Winter Fire (20 page)

“Conner” was all she said.

Case didn't answer. Instead, he sighted down the rifle barrel, let out his breath, and squeezed the trigger very gently. The rifle kicked.

The report knifed through Sarah's head.

Down the canyon, halfway up the opposite side, a man pitched forward. He slid down the debris slope until a boulder stopped him.

The boneless lines of the man's body said that he had been knocked senseless or was dead.

“Culpepper?” she whispered hopefully.

“No. Too short. Too dark.”

The canyon was quiet again except for the cold wind searching through every crease and crevice.

After fifteen minutes, shivers began to run through her body. Her doeskin shirt and pants had been enough to
keep her warm as long as she was dragging dead wood up and down the canyon. But lying against the ground on the north side of a winter canyon was draining heat from her body with every heartbeat.

From the corner of her eye, she looked at Case, who was naked to the waist. He was watching the land within reach of his rifle fire. His eyes were narrowed, intent. If he noticed the cold, he didn't show it.

She tried to stop the shivers that kept rippling through her, but couldn't. She clenched her teeth so that they wouldn't chatter and distract him.

After ten more minutes, her hands were shaking so much that it was impossible to hold the six-gun steady. Case took the gun from her fingers and holstered it.

“Lie against me,” he said quietly. “I'm warmer than stone.”

She eased closer until she was alongside him. He moved onto his side and tucked her against his body, then rolled partway over again, sheltering her.

“Now cuddle in like a cold tabby cat,” he murmured.

“I'll g-get in your w-way.”

“If I move suddenly, cover your ears.”

They waited.

After a time the noise of retreating hoofbeats drifted back up the canyon. It was a single animal, moving fast. Each strike of hoof against stone was clear. In fact, sometimes it sounded like a hammer hitting rock.

“Shod,” Case said.

“I don't care if it's winged,” Sarah said against his collarbone, “as long as the raider is gone.”

“Quit wiggling.”

She sighed hard enough to stir the hair on his chest and lay still.

Ignoring her head tucked below his, he waited and watched, every sense alert.

For a long time the wind was all that moved, all that spoke, all that showed any sign of life.

They're gone
, he decided.

Case was certain of it. The back of his neck no longer felt tight.

He took a slow, deep breath. Along with air, he inhaled the presence of Sarah. Right now she smelled more like rock dust than roses, but it didn't matter. His body hardened in a rush that made him feel as heavy as the cliff at his back.

“Case?” she whispered.

“What?”

“Are they gone?”

“I think so.”

She started to get up.

Before he could think better of it, he found himself holding her where she was.

Close.

The memory of her jacket leaping while bullets tore it apart made him cold all the way to his soul. It so easily could have been her flesh rather than cloth.

He didn't know what he would have done then. He didn't even want to think about it. All he knew was that he wasn't ready to let go of Sarah yet.

“Just to be sure it's safe,” he said, “we'll wait right here a while longer.”

“It was worth a try,” she muttered.

Her words were so muffled that he couldn't understand any of them.

“What?” he asked.

She sighed. “Nothing. I just love being the slice of cold meat in a stone sandwich.”

“I'm not stone.”

“Could have fooled me. You're hard as a rock.”

The left corner of his mouth lifted enough to show even beneath the beard he hadn't yet let her shave.

“A lady isn't supposed to notice,” he whispered against her ear.

“How hard your body is? I'd have to be frozen like an icicle not to—ulp.”

She had just realized that there was hard, and then there was hard.

At the moment, his body suited both meanings of the word.

“I'll bet that blush warmed you right up,” he said dryly.

“Watch it. I'll bite you again.”

A shudder of pure hunger went through Case.

“You keep talking like that,” he said against her ear, “and I'm going to forget all about the Culpeppers' nasty habit of leaving a man behind to finish off the wounded.”

“Talking like what?”

“About biting me.”

While he spoke, his teeth closed delicately over the rim of her ear.

She shivered and made a small sound.

“Cold?” he whispered.

“N-no.”

“You're trembling.”

“Nobody ever bit me like that,” she said.

