«Where are the packhorses?» Eve asked in a low voice as Reno rode alongside.
«I left them tied up the trail a piece. They’ll raise a fuss if anything tries to creep up on us from that direction.»
Reno stood in the stirrups and looked across the meadow. After a moment he settled back into the saddle.
«No mares,» Reno said quietly. Beneath his mustache, his lips shaped a thin smile. «From the looks of his hide, that young stud just learned the first lesson of dealing with women.»
Eve looked questioningly at Reno.
«Given a choice between an old stud that knows where to find food and a young stud so crazy for a woman that he doesn’t know which end is up,» Reno drawled, «a female will take the old stud and comfort every damned time.»
«A female that trusted the promises of every young stud with rutting on his mind wouldn’t last through the winter.»
«Spoken like a true woman.»
«Imagine that,» Eve shot back.
Unwillingly, Reno smiled. «You have a point.»
Eve looked at the stallion and then back at Reno, remembering what he had said as he pocketed the emerald and gold ring he had taken from her finger.
«Who was she?» Eve asked.
One of Reno’s black eyebrow’s lifted in silent query.
«The woman who chose her own comfort over your love,» Eve said simply.
The line of Reno’s jaw tightened beneath the stubble that had grown over the days on the trail.
«What makes you think there was only one?» he asked coolly.
«You don’t strike me as the kind of man who has to learn something twice.»
The corner of Reno’s mouth kicked up. «You’re right about that.»
Eve waited, saying nothing, but her intent golden eyes asked a hundred questions.
«Savannah Marie Carrington,» Reno drawled finally.
The change in his voice was almost tangible. There was neither hate nor love in the tone, simply a contempt that was chilling.
«What did she do to you?» Eve asked.
He shrugged. «The same thing most women do to men.»
«What’s that?»
«You should know, gata.»
«Because I’m a woman?»
«Because you’re damned good at the kind of teasing females use to get men so hot and bothered they’ll say or do almost anything to get what they want.»
Reno’s eyes narrowed as he added, «Almost anything, but not quite.»
«What wouldn’t you do? Love her?»
He laughed humorlessly. «Hell, that was the one thing I did do.»
«You still love her,» Eve said.
The words were an accusation.
«Don’t bet on it,» Reno said, giving her a sidelong glance.
«Why?»
«Are you always this nosy?»
«Curious,» Eve corrected instantly. «I’m a cat, remember?»
«That you are.»
Again Reno stood in the stirrups to check the surrounding land. The stallion grazed on hungrily, undisturbed by anything he could scent or sense. Birds called across the grassy clearing and flew from tree to tree in normal patterns. Nothing moved along the vague trail the horses had left at the margin of the meadow.
Reno reined Darlin’ around, ready to resume the ride to Caleb and Willow’s home in the San Juan Mountains.
«Reno? What did she want you to do? Kill someone?»
He smiled rightly. «You could say that.»
«Who?»
«Me.»
«What?» Eve asked. «That doesn’t make any sense.»
He said something profane beneath his breath and looked over his shoulder at the girl whose golden eyes, soft breasts, and lilac scent haunted his dreams.
«Savannah Marie wanted to live in West Virginia, where our families had farms before the war,» Reno said, dipping each word. «But I had seen the true West. I had seen places no man ever touched, drunk from streams as pure as God’s smile, ridden over passes that had no names…and I had held the solid gold tears of the sun in my hands.»
Motionless, Eve watched Reno as he spoke, wondering at the emotion that made his voice both resonant and husky when he talked about the land.
«The first time I left Savannah Marie,» Reno said, «I missed her so much I damn near killed two horses riding back to her.»
He said no more.
«But she hadn’t waited for you?» Eve guessed.
«Oh, she’d waited,» he drawled, but there was no warmth in his voice. «At the time, I was still best catch for a hundred miles around. She came running up to me with her blue eyes all sparkling with tears of happiness.»
«What happened?»
He shrugged. «The usual. Her family threw a party, we went for a walk in the garden, and she gave me just enough to make me wild for her.»
Eve’s hands tightened on the reins. The contempt in Reno’s voice was like a whip.
«Then she asked if I was ready to make a home and raise horses on the acreage her daddy had set aside along Stone Creek. I pleaded with her to marry me and head West, to a land bigger and brighter than anything along Stone Creek.»
«And she refused,» Eve whispered.
«Oh, not right away,» Reno drawled. «First she whispered about the fun we’d have if I’d just agree to live along Stone Creek. All I had to do was say ’yes’ and she’d do anything I wanted. Hell, she’d do everything, and be grateful for the chance.»
Reno shook his head. «God, there ought to be a law against boys falling in love. But no matter how much she teased me,» he continued, «I was smart enough not to make promises it would kill me to keep. I’d go yondering and I’d come back hoping, and each time I was gone longer, and each time Savannah Marie would be waiting for me….»
Reno took off his hat, raked long fingers through his hair, and resettled his hat with a swift tug.
«Until I came back and found her three months married and four months pregnant by a man twice her age.»
At Eve’s shocked sound, Reno turned and gave her an odd smile.
«Shocked me, too,» he drawled. «I was plumb flummoxed. I couldn’t figure out how old man Murphy had gotten under Savannah’s skirts in a matter of months when I had been courting her for years. So I asked her.»
«What did she say?»
«That a woman wants comfort and security from a man, and a man wants sex and children from a woman,» Reno said succinctly. «Old man Murphy was well fixed. When she got him hot enough to take her maidenhead, he agreed to marry her, because a decent man marries the girl he ruins.»
«Sounds like she had all the passion of a merchant’s scales.»
«That about covers it,» Reno said dryly. «But it’s a good thing for a man to learn.»
«All women aren’t like that.»
«I’ve known only one girl in my whole life who gave herself for love rather than a wedding ring,» Reno said flatly.
«Jessi of the fiery hair and gemstone eyes?» Eve guessed.
He shook his head. «Jessi trapped Wolfe into marriage rather than be forced into a marriage with some drunken English lord.»
«Perdition,» Eve muttered.
«Wolfe felt the same way at first,» Reno said, smiling. «He came around.»
«But you forgave Jessi for caring more for her own comfort than for Wolfe’s,» Eve pointed out.
«Wasn’t my place to forgive or not. Wolfe did. That’s all that matters.»
«But you like Jessi.»
Anger swept through Reno at Eve’s persistence. He didn’t like thinking about Jessi and Wolfe, Willow and Caleb. Their happiness kept making Reno wonder if he wasn’t missing something, if he shouldn’t find a woman and take a chance on getting burned twice by the same fire.
Once burned, twice shy, he told himself.
And forever cold.
Abruptly Reno reined his mare around so that Darlin’ stood head to tail with Eve’s horse. The horses were so close together that his leg brushed against Eve’s. Before she could move away, his hand shot out, pushing her hat aside until it hung down her back, suspended by the leather chin thong. His gloved hand slid between her bright braids and wrapped around her nape.