off her feet, then she was sitting in the wagon. She swung around, but
he was beside her in an instant, and the reins were in his hands, and he
was clucking to-the thoroughbred that pulled the small conveyance.
Tess crossed her arms over her chest, staring straight ahead.
"You are intolerable!" she told him.
"I just don't like a bunch of bull, that's all."
"Bull" -- "The way you're acting."
"I'm not acting" -- "I hope to hell you are."
"I don't know what you're talking about." They were already out of town.
He was silent for a moment.
The horse picked up its gait and it seemed they were flying down the
road.
Then, suddenly, Jamie reined in. The horse slowed and Jamie hooked the
reins around the brake. He jumped down and came around the wagon for
Tess.
"What?" she demanded, staring down at him. He reached up, placed his
hands around her waist and lifted her down. When she was on the ground,
his hands still her. His eyes were like smoke, and his jaw was She knew
that he did, indeed, intend to have things She opened her mouth, wanting
to protest again, want- to deny and denounce him and run away. But she
was because that wasn't what she wanted at all. She to trust him. She
wanted to lean against him.
And, of all, she wanted to feel his lips upon hers again, as as the sun,
as rich as the earth. But she didn't want to him so badly. she didn't
want to make a fool of her- like Eliza.
Because, like Eliza, she was falling in love with him.
"Come on," he told her.
"Where?" she protested.
"Down by the water."
The road ran along the river. He held her hand and led her through the
trees until they came to a little copse. They were alone with the sounds
of the rippling waters, with the occasional call of a bird, the soft
rustle of a tree. He drew her close, and when she stiffened, he drew her
even closer.
"What is this?" he demanded.
She moistened her lips, staring at his eyes, then at his mouth.
"What is--what?" she asked.
"Miss. Stuart, I gave you a chance last night. Hell, I gave you several
chances last night. You wanted to stay."
"You wanted to make love."
"I ... yes," she whispered.
"And now you're running. Why?"
"I'm' not!" she protested.
"It's just that" -- "I can't do it, Tess. I can't live with it if you
think you can blow hot and cold in a matter of hours."
"Then what?"
"I'm just trying to give you ... space!"
She lowered her head. She desperately wanted to put her~ shoulder
against his shirt. She breathed in, smelling clean male scent of him,
and she felt a furious pulse flight at her throat, in her heart, in her
veins. He slid fingers into her hair at the sides of her head and lifted
face. He stared, and she tried to return his gaze tering. But then his
hand came to her breast. She muted something softly, then she did lean
against him.
sky seemed dazzling, but not so dazzling as the man. "Tess, Tess!" he
whispered to her, holding her close.
frightening, it's damned terrifying. You're coming so much to me."
His arms were around her. She parted her lips and moistened them with
her tongue again. His parted and moved upon hers, and they melded and
tasted until finally he drew his lips away. Then they sank down together
upon a bed of leaves, with the river just beyond them. Their arms locked
together and they kept kissing, tasting one another, and it ~ ~eemed
that the sound of the rushing water grew louder and louder.
Tess found that she was pressed into the leaves. His hands were upon
her.
She set her palms against his cheek, and desire took flight within her
as she felt the planes and textures , of his face. She thought
confusedly that she loved the way he looked with his smoke-dark eyes and
sandy, disheveled hair, with the rough touch and the rugged angles and
lines of his face, the twist of his jaw. She wrapped her arms around
him, sliding her fingers through the hair at his nape, drawing him to
her for another kiss. The earth beneath her began to heat. She ran her
fingers over the opening of his ~ahirt. She felt the ripple of muscle
with her fingertips. She teased at his buttons until his shirt opened,
until she could reach her hands inside and slide her nails over his
naked ~t~h and feel the trembling that she evoked.
him groan and she felt his touch upon the tiny of her dress, then she
felt herself being freed from Her slip and her chemise remained, but
they were the feel of his searing kiss upon her body and Soon her slip
was wound beneath her, and she felt earth with her bare flesh. His hard
and driving man teased her for a split second, then drove within her a
startling, shattering thrust that swept her breath The sun was above
him. She heard curious cries, then re- they came from her and that she
was clinging to arching, writhing. meeting him, welcoming him, him. She
felt the slap of his body against hers, and earthy and real. She felt
the sun upon his naked flesh, and that, too, was real. And she felt
more. the certain heat, the glow of the sun, which heightened every
swift pleasure, a touch of the blue, cloudy sky. She was damp, and so
aware of him within her, and aware of the rising ecstasy inside her
body. Coiling tighter and tighter until she was crying out again, then
gasping in a soft shriek as something came upon her so strong and sweet
and volatile that it rent the whole of her with shivers, while something
like hot nectar seemed to swamp her body. She couldn't move. She could
scarcely breathe, and it seemed that the world went dark before the sun
burst upon her again. And just as it did, he thrust hard within her and
stayed and stared at her, the whole of his face tense and haunting and
taut with passion. Then he exploded within her, and thrust and thrust
again. and lay down beside her, wrapping her in his arms.
The sun was still above them.
"I'm afraid of you," Tess admitted.
He had been flat on the earth. He rose up on an elbow. "What?"
"I'm afraid of caring too much."
He touched her cheek.
"We're all afraid of caring too much ."
"I don't believe you're afraid of anything." He smiled, a crooked,
rueful smile.
"Yes, I am. I'n afraid of losing you right now."
"Right now," she repeated.
"But what ... what about tomorrow, Jamie?
That's what frightens me."
"What do you mean?"
She shook her head. She rolled away from him, rising to her feet,
straightening her slip and dusting bits of leaf and dirt and grass from
it.
She smiled at him, then hurried toward the water.
He must have stripped off the remnants of his for when he came up behind
her, he was stark naked.
placed his hands around her waist and kissed her nape.
177 he whispered in her ear, so softly that she wasn't sure she heard
him.
"Tomorrow? I'm not sure. But I think that I'm falling in love with you,
Tess."
He left her, walking into the river, then ducking beneath the surface
and swimming into the center of it. He rose, let out a cry and shivered.
"It's damned cold for summer!" he called out to her.
Tess stooped and threw water over her face. She watched as Jamie dove
beneath the surface again.
A twig snapped suddenly behind her. She leaped up, spinning around.
There were four of them. The so-called Indians. They were clothed in
bronze paint and breech clouts
"Jamie!"
she whispered.
But of course there was nothing he could do. The men were armed with
bows and arrows, rifles, even a few tomahawks.