"Kat, I—"

But she kissed him again, stopping his words with her lips. "You make a really bad, bad man," she whispered, drawing away.

"Kat."

She kissed him again then pulled back only an inch or two so that she could feel the rush of his breath against her lips. "Don't you know you're supposed to ravage me?"

"Please."

"And begging..." She leaned forward, kissing the corner of his mouth this time. "Begging does not make you seem terribly dangerous." Kat waited for him to speak, but he did not, so she let her kisses slip down his jaw to his throat. It was broad and taut. Her nose brushed against his sun-bleached hair, causing her fingers to rise and push it back. "But maybe I am making it difficult for you," she murmured. "After all, I am wearing no clothes for you to rip off." Her hand slipped lower, touching the top button of his shirt. "Unlike you. But then..." Her fingers skimmed up to the hollow at the base of his throat. "I am a wanted outlaw, too." There was little point in waiting for him to answer. "Therefore there is no reason I can't ravage you."

A single groan escaped him.

Her hand continued downward, over the expanse of his abdomen.

"Lady," he gasped, but there was no need to say more, for Katherine, too, felt the hard shock of excitement that ripped from his body to hers. She hugged him to her, feeling they would surely fall if she let go.

But in a moment her impatience for more was too great. Her fingers found his wooden buttons of their own accord. The small spheres slipped easily through their designated holes, baring his chest by slow inches until a narrow band of his torso was exposed from throat to waist.

Katherine allowed her gaze to settle on his muscled chest before placing her palm flat against its center. She felt his shudder and closed her eyes momentarily, savoring the emotions before pushing his shirt aside to kiss an indentation between his ribs.

There seemed nothing to do now but to explore the expanse of him, to let her kisses fall where they would, until she looked up, restless and tense, into his face.

"Are you quitting?" His voice was strained.

"No," she whispered. "I've only just begun."

"Then I give in," he rasped, wrapping her in his arms.

They pressed together, with their souls enmeshed and their emotions flaring. His clothing slipped away, and they were naked, flesh to flesh and heart to heart.

"Katherine." He whispered her name like a solemn chant, and, bending, lifted her in his arms to carry her back into the lake.

Water lapped at her buttocks in velvety waves then slid higher, until Travis released her legs. But her feet never touched the ground, for his arms wrapped about her in a steely grip, suspending her with the buoyancy of his touch.