Eve was still smiling when her horse came alongside Reno’s. He smiled in return, wondering at the resilience of the girl who was fresh and eager to venture into new country after having barely escaped with her life from the twin hazards of outlaws and a forced exploration of uncharted land.
Not to mention the hazards of innocence and a gunfighter who had wanted her for so long he was having a hell of a time keeping his hands off her now.
«Close your eyes,» Reno said huskily.
Eve gave him a sideways look.
«Uh-oh. The dark velvet voice again,» she teased. «Is this where you snatch me from the saddle and attempt dubious things while riding a bad-tempered mustang?»
Reno threw back his head and laughed with delight.
«Sugar girl, you do tempt a man. But you’re right about Darlin’s disposition. She’d unload both of us into the nearest pile of rocks. So close your eyes and don’t open them until I tell you. You’re safe …for now.»
Laughing quietly, Eve closed her eyes, knowing that her horse would follow Darlin’ without guidance.
For a few minutes, all Eve was aware of was the subtle creak of leather, the lazy rhythms of the lineback dun, the warmth of the sun, and the unique smell of sage and evergreen permeating the dry air.
«Can I peek yet?»
«Uh-uh.»
«Sure?» she teased.
«I sure am.»
Eve heard the smile in Reno’s voice and wanted to laugh out loud with her own soaring pleasure. She loved the lazy teasing that had grown between them since yesterday. She loved being able to turn around and find Reno watching her with warmth in his eyes instead of anger or raw desire. She loved hearing pleasure in his voice and knowing that he was enjoying just being with her. She loved…
Reno.
«No peeking,» he warned.
Reno tugged Eve’s hat brim down over her eyes and ran the back of his fingers along her jawline.
«I wasn’t going to cheat,» she said quietly. «No matter what you think, I’m not a cheater by nature.»
Reno felt her hurt as though it were his own. Leaning over, he lifted Eve from her horse and settled her sideways across his lap, holding her like a child.
«Hush. I wasn’t thinking about anything when I pulled on your hat but an excuse to touch you.»
Eve turned her face in to Reno’s chest, knocking her hat aside. It dangled from its chin strings until he pushed it over her shoulder and stroked her hair.
«I didn’t mean to hurt you,» he said after a time.
Eyes still closed, she nodded.
«Eve?»
«I’m sorry,» she whispered. «I know I shouldn’t be so touchy. But…I am.»
He tipped up her face and gave her the lightest of kisses. Then his arms tightened around her, holding her close when Darlin’ shied at the shadow of a soaring hawk.
«Take it easy, knothead,» Reno said.
«Watch who you’re calling names,» she muttered.
There was an instant of surprised silence, then Reno laughed and gave Eve a hard kiss before he urged Darlin’ forward.
A few minutes later, Reno reined in and kissed Eve’s eyelids gently.
«Open your eyes.»
When the warm sensation of his lips vanished, Eve opened her eyes and looked at Reno. With a gentle smile, he gestured to the view. She turned her head.
A low sound of wonder and disbelief escaped her. A few feet in front of the horses, the land dropped abruptly away. In the distance, rank after rank of smaller plateaus and mesas rose in a series of irregular steps. Those in turn unraveled into an immense stone maze painted in shades of red and gold, pink and mauve.
In place of the dance of streams and rivers, there were columns of stone, cliffs of stone, tables of stone, castles of stone, cathedrals and arches of stone, vast walls and layer cakes of stone, ridges and valleys and hills and flats of stone, a rainbow labyrinth of stone piled upon stone until land and sky merged into a purple sameness so far away that the curve of the earth could be sensed like the distant coming of night.
Clumps of clouds ranged in color from blindingly pure white to dense indigo. Solitary storms stalked the land on stilts of lightning, dragging ragged veils of rain behind, yet the wind brought no smell of rain. The maze was so vast that storms came in across it like squall lines across an unimaginable sea.
«Is that where we’re going?» Eve whispered.
Reno looked at the landscape where the bones of the earth itself pressed up through the thin skin of life. There were no living flashes of water, no wide green valleys calling to a weary traveler, no trails or wagon tracks, no hearth fires sending messages of settlements ahead.
The land was untamed. It was wildfire wrought in stone, frozen flames reaching forever to the sky while a dry wind blew, bringing clouds whose rain never reached the ground, leaving the fire to rage unquenched, motionless, eternal.
«I won’t go there if I can help it,» Reno said finally. «I’ll leave that kind of foolishness to my brother Rafe.»
Eve nodded her understanding even as she said, «It’s beautiful in a wild kind of way.»
«So is the sun, but you’ll go blind looking at it.»
Reno kissed the nape of Eve’s neck. His heartbeat speeded at the shiver of response that coursed through her in the wake of the light caress.
«I’m surprised you think it’s pretty,» Reno said against her skin. «You didn’t like the view from the slickrock one bit.»
«Not at first. But toward the end, it wasn’t as scary. Especially after Slater’s men started shooting,» Eve added dryly. «Something about those bullets flying around took my mind right off the view.»
Reno laughed aloud, hugged Eve hard and quick, and reminded himself of all the reasons he shouldn’t move his hands just a few inches and feel the warm weight of her breasts filling them.
«We saved at least fifty miles, maybe more, by crossing that neck of slickrock,» Reno said. «Even so, we’ve got the devil’s own trail ahead of us.»
«Is there water?» she asked.
«Seeps, springs, potholes, and seasonal creeks.» He shrugged. «It should be enough if we’re careful.»
«And if you don’t mind your horse drinking out of your hat?» Eve suggested.
She smiled as she spoke, remembering how they had emptied canteen after canteen into their hats because the way to the hidden pool was too narrow for a horse to take.
Reno kissed the corner of Eve’s smile and said, «Be glad we’re riding mustangs. They drink less than anything except a coyote.»
Eve watched him with sensual memories in her eyes and a hungry fullness to her mouth. Not trusting himself to accept the unknowing invitation of her parted lips, Reno turned Eve until she was facing forward with her back to him.
The confinement of the saddle made her hips press intimately against the inside of his thighs. He hardened in a rush that made him ache. Long fingers wrapped around her thighs, savoring the resilience of her flesh. He pulled her close against him and then released her with a whispered word he hoped she didn’t hear.
Reno slid off Darlin’ in a rush. He stood close enough to Eve that she felt the heat of his chest against her leg as clearly as she had felt the heat of his thighs against her own. She had felt something else as well, but doubted her own senses. Surely a man couldn’t become aroused so quickly.
A glance told Eve she had indeed been correct. Once, Reno’s bold arousal would have embarrassed or unnerved her. Now it simply made heat splinter delicately through her. She remembered what it had felt like to give herself to Reno’s heat and strength and heady sensuality.