Only You (17 page)

“I shouldn’t let you do this,” Eve said huskily.

“Am I hurting you?”

“No. Not…yet.”

“Not ever,” Reno said, nuzzling her breast. “Not ever again.”

Eve couldn’t answer. The sight of Reno’s mouth so close to the rosy peak of her breast took away
the ability to speak. The tip of his tongue circled her, stabbing softly. He sheathed his teeth with his lips and bit down.

The ragged sound Eve made owed nothing to pain and everything to a sudden, bright pleasure. Before she could become used to it, the caress changed. Heat surged through her, making it hard to hang on to her anger, for her body sensed a different outlet for the emotions churning beneath her control.

Eve didn’t know whether to be relieved or unhappy when Reno finally, slowly, lifted his head and resumed washing her.

“I should have taken the time to tell you how beautiful you are,” Reno said. “You have the kind of skin poets write sonnets to. But I’m not a poet. I never wanted to be, until now.”

Reno bent and brushed his lips over first one breast, then the other. “I don’t know the words to describe you.”

Long fingers smoothed soap over Eve’s pantalets, waist and hips and thighs. When his palm rubbed against the lush delta, she made a frightened sound.

“Easy,” he murmured. “That doesn’t hurt you, does it?”

Her lips were trembling. She shook her head.

“Move your legs a bit,” Reno said, pressing gently. “Let me wash all of you, especially there, where I hurt you.”

He waited, watching her face, wanting her to give so that he wouldn’t have to take.

Slowly Eve shifted position, giving Reno the freedom that he wanted. In a silence seething with memory and possibility, he bathed away every last trace of the virgin she had been and would never be again.

“If I could take back the hurt, I would,” he whispered. “But I wouldn’t take back the rest of it. I’ve dreamed all my life of finding a passion like yours.”

Eve shivered and bit back a throaty sound as Reno’s fingers unfastened her pantalets and eased them down her legs until he was kneeling in the pool at her feet.

“Brace yourself against my shoulders,” he said huskily.

He felt the trembling of her hands as they settled on his naked shoulders, and wondered if passion or fear moved her.

“Lift your right foot,” Reno said.

The pressure of her hands on his shoulders increased. He slipped one leg of the pantalets free.

“Now the other.”

She moved, only to stop, frozen by the touch of his fingertips. When he traced the delicate skin, sweet lightning rippled through her. She closed her eyes and held on to his shoulders so hard that her fingers pressed deeply into muscle.

“Does that hurt?” Reno asked, looking up.

“No,” she whispered through trembling lips.

“Does it please you?”

“It s-shouldn’t.”

“But it does?”

“Yes,” she whispered on a rush of air. “Dear God, yes.”

Reno leaned his forehead against Eve and let out a long breath of relief. Only then did he admit how afraid he had been that he had irrevocably driven her away. That was why he had followed her to the pool. Fear, not passion.

“Such tight petals,” Reno whispered, touching Eve delicately, “yet so full. Like a bud in spring. And I was expecting a flower full-blown by a hundred suns.”

Eve didn’t answer. She couldn’t. Heat was sweeping through her body, making her forget everything but the rushing instant and the man who caressed her so tenderly.

Turning his head from side to side, Reno stroked her belly and thighs with his cheeks and the thick silk of his mustache.

“So smooth,” he whispered. “So warm. Open for me, sweet Eve. Let me show you what it should have been for you. No hurt, no bleeding, just the kind of pleasure you’ll die remembering.”

Eyes closed, Eve responded to the gentle pressure between her legs, allowing Reno greater freedom. A warm, lightly probing caress was her reward. Its silky heat astonished her, loosening her knees. She made a ragged sound of pleasure and tried to catch her balance.

“That’s it,” Reno said, smiling, urging her legs farther apart as he bent to her. “Hold on to me.”

Only when Eve felt the heat of Reno’s breath did she understand why the caress had been so sleek and hot.

“Reno.”

