Whispers on the Wind (29 page)

“That’s what you think?”
Carter asked, but he didn’t wait for her to answer. He brought the
horses around and held hers. “We are almost there. I can see that
you’re still sleepy. Do you want to ride with me so that you can
sleep?”

Yes, she wanted to ride
with him. She wanted Carter to hold her, to tell her everything
would be all right but her pride kicked in. “I’ll ride my own
horse, thank you.” After all, he was going to leave her once they
got there. She might as well get used to it

Again, they started riding,
but this time Mary rode beside Carter and he kept his eye on her.
He really didn’t know what to say to her. He knew that she was
angry with him for bringing her in. He really couldn’t blame her,
but dammit, it was his job—it didn’t mean he didn’t care about her.
How in the world were they going to close this gap between them? He
had no idea.

Sure enough, a half hour
later, Mary began to nod. This time Carter didn’t ask, but instead
pulled her in front of him and told her to be quiet when she
started to argue. She gave up the struggle and rested her head on
his chest.

It took another hour before
they rode into town, but when they arrived, it was time to wake
Mary. “Wake up. We’re here.” Carter nudged her.

She blinked several times.
“This isn’t Gregory Gulch.”

“No, it isn’t,” Carter
said with a smile. “I thought you might like a bath and a good
night’s sleep. We’re in Appleton.”

Carter liked the surprise
he saw in Mary’s eyes as she looked at him and whispered, “Thank
you.”

It didn’t take long before
they were settled in the Stratford Hotel. Carter had ordered a hot
bath for Mary at the front desk, and she had to admit she was
looking forward to easing her aching body into the tub. The past
two days had been draining both physically and
emotionally.

“This is a nice hotel,”
Mary commented as she looked around the room. There was a big
feather bed and two overstuffed chairs that faced a fireplace. It
stood cold and empty at the moment, but she knew in the winter
there would be a blazing fire.

“We’ve stayed here once
before,” Carter said.

“We?”

Before he could say
anything else, the maids brought in the last buckets of hot water
for the bath. They filled the tub, then left as quickly as they had
come.

Carter started to leave
with the maids, but paused, his hand on the door. “You relax and
take your bath. I’ll be back in an hour.”

“All right,” Mary said as
he strode out the door without looking back. She was a little
disappointed that Carter was leaving, but she didn’t know why.
Maybe she was getting used to having him around, and that wasn’t
good.

However, the water was so
inviting, she quickly forgot her disappointment and settled into
the tin hip tub. She did nothing for a long while but soak. The
water did its job, soothing her aching muscles. She’d been through
a lot in the last twenty-four hours, and the part of it she didn’t
remember scared her. What if the men had taken advantage of her?
She shivered at the thought Then again, maybe it was better she
didn’t know what had happened.

Mary scrubbed her body
until it had a nice pink glow, then she washed her hair. Feeling
much better, she stepped out of the tub and dried off in the bath
sheets the maids had left She wrapped her hair up, then slipped on
her chemise. For a moment she thought about getting completely
dressed and then decided against it as she climbed into the middle
of the bed. As she rubbed her hair with the towel, she decided she
was tired of fighting herself over Carter. She wanted him, if only
for a day, an hour, whatever she could get

As if she had conjured
Carter up, the door opened. He stopped short when he saw her
sitting in the middle of the bed. He must have taken a bath, too,
because his hair was still damp, clinging to his forehead, and he
was dressed in black, looking very mysterious. When Carter didn’t
move, Mary said, “Come in. The bath was wonderful. Thank you for
arranging it for me.”

Carter saw the heartrending
tenderness of her gaze and felt more like a fool than ever. Her
half clothed body short-circuited his brain. There was so much to
say, so much that needed to be said, but not knowing where to
start, he stated the obvious. “You’re beautiful.”

Mary blushed.

Carter attempted to regain
his composure. “Here, slip on my shirt. I’ve ordered dinner in our
room. It should be here in a minute.”

“How did you get dinner
brought to our room? Hotels are not usually that
accommodating.”

Carter gave her a slow
smile. “They are with enough money handed to them.”

Mary felt alive with
excitement as she slipped on Carter’s shirt, which was three times
too big for her. Why was he going out of his way to make this a
special evening?

Even a condemned man got
one last meal, she thought wryly.

A knock on the door got
their attention. When Carter answered it, the staff brought in
several trays and placed them on the round table by the
window.

After everyone had left,
Carter asked, “Would you care to join me for dinner?”

Mary smiled as she walked
over and took her seat at the table. She had to adjust the
shirtsleeves of Carter’s shirt so she could see her
hands.

He lifted the lids, which
consisted of big pots turned upside down over the plates, off the
food. The aroma of fried chicken and creamed potatoes made Mary’s
mouth water.

“I don’t know about you,
but I’m starved,” she admitted as she took a crispy chicken leg and
bit down into the juicy meat.

Carter laughed. “I’m kind
of hungry myself. Jerky isn’t very filling.”

At first, they were too
interested in eating to talk, but once she had her stomach halfway
pleased, Mary reminded him, “Earlier, you said we had been here
before.”

“That’s right After we
found you in the snow, the storm was so bad that we stopped here to
spend the night and have a doctor look at you.” Carter wiped his
mouth with the linen napkin and sat back with a cup of hot coffee
in his hands. “As a matter of fact we stayed in this same room.”
Mary’s brow raised slightly. “We? As in me and you?”

“Yep. I slept there right
beside you.” He pointed to the bed.

Mary gave him a sexy smile.
“At least you were a gentleman.”

