'It's all right, Hardy. It was me. A snake. Nothing that could shoot
back.'
The private was ~taring at them, wide-eyed. 'That's all, Hardy.'
'Yes, sir, Lieutenant.'
The private saluted. Slater saluted in return. Then he tipped his hat to
her and turned around. Tess reddened to a dark crimson and watched as he
picked his way upstream. She saw his socks and boots on a flat boulder,
and her breath seemed to catch in her throat. He had been there all the
time.
She leaped to her feet and hurried into her fresh clean clothing with
shaking fingers. She could barely tie her pink ribboned corset, and she
had to do the buttons on her blouse twice.
She pulled on clean hose and her shoes and looked at the rock.
He was waiting. Waiting for her to leave. He sat on the ledge, his toes
in the water.
He looked up as if he felt her watching him.
'It's almost dark, Miss. Stuart, if you don't mind.'
'If I don't mind! You--you sat there through my bath, Lieutenant!'
she sputtered.
'Lucky I did,' he replied pleasantly.
She was alive. Maybe she was lucky. But that wasn't the point, and he
knew it.
He shrugged, rising, casting off his shirt.
'It really doesn't matter that much to me, Miss. Stuart. You're welcome
to stay. Maybe you'll even want to join me ... ?' She swung around,
furious.
He was ready to strip down with her standing right there. He'd sat and
stared at her while she had been completely naked, assuming she was
alone.
She'd given him a whole damned show in the water! Swearing softly, she
plodded away, anxious to quit the brook. She hurried to her wagon and
sat on the bunk, hugging her arms to her chest.
Damn him. Just remembering his eyes upon her made her breasts swell
again and her nipples harden to taut peaks.
When she closed her eyes it didn't help. She remembered the way that his
shirt had hung open over his chest, and the sandy dark hair that grew in
rich profusion there, the ripple of tight muscle on his abdomen, the
swell of it at his breast and shoulders.
'Miss. Stuart?' It was Sergeant Monahan. 'Yes?' She almost shouted the
word.
He was at the rear of the wagon, smiling.
'Wasn't that just the prettiest little brook you've ever seen?'
'Absolutely beautiful,' she said evenly. But it didn't
matter--apparently word of the shots had gotten out.
Another one of the men stepped behind Monahan, nodding respectfully to
her.
'Monahan! Hardy says she almost got it from a moccasin. Luckily the
lieutenant was near and blasted the thing to kingdom come. Ma'am, it is
the prettiest little brook around, but you be careful from here on out,