“Like what?”

Sarah's teeth scraped gently over a pad of muscle on his chest.

His heartbeat doubled.

“Like that,” she whispered. “Gentle and teasing.”

“I did. You just don't remember it.”

“When?”

“A few weeks back, when you crawled into my bed.”

Her body stiffened.

“I didn't mean
that
,” she said.

“Sex?”

“Yes.”

“Sarah…” He searched for words. “Honey, sex can be tender and teasing and hot and wild and everything in between.”

“For a man, maybe. Not for a woman.”

“You didn't like my gentle bite?”

She rubbed her nose against the thatch of hair on his chest.

“I liked it,” she admitted.

“You didn't like having your breasts petted and kissed two weeks ago?”

“Case!”

“Did you or didn't you?” he asked.

“How would I know? I was asleep!”

“What were you dreaming?”

A shiver went through Sarah as she remembered.

“I was lying in the sun,” she whispered. “I was warm all over, as though…as though…I don't know. I never felt that way before.”

“You liked it.”

“How do you know?” she retorted. “You weren't in my dream.”

“No, but I was in your body. I could feel how much you liked my mouth and my hands all over you.”

A wild, hot thrill went through her.

I was in your body
.

No other man had been that close to her except her husband. Her only memories of Hal were fear and pain and a throttled kind of rage that she should have to endure being bruised and ill-used in exchange for a roof over her head and food on Conner's plate.

“In my body?” she asked thinly.

“Not the way you mean. Just…”

His voice died.

How do I explain to an experienced innocent that men tease women with their fingers?
he wondered.

“I was petting you,” he said. “That's all.”

“Inside?” she asked, shocked.

The corners of his eyes crinkled.

“Inside,” he agreed. “It didn't hurt you, did it?”

“I don't know,” she said through her teeth.

“Sure you do. You were awake at the last.”

“I don't want to talk about it.”

“Why?”

“I just don't!”

“You'll face off raiders over a shotgun and you won't talk about whether or not something hurt you?” he asked. “They're just words, not bullets.”

She didn't say anything.

“Your husband was a piss-poor man,” Case said matter-of-factly. “Most men are more decent to their women.”

“Sure,” she said sarcastically. “That's why men pay women to put up with them. Well, there's not enough silver in all of creation to make me put up with
that
again.”

“What about your dream of lying naked in the sun, with heat caressing you all over?”

“What about it?”

“It was me.”

“What?”

“I was the sun. I was touching you all over. And you liked it, Sarah. I know you did. You ran like warm honey over my fingers.”

She went very still, barely breathing.

“When you asked me that morning what I had done to you,” Case said, “I thought you were joking.”

She shook her head slowly. “I wasn't. I…hadn't ever…didn't know…there was never anything like…”

She gave up trying to talk and buried her hot face against his chest.

“I feel like such a fool,” she whispered.

“Your husband was the fool.”

“Why?”

“You have real passion in you,” Case said. “He never bothered to find it.”

Sarah's head came up so quickly she almost clipped his chin.

“Passion?” she asked in disbelief. “You mean I
like
sex?”

“You liked what you had of it with me.”

“But I didn't have, er, all of you. I ran away before you could hurt me.”

His left eyebrow went up in a black arc.

“What makes you think I would have hurt you?” he asked mildly. “I hadn't hurt you up to then, had I?”

Despite the heat sweeping up her cheeks again, she spoke as plainly as Case had. She was determined that he understand how mistaken he was.

She didn't like sex.

Period.

“I've seen you naked,” she said bluntly. “You're big. Hal wasn't nearly as big and he hurt me.”

Case's black eyelashes lowered for an instant. He hoped he wasn't blushing as much as she had, but he wouldn't have bet a lot of money on it.

Talking about sex was a lot harder than simply doing it.

“It hurt because you weren't ready for him,” Case said finally.

She frowned in confusion.

“Ready?” she asked. “What does that mean?”

“A woman's body…changes when she's ready for her man.”

“Lola never said anything about a woman being ready. When the man is ready he has sex, that's all.”

