me.
Both Cherokee and Silent John had repeatedly warned Shannon about the problems that would come if she allowed herself to get beholden to a man during Silent John’s frequent absences. Shannon couldn’t allow herself to owe a man anything. Even a man with a smile like a fallen angel.
Perhapsespeciallynot that man.
When Whip saw the determined line of Shannon’s mouth, he knew before she spoke that she was going to refuse the supplies. That made him angry, but what really triggered his temper was the fact that he couldn’t force Shannon to take so much as a single bite of the food he had brought for her.
He had no right to take care of Shannon. Only her husband had that privilege, and obviously the man was no damned good at it.
«Think of it as a loan,» Whip said through clenched teeth.
«No.»
«Hell’s fire,» Whip snarled, «you’re so weak you can hardly hold that shotgun up!»
«I’m not too weak to pull the trigger.»
The sound Prettyface made then echoed Whip’s anger, a low rumbling like a storm coming.
Whip got a grip on his temper. The last thing he wanted to do was fight Shannon’s dog. As a way to get into a girl’s good graces, thumping on her dog was a losing strategy.
Besides, the damned beast was as big as a barn.
Yet, even knowing that, Whip had to struggle with his desire to yank the shotgun out of Shannon’s hands, clout the dog a good one, and then sit Shannon down to a real meal.
Realizing that his temper was at flash point shocked Whip. Normally he was the easygoing Moran and his brother Reno was the hardheaded one. But there was something about Shannon’s sheer stubbornness that put the spurs to Whip’s temper.
«There’s no harm in accepting a hand now and again,» Whip said, forcing himself to speak gently.
«Cherokee, the shaman, told me that men tame mustangs by offering them food when they’re hungry and water when they’re thirsty. Of course, the men run the mustangs nearly to death first, so they get plenty hungry and thirsty. Then the men offer the mustangs a hand — with a rope in it.»
Humor briefly softened the planes of Whip’s face.
«That’s one way to do it,» he agreed.
But Wolfe Lonetree taught me a better way, Whip remembered. You stay on the edges of the mustang’s senses, not crowding, not rushing, until the wild thing gets used to having you around. Then you get closer and the mustang gets nervous and you stop until you teach it to accept you at that distance.
And then you go closer and wait and go closer and wait and go closer until finally the sweet little beauty is eating right out of your hand.
Of course, damned few mustangs are worth that much trouble.
The wind swept down, billowing Shannon’s loose clothes one moment and molding them to her body the next.
Whip’s breath stopped. Shannon might have looked skinny, but underneath that frayed cloth were the kind of curves that would keep a man awake at night, thinking of new ways to get close to her.
Really close.
Damnation. If she were mine, I sure as hell wouldn’t be off chasing gold or hunting men. I’d be right next to her, seeing how many ways we could pleasure each other.
And I’d keep at it until we both were too tired to lick our lips.
«Shannon…»
As Whip spoke, lightning arced in white violence across half the sky. Thunder battered the mountains until the ground trembled. In the calm that followed, a rushing sound swept across the clearing toward the cabin, rain streaming down in wild silver veils.
Whip was fascinated by the beauty of the storm racing down toward him, but he wasn’t deceived. He knew all about the seductive, deadly beauty of the Rocky Mountain high country. Though it was early summer, at this altitude sunset brought a sharp chill to the air. By moonrise it would be freezing. By morning there might be snow chest-high on a Montana horse. The snow could be gone by the next day.
Or it could stay for a month, as it had late this spring.
The little bit of supplies Shannon had would barely keep her alive for two weeks.
«Where the hell is your husband?» Whip asked in exasperation. «You need him!»
Shannon hoped it was too dark for Whip to see the alarm in her eyes. Cherokee was right. Whatever had happened to make Silent John disappear, men had to believe that Silent John was still alive, still likely to appear without warning, still able to bring down a buck or a man at three thousand yards.
«Silent John is wherever he is,» Shannon said flatly.
«Word in Holler Creek is that you’re a widow,» Whip retorted. «Word is that Silent John is dead and you’re starving all alone in this miserable, godforsaken clearing!»
Prettyface snarled.
Whip felt like snarling right back.
Shannon said not one word. She simply stood with her feet braced and the shotgun steady in her aching arms.
Sudden, heavy rain drenched the clearing, dousing all the colors of sunset. Within moments cold water was dripping from Whip’s dark Stetson and beading up on the heavy wool of his jacket.
Shannon had the shelter of the cabin’s eaves, but it wasn’t enough to turn the cutting wind. She shivered as the first raw blast of rain pelted her.
«Be sensible,» Whip said, forcing his voice to be even.
«I am. You’re the one who’s been puffing on the dream-pipe.»
«Murphy has been cheating you for years,» Whip said, ignoring Shannon’s retort. «When I pointed that out, he decided he could fatten up your supplies some. That’s all there was to it. No obligation on your part at all.»
Shannon opened her mouth.
Whip just kept talking. «You don’t need to worry about being obligated to me for bringing the supplies, either. I was going to check out the Avalanche Creek gold fields and your cabin was on the way.»
«That’s a nice story,» Shannon said, wishing she could believe it. «But I’ve heard it before. I’m not looking for help from women-hungry men.»
Whip’s hold on his temper slipped as the cold rain lashed one side of his face and the truth lashed the other.
«I’m not like the others,» Whip said through his teeth.
«Do tell,» Shannon said coolly. «Does that mean you don’t want me?»
Whip opened his mouth, then closed it. Lying simply wasn’t his style.
«I want you,» he said flatly.
Shannon couldn’t control the shiver that went through her at Whip’s blunt words.
«But I’d never force you, Shannon,» he said gently. «That’s a promise.»
«I’ll make that promise easy for you to keep. Mount up and ride.»
«Listen,» Whip began.
«No, you listen,» Shannon said tightly. «You’re just like all the others. You want my body and not one other damned thing. No offers of marriage and kids and sharing good times and bad for the rest of our lives. All you want is a few minutes in the dark with the ‘poor little dear’ who might or might not be a widow.»
«It’s not just that,» Whip said angrily.
«Oh? Does that mean you’re offering marriage along with the rutting?»
The look on Whip’s face told Shannon more than she wanted to know. Her short laugh was as bitterly cold as the rain.
«That’s what I thought,» she said. «Thank you, but no thank you. I’ve got everything I need until Silent John gets back.»
«What if he never gets back? Damn it, what if he’s dead? What then?»
Shannon’s finger tightened on the shotgun’s double trigger. Hearing her own fears spoken by Whip’s deep,
