Ride The Wind (Vincente 3) (25 page)

Matthew smiled at Saber. "I believe she and I
have a wedding to plan, don't we, Saber?"

"Do you?" Noble asked in a deep tone that
would have intimidated most men.

But Matthew seemed to be lost in a pair of
blue eyes. "Yes. We most definitely do," Matthew answered. "And my parents have asked if you
would all attend a luncheon they are giving tomorrow."

Rachel glanced at Saber. "Are you too weary
for visitors tonight?"

Saber nodded her head. "I am weary, Matthew. Perhaps we could talk tomorrow."

"Then we will say good night," Noble said,
leading his wife and sister out of the building.

Saber leaned her head on her brother's shoulder. She couldn't think straight. She had realized tonight that if she married Matthew, she
would destroy Reese, and she wasn't willing to
do that.

Matthew found Reese standing in the shadows of the porch and clapped him on the back.
"I am perfectly content that everything will end
well for Saber and myself. I owe it all to you."

Reese swirled whiskey around in his glass, his
eyes boring into Matthew. "Did you settle the
part about having a doctor examine her?"

"That was all my mother's idea, and on thinking about it, I'm not willing to demand such a
thing of Saber."

"A wise decision," Reese replied, his hand
tightening on the whiskey glass.

Saber was dressed only in her nightgown and
robe when someone knocked at her door. She expected it to be either Noble or Rachel, so when
she opened the door and found Matthew there,
she was shocked. "I thought we agreed to talk
tomorrow."

He stepped around her and glanced about the
room, looking for Noble or Rachel, and was relieved that they were alone. He smiled, taking
her hand and raising it to his lips. "We have a
lot to discuss, my sweet."

"You shouldn't be here, Matthew. Noble won't
like it when he finds out about it."

"There's nothing wrong with my being here.
I'm going to be your husband. And soon that
brother of yours will have nothing to say about
what we do."

She decided this was as good a time as any to
tell him what was on her mind. "I don't think we
are suited for each other, Matthew. I'm begging
you to leave now."

"We're suited, all right. Any doubts I might
have had disappeared the moment I saw you tonight." In a quick motion he drew her into his
arms. "I want to sample some of what will soon
belong to me."

She smelled the liquor on his breath and froze
in fear. This was not the Matthew she had
known and trusted. His arms tightened about
her, and she tried to wedge her arm between
them. "Let me go!" she said, pushing at him. He reminded her of Eugene, and terror curled inside her. His lips were wet when he pressed
them against hers. His hands went up to cup her
breasts, and she cringed inside.

"I don't know you," she said, turning her face
away from his. His eyes were glazed with passion, and his breathing was heavy-she knew
why he had come here, and it wasn't to talk.

Saber managed to push him away. "Please
don't do this."

"You're mine. You belong to me."

He reached for her, but she managed to dodge
out of his way. "You are drunk!" She felt sick
inside the back of her throat burned from the
bile that rose there. "And I'm not yours. I could
never marry a man who treated me the way you
have."

He shook his head as if to clear it. "I was sitting at a table drinking straight whiskey, and I
knew what I had to do."

She moved a safe distance from him. "What?"

"It's very simple. I'll take you to bed and find
out for myself if you've been ruined. If they got
to you, Saber, you will lose nothing by letting
me make love to you."

Sudden tears stung her eyes, and she clasped
her hand over her mouth. "You have a very low
opinion of me, Matthew, if you believe I'd let you
touch me. Get out and leave me alone!"

"I'll have you now, or I won't marry you at all."

Obviously he was past reasoning. "Noble's just
in the next room," she warned him, "and if I call
out to him, he'll hear me. If you don't leave now
you'll have to face my brother, and believe me,
you don't want to have him mad at you."

"You don't understand. It's eating me up inside thinking someone else had you before me.
You're not the innocent I wanted to marry."

"And you are not the man I thought you were."
She moved to the door and opened it.
"Leave now!"

