Caine's Reckoning

His lips quirked and he pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “Me.”

It just burst out. “I got shortchanged.”

Unbelievably, he laughed. “I imagine you see it that way now.”

He sat down on the blankets, sliding his hand down her neck, her shoulder, her arm, hooking her wrist in his grip when he reached the ground and tugging her down. “But you won’t always.”

He had no idea what she thought and what she planned. She fell, more than sat, beside him. He caught her the way he always did, as if nothing ever threw him off guard. He lay back against the saddle, his hand anchoring her wrist. “Lie down. Morning will be here before you know it.”

An owl hooted in the distance. The first she’d heard this spring. Was it a good omen or a bad one? She didn’t know, but looking at the sheer size of the man waiting for her to bed down beside him, she had to pray it was good.

“I don’t have a pillow.”

He patted the broad expanse of his shoulder. “I’ve got your pillow right here.”

He expected her to sleep against him. She bit her lip. The wind blew, rattling the bushes. A cold chill went down her spine. Caine’s smile faded to a frown. He pulled her toward him, lifting her arm over his head, directing her fall toward his chest, not giving her an opportunity to twist away.

“If you don’t get tucked in here fast, you’re going to freeze over faster than a stream in winter.”

He let her go when she was lying along his side, her cheek on her hand on his shoulder. “Sleeping like this is going to break my neck.”

One big hand came across her chest, pulling her into his torso as he hitched up. Her shoulder tucked under his arm. She had no choice but to drop her hand. Her fingers caught in the folds of his poncho. As much as she tugged, she was stuck under her own weight, elbow wedged to the ground, head at an even more awkward angle. His coat, made for a much bigger person than she, bunched up over her face. There was a deep masculine chuckle and then several tugs. The coat opened inch by inch, revealing the same amusement in his eyes that had been in his voice.

She frowned back at him. “This is not an improvement.”

Another button popped and the gap widened, enabling her to see his expression. Caine was smiling. A full-fledged smile without the usual reserve.

“I can see that.”

Another tug on the coat had her yelping. The buttons were now caught in her hair.

“Now for sure I know this coat is male.”

She twisted about trying to get a hand free to get to her hair only to find his hands in the way when she eventually got herself clear.

“This would go a lot easier,” he told her, “if you’d stop trying to help.”

“I’m trying to keep from being snatched bald.” Another tug had her wincing.

“No danger of that.”

She was so sick of him pretending to be nice to her. “Because you intend to be careful?”

He was shaking his head before she finished, that full smile diminishing to the level of a grin. “Nah.” The tension released on her hair, leaving only a sting behind. “There’s no danger for the simple reason you’ve got enough hair for two women and then some.”

She dug her elbow into his side as she forced her hand free, checking to be sure she still had hair in that spot. She rubbed the sting. “Well, you may not have that concern for much longer.” She ran her hand through her hair and got stopped about one inch into the procedure by a snarl too big to be called anything less than a mat. She gave it a good hard yank, wincing when it held. “We’re probably going to have to shave my head to get the snarls out.”

Once again, his hands pulled hers away. “No danger of that, either.”

“Because you’re going to forbid me to cut my hair?”

He smoothed his hand over her head, stroking from crown to end, smoothing down the wild tangle, lifting his hand halfway down when a snarl caught on his index finger. Men always loved her hair. There was something about the pale blond color and curl that had them always staring at it with a combination of fascination and awe. His gaze met hers, the smile still tugging at his mouth. “Pretty much.”

Nothing was more galling than his assurance that his forbidding would be enough. “I hate you.”

“You don’t know me well enough to hate me.”

“Trust me. I’ve built a real good case in the short time we’ve been acquainted.”

He didn’t look devastated by the statement. But the crinkles by the sides of his eyes deepened. “Then I guess I’ll just have to work at changing your opinion.”

Oh wonderful. He’d taken her comment as a challenge. “Why can’t you just act predictably?”

He lifted her up and scooted her down, a maneuver that would have left her a lot more comfortable if it also hadn’t left her pressed intimately against him. “If you knew me better, you’d know I am being predictable.”

When she tried to wiggle away, he merely curled in the arm she was lying on. The other hand went to her hip, slipped under the coat and rode down to her thigh, hitching it up. Panic immediately chased anger. The only thing that preserved her modesty were the long folds of her new skirt.

“Lift up for a minute.”

“I’m comfortable just as I am.”

“No, you’re not.”

She wasn’t but that wasn’t important. She tilted her head back and strained for dignity. “I am not sprawling across you. It’s improper.”

