«Take it easy, knothead,» Reno said.
«Watch who you’re calling names,» she muttered.
There was an instant of surprised silence, then Reno laughed and gave Eve a hard kiss before he urged Darlin’ forward.
A few minutes later, Reno reined in and kissed Eve’s eyelids gently.
«Open your eyes.»
When the warm sensation of his lips vanished, Eve opened her eyes and looked at Reno. With a gentle smile, he gestured to the view. She turned her head.
A low sound of wonder and disbelief escaped her. A few feet in front of the horses, the land dropped abruptly away. In the distance, rank after rank of smaller plateaus and mesas rose in a series of irregular steps. Those in turn unraveled into an immense stone maze painted in shades of red and gold, pink and mauve.
In place of the dance of streams and rivers, there were columns of stone, cliffs of stone, tables of stone, castles of stone, cathedrals and arches of stone, vast walls and layer cakes of stone, ridges and valleys and hills and flats of stone, a rainbow labyrinth of stone piled upon stone until land and sky merged into a purple sameness so far away that the curve of the earth could be sensed like the distant coming of night.
Clumps of clouds ranged in color from blindingly pure white to dense indigo. Solitary storms stalked the land on stilts of lightning, dragging ragged veils of rain behind, yet the wind brought no smell of rain. The maze was so vast that storms came in across it like squall lines across an unimaginable sea.
«Is that where we’re going?» Eve whispered.
Reno looked at the landscape where the bones of the earth itself pressed up through the thin skin of life. There were no living flashes of water, no wide green valleys calling to a weary traveler, no trails or wagon tracks, no hearth fires sending messages of settlements ahead.
The land was untamed. It was wildfire wrought in stone, frozen flames reaching forever to the sky while a dry wind blew, bringing clouds whose rain never reached the ground, leaving the fire to rage unquenched, motionless, eternal.
«I won’t go there if I can help it,» Reno said finally. «I’ll leave that kind of foolishness to my brother Rafe.»
Eve nodded her understanding even as she said, «It’s beautiful in a wild kind of way.»
«So is the sun, but you’ll go blind looking at it.»
Reno kissed the nape of Eve’s neck. His heartbeat speeded at the shiver of response that coursed through her in the wake of the light caress.
«I’m surprised you think it’s pretty,» Reno said against her skin. «You didn’t like the view from the slickrock one bit.»
«Not at first. But toward the end, it wasn’t as scary. Especially after Slater’s men started shooting,» Eve added dryly. «Something about those bullets flying around took my mind right off the view.»
Reno laughed aloud, hugged Eve hard and quick, and reminded himself of all the reasons he shouldn’t move his hands just a few inches and feel the warm weight of her breasts filling them.
«We saved at least fifty miles, maybe more, by crossing that neck of slickrock,» Reno said. «Even so, we’ve got the devil’s own trail ahead of us.»
«Is there water?» she asked.
«Seeps, springs, potholes, and seasonal creeks.» He shrugged. «It should be enough if we’re careful.»
«And if you don’t mind your horse drinking out of your hat?» Eve suggested.
She smiled as she spoke, remembering how they had emptied canteen after canteen into their hats because the way to the hidden pool was too narrow for a horse to take.
Reno kissed the corner of Eve’s smile and said, «Be glad we’re riding mustangs. They drink less than anything except a coyote.»
Eve watched him with sensual memories in her eyes and a hungry fullness to her mouth. Not trusting himself to accept the unknowing invitation of her parted lips, Reno turned Eve until she was facing forward with her back to him.
The confinement of the saddle made her hips press intimately against the inside of his thighs. He hardened in a rush that made him ache. Long fingers wrapped around her thighs, savoring the resilience of her flesh. He pulled her close against him and then released her with a whispered word he hoped she didn’t hear.
Reno slid off Darlin’ in a rush. He stood close enough to Eve that she felt the heat of his chest against her leg as clearly as she had felt the heat of his thighs against her own. She had felt something else as well, but doubted her own senses. Surely a man couldn’t become aroused so quickly.
A glance told Eve she had indeed been correct. Once, Reno’s bold arousal would have embarrassed or unnerved her. Now it simply made heat splinter delicately through her. She remembered what it had felt like to give herself to Reno’s heat and strength and heady sensuality.
«Sugar girl, you do tempt a man,» he said in a deep voice.
«I do?»
«You sure do.»
«I’m just sitting here,» she pointed out.
«And looking at me like you’re wondering how I’d taste with butter and maple syrup,» Reno drawled.
Eve flushed, but couldn’t help laughing. She was still laughing when Reno pulled her out of the saddle and gave her a kiss that made her dizzy.
«I like having you look at me that way,» Reno said against her mouth. «I like it too damn much.»
He carried Eve the few steps to her horse.
«Mount up, gata. I’m going to have hell riding as it is.»
As Reno spoke, he lifted Eve into the saddle. Then he let go of her and turned away quickly, heading for his own horse once more.
«I didn’t mean to tease,» she said.
A curt nod as Reno mounted was his only answer.
«Couldn’t we…» Eve’s voice faded, then strengthened along with the color in her cheeks. «You’re hurting and I’m all right and there’s no reason we can’t…is there?»
Reno reined Darlin’ over to Eve and looked at her for the space of several heartbeats.
«There’s a reason we can’t,» he said.
The calm of Reno’s voice was belied by his smoldering green glance.
«Slater?» guessed Eve unhappily.
Reno shook his head. «I figure it will be at least two days before Crooked Bear cuts our sign again. The shaman figured it about the same, and he knows the land better than the Spaniards and Cal’s daddy combined.»
«Then why can’t we…?»
Despite the hunger knotting his guts, Reno smiled at the bright red on Eve’s cheeks.
«Because, sugar girl, the next time I get my hands on you, I’m not going to let go until neither one of us has enough strength left to lick our lips.»
EVE sat with her chin on her knees and her arms around her legs. A few feet beyond her boots, the land sheered away.
At the moment, Reno was exploring the head of the ravine that the shaman had told them would take them across a fringe of the stone canyon and then join with one of the old Spanish trails. If the trail was clear enough, they would ride by the ghostly light of the moon. If not, they would make a dry camp here, at the edge of the plateau.
Off to the west, the sun hovered a few degrees above the horizon. Below and in the distance, long, dense shadows flowed out from countless stone formations. Like the sun, the shadows moved, changing everything they touched, making and remaking the landscape in a slow-motion kaleidoscope of shifting colors and breathtaking vistas.
When footsteps approached, Eve didn’t have to turn around to know that it was Reno rather than some stranger walking up behind her. The unique rhythms of Reno’s steps had become a part of her, as had the sweet memories of a hidden pool and water braiding down cliffs of solid stone.
«Penny for your thoughts,» he said.