"Saber, I want to recapture the love we found
in Georgia. Everything has gone wrong, but I'll
make it right." He reached out his hand and
touched her hair. "You're like a well-bred filly
and need to be handled gently. The only thing
that would spoil it for us is if the Miller brothers
sullied you."

She opened the door wider as she prepared to
tell the first untruth of her life. "Then you are
going to need to hear what I have to say if you
feel that way."

Matthew was beginning to sober, to see the
results of his actions. There was fear reflected
on Saber's face. He loved her didn't she know
that? "Your brother told you I wanted you examined by a doctor, didn't he? That's what we'll
do. You will do that for me, won't you, Saber?"

"I'll never submit to such an indignity."

He drew near her and turned her slowly to
face him. "I see now that all this has upset you.
I was wrong to come here tonight, and I'm so
sorry. Say you'll forgive me."

"You have every right to know what happened
to me while I was with the Miller brothers, Matthew. What would you do if you knew for certain
that they raped me?"

He swallowed several times. "I love you. We
would work it out somehow."

"How do you work out something like that?
Would you resent me later on because I was violated by them?"

"I want you for my wife, Saber."

"Would you resent me later on?" she asked
again, looking into his eyes to glean the truth.

"I had always thought the woman I married
would come to me pure," he answered honestly.
"I don't want you touched by any other man."

Saber remembered Reese telling her that if
the woman he loved had been treated badly, he
would only love her more. "You would feel that
way even though the situation was none of my
doing, Matthew?"

He felt crushing pain. "The way you are talking, Saber, makes me think those bastards did
rape you."

She ducked her head. "I will say only that I am not untouched, Matthew. Don't ask me anything
more. I will not speak of it to you ever."

He lowered his head. "What if you... if you
were to have a baby?"

"What if I did?"

He shook his head. "This is more than I can
live with, Saber. I love you, but I can't give my
name to you. I don't think I could make love to
you without thinking of another man touching
you."

"That is the way I thought you would feel. I
release you from your promise, Matthew. You
can say anything you want to save face with the
other officers. I will remain silent on the matter."

"No one will ever hear about this from me,
Saber." He staggered past her and stood in the
hallway.

He didn't love her with the unselfish love she
wanted from the man she married. "I think this
is good-bye for us, Matthew."

He clasped her head between his hands.
"When I saw you tonight, I remembered how
much I loved you. I wanted you to be beside me
the rest of my life. But I can't accept this, Saber.
Try to understand."

"I'm trying. And you have to understand that
after your conduct tonight, I could never marry
you." There was sorrow in her blue eyes.

When he walked slowly away, she closed and
securely locked the door, leaning against it.
Tears of misery spilled down her cheeks. It was
done.

Already Matthew was regretting the way he
had acted with Saber. If only he hadn't been
drinking when he'd gone to her room, it might
have been different. He was haunted by the look
of disgust on her face. How would he ever make
it up to her for the things he had said to her?

Saber smiled sadly, hoping as time passed she
would think of Matthew as the dashing calvary
officer who had come to her rescue that year in
Georgia. She went to the window and watched
him mount his horse and ride away. "A young
girl's dream," she said softly. "Not a woman's
love."

Reese was sober when he walked to the livery
stable to saddle his horse. The cold air helped to
clear his head. He had only one thing to do now,
and that was to find Felton and bring him in.
That was the last thing he could do for Saber.

The barn was dark, with only a single lantern
hanging from the rusty nail beside the front
door. He made his way to his horse, which had
been placed in the back stall. Throwing the blanket over the horse's back, he then lifted the saddle into place.

"Reese..."

Reese spun around to find Saber standing behind him. For a long moment he stared at her,
unable to speak. "Should you be here?" he asked
at last. "It's late to be out."

"I saw you from my hotel window and followed you here."

"I'm sure if you leave now, no one will be the
wiser."

She ran her hand over the neck of his horse.
"I need to talk to you."

