Only 04 - Only Love

everyone safe. Even the Culpeppers aren’t dumb enough to take on a man like Caleb Black.
    And there’s always Reno or Wolfe or both of them together if the fight gets too hard for Cal to handle alone. Shannon would be safe with them. She would have Willy and Jessi and Eve for company. Shannon wouldn’t be at the mercy of strangers. She would be with…family.
    I could go yondering again and not always be looking back, wondering if Shannon was hungry or tried or frightened or hurt, needing someone and no one was nearby.
    Relief at the solution to his problem swept through Whip, loosening some of the tension that had ridden him without mercy since he had discovered just how innocent a window Shannon ConnerSmith really was. Smiling, he walked even faster into the meadow.
    Shannon took one look at the man striding toward her and felt her heart leap with a joy she knew would end in heartbreak. Yet she could no more stop the joy than she could stop the sun from rising at dawn.
    She had seen very little of Whip in the two days since he had discovered she was a virgin. When she awoke at dawn, he was already gone to Rifle Sight. He didn’t come back until it was too dark to work any longer. By then he was too tired to do much more than bathe and eat and fall asleep.
    “I’m glad you came back early,” Shannon said.
    Whip smiled. “You sure?”
    She nodded almost shyly.
    “Even though I’ve been less company to you than that beast?” he asked ruefully.
    She nodded again and whispered, “Yes.”
    Whip looked at the heightened color of Shannon’s cheeks, the sweet curve of her mouth, and the endless blue of her eyes. He realized anew how pleased he was to have found a solution to the problem of Shannon’s future. A solution that didn’t involve marriage.
    To any man.
    “Whip?”
    “Mm?”
    “What is it? You look as smug as a rooster with twenty hens.”
    Whip laughed and wished he could hug Shannon. Yet he knew he must not. Touching her would end up only one way-with her virginity gone and him so hard and deep inside her that it would be like tearing off their own skin when they finally separated.
    But separate they would, for the undiscovered sunrise would call to him.
    “I don’t want to hurt you,” Whip said, no longer smiling.
    Shannon’s smile turned upside down. Are you leaving? Is that why you came back early? Has that damned distant sunrise called your name?
    But Shannon didn’t give voice to the questions that were tearing her apart. There was no purpose in speaking. Whip would go when he wished to. Knowing when he was leaving wouldn’t make the remaining moments any better for her.
    Knowing would make it worse. Knowing would cut out her heart and leave nothing but darkness in its place, an emptiness she couldn’t hide from Whip no matter how hard she tried.
    “I know you don’t want to hurt me,” Shannon said, balancing her voice as carefully as she would a pan of scalding water. “Don’t worry about it, yondering man.”
    “Horse—”
    “I’m fully of age,” she interrupted, “and I’ve been warned more than once that you don’t want ties. If I get hurt, it’s on my head, not yours.”
    “But—”
    “Come back to camp and wash up,” Shannon interrupted again, determined not to talk about leaving. “That shirt must be about as comfortable as a handful of nettles. Do you want an early supper?”
    “My shirt isn’t what’s nettling me,” Whip retorted. “It’s you. My conscience won’t let me leave you at the mercy of the likes of the Culpeppers.”
    Then don’t go!
    But Shannon knew better than to voice the cry of her soul. Whip would go no matter what hisconscience and her heart wanted. Nor did she want him to stay at the cost of his own happiness, his own heart and soul.
    He loved the unseen sunrise more than he would ever love any woman.
    “Tell your conscience that I got along just fine before I met you,” Shannon said.
    “But you didn’t!”
    “How do you know?” she asked reasonably. “You weren’t here.”
    “Damn it, Shannon—”
    “Yes. Damn it.”
    With that, she started walking to camp. Prettyface and Whip fell into step along either side.
    “How did the digging go?” Shannon asked.
    Whip grunted. “Worse than yesterday, better than tomorrow.”
    She tried to think of something encouraging to say. She couldn’t. Fear for her own future was too strong. Yet if she talked about that, Whip would think she was building a cage for him, nailing him