His answer was a tender movement of his tongue that dragged another husky cry from her.

“Don’t fight me,” Reno breathed. “You gave me what you had given no other man. Let me give you what I’ve given no other woman.”

“My God,” Eve whispered as his caresses turned her very bones to honey.

Reno made a husky sound of discovery and pleasure in one as he found the satin knot rising from her softness.

“The bud swells,” he whispered. “This time you will flower, too.”

Eve couldn’t answer. She had no voice, no thoughts, nothing but the sensual lightning licking
up through her body, taking it from her control, giving it to the man who both cherished and consumed her in fiery silence.

Reno sensed the storm that was claiming Eve, convulsing her secretly. The scent of her was an elemental perfume singing to him of dark fires and wild release, luring him unbearably.

When the sensual storm broke, her taste was that of a desert rain, sultry and mysterious, bringing life to everything it touched. And after the storm passed, she was the earth itself, flushed with the miracle of rain, all contrasts heightened, radiant in completion.

Reluctantly Reno released the sweet, captive flesh and stood up, holding Eve, for she was barely able to stand. He tucked her head against his chest and rocked her slowly while she came back to herself.

After a long time Eve gave a shivering sigh and looked up at Reno with dazed golden eyes.

“That’s what it’s all about between men and women,” Reno said, kissing Eve gently. “The kind of pleasure you would kill or die for. Not a childish notion of love.”

A painful shudder went through Eve.

“You’re saying I’d feel that with any man?” she asked, her voice strained.

The violent denial that leaped to Reno’s lips made him uneasy. He had never been a possessive kind of man, yet even the thought of Eve allowing another man the freedom of her silky body enraged Reno.

“Reno?” Eve asked, her lips trembling and her eyes steady.

“Some people are better together than others,” he said finally. “You make me hotter than any
woman ever has. I make you hotter than any man ever has.”

Reno looked down into Eve’s clear golden eyes. “That’s why you gave yourself to me. Not the poker bet. Not love. Just passion, pure and simple and hot as hell.”

“That’s why men and women marry?” Eve persisted. “Passion, pure and simple?”

Again, Reno hesitated.

“It’s why men marry,” he said after a moment. “Damn few women have enough passion in them to burn.”

“But—”

“Otherwise they wouldn’t be able to hold out long enough to get a man to the preacher,” Reno continued, ignoring Eve’s interruption. “But the little dears do somehow manage, don’t they?”

Reno saw the pain in Eve’s expression, and winced. He hadn’t meant to hurt her with his blunt declarations about the nature of men and women and the illusion called love. But he had hurt her.

Again.

“Sugar child,” he said, kissing her temple softly. “Would you feel better if I told you sweet lies about love?”

“Yes.”

Then Eve laughed sadly and shook her head.

“No,” she amended. “Because I’d want to believe you so much, I’d do it, and then I’d wake up one day and find you saddled up and ready to leave, and I’d know the words for the lies they were.”

“I’m not saddling any horses.”

“We haven’t found the mine yet, have we?”

Gently Eve pushed away and looked up at Reno with steady eyes and a smile that threatened to
turn upside down. She stood on tiptoe to brush her lips over his.

“Thanks for the teaching, sugar man. Now maybe we better get to work finding that mine. I’ve had about all the learning I can bear in one day.”

T
HE
next day Reno and Eve followed the shaman’s directions, heading for an old, nearly forgotten way down the plateau. Late in the afternoon, Reno turned to Eve, breaking the companionable silence that had grown between them as they rode through the wild land.

“The shaman said I had to be sure to take you to a special place up ahead,” Reno said.

“Where?” Eve asked, surprised.

“About a mile from here. You stay put while I check it out. I don’t want you getting caught in some old shaman’s revenge.”

It didn’t take Reno long to reconnoiter. No more than ten minutes went by before he was back. He reined in next to Eve, saw the unasked questions in her eyes, and reached for her. He leaned over and wrapped his hand around her nape, pulling her to meet the quick, fierce claiming of his mouth. When he released her, she gave him a look that was both startled and…hungry.