He placed the saddle back on the railing. "I
see you will have your way in this." He folded
his arms over his chest. "Go ahead talk. I'm listening."

"Reese, I lied to Matthew tonight. Not in
words, really, but I led him to draw the wrong
conclusion."

He couldn't see her face very well in the muted
light, so he stepped closer to her. "What about?"

"I let him think that I'd been raped."

He grabbed her arm and pulled her closer.
"Why would you do something like that? You
know it isn't true - I told you it wasn't."

She decided not to tell him how badly Matthew had behaved in her hotel room. Reese
didn't need to know how reprehensibly his
friend had acted tonight. "He didn't love me enough, Reese. Not the way a woman wants to
be loved."

"I know he loves you, Saber. Surely he told
you that."

"Yes, he did. But I am a rancher's daughter. I
don't want the kind of life Matthew wants. I
would not make a good politician's wife."

"It sounds like you didn't love him enough, Saber."

She moved closer and touched his cheek.
"There is truth in that, Reese. I was so young
when we first met. I guess you could say neither
Matthew nor I loved each other enough."

Against his will he pulled her into his arms,
feeling the softness of her cheek against his. "I'm
sorry, Saber. I believe you and Matthew were
right for each other."

"What about you, Reese? Will you ever
marry?"

He set her away from him and reached for his
saddle, so he'd have something to do with his
hands. "No woman would want a broken-down
old cowboy like me, Saber."

She laughed. "I see a tall, handsome man with
wide shoulders who makes the women swoon
when he passes by."

He frowned. "Surely not you."

"I don't know, cowboy. You stomp around in
those boots acting tough, but I have seen the softness in you. And that's what I like most
about you."

He drew in an agitated breath. "Is there a
point to all this, Saber?"

"Yes, I was getting to that. If a man touches a
woman intimately, do you think it's his duty to
marry her?"

He let out his breath and dropped the saddle.
"Damn it, Saber! I know where you are going
with this. Is that why you wouldn't marry Matthew, because I touched you?"

She could have said yes, but it wasn't true, and
she had already told one lie tonight. In truth, she
wanted him to take her to the ground right now
and fan the flames that he'd ignited in her that
day in his barn. "You are the only man who has
touched me. I think if my brother knew, he'd
insist you marry me."

"Hardly. I don't think I'm what he has in mind
for a brother-in-law."

"I would never feel right with any another
man, Reese."

He glanced upward, trying not to lose his patience. "I shouldn't have done what I did, Saber.
But your virginity is still intact. You are as pure
as the day you were born."

She stepped closer to him. "Didn't you like
touching me, Reese?"

He stepped away from her so fast she might have thought her touch burned him. "You'd better leave now, Saber. A man can only take so
much."

She moved even closer, standing so near she
could feel his breath on her cheek. She leaned
her head on his shoulder and felt him stiffen. No
one had ever given her the comfort she drew
from being near him. She loved him, and she
was sure he loved her. But he would never ask
her to marry him. He had the mistaken notion
that he wasn't good enough for her. How could
she make him see he was wrong?

"Hold me, Reese."

His arms went around her, crushing her
against his body. He kissed her cheek, ran his
lips across her lashes, and then lifted her, crushing her mouth with his. Saber had never known
that a kiss could be so consuming. She felt as if
she would faint. She never wanted him to stop,
but he did.

He drew back his head, on the brink of losing
control completely. "If you don't leave now, Saber, I'll have you in that hay in another minute,
and there won't be any doubt that you have had
a man."

She dropped her cape and unhooked her
gown while he watched helplessly. He burned
and swelled for her, and when she took his hand
and placed it on her exposed breast, he went slowly to his knees, taking her with him. His lips
were on her mouth while he caressed her
breast but he wanted more.

Saber hardly realized he had laid her on the
hay. He lowered his head, his mouth closing
over her nipple, and she wanted to scream from
the unbridled passion that tore through her. He
pushed the bottom of her gown upward and
moved her legs apart.