Only 05 - Autumn Lover

herself.
    She took another long breath, thinking of Hunter. Hewas skilled, hardworking, intelligent, a born leader of men. Whatever could be done for the Ladder S, Hunter would do.
    Hunter must have been a fine officer. The younger boys all but worship him, and the men respect him .
    The few who don’t respect anything are smart enough to fear Hunter .
    Even Mickey .
    A delicate shiver went through Elyssa as she remembered her dress caught on a nail and her breasts resting against Hunter’s strong forearm.
    Another memory cascaded through her in a glittering stream of sensation. Hunter’s face in the moonlight, his lashes dark against his cheeks, his tongue hungry on her breast, his whole body hard with the intensity of his desire.
    Then today, when she had measured the extent of his hunger with her own hands.
    He can deny it until he’s blue in the face , Elyssa told herself, but he’s as involved as I am .
    Another shiver overtook Elyssa. If she hadn’t believed that Hunter was fighting an equally strong attraction to her, she would have been afraid.
    Never had she been drawn to a man as she was to Hunter.
    Her eyes followed him everywhere. She walked across the room to stand close to him. She asked him about the state of the land and the cattle and the men, anything to hear him talk, to be close enough to see the texture of his mustache and the movements of his lips.
    I’ll keep prying beneath his reserve , Elyssa promised herself. I’ll get to the gentleness and the laughter .
    And the passion .
    Dear God, the passion .
    The sound of a horse coming down the draw toward Elyssa made her breath catch. Bugle Boy was canteringtoward her. Elyssa’s face flushed and her heartbeat quickened.
    Hunter didn’t even look at her.
    “Why did you fire the shots?” he asked Morgan.
    “Found a branding fire.”
    “Show me.”
    Morgan kicked his tough little mustang into a canter. Hunter and Elyssa followed Morgan to the head of another draw. This one was part of a rumpled network of ravines and hillocks that unraveled into Wind Gap, which led to Bill’s small ranch.
    Hunter and Morgan dismounted. Hunter stalked along the tracks that went from Ladder S land to the Bar B. In addition to the tracks there were the scattered remains of a small fire.
    The kind that was used for unofficial branding.
    “If I was a sporting man,” Morgan said, “I’d bet a Ladder S beef laid down here and got up as a Slash River beef.”
    “Too bad we weren’t riding by here early this morning,” Hunter said. “We could have cooked the rustler over his own fire.”
    Without another word both men mounted. Hunter shot Elyssa a hard glance.
    “Where are the dogs?” he asked her.
    “Don’t glare at me. Last time I saw them, they were chasing steers for you.”
    Hunter started to whistle up the dogs, only to be stopped by a curt motion from Morgan.
    Between the fitful gusts of wind came the clear sound of a horse running hard.
    Hunter looked at Morgan.
    “No, suh,” Morgan said. “I sent the men off south looking for mustangs and Ladder S ponies, like you said they should.”
    “Get back into the ravine,” Hunter said to Elyssa. “We’ll be right on your heels. Move .”
    She spun Leopard on his hocks and shot back into the mouth of the damp, brushy ravine. As Hunter had promised, they were crowding the spotted stallion’s heels every step of the way. Very quickly the three horses were under cover.
    Before Elyssa realized what Hunter was doing, he turned Bugle Boy in to Leopard. The motion pressed Leopard back even farther into the shelter of a tall willow thicket.
    “Get off,” Hunter said tersely. “You’ll show above the brush.”
    While Hunter spoke, he kicked free of the stirrups and dropped to the ground. His repeating rifle was in his hands.
    With no fuss at all Hunter went up the steep side of the ravine until he merged into the shadows of a piñon. The muted yet unmistakable sound of a shell being levered into the firing chamber came back down the ravine.
    On an impulse Elyssa reached into Bugle Boy’s saddlebag and pulled out the spyglass.
    “Don’t turn that in to the sun,” Morgan warned in a low voice. “Glass can flash like a beacon. Give us away sure as sin.”
    She nodded, put the glass to her eye, and looked back down the ravine. The same willow, brush, and piñon that concealed the horses also kept her from seeing anything useful.
    Elyssa turned and put the glass on Hunter. It brought him so close