He smiled. “Did you think that, once satisfied, it would go away?”

Bright color rose in Eve’s cheeks.

“I don’t think thinking had much to do with it,” she said, remembering her headlong abandon yesterday, when Reno had bathed her in the hidden pool.

Reno laughed and nibbled lightly at her mouth.

“You’re so sweet to tease,” he said. “It’s a burning wonder I didn’t wake you up this morning the way I wanted to.”

“How was that?”

“From the inside out.”

The color deepened in Eve’s cheeks, but she couldn’t help laughing.

Reno had been so different with her today, almost as though he were courting her. Then Eve remembered what he once had said about courting, and her laughter faded.

Courting is for a woman you want to make your wife. That was a little rolling around before breakfast with a saloon girl.

“But I decided it was too soon,” Reno continued. “You’re such a tender little bud. I don’t want to bruise you.”

Though Reno’s words were teasing, his eyes weren’t. Eve knew that he still blamed himself for hurting her the one time he had taken her.

“I’m fine,” she said.

And it was true. She had awakened this morning determined to enjoy what she had rather than crying after what she didn’t have. Life had taught her that tomorrow would come soon enough, and with it all the regrets for yesterdays that were forever beyond her reach—her dead mother, her gentle and helpless father, the offhanded cruelty
of life to the very children who were least able to defend themselves.

Whatever comes with Reno, I won’t regret it. Whether he believes it or not, love exists. I know. I feel it.

For him.

And maybe, just maybe, he can feel it for me. He loved once, foolishly. He can love again, wisely. He can love me.

Maybe…

“You certain?” Reno asked.

Eve looked startled, then realized he hadn’t somehow guessed her thoughts. He was simply pursuing the subject of how she felt today.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m fine.”

“Even after all these hours in the saddle?” he pressed.

She looked away from the crystal clarity of Reno’s eyes, trying to conceal the depth of her feelings at his concern. He didn’t love her, but he did care if he hurt her. That was something.

It was the world. No one who was stronger than Eve was had ever cared about her like that.

After a moment Eve touched Reno’s cheek with her fingertips and tried to reassure him that he hadn’t hurt her yesterday, when he had torn the veil of her innocence and replaced it with a sensual knowledge that permeated her blood like champagne.

“The only thing wrong with me,” she said, “is that I get all shivery and have trouble breathing when I think about what we…about what you…about what I…”

Eve made an exasperated sound and wished her hat were big enough to cover her flaming face. It didn’t help that she sensed Reno’s silent amusement as clearly as if he had thrown back his head and laughed to the clouds.

“You’re laughing at me,” she muttered.

The back of Reno’s fingers smoothed down Eve’s cheek in a gentle caress.

“No, sugar girl. I’m laughing because you go to my head like straight whiskey,” he said. “I like knowing you’re as aware of me as I am of you. It makes me want to pull you off your horse and take you right here, right now, sitting up and watching you.”

“Sitting up on a horse?” Eve asked, too startled to be embarrassed. “Is it possible?”

“Damned if I know. I’m real tempted to find out, though. I’ve been aching for you since about ten minutes after I first had you.”

Reno pulled lightly on the reins. Darlin’ backed up quickly, removing her rider from temptation.

“Come on,” he said to Eve. “The shaman and I have a surprise for you.”

“What?”

“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it?”

Smiling, Eve reined the dun around to follow Reno. His new ease with her made her happy. He hadn’t been so quick to smile since his sister’s ranch, where he had been able to let down his guard among friends and family.

That was how he was treating Eve now. As though he trusted her. The heady combination of teasing and frank sensuality kept her senses fully alert, her body quickened in anticipation of the next caress, the next instant of laughter. She couldn’t remember ever having smiled so much in her life.

