Treasures aka See How She Dies

her stare and she found it hard to breathe.

“Why?”

She lifted a shoulder, then didn’t move. He was staring at her so intently she could barely breathe and she felt as if, with that harsh gaze, he was mentally stripping her-one piece of clothing at a time. She couldn’t swallow and her heart was drumming wildly.

His eyes lowered to the base of her throat where her pulse was throbbing erratically. When his gaze touched hers again it was pure seduction. “Do you want to come?” he drawled in a voice so low it could barely be heard over the shifting of the horses’ hooves and rustle of straw.

Oh, God! Barely able to breathe, she fingered a rope that had been left wound around a post. Her heart thundered. She stared into his intense, hot eyes and felt her joints go slack.

“Pardon?”

“Do you want to come?” he repeated slowly, the double entendre hanging heavy in the air between them.

She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.

“Well?” he demanded. “Are you up for it? Or still too sore from the attack?”

No attacker was going to stop her from what she wanted to do. She nodded, staring into his smokey eyes. He was staring at her so hard, she could barely breathe. She licked her suddenly dry lips and heard the rush of wind whistle through the old rafters. “I think so.” Her voice was so breathless she hardly recognized it as her own.

“You’re sure?” One dark brow cocked dubiously and he hooked a thumb in his belt loop, his fingers riding low against his fly. “Could be a rough ride.”

Her knees suddenly felt as if they were made of rubber and she leaned her hips against the stall for support. “I know.”

“Could be dangerous.”

She swallowed with difficulty and felt a tiny spot of sweat bead between her breasts. “I’m not afraid,” she said, as though to convince herself. Her heart was racing, her mind spinning into wildly erotic images.

“Then you are a fool, Adria,” he said and swore beneath his breath. Clucking his tongue, he led the gelding out of his stall and through the back door of the stables.

Adria, feeling as if she’d had the wind knocked out of her, stalked after him. He’d been playing with her, was only teasing her, and she felt a new, white-hot rage sear through her blood. “Wait a minute!” she cried as he swung into the saddle.

He ignored her and kicked his horse hard in the flanks. The buckskin took off, breaking into a gallop.

“Wait! Zach, please-” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

He yanked back on the reins. The horse reared and whirled. Zach’s eyes flashed like lightning sizzling through a night-dark sky and his lips thinned in anger. A rugged cowboy, determined to have his way. “You don’t want this,” he said, his nostrils flaring, his face set in stone.

“You don’t know what I want!”

“Sure I do. All you want-all you’ve ever wanted was a way to get your hands on the family’s money. Well, it won’t happen through me.”

The wind was beginning to rise, to whip her hair in front of her face and brush her cheeks. “That’s not what this is all about, and you know it. Why don’t you tell me what you’re afraid of?”

“Afraid of?”

“That’s right, Zach. You’re running scared and it has nothing to do with what happened in the motel the other night.”

His mouth curved into a self-deprecating smile. “What I’m afraid of. Isn’t it obvious?” His gaze held hers in a stare that stripped her soul bare. With a whistle, he turned the buckskin again and leaned forward in the saddle. The horse took off, galloping rapidly across the dry grass, sending up a cloud of red dust, leaving her alone.

Adria sagged against the exterior wall of the stables. Closing her eyes, she leaned her head back and felt the rough-cut cedar walls press into her shoulders. Her fists curled in frustration and slivers jabbed at her bare knuckles. “Don’t be afraid, Zach,” she said, her eyes burning with unshed tears. “Please, don’t be afraid.” The man was so damned maddening and yet…Oh, God, and yet…she thought she was falling in love with him.

You can’t!

But I can’t stop myself.

He was in love with Kat!

That was a long time ago.

He’s your brother!

I don’t know that. Not for sure.

But you can’t afford to gamble! Not now! Not when everything you’ve worked for is at stake!

Like hell!

“He’s right,” she said, furious with herself. “You are a fool.” Pushing herself upright, she headed toward the house. She was intent on forgetting him, on finding a way to escape, on putting as much distance between his body and hers as she could. She could take his Jeep or a truck or call someone to come get her…

Or she could go after him.

In the distance a coyote howled and the sun slid behind a cloud. Her footsteps hesitated for just a second before she realized that she couldn’t let it lie. Rolling over and playing dead wasn’t in her nature and she’d come too far and suffered through too many emotional struggles to just curl up and die and let the whole thing go.

Turning back toward the stables, she decided to tempt fate. She flung the door open. Her legs moved of their own accord, her boots ringing as she ran along the smooth floor to the tack room. She found a bridle and hurried back to the row of stalls. A black mare poked her nose over the door and Adria didn’t miss a beat. She slipped the bridle over the mare’s head, then, running, ignored her lingering pain and led the trotting horse outside. Zach was nearly out of sight, only a speck on the horizon, but Adria wasn’t going to let him get away. She climbed on the mare’s bare back, leaned forward, and clucked her tongue. “Let’s go!” She dug her heels into the black’s flanks.

With a surge of power, the horse moved beneath her, muscles bunching and stretching, the cold, hard ground flashing beneath steel-shod hooves. Adria’s back and arms ached but she held on. The wind screamed through her hair and brought tears to her eyes as the eager little mare ate up the distance, racing over the vast acres of grassland where the dry pastures rolled upward into foothills green with old-growth timber. In the distance craggy, snow-covered mountains cut jagged ridges against the darkening sky.

She urged the horse faster and faster, afraid that if she slowed down for even a second she would see the folly in this dangerous chase, yank back on the reins, and force herself to return to the ranch-to safety-away from the one man who could save her or destroy her.

Zach’s horse galloped through the low-growing timber and Adria followed. “Come on, come on,” Adria cried, the breath being torn from her lungs, fear of facing her destiny shadowing her mind. But still she plunged on, chasing a man and her dream, moving closer.

Finally he drew back on the reins and his horse slowed at the banks of a wide river that sliced through the hills and fell in a wild, silver torrent down the face of a cliff. Then, as if suddenly sensing that she was chasing him, he twisted in the saddle.

Her heart nearly stopped as she stared at his profile, all tough angles and planes, like the sheer mountains that rose behind him, wild as the river that slashed furiously through the canyon and cut a raging swath through the forest. His jaw hardened and his eyes narrowed in silent rebuke, but she didn’t pay any attention. Instead, she kicked her horse faster. There was no trace of amusement in his face.

Zach’s eyes followed her every move as she pulled back on the reins. When she was close enough to hear, he said, “You should go back.”

“Back to Montana?”

“Back to the house.”

“Not yet.” She slid to the ground and Zach followed suit. Eyebrows drawn downward, his mouth pulled into a furious frown, he strode up to her, looking as if he’d like to strangle her…or worse, that he wanted to kiss her and never stop.

“For Christ’s sake-”