Compromised Hearts (17 page)

“Cheer up, Emily. This is the last day you
have to ride Carolynn.”

She managed a smile, then watched as he moved to check on the coffee he was already brewing. He was obviously in high spirits and that hurt. It might not be because he would soon be rid of her, but there was no ignoring the fact that that was what would happen soon. She would be dutifully delivered to her brother by the day’s end.

Trying to shake off her sadness, she tended to Thornton. Soon she was caught up in the many chores entailed in breaking camp. The work kept her from brooding, but she could not fully shake her depression. When she was finally mounted and riding there was so little to distract her that she felt almost overwhelmed by sadness. It took most of her concentration simply to keep herself from weeping.

Cloud kept glancing at Emily but her crestfallen expression did not change. He had seen her in all sorts of moods but never so sad, and he decided he did not like it.

When they stopped at noon for a brief rest and a light meal, Cloud managed to manuever Emily to a spot that gave them a little privacy. As he watched her pick at the bread and cheese Mrs. Little had kindly given them, he wondered what to say or do to pull her out of her mood.

“Em, is anything wrong?”

Barely glancing at him, she shook her head. “No, nothing. I am just weary.”

“Well, you’ll have a proper bed to sleep in tonight.”

“That will be nice.” She managed a smile. “And a bath?”

“A hot one.”

“That will be heaven.”

After a few more vain attempts at conversation. Cloud gave up and joined James, who watched Thornton as the boy crouched in some long grass searching for interesting bugs. He sat down by his friend, and said, “Something’s bothering Emily.”

“Just noticed that, did you?”

“No,” he snapped. “I noticed it from the start. What I want to know is what the hell is it?”

“Is the great womanizer of the West asking advice from a novice like me?” James met Cloud’s furious look with a smile. “Why don’t you just ask her what’s bothering her? Simple’s sometimes the best.”

“I did ask her. If she didn’t consider it indelicate, she would probably just grunt. Being such a polite little thing, she does give me at least two, three words at a time. She’s telling me diddly. I’m up against a wall. Hell, she looks ready to cry.”

“And that’d bother you, would it?”

“Yeh,” Cloud ground out. “How about a little help here?”

“Well, the only thought I have is probably not one you want to hear.” He glanced toward Thornton to assure himself that the
boy was not wandering away.

“I’ll listen to anything at the moment.” Cloud ran a hand through his hair in an uncharacteristic gesture of frustration. “Think it’s her female time? Women can get strange then.”

“Nope, what I think ails her is that, very soon, you’ll be dropping her at her brother’s doorstep like so much excess baggage.”

“And who said I was going to do that?”

“It was the plan, wasn’t it?”

“It was.” Cloud did not feel like telling anyone what he had decided just yet. “Maybe I’ve changed my mind.”

“Going to keep her?”

“Well, I ain’t dropping her at Harper’s door like—what did you say?—so much excess baggage.”

“Did you tell her that?”

“Nope.”

“Then perhaps you should.”

“Thought I’d wait until we could be private at Wolfe’s.”

“Then get used to her mood, for I suspect it’ll be around until you do.”

“You really think that’s the problem?”

“Seems the most logical. Girl does have some pride if nothing else.”

Cloud nodded absently. James’s theory cheered him. If that was what made Emily look so forlorn, it meant she had some feeling for him and would like to stay with him. His proposal would probably have a good chance of being accepted.

For a moment he was tempted to propose immediately, but he resisted that urge. He wanted to be able to at least tell her what sort of life he planned on, and he was not quite ready to do that. It would take a week or two before he had any set ideas or plans to set before her. Then he would propose. He was sure she would be safe at Harper’s until he did. He kept that decision firm while stoutly refusing to think on how he would be sleeping alone during that time.

It was late in the afternoon when Cloud rode up beside her and pointed to a large ranch house in the distance. “That’s Wolfe’s place. He’s worked on it some since I last saw it.” Cloud halted for a moment.

