'Thank God,' he breathed.
'He's very upset.'
'He is?'
'He doesn't like the idea that von Heusen has been causing so much
trouble.
He told me that the Apache raid, and that they make war, and that these
are separate things. They raid for foodstuffs and other things they
need, they do not raid to kill. When they make war, they do so to kill.
But they do not kill children, and they do not slaughter animals
needlessly. He says there is enough trouble between the 245 whites and
the Indians. He doesn't usually have much use for the Comanche himself,
and the tribes have warred for generations, but he cannot see the
Comanche blamed for a white man's sins.'
'You had quite a long talk with him,' Jamie commented.
'Jealous?' she asked sweetly.
He grunted.
She braced her hands upon his chest, staring deeply into his eyes.
'I
like him, Jamie.'
Jamie laced his fingers behind his head as he watched her eyes.
'Want to stay with him?' he asked.
Words, gentle words, self-betraying words, hovered on Tess's lips. I
like Nalte, but I love you, she almost said. But she could not dispel
the memory of Eliza hanging on to him, trying to force him to love her
in return. She would never do that, she swore. It was dangerous to fall
in love with Jamie Slater.
If nothing else, Tess wanted her dignity left to her.
She forced a smile to her lips and asked lightly, 'Trying to get rid of
me?'
'You are a hell of a lot of trouble,' he told her frankly. 'Yes, but
you've already come this far.'
'So I have.'
'And I really am worth it.'
'Are you?' His eyebrows shot up.
She nodded. Then she moved very low against him again. She let her hair
float over his chest as she lowered her lips to his slick bronze flesh.
She shimmied her body against him as she inched lower down the length of
his body, her thighs locked around him, moving sinuously against him.
She felt the quick rasp of his breath, and she let her lips linger upon
the spot where she could hear the frantic beating of his heart.
Then she moved lower and lower, daring to touch him instinctively,
exploring what was intensely male about him with little subtlety and
tremendous fascination. Her body undulated upon his. She discovered her
own prowess and power, and drove him nearly to madness. All that he had
demanded of her she took in return. He shuddered violently beneath her
touch, his fingers digging into the earth when she caressed him as
boldly with her lips and tongue as he had done to her. He shouted out
hoarsely, and she was soon pinned to the earth as he took her almost
savagely, with a driving, explicit hunger that seemed to rend the very
