Autumn Lover (26 page)

“Why?”

“She didn’t like it one bit. When I tried to make it right, she went for my eyes like a cat.”

Case’s expression shifted very slightly, as close to a smile as he ever came since the war.

“Seems to me,” Case drawled, “that a girl with that much passion in her would be worth the trouble of gentling.”

“First I have to catch her. She’s as hard to get close to as that ghost you keep chasing.”

“Interesting thing about that ghost,” Case said.

“Did you find out who he is?” Hunter asked quickly.

“No. I haven’t seen hide nor hair of that critter since Gaylord was killed. Nobody is giving information to Ab now, either.”

“How do you know?”

“That’s what I’m supposed to be doing now,” Case said ironically. “Spying on the Ladder S for Ab.”

“Interesting.”

“I thought so.”

“Does Ab trust you?” Hunter asked, thinking fast.

“Ab doesn’t trust anyone.”

Hunter grunted.

“Like you and women,” Case continued. “Ever since you let that faithless bitch lead you around by your dumb handle, you haven’t had a good word to say about women.”

Hunter gave Case a long, measuring kind of look. Quietly Case waited to see if his brother would lose his temper again.

In the moonlight Case’s pale green eyes looked the same as Hunter’s—like hammered silver.

“You’re riding me pretty hard,” Hunter said. “Why?”

“You’re riding Sassy harder.”

“If you’re that steamed about it, marry her yourself.”

“I’ve thought of it,” Case said easily.

“
What
?”

“Keep it down unless you want visitors.”

“What’s this about you and Elyssa?” Hunter demanded in a low, seething voice.

“Nothing but a few facts.”

“Such as?”

“Sassy is a woman alone in a country where women have a hell of a hard time alone,” Case said. “She has a fine ranch and a desire to make it work. If she didn’t believe in such a damn fool thing as love, I’d have a ring on her finger so fast it would make your head spin.”

“No.”

“Why not? Are you planning to marry her?”

“It’s the only decent thing for me to do,” Hunter said simply. “But she’s not having any part of it.”

Case grunted. “She was a virgin, then. I wondered.”

It wasn’t a question, but Hunter answered anyway.

“Yes,” he said distinctly. “Elyssa was a virgin.”

“At least you know who she’s been with,” Case said. “Girl like Belinda, you never could tell how many neighbors were looking at her and remembering what it was like to climb into her saddle.”

Hunter grimaced but didn’t disagree.

For a few minutes the men stood and listened to the sounds of the night. Then Case turned his attention to his brother once more.

“Ab is going from bad to worse,” Case said. “Gaylord was a favorite of his.”

“Ain’t that just too damned bad.”

“You getting ready to go after Ab?”

“I don’t have much choice,” Hunter said. “The army
will be wanting their livestock in less than two weeks.”

“How many head of cattle do you have for them?”

“Beeves? Less than fifty. Maybe another hundred in breeding stock.”

“The Ladder S won’t last long without breeding stock,” Case said.

Hunter didn’t answer.

“But that’s not our problem, is it?” Case continued. “Culpeppers are.”

“Have you found where the stolen cattle are being held?” Hunter asked curtly.

“Funny thing about that. Lately I’ve noticed some prime Ladder S strays on B Bar land.”

“Strays?” Hunter asked sharply.

Case nodded. “It’s as though some of the cattle are drifting out of wherever they’ve been held.”

“Backtrack them.”

“I did. They seem to be coming from the willow bottoms north of the B Bar.”

Hunter grunted. “That’s a rough stretch of land from what I’ve heard.”

“You heard right. Lots of ravines reaching back up into the Rubies. A man could hide a lot of cattle up that way.”

“Not good enough. I have to know where the cattle are before I risk a raid.”

“I’m getting close,” Case said.

“You’ve got three days.”

Case nodded.

“If you find out about the cattle before then, don’t wait for dark to tell me,” Hunter said. “Just get over here quick. We’ll need you at the ranch more than at the raiders’ camp.”

“What if I can’t find the cattle?”

“At dawn on the fourth day, I’ll raid the B Bar and let the devil take the hindmost.”

“Where do you want me?” Case asked.

“Wherever you won’t get shot by my men.”

Case nodded. Then he slid his gun from its holster, spun the cylinder to check the load, and returned the gun to its place with an easy motion.

“Watch yourself on the way back,” Case said.

“What about you?”

“I’m not distracted by a girl I want who’s mad as a dunked hen at me.”

“I’m not a fool.”

“Most of the time,” Case agreed sardonically.

