Maverick Heart (11 page)

“An hour or so.” Miles halted his horse and dismounted. “I’ll see if I can find some buffalo chips for the fire.”

“Buffalo chips?”

“There’s no wood out here, but dried buffalo dung—which is mostly undigested grass—burns pretty well.”

“Oh.”

Verity pulled her gelding to a stop, then realized there was no ladylike way to dismount. She would have to lift her leg over the horse’s rump. Not that she could have urged her tired muscles into any display of grace and strength.

Miles solved the problem for her by grasping her waist with both hands and tugging her off the horse. She slid down the length of him. A frisson of awareness skittered down her spine. For a moment she thought he was going to let her go, but his arms closed around her, pulling her close. One hand cupped her buttocks, pressing her against him.

Nothing but a few layers of cloth separated them, and she was amazed and appalled to discover he was aroused. And frightened, despite his promise. She held herself rigid.

She felt the tension in him, realized the battle he waged for control. She would have given anything to be able to see his face, but it was too dark.

Abruptly he released her. “I’ll be back. Don’t wander off.” Then he disappeared into the darkness.

She took advantage of the few moments of privacy Miles had given her to relieve herself, then stood by the horses and waited for him to return. Red had taken the mule with him, so as far as she knew, they had nothing with them to eat. Not that she could have forced anything down. But there was a canteen hanging from Miles’s saddle, and she helped herself to a drink. The water wasn’t fresh, but it was wet.

“Give me a minute to get a fire going, and I’ll make us some coffee.”

She whirled, and Miles was standing at her shoulder. “I didn’t hear you coming.”

“That’s the general idea behind wearing moccasins,” he said.

She watched him dig a shallow pit before breaking up the buffalo chips into smaller pieces and dropping them in. He used a few bits of dry grass and a sulfur match to start the fire.

“Come over here and make yourself comfortable,” he said.

When she hesitated, he said, “I won’t deny I want you, Verity. But I can wait.”

That was small comfort, but apparently all she was going to get. The fire looked warm. She crossed the short distance between them, settled
herself awkwardly on the ground, and held out her hands to the heat.

The supplies in Miles’s saddlebags included a blue and white speckled coffeepot and a couple of tin cups. Before long the smell of coffee wafted to her on the night breeze. Miles poured her a cup of coffee and handed it to her.

“Careful, it’s hot.”

She had to hold the tin cup by the handle and the rim to avoid being burned. He joined her but sat outside the light from the fire, so his face remained in shadows.

Verity had nothing in her life with which to compare this experience. It was like a nighttime picnic, only there were no servants to set up tables and chairs and prepare the food and serve it. There was no furniture at all to sit on, not even a blanket, for that matter, between her and the ground.

She heard only the crackle and pop of the fire as grass seeds in the dung exploded, the occasional stomp of the horses’ hooves, and the sound of grass being ripped from the earth as the animals grazed.

She and Miles were completely alone in the middle of nowhere. She should be terrified.

But it was obvious none of this was new to Miles, and his confidence in the situation communicated itself to her. He had already demonstrated that he had enough self-control not to ravish her. If the situation weren’t what it was, she might even have enjoyed herself.

A wolf howled, and the horses lifted their heads
and stared alertly into the darkness. Verity held her breath until the animals lowered their heads to graze again. “Are you sure we aren’t in any danger?”

“Wolves won’t come near the fire,” Miles reassured her.

“Of all the sites you could have chosen for your revenge, why did you pick this godforsaken wilderness?” she asked.

“Wyoming is where I live. It’s my home.”

She snorted, a totally unladylike sound. “You could have made a home anywhere. Why here?”

“I don’t know exactly how to explain it to you, except to say there are places here where you know no other human being has ever set foot before you.”

“It’s desolate.”

“I like the wide open spaces. And no one here minds the way I look.”

She darted a glance in his direction. Of course not, when there were men like Rufus around who had been scalped.

And a thousand other souls like Miles who had run from their pasts to a place where only the present mattered.

“Why didn’t you ever write to me?” she asked.

He took a swallow of coffee before he answered. “What was there to say?”

“You could have told me where you were, what you were doing. Didn’t you think I would worry?”

“No,” he said baldly. “Did you?”

She stared straight ahead. “Yes. At first. When I
thought you might have left England because I had hurt you. When you stayed away so long … I couldn’t believe you would be gone so long just to punish me. I thought something must have happened to you.”

“Something did.”

“I know, you were shanghaied. But when you made it back to dry land, when you were free …” She turned to face him. “Not a word, Miles. Not a word to tell me you were alive. I had to find out from gossip what had happened to you.”

“I didn’t think you cared,” he said, echoing her cruel words back to her.

Her cry of anguished protest spooked one of the horses. It whinnied and skittered sideways. Miles dropped his cup and was on his feet beside the animal in an instant, calming it. Verity used the time to regain her composure. She set down what was left of her coffee and folded her hands in her lap.

When Miles returned to the fire, he stood close enough behind her that she could feel his heat. “What was I supposed to think when you chose to marry a man I hated, a man who hated me?” he said. “I didn’t know Talbot had threatened you.”

She rose and turned to face him, putting a little more distance between them. “You should have known I loved you too much to marry another man. You should have trusted me!”

His eyes reflected the firelight. “Like you trusted me? You never even gave me a chance to confront Chester.” He shook his head in disgust. “You made
all the choices, Verity. If they were the wrong ones, you have no one to blame but yourself.”

“I’ve paid for my mistakes.”

“Not quite yet, you haven’t. There’s a little something owed to me.”

“Miles, I—”

“Come here, Verity.”

