Surviving Seduction (24 page)

“This is ridiculous,” he said, turning away in frustration. “She’s the last person who’d deliver you to those men. You don’t know what she’s been through. Use your head! I figured you were smart enough to assume she’s had the same trouble as you. Maybe that was a mistake.”

Selena bristled. “Fine. Maybe it wasn’t her. Maybe it was you!”

Jack turned to face her and grabbed her shoulders.

“You’re losing it, Selena. I’ve a mind to dunk you in the stream if you don’t snap out of it.”

“You knew what I was going to overhear! You were the one who fol owed me! You could have planned the whole thing so you could try to get me to run away with you!”

“Then why am I taking you back?” he groaned. “Why aren’t I trying to talk you into leaving?”

“Don’t you want me to?” she barked accusingly.

“Yes,” he shouted, pul ing her in. “Yes, Selena! I want you to leave with me. Of that, I wil enthusiastical y admit, I am guilty!”

Selena braced herself against his shoulders, her heart ramming in her chest as she watched the emotion blaze across his face.

“And do you know what I’m going to do now, Selena?”

he whispered passionately.

“Jack, please,” she implored.

“Shh ... I haven’t told you yet,” he said, staring with longing into her wide eyes. “I’m going to bring you home.

Better than that. I’m going to deliver you into Dan’s waiting arms. I swear it.”

Selena watched him with surprise, her struggles slowing.

“And do you know what I’m
not
going to do?” he went on, with a sound of justice in his voice that contradicted everything she thought she knew about him.

“I’m
not
going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do! I’m not like him.”

Selena’s face burned and her mouth fel open.

“I told you I would figure you out.”

“That’s not how it was!” she cried, trying to push him away again. “I wanted him too!”

“Stop it, Selena! He’s holding you down every day.

You have the right to choose a life as a bird in a cage, but I have a right to find it maddening! It hurts to watch. I saw you lose it that day on the stairs. I thought you were going to die in front of me. You need to be
free
,” he groaned plaintively.

“Your spirit needs to be free! You don’t have to be a part of his world. You don’t have to lose who you are. With me, you’d walk the world under the open sky. You could choose our path! Or we could leave the path and never come back!

We would do what we wanted to do! I wouldn’t judge you for
anything
! I’d celebrate you unconditional y! So now I’m going to find the Crater, and no matter what you say, I’m going to bring you back to it where you can make your own damn decision. But I want something from you first. I want you to kiss me.”

“Jack,” she whispered, shaking with the feeling of wildness that was building inside her at his words.

“I won’t force you. I just want a kiss,” his deep voice thrummed as he leaned his forehead against hers. “That’s al . Just one. Give me that much Selena,” he whispered, holding her tightly. He brought his mouth close to hers, breathing heavily. “Give me that much. Kiss me, because whether you know it or not, you are free!”

Selena’s chest heaved as their breath mingled and she felt the warmth of his face, of his lips. Her heart grew ful to bursting as he waited so close. He smel ed like the wind, and she wanted to spread her wings. Selena closed her eyes.

Thirteen

“Say something Dan,” Josie implored, stepping around his chair to face him. “Suspense is exciting, but I can’t take much more of it.”

He let out a long breath and stood. Her eyes flashed as he rose high above her height. She was doing a good job of hiding her anxiousness, but he had no doubt that her emotions would be the biggest obstacle to salvaging his plans.

It was a difficult situation. He had no intention of fulfil ing her final term, and wouldn’t have done it whether he loved Selena or not.

Josie had given him plenty of time to think. Al the while, he’d been reading her and flushing out the best way to refuse without al owing the deal to fal apart. It would be better for her to think he might have cooperated if he was single. That way, the rejection would be less personal.

Selena had to be his answer.

“I don’t think your request is unreasonable,” he told her patiently, al owing her to hear the resistance in his tone.

“It’s a sound plan. But there is a problem with it.”

“What is that?” Josie asked quickly.

“I have a partner.”

“I see,” she said with a hint of the great chagrin he could feel her suppressing.