“What’s really bothering you? That you can’t have Sassy?”

Case shook his head.

“It’s the ranch I want,” Case said. “The ranch is something to build on when the last Culpepper is dead. Something that can’t be brutalized and dumped like broken whiskey bottles by the side of the trail.”

Hunter was too shocked to speak. He sensed that Case was talking about how Em and Ted had died. It was a subject Case had refused to discuss, ever.

Until now.

“I’ll never speak of it again,” Case said. “I just wanted you to know that you’re the only living thing I’m able to care about since I found those kids. If Sassy can give you any ease with yourself and the past, I’ll be as happy for you as I can be for anything.”

Hunter closed his eyes as a wave of grief went over him for all that had been lost to the cruel past.

And part of what Hunter mourned was Case’s laughter. In some ways Case was dead as surely as Hunter’s own children.

“Case…”

There was no answer.

Case had gone into the darkness as silently as he had come.

“I
have to show you something,” Hunter said.

Elyssa gasped and spun around so quickly she almost dropped her mug of breakfast coffee.

She had been certain Hunter was gone. From her bedroom window she had seen him ride out on Bugle Boy just after dawn. Then, after she could no longer see Hunter silhouetted against the rising light, Elyssa had drawn a long breath.

It had been her first deep breath since yesterday, when the delicate touch of Hunter’s tongue had sent heat splintering through her body.

The darkness in his eyes haunted her.

“I thought you left,” she said.

Hunter gave Elyssa a hooded look. She was wearing the muffling men’s clothes again. He acknowledged that they were more sensible for range work, but he missed the shimmer and sigh of silk swirling around her legs.

“I did leave,” Hunter said neutrally. “Then I came across something you have to see.”

“What?”

He shook his head.

“If I tell you, it will prejudice you,” Hunter said. “I
need your first impression. How soon can you be ready to ride?”

Puzzled, Elyssa set aside her coffee. As she faced Hunter, she told herself that her heart was beating faster because she was startled. It couldn’t be racing simply because she was about to ride out over the land with Hunter once more.

Alone.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“Not far.”

Within minutes Elyssa and Hunter were mounted and riding away from the ranch house. Hunter rode with the rifle across his saddle and his eyes ceaselessly searching the land.

Elyssa rode the same way. The only difference was that her eyes kept straying back to Hunter. When she realized it, she was angry with herself.

It made no difference. Hunter drew her glance the way flame drew a moth. The shattering tenderness of yesterday’s caress still burned against her wrist.

Asleep, she dreamed of him.

Awake, his words echoed seductively in her mind, undermining her anger.

You have everything to learn from me
.

Silently Elyssa followed Hunter across the land. The storms had taken a toll of the tawny grasses. Most were beaten flat by wind and rain. For the lowlands, autumn was a time of turmoil and defeat.

But high on the shoulders of the mountains, aspens were coming into their full autumn glory. Leaves on some groves had turned as yellow as the summer sun. Other aspen groves were an orange so vivid it looked like tongues of fire licking up the deep canyons and long, shallow ravines.

Broodingly Elyssa’s eyes returned to Hunter, her
autumn lover, a man as complex and compelling to her as the land itself.

Hunter was aware of Elyssa’s quiet glances. That, and the emptiness of the land, eased some of the tension that had been riding him.

No matter how hard Hunter searched the wide land, he saw no sign of other people. He and Elyssa could have been alone on the face of the earth. Despite that, he kept to the lengthy, meandering route he had chosen.

Finally Hunter brought Elyssa to a place where mountains and the long, wide valley merged at the edges in a series of rumpled ridges and canyons. At the head of a small, steep canyon there was a cave mouth shielded by a riot of shrubbery. Clear, sweet water flowed between the willow thickets crowding the banks of a small stream.

Elyssa recognized the place. She had been to Hidden Creek before, but not for many years. And never by such a circuitous route.

Without dismounting, Hunter rode Bugle Boy through a thicket and into the creek itself. As he turned the horse upstream, Leopard followed. Limber willow branches bent away from the horses, then sprang back into place with little to mark the fact that horses had passed through.

When Hunter reached the cave mouth, he reined aside. A gesture of his hand urged Elyssa to ride in front of him into the cave itself. After Leopard walked past, Hunter bent low on Bugle Boy’s neck and followed. Calmly both horses walked beneath an overhang of rock and into the mouth of a cave.

Just beyond the smaller opening, the cave was perhaps a hundred feet wide and three times that deep. Because it was autumn, there was a wide margin of dry, sandy bank around the pool that was concealed within the cave.