“Lola was a prostitute,” he said bluntly. “The men who came to her wanted sex and they wanted it fast. They paid to get it that way.”

“So?”

Case opened his mouth, then closed it.

“Did you and Lola ever talk about seduction?” he asked after a time.

“Sure. That's where women are fooled into believing it won't hurt.”

“It doesn't!”

“Not for the man,” she retorted.

Carefully he put down his rifle. He cupped both hands over her face.

“Will you let me kiss you?” he asked.

“Just kissing?”

“Just kissing.”

“That's all?”

“That's all,” he whispered against her lips.

Then he lifted his head and watched her troubled gray eyes while she thought it over.

Suddenly she smiled at him almost shyly.

“All right,” she whispered. “I liked being kissed by you.”

Case came very close to smiling in return when he thought of the depth of her sensual ignorance.

Just kissing
covered a lot of very sweet territory.

S
arah watched
Case's head lower to hers and his black eyelashes close. She felt the brushing warmth of his lips over hers all the way to her toes. She sighed and shivered at the same time.

“You're still cold,” he said huskily. “I should get your jacket.”

“I'm not cold.”

“You're shivering.”

“Not that way. I just felt quivery and good all over when you kissed me.”

She both felt and heard the quick breath he took.

“Then I'll do it some more,” he said.

His lips moved over hers again, and again she trembled slightly in response. He nuzzled the corners of her mouth, the edge of her jaw, the delicate lobe of one ear. Then he sipped at the pulse beating quickly in her neck.

With each motion of his head, his beard stroked her skin like a soft brush, bringing her nerve endings to wild, shimmering life.

“You sure you're not cold?” he asked.

Nodding her head, she made a murmuring, purring kind of sound.

“Like it?” he asked.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Good. Slide your arms around me and come in real close.”

“I'm not cold. Really.”

“I am,” he lied.

“Oh,” she said, contrite. “I didn't think of that. You always feel so warm to me.”

Sarah slid her arms around Case and nestled in close. Her breasts pressed against him. She was surprised to find that her nipples were sensitive again. Not hurting, just…alive.

And when she moved subtly against his chest, the odd, shivery feeling rippled through her from her breasts to her knees. It felt so good that she arched her back slightly and rubbed against him again, more slowly.

“Is there a rock under your hip?” he teased.

“No. I just like…”

Her voice frayed into silence.

“What do you like?” he asked.

She licked suddenly dry lips.

“From the color of your cheeks,” he said, “I think I know what you're trying to say. Let me help.”

She gave him a startled look.

“First I'll just get rid of my gloves and put my hand here,” he said.

His long fingers spread wide between Sarah's shoulder blades. As he arched her back, he dragged his chest slowly against her breasts.

Heat shot through her.

“Oh!” she said, startled.

“Too hard?” he asked.

Only then did she understand that his movements had been anything but accidental. Curious, she stared at him.

“Honey?” he said. “Was I too rough?”

She shook her head, watching him.

“Lord,” he whispered. “You have the most beautiful eyes.”

“I do?” she asked, startled again.

He knew that she wasn't being coy. There simply wasn't a coy bone in her body.

“You do,” he said. “Sometimes they're like mist and sometimes they're like a storm and sometimes they're a silver as deep as the sea.”

The look in his eyes made Sarah's mouth go dry. She licked her lips.

He watched her tongue.

“You're right,” he said. “It's time for more.”

“What?”

“Nothing to worry about. Just another kiss.”

“Oh. Good.”

“For me, too,” he said.

“What—”

The heated glide of his tongue over her mouth scattered her thoughts. She forgot the question she had been going to ask. All her attention was focused on her lips. They were vividly alive, hot where his tongue was touching and cool where it had passed on.

Her arms tightened around Case until she was pressed hard against him. He helped by arching her back and rubbing her breasts over his chest again, bringing her even closer.

Her breath came in brokenly, opening her mouth. His tongue dipped beneath her upper lip, gliding, probing, circling. His teeth caught her lower lip. He tugged gently.

She didn't know that she made a ragged sound and opened her lips wider. She knew only that his tongue was hot inside her mouth and the taste of his kiss was sweet beyond bearing.

