JAKrentz - The Pirate, The Adventurer, & The Cowboy (37 page)

There was very little left of Emelina Fleetwood's home, just a tumbledown cabin that was completely bare inside. Some distance away from where the house stood was the collapsed wall of what might have been the barn. A few feet from the back door of the cabin itself were several boards left from what might have been an outhouse. Rusty nails and a couple of pieces of metal from some old farm equipment were scattered around the ruins.

Almost everything had long since been reclaimed by the forest. The multitude of owners who had tried to farm the place since Emelina's time had not made any noticeable improvements.

"Two whole days, Gideon, and we've gotten nowhere."

"People spent most of the century looking for the
Titanic
, They're still looking for Kidd's and Laffite's gold. And they still haven't found Amelia Earhart's plane. Treasure hunting requires time and effort and plenty of patience."

"But we've got a map."

"You keep saying that. Your precious map isn't a magic talisman, you know. It's just a crude sketch that could have been made by almost anyone at any time and mean almost anything."

"I'm sure the map is genuine. It's a family heirloom."

"You got any idea of how many family heirlooms are nothing but junk?"

"This isn't junk. There shouldn't be any problem. Darn it, this is your area of expertise. Why can't you figure out what this code means?" She scanned the odd notes in front of her. "Sixty, ninety and a straight line connecting two dots with the number twenty-five beside it. Then the phrase, 'White rock at intersection of B and C. Ten paces due north.' I tell you, Gideon, we're overlooking something obvious here."

"Yeah. A white boulder."

"That, too. Where do you suppose it is?" She looked around as she had countless times during the past two days and saw nothing of a white rock.

"It probably got washed away or covered up with mud and debris years ago. People who bury treasure expect to dig it up again within a few months or years at the most. They often use transient points of reference like an outhouse or a tree or something else that could easily be gone by the time the next generation comes looking for grandpa's gold."

Sarah wrinkled her nose. "An outhouse?"

"Sure. That was a favorite place to bank the retirement funds in the old days. Who would go looking for gold in an outhouse?"

"You, obviously." She laughed up at him. "Ever find any that way?"

"I refuse to respond to that on the grounds that it may make me look like an idiot."

Sarah giggled. "You did, didn't you?"

"It was a long time ago." Gideon came to a halt. "Isn't it time for lunch, yet?"

"You know, Gideon, there are times when I get the feeling you're only in this for the food. You've been showing an uncommon interest in mealtimes since I cooked that first dinner for you."

"Hey, how was I to know you could cook? And what are you complaining about, anyway? The way to a man's heart is through his stomach."

Sarah slid him a sidelong glance. "Is that true? Am I getting closer?"

He threw a heavy arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his side for a moment. His lips moved sensually in her sun-warmed hair. "You're welcome to get as close as you want, Sarah."

"Unfortunately your idea of close is not the same as mine. Not yet, at any rate."

"Are you sure of that?" He boldly let his hand glide over the curve of her breast.

"Positive." She pushed free of the tempting embrace and stalked across the small clearing in back of the old cabin to where she had left the picnic basket.

Gideon followed more slowly, his eyes thoughtful. "What happens if we find the earrings, Sarah?"

"
When
, not
if
, we find them." She knelt on the ground and spread out the red and white checked cloth she had brought along in the basket. "And what happens is that you get one pair and I get the other four. Just like we agreed."

"And then you go back to Seattle and I go home to my place on the coast?" He settled down on the ground, one leg drawn up.

She thought about that as she unwrapped tuna fish sandwiches. "No, of course not. This is a long-term plan I'm working on here. But I haven't made all the decisions. I'm not exactly sure how to handle our relationship after we find the earrings. I can't just move in with you, yet. You're not ready for that."

"I'm not?" He took a big bite out of his sandwich.

"No. So it looks like it'll be a long-distance commute for a while. Which won't be easy because I'm scheduled to start a new book next month. Once I start working on it I won't have a lot of free time."

"And I've got a magazine to get out by the first of every month."

"Things will get complicated, won't they? But we'll manage somehow."

"More likely once we find the earrings you'll go back to your real world and that'll be the end of my courtship," Gideon said flatly. He took another large bite of his sandwich.

"No, that's not the way it will be."

"I think it will be exactly that way, Sarah."

"Damn it, you really do think I just brought you along so you could help me find my treasure, don't you? You think that once we've found it, I'll give up courting you."

"I think I'd assign a high probability to that scenario."

"Is it so hard for you to develop a little faith in me?"

"I'm supposed to have faith in you after knowing you for all of three days?"

"Stop saying that. We've known each other for four whole months."

"We were pen pals for four months, not lovers."

Without any warning, Sarah found herself very close to losing her temper. "Pen pals. Yes, that's what we were and you liked it that way, didn't you? In fact, I'll bet you preferred it that way because you didn't have to take any risks or make any commitments. Letter writing is a very safe way to conduct an affair, isn't it?"

"It has a few advantages," he agreed, obviously satisfied at having provoked her. "But it also has a few distinct disadvantages." He leered cheerfully at her. "Now that I've met you in the flesh, I can see what I was missing when all I was getting were recipes."

With a supreme act of willpower, Sarah pulled herself back from the brink. She had been on the verge of flying into a genuine rage, she realized, shaken. Gideon had done this deliberately.

"Stop teasing me, Gideon."

"I'm not teasing you. I mean every word. What do you say we make a deal? You've had your four months of letters. Let me have four months of you in bed, regardless of whether or not we find your earrings. Then we'll decide what sort of relationship we've got."

