Only 06 - Winter Fire

tied on behind the saddle.
    From what she could see of him, he didn’t look Indian. That left outlaw or crazy artist.
    Whatever else Case was, he wasn’t crazy.
    He reined in at the head of the steep trail that led down to Lost River Canyon’s wide, cottonwood-lined valley. Because the moon shone brilliantly between the flying clouds, he was careful to stay in shadows.
    A few hundred feet below the lip of the plateau, a lantern shone through the cracks of an awkwardly built cabin. A pole corral with a woven willow shelter at one end served as a barn. There was an orderly kitchen garden, fruit trees bare-branched in winter, and meadow hay stacked behind the willow shelter. A wickiup and a small, low hut stood well off to one side.
    â€œWho’s on guard?” Case asked.
    â€œNo one.”
    His eyes narrowed. Instinct told him two things. The first was that she wasn’t lying.
    The second was that someone was on guard.
    With a swift movement he dismounted, keeping the bulk of Cricket between himself and the small ranch.
    â€œNo point in alarming your menfolk,” he said. “I’ll watch you to safety from here.”
    Sarah wasn’t surprised to find herself lifted off the bigstallion and lowered to the ground. What surprised her was that she was beginning to like the feel of Case’s strength as much as she liked the scent of apples on his breath.
    I wonder what he looks like beneath that wide-brimmed hat , she thought. His eyes seem light and his hair is dark, he hasn’t shaved in a week or two, but he’s clean otherwise .
    Would he taste like apples warmed by the sun?
    The idle thought shocked her more than anything else that had happened that night.
    Case heard the broken breath she drew and saw the sudden widening of her eyes. He knew with primitive certainty that the same fire burning in him had touched her as well.
    â€œDon’t go out alone again,” he said flatly. “Next time I might not be around to get you out of trouble.”
    â€œI wasn’t in trouble until you flattened me beneath you like a shirt for ironing,” she retorted.
    â€œI’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
    â€œYou didn’t. You’re just…a lot of man.”
    Again, the husky edge to her voice touched him like a whip of fire.
    â€œStop looking at me like that,” he said.
    â€œLike what?”
    â€œLike a girl with love on her mind. There’s no love left in me. All I have is this .”
    He bent and caught her mouth beneath his. He meant the kiss to be hard and swift, a warning not to spin dreams around him.
    Yet as he bent down, he drew in the scent of roses.
    He found he could no more ravage her mouth than he would have shredded a rosebud. The tip of his tongue glided over her lips in a tender, searing caress.
    Then Case was gone, leaving Sarah alone in the night with the taste of a stranger on her lips and the wonder of her first kiss shivering through her body.

2
    T he next morning Case was awake well before dawn. The desert night had been cold as a mountain creek, but that wasn’t why he was up and about early.
    He hadn’t slept much. The taste of Sarah kept coming to him just as he drifted off to sleep. Then he would come awake in a rush that guaranteed he would stay awake until his blood cooled.
    That was why he was up before the sun, sitting on his heels, talking to his horse.
    â€œWell, Cricket. I was right. She tasted of roses and heat and just enough salt to tell a man that she’s all woman.”
    The big bay stallion flicked an ear in Case’s direction, but didn’t otherwise interrupt his grazing.
    â€œAnd I’m a damned fool for finding out.”
    Cricket snorted, swept his muzzle across his foreleg, and resumed grazing.
    â€œNo need to rub it in.”
    The horse ignored him.
    â€œWhat Sarah doesn’t know is that Ab isn’t a patient man. Along about the first real snow, he’ll get tired of living in a brush wickiup. He’ll start thinking about that crooked little cabin and the warm girl inside it.”
    Cricket lifted his head, pricked his ears, and looked beyond Case.
    Even as he spun around and came to his feet, a six-gun appeared in his left hand. Calmly he waited for whatever the horse had already discovered.
    From the crest of the ravine, a coyote’s yapping howl rose into a sky that was slowly being bleached of stars by a lemon-colored dawn.
    After a moment