Cherished (20 page)

Landing flat on her backside, Juliana
screeched in outrage. She was already unbelievably stiff and sore
from the grueling day of riding—not to mention scrambling up the
tree. She didn’t know how much more she could take. She glared up
at him as fury whipped through her. “You ... you ...”

“You’re welcome.” Cole smothered the urge to
laugh. Instead, he touched his hand to his hat, turned, and started
back through the trees toward the campsite.

“Stick around as long as you want—maybe your
friend will come back for another dance,” he called over his
shoulder.

He heard her scrambling to her feet. “Wait
... for me!”

But he didn’t slow down or glance back, and
she had to run to catch up to him. “You ... you are the most
impossible, ungentlemanly, discourteous man ...”

“And you’re the most troublesome, ungrateful,
complainingest woman ...”

For a moment they glared at each other in the
twilight beneath the spreading branches of the spruce, she with her
tumbling curls dangling in her face, with pine needles stuck to her
gown and fury glimmering in her eyes, and he with that cold,
mocking expression that never failed to rile her. Then Cole reached
out and seized her by the shoulders and started, he swore, to kiss
her but at the last instant, with his mouth only inches from hers,
he yanked his head back, silently cursed himself for a weak damned
fool, and pushed her away. His back straight, he turned on his heel
and stalked off without another word.

What the hell had almost happened, he
wondered as fury and bafflement struggled within him. Hadn’t he
learned his lesson this morning? This woman was more trouble than a
dozen varmints like Reese Kincaid. He had to stay away from her, as
far away as he could get. Why the hell did he keep wanting to kiss
her? Because she was so damned beautiful she put a sunrise to
shame, and so full of pluck she hadn’t the sense to be properly
scared of him or a bear?

Don’t shoot him
, she had said. And
she had fainted in Denver when she’d seen a dead man. So bloodshed
and killing bothered her, but stealing did not. Odd. But then, so
was this entire situation. For once in his life, Cole felt unsure
of his own instincts, his own will. If he wasn’t careful, she’d get
the upper hand with him yet, not through pulling a gun or a knife
on him while he slept, but by tearing down his resistance. Hell, he
was a man, wasn’t he? But she was one hell of a bewitching
woman.

He made a decision. There was no way he
wanted to drag her all the way back to Denver. It would take weeks
of traveling together across the wilderness at close quarters and
he’d be damned if he’d put himself through that. There was a
quicker, easier way. Tomorrow he’d take her to Plattsville. Let
Sheriff Rivers deal with transporting her to Denver. He could wash
his hands of her once he brought her to jail. It would take longer
to get the reward: Rivers would have to get it wired from Denver,
and it might take up to a month before the paperwork was completed,
the girl was turned over to the law in Denver, and the money was
forwarded. In the meantime he’d ride down to Fire Mesa and see what
he could do about stalling for time. It would be worth it, Cole
decided with a grim twist to his mouth, to be rid of her, even
though it wasn’t the way he usually conducted his business. But
he’d had enough of Juliana Montgomery and her shenanigans.

Juliana followed him back to camp with great
thoughtfulness. She didn’t know what to make of Cole Rawdon. He was
the most unpredictable and infuriating man she’d met, but she was
beginning to wonder if he was really quite as impervious to her as
he would like her to believe. He had tried to make it plain that
she was nothing to him but an object, a piece of property of value
only because she could be exchanged for cash; yet she could have
sworn back there that he was ready to kiss her again—even though he
was angry, even though she had annoyed him and caused him a good
deal of trouble. Kiss him! She’d as soon kiss that old black bear
as kiss Cole Rawdon.

Still, if he was attracted to her, even the
tiniest little bit, wasn’t that something she could use to her
advantage? She might be able to soften his feelings for her enough
to convince him to let her go—or at least to let his guard down so
she could find an opportunity to make a decent escape.

It certainly bore thinking about.

