Only 05 - Autumn Lover

cattle?”
    “At dawn on the fourth day, I’ll raid the B Bar and let the devil take the hindmost.”
    “Where do you want me?” Case asked.
    “Wherever you won’t get shot by my men.”
    Case nodded. Then he slid his gun from its holster, spun the cylinder to check the load, and returned the gun to its place with an easy motion.
    “Watch yourself on the way back,” Case said.
    “What about you?”
    “I’m not distracted by a girl I want who’s mad as a dunked hen at me.”
    “I’m not a fool.”
    “Most of the time,” Case agreed sardonically.
    “What’s really bothering you? That you can’t have Sassy?”
    Case shook his head.
    “It’s the ranch I want,” Case said. “The ranch is something to build on when the last Culpepper is dead. Something that can’t be brutalized and dumped like broken whiskey bottles by the side of the trail.”
    Hunter was too shocked to speak. He sensed that Case was talking about how Em and Ted had died. It was a subject Case had refused to discuss, ever.
    Until now.
    “I’ll never speak of it again,” Case said. “I just wanted you to know that you’re the only living thing I’m able to care about since I found those kids. If Sassy can give you any ease with yourself and the past, I’ll be as happy for you as I can be for anything.”
    Hunter closed his eyes as a wave of grief went over him for all that had been lost to the cruel past.
    And part of what Hunter mourned was Case’s laughter. In some ways Case was dead as surely as Hunter’s own children.
    “Case…”
    There was no answer.
    Case had gone into the darkness as silently as he had come.

21
    “I have to show you something,” Hunter said.
    Elyssa gasped and spun around so quickly she almost dropped her mug of breakfast coffee.
    She had been certain Hunter was gone. From her bedroom window she had seen him ride out on Bugle Boy just after dawn. Then, after she could no longer see Hunter silhouetted against the rising light, Elyssa had drawn a long breath.
    It had been her first deep breath since yesterday, when the delicate touch of Hunter’s tongue had sent heat splintering through her body.
    The darkness in his eyes haunted her.
    “I thought you left,” she said.
    Hunter gave Elyssa a hooded look. She was wearing the muffling men’s clothes again. He acknowledged that they were more sensible for range work, but he missed the shimmer and sigh of silk swirling around her legs.
    “I did leave,” Hunter said neutrally. “Then I came across something you have to see.”
    “What?”
    He shook his head.
    “If I tell you, it will prejudice you,” Hunter said. “Ineed your first impression. How soon can you be ready to ride?”
    Puzzled, Elyssa set aside her coffee. As she faced Hunter, she told herself that her heart was beating faster because she was startled. It couldn’t be racing simply because she was about to ride out over the land with Hunter once more.
    Alone.
    “Where are we going?” she asked.
    “Not far.”
    Within minutes Elyssa and Hunter were mounted and riding away from the ranch house. Hunter rode with the rifle across his saddle and his eyes ceaselessly searching the land.
    Elyssa rode the same way. The only difference was that her eyes kept straying back to Hunter. When she realized it, she was angry with herself.
    It made no difference. Hunter drew her glance the way flame drew a moth. The shattering tenderness of yesterday’s caress still burned against her wrist.
    Asleep, she dreamed of him.
    Awake, his words echoed seductively in her mind, undermining her anger.
    You have everything to learn from me .
    Silently Elyssa followed Hunter across the land. The storms had taken a toll of the tawny grasses. Most were beaten flat by wind and rain. For the lowlands, autumn was a time of turmoil and defeat.
    But high on the shoulders of the mountains, aspens were coming into their full autumn glory. Leaves on some groves had turned as yellow as the summer sun. Other aspen groves were an orange so vivid it looked like tongues of fire licking up the deep canyons and long, shallow ravines.
    Broodingly Elyssa’s eyes returned to Hunter, herautumn lover, a man as complex and compelling to her as the land itself.
    Hunter was aware of Elyssa’s quiet glances. That, and the emptiness of the land, eased some of the tension that had been riding him.
    No matter how hard Hunter searched the wide land, he saw no sign of other people. He and Elyssa could have been alone on the face