Tightening her grip on him, she put her head against his neck. “No, I think I’ll stay,” she said. “At least until I get bored with you.”
At that he laughed. “As long as I have money, I think you can occupy yourself.”
“Is that what you think? That I only like your money?”
“Of course,” he said. “Isn’t that what all the women like about me?”
“Well, not this woman! I like the way you take care of people and the way you put others’ needs before your own. And I like the way . . .” She trailed off because she could feel him chuckling against her.
“You are a rat,” she said as she kissed his neck.
“Come on, let’s go home; I’m hungry.”
“Oh? And who do you think is going to feed you?”
“Martha, Mavis, Myrtle, and—” He didn’t say any more because Kady was kissing him and pulling him down to the ground.
Behind them, the opening in the rock closed.
Chapter 15
“MMMM,” KADY MURMURED OVER HER COFFEE CUP. SHE AND Cole were alone in the kitchen, and they’d just finished breakfast. In the three days since she’d decided to remain in Legend, at least until the supernatural force that had brought her here took her away again, they had had a delightful time. They had ridden together and talked, and Cole had taken her all over Legend and the surrounding countryside. She had never had such an old-fashioned good time with anyone else.
So what if he never tried to make love to her? So what if when they kissed it never went beyond the closed-mouth stage. That’s what she wanted, wasn’t it? After all, she was still engaged to marry Gregory, even if she was married to Cole. Or something like that.
“It seems rather sinful just to sit here,” she said, looking out the window at the beautiful Colorado mountains.
Raising his head from his own coffee cup, Cole looked at her. “What else should we be doing?”
“I can’t seem to think of a thing,” she said with delight and thought how the modern world was controlled by the clock and the calendar. She didn’t know what time it was or even what day of the week.
“Sure?” he asked, teasing. “We could go for a ride.”
“No,” she said as she got up to refill their cups.
“You could cook something and we could go on a picnic.”
At that Kady laughed. “I think the town hates you.”
“Yes, I’m sure they do,” he answered, sipping his coffee and watching Kady with adoring eyes. Three days ago, after Kady had chosen to stay with him, they had returned to the Jordan Ranch and Cole had dismissed everyone from his property. At that moment he’d been the most hated man in the country. That is until Juan had stepped in and threatened to shoot anyone who complained because Cole wanted to keep Kady in private. “What man does not envy him?” Juan had asked, making Cole roll his eyes, glad Kady had not heard that comment.
Juan finished cooking what had been started, and Manuel took charge of the cleanup, and everyone had gone home with as much food as he could carry so, in the end, the townspeople were happy enough.
“We could . . .” Cole said, looking up, his eyes teasing. “We could go look for the Lost Maiden Mine. Millions of dollars in gold, and it’s very near here.”
“Already found it,” she murmured, looking out the window.
“What?” Cole asked, looking at her sharply. “You found the Lost Maiden Mine?”
“Not me,” she said. “They.”
Cole stared at her. “What do you mean ‘they’ found the Lost Maiden Mine?”
“It was found in nineteen eighty-two, and it was in all the newspapers and magazines. For a while the whole country was possessed by Maiden Fever, as it was called.”
When she didn’t say any more, Cole grabbed her hand and held it tightly, while locking eyes with hers. “Okay, okay,” she said. “I don’t remember much about it, really. Some hikers found the gold in a little cave near a rock that looks like the face of an old man. And don’t you dare ask me where that is, because I have no idea. I thought the mine was found in Arizona.”
Cole gave a snort of disgust. “The old prospector who said he’d found the mine used to come into the saloon in Legend when I was a kid.”