Sarah refolded the sandwich wrapper with shaking fingers. "Don't talk like that, Gideon."

"You don't like the terms?" he asked, voice hardening. "That doesn't surprise me. You don't get much out of it under those conditions, do you? All right, I'll make the deal contingent on finding the earrings. If we do turn them up, I get my four months."

"I said stop it damn you." She threw the unfinished portion of her sandwich back into the basket and leaped to her feet. The sunlight still poured into the clearing but the warmth had gone out of the day. She was suddenly feeling very cold.

There was a long silence during which Sarah stood with her back to Gideon, her hands thrust into the pockets of her jeans. A lazy breeze ruffled the delicate wildflowers scattered around her feet. She could not bring herself to turn around for fear Gideon would see the hint of tears in her eyes.

The sound of another sandwich being unwrapped behind her finally broke the spell.

"Sorry," Gideon growled. "I was pushing it, wasn't I?"

"Yes, you were." Sarah turned back to watch as he wolfed down another of her sandwiches. "Why?"

"Why?" He looked momentarily blank. "Because I want to take you to bed. Why else?"

"You're going about it the wrong way."

"Yeah, I got that feeling. Sit down and eat the rest of your lunch, Sarah. I'll work on keeping my mouth shut."

Moodily she dropped back down onto the ground, folding her legs tailor-fashion. Her appetite was gone. "I was so sure this was going to work, but I'm not getting anywhere."

"You've only been looking for the earrings for two days. There's a lot of territory left to cover around here."

"I didn't mean the treasure hunt."

"I see. You meant our famous relationship. Well, don't get impatient about that, either. You haven't given it any more time than you've given the treasure hunt."

"I've given it four whole months."

"More like three whole days."

She dropped her forehead down onto her updrawn knees and took ten deep breaths. When she raised her head again, her emotions were calmer once more. "Let's talk about the treasure, since we don't seem to be able to discuss our relationship."

"That'a girl. Stick to the real stuff. The stuff you can count on. Nothing like knowing you're sitting somewhere near a cache of jewels to take your mind off a courtship, is there?"

Sarah lost it then. All the self-control she had been practicing for the past few minutes disintegrated in a

flash. "You sarcastic, hateful, son of a… Don't you dare talk to me like that. Do you hear me? Not ever. I won't tolerate it. I'm trying to give you a proper courtship—trying to give you time to catch up with me in this relationship. The least you could do is be polite."

Gideon narrowed his eyes, his expression suddenly fierce. He reached for her, caught her arm and dragged her across his lap to cradle her in a grip of steel.

"I'm sorry," he muttered over and over again as his big hands stroked her. "I'm sorry. You're right. I'm not used to trusting people and I'm not any good at dealing with women. If you want gallantry and charm and trust, you're going to have to look somewhere else."

She huddled against him, aware of the tension that was tightening his whole body. Her fury evaporated. "You really are a beast, aren't you? Your first instinct is to bite that hand that's trying to feed you."

"I said I'm sorry," he said again. His fingers moved in her hair.

"I don't know if I can believe that."

"It's the truth. I shouldn't have pushed you like that." He drew his head back to look down into her glistening eyes. "But I can't guarantee you it won't happen again."

"You have a long way to go to catch up with me, don't you? A lot further than I thought at first."

"So? Are you going to give up on me?"

She shook her head slowly. "No."

"Sarah…"

She put her fingers over his lips. "And don't, I warn you, make any cracks about me not giving up on you until you've helped me find the Flowers. If you say anything even close to that, I swear I won't be responsible for my actions."

He shut his mouth and squeezed her so tightly she thought her ribs would crack.

T
HE NEXT MORNING
Sarah awoke with more doubts. The gentling of Gideon Trace was proving to be a formidable task.

The man was like a wild animal that had once been wounded. The bleeding had stopped long ago and he had recovered physically, but the scars would forever make him cautious about trusting anyone.

The coffee was brewing and the biscuits were in the oven. In a few minutes she and Gideon would sit down to breakfast just like two people who were involved in a real relationship.

She was deliberately trying to give Gideon a taste of what living with her would be like but she couldn't tell yet if she was having any impact.

Perhaps the treasure hunt had been a bad idea. She considered that thought very seriously as she slipped outside to taste the morning air while she waited for Gideon to finish shaving.

It was beginning to dawn on her that she might have made a drastic mistake in using the treasure hunt as an opening for contacting Gideon Trace.

Perhaps the truth was, she had only herself to blame for some of his wariness.

How would she have felt if some stranger with whom she had conducted only a casual correspondence suddenly showed up on her doorstop and said he wanted to have a relationship while they searched for a fortune in jewels?

Sarah grimaced and dug her toe into the ground. Perhaps she should call a halt to the treasure hunt for now and go back to square one. She had been convinced somehow that the Fleetwood Flowers and Gideon were linked and it had seemed natural to pursue the two of them together. But she might have been wrong about that part of things.

Certainly her relationship with Gideon was the most important part of the equation. Perhaps she should give it her full attention for now.

Equation.

Sarah blinked in the morning light, inhaling the sweet scent of the evergreens.
Equation
.

She stood staring a moment longer at the stand of trees that edged the clearing. Then, moving slowly, she turned and went back into the cabin.

Gideon was just emerging from the bathroom, tucking his shirt into his jeans in an intimate, somehow very sexy gesture. But, then, Sarah reminded herself, everything about Gideon was sexy to her. He took one look at her face and his brows rose questioningly.