«I still think we should split any gold we find fifty-fifty,» Shannon said stubbornly over her shoulder.
Beneath Shannon, Razorback plodded at a surprisingly good pace up the steep game trail that led to the headwaters of the east fork of Avalanche Creek. On the trail behind Shannon, Whip sat easily astride his big gray gelding, following her to Silent John’s solitary claims.
«Whip?»
Ignoring Shannon, Whip looked over his shoulder. The packhorse was following more slowly with each foot of elevation gained. And there had been a lot of elevation. Avalanche Creek’s east fork went up the side of the mountain like lightning, zigzagging from ravine to cascade to ravine.
«Cat got your tongue?» Shannon asked acidly.
«I’ll take wages, just like any other coolie,» Whip said.
«Someone should bridle you, shoe you, and use you as a mule,» she said under her breath, believing Whip couldn’t hear.
«Anytime you want to ride me, just ask,» Whip said in a deep voice.
«You have a mule’s long ears, too,» she retorted.
Whip saw the flush on Shannon’s pale cheeks and laughed aloud.
«You’re so sweet to tease,» he said. «I swear, I could get drunk on you.»
«It’s the altitude.»
«No, honey girl. It’s you.»
Shannon shook her head vigorously, but her eyes were sparkling. Whip’s tender, sensual teasing was a constant surprise to her.
«I never know when to take you seriously,» she said, sighing. «You’re the first man I’ve ever known who wasn’t hell-bent on gold or fighting or…»
Too late, Shannon realized where her words were leading her.
«Sex?» Whip asked dryly.
She nodded.
«Oh, I’m hell-bent on that,» he assured her.
«You have an odd way of showing it,» Shannon muttered.
His smile flashed against his tan face.
«You noticed,» he said.
«What?»
«That I haven’t touched you since breakfast two days ago.»
«Now why would I notice a thing like that?» she retorted coolly.
Whip’s laugh was as darkly masculine as his smile.
«Are you burning yet, honey girl?»
«I don’t know what you’re talking about.»
«I know. That’s why I haven’t touched you.»
Shannon bit her lip. «How will I get less naive if you don’t touch me?»
«Good question. When you think of the answer, let me know. I’ll do the same for you.»
She made an exasperated sound and turned back to the trail, ignoring Whip’s gentle smile.
Prettyface was waiting up ahead where the trail forked. One vague path led to the Chute, which was still buried under summer avalanches. The other path led to the Rifle Sight claim, by way of a place Silent John called Grizzly Meadow.
«Go right, Prettyface,» Shannon called, waving her arm to the right.
The big dog promptly trotted off to the right.
Shannon glanced behind to see if Whip was suitably impressed by the dog’s obedience. But Whip wasn’t watching her. He was looking through a gap in the trees back down the trail. His narroweyed intensity was nearly tangible.
«Whip?»
He held up his hand in a sharp signal for silence.
Uneasily Shannon waited, eyes scanning the back trail for anything out of the ordinary. She saw only trees bending slightly beneath the breeze, and cloud shadows dappling the green-and-gray flank of the mountain.
After another minute Whip finally turned in the saddle to face Shannon.
«Nothing,» he said. «Just a bird startled by a deer, I guess. Indians have no reason to climb this high and outlaws are too darned lazy.»
«Grizzly?»
«Wouldn’t surprise me. We’re following a game trail. Bears follow it, too. They don’t break any trails they don’t have to, unless it’s berry season. Then they’ll plow through hell itself to get to a ripe thicket.»
Shannon looked around at the mountainside. Spruce, fir, and aspens grew thickly, shutting out much of the view. Ahead, there was a thinning of the forest that signaled the approach to Grizzly Meadow. The meadow with its rim of bushes and willows was the last good browsing for deer. After the meadow, plants grew more and more scarce until there was nothing left but rocky heights rising naked to the windswept sky.
«Have you seen any sign of grizzlies?» Shannon asked uneasily.
«Look on that tree to your right.»
Shannon looked. All she saw was a place well above her head where the evergreen’s thick bark had been scraped off, revealing the lighter wood beneath.
«Do you mean this scar?» she asked.
Whip nodded.
«But it’s at least eight feet off the ground,» she objected.
«Closer to ten.»
«What does that have to do with grizzlies?»
«Silent John didn’t teach you much, did he?»
«No. My learning comes from books he brought — bringsme from time to time so I won’t bother him with my chatter.»
«When a male bear marks out his territory,» Whip said, «he rears back on his hind legs and slashes as high up on a tree as he can.»
«Why?»
«An old trapper told me it was to warn off other males. If a wandering male couldn’t measure up to the resident claw marks, he just put on his best behavior and drifted to new territory.»
Shannon looked at the claw marks and tried not to think about