Eve was still smiling when her horse came alongside Reno’s. He smiled in return, wondering at the resilience of the girl who was fresh and eager to venture into new country after having barely escaped with her life from the twin hazards of outlaws
and a forced exploration of uncharted land.

Not to mention the hazards of innocence and a gunfighter who had wanted her for so long he was having a hell of a time keeping his hands off her now.

“Close your eyes,” Reno said huskily.

Eve gave him a sideways look.

“Uh-oh. The dark velvet voice again,” she teased. “Is this where you snatch me from the saddle and attempt dubious things while riding a bad-tempered mustang?”

Reno threw back his head and laughed with delight.

“Sugar girl, you do tempt a man. But you’re right about Darlin’s disposition. She’d unload both of us into the nearest pile of rocks. So close your eyes and don’t open them until I tell you. You’re safe …for now.”

Laughing quietly, Eve closed her eyes, knowing that her horse would follow Darlin’ without guidance.

For a few minutes, all Eve was aware of was the subtle creak of leather, the lazy rhythms of the lineback dun, the warmth of the sun, and the unique smell of sage and evergreen permeating the dry air.

“Can I peek yet?”

“Uh-uh.”

“Sure?” she teased.

“I sure am.”

Eve heard the smile in Reno’s voice and wanted to laugh out loud with her own soaring pleasure. She loved the lazy teasing that had grown between them since yesterday. She loved being able to turn around and find Reno watching her with warmth in his eyes instead of anger or raw desire. She loved hearing pleasure in his voice and knowing that he
was enjoying just being with her. She loved…

Reno.

“No peeking,” he warned.

Reno tugged Eve’s hat brim down over her eyes and ran the back of his fingers along her jawline.

“I wasn’t going to cheat,” she said quietly. “No matter what you think, I’m not a cheater by nature.”

Reno felt her hurt as though it were his own. Leaning over, he lifted Eve from her horse and settled her sideways across his lap, holding her like a child.

“Hush. I wasn’t thinking about anything when I pulled on your hat but an excuse to touch you.”

Eve turned her face in to Reno’s chest, knocking her hat aside. It dangled from its chin strings until he pushed it over her shoulder and stroked her hair.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he said after a time.

Eyes still closed, she nodded.

“Eve?”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I know I shouldn’t be so touchy. But…I am.”

He tipped up her face and gave her the lightest of kisses. Then his arms tightened around her, holding her close when Darlin’ shied at the shadow of a soaring hawk.

“Take it easy, knothead,” Reno said.

“Watch who you’re calling names,” she muttered.

There was an instant of surprised silence, then Reno laughed and gave Eve a hard kiss before he urged Darlin’ forward.

A few minutes later, Reno reined in and kissed Eve’s eyelids gently.

“Open your eyes.”

When the warm sensation of his lips vanished,
Eve opened her eyes and looked at Reno. With a gentle smile, he gestured to the view. She turned her head.

A low sound of wonder and disbelief escaped her. A few feet in front of the horses, the land dropped abruptly away. In the distance, rank after rank of smaller plateaus and mesas rose in a series of irregular steps. Those in turn unraveled into an immense stone maze painted in shades of red and gold, pink and mauve.

In place of the dance of streams and rivers, there were columns of stone, cliffs of stone, tables of stone, castles of stone, cathedrals and arches of stone, vast walls and layer cakes of stone, ridges and valleys and hills and flats of stone, a rainbow labyrinth of stone piled upon stone until land and sky merged into a purple sameness so far away that the curve of the earth could be sensed like the distant coming of night.

Clumps of clouds ranged in color from blindingly pure white to dense indigo. Solitary storms stalked the land on stilts of lightning, dragging ragged veils of rain behind, yet the wind brought no smell of rain. The maze was so vast that storms came in across it like squall lines across an unimaginable sea.

“Is that where we’re going?” Eve whispered.

Reno looked at the landscape where the bones of the earth itself pressed up through the thin skin of life. There were no living flashes of water, no wide green valleys calling to a weary traveler, no trails or wagon tracks, no hearth fires sending messages of settlements ahead.

