Authors: The Lone Texan
Jodi Thomas (32 page)
The campfire cast a low glow all the way to the trees. There was no sign of Drum. He’d disappeared just as he always had as a kid. Only, he was a man now. A man who’d asked to hold her, and she’d turned him down without even facing him.
Sage felt like a coward as she rode back across the stream. Turning him down had hurt deep inside her, and she suddenly didn’t like herself. How much would it have cost her just to let him hold her for a few minutes? She doubted anyone had ever held him, and when he’d asked to hold her, she’d turned him down.
Drum had been alone all his life, and tonight, she’d managed to make him feel even more so.
She’d thought she couldn’t feel worse, but she was wrong. Her grandfather waited at the edge of the Apache camp for her return. The anger and disappointment in his eyes shocked her.
“I was just—”
He answered in Apache. “I know where you were.”
She felt like a teenager caught behind the barn with a boy. “We were just—”
He shook his head. “I don’t care what you were doing. Go back and tell Roak that he is welcome to our fire. A man who saves my granddaughter’s life should not sleep on the other side of the water.”
“I can’t—”
“You can and you will. Teagen tells me he is very brave, and he carries you in his heart. Are you afraid of him?”
“No.” The conversation had taken a turn she hadn’t expected. Her grandfather lived by a strict code. She’d insulted him by not asking Roak to come into camp. She had no idea what the comment meant about his heart, other than that Drum was constantly worried about her. “He would never hurt me, Grandfather. Teagen is right; we are friends, and he is a very brave man.”
“Then go back and invite him to share our campfires. If he does not cross the water, you do not.”
Sage had a headache. On a good day her grandfather could easily drive her to drink, and today hadn’t been a good day. She wasn’t surprised he thought more of Roak than he seemed to of her. To Grandfather, a brave man was highly valued, whereas women, including his four wives, were mostly a bother. When she’d been little, he’d thought she was cute and spoiled her, but now he seemed to think she was a great embarrassment to the family by not being able to keep a man alive long enough to get her pregnant.
“All right, I’ll go back and invite him.” She turned to the stream. “If he doesn’t want to come, I’ll drag him over here at gunpoint and tie him to a pole.”
Her grandfather grunted. “Good. I will watch.”
Sage splashed back across the water, trying to think about what she could say to Drum to get him to come with her. She’d just insulted him, probably hurt him, and now she wanted to invite him over. Men!
She wasn’t surprised to find Drummond’s camp empty. He’d be out walking off his anger. She sat down on his bedroll and leaned against his saddle. Maybe if he didn’t come back, she could wait half an hour and sneak across the water to her bed. Surely her grandfather wouldn’t stay up waiting for her. He was at least seventy years old, she thought. What does a man that age do with four wives?
Sage groaned, closing her eyes. She knew what he did. She’d heard the wives giggling about it.
She heard firewood tumbling to the ground a few feet from her and looked up. Drum stood above her, frowning. He was tall and handsome in his lean, dark way. Dressed in black with his gun worn low and his hat tilted to shade all but his strong jaw from the firelight, he reminded her of what a highwayman of old must have looked like.
“What do you want?” No welcome flavored his words.
“I came back to tell you that you are invited into my grandfather’s camp.”
He knelt and added more wood to the fire. “No thanks.”
“If I said I’m sorry, I didn’t intend to hurt you, would you come with me?”
“No,” he answered, still looking at the flames. “And you didn’t hurt me.”
She knew he was lying. Part of her wanted to reach out and touch him, but she had a feeling he wouldn’t welcome sympathy. “What do you want from me?” she finally whispered.
“Nothing,” he lied again. “I don’t want or need anything from you. I never have. I’ve been alone all my life. What makes you think I need anyone? Go back to your grandfather.”
“No.”
“That seems to be your favorite word tonight, Sage. Go away.”
She stood and faced him.
His gray eyes were cold as he looked down at her. “Tell me, do you turn down every man in your life? Is that why they die on you, from neglect?”
Before she thought, she slapped him so hard she wouldn’t have been surprised if her grandfather heard it. She hated Drummond Roak at that moment more than she’d ever hated anyone. How dare he say such a thing to her!
When she raised her hand again wishing more than planning to hit him, he grabbed her wrist with lightning speed.
The sudden thunder of horses startled them both, leaving them frozen in place as Apache surrounded them.
Her grandfather slid from his pony and stormed toward them. For all his complaining of being sick and old this morning, he looked to be in full warrior glory tonight.
“I’ve heard enough.” His words seemed even more powerful in Apache. “If you two plan to argue like you are married, let you be bound.”
He twisted a rawhide band around the place where Drum’s fist clamped over her wrist. “It is done.” He looked at Drum. “She is yours.”
“What?” Sage yelled as her grandfather turned around and signaled for his men to leave. As fast as they were surrounded, she stood alone again with Drum.
“No!” she screamed, but all she heard back was the splashing of water as the Apache returned to camp.
“What was that all about?” Drum tugged on the rawhide, trying to get free.
Sage turned on him. “This is all your fault.”
“What is?” He tugged again, causing her to stumble into him.
“My grandfather just married us.”
“What?” he yelled.
Sage smiled without humor. “There seems to be an echo in this clearing.”
He tugged again.
