Only 05 - Autumn Lover

tracking skills in fancy foreign drawing rooms.”
    “Just enough to find the door out,” Elyssa retorted.
    Hunter’s smile was big enough to show a brief flash of teeth against his dark mustache. Though he had shaved that morning, beard stubble showed darkly beneath his tanned skin.
    Silently Hunter sat on his heels and looked at the tracks. He noted and memorized each peculiarity—a notch where a shoe had been nicked by a rock, a blurring where the shoe had worn oddly, a mismatch in size among the hooves, a tendency to come down hard on the left foreleg.
    When Hunter finally stood, he was sure he would recognize the tracks if he saw them again. He grabbed Bugle Boy’s saddle horn and swung aboard with a quick, catlike motion.
    “Well?” Elyssa asked eagerly.
    “He could have been here any time since the last rain.”
    “Three days?”
    “The tracks were probably made today,” Hunter said. “The edges aren’t dried out.”
    Hunter settled his hat more firmly on his head.
    “But it’s damp and shady in here,” he added. “Hard to say how long ago they were made, much less who made them. Probably some drifter looking for a seep to water his horse.”
    “Then you think Bedamned just went loco?”
    “Like I said, it happens.”
    Elyssa looked relieved.
    “I was afraid…” she began, then let her words trail off.
    “So was I.”
    Startled, she looked at Hunter.
    “You were?” Elyssa asked. “You sure didn’t look it.”
    “Neither did you. A miracle Leopard didn’t dump you, the way he twisted and jumped sideways.”
    “If he hadn’t jumped, Bedamned would have hooked us.”
    Hunter was silent. The thought had occurred to him with gut-chilling regularity ever since the longhorn had erupted from the underbrush.
    “Well,” Elyssa said, sighing. “Bedamned was the only rogue bull longhorn we had, so we won’t have to worry about that happening again.”
    Though Hunter nodded, he didn’t put his rifle back in the scabbard after he reloaded it.
    Unease bloomed coolly within Elyssa once again. Obviously Hunter feared the same thing she did.
    Bedamned could have been chased and chivvied down that ravine until he burst from it like a bullet from the barrel of a rifle.
    And like a bullet, Bedamned could have killed her.

8
    R uddy beastly fly,” Elyssa muttered.
    She swiped her shoulder over her cheek to discourage the insect, but kept milking Cream without a pause. The fly buzzed around again, then flew off to annoy one of the horses.
    Milk squirted into the bucket and foamed high. The cow known as Cream munched hay with bovine thoroughness while she was being milked.
    Cupid purred insistently and watched each stream of milk with covetous yellow eyes.
    “You’ll get yours, cat,” she said, “but first I have to get enough for pudding and gravy and butter and cheese.”
    Elyssa milked rhythmically, eyes closed, cheek against the cow’s warm flank. Slowly she began humming her favorite waltz. As she did, she dreamed of what it would be like to dance with Hunter.
    Maybe I’ll get Penny to suggest a bit of waltzing. Hunter would turn himself inside out for her .
    That thought took the curve out of Elyssa’s mouth. In the eight days since Hunter had come to the Ladder S, she had spent many hours riding the land with him. Alone.
    Not once had he been other than businesslike with her.
    I must have dreamed the tenderness and hunger in his eyes the day Gaylord Culpepper came calling and Hunter almost kissed me .
    Almost .
    Lord, I didn’t know I could ache so much for something I never had .
    A dream, that’s all .
    Just a dream .
    But Elyssa knew she hadn’t dreamed the moment when she had looked up into Hunter’s eyes. She had seen splinters of blue and green scattered through the quicksilver, and all of it was burning with concern and desire.
    For her.
    The memory haunted Elyssa as much as the restless heat of her own body. More than once she had awakened from dreams that made her blush when she remembered them. Never had she lain naked with a man like that.
    Except in her dreams of Hunter.
    Why won’t he try to kiss me again? Surely he must know I wouldn’t refuse him. I’ve done everything but trip him to get his attention .
    Maybe I should try that next .
    Elyssa sighed and turned her other cheek against Cream’s warm flank, humming a waltz in counterpoint to her swirling thoughts. The violet silk of her dress shimmered and burned like purple flame with every motion of her body,