Carol Finch (8 page)

“I’ll release her in a few more days.” Which is what he told Karissa every night when she asked.

Micah smiled wryly. “And what’s the reason you’re
detaining her when you’ve delivered your authoritative lecture to the other illegal squatters and then sent them back to the settlers’ encampments? Getting attached to her, Rafe?”

“No,” he replied vehemently. He could tell Micah didn’t believe him. Of course, Micah had incredible instincts, damn his perceptive hide.

The frustrating truth was that he was so protective of her that he didn’t want to drive himself crazy, wondering if other lusty scoundrels had set upon her. He still had nightmares about that unnerving incident. And though he refused to go near her for more than three minutes at a time, he wanted her close at hand.

Observing her from a distance was the only pleasure he allowed himself.

When Karissa glanced in his direction, her smile fading, Rafe felt as if someone had punched him in the gut. How could she do this to him? Why did he let her? And what the hell had happened to his unwavering dedication to duty?

Maybe Micah was right, Rafe mused. It was time to let Karissa go. She was, after all, as scrappy as an alley cat and she had been fending for herself and her brother for more than a dozen years. Obviously she was adept at it.

“Well, I’ll be damned.”

Rafe followed Micah’s gaze to the doorway. He nearly fell out of his chair when none other than Vanessa Payton materialized out of nowhere. All conversation in the mess hall died a quick death and all eyes turned to the striking blonde who was dressed in an expensive gown usually reserved for fashionable social balls.

“I’ve only seen the chit once,” Micah said, “but that
definitely looks like your fiancée. What’s she doing here? Did you decide to move up the wedding?”

“No.” Stunned, Rafe came to his feet.

“Rafe! There you are at last! I’ve been looking all over the post for you!” Vanessa gushed enthusiastically.

F
lashing a dazzling smile, Vanessa made her grand entrance. When she swept across the room like a colorful, velvet-enshrouded butterfly, the soldiers’ attention swung from her to Karissa and back again. And so did Rafe’s.

It was the damnedest thing—because Rafe
should
have been relieved to see Vanessa—but her arrival felt more like intrusion. When Vanessa sashayed to him, curled her arm around his elbow and smiled brilliantly, there was nothing for Rafe to do but press a kiss to her wrist.

“Vanessa, it’s a pleasure to see you again. But what are you doing here? I didn’t receive a telegram notifying me that you were coming.”

She tossed her blond head and graced him with another radiant smile. “I wanted to surprise you. Besides, we are to be married and it only seemed reasonable that I should visit the post you command. I’m very impressed, by the way.”

Rafe cocked a brow at that. He would have expected a woman who was accustomed to every luxury imagi
nable to be disappointed by the modest accommodations at the army post.

“Micah, isn’t it?” Vanessa said as she outstretched her free hand. “It is so good to see you again.”

Micah dutifully took her hand and kissed her perfumed wrist. Rafe noticed he looked less than enthused.

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your officers and their wives?” Vanessa prompted. “Really, Rafe, you have been on the frontier so long that you have forgotten your manners.”

“Nice of you to point that out,” Micah muttered half under his breath.

“Excuse me?” Vanessa said, tossing one of those practiced smiles at Micah.

Micah feigned a polite smile for her benefit. “I said Rafe must’ve been so surprised by your arrival that he forgot himself.” He bowed slightly then backed away. “If you will excuse me, Miss Payton. I’ll take Rafe’s evening duties so he will have more time to see that you are settled in.”

Rafe glanced sideways, startled to note that Karissa had vanished into thin air. He suspected she had ducked out through the kitchen to save them both from any embarrassment.

Dutifully, Rafe introduced Vanessa to the officers and their wives then escorted her outside to listen to the regimental band that performed each evening after mess call. She insisted on seeing every nook and cranny of the fort, while she clung to him like a limpet to a ship. It was with shameful relief that Rafe collected her luggage and saw to it that she was settled in the suite usually reserved for visiting military dignitaries.

Damn, he mused as he headed back to the officers’ quarters. Just what he needed right now. More compli
cations. The past few days he had sensed the tension and anticipation of the settlers who were gearing up for the wild race to stake land claims. It was only going to get worse. Adding Vanessa to the mix was going to overload his days.

She had insisted that he show her around the area. She even claimed she wanted to visit the Cheyenne and Arapaho agency at Darlington—the small community that sat a mile northeast of the garrison, just across the river. According to Vanessa, she wanted to see real live Indians in their natural habitat.

Rafe was relieved that Micah hadn’t been around to hear
that
comment.

