Only 05 - Autumn Lover

hair and back. Slowly the tremors were leaving her body.
    “Feeling better now?” Hunter asked gently.
    She nodded.
    One of Hunter’s hands fitted itself beneath Elyssa’s chin. He tilted her face up so that she couldn’t avoid his eyes.
    Elyssa’s body stiffened. Despite Hunter’s tender care, he was furious with her.
    “If you ever pull a damfool stunt like that again,” Hunter said in icy, precise tones, “I will peel you like a grape. You had no business leaving the house alone and you know it!”
    Using the last of her strength, Elyssa started to push herself away from Hunter.
    For an instant Hunter’s arms closed more tightly around her. Then, reluctantly, he let her go.
    “What I do is my business, not yours,” Elyssa said.
    The declaration was ruined by the hoarseness in her voice.
    “Not after last night,” Hunter countered, his voice low and furious.
    Elyssa blushed scarlet and stumbled to her feet.
    “Last night gives you no rights over me,” she said through her teeth.
    “The hell it doesn’t.”
    Hunter came to his feet with a strength and grace that made Elyssa want to shoot him where he stood.
    “You could be pregnant,” he said. “Remember?”
    “A gentleman wouldn’t—”
    “Hunter!” Morgan called from beyond the reeds, interrupting Elyssa’s low, angry words. “Where are you?”
    Hunter’s whistled shrilly.
    “I’m not a gentleman,” Hunter said softly. “I proved that last night when I hurt you. I’m sorry about that, Sassy.”
    Sassy.
    “I hate that name,” she said.
    “Why? It suits you.”
    “Just like ‘fancy man’ suits you. Now .”
    Hunter’s mouth flattened.
    Elyssa went to Leopard. She tried to mount, but herbody betrayed her. Her legs were like string.
    With easy strength Hunter picked up Elyssa and dumped her in Leopard’s saddle.
    A moment later Bugle Boy pushed into the small clearing among the reeds, summoned by Hunter’s whistle.
    Hunter went to the Indian girl and began making signs. She watched intently, hesitated, and made the sign for yes.
    Very gently he picked up the girl and her baby and placed them in Bugle Boy’s saddle. Then he swung up behind her, took the reins, and headed out of the marsh.
    When Hunter looked over his shoulder, Elyssa was gathering her reins with fingers that were visibly uncertain. Hunter wanted to go to her, to pull her in his arms and hold her, simply hold her, reassuring both of them that she was still alive.
    But Hunter had seen the shame and defiance in Elyssa’s blue-green eyes. He knew that she would go for his face like a cat if he tried to touch her.
    Well, soldier, you got what you wanted , Hunter told himself bitterly. She no longer looks at you with admiration and desire. And she sure as hell isn’t building dreams around one Hunter Maxwell anymore.
    That’s what I wanted, isn’t it?
    Isn’t it?
    The question echoed in Hunter’s mind through the ride back to the ranch.
    It’s better this way , Hunter told himself many times. We’re all wrong for each other. She’s too young.
    The image of Elyssa racing at breakneck speed to save the Indian girl and her baby lanced through Hunter’s mind, reminding him that age had little to do with bravery. During the war, he had seen boys do what had to be done at a time when seasoned soldiers turned pale and shook.
    Too bad Belinda didn’t have as much courage in her whole body as Sassy has in her little finger , Hunter thought painfully. Ted and Em might be alive today .
    The thought was like a knife twisting in Hunter’s soul. He had let lust choose his wife, and his children had paid.
    It still wouldn’t work , Hunter told himself fiercely. Brave or not, Sassy is still too young to know her own mind. When the babies started coming along, she would be like Belinda, always hungering for the butterfly life she left behind .
    It’s better this way .
    It has to be .
    There’s no going back .
    Yet the pain Hunter had caused Elyssa gnawed on his soul as mercilessly as his hunger for her. The shock waves of a single, shattering truth kept shaking him.
    Elyssa had been a virgin when she came to his bed.
    And an angry, humiliated woman when she left it.

20
    B roodingly Hunter stood in the doorway and watched while Elyssa cared for the Indian girl and her baby. Even three days after the skirmish with the Culpeppers, Hunter still went cold when he thought how close Elyssa had come to dying.
    Every time he closed his eyes, he relived again the horrible