Each Time We Love (17 page)

SAVANNA
WAS UNUSUALLY SILENT AND HER FEATURES oddly somber as
she moved about the campsite that Micajah had selected for the night.
It was late afternoon when they had finally stopped, and under
different circumstances she might have found the area delightful—a
stream ran nearby and the pungent scent of the towering pine trees
mingled with the sweet fragrance of the coral honeysuckle which curled
amiably around the trunks of the trees. Dogwood, magnolias and azaleas
were interspersed amongst the tall, straight pines, and here and there
the brilliant pink blossoms of the trailing phlox could be glimpsed.

But Savanna was barely aware of her surroundings, her thoughts
grappling with the knowledge that they had crossed the Sabine River and
that later, Micajah would take out that long, lethal blade of his and
use it on their prisoner. She swallowed with difficulty.

It wasn't that she was overly squeamish—she could gut a deer,
clean a rabbit or expertly dispatch a chicken without even thinking
about it—and it wasn't that she wasn't perfectly capable of shooting or
even killing a man, but torture…

Torture was on Adam's mind, too, and he was icily determined
to bear whatever Micajah inflicted upon him without betraying any sign
of pain. He would die like a man and
never
give
Micajah the satisfaction of breaking him! The prospect for escape did
not look any better right now than it had since he had woken up as
Micajah's prisoner three days ago, and since time had run out for him,
he was prepared to take whatever desperate measures might be
necessary—no matter how slim the margin might be for success.

Repeatedly Adam had tested his bonds over the days of his
captivity, but they had always seemed as secure as they had in the
beginning. Until this evening… Lying at the edge of the camp, his body
faintly dappled by the shadows made by the fading sunlight that
filtered through the forest, Adam's hands were bound in front of him as
tightly as ever, but he experienced a thrill of savage elation when,
cautiously testing the bonds on his feet, he felt a slight give in the
rawhide that held him captive. Micajah had grown careless.

Carefully keeping his feet in the shadows, Adam lay there,
apparently resigned to his fate, but all the while he was continually,
with small, barely discernible movements, struggling to free his feet.
It was tedious work, and every time Savanna or one of the others
glanced in his direction, he froze and his heart seemed to stop beating.

Concentrating fiercely on his task, Adam wasn't aware of the
conversation going on around him until Micajah walked over to one of
the horses, swung up into the saddle, and said, "I'll be damned if I'm
settling for corn mush one more night! We passed some recent deer
tracks not far back, and I could have sworn I heard a turkey gobble a
bit before that. I'm going to get us some fresh meat!"

Sending a harsh glance at Jeremy, Micajah growled, "Keep your
eyes and ears open and don't trust no one! There could be some
dangerous renegades in this area—don't be slow in shooting first!" To
Savanna, he said sourly, "As for you, stack up plenty of firewood, but
don't wander far from camp—the men you might meet up with won't be as
tolerant as I have been."

Jerking his horse around, he flashed a look at Adam and with
an ugly smile on his face he murmured, "Yeah, find lots of firewood…
we've got work to do tonight."

As Micajah rode away, it was all Adam could do to suppress the
silly smile he knew hovered about his mouth. For the first time ever,
Micajah had left him alone in the camp with only Jeremy and Savanna,
and Adam was exultant—even more so when Micajah disappeared from view
and, with one last, furtive movement,
his feet were free!

Surreptitiously Adam eyed the other two, noting with interest
the taut set of Savanna's shoulders before his gaze slid lower,
lingering on the tempting thrust of her buttocks as she bent over to
gather up pieces of fallen wood. Angered by both his momentary
distraction and his body's instant response, he fixed his gaze on
Jeremy, considering his next move.

Jeremy was obviously extremely nervous about the situation.
His small eyes constantly darted from Savanna to Adam and back again,
as if he could not make up his mind which one of them was the most
threatening. Adam smiled unpleasantly. Jeremy was already rattled, and
after having observed him these past days, Adam was certain that in a
crisis Jeremy would prove to be an unstable link. Which left only
Savanna…

Savanna was trouble in more ways than one as far as Adam was
concerned, and the thought of extracting more than a little revenge
from that tall, provocatively curved body was frequently at the
forefront of his mind. Escape was his first object, but having all that
supple, pale flesh to torment at his leisure was definitely in Adam's
plans.

Knowing that he didn't have a lot of time, he immediately set
events into motion. Jeremy was closer to him, which suited Adam just
fine. Doubling over as if in great pain, he cried loudly, "Jesus
Christ! A snake! It bit me!"

Jeremy, who had been crouched by the feebly burning fire,
leaped to his feet, his face paling. Savanna, who was farther away,
dropped the load of firewood she was carrying and began to run toward
Adam. Jeremy stood there indecisively, clearly not certain what to do.

Adam groaned as loudly and pitifully as he could and heard
Savanna say breathlessly,
"Dios!
Help him, you
fool!"

Her words prodded Jeremy into motion, and picking up the long
black rifle propped against the tree, he uneasily approached Adam's
crumpled form. "Where is it?" Jeremy asked warily. "I don't see no
snake."