And if he said one word about the incongruity of a whore worrying about propriety she’d bite the end of his nose off.

“Gypsy, if both of us are going to keep from freezing our butts off tonight, seeing as our wedding night has us way over here in the hollow, we’re going to have to get closer than your sense of propriety deems fit.”

“I’ll chance freezing.”

“Well, I won’t.”

And that settled that. In the time it took her to draw the breath for a retort, Caine had her kneeling. As fast as she batted at his hands, he was tugging her skirts out from under her knees. God, he was fast. She had just reached around to slap his hands from her rear when he lifted her again by her shoulder and pulled her across his lap and lay down. Gravity took care of her defiance. Her body naturally flowed into the planes of his. Her thigh fell over his and her breasts pressed into his side. Before she could pull her leg back, he took her skirts and draped them over his thighs and tucked them beneath, effectively pinning her with her own clothing.

He met her glare with a raised brow and a smile.

“Pretty slick, eh?”

Did he expect her to praise his trickery?

“Taking advantage through your greater strength is what I’d call it.” Two yanks on the material proved the futility of that effort.

Caine shrugged. “Whatever gets the job done is good for me.” With his free hand he adjusted his hat forward as he braced his shoulders against the saddle. “Grab the blankets would you?”

She was tempted to ignore the order, but the thought of what he would do to get that job done had her reconsidering. That and the next wind that sent the dried grass rustling. It was going to be a cold night and while Caine might be big and arrogant, he was warm. She leaned toward the blankets, forgetting her injuries. Stiff muscles and her bruised rib immediately protested.

“Shoot. I forgot about that.” The blankets were removed from her grasp. A broad palm rubbed small circles on her back as if he thought to absorb her pain through his touch. “You just take your time getting comfortable, and I’ll take care of the covering.”

He said that as if he were being perfectly reasonable, but no matter how he couched it, it was an order and it drove home the fact that he expected her to obey. The knowledge that there was nothing she could do about it ate at her defiance, because once all the settling was done, he’d want to be getting on to other things. Intimate, unpleasant things that were now her duty. God help her.

He tucked the blanket over her shoulder. “Now, what thought just made you stiffen up?”

If he didn’t know, she wasn’t telling him. “Nothing.”

His sigh blew over the top of her head. “Are you back to worrying that I’m ornery in bed?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

He pulled her forearm up, dislodging her elbow from his bicep. “Doesn’t appear to me that either of us are going to get comfortable enough to sleep without it.”

A muffled chuckle from across the fire alerted her to how that low drawl of his carried. “Hush.”

“I’ll hush if you’ll talk.”

“Fine. What do you want to know?”

“I want to know what has you scared.”

Her shiver had nothing to do with the wind as memories swamped her. “I just don’t like being with a man.”

“Because it goes against your beliefs, or because of what you’ve been taught?”

“We’re married, it can’t be against my beliefs.”

“I got news for you, Gypsy, many a woman feels it’s wrong to enjoy her husband.”

“I can understand that.”

His finger under her chin tipped her face up. “I can see where you’d have reason to fear a man who’s hurt you, but, Gypsy, I’ve never hurt you.”

Yet. The immediate tag to his assertion lingered in her mind. She just barely kept it from her lips. His hand tilted. Instead of letting her go like she expected, he swapped his fingers for his thumb, the latter brought to rest against her lips, brushing lightly. The fire had died down to the point it was just a small flicker. The faint light wasn’t strong enough to penetrate where they lay.

“And that’s the hitch in your git-along, isn’t it, Desi? You don’t have any idea who I am, or what to expect, so your mind’s just leaping from one awful possibility to the next.”

“You’re a man.”

“And you’re a woman, that should make us more compatible rather than less.”

“Maybe I just need more time.”

His thumb made another of those lazy passes that tickled the edges of her lips and sent little tingles radiating outward. “Time can be a funny thing, Gypsy. You think it’s your friend, but when it comes to fears, it’s your worst enemy. You leave a scare to time’s tending, and rather than making it go away, time turns it bigger and meaner than reality could ever be.”

“So you say.”

His thumb made another pass across her lips, following the swells and dips as if testing the shape of her words. “I know what it’s like to be scared, Desi.”

The “Huh?” escaped before she could contain it. The man was as big as a mountain, had more muscle than a blacksmith and had a reputation that would terrify a hardened gunslinger. What did he know of fear?

“I wasn’t always this big, and there was a time I knew so little about fighting, you could probably have whupped me with one hand tied behind your back.”

“I can’t imagine that.”

