Ramon merely nodded. He moved to his horse and took a blanket from his bedroll. Placing it over her saddle, he lifted her aboard the bay, then swung himself up on his tall black stallion.
They spoke very little for the rest of the afternoon, but Ramon stopped the horses several more times. Soon it was apparent they wouldn’t make it back to Llano Mirada before nightfall.
Remembering the desire she had seen in his eyes, the heat of his fingers as they skimmed over her flesh, Carly bit her bottom lip, wondering if perhaps he had planned it this way, planned all along to take her as he seemed to wish. Or if she could trust him to keep his word.
***
Ramon rode straight-backed in the saddle, disgruntled they had been forced to travel so slowly. They wouldn’t reach the stronghold until tomorrow. He would be alone with the girl all night.
A harsh sound came from his throat. He would sleep little this night. After his tender ministrations this afternoon, his body was still hard and throbbing. Even now he could imagine Carly McConnell’s smooth, white skin beneath his fingers, that if he had raised them only a few more inches, he could have touched her soft woman’s flesh. He could have spread her pretty legs, opened his breeches, and buried himself inside her, eased the painful ache he felt whenever she was near.
Damn, but he had never been so driven to bed a woman.
They came to a clearing beside a marshy pond surrounded by willows, and he motioned for her to rein up. A small clear stream fed the pond, and a cluster of boulders ringed the clearing,providing a shelter of sorts. They set up camp in silence, then he rode into the woods in the hope of finding fresh game.
He didn’t go far. He hadn’t lied about the danger of mountain lion and grizzly. He had seen fresh bear sign just that afternoon. And wild cattle, with their long, sharp horns and vicious tempers, could often be the most deadly of all.
Still, he was able to return with a nice, plump rabbit, which Carly skinned and they roasted on a green willow bough over the flames. Afterward, he sat with his back propped against a granite boulder, watching her beside the stream, cleaning the grease from their tin utensils while he smoked a slim cheroot.
When she finished, she sat in front of the fire a few feet away, curling her shapely legs beneath her, eyeing him somewhat warily.
She picked up a small leafy branch that was lying in the dirt and began to twirl it between her fingers. “I was wondering…” She looked up at him, her pretty face outlined by the low-burning flames, “the night of the raid… why did you take me?”
He pulled the cheroot from between his teeth, trying not to notice the rich dark copper of her hair. “Because it was my brother’s intention. I saw it in his eyes as he rode toward you. In that moment, just after they shot him, I felt as if I were Andreas, as if his will were mine and I was doing what he would have wanted.”
“Your brother would have taken me?”
“Si.He had seen you the day of the horse race. He wanted you even then.”
Her tongue ran nervously over her ruby lips, and Ramon’s groin tightened.
“Your… your brother would have raped me?”
He took a draw on the slim cigar, slowly released it, and watched the smoke drift into the clear night sky. “I do not know.Never had he done such a thing… but then he had never been with a woman who was the niece of his most hated enemy.”
She pondered that in silence, then leaned forward, the firelight giving her smooth pale skin a rosy glow. “Would you have let him?”
Ramon looked into her lovely face, thinking how small and innocent she was, how soft and womanly, and knew he would not have let his brother touch her. “No.”
Her expression shifted, subtly changed, and she smiled at him sweetly. “Perhaps I was not so wrong about you as I thought.”
He smiled into the darkness, took another long draw on his cigar. “If that means you do not find me quite so despicable, I hope that is the truth.”
She laughed softly, then seemed to grow more thoughtful. Shadows mingled with the firelight, forming patterns on her long, dark auburn hair. He tried not to notice when her torn blouse gaped open, exposing creamy skin and a portion of her lush, upthrusting breasts. His blood began to thicken, to pump with a heavy rhythm through his veins. Heat eddied low in his groin, strengthening his arousal, and he was glad that he sat among the shadows.
“What is it you are thinking?” he asked.
She absently twirled the leafy branch. “I was remembering what you did yesterday.”
“You were thinking that I was the man who killed Villegas?”
“No. I was thinking of the way you held me, spoke to me so gently.” Her eyes held his as she gazed at him across the distance between them. “Someone spoke to me that way before, on the nights that I was sick. I tried to remember. For a while I thought it was a dream. It was you, wasn’t it? You were the man beside my bed.”
He had wondered if she would recall. “Si,I was there.”
“It was you who cared for me. I remember you bathing my forehead. One night I woke up and… you were praying.”
Ramon smiled softly. “Si, querida.For once God heard my prayers.”