Emily was pleasantly surprised by what she saw. After the places they had stopped at on the way, she had expected something much rougher. It was no Boston mansion, but it was a far cry from a two-room cabin.

“It’s very nice.”

“Our pa was a farmer, but he had a real skill at building too. He taught us everything he knew.”

“Wolfe lives there alone?”

“For now. He decided he might as well build big because he plans to stay and had the funds to do it.”

“Very sensible.”

“Well, let’s go fill up his house.”

That remark puzzled her, but before she could ask exactly what he meant, Cloud was starting toward the house. She nudged her
horse to follow him and hoped that he would recall his promise of a hot bath. Glancing at the sky, which aleady held the promise of night, she hoped she would have the time before he hurried her off to Harper’s.

Even as they reined in before the house, a tall young man stepped out. Cloud vaulted from the saddle and the two were soon laughing and roughly embracing each other. She noticed that there was a strong family resemblance between the pair as James helped first Thornton, then her down from their horses. It was impossible not to wonder if Wolfe Ryder was as great a libertine as his brother. When men looked like that, she mused a little bitterly, it was probably inevitable.

Wolfe Ryder’s eyes were the color of amber. She murmured a response to his friendly greeting and wondered, a little wildly, if anyone in the Ryder family had eyes of a common color.

Things grew very confusing for a while. Wolfe mistakenly tried to put her in with James, only to be sharply corrected by Cloud. She got no chance to ask about when she would be taken to Harper’s and soon found herself alone in the room she had been shown to, a steaming bath readied and waiting for her. Setting aside all her questions a little while longer, she started to shed her dusty clothes.

Sinking into the hot water with a sigh of near ecstacy, Emily felt almost cheerful.

There was nothing, she decided, that could better soothe any pain than a soak in a hot bath. She hoped it would work to lift her spirits. There was very little time left to be with Cloud and she did not want to spend it sulking. Closing her eyes as she soaked, she told herself firmly that she would not give Cloud any reason to think that his callous disposal of her mattered one little bit.

Cloud frowned as he watched Emily seated across from him at the kitchen table. She was in much better spirits and, although the meal Wolfe had set before them was hearty, he doubted it was the cause of her greatly improved mood. It irritated him, for he could no longer feel certain that she cared about leaving him.

“By the way, Cloud,” she asked, interrupting his increasingly dark thoughts. “When do I go to Harper’s?”

“In the morning.”

It was not only his curt reply that surprised her but the news that she still had one more night with him. She was cross that he was so slow to tell her what plans had been made, but she quickly shook that irritation aside. She was being given one more night with Cloud and she was determined to make the best of it. It could well be the last chance she had to change his mind about leaving her and to make a few more memories to cherish in what began to look like a very barren future.

No one, she thought, would ever be able to take away her memories and she decided she would do her best to make some heady ones. It was a scandalous plan, but her whole time with Cloud had been scandalous. She had been very good up until she had met him and would undoubtedly be painfully good after he left her. A little scandal would not kill her, she told herself firmly to silence that part of her that seemed continually shocked since she had met Cloud.

By the time they retired for the night, Cloud had gone far past irritation. He told himself it was because he had made plans and did not like having to change them, but he did not really believe it. For the first time in his life, he did not want to be rid of a woman, but Emily was beginning to show every sign of being glad to be rid of him. What added to his anger was that it hurt him, something no woman had done since he was very young and very naive.

Sitting on the edge of the bed to remove his boots, he covertly watched her as she readied herself for bed. She was, he mused, one of the most innately graceful women he had ever seen. He doubted it was all due to good breeding and the lessons of society. With Emily, he suspected it was mostly natural, done without thought.

The thought of her background made him scowl. He had never really considered the fact that it could be a problem and that might have been extraordinarily blind of him. She
was a lady, Boston bred and educated. He was part Indian, mostly self-taught, and a poor farmer’s son. A match between them was something that most people, possibly even including his own family, would think impossible if not laughable, despite the fact that he had bedded her.