When she reached the camp, he was leaning
against a tree, smoking one of his cheroot cigarettes. His face was
unreadable. He looked very tall, strong, and forbidding, standing
in the gray twilight, his hat slouched down over his eyes. Juliana
took a deep breath. It was best not to waste any time in trying out
her new plan of action. Though there was an inherent danger in her
plan that she hadn’t overlooked, a danger of encouraging more
attention from Cole Rawdon than she desired or could handle, she
was desperate enough to try anything.

She walked up to him, trying to hide her
uncertainty, completely unaware of the sensuous sway of her hips as
she moved along the thick grass. She had no idea of how enticing
her thick, tousled hair appeared as it swung forward over her
shoulders, or of how softly the shadows lit her oval face. She was
nervous, thinking about the perilous game she was about to begin
playing with this unpredictable man. But she swallowed her
apprehensions, and with one hand smoothed her curls back from her
face. She must look a sight, she knew, bedraggled and dirty, with
her skirt torn from shinnying up the tree, but she was still a
woman, she reminded herself, and that supposedly had a big effect
on a man.

So she gave him what she hoped was a
beguiling, apologetic smile and said in a soft voice, “I’m afraid I
didn’t behave very well back there, Mr. Rawdon. I owe you an
apology—and a thank-you. I appreciate that you didn’t kill that
creature.”

He took a drag on the cigarette. “Yeah? What
about the fact that I saved your hide?”

“I appreciate that too.”

In the gloom of the clearing, his eyes
pierced her face. “What’s up?” he asked roughly.

“I beg your pardon?”

He threw the cigarette down and stomped on it
hard. “What are you up to now?”

Juliana spread her hands and tried to look
indignant. “Why must you be so suspicious of me? I merely realized
that I did in fact owe you my life—actually, you saved my life
yesterday, too. If it hadn’t been for you, I would have toppled
right over that precipice.”

“I almost let you.”

This startled her so much that she forgot her
calm facade. Her mouth dropped open. “You ... did?” she
squeaked.

Damn the man. He sounded like he regretted
that he had grabbed her back from the cliff. Juliana fought back
her anger.
Don’t let him distract you
.
He’s trying to
bait you, to make you mad.

“So it occurred to me,” she forced herself to
continue in an even tone, “that even though I don’t want to go back
to Denver, you’re right about one thing. I will have a trial there,
and I can try to convince the jury of my innocence. So there’s no
point in my being rude to you or ... trying to get away from you.
I’ve decided that I’ll simply let you take me back to Denver and
face up to the charges against me.”

“You’ll let me take you back? As if you’ve
got a choice?” He mocked her deliberately, enjoying the angry
sparkle she tried to keep from her eyes.

“There’s no need to taunt me, Mr. Rawdon,”
she murmured, wishing she could contrive to have her eyes fill with
tears, the way Victoria did whenever Uncle Edward had scolded her.
Instead she had to settle for a desolate shrug of the shoulders.
“I’ve already conceded defeat.”

Cole watched her flutter her eyelashes at him
in silence. “So you have,” he said after a moment. “Mighty
prettily, too.” Suddenly, he seized her by the arms, and Juliana’s
eyes widened in alarm, but he only spun her about so that she faced
the campfire and the clutter of dirty plates and utensils piled
around it. “I realized something too, lady, while you were gone. I
shot that grouse we had for dinner, so you can have the honor of
cleaning up. If you’re going to be my traveling companion, you’ll
have to do your share of the work.”

He spun her around to face him again, and
frowned down into her eyes. “What do you think of that?”

It took great effort, but Juliana kept her
expression meek. “I think it’s only fair,” she managed to say.

She offered him a sweet smile. “I’ll get
started right now.” She tilted her head to one side, slanting a
pert look at him. “Will that be all right, Mr. Rawdon?”

“You can forget the
mister.
Rawdon
will do just fine.”

“Rawdon, then.”

“Yeah, that’ll be just fine.”

She started to move away, but he didn’t let
go of her. She realized that he wasn’t even aware that he still
held her, though his grip was so strong it hurt. He was staring at
her, his blue eyes like daggers in the darkness, studying her not
with warmth, as she had hoped, but with cool, hard suspicion. “Mr.
Rawdon, you’re hurting me.”

“What? Oh.” He let her go.

