Only 05 - Autumn Lover

whispered fiercely. “You did! I didn’t have theleast idea what you—what I—what we—damn.”
    “Uh-huh,” Hunter said, unimpressed.
    He fastened the last button and stepped back, grateful to be finished. The feel of Elyssa’s silky breasts was branded on his hands. His skin burned with the memory of her heat.
    “I know it comes as a surprise to a flirt like you,” Hunter said curtly, “but some men can’t be brought to heel by a girl’s soft body, no matter how experienced she is at love play.”
    “The only ‘experience’ I have is what you just gave me!”
    “Are you saying,” Hunter drawled sardonically, “that I’m so damned irresistible to you that you get all hot and bothered at a few kisses?”
    Abruptly Elyssa remembered the lessons her English cousins had taught her. Her reckless temper cooled instantly.
    “I’d be a fool to admit that, wouldn’t I?” she whispered.
    “Fool or a liar. Either one isn’t guaranteed to attract a man.”
    “Really? Is that why you were all over me like a summer rash?”
    Hunter’s mouth tightened.
    “You wanted me, Hunter.” Elyssa looked pointedly at the fit of his trousers. “You still do.”
    The reminder of just how close he had come to losing control didn’t help Hunter’s mood one bit.
    “Wanted you ?” Hunter shrugged. “I wanted a woman, period. You were handy.”
    “I don’t believe you.”
    “You should.”
    “Why? It’s not true. You don’t look at Penny the way you look at me, and she’s a woman.”
    “Hell,” Hunter snarled. “Give it up, Sassy.”
    “Give up what? The truth?”
    “The truth is that a man no more cares who he eases his ache with than a stallion asks the pedigree of a mare before he mounts her.”
    Elyssa’s breath came in hard. She fought not to give in to the emotions tearing her apart. Her only consolation was that Hunter, despite his denials, had been as involved in the passionate embrace as she was.
    If all Hunter had in mind was lust, he would have kept on undressing me , Elyssa told herself. God knows I wouldn’t have stopped him .
    The realization of her own complex hunger for Hunter dismayed Elyssa. She had never been this vulnerable, even when she was a frightened fifteen-year-old thrown on the mercy of cousins who had no kindness in them.
    How long is it going to take for Hunter to get over his wife and admit that he’s falling in love with me ? Elyssa asked herself fearfully. He’s so hardheaded .
    There was no answer to Elyssa’s troubling question, unless it was Hunter’s broad back as he headed toward the dense shadows of the barn.
    Elyssa shivered and rubbed her arms to chase away a chill that had nothing to do with the night air. She watched Hunter until she couldn’t separate him from the overwhelming darkness of the night itself.
    With hesitant steps, Elyssa turned to her garden once more, taking what solace she could in the fragrant herbs.

11
    F or several days Hunter avoided being alone with Elyssa. She told herself it was a sign of victory.
    Hers.
    Hunter doesn’t want to admit it , Elyssa assured herself, but he has strong feelings toward me .
    And it’s more than just lust .
    Part of Elyssa believed what she was telling herself.
    And part of her knew that she was whistling in the dark as she walked past a graveyard that she feared might hold her dreams.
    Unhappily Elyssa shifted in the saddle. Her very bones ached from the constant riding. But at least there were no flapping skirts to deal with anymore.
    She and Penny had ripped apart an old riding habit and thrown out the petticoats. The heavy black silk of the top still fit like a shadow, but she had narrowed the fullness around each leg until the skirt was little more than loose pants. One of Penny’s old wool-lined buckskin jackets completed Elyssa’s outfit.
    With her hair tucked beneath her hat, Elyssa looked enough like a man from a distance that Hunter had quit complaining about dragging her all over the landscape like a fancy lure.
    Elyssa reined Leopard around a fresh pile of rubble that had collected at the bottom of the gully. The stones and mud and brush had come down the steep slope of the ravine in a small avalanche during the last big rain.
    It was a common problem during the monsoon months. The rain came in torrents, boiled down the mountain slopes, hurtled through ravines, and spilled into the marshland out at the edges of the ranch. Often, big chunks of the various ravines came down with the