Seeing Cloud’s scowl in the mirror as she finished brushing her hair, Emily sighed. It was going to be very hard to make any sweet memories when the man she wished to make them with was acting as grouchy as a bear with a sore paw. That was not the only reason she started to get annoyed, however. She could think of nothing she had done to deserve the glares he directed at her. Putting down the brush with a distinct snap, she went to the bed and climbed in with what even she saw as a flounce.

“If you have no wish to share this room with me, why not just say so instead of staying on and acting so put out?”

As he stood up to shed his pants Cloud stared at her in slight surprise. He had been momentarily distracted from his growing anger by watching her lithe body, barely kept modest by the shift she wore, as she had flounced to the bed. It took him a moment to realize why she should say such a thing. She was clearly putting her own interpretation on his evident annoyance.

“If I didn’t want to share this room and this bed with you I wouldn’t have even walked in that door.” He joined her in bed
and caught her hand when she reached out to turn down the lamp.

“Then have I offended your brother? Committed some grave faux pas? There must be some reason for the way you have been glaring at me since dinner.”

Tugging her into his arms he slid his hands up the back of her legs to cup her shapely backside. “You weren’t getting to bed fast enough.”

He watched her carefully as he brushed light kisses over her face. As always her eyes began to grow heavy-lidded, the green darkening with the hint of her growing passion. It told him that, although she might be thinking herself glad to be rid of him, she had not been able to dim her desire for him. She might think it was over, he mused as he tugged off her shift, but it was not.

Emily met his gaze as he pressed her flesh against his. Passion was darkening the depths of his eyes, but anger still lingered. She pushed against him, trying to free herself, but his hold on her simply tightened.

“You are still angry with me. I don’t want"—she hesitated but was unable to find any words—"this done in anger.”

“You’re damned glad to be seeing Harper tomorrow, aren’t you?”

She blinked, feeling confused, a state of mind greatly contributed to by the way he was stroking her in all the right places. “Well, yes. Of course. I haven’t seen my brother in far too long.”

Pushing her onto her back, he crouched over her. “Maybe it ain’t anger you see, but determination.”

“Determination?” The word came out as a gasp for he began to lathe the tips of her breasts with his tongue.

For a moment she forgot what they were talking about. She burrowed her fingers into his hair, holding his head against her breasts. The way he gently kneaded their fullness with his hands, skillfully teased the tips with his tongue until they ached, and then soothed that torment by drawing the hardened nub deep into his mouth, made her desire soar and thought nearly impossible.

“A determination to be sure that you don’t get to pleased to see Harper that you forget the last weeks and just who you spent them with.” He brushed soft kisses over her midriff and felt her buck slightly when he teased at her navel with his tongue.

Cloud intended to mark her as his. He wanted to brand her in flesh and mind so firmly that her skin would still heat with the memory of him for weeks to come. For a while he would not be able to keep a close watch on her, so he would leave her with a memory so strong it would prove guard enough.

As he stroked her thighs with his lips and hands, Emily found it impossible to speak clearly. She had the feeling he meant for her to be so enthralled. When his lips brushed the very top of her thigh she knew what he
planned to do to her. Still uncertain about that intimacy, she tried to pull away but he held her still with ease. She cried out when the warmth of his mouth touched the very center point of her desire. In another instant she no longer cared about what he had been saying or what his mood was; she simply wanted him, craved the pleasure he was giving her.

When he finally responded to her cries and plunged into her, she clung to him tightly. Although her release was quick and fierce, he was soon joining her in the fall into desire’s abyss. It was not until her senses began to return to normal that she began to suspect that his lovemaking had been inspired by more than a need to give and get pleasure. She began to feel a little as if she had been used. It left her confused and hurt, for she was not sure why he had acted so, whether or not his reasons would simply hurt her more. It was that thought that kept her silent until his actions told her that he intended to make love to her again.

Pushing him away, she said quietly, “I think I have had enough of your games.” She turned onto her side.