But his gaze followed her back to the
campfire. Juliana would have traded every coin in her money pouch
at that moment to know what he was thinking.

She was bone-tired from the exertions of this
day, and still stiff from the discomforts of last night, but she
forced herself to do what he had asked without complaint. She’d
have liked to hit him with the long-handled frying pan, but instead
she piled the dishes into it. When she had gathered up all the
plates and utensils and carried them to the pool, Rawdon instructed
her how to scrub them with the sandy dirt and then rinse them in
the water. While she worked he filled the canteens, brought more
wood for the fire, and finished tending the horses.

Darkness fell over the valley, a hushed
velvet blackness broken only by stars and moon. An owl hooted from
the trees, its call desolate in the stillness. Water gurgled into
the pool, and the wind sang a lonely melody through the brush.
Juliana, finished at last with her chores, huddled near the
campfire, weary beyond belief.

Without glancing at her, Rawdon unstrapped
his bedroll and threw it down on the thick grass, with the oilskin
right beside it. Then he, too, moved toward the fire and hunkered
down to gaze into the flames.

Having a woman, especially one so uniquely
lovely as this one, so near in these desolate surroundings was
proving more torturous than he had imagined it could. Despite
himself, he was drawn over and over by her delicate beauty and by
the artless grace of the way she moved and spoke. Even now, the
play of firelight across her face was evocative and her hair, which
looked as soft and enticing as silk, shone brighter than any gold
he’d ever seen. Yet he knew full well that she wanted him to notice
her, to be attracted to her. She was using her sex to weaken him,
like Delilah had with Samson. She was pretending to be sweet,
compliant, and cooperative just to try to make him forget that she
had stolen his horse, caused him more trouble than a bronc with a
burr under its saddle, and attempted twice to get away. Now she was
trying to convince him that she was as tame as a kitten, with
coquettish tricks he had seen employed a hundred times by dancing
girls and whores trying to lasso his interest. Or at least she had
been trying these little tricks a short time ago. Now all the steam
seemed to have gone out of her. She looked too worn out to be
thinking of anything but sleep.

Which was just as well, because if it was his
attention she wanted, he might just give it to her—and then turn
her in to Sheriff Rivers tomorrow. There was no need, Cole thought
with cold satisfaction, to let her know that her transparent
efforts would get her nowhere, that she would have a new jailer
tomorrow. Let her think she had a chance of manipulating him and
she’d be less likely to try to run off tonight. He didn’t want to
tie her up again unless he had to. She looked like she needed a
good night’s sleep and they had a long ride to Plattsville.

He wondered, not without a certain amount of
pleasurable anticipation, if she would try to win her freedom with
a display of affection tonight. Maybe he ought to let her make full
use of her charms, then inform her in the morning that he was
turning her over to the sheriff.

He smiled grimly to himself, picturing her
outrage.

Maybe she’d think twice before trying her
games on another man, Cole reflected. But the mere idea of her
fluttering those eyelashes of hers at another man made his jaw
clench.

“Better get some sleep,” he said curtly,
breaking off that uncomfortable train of thought. “We ride out at
daybreak.”

“Will we be covering as much ground as we did
today?” Juliana couldn’t imagine another day like this one. Even
the thought of getting to the oilskin bedding seemed an impossible
task. Maybe she could crawl. Maybe she could just sleep right here
on the grass. Except that it was so cold. But even the cold
couldn’t keep her eyes from drifting shut.

“More,” he answered. “And we’ll be crossing
rougher territory.”

“I didn’t know there was any rougher
territory.”

“Today was an easy route. Tomorrow I’ll show
you what Arizona riding is all about.”

I can scarcely wait
. Juliana
struggled to keep her shoulders from sagging. At that moment she no
longer cared about her plan to attract Cole Rawdon, she no longer
cared about anything. All she knew was that she had to get up and
somehow get over to that oilskin. Then she’d at least be warm; he
had left the saddle blanket for her. She didn’t even care about the
rope anymore. If he tied her up, she wouldn’t feel it. All she
wanted to feel was sleep descending upon her. Soft, beautiful
sleep. All she had to do was move five steps, she told herself.
Five little steps ...