A feral grin on his face, Adam growled softly, "Right
here,
my friend!" Almost faster than the eye could follow, with all his power
behind it, Adam kicked Jeremy in the stomach with both feet.

The wind knocked out of him, Jeremy groaned and stumbled
backward, collapsing to the ground even as Adam leaped nimbly to his
feet. A swift movement of his one booted foot against Jeremy's head
efficiently dispatched him, and even with his hands still bound, Adam
easily snatched up the black rifle. An unfriendly smile on his face, he
swung instantly around and leveled the weapon in Savanna's direction.

The entire incident had taken only seconds, and Savanna had
barely had time to understand her danger before it was too late. The
moment she had seen Adam's hand touch the rifle, she had known that
there was nothing she could do for Jeremy, and she was already spinning
on her heels, seeking escape, when Adam's cold voice stopped her.

"I wouldn't, if I were you," he said softly. "My hands might
be tied, but I could still shoot you… and right now it wouldn't matter
to me if it was in the back."

Savanna froze, her thoughts in a wild tumult. Everything had
happened so swiftly that she still didn't quite comprehend the enormity
of it, but a well-honed instinct for survival kept her locked where she
stood, tensely waiting for his next move.

It took Adam an awkward few seconds to free his hands with the
knife that Jeremy carried at his side and to keep the rifle on Savanna
at the same time, but he did it. Tossing aside the rawhide thongs, he
glanced around, knowing that Micajah's return could still upset his
plans. To Savanna, he snapped impatiently, "Get over here and tie him
up."

Savanna obeyed on leaden feet, and with nervous, fumbling
movements, she did as she was told, increasingly aware of her danger.
She was relieved to find that Jeremy wasn't dead, as she had feared,
only knocked senseless, but all too soon, as she reluctantly followed
Adam's terse instructions, Jeremy was tightly bound, his hands and feet
fastened behind his back, a gag shoved between his teeth.

When she could delay no longer, she finally turned to look
defiantly at her captor. He was not a reassuring sight. He suddenly
looked infinitely taller, his shoulders beneath the rumpled, once-white
shirt broader, his long legs more powerful, and the expression on his
hard face would have caused even a battle-tested warrior to quail. The
long black rifle was trained unerringly on Savanna's breast, and with
three days of black stubble shadowing his lower features, his thick
hair tumbling in dark, rakish waves across his forehead and his
sapphire-blue eyes filled with a decidedly hostile glitter, Adam was
indeed a terrifying sight.

Quelling the hysterical scream that rose in her throat,
Savanna stared unflinchingly back at him, determined not to let him see
how fearful she found her situation, and as the uneasy seconds passed,
her hands clenched into fists. Precisely what she intended to do she
didn't know, but the cold, sardonic smile that flitted across his dark
face at her actions frightened Savanna more than anything that had
happened so far.

Jutting her chin out aggressively, she demanded, "And now?
What do you intend to do now?"

Neither the smile nor the unnerving expression in his dark
blue eyes altered in the least. Motioning with the rifle in the
direction of the remaining two horses, he murmured, "And now I intend
for us to leave before your, er, friend Micajah returns."

Her aquamarine eyes widening with horror, she asked faintly,
"Surely you don't mean to… ?"

"Take you with me?" Adam finished coolly. "Certainly," His
gaze traveled insolently over her lush form. "You and I have a few
things to settle between us, don't we?"

Dazedly, Savanna shook her head, the red-gold hair dancing
like fire around her shoulders. "But you can't!" she protested
stupidly. "You're free! What more can you want?"

Some new emotion leaped in his sapphire eyes, and in an
instant Adam closed the space between them. Stunningly, Savanna felt
his arm close around her, and his breath was warm against her lips as
he muttered, "What more can I want, spitfire? Why, I want
you
¹
."

His mouth trapped hers, the hard, knowing lips feeding
voluptuously on hers, and as he forced his tongue between her lips,
ravaging her inner warmth, Savanna was engulfed by the erotic
sensations exploding through her body. In dazed compliance, she stood
in his embrace, his pillaging lips and tongue making her unbearably
aware of the sudden heat of his body against hers, of the instant
quickening of her breasts and the powerful jut of his manhood between
their locked forms.

The kiss was fiercely explicit and equally brief, and before
Savanna could gather her shattered defenses, she found herself thrust
brutally away from him. Eyes huge in her white face, her lips swollen
from the force of his kiss, she stared up at him.

Adam fought to get himself under control, furious that the
desire to taste that sweet, provocative mouth had finally swamped his
common sense. His breathing was still ragged, but his face was
expressionless as he looked back at her, no sign evident of the
white-hot passion with which he had just kissed her. And yet… he was
angrily aware of how very much he wanted to continue kissing her,
painfully aware of the size and heat of his engorged manhood. Disliking
her intensely at the moment, he drawled, "Now that we understand each
other, I think we'd better get the hell out of here!"