Rafe sighed in frustration. On one hand he should be grateful for the opportunity to get to know the woman he had agreed to take as his wife. On the other hand—

His thoughts trailed off when he veered into the foyer of the officers’ quarters to find Karissa awaiting him.

“I think it’s time you released me,” she said stiffly.

“No, because I know exactly where you’ll go and what might happen to you,” he countered just as stiffly.

She hitched her chin at him. “I am not your responsibility. Do not force me to leave without permission. I intend to leave, first thing in the morning.”

“No,” he said with sharp finality.

Karissa glared at him, spun around and stalked into her room. Rafe thrust up the heel of his hand to prevent her from slamming the door in his face.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” she fumed when he invited himself inside.

“Enjoying what? Sparring with you? No, not particularly.”

Karissa rolled her eyes in exasperation. But then, she had been exasperated since the moment Vanessa Payton
fluttered into the mess hall, the very picture of proper breeding and refinement.

The woman, who looked to be about twenty-two— Clint’s age—was decked out like a regal princess. There were enough diamonds and rubies encircling her delicate neck to strangle half the horses in the post stable. Karissa had never attended a royal coronation, but it seemed to her that the fetching blonde had arrived to play the role of the queen of the military post to the hilt and she was anxious to accept her jeweled crown.

For reasons she preferred not to dwell on, it hurt to see Rafe bestowing all that gentlemanly politeness on his fiancée. He had never treated Karissa with that much formality and polite respect. In fact, he treated his fiancée as if she was a delicate and fragile flower of aristocracy, and he kept a respectable distance at all times.

But Rafe treated Karissa like…well, she didn’t know what. It didn’t bother him in the least to toss her a glare, jump down her throat or latch on to her arm, as if he wanted to give her a good shaking when she dared to turn her back on him while he was talking—which she had done on several occasions, just to irritate him.

“She’s very attractive,” Karissa admitted begrudgingly.

“Yes, she is,” Rafe agreed. “She’s changed considerably since I saw her while I was on leave last year.”

“Last year?”
Karissa blinked in disbelief. “You are marrying a woman you haven’t seen in a year? Surely you correspond with her regularly then.”

“She’s written twice and I have written once since my father announced our engagement,” he informed her. “But that is beside the point. I came in here to discuss your—”

“Beside the point?” Karissa scoffed. “Damn good
thing I’m not the one marrying you. I’m afraid I would have to insist on more than an impersonal letter once a year—”

She clamped her mouth shut so fast she nearly clipped off the end of her tongue. Up to this point she had successfully managed to use her defense mechanism of flinging barbed remarks to disguise deeper feelings for him. The last thing she wanted to do was imply that she had given so much as a passing thought to what it would be like to be married to Rafe. They were as different as paupers and princes and that was never going to change, even if she had developed this ridiculous, ill-fated fascination for Rafe.

He lifted a brow, crossed his arms over his broad chest and smiled in amusement. “You don’t approve of my method of courtship? Why am I not surprised? You disapprove of most everything I do.”

“That’s because you’re an annoying man who delights in bossing people around. Hence your position as post commandant,” she sniped. “You wouldn’t make it ten minutes as a flunky around this fort.”

He puffed up with indignation and stared her down. But it didn’t stop Karissa. She was on a roll to vent the envious frustration that had welled up inside her when Vanessa had made her spectacular entrance to the mess hall.

“I think you revel in the fact that everyone knows who you are and that they are aware of the power you wield,” she went on. “This territory is presently under military rule and
you’re
it. You’re called upon to settle civil, Indian and military disputes and you like knowing your word is law.”

“If that’s true then why do I have such a devil of a time shutting
you
up?” he questioned with a snort. “If
you continue to harangue me I’ll double the time of your captivity and no one will dispute my decision.”

Karissa stamped up to him and tilted up her head to stare him squarely in the eye. She was all set to let him have it with both barrels blazing, but he beat her to the draw.

“And do not offer me your body again in exchange for freedom,” he said, glaring at her. “I’m sure you have used that trick before to maneuver other men, but it won’t work with me.”

Karissa reared back as if he’d slapped her. She knew she had given him the wrong impression that first night. But then,
she
had completely misunderstood
his
intentions. “Think what you will, General, I couldn’t care less. All I want is to return to the settlers’ encampment to check on my brother.”

“Right,” he said sardonically. “As if there isn’t a hundred and sixty acres of fertile prairie, spring-fed pool and winding creeks that isn’t calling
home
to you.”

Impulsively, Karissa cocked her arm to slap him for taking what she’d told him in confidence and using it to antagonize her. Unfortunately, Rafe caught her forearm before her palm could connect with his cheek.