She wanted to tell him how good it felt, but she didn't want to end the sweetness. So she gave him back the kiss, sliding her tongue over his, probing the sultry corners of his mouth, then catching his tongue delicately between her teeth.

His breath came out with a hoarse sound.

Instantly she released him.

“I'm sorry,” she said quickly. “I don't know anything about this. You're the only one I've ever kissed besides blood family, and that's different.”

Conner was right
, Case thought grimly.
She was married for years and never even kissed
.

An odd kind of pain twisted through him, sadness and hunger combined, and a need to cherish Sarah that was greater than any other emotion.

“Are you all right?” she asked unhappily. “I didn't mean to hurt you.”

“You didn't.”

His voice was husky and his eyes were a smoldering silver-green between his nearly closed lashes.

“You groaned,” she said.

“So did you, two weeks ago.”

“I don't remember.”

“You will this time.”

Sarah stiffened subtly. All she remembered was how she had ended up that morning—her pants around her knees and his hand between her legs.

“We weren't just kissing then,” she said.

“You weren't kissing me at all. I was kissing you.”

“But—”

“Hush,” Case said, lowering his mouth over hers again. “It's just kissing.”

“Mmmph.”

After a few moments she forgot all about what was and wasn't kissing. The feelings cascading through her were delicious. So was the taste of Case, his heat, the textures of beard and lips, tongue and teeth.

The softening of her body told him that she was no longer anxious about what might happen. Instead, she was returning the intimate kiss with a shy, hesitant, yet passionate thoroughness that made his head spin.

He forgot about the rock digging into his side and the cold wind blowing over his naked back. He forgot about everything except the hot secrets of Sarah's mouth.

At the back of his mind Case knew he should stop before he got in over his head. He had been a long, long time without a woman. And this particular woman appealed to him far too much for his hard-won peace of mind.

She healed my wounds
, he thought.
It's only fair that I heal hers in return
.

If I can
.

If she'll even let me try
.

He merged his mouth with hers the same way he hungered to merge their bodies. Slowly. Tenderly.

Completely.

Sarah matched him breath for breath, touch for touch, hunger for hunger, until Case felt everything sliding away, leaving only her. He didn't know he had undone the laces on her doeskin shirt until she tore her mouth free from his.

“You said just kissing,” she accused.

“It's hard to kiss through doeskin.”

When she understood what he was saying, her eyes widened. Her flushed lips and cheeks made the color of her eyes a radiant, clear silver.

“I'm not wearing doeskin over my mouth,” she said, breathing unevenly.

“I'm not talking about kissing your mouth.”

She stared at him. His eyes were pale green fire against the heightened color of his skin. Each time his head moved, light shimmered over his short black beard like stars against midnight. His lips were red from the pressure of their shared kisses.

“You want to stop kissing, is that it?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “I want to keep on kissing you and kissing you until the honey flows and you're as soft as I am hard and we…”

With a sharp breath Case reined in his runaway tongue.

Sarah waited, watching him with wide eyes. Both pas
sion and wariness were in her expression. Passion was stronger.

She was watching his mouth rather than his eyes.

“That's the idea,” he said huskily. “Watch me. Watch us…kissing.”

His lips and beard were silky against her ear, her neck, the pulse beating just beneath her skin. When his tongue probed the hollow at the base of her throat, her breath broke. He sucked on her skin, bit her tenderly, and shared the ripple of response that went through her.

By the time her shirt was fully unlaced, she had no idea how it had happened. She knew only that the shirt was undone and her nipples were firm rosy crowns standing up against the thin muslin of her chemise.

He bent down. His lips parted over one veiled nipple.

“Case?” she asked uncertainly.

“Just kissing,” he said, his voice deep.

“But I'm not kissing you.”

“There's more than one way to kiss each other. Watch.”

The sight of him nibbling gently on her breast made an odd, breathless feeling twist through Sarah. The stark contrast of masculine beard and fragile muslin somehow heightened the intensity of the caress.

