Only 03 - Only You

her.
    Again.
    “Sugar child,” he said, kissing her temple softly. “Would you feel better if I told you sweet lies about love?”
    “Yes.”
    Then Eve laughed sadly and shook her head.
    “No,” she amended. “Because I’d want to believe you so much, I’d do it, and then I’d wake up one day and find you saddled up and ready to leave, and I’d know the words for the lies they were.”
    “I’m not saddling any horses.”
    “We haven’t found the mine yet, have we?”
    Gently Eve pushed away and looked up at Reno with steady eyes and a smile that threatened toturn upside down. She stood on tiptoe to brush her lips over his.
    “Thanks for the teaching, sugar man. Now maybe we better get to work finding that mine. I’ve had about all the learning I can bear in one day.”

16
    T HE next day Reno and Eve followed the shaman’s directions, heading for an old, nearly forgotten way down the plateau. Late in the afternoon, Reno turned to Eve, breaking the companionable silence that had grown between them as they rode through the wild land.
    “The shaman said I had to be sure to take you to a special place up ahead,” Reno said.
    “Where?” Eve asked, surprised.
    “About a mile from here. You stay put while I check it out. I don’t want you getting caught in some old shaman’s revenge.”
    It didn’t take Reno long to reconnoiter. No more than ten minutes went by before he was back. He reined in next to Eve, saw the unasked questions in her eyes, and reached for her. He leaned over and wrapped his hand around her nape, pulling her to meet the quick, fierce claiming of his mouth. When he released her, she gave him a look that was both startled and…hungry.
    He smiled. “Did you think that, once satisfied, it would go away?”
    Bright color rose in Eve’s cheeks.
    “I don’t think thinking had much to do with it,” she said, remembering her headlong abandon yesterday, when Reno had bathed her in the hidden pool.
    Reno laughed and nibbled lightly at her mouth.
    “You’re so sweet to tease,” he said. “It’s a burning wonder I didn’t wake you up this morning the way I wanted to.”
    “How was that?”
    “From the inside out.”
    The color deepened in Eve’s cheeks, but she couldn’t help laughing.
    Reno had been so different with her today, almost as though he were courting her. Then Eve remembered what he once had said about courting, and her laughter faded.
    Courting is for a woman you want to make your wife. That was a little rolling around before breakfast with a saloon girl.
    “But I decided it was too soon,” Reno continued. “You’re such a tender little bud. I don’t want to bruise you.”
    Though Reno’s words were teasing, his eyes weren’t. Eve knew that he still blamed himself for hurting her the one time he had taken her.
    “I’m fine,” she said.
    And it was true. She had awakened this morning determined to enjoy what she had rather than crying after what she didn’t have. Life had taught her that tomorrow would come soon enough, and with it all the regrets for yesterdays that were forever beyond her reach—her dead mother, her gentle and helpless father, the offhanded crueltyof life to the very children who were least able to defend themselves.
    Whatever comes with Reno, I won’t regret it. Whether he believes it or not, love exists. I know. I feel it.
    For him.
    And maybe, just maybe, he can feel it for me. He loved once, foolishly. He can love again, wisely. He can love me.
    Maybe…
    “You certain?” Reno asked.
    Eve looked startled, then realized he hadn’t somehow guessed her thoughts. He was simply pursuing the subject of how she felt today.
    “Yes,” she said. “I’m fine.”
    “Even after all these hours in the saddle?” he pressed.
    She looked away from the crystal clarity of Reno’s eyes, trying to conceal the depth of her feelings at his concern. He didn’t love her, but he did care if he hurt her. That was something.
    It was the world. No one who was stronger than Eve was had ever cared about her like that.
    After a moment Eve touched Reno’s cheek with her fingertips and tried to reassure him that he hadn’t hurt her yesterday, when he had torn the veil of her innocence and replaced it with a sensual knowledge that permeated her blood like champagne.
    “The only thing wrong with me,” she said, “is that I get all shivery and have trouble breathing when I think about what we…about what you…about what I…”
    Eve made an