mine.»
Eve tried to speak, but the shiver of pleasure that went through her as the heat of Reno’s skin pressed against her whole body took her voice, making words impossible.
Her silent response was enough. A low, ragged sound came from Reno’s chest as he felt Eve’s delicate trembling.
«Each time it’s better,» he whispered. «Only you affect me like this. I don’t understand it, but I don’t care anymore. I need you tonight, Eve. More each time. Only you.»
«Yes, I can feel it. More each time…»
Reno barely heard. The feel of Eve’s fingers wrapped around his aroused flesh was like having golden flames licking all over him. The pleasure was so intense his whole body tightened.
Then Eve pushed the blanket aside, slid slowly down his body, and taught him what it was like to be loved by fire.
Her name came in fragments from his lips as she tasted him with all the curiosity and delicacy of a cat. The satin roughness of her tongue licked and teased each difference in masculine texture from rigid base to blunt satin tip.
When Eve circled him with her mouth, Reno tried to speak, but couldn’t. She had taken the breath from him and left seething, searing currents in its place. Sweat broke out all over his body as he fought to control the firestorm coiling in his loins. Fists clenched, he made a raw sound of passion and restraint.
«Reno?» Eve asked in a low voice. «Did I hurt you?»
His laugh was as broken as his breathing.
«No, sugar girl. You’re killing me, but you’re not hurting me one bit.»
Her sigh washed over his moist, sensitive skin, sending a visible pulse of pleasure through him.
«Did it feel good?» she asked.
«There’s only one thing that ever felt better.»
«What?»
«When I sheathe myself in your sweet…»
The rest of Reno’s words were lost in the groan that was dragged from his lips as Eve caught him up in the loving firestorm once more. He took as much as he could, and then more, because it was a wild, sweet ecstasy he didn’t want to end.
Suddenly he could bear no more.
«Eve, I…»
Reno shuddered, ravished by fire.
She whispered against him, telling him how much she liked his taste.
Another satin pulse escaped his control before he dragged her up his body until she straddled his hips, his waist, his chest.
«Higher,» Reno said huskily. «Higher. Make it easy for me. That’s it. Right there…so sweet…Stay there, sugar girl.»
The sleek questing of his tongue licked over Eve like sensual lightning. She made a husky sound that ended in a moan as a long finger tested her and found her sultry readiness.
Knowing that Eve had truly enjoyed the intimate caresses she had given him made Reno laugh with sheer pleasure. He redoubled his presence within her body, hearing her response in her broken breathing, feeling it in the slick heat of her body.
«You liked tasting me,» Reno said, nuzzling against Eve’s hot, soft skin.
«Yes, I…»
Her words became a broken sound as his teeth closed delicately over her most sensitive flesh. She barely succeeded in controlling the liquid heat bursting through her.
«Don’t fight it,» Reno said huskily. «Let it come.»
«But…»
Teeth raked with exquisite care, and tongue caressed.
«Share with me, sugar girl.»
Ecstasy stole softly through Eve’s body, claiming it. Reno felt it, tasted it, and laughed against her, caressing her again and again, savoring the silken rain of her response. When she could bear no more, he lifted her and turned over, stretching her out beneath him. She clung to him until the wild shivering subsided.
When Eve opened her eyes, Reno was propped up on his elbow, fully aroused, watching her. The two slender dowsing rods were in his hand. He bent, kissed her gently, and waited, a question in his eyes. Without hesitation, she reached for one of the rods.
It was warm from his body heat.
Slowly Reno settled between Eve’s legs even as she drew them up around him, yielding her warmth to him. He paused just before he fitted himself to her.
«Are you sure?» he whispered. «It could make me…wild.»
Eve smiled and shifted her hips, taking Reno even as he took her. The rod tips met, meshed, shimmered… and blossomed in a soundless explosion of fire. The world receded as they joined more deeply than they ever had before, knowing no difference between their bodies. They kissed each other and were kissed at the same time, caressed and were caressed, until rapture both delicate and elemental coursed through their interlocked bodies, fusing them into a single flesh, a single being, a single life.
As one they learned that ecstasy was like fire itself, changeless and yet never the same, burning everything but itself, a mysterious Phoenix reborn in its own flames, soaring upward to fly and die and be born yet again.
21
The horses had been restless when Reno and Eve emerged from the mine the previous day, and were restless much of the night. Shortly after dawn, Reno and Eve were awakened by the sound of three rapidly fired shots from a six-gun.
Without a word, both of them got up and dressed quickly. Instead of wearing boots, Reno pulled on knee- high moccasins of the kind favored by Apaches, some Comancheros, and Caleb Black, who was the quietest man on the stalk that Reno had ever seen.
Wish I were that good, Reno thought grimly. I’d send him out to find out what’s riling the horses while I did what I’m good at — shooting and mining, not sneaking around like a shadow.
Reno shoved the spyglass in his belt, strapped on his six-gun and bandolier, and picked up his repeating rifle.
«Stay with the horses,» Reno said.
«But —»
«Promise me,» he interrupted urgently. «I don’t want to shoot you by mistake.»
«What if I hear more gunfire?»
«When I come back to camp, I’ll come in from the opposite direction. Shoot anything that comes in from the front of the valley.»
Eve closed her eyes, then opened them and looked at Reno as though she were afraid it was the last time.
«How long will you be gone?» she asked.
«I’ll be back before dark.»
Reno turned away, then turned back and gave Eve a kiss that was both tender and fierce.
«Don’t follow me. Be here when I get back, sugar girl.»
Eve’s arms tightened painfully around Reno before she let go and stepped back.
«I’ll be here.»
Without another word, Reno turned and began walking toward the mouth of the valley. He moved quickly over the meadow, keeping to the cover provided by the forest. The horses threw up their heads when they spotted