He didn’t wait for her to respond, simply reached out and pulled her into his arms. She could have resisted him, could have spit and clawed and kicked. It would have been futile, because he was stronger than she was. And hypocritical, because she didn’t want to resist him.

Her eyes closed as he lowered his mouth to hers. She had waited long, lonely years to be held in his arms, to be loved once more, to be exactly where she was.

She felt the anger in his kiss as he captured her lips, and she sought to soothe the savage beast. But her surrender only seemed to incite him. She gasped as he tore at the buttons of her basque-waist, thrusting his hand inside the layers of muslin beneath it to capture her naked breast. He made an animal sound in his throat as his hand teased her, caressed her, shaped her flesh.

Her heart pounded out of control as his lips sought her throat, the shell of her ear, then found her mouth once more. He seemed ravenous, as though he couldn’t get enough of her.

He suddenly froze, then lifted his head, searching the darkness with his eyes much as the horses had done when the wolf howled.

She stared at him with dazed eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“Be still.” He let go of her abruptly and kicked out the fire. Then he grabbed her wrist and headed for the horses.

She struggled to repair her bodice one-handed, but before she could, Miles had hoisted her into the saddle. He tightened the cinch on her saddle, then on his, before mounting.

“Follow me. Be as quiet as you can,” he murmured.

Then he headed off across the prairie. She was stunned to realize the moon had come up. It didn’t seem possible so much time had passed.

What did you hear?
she wanted to ask.
Where are we going?
But she had seen enough of the dangers in this land to realize it was no idle warning he had given her. She remained silent. And followed where he led.

Miles had lived long enough in the wilderness to trust his instincts. It wasn’t what he had heard that had spooked him, it was what he hadn’t heard. The night sounds had ceased. It was a sign that something predatory had invaded the area. Until he knew precisely what—or who—it was, he wasn’t taking any chances on getting caught, literally, with his pants down.

What had possessed him to touch her? To kiss her? He had known there was no possibility he could have satisfaction before journey’s end. So why had he tortured himself by reaching for her?

His body ached with unrequited desire.

He hungered
. She was what he hungered for.

He thirsted
. Only she could quench his thirst.

Miles had been denied for so long that the need was overwhelming. It was like laying a feast in
front of a starving man. You could not expect him to ignore it, especially when he feared someone might snatch it out of his reach before he could devour it.

The hairs stood up on his arms in awareness as Verity rode up beside him. His body throbbed to life. He had every reason to hate her, but hate was not the spur that drove him. She had stolen his heart the first time he looked into her deep blue eyes, and it had felt as though he were torn in two the day he lost her. In twenty-two years he had not found another woman to replace her, and it would have been a lie to say he hadn’t tried. No one else would do. Without her, he was not whole.

“What is it, Miles?” Verity whispered. “Is someone out there?”

“Shh,” he warned. Then he heard what he had been listening for. Hoofbeats … one horse. He pulled his gun from the holster and said to her, “Stay behind me.”

“Boss?”

Miles breathed a sigh of relief and holstered his gun. “What is it, Tom?”

“I found the Sioux. They’re camped east of the Hanrahan place. I don’t think they saw me. I hightailed it back here, hoping I could catch you.”

“Any idea where the others are?”

“I found Shorty and left him watching the Sioux camp. Red and Frog are too far west to run into them.”

“How many are there?” Miles asked.

“A half dozen or so.”

“Not too many for the three of us to manage, then.”

Verity laid a hand on Miles’s arm. “You can’t be thinking of attacking them! You might shoot Rand or Freddy by mistake.”

“Sorry, ma’am,” Tom said, “but I didn’t see any sign of your kin.”

“But … that’s impossible. They have to be with them.”

“Maybe it’s a different band of Sioux,” Miles suggested.

Tom shook his head. “It’s Hawk, all right. The cattle aren’t with him, so maybe he sent his prisoners and the cattle on ahead while he stopped with the rest. They’re up to no good, hanging around the Hanrahan place like that.”

“If Rand and Freddy aren’t with this bunch of Indians, maybe we should just go around them and keep looking,” Verity said.

“I have a personal score to settle with Hawk,” Miles replied. “There’s no telling when we’d run him to ground like this again. I don’t intend to lose my chance at him.”

“But—”

“The cattle will be bedded down somewhere for the night, which means Rand and Freddy won’t be moving in the dark. We won’t lose much time if we stay here long enough to take care of Hawk.”

“What happens if you’re killed confronting Hawk?” Verity asked. “How will I find Rand and Freddy if something happens to you?”

“I don’t intend to give Hawk an easy target,”
Miles said. “The question is, what am I going to do with you while I’m busy with Hawk?” he mused aloud.

“You’re not going to leave me behind,” she answered certainly. “If you insist on this idiocy, give me a gun, and let me go with you.”

“I didn’t know you could shoot.”

“There are lots of things you don’t know about me.”

Miles hesitated only another moment before he handed her his revolver, butt first. “Have you used a weapon like this?”

“Not exactly like this,” she conceded.

“It’s a Colt .45 Peacemaker. I’ve got five bullets in it. The first chamber is empty. Just chamber a bullet, cock it, and pull the trigger.

“When we get where we’re going, I’ll settle you somewhere out of the way. Fire only if you’re attacked. And save the last bullet for yourself.” He saw the incredulous look on her face. “I mean it,” he said.

Her face looked pale in the moonlight. “All right, Miles.”

He wondered if she would be able to do it. Probably not. He had better make sure she didn’t have any need to turn the gun on herself.

It was nearing midnight by the time they reached the area where Tom had spotted the Sioux.