The land was untamed. It was wildfire wrought in stone, frozen flames reaching forever to the sky while a dry wind blew, bringing clouds whose rain never reached the ground, leaving the fire to rage
unquenched, motionless, eternal.

“I won’t go there if I can help it,” Reno said finally. “I’ll leave that kind of foolishness to my brother Rafe.”

Eve nodded her understanding even as she said, “It’s beautiful in a wild kind of way.”

“So is the sun, but you’ll go blind looking at it.”

Reno kissed the nape of Eve’s neck. His heartbeat speeded at the shiver of response that coursed through her in the wake of the light caress.

“I’m surprised you think it’s pretty,” Reno said against her skin. “You didn’t like the view from the slickrock one bit.”

“Not at first. But toward the end, it wasn’t as scary. Especially after Slater’s men started shooting,” Eve added dryly. “Something about those bullets flying around took my mind right off the view.”

Reno laughed aloud, hugged Eve hard and quick, and reminded himself of all the reasons he shouldn’t move his hands just a few inches and feel the warm weight of her breasts filling them.

“We saved at least fifty miles, maybe more, by crossing that neck of slickrock,” Reno said. “Even so, we’ve got the devil’s own trail ahead of us.”

“Is there water?” she asked.

“Seeps, springs, potholes, and seasonal creeks.” He shrugged. “It should be enough if we’re careful.”

“And if you don’t mind your horse drinking out of your hat?” Eve suggested.

She smiled as she spoke, remembering how they had emptied canteen after canteen into their hats because the way to the hidden pool was too narrow for a horse to take.

Reno kissed the corner of Eve’s smile and said, “Be glad we’re riding mustangs. They drink less
than anything except a coyote.”

Eve watched him with sensual memories in her eyes and a hungry fullness to her mouth. Not trusting himself to accept the unknowing invitation of her parted lips, Reno turned Eve until she was facing forward with her back to him.

The confinement of the saddle made her hips press intimately against the inside of his thighs. He hardened in a rush that made him ache. Long fingers wrapped around her thighs, savoring the resilience of her flesh. He pulled her close against him and then released her with a whispered word he hoped she didn’t hear.

Reno slid off Darlin’ in a rush. He stood close enough to Eve that she felt the heat of his chest against her leg as clearly as she had felt the heat of his thighs against her own. She had felt something else as well, but doubted her own senses. Surely a man couldn’t become aroused so quickly.

A glance told Eve she had indeed been correct. Once, Reno’s bold arousal would have embarrassed or unnerved her. Now it simply made heat splinter delicately through her. She remembered what it had felt like to give herself to Reno’s heat and strength and heady sensuality.

“Sugar girl, you do tempt a man,” he said in a deep voice.

“I do?”

“You sure do.”

“I’m just sitting here,” she pointed out.

“And looking at me like you’re wondering how I’d taste with butter and maple syrup,” Reno drawled.

Eve flushed, but couldn’t help laughing. She was still laughing when Reno pulled her out of the saddle and gave her a kiss that made her dizzy.

“I like having you look at me that way,” Reno
said against her mouth. “I like it too damn much.”

He carried Eve the few steps to her horse.

“Mount up,
gata.
I’m going to have hell riding as it is.”

As Reno spoke, he lifted Eve into the saddle. Then he let go of her and turned away quickly, heading for his own horse once more.

“I didn’t mean to tease,” she said.

A curt nod as Reno mounted was his only answer.

“Couldn’t we…” Eve’s voice faded, then strengthened along with the color in her cheeks. “You’re hurting and I’m all right and there’s no reason we can’t…is there?”

Reno reined Darlin’ over to Eve and looked at her for the space of several heartbeats.

“There’s a reason we can’t,” he said.

The calm of Reno’s voice was belied by his smoldering green glance.

“Slater?” guessed Eve unhappily.