Despite the fact that her eyes felt as heavy as lead, the butterflies in her stomach were wide-awake. Or maybe it was the rattler that churned there? As she was reminded of the rattler, the muscles in Elizabeth’s limbs tensed abruptly.
Just where had he found the thing? Not anywhere in the immediate area, she hoped. But... he’d not been gone long—he would’ve had to discover it nearby.
Good night! What if it had little baby rattlers slithering around somewhere? But no... she didn’t think they traveled that way. They preferred their own company... didn’t they? Oh, Lord...
Something stirred in the immediate darkness.
Elizabeth swallowed back a knob of apprehension. “Cutter?” she croaked.
Cutter didn’t so much as move a muscle, but there it was, that sound again.
Now what was she supposed to do?
One thing was certain. She wasn’t about to wake Cutter and have him needle her about it in the morning!
But neither was she willing to lie helpless in the dark!
She grabbed her woolen blanket and groped her way around to where Cutter slept, dragging the blanket after her in the dirt.
What harm could there be in resting just a bit nearer to him? For just a while?
She groaned as the blanket caught under her knee. She tugged at it frantically, and belly-flopped to the ground when she jerked it too quickly. Choking and sputtering on an invisible cloud of dust, she scrambled to her knees.
Later she would move back to her bedroll... once she felt certain that whatever had made that sound was gone.
Cutter need never know.
Right?
Right.
Wavering somewhere between sleep and consciousness, Cutter heard her voice. But then, he’d been suffering her all night. Not just that god-awful tune of hers, if it could be called that, but her condemnation.Indians?He kept hearing from her lips.Indians?He felt like telling her to go straight to hell, but before he could express those powerful sentiments, some sixth sense alerted him to a presence beside him, and his eyes opened, zeroing in on the black form creeping like a thief to his side.
He grinned suddenly. Mischievously. Without a doubt he knew what it was. Or rather who it was.
Elizabeth. As though by cue, his body responded at once to her proximity.
Drawing the covers up, he turned abruptly to lie on his side, watching her alarmed reaction through amused, slitted eyes. Her dark shape froze, then began to sidle quietly away, and he stifled a wicked chuckle. She wasn’t gonna get very far—not when he finally had her right where he wanted her.
Abruptly Cutter’s arm snaked out, catching her about the middle. She stiffened, and he drowsily pulled her into the circle of his embrace, all the while nuzzling sleepily against the back of her neck. She resisted noiselessly, but she did resist, squirming with increasing strength against the firm hold he had upon her. Instinctively he knew that if he didn’t think of something quick, she was going to elbow his crotch again—and empty her lungs right into his ear.
And then a waggish idea popped into his head, and his grin widened.
“Mmmm,” he groaned suddenly, wrapping his arms sleepily but possessively about her waist. When her struggles ceased for the briefest instant, he took advantage, sliding his hand down boldly to press against her feminine parts.
Her breath caught in shocked protest, but before she could even think to remove his hand from where it sat, he slammed her taut little backside against his thighs.
His hand glided slowly down to her thigh as he wiggled sleepily against her bottom. “Mmmmmmmm,” he murmured, “feels... so... good.” Boy, did it ever! Before she could respond, he added the wild card. “Bess.”
As he’d expected, Elizabeth froze in his arms. His lips quivered with suppressed laughter.
Bess?
Good night, he thought she was Bess? Wasn’t it bad enough that he would dream of the hussy? Did he have to confuse the two of them, as well? How dare he? Elizabeth chafed.
Still, she didn’t risk moving, because he obviously didn’t know that it was her, and she wasn’t about to reveal otherwise. If she woke him now, she’d be forced to explain why she was sleeping so near him to begin with... when she’d practically forbade him to sleep within arm’s reach of her. How could she possibly explain herself? The truth was, she doubted anything she could say would show her in good light. Even to her own mind, her reasoning sounded lame, at best. She decided it would be best to wait until the scoundrel fell into a deeper sleep, and then she’d slip away—rotten, misbegotten dog that he was!
Burying his nose into the stiff back of her neck, Cutter sighed with the sheer pleasure of it all. She smelled good—no perfumes, nothing, just the fascinating scent of clean skin and hair. He felt like laughing out loud—though why he should feel so pleased with himself suddenly, when he’d been so irritated by her only moments before, was a question he wasn’t about to mull over too closely.