“Then you’re just going to have to take my word for it the same way you’re going to have to accept I have a reason to start as I mean to go on.”

Because he didn’t see any reason to wait. Because he wanted her. Because she was his and men liked to stake their claims. There wasn’t anything she could do about it, and he was right, she was darned sick of dreading it.

Desi hauled her skirt out from under his thigh and threw herself onto her back. Yanking her skirts up, she spread her legs. Every bit of rage she felt at being, yet again, at a man’s mercy ripped out, along with her snarl. “Then get it over with.”

He came over her, a large black shadow, deeper than the night, scarier, more intense. Her breath caught in her lungs. A fine tremble started in her gut and spread outward, consuming her limbs, ending in her fingers and toes. Dear God, what had she invited?

“Is that what they wanted, Desi? For you to lie there like a doll for them to play with?”

His whisper was scarier than his looming. His whisper wanted to delve, ferret out her past, her weaknesses. “It doesn’t matter.”

There was a long pause. Something touched her cheek, and she shrieked. She was wound so tightly she couldn’t contain it.

A voice intruded into their private battle.

“Just so you know, Desi, I don’t hold the bond between man and wife sacred.”

Sam’s low, cold drawl reached across the fire and the implication had the blood rushing from her head so fast she felt as if she were falling. Except she couldn’t because she was already down. She worked her hand out of the confines of the blanket, grabbing Caine’s wrist. “Please.”

Caine’s snarl was as chilling as the wind. “Shut the hell up, Sam.”

“The lady needs to know she has options.”

Oh God, she didn’t want any more options. One man to deal with was more than enough.

It grated, but if begging saved her from being passed around, even for one night, she’d take it. There were times when pride wasn’t worth the price to keep it. “Please. I’ll do what you want,” she whispered to Caine. She glanced across the clearing to the shadow that was Sam. “don’t call him over. don’t make me…”

“Fuck.”

The epithet tore through her like a shot. She clung tighter, wishing it were lighter so she could see whether her begging was having any effect. “Please—”

Caine’s hand came over her mouth, cutting off the plea. She could feel his stare as clear as a touch, his “My wife doesn’t beg, got it?” She nodded slowly. His hand left her mouth slowly.

“Sam, if you don’t elaborate in the next two seconds, I’m coming over there and kicking your ass.”

Desi ran her tongue across her lips, tasting the salt of his skin and the bitterness of her fear.

“Just saying the lady doesn’t have to suffer thinking there isn’t anyone here who won’t stand for her if she wants it.”

He couldn’t mean what she thought.

But he did. Caine confirmed it. “Sam’s offered you his protection, do you want to take it?”

Was it a trick?

“You’d just let me go?”

“Hell, no, but you’re free to take him up on his offer.”

Some choice. Caine or Sam. Wife or whore. “You’d fight your friend?”

“What’s mine stays mine, Gypsy.”

Oh, yes, he’d fight. Not because he loved her or wanted her, but because his pride was involved. And he considered her his. She understood that.

“So what’s it going to be?”

She didn’t know Sam. She didn’t really know Caine, either, but she knew this one thing. A possessive man wasn’t a sharing man. That made the devil she knew a better choice. “I don’t want his protection,” she whispered.

“Good.” The tense muscles against her relaxed subtly.

“She make a decision?” Sam called.

“Yup. She’s decided I’m the more attractive one.”

“Shit. On top of needing to gain weight, the woman needs spectacles.”

Sam didn’t sound serious or even disappointed.

“You were joking?” she asked Caine.

“No.”

She didn’t know what to do with that flat pronouncement. “I don’t understand you.”

“You might find it easier if you didn’t keep comparing me to cow shit.”

She let go of his wrist. Weariness rolled over her in a debilitating wave, spawning a ripple of defeat. “I can’t help it. I don’t have anything else to compare you to.”

6

Idon’t have anything else to compare you to. Caine had never heard so much hopelessness contained in simple truth. The tension left her body. Ah, hell.

He slipped his hand under her head, the wealth of hair acting as a cushion between her skull and his palm, and dropped his forehead to hers. For sure he liked her better when she was fighting. This lack of passion left him fumbling for a way to restore it. His kept his whisper so low, the words didn’t drift farther than her ear. “I think I mentioned before, that’s your whole problem.”

A stick popped in the fire. She jumped. He pulled her closer, the length of her feeling too fragile to him, the surrender in her body there for all the wrong reasons. He brushed his lips across her cheek. Her muscles grew tighter. “Easy, Gypsy.”

