He nodded. “You lay them close together and they form a pretty good roof for a lean-to. Pine branches are better for the supports though.”
“Can we have a fire?”
He didn’t look up. “A small one.”
By the time the shelter was built, the grove was beginning to be inundated with the eerie golden light that sometimes precedes the darkness of a storm. The two gnarled support branches were nearly five feet tall; once the blankets were spread and a fire built, the tiny enclosure was reasonably cozy.
The wind was swaying the tops of the tall pines and the golden light was disappearing. Now there was only a still purple gloom reflected from the storm clouds overhead. Elspeth’s head lifted, and she experienced a tiny thrill of excitement as if she, too, were mirroring the tempest about to be unleashed. The cool breeze lifted her hair from her forehead and she could smell the heady scent of rain, grass, and rich earth.
“It’s wonderful, isn’t it?” she asked softly.
“It won’t be wonderful for long.” Dominic crawled under the lean-to. “In about a minute the sky is going to split wide open and you’re going to be drowned if you stay out there.”
She didn’t seem to hear him. Her gaze was on the darkening sky and she gave a little shiver of anticipation. “It makes me feel strange. I don’t know… powerful. Do you know what I mean?”
His expression softened as he looked at her glowing face, radiant in the dimness of the grove. “Yes, I know what you mean. Now, come in under the lean-to before you get wet.”
She sighed and then reluctantly crawled under the shelter to sit beside him, settling back against the saddlebags Dominic had propped against the tree. “It would almost be worth it.”
He shook his head. “You’d get chilled and we sure as the devil don’t want you ill again.”
“I won’t become ill. I’ve never felt more healthy in my life.” It was difficult to remember a time when she hadn’t felt this strong and well, and yet it had been only a month ago that she had been bedridden at the hotel in Hell’s Bluff.
The rain began to fall, at first sporadically, then in huge drops, and as Dominic had predicted, the heavens opened. Rain poured down with stunning force. She could hear it pounding the ocotillo roof, but surprisingly few drops managed to pierce the branches.
The fire Dominic had built was small, but they managed to prepare a meal of beans and hardtack. After they had finished, there seemed nothing to do but sit and watch the rain.
20
Surrounded by the falling rain, gazing into the ever-changing brilliance of the leaping flames, was rather like being enclosed in a silver box holding a glowing ruby, Elspeth thought dreamily. It was not as exciting as the wildness that had preceded the storm but was still very satisfying.
“I think it’s time to go to sleep.”
Elspeth lifted her gaze from the fire to look at Dominic in surprise. “It’s not even dark yet. Why would-” She stopped. She suddenly became conscious of how very small was their silver box, only a few feet separated her from Dominic and she could sense every action of his body: The rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, the tension of his hand as it gripped the blanket, the slight hollow beneath the bones of his cheeks as his lips tightened. And his eyes…
Dominic jerked his gaze away. “What the hell else can we do?” He shifted restlessly. “The rain doesn’t look like it’s going to let up. We may be stuck in here until morning.”
“I see.” The scent of rain, earth, and burning pine surrounded them together with the warm, clean male fragrance that belonged to Dominic. She wanted to breathe in that aroma, have it in her nostrils, in her body. The pagan thought sent a ripple of shocked awareness through her.
And that wasn’t all of him she wanted in her body, she realized. She wanted to be joined to Dominic in that same searing fashion she had known once before. She wanted to look at him without all those cumbersome clothes. She wanted to touch him as he had asked her to touch him before. She moistened her lips with her tongue as she experienced a hot melting sensation between her thighs. Lust. Strangely, she felt no shame. She had an idea that with Dominic lust could be almost as beautiful as love.
“Well, then cover up and go to sleep.” Dominic didn’t look at her as he pulled off his boots and then took off his gunbelt.
“We could play cards,” Elspeth offered tentatively. “You could teach me that game you played at the Nugget.”
“Poker?” He crushed out the fire and pulled the blanket up around his shoulders. “I don’t seem to have the concentration tonight.”
“I know piquet. Perhaps we could-”
“Elspeth, I do not want to play cards.”
She sighed. She didn’t want to play cards either, but she certainly didn’t want to go to sleep. If they played cards, she could have watched Dominic’s expressions, and perhaps he would smile his special smile that lit his face with warmth. She thought for a moment. “We can talk. Why does the ocotillo keep out the rain so well?”
He closed his eyes and turned his back to her. “I don’t want to talk.”
“You’re not being very sociable.”
“I don’t feel sociable.”
It was no use. She reluctantly scooted down and pulled the blanket around her. “You obviously don’t feel like being polite either.”
Polite? He would have laughed out loud if he hadn’t been hurting so much. The good Lord knew what he was experiencing had no resemblance to anything as civilized as the desire to be polite. Just don’t talk to me, he prayed silently. Don’t let me hear you move, don’t make me look at you.
Two hours later the rain was still falling and Elspeth was still wide awake. Dominic’s breathing was deep and even, and he hadn’t moved for a good twenty minutes. At least one of them was able to sleep, she thought ruefully as she stared into the darkness. She turned over on her back and looked up at the ocotillo sticks overhead. Perhaps if she counted them, it would lull her.
One, two, three, four… When she reached twenty-five she turned onto her side, her gaze on the sticks above Dominic’s head. She forgot to count. She even forgot to breathe. One of the sticks was moving!
It was the last stick on Dominic’s side of the lean-to. She stared in helpless fascination as the stick slid forward and then wound itself around the support post.
A
Dear God in heaven, a snake! Curling slowly around the post, bonelessly gliding around and down toward Dominic’s feet.
She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t utter a sound. No. Make it go away. Please make it go away. But the snake didn’t go away, it kept coming, gliding closer and closer to Dominic’s feet.
“
“No!” She swung the stick and struck the snake on the support.
“No!” She swung the stick again.
“Elspeth, what the devil?”
She struck the snake again. “No!”
The support gave way and the ocotillo roof collapsed, landing on top of Dominic. She heard him cursing but paid no attention. The snake had fallen to the ground and she was hitting it again and again and again.
“Elspeth, for God’s sake…” Dominic had managed to crawl from the wreckage and was beside her, trying to take the stick away from her. “Elspeth, stop it.”
“It’s a snake.” She jerked her arm away from him. “Don’t you understand? It’s a snake.”
“It
