Only 06 - Winter Fire

canyons.”
    â€œUte knows better than to ride blind into a gunfight.”
    â€œConner” was all she said.
    Case didn’t answer. Instead, he sighted down the rifle barrel, let out his breath, and squeezed the trigger very gently. The rifle kicked.
    The report knifed through Sarah’s head.
    Down the canyon, halfway up the opposite side, a man pitched forward. He slid down the debris slope until a boulder stopped him.
    The boneless lines of the man’s body said that he had been knocked senseless or was dead.
    â€œCulpepper?” she whispered hopefully.
    â€œNo. Too short. Too dark.”
    The canyon was quiet again except for the cold wind searching through every crease and crevice.
    After fifteen minutes, shivers began to run through her body. Her doeskin shirt and pants had been enough tokeep her warm as long as she was dragging dead wood up and down the canyon. But lying against the ground on the north side of a winter canyon was draining heat from her body with every heartbeat.
    From the corner of her eye, she looked at Case, who was naked to the waist. He was watching the land within reach of his rifle fire. His eyes were narrowed, intent. If he noticed the cold, he didn’t show it.
    She tried to stop the shivers that kept rippling through her, but couldn’t. She clenched her teeth so that they wouldn’t chatter and distract him.
    After ten more minutes, her hands were shaking so much that it was impossible to hold the six-gun steady. Case took the gun from her fingers and holstered it.
    â€œLie against me,” he said quietly. “I’m warmer than stone.”
    She eased closer until she was alongside him. He moved onto his side and tucked her against his body, then rolled partway over again, sheltering her.
    â€œNow cuddle in like a cold tabby cat,” he murmured.
    â€œI’ll g-get in your w-way.”
    â€œIf I move suddenly, cover your ears.”
    They waited.
    After a time the noise of retreating hoofbeats drifted back up the canyon. It was a single animal, moving fast. Each strike of hoof against stone was clear. In fact, sometimes it sounded like a hammer hitting rock.
    â€œShod,” Case said.
    â€œI don’t care if it’s winged,” Sarah said against his collarbone, “as long as the raider is gone.”
    â€œQuit wiggling.”
    She sighed hard enough to stir the hair on his chest and lay still.
    Ignoring her head tucked below his, he waited and watched, every sense alert.
    For a long time the wind was all that moved, all that spoke, all that showed any sign of life.
    They’re gone , he decided.
    Case was certain of it. The back of his neck no longer felt tight.
    He took a slow, deep breath. Along with air, he inhaled the presence of Sarah. Right now she smelled more like rock dust than roses, but it didn’t matter. His body hardened in a rush that made him feel as heavy as the cliff at his back.
    â€œCase?” she whispered.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œAre they gone?”
    â€œI think so.”
    She started to get up.
    Before he could think better of it, he found himself holding her where she was.
    Close.
    The memory of her jacket leaping while bullets tore it apart made him cold all the way to his soul. It so easily could have been her flesh rather than cloth.
    He didn’t know what he would have done then. He didn’t even want to think about it. All he knew was that he wasn’t ready to let go of Sarah yet.
    â€œJust to be sure it’s safe,” he said, “we’ll wait right here a while longer.”
    â€œIt was worth a try,” she muttered.
    Her words were so muffled that he couldn’t understand any of them.
    â€œWhat?” he asked.
    She sighed. “Nothing. I just love being the slice of cold meat in a stone sandwich.”
    â€œI’m not stone.”
    â€œCould have fooled me. You’re hard as a rock.”
    The left corner of his mouth lifted enough to show even beneath the beard he hadn’t yet let her shave.
    â€œA lady isn’t supposed to notice,” he whispered against her ear.
    â€œHow hard your body is? I’d have to be frozen like an icicle not to—ulp.”
    She had just realized that there was hard, and then there was hard.
    At the moment, his body suited both meanings of the word.
    â€œI’ll bet that blush warmed you right up,” he said dryly.
    â€œWatch it. I’ll bite you again.”
    A shudder of pure