“You didn’t know?” he asked, surprised for the first time that night.

Josie shook her head, her expression hardening.

“Who is it, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“Selena,” he said, masking his bewilderment. How had she not known?

“Selena,” Josie echoed, gazing off in another direction.

“We were sure she was with Ben.”

Dan stared, his mind racing to understand.

“They’re friends. But if you thought they were a couple, I should ask why.”

Josie ran both her hands through her hair and sighed with exasperation. “Wel , let’s see. When she was sick, Angela noticed that Ben was the first to look in on her.

He was also the first to drag her out for dinner when she’d gotten wel . And on this last trip back here, they rode with each other the entire way. Also, she seems more comfortable with him than anyone else, includin’ you, no offense. Not to mention I have never seen you behave affectionately towards her, not that it’s any of my business. I guess you’re just real private. I shouldn’t be surprised.”

Dan took a moment to absorb it al . “Yes, I am,” he told her in a faintly apologetic tone that was more out of diplomacy than honesty. Selena had been bedridden for most of Josie’s trip, and he had been distracted with her visit. These factors combined with the things Josie mentioned helped him clarify the picture. He knew that he should have taken more care to make their union clear to anyone who saw them, no matter how absorbed he was with his ambitions. Now, he was ready to get back to the matter at hand. “You understand the problem.”

Josie nodded, her eyes flicking up at his shrewdly. “If you don’t mind my asking, how long have you been together?”

Dan frowned. He did not want to answer that question. How long they’d been together had nothing to do with the depth of their bond.

“I just want to know if your relationship with her is worth throwing away your ambitions,” she explained bluntly, reading the displeasure on his face.

“She is the reason
for
these ambitions,” he answered. “I want this for everyone, but mostly for her.” This was the ultimate truth. Dan had always known that his purpose on earth was to keep the innocent safe, to overcome violence with his own superior brand of it. This was what he was made for, and what he was trained for.

The blood on his hands was permanently woven into the fiber of his being. That was his sacrifice. He lived every moment under the weight of this responsibility, wil ing to answer some day for the justice he’d taken upon himself to enforce, if there truly was a higher power.

When it came to Selena, his sense of purpose was amplified to a fever pitch. It hadn’t been her incredible beauty that drove him to obsession. It had been her incredible vulnerability. When he found her, she had been so wary, so conscious of the danger around her, and yet stil so innocent, so fortunately untouched. He had found the combination intoxicating. Here was a woman who truly understood the perils of being alive, and had managed to keep herself from harm’s way against al odds. But when it should have been clear that no one was more in need of his protection than Selena, she denied it and defied it. For the first time in his life, there was something that Dan could not understand. When his reasoning failed him, his emotions conquered his wil in a maelstrom of desire to possess her in the deepest way he could, and, in his frustration, to claim in the deepest way he could, and, in his frustration, to claim her,
making
her accept his protection. This reckless fire bought what he wanted at a price. Now, he felt that he himself was responsible for taking from her the very thing he had sought to protect: her innocence.

He loved her fiercely, and she loved him too, but he stil knew that his penitence for this transgression was helping to drive his insatiable ambition for security.

Furthermore, to his shame, he knew that her intoxicating vulnerability didn’t only inspire a desire to protect and possess her, but also to prove that vulnerability by exploiting it. In the moments he spent with Selena, he felt that he faced the best and worst in himself. He cherished her and hungered for her, like a beautiful doe encircled by the wal s of his safekeeping, where only he was al owed to hunt her. He did his best to shield her from his primitive desire, but so far, he had never been able to separate himself from it when they went to bed. Of course, he made her acutely aware of it at those times. That was what made it most satisfying. Dan had al but given up his miserable attempts to suppress this dark indulgence, and was trying to simply accept it as a frustrating imperfection in his nature.

“Wow,” Josie said wistful y, bringing him back to the present. She had been watching his face for the past few seconds, and he hadn’t been careful.

He shot back a look that did not hide his annoyance.