When she stared up into those silver-gray eyes she could see the storm building, could feel the lightning-quick sizzle of attraction when he touched her. God forgive this maddening weakness, but she wanted to kiss him, if only one last time before he married his princess and Karissa raced cross-country to stake land for Clint and Amanda.

“Damn you, Rissa,” he muttered as his head came deliberately toward hers. “You make me crazy.”

And then he claimed her mouth and stole the breath right out of her lungs. Before she realized it, she had
wrapped her arms around his neck and was kissing him back with all the pent-up torment that had been hounding her since Vanessa stood in the doorway of the mess hall, shining like the brightest star in heaven.

Karissa was ashamed to admit that envy and jealousy had been spurring her to pick a fight with Rafe. And now she was secretly where she wanted to be—tasting him thoroughly, feeling his masculine strength surrounding her, experiencing this phenomenal pleasure that he alone incited in her.

When Rafe glided his hands down her rib cage to pull her against him, she became blatantly aware of his arousal. She told herself that it was a man’s natural reaction to any woman, before she foolishly started to believe that
she
had some exclusive effect on him.

And damn him for starting this anyway, she thought as she struggled to regain her common sense. He had a fiancée he could kiss senseless anytime he wanted. He didn’t need Karissa. Didn’t want her because she wasn’t good enough to be anything except the place he came for sexual release.

Karissa somehow found the willpower to press her hands against his chest and push away. She was thoroughly annoyed with herself for letting her forbidden attraction to Rafe control her. Never mind that when he let loose and kissed her, as if he was starving for a taste of her, her knees wobbled to such serious extremes that she had to brace her hip against the nearby table to prevent collapsing at his feet.

She had to say something sassy to break this tormenting spell, she thought frantically. “And what was that, General? A dress rehearsal for the affection you plan to bestow on Vanessa? Go practice on someone
else. I have better things to do this evening. Like sort my clean laundry.”

Thankfully, he reared back, as if
she
had slapped
him.
It gave her time to draw in a breath that wasn’t thick with his masculine scent and to reconstruct her usual defenses.

“Considering that mouth of yours, hellion, I’ll be shocked if any man ever asks for your hand. You’d bite
his
hand off at the wrist.”

She shrugged carelessly, far more comfortable now that they were back to verbal pistols at twenty paces. “I do not
need
a man in my life,” she informed him airily. “I can take care of myself and I’ve had lots of practice at it. I can darn my own stockings, do my own laundry and cook for myself. I can also earn my own wages.”

“And you can’t bear the thought, being as independent as you are, of having any man tell you what to do,” he added with a smirk.

“Precisely,” she agreed. “Which is why we clash so often. You delight in giving orders and I live to thumb my nose at them.” She emulated Vanessa’s sophisticated air and flicked her wrist to shoo him on his way. “Run along now, General. I’ve sharpened my tongue well enough on you tonight to hold an edge for tomorrow. Once I file my nails I will be good to go.”

“You still aren’t leaving the post, no matter how much you antagonize me,” he muttered at her. “You’re not as tough as you would like me to think, either.”

Maybe not, but never in a million years would she admit it to him. She gestured toward the door. “Leave now, before I decide to whittle you down to size. Believe me when I say that you haven’t seen anything yet. I’ve gone a lot easier on you than most men.”

She inclined her head ever so slightly and smiled
wryly. “If not for your prestigious position here I wouldn’t have shown as much restraint with my insults.”

“This is restraint?” he hooted. Rafe stepped forward to wag a lean finger in her face. “And do not try to sneak away from this fort, Karissa. Are we clear on this?”

“Perfectly clear, General,” she said before she scooped up her nail file and ignored him as if he wasn’t there.

It was with tremendous relief that she heard the door click shut behind him.

Harlan Billings tapped lightly on the door to VIP quarters. He was treated to an enticing view of cleavage when Vanessa struck a seductive pose in her expensive silk negligee. Her welcoming smile turned upside down when he stepped into clear view and she realized it wasn’t her fiancé who had come to call on her.

“What do you want?” she snapped rudely.

Harlan slunk inside and closed the door. “I’m the one who sent you the telegram,” he announced. “I suppose you noticed your competition this evening in the mess hall?”

Vanessa clutched her robe around her and sauntered over to grab the wine bottle she had obviously brought with her from Virginia. You couldn’t get that kind of fine liquor in a place like this.

“Yes, I think I know which one Rafe is sleeping with,” she scowled distastefully. “It is the unattached redhead in that dowdy calico gown who obviously doesn’t know that any self-respecting lady would not allow her skin to become tanned and has done nothing
to conceal that smattering of freckles on her nose. Am I correct?”