“Always a gentleman.
However, in your condition you looked more like a drowned cat,”
Carter said. He glanced at her. “Tell me what happened for you to
be out in the snow.”

Mary grew serious. “First,
do you think that I killed Big Jim?”

Carter studied her for a
long while before he finally said, “No, I don’t.” The smile Mary
gave him warmed his heart

“In that case, I’ll tell
you. Most of it I’m sure you heard when I told Thunder. I was so
scared that I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to go for the
sheriff, but I looked guilty, even to myself, so the only thing I
knew to do was run. I gathered the only dress I had and a couple of
bags of gold. I figured that I would go someplace until I could
remember what had happened. But”—she smiled—“as you know, there was
a terrible snowstorm, I lost my grip on the reins, the horse
stumbled, and I went flying.”

“Well, that certainly
explains why you were headfirst in the snow bank.” Carter laughed.
“It’s a wonder you didn’t break your fool neck.”

Mary placed her napkin on
the table and got to her feet. “I guess I should thank you for
rescuing me. Although I must admit that a marshal was the last
person I wanted to see.” She leaned over and placed a kiss on his
cheek, then said, “Thank you.”

“I think you can do better
than that,” Carter said as he stood up.

She held out her hand as he
reached toward her. “I promised myself that you wouldn’t kiss me so
easily the next time, unless I knew how you felt about
me.”

He paused and looked at
her. He was waging a war with himself. Finally, he took a deep
breath as if he’d come to a decision, and said, “Don’t you
know?”

“No, I don’t,” Mary
said.

“I care a great deal,”
Carter murmured, his eyes brimming with tenderness and passion. “If
you say the word, we will leave this hotel and go anywhere but
Gregory Gulch.”

Mary’s heart slammed hard
against her ribs. “You would break the law for me?”

“Yes.”

She could feel the tears
pooling in her eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“I—I never thought you
would do that for me,” she admitted as she lowered her hand to wipe
a stray tear from her cheek. “I think I’d feel much better if you’d
hold me.”

She didn’t have to ask
twice. Carter wrapped her in his arms.

“If we ran,” Mary finally
said, “then I’d always look guilty, and you would always have some
small doubt that I might have committed the murder.” She pulled
back to see his face. “You see, I still don’t remember what
happened, so even I’m not sure if I killed Jim. I want to stand
trial.”

He looked down at her. “Are
you sure?”

She nodded. “But I’m
scared.”

Carter took a deep breath,
folding her back in his arms. “I know, sweetheart The unknown is
always frightening, but I’ll be here for you.”

She felt so small and
helpless in his arms, he thought—until he remembered it was Mary
that he held.

He placed kisses on his
little spitfire’s face, and she responded by molding her body into
his. His anticipation was almost unbearable, and the blood pounding
in his head told him it was impossible to go slower much longer. He
wanted to remember every moment with her, but it wasn’t enough to
satisfy the fire within him.

As he pressed his mouth a
bit harder, she parted her lips and Carter found heaven. Mary was
so warm and loving, and he was drowning in pleasure like he’d never
known existed. He slipped his arm behind her knees and lifted her
into his arms. She kissed the side of his neck as he carried her
over and placed her on the bed. Quickly, Carter dispensed with his
clothes to join her.

Carefully, he slipped off
her shirt then untied the ribbons of her chemise and slipped the
garment slowly down her body. His lips followed where the flimsy
material had been, across her breasts, lower over her stomach,
until he reached her thighs. She tightened her legs. “Don’t,” he
rasped.

Mary wasn’t sure what he
was doing, but she decided to trust him. She relaxed. Then Carter
showed her a kind of pleasure that she hadn’t known existed. She
whimpered and groaned and then he was back. Their kisses were
frenzied now as if they both knew they might never be together
again. His hands began a lust-arousing exploration of her soft
skin.

Carter’s kisses were
promises of things that might never be, but Mary knew, in this
moment, that the rest of the world could go away and leave them
both alone because she never wanted to lose him.

But she also realized that
she would lose him if she ended up dangling at the end of a rope.
So she held nothing back. She gave as much pleasure as she
received.

In one swift move, she
rolled on top of Carter, placing feathery kisses on his neck, on
his chest, and then she moved lower until she heard his gasp at her
touch.

Mary knew she was in
control, and she liked seeing the dazed look in Carter’s eyes when
she tasted him.

When Carter could stand no
more, he yanked her back up so he could devour her mouth. He
couldn’t seem to get enough of her. He kissed her urgently as the
flames of passion burned within her.

Enough. He wanted her now.
All of her.

Carter lifted Mary’s hips
and guided her up and onto his rigid erection. She gasped as he
filled her. His hands caressed her breasts as she moved up and
down.

Mary felt his heat deep
inside her, throbbing and moving with her until red hot desire
built to bursting and they found the tempo that bound their bodies
together.

Exploding in a downpour of
fiery sensation, Mary’s world spun out of control and she called
Carter’s name.

Carter felt her release and
then he sought his, holding her firmly as he thrust up and spilled
his seed into her warmth. He reached for Mary and pulled her down
to lie within his arms.

The room was quiet except
for the heavy breathing of the couple who had found happiness, if
only for tonight.

Chapter Nineteen

The next morning Carter and
Mary started riding up the mountain to Gregory Gulch. The view was
lovely and the ride much more pleasant than the last time she had
ridden down this road. There were wildflowers scattered all over
the ground and growing out of small cracks in the rocky walls of
the mountains.

Even though Mary knew where
she was heading and why, she felt at peace this morning.

She knew Carter cared for
her, and that was more than she’d ever thought possible.