“Hadn’t we better go?” Chris asked, wiping water out of her eyes. “This storm is getting worse.”
“There’s nowhere to go,” Tynan said. “We’re cut off from the main road and there’s only virgin forest north of us.”
“Ty! It’s getting dark. We can’t stay here all night. Is there any shelter nearby? The water will recede after the storm’s over.”
Ty didn’t answer, just sat there looking at the raging, deep stream.
“Tynan!” Chris yelled up at him. “Let’s go back into the trees. Maybe we can find a rock overhanging or something.”
“There’s a logger’s cabin near here.”
“Then let’s go.”
The horse was dancing about nervously and the rain was coming down harder, but Ty didn’t move.
“What is wrong with you?” she shouted.
“You are what’s wrong with me,” he yelled back at her, then turned the horse and started north.
Chapter Fifteen
The cabin had originally been for a surveying crew that had worked in the area and, since then, it had been maintained by someone, probably Owen since it was on his land—or Lionel’s as Chris insisted. It was one tiny room, completely bare except for a fireplace and a stack of wood. There was no furniture. Shortly after arriving, Ty had the horse stabled in a lean-to in the back and a fire going in the crude stone fireplace and the rabbits skinned, spitted and roasting. There was an abundant supply of dry firewood along one wall. Ty had removed the saddle and the bedroll and flung it into the cabin for Chris to take care of while he saw to the horse.
She removed the blanket from the bedroll and was pleased to see that it was relatively dry. Shaking it out, shivering against the wetness of her clothes, she began to be aware of just why Tynan had been so reluctant to stay in the cabin. With the rain coming down hard outside, the fire crackling warm inside, and with the prospect of removing her clothing and putting on the angle, loose blanket, she had an idea of what was going to happen.
With a whoosh of a sigh, she sat down on the saddle, the blanket clutched against her. What would her mother say if she knew what her only child was contemplating? Would she be horrified? Would Judith Montgomery have liked Tynan, this one-name gunfighter who didn’t even know what the word “home” meant?
Chris turned the rabbits over the fire and tried to think as calmly and rationally as possible. She’d never even considered the idea of seducing a man before. Sometimes she thought it was ironic that all a girl’s life she fought off men, starting when she was a child with her mother warning her against taking candy from strangers, and saying no until the very wedding day. Women were trained to say no, so how did she say yes now? Even more important, how did she say yes to a question that was never going to be asked of her?
She stood for a moment and gazed into the fire. Maybe Tynan didn’t want her and that was why he was able to resist all her advances. Maybe the beautiful Pilar was enough for him.
She shivered once against her wet clothes and began to peel them off, still staring into the fire and wondering what she was going to do—and if she should do it—when Tynan came back into the room.
Instinctively, she pulled the blanket up to cover her nude body.
Ty, after one quick glance, looked away from her to hang the bridle on a nail by the door, then removed his hat to pour the water out of the brim. “It looks like it’ll keep up all night. Are the rabbits ready?”
Chris wrapped the blanket around her and went to the fireplace to test the meat. “I think so but I’m not sure.”
She looked up to see Tynan staring at her and she realized that the blanket she wore was gaping open at both top and bottom. Ducking her head so he couldn’t see her smile, she looked back at the rabbits. At least she had some effect on him, if only to make him look.
“I’ll test them,” Ty said and that buttermilk voice of his was even richer.
She looked up at him through her lashes.
“Get back,” he said with force. “Go stand by the wall. No, not on this side, on the far side. Now stay there while I look.”
“Tynan,” she said, exasperated, “you act as if I have a contagious disease. I can assure you that I’m quite clean and free from all illness.”
“Hmph!” he grunted, tearing off a succulent, hot rabbit leg. His clothes were wet and they clung to his muscular body, outlining every hill and valley of his back. She could see where the whip marks had left some scars. “You are worse than disease, lady, you are poison.”
“Was prison that bad?” she asked softly.
“Unfortunately, the memory is fading. Here, take this,” he said as he removed the rabbits from the skewers. “On second thought, I’ll put it here and you can come and get it.”
“For heaven’s sake, Tynan! I’m not going to harm you. You act as if I were holding a rifle on you.”
He looked her up and down for a brief second. “I’d rather deal with twenty rifles. Eat that and then lay down over there and go to sleep. We’ll leave very early in the morning so I can get you back as soon as possible. Then, as soon as you get Prescott, we’ll leave again. I don’t want you near Hamilton.”