Later would come the true test; now, there was only Steve, his hard, lean body over hers, his hands teasing her breasts, exploring her everywhere.
This was familiar, the aching tension inside her that escalated to an almost unbearable pitch before he eased it, before he took her from twisting, panting need to a sweet, exultant release that made her forget everything for the moment but how much she had always loved him….
Drowsily replete at last, she took a chance, risking it all to murmur her love for him over and over, in French, and Spanish and English, her lips moving against the damp skin of his neck and shoulder until he said it back, the words a harsh groan against her ear.
“Green-eyed witch, don’t you know I’ve always loved you?”
It was true, and Steve recognized it with resignation. She was in his blood, as he was in hers. No other woman had ever excited him like Ginny, or intrigued him, or infuriated him as she did.
He loved her for her courage, for her dignity even when her back was to the wall. He wanted to kill Luna all over again, watch the lights fade in his eyes as he died, for what he had done to her.
He could see the emerald sheen of her eyes in the soft shadows that enclosed them, the lustrous color faint but still recognizable…remarkable eyes, cat’s eyes, that haunted his waking hours and even his dreams. he scraped his palm up her body, over her flat little belly to cup her breast, felt a shiver ripple through her at his caress.
“Such soft skin…like satin…Ginny, you should know by now that I’ll never let you go. Don’t you?”
A fierce surge of need to protect her nearly swamped him, made his hands clench tightly in her hair, that glorious mass of copper fire that had tantalized and tormented him since the first day he had seen her.
“She is an obsession with you,” Paco had once told him, and he’d been right, known it then even though Steve denied it.
One day, he’d tell her everything. He’d tell her about Beth and what had happened to him at Prayers End years ago. He’d tell her how, when he’d thought she was dead, he hadn’t felt life was worth living anymore. That he’d only survived because he had not been able to accept her death.
And he’d tell her that he had another child, one he felt an obligation to assure his life was all it could be. Would she understand? With her fierce mother’s heart, would Ginny accept the knowledge that he’d created a son with Beth Cady?
Damn him for being a coward, he just couldn’t tell her about it now, not when she still seemed so fragile.
38
“Before we leave here, you’ll learn to shoot well, Ginny. I’ll give you a pistol, and you can learn to use it as expertly as you do your knife.”
“With practice, I’m sure I can.”
Steve spent three days working with her until he was satisfied that she could at least hit a target. Gunfire sent birds screeching into the air of the small, rocky valley at the bottom of the falls as Ginny aimed at pieces of wood.
One after the other, the chips Steve hung from a tree branch were shattered, bullets smashing them to splinters. The Colt he’d given her was heavy, so that she had to use both hands to hold it steady. Steve, his swift draw so graceful and easy—and deadly—could put two bullets into a wood chip in the time it took her to put one. But she was accurate enough.
“If you don’t kill ’em you’ll sure as hell scare ’em to death,” he said, spinning the chamber of his revolver and loading it with quick efficiency. A black brow cocked, and there was a glint in his dark-blue eyes as he surveyed her. “Just hope you get the drop on a man, because by the time you get the pistol out of the holster, he’d have you so full of lead you could be used as an anchor.”
“Your faith in me is touching.” Disgruntled, she arched a brow and smiled. “But you might keep that in mind the next time you get the notion to intimidate me again.”
“Ginny, your arrogance never disappoints me!”
Too soon, Steve said they were to leave the valley. She met his gaze with a steady stare that refused to yield.
“I still have some unfinished business to attend in San Antonio. Paco should have been able to report Luna’s death as an accident by now—an unexpected fire in his room.”
She remembered the fierce glow on the horizon, a hazy memory of that night, and understood now what it was. She nodded. “Yes. I’m sure any inquiries have been settled by now. Steve, don’t leave me behind. Take me with you.”
“Ginny, you’d be safer at my grandfather’s house.”
“No, Steve. What difference does it make if I go to San Antonio or to Zacatecas? We were together last time, and it didn’t help. I’ll stay with you. Whatever happens to us, at least we’ll be together. Besides, I’m ready for a change. San Antonio sounds very inviting right now.”
When dubious shadows darkened his eyes, she lifted her shoulders in a light shrug. “I won’t interfere with your plans, Steve. I just want to feel safe again.”
“San Antonio is not necessarily a safe town,” he said dryly, but didn’t offer any more arguments.
Relieved, Ginny wondered what he would say if he knew what she planned. He wouldn’t be happy, but she was determined to exorcise all the old ghosts, rid their relationship of any lingering specters from their past.
It’s the only way we’ll ever be able to go on….
THE JOURNEY
39
When they rode out of the valley early the next morning, Ginny looked back only