She had the boldness to smile flirtatiously. “Wel ! I can see you’re pretty embroiled, Dan, but I did say I wouldn’t require exclusivity.” Her voice trailed off.

“Couldn’t do that,” he said without pause.

Josie didn’t look quite ready to give up, and studied his face for a while, but it was unyielding. Her bold relentlessness was beginning to make him feel defensive.

He wondered if this was how women felt when they were pursued.

“Things can change,” she murmured, as if to herself.

“So the question is do I want to go ahead with this deal when I’m not getting what I want most out of it. I think I’d only do it on the off chance things didn’t work out with your girl, and you’d change your mind. That’s a big gamble though.

She’s got some shocking exotic beauty I sure can’t match.”

Dan sighed, suddenly feeling tired. Nothing good could come of getting into comparisons. “It should be a clear decision, Josie. Do you real y want to live like this forever? Always at the mercy of bad weather and the hope of good grazing? Aren’t you tired?”

Josie frowned, leaning against the table and glancing at the map that lay atop it. “Yes,” she admitted.

“But I won’t be of child-bearing age forever. It’s probably best for me to move on until I find another man like you. One that’s ... more wil ing.”

“There of dozens of men in your camp. What’s wrong with Roark, for one?”

Josie favored him with a humorous glare. “Oh, nothing in particular. Until he’s standing next to you.”

“You just met me,” Dan pointed out. “You’ve known Roark a long time.”

“The answer is no,” she informed him tersely. “I need some time to myself now.”

He made for the entrance.

“And Dan,” Josie cal ed, prompting him to look back.

“Steer clear of Loraine. If Selena doesn’t slap her, I’m going to.”

“I’m sure Selena won’t mind, if she can slap
you
,” he chided with a ghost of a smile.

Josie grinned.

Dan stepped out. It was dark, and his eyes took a moment to adjust.

Angela was beside him with his knives, but the girl wouldn’t look him in the eye.

He took them from her silently and set off through the camp, navigating around the myriad of tents and the little fires of those who wanted to stay up and enjoy the night.

They were a lot more cheerful than he was. Dan could see no reason that Josie’s private ambition to breed should stand in the way of the safety of nearly eighty people. His father had always told him that power did strange things to people, but in this case, Dan decided that it could be worse.

For now, he had to find a way to change Josie’s mind. On top of that, the il ness in his community needed to be dealt with, fast. He hadn’t wanted to ask Josie for some of her medical supplies at such a delicate time, but he would have to in the morning.

When he arrived at the tents, he found that Selena wasn’t there and felt an immediate spike of tension, knowing ful wel that it was premature.

“Gina,” he cal ed quietly outside her tent. Silence fol owed. “Gina,” he said again at ful volume.

Something was thrown into the tent wal from inside.

He flinched. If it weren’t for the barrier, whatever it was would have nailed him. Gina always was a good shot.

“Are you awake?” he asked suspiciously.

“What!” she yel ed blearily. “This is why I stay at home. What? What? What!” She unzipped the door and thrust her head out grumpily.

“Where’s Selena?” he asked with equal irritability.

Dan had to work hard to maintain any kind of social grace, which tended to dissolve immediately when this woman was around. If she didn’t need to act nice, he didn’t see why he should try so hard to.

“She was with Jack,” Gina grumbled, disappearing back into her tent and zipping the door shut.

“When was that?” Dan pressed, stifling the anger

“When was that?” Dan pressed, stifling the anger that was beginning to coil around his thoughts. At some point, the man was going to have to be dealt with. Where he went, trouble fol owed, and his infatuation with Selena had crossed the line long before Dan told him to leave the Crater.

“When you went in to talk to Josie, now leave me alone. We’ve got to go early in the morning.”

Dan made his way grimly to the other side of the camp. He knew that Selena planned to make that final trade, which he didn’t like but had decided not to interfere with, against his better judgment. She should have been back by now. A growing apprehension gnawed at him, mingling with his ire.

When he saw the wagon, there was a smal light inside, and a woman’s shadow cast on the canvas. He walked around the back so she would see him first, and didn’t look inside.