She didn’t move, didn’t respond, just held herself there as if waiting for a death blow…which in her mind, maybe she was. He slid his hands between them, found the bunched mess of her skirts. A soft whimper broke past her lips. He tugged the skirt down as a second whimper joined the first. “It’s all right, Gypsy. No one’s going to hurt you.”

Least of all him.

The kiss he dropped on the corner of her mouth spurred the confession from her throat. Her knee drew up with the tension he could feel growing tighter and tighter. “I don’t like this.”

“I know.” He ran his hand down her arm, under the bump of her elbow and back up. Resentment for the coat that kept his hand from her skin was his uppermost emotion until he got to her wrist. The flesh was cool. He circled the narrow joint and slid his fingers lower, meshing his fingers with hers. Her hand was like an icicle in his. “Jesus Christ.”

She was freezing.

“What?”

“I’m not doing a very good job taking care of you.”

He was so used to living on the trail, the discomfort of sleeping on the cold ground hadn’t even registered with him. He had the muscle and mass to withstand the cold, but there wasn’t anything to Desi. Just delicate flesh and fragile bone. Son of a bitch, no wonder she was freezing. He went to work on the remaining buttons on the coat, opening them with neat efficiency, ignoring the way she seemed to stop breathing as he did. When he had it open, he slid his hand inside. Where he expected to feel the warmth of her skin he found a coldness that alarmed him more. Building the fire wasn’t an option as it would draw attention and wouldn’t warm her nearly fast enough anyway, which only left one other option.

“Hold on a minute.”

He reached into his boot and drew his knife from its scabbard. The blade winked in the faint light. Her big eyes went round with horror as he said, “I’ll have you all taken care of in just a moment.”

He slit the front of the poncho to make room.

She frowned up at him. “What are you doing?”

He turned the poncho around and put the knife back. She was cold and scared and almost out of fight, but she kept her head. A man had to admire that. She was something. “Making you a nest.” He held out his hand. “Kneel up.”

She grimaced as she did and he felt like a heel for making her move at all. He steadied her the last two feet with a hand on her ribs just under her breasts. Christ, his hand about swallowed the widest part of her bone structure. Compared to him, there really was nothing to her.

He lifted the poncho and dropped it over her head. A tug and her head popped through the opening. Her hands came up against his chest as he worked his fingers under her hair and lifted the mass free of the neck. She leaned forward as he got the last foot free and he decided he liked her like this, giving him her weight and the illusion of her trust. Someday, it would be for real.

He glanced over his shoulder, shifted them a couple of inches to the left and then with only a “hold on” to warn her, hooked an arm under her buttocks and leaned back. Her short nails scraped his chest as he caught their combined weights on his elbow, and a quick glance determined her little gasps were from fear, not pain, as he took them down the last couple feet, not stopping until he was resting supine to the ground, his head supported by the leather saddle, her weight a welcome warmth atop him. Her head rested just above his breastbone, her legs falling naturally between his.

“Better?” he asked.

The shake of her head was immediate. “No.”

He frowned. “You hurting anywhere?”

“No, but I liked it better before.”

“You were cold.”

He said that as if it mattered. Desi lifted her hips as he yanked the coat out from under her, wincing as a button scraped her inner thigh. Tracker had fetched her a dress but with only one layer of petticoats, it wasn’t much protection from anything.

Caine patted her back. “Sorry about that.”

“What are you doing?”

“Getting you comfortable.”

On top of him? “You intend for me to sleep this way?”

“You got a better plan?”

“The ground was working just fine.”

She could hear his hair swish across the leather as he shook his head. “The cold would sap the life from your bones.”

“You’re on the ground.”

“I’m a lot bigger with a lot more muscle to take the cold.” His hands slid up her thighs under the coat. “You’re just a little bit of a thing.”

He was right about one thing. He was warm, very warm, and if his hands weren’t gathering up her skirts as she lay there, she might have been able to enjoy the heat radiating off him. “Why can’t you let this go?”

“Because you’re afraid of what I’m going to do, which is loco, seeing as I’d cut off my arm rather than hurt you.”

“So you intend…”

She just couldn’t put into words what he intended to do. “I intend to let you experience my touch so you can stop dreading it.”

“The others—”

“can’t see a thing, which means they won’t have any idea anything is going on over here other than sleep unless you make a fuss.”

The thought was little consolation. She pressed her face into his chest as his palms curled around her thighs with only the pantaloons to protect her modesty. He pulled and her thighs separated on either side of his thighs. She could feel his cock—hard and hotter than the rest of him—pressing up into her groin. She shifted to the side to relieve the pressure. “I don’t want this.”

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