Only 05 - Autumn Lover

you’re in a snit, you can’t head off at a dead run.”
    Elyssa’s temper slipped.
    “Really?” she asked coolly. “How will you stop me?”
    “Penny depends on you,” Hunter said in an icy tone. “If you kill yourself racing that damned stud over rough country, Penny would be at the mercy of strangers for the roof over her head and the food on her plate.”
    Penny , Elyssa thought starkly. I should have guessed. Hunter wasn’t worried about me at all .
    With outward calm Elyssa concentrated on the golden grasslands slanting gently down from the mountains to the tawny marsh below. After a few slow breaths she was certain she could control her temper.
    I need this arrogant male creature , Elyssa reminded herself bluntly. I have to keep telling myself that .
    I need Hunter .
    And if that means watching him court Penny, so be it. I took a lot worse in England and never sniveled, so why does Hunter’s contempt cut me so deeply ?
    Because I want him to like me, that’s why. I want him to use that black velvet voice on me .
    But it wasn’t something Elyssa was going to say out loud.
    “Are you listening?” Hunter demanded.
    Distantly Elyssa nodded. The slight motion was enough to send her loosened hair rippling like moonlight over the green silk of her dress.
    “I won’t work for a spoiled girl who gets in a snit at everything I say,” Hunter continued.
    Again Elyssa nodded.
    Again the motion set her hair to sliding softly against her breasts. With quick, impatient motions she gathered up the flyaway strands and knotted them at her neck once more.
    “I won’t work for a girl who sulks, either,” Hunter said.
    Elyssa turned and looked at him.
    The look told Hunter that Elyssa wasn’t sulking. Her eyes were distant. They had a primitive calculation that reminded him of Leopard.
    The challenging, sexy, admiring light in her eyes had vanished.
    Good , Hunter told himself. It’s about time she stopped looking at me like she was wondering what it would be like to get on me and ride .
    “What are you thinking?” he asked.
    Hunter wondered if Elyssa was as surprised as he was by the question. He shouldn’t care and he knew it.
    If the question surprised Elyssa, she didn’t show it. Her face had assumed a distant, lady-of-the-manor expression that irritated Hunter.
    “You don’t want to know what I’m thinking,” Elyssa said after a moment.
    Hunter’s mouth flattened.
    “Just as I thought,” he said. “You’re still in a snit. There’s one thing a spoiled girl can’t stand, and that’s the truth.”
    “If you say so.”
    “I just did, didn’t I?”
    Elyssa said nothing.
    “Damn,” Hunter said finally. “I hate it when a girl sulks! What the hell is going on behind those green eyes of yours?”
    “I’m thinking.”
    “About what?”
    “A simple truth.”
    Hunter waited for Elyssa to explain.
    And waited.
    And waited.
    “All right,” he said roughly. “What is this simple truth of yours?”
    “I need a man who can sneak past the Culpeppers, control Mickey, protect Penny and myself, and get those cattle to the army. In brief, I need you, Hunter. Therefore, I will have to suffer your unwarranted tirades until I no longer need you.”
    The calm, clipped summation surprised Hunter. When angry, Belinda hadn’t been capable of anything more thoughtful than tears, flounces, and pouts.
    “Are you going to cross me at every opportunity?” Hunter asked.
    Elyssa watched Hunter with level sea-green eyes.
    “Are you going to insult me at every opportunity?” she asked calmly.
    “Only when you act like a spoiled little girl.”
    “I suspect that in your eyes I am incapable of acting any other way, no matter what I do.”
    Hunter resettled his hat with an impatient motion of his hand.
    “Are you saying that my judgment is wrong?” he asked with deceptive gentleness.
    “Yes.”
    “I disagree.”
    “I know, just as I know that you disliked me from the moment you first saw me.”
    Hunter said nothing. If Elyssa hadn’t figured out that he was violently attracted to her—and just as violently opposed to being attracted to her—he wasn’t going to point it out.
    “What I don’t know,” Elyssa added, “is why you agreed to work for me at all.”
    Hunter went still. He needed the appearance of being the Ladder S ramrod. Otherwise the Culpeppers would get word that the Texans who had been dogging their trail for two years had finally caught up.
    “I need the job,” Hunter said