“Stop hurting me, and cut us free.”
He stopped pulling and smiled. “Why, so you can slap me again, wife?”
“Stop calling me that.”
He pulled a knife from his boot and sent it flying high into the bark of a nearby tree. “I’ve changed my mind. I think we’ll stay bound.”
She kicked him as hard as she could and would have tumbled if he hadn’t caught her around the waist with his free arm. Furious couldn’t begin to measure her anger, and he was smiling suddenly.
“How about we get some sleep?” he said almost conversationally as he dodged another kick.
She laughed suddenly at the insanity around her. “My crazy grandfather hates me, and I’m tied to a madman who throws away the only knife. This has definitely not been my day. Maybe if I go to sleep, I’ll wake up and find this has all been a bad dream.”
He shoved his hand until his fingers locked with hers. Now the leather at their wrists no longer dug into their skin. “Daniel was right.” He laughed. “He said if I’d stop chasing you, you’d come right to me. Truce?”
She was too tired to argue. “Truce.”
They knelt together, keeping their hands locked. When she would have slipped farther against the saddle, he stopped.
“I can’t lie on my side with my holster still belted.”
She glared at him.
He tried to pull the buckle with one hand, but it didn’t give. “Help me out?”
Frowning, she followed instructions, and the holster swung from his waist. They lowered, facing each other, and he placed his weapon right behind her so that it would be in easy reach if he needed it.
“Afraid I’ll kill you in your sleep?”
“Maybe.” He smiled. “Last time we were married, you shot me.”
She almost laughed. “That wasn’t a marriage; that was an auction. Besides, if I killed you, my grandfather would probably make me drag your body around until it rotted.”
He placed his hand on her hip. “That’s one reason for keeping me alive.”
She shoved his hand away. “Don’t touch me.”
“But you’re my wife. I married you twice.”
“The first one doesn’t count, and you know it, and this one is my grandfather’s idea of a joke. I’ll talk to him in the morning and get him to change his mind.”
Drum put his hand back where he obviously thought it belonged. “He gave you to me, but you’re right, nothing is going to happen tonight. I want both hands free when I make love to you.” He tugged, suddenly pulling her against him.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m going to kiss you, honey, just the way you like it.”
She opened her mouth to object, and his lips moved over hers. When she struggled, their bodies only seemed to press closer together. His kiss was warm and hungry and wild. And, she realized, he was right. It was just the way she’d always wanted to be kissed.
Something deep inside her shattered, like a wall she’d stored all her emotions and feelings behind. It crumbled. She shook as she lost hold of all her control. He held her to him as if he knew what was happening to her. His body moved over her, holding her to the earth as his kiss demanded she respond.
And she did. She kissed him back.
He raised his head, wanting to see her face as she gulped for air after the kiss. Her breasts were pushing against him with every breath, and her eyes were on fire with need.
He smiled and lowered slowly back over her. This time his kiss was long and meant to drive her beyond all thought.
When he pulled away once more, she lay panting beside him and made no protest as he moved his hand beneath her jacket and over her breasts.
“No one has ever kissed me like that,” she said, feeling his fingers grip her breast each time she breathed. “No one—”
“Hush now,” he whispered against her ear. “I’m just getting started. Think of this as your first lesson in being alive.”
When his lips moved over her again, the kiss was gentle. She sighed with the tenderness of it and let him continue for a while before her hand moved into his hair and pulled hard, demanding the kiss turn once more to fire.
The campfire burned low before they both grew too exhausted to continue. He’d kissed her thoroughly, and his free hand roamed over her body now, feeling wherever he wanted without her protest. But he hadn’t undressed her, not even opening her blouse as he had in the stairwell.
She wouldn’t have stopped him; in fact, she would have welcomed his hands moving across her flesh, but he’d only kissed her.
He covered her shoulder with his arm. “Go to sleep, now, wife.”
“I’m not . . .” She was too tired to argue.
“Yes you are, Sage.” His lips moved from her ear to her cheek. “You’re my woman. You always have been.”
She was too much into sleep to answer, but she felt his mouth cover hers once more in a featherlight kiss. Then he reached and slit the rawhide binding their hands and twisted her so that she could sleep with him holding her as she cuddled against his side.
CHAPTER 33
D
RUM HEARD A TWIG SNAP A MOMENT BEFORE HE felt someone grab him from behind and toss him in the air as if he were no more than a bale of hay.
RUM HEARD A TWIG SNAP A MOMENT BEFORE HE felt someone grab him from behind and toss him in the air as if he were no more than a bale of hay.
“What in the hell do you think you’re doing!” Teagen roared as he stormed toward Drum with his fists ready for combat. “I should have beaten you to death when I caught you stealing horses.”
Drum scrambled to his feet and managed to dodge Teagen’s first two punches.
“I wasn’t stealing horses,” he yelled, knowing Teagen wouldn’t listen. Ears were a waste of flesh on the whole McMurray family. “And I’ll not fight you.”
The man was a charging bear. “You had your hands all over my sister. You’re going to pay in blood for that.”
Drum backed away, trying to stay out of the way of two hundred pounds of fury. He saw Sage out of the corner of his eye. She looked so beautiful stretching and rubbing sleep from her eyes. Her brother’s yelling evidently wasn’t something she found alarming.
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