Slowly, deliberately, he licked the thin cloth that separated his tongue from her taut nipple.

Sensations glittered through her like hidden lightning. Embarrassed, fascinated, held in a delicious net of pleasure, she watched the muslin darken beneath his tongue.

Before she quite knew what was happening, the tip of her breast vanished into his mouth. As he had once seduced her lips, now he seduced her breast, stroking it with tongue and teeth.

Her back arched instinctively, rubbing her nipple even more firmly over his tongue. He responded by increasing the sucking pressure until she whimpered and held him to her breast.

When Case finally lifted his head, her chemise looked as though the muslin had dissolved away, leaving her breast naked to his caressing tongue. She knew she should be embarrassed to see herself so clearly, and to know that he was seeing her in the same way, but her flushed cheeks came from rising passion rather than shame.

She loved watching him caress her.

Delicately, repeatedly, he sipped at the tight pink crown. When his teeth closed tenderly around the nipple, she shivered and cried out sharply.

He lifted his head.

“Did I hurt you?” he asked, concerned.

She shook her head.

“Your eyes are as big as silver dollars,” he whispered.

Sarah looked down at her breast.

“What did you do?” she asked. “I've never looked like that, even on the coldest mornings.”

“This?” he asked.

He touched her nipple with the tip of his tongue.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“It's your body's way of saying it likes being kissed. It's kissing me in return.”

“Just…kissing?”

He made a rumbling sound of agreement.

“Of course,” he said deeply, “if you wouldn't mind, I would love to pet those pretty breasts while I'm kissing them.”

She shivered at the look in his eyes—half-open, heavy-lidded, he was watching her breasts the way a starving man watched a banquet.

“Just petting?” she asked in a small voice.

“Just petting.”

“Will it leave marks?”

His head lifted sharply. “Did he bruise you?”

“Only when I wouldn't hold still. Then he…”

Sarah's voice died.

“What did he do?” Case asked gently, wondering if
she had mistaken passion for ill use. “I don't want to scare you.”

“He just grabbed my breasts and dug in with his fingernails until I quit fighting.”

For a moment Case couldn't even speak.

It's a good thing Conner killed Hal accidentally
, he thought.
I sure as hell would have done it deliberately, and hanged for it
.

“I would never hurt you that way,” Case said simply.

She hesitated, then let out a ragged little breath.

“All right,” she said in a rush. “You can do what—what you said you wanted to.”

“It will feel better without your chemise. For both of us.”

“Nothing covering me?” she asked in a high voice.

“My mouth. My hands.”

She shivered at the thought of wearing him as intimately as her own underclothes.

“All right,” she whispered, for her mouth was too dry to speak any other way.

He took off her shirt and shifted her until she was lying on her back with the doeskin beneath her. His hands slid up along her ribs beneath her chemise. He lifted his thumbs to ease the muslin up over her aroused breasts.

And then he simply looked at her.

“Lord, woman,” he breathed. “You put the sun and moon to shame.”

Sarah blushed from her breasts to her forehead.

He bent and smoothed his face against her, from her collarbone down over each breast and back again, kissing and stroking every bit of the way. The thought of such delicate beauty being savaged by any man, even her lawful husband, made Case want to lick and kiss and pet away every last memory of pain.

Bracing himself on his elbows, he dipped his face between her breasts, stroking her, aching for the ill treatment she had known. If he could have, he would have taken
her pain inside himself, all of it, leaving her with only the pleasure.

The thought that such a healing might be possible was almost agonizing to him. He shuddered and redoubled his caresses, tenderly devouring her.

For Sarah, it was like her dream all over again, with the sun worshipping her naked skin. The rough silk of his beard brought her breasts to aching peaks that were soothed by his tongue and caressed by his fingertips and palms. Her breasts were flushed and taut, fully alive for the first time in her life.

She made a hoarse sound and jerked when his mouth closed over a nipple.

“I've never done this with a woman,” Case whispered, lifting his head. “You'll have to tell me if I do something you don't like.”

At first she didn't really hear the words, for she was too caught up in the pleasure that rippled and shimmered through her to understand anything else.