Heart pounding, Janna set aside the pistol she had grabbed and went back to tending Lucifer with hands that insisted on trembling at the very instant she most needed them to be still. She watched Lucifer's ears as she worked on his wound, for she knew that his hearing was superior to hers.
"I hope they're not coming back," she said softly, stroking the horse's hot flank as she examined the long furrow left by the bullet. "Well, Lucifer, if you were a man I'd pour some witch hazel in that wound to keep it clean. But witch hazel stings like the very devil and I don't have any way of telling you to hold still and not make any noise, so-"
Janna froze and stopped speaking as Lucifer's ears flicked forward again. Concentrating intently, she heard the faintest of scraping sounds, as though a boot or a moccasin had rubbed over loose rock, or perhaps it was no more than the friction of a low branch against the ground. Then came silence. A few moments later there was another sound, but this time that of cloth sliding over brush. Or was it simply wind bending the spring brush and releasing it again?
The silence continued with no more interruptions. Very slowly Janna reached for the pistol again, listening so intently that she ached. She didn't breathe, she didn't think, she simply bent every bit of her will toward hearing as much as possible. The stallion remained motionless as well, his ears pricked, his nostrils flared, waiting for the wind to tell him whether to fight or freeze or flee whatever danger existed beyond the ravine.
"Janna?"
At first the whisper was so soft that she thought she had imagined it.
"Janna? Are you all right?"
"Ty? Is that you?"
"Hell, no," Ty said in disgust. "It's Joe Troon's ghost come to haunt you. Stand back. I'm coming down."
A pebble rolled down the side of the ravine, then another and another as Ty chose speed over caution in his descent. Crossing the open spots from the top of the ridge to the gully's edge had taken years off his life span, even though there was no reason for him to think that the renegades would come back right away. Nor was there any reason to think that they would not. The sooner he was under even the minimal cover of the gully, the better he would feel.
Janna watched Ty skid down the last steep pitch into the ravine. He braced himself on a dead pinon trunk, looked toward her and smiled in a way that made her heart turn over.
"Sugar," Ty drawled, "you are a sight for sore eyes."
His glance moved over her like hands, reminding her that she was naked from the waist up. Blushing, she crossed her arms over her breasts but couldn't conceal the pink tide rising beneath her skin.
Ty's breath caught and then stayed in his throat at the picture Janna made, the pale perfection of her body rising from the loose masculine pants. Her arms were too slender to hide the full curves of her breasts. The hint of deep rose nipples nestled shyly in the bend of her elbows.
"Ty… don't."
"Don't what?"
"Look at me like that."
"Like what?" he said huskily. "Like I spent most of the night licking and love biting and kissing those beautiful white breasts?"
Janna couldn't conceal the shiver of sensual response that went through her at Ty's words.
"Put your arms down, sugar. Let me see if you remember, too."
Very slowly Janna's arms dropped away, revealing breasts whose rosy tips had drawn and hardened at his look, his words, her memories.
"God," breathed Ty, shutting his eyes, knowing that it didn't matter, the vision was already burned into his memory. Blindly he dug into his backpack, found the roll of cloth he had refused to let her wear, and dropped the cloth on her lap. "Here. Wrap up before you make me forget where we are. Do it fast, little one. A man never wants a woman so much as when he's come close to dying."
"Does it work that way for a woman, too?" Janna asked as she snatched the cloth and began wrapping it over her breasts.
"I don't know. How do you feel right now?"
"Shivery. Feverish. Restless. And then you looked at me and I felt hot and full where you had touched me…and yet empty at the same time."
"Then it works the same for a woman, if the woman is like you," Ty said, trying to control the heavy beat of his blood. "Satin butterfly. God, you don't know how much I want to love you right now. I saw Lucifer jump and fall into the ravine and then you threw yourself after him and I couldn't get a clean shot at his head and-"
"What?" Janna interrupted, appalled. "Why did you want to shoot Lucifer? He isn't that badly injured."
"I know. That's why I was afraid he'd beat you to death with those big hooves."
"You would have killed him to save me?"
Ty's eyelids snapped open. "Hell, yes! What kind of a man do you think I am?"
Janna tried to speak, couldn't find the words and concentrated on wrapping herself tightly.
"For the love of God," Ty said in a low voice. "Just because I seduced you doesn't mean that I'm the kind of bastard who would leave you to be killed when I could have saved you!"
"That isn't what I meant. It's just that… that…"
"What?" Ty demanded angrily.
"I'm surprised you would have killed Lucifer without hesitation, that's all," Janna said, her voice shaking. "Lucifer is your best chance of building a fine horse herd. He's your best hope of getting enough money to buy your silken lady. He's the beginning of your dreams. He's… everything. And I'm…" She drew in a deep breath, looked away from Ty's harsh, closed expression and continued quietly. "I'm not your blood or your fiancee or anything but a… a temporary convenience. Why should you kill your dream for me?" She glanced quickly at him. "But thank you, Ty. It's the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me."
Chapter Twenty-Seven
"How bad is he hurt?" Ty asked.
Janna jumped in surprise. It was the first thing Ty had said to her in the hour since she had thanked him for being prepared to sacrifice his dream in order to save her life.
After that, Ty had gone to Lucifer's head, knelt and put himself between the horse's teeth and Janna. He had spoken gently to the stallion, stroking Lucifer's powerful neck with slow sweeps of his hand until the horse relaxed and accepted the strange voice and touch. Except for those murmured reassurances to the big horse, Ty had said nothing as he watched Janna tend Lucifer. Ty moved only to stroke the stallion or to hand her a packet from her leather pouch or to rinse the rag she was using to clean Lucifer's cuts and abrasions.
"He's strong. He'll be fine," Janna said, smiling tentatively at Ty.
"That's not what I asked. I've treated horses for sprains and stones in their shoes and colic and such, but bullet wounds are new to me. It's not a deep wound, but I've seen men die of shock with wounds not much worse than that. Do you think Lucifer can walk?"
Janna turned and reached for the stallion's muzzle, only to have Ty quickly intervene.
"I can't answer your question until I've looked at Lucifer's mouth," she explained.
Ty gave Janna an odd look and reluctantly moved aside. She bent over the stallion's muzzle and spoke in low, even tones as her fingers lifted his upper lip. His ears flattened warningly and he jerked his head away. Patiently Janna worked over him until he tolerated her fingers around his mouth without laying back his ears.
"What the hell are you doing?" Ty asked quietly.
"Papa said you can tell a lot about men or animals by the color of their gums. Lucifer was real pale when I first checked him, but he's nice and pink now. He'll be able to walk as soon as I untie his feet, but it would be better if he didn't move around much. That wound will start to bleed all over again at the first bit of strain."