The pool itself was like a black mirror reflecting day
light from the entrance. Any disturbance to the water left ghostly, quicksilver traces on the surface. At the back of the pool was a long, narrow crack in the mountain.

In spring, water would gush from the crack with a sound like thunder. Today water welled up silently, filling the pool as quickly as the small creek drained it.

Hunter dismounted and grabbed a loose screen of freshly cut brush. He pulled it into place across the lower part of the opening, concealing the mouth of the cave.

With the brush screen in place, the light filtering into the cave became as mysterious as the quicksilver motions of the pool itself. Bugle Boy went to the water and drank. Silver circles shimmered outward from his muzzle.

“Can you see?” Hunter asked.

Elyssa started. Hunter was standing at Leopard’s shoulder. His left hand was on the stallion’s bit.

“All I can see is that we’ve ridden four miles and we’re only a half mile from the house,” Elyssa said. “Why?”

“Get down. It’s over here.”

Hunter stepped aside as though he knew that his closeness was making Elyssa nervous. Retreating a few steps, he waited for her to dismount. When she did, he turned immediately toward the stream.

“This way,” he said.

After a moment of hesitation, Elyssa followed Hunter. He went to the point where the pool overflowed to create Hidden Creek. There he waited until she came to stand by him.

“Where is it?” Elyssa asked.

“Other side.”

Elyssa peered into the oddly luminous darkness on the other side of the creek. She could just make out blurred shapes of boxes or bedrolls or both.

“Can you see it?” Hunter asked.

The subtle, leashed anticipation in his voice made Elyssa curious.

“No,” she admitted. “I’m afraid I can’t see much at all.”

“Hang on.”

With that, Hunter lifted Elyssa off her feet, carrying her across his chest like a child. He was splashing through the creek before she realized what had happened.

“Hunter!”

The word echoed around the cave, Elyssa’s voice doubled and redoubled, calling his name.

Hunter cocked his head, listened, and smiled.

The tenderness and sensuality in his smile made Elyssa forget to breathe.

“Hunter?” she whispered.

“I’m right here.”

He walked out of the stream onto the sandy bank and kept on going.

“Put me…down,” Elyssa said, swallowing.

“In a minute. We’re almost there.”

As Hunter walked, sand whispered and slid away from his boots with a silky sound.

Elyssa started to speak, then closed her mouth. She was afraid her voice would give away the turmoil of her mind and body.

Hunter was too close. Too powerful.

Too gentle.

He carried her as though she was made of a crystal so fragile that a breath would set it to shivering and singing. It made her feel just that fragile, just that shivery.

The tremors that went through Elyssa were felt by Hunter as well. He looked down into her face. All he saw was the flash of her half-closed eyes, the tightness
of her lips, and the pallor of her smooth skin.

Hunter’s mouth flattened. Elyssa looked like a woman who was afraid of something. When he thought about what had happened the last time he was this close to her, he had a good idea of what she feared.

I told you, next time you’ll enjoy it
.

My God, you must really think I’m stupid. “Next time you’ll enjoy it.” What rot
!

Suddenly last night’s foolproof plan looked like purest folly in the light of day.

I hate you
.

I don’t want you anymore. Ever. In any way
.

Nothing had changed since Elyssa had made those searing declarations.

Tension drew Hunter’s body so tight he had to fight to breathe. Slowly he lowered Elyssa’s feet to the sand until she was standing next to the bedroll he had so carefully prepared.

When Hunter spoke, his voice was much more harsh than he intended.

“Don’t be frightened of me,” he said. “I swear before God I never meant to hurt you.”

Elyssa didn’t trust herself to speak. She simply closed her eyes and turned her face away from Hunter.

“Do you really hate me so much?” he whispered.

Her eyes flew open.

“Do you?” he asked in a raw voice.

Silently Elyssa shook her head.

“Then why are you trembling and turning away as though you can’t bear the sight of me?” Hunter asked. “My God, you won’t even speak to me.”

“I—” Elyssa’s voice broke.

She turned her back on Hunter and swallowed again, fighting for control of herself.

“It—it would be easier to hate you,” she whispered.
“But I can’t. So I hate myself instead. I was such a fool.”

Hunter’s eyelids flinched at the pain in Elyssa’s husky voice. He turned her until she was facing him again.

Facing him, but not looking at him.

“Marry me,” Hunter said starkly.

Elyssa shook her head. Though she said nothing, her past words hung between them in an echo of feminine outrage.

No wonder churches and townships make sure girls are virgins before they marry. They never would suffer it otherwise
.

With aching tenderness Hunter’s fingertips brushed over Elyssa’s eyebrows, her cheeks. Tears were caught in her eyelashes like warm rain.

“Don’t cry, honey,” Hunter whispered. “I’d rather be horsewhipped than make you cry again.”

Elyssa didn’t answer.

She couldn’t. Hunter’s lips were touching her tenderly, brushing butterfly kisses against her temples, her cheeks, her eyelashes. In hushed, trembling silence, he stole her tears before they could fall.

Breath caught in Elyssa’s throat. Her heartbeat speeded in a wild rush. Tremors she couldn’t control rippled through her. Her fingers curled into her palms until her nails left marks.

He doesn’t love me
.

I can’t stop loving him
.

Elyssa felt as though she was being torn apart. she wanted to flee. She wanted to stay in Hunter’s arms. She wanted to push him away from her.

But most of all she wanted to bathe in the healing, intoxicating fire of Hunter’s gentleness.

“Don’t be frightened,” Hunter whispered against her lips. “I just want…”

Hunter’s voice died. What he wanted would send Elyssa running right out of the cave.

He closed his eyes and called himself fifty kinds of fool. Then he hugged Elyssa very gently against his chest, rocking slowly, stroking her back with one big hand.

“It’s all right,” he said huskily. “I won’t hurt you. Please, honey. Don’t cry.”

With each word came a tender kiss, a tear sipped from her eyelashes, another kiss.

The trembling in Elyssa increased.

“It’s all right, little one,” Hunter whispered against her lips. “You’re safe. I’ll let you go as soon as you stop trembling. If that’s what you want…”

Though Hunter didn’t mean to, the tip of his tongue traced the outline of Elyssa’s mouth in a silence that trembled with possibilities.

“Is that what you want?” he whispered.

Hunter’s breath was warm and sweet against Elyssa’s skin. She made a small sound.

“Is that yes or no?” Hunter asked. “Let you go or keep you close?”

The smooth heat of his lips against her eyelids both reassured Elyssa and increased the trembling of her body.

When Hunter felt the tremors raking through her, he ached with an emotion more complex than desire.

“Elyssa?” Hunter whispered helplessly against her lips. “Let me kiss you. Just one kiss, honey. Then I’ll let you go, if that’s what you want. I can’t stop thinking how it felt just to kiss you. You liked that much of my lovemaking, at least.”

Before Elyssa could think of all the reasons to refuse, her face lifted to him. The taut jerk of Hunter’s body at her acceptance of his kiss brought more tears to her eyes.

He didn’t love her, yet he wanted her with a force
that made him tremble. But despite the depth of passion in him, he was fully in control, fully restrained.

This time.

He cares for me that much, at least
, Elyssa thought helplessly.
He is gentle with me
.

Elyssa whispered Hunter’s name as his lips moved tenderly over hers.

Another bolt of emotion tore through Hunter. With light touches of his hands, he gathered Elyssa closer against his chest. Softly he kissed the edges of Elyssa’s mouth until she shivered and opened her lips for him. Only then did he allow himself to deepen the kiss as he had longed to do.

The first taste of Elyssa was sweeter and at the same time more arousing than anything Hunter had ever known. Holding her carefully, he tasted her again and again, slowly immersing himself in the dark, heated wine of her kiss.

The restrained, sensual joining of mouths unraveled Elyssa’s caution. With each gentle glide of Hunter’s tongue, she gave more of herself to the kiss.

And to him.

Her hands crept up the front of his jacket, lifted, hesitated. Finally they rested, trembling, on his freshly shaved cheeks.

Another tremor jerked through Hunter, telling Elyssa that her caress moved him. Tears burned in her eyes and overflowed again.

It’s only desire that Hunter feels for me
, Elyssa reminded herself.

And she was trembling with much more than desire.

But it was very sweet for Elyssa to be able to touch Hunter in any way at all. To be touched by him with such tenderness made the world begin to dissolve and swirl slowly around her.

The tiny, passionate sound Elyssa made at the back
of her throat sent pure fire through Hunter’s veins. The kiss became deeper, more hungry, yet his strength remained tightly leashed. He held her like a rainbow arched and shimmering in his arms.

Elyssa’s fingers slid from Hunter’s cheeks to his thick, black hair. His hat tumbled unnoticed to the ground. The heat of his scalp drew another small sound from her throat. Her hands tightened in his hair with sensuous urgency.