“Cooper!”
He spun back around. “What?”
“Be...be careful.”
Within a heartbeat, she was anchored against his chest and his mouth was above hers, taking from it a scorching kiss that burned her soul. It surprised her so that she slumped against him. His arms tightened around her waist and drew her up so close and high that her toes dangled inches above his boots. She sought to regain her balance by clutching handfuls of his coat.
His lips ground against hers. They were possessive and hard. But his tongue was soft and warm and wet. It filled her mouth, explored, stroked. A desire that had been building for forty-eight hours overcame his iron control. His self-discipline snapped, but he was still masterful. This was a no-nonsense kiss that had nothing to do with romance. It was a kiss of passion. Raw. Carnal. Selfish.
Dizzily Rusty threw one of her arms around his neck and tilted her head back to give him deeper access, which he took. His stubbled jaw scraped her skin, but she didn’t care. His mustache was surprisingly silky. It tickled and tantalized.
All too soon for her, he broke the kiss, pulling his head back abruptly and leaving her lips parted and damp and wanting more. “I’ll be back as soon as possible. Goodbye, honey.”
Honey? Honey?
He released her and turned toward the door. That’s when she noticed Quinn Gawrylow sitting at the table, mindlessly chewing his perpetual wad of tobacco and watching them with the still, silent concentration of a cougar.
Rusty’s heart sank like lead. Cooper had kissed her for the old man’s benefit—not for his own. And certainly not for hers.
She shot his broad back a venomous look as he went through the door. It slapped closed behind him. Good riddance, she thought. How dare he—
Then, realizing that the old man’s eyes were still on her, she looked at him with a vapid good-little-wife smile. “Do you think he’ll be all right?”
“Reuben knows what he’s doing. He’ll take care of Mr. Landry.” He waved down at the pallet still spread out in front of the hearth. “It’s early yet. Why don’t you go back to sleep?”
“No, I, uh—” she cleared her throat noisily “—I’m too keyed up to sleep. I think I’ll just sit here for a while.”
“Coffee?” He moved toward the stove.
“Please.”
She didn’t want any, but it would give her something to do and help pass the time. She set her crutches and the flare gun on the hearth within easy reach and lowered herself into the chair. The knife’s scabbard poked her lower abdomen. Why it hadn’t plunged right into her when Cooper had pulled her against his—
Her heart fluttered with the memory. It hadn’t been only the knife’s hardness she’d felt against her middle. He’d probably derived a lot of joy out of humiliating her like that.
Feeling rebellious, she defiantly took the knife out of her waistband and laid it on the hearth. Accepting the cup of steaming coffee from Quinn, she settled down to wait through what would probably be the longest day of her life.
Cooper calculated that they’d gone no farther than a mile when Reuben commenced to talk. Cooper could have gone the whole fifteen miles without a conversation, but maybe talking would make the time pass more quickly and help take his mind off Rusty.
“How come you don’t have any kids?” Reuben asked him.
Cooper’s instincts slipped into overdrive. Each of his senses was on the alert. That prickle at the back of his neck, which could always be relied upon to warn him that something wasn’t quite right, hadn’t gone away. Ever since he’d heard Rusty’s scream and found her in a standoff with the Gawrylows, he had been suspicious of the two men. He might be doing them a grave injustice. They were probably on the level. But probabilities weren’t worth a damn. Until he had Rusty safely turned over to the authorities, he wasn’t giving either of the recluses the benefit of the doubt. If they proved to be reliable, then they would have earned his undying gratitude. Until then—
“Huh?” Reuben probed. “How come you—”
“I heard you.” Cooper was following Reuben’s lead. He didn’t let the man get too far ahead of him, nor did he crowd up too close behind him. “Rusty has a career. We’re both busy. We’ll get around to having kids one of these days.”
He hoped that would end the discussion. Children and families were topics Cooper always avoided talking about. Now, he didn’t want to talk at all. He wanted to pour every ounce of energy into reaching that river as soon as possible.
“If I’d been married to her for five years, we’d have five kids by now,” Reuben bragged rashly.
“But you’re not.”
“Maybe you ain’t doing it right.”
“What?”
Reuben gave him a sly wink over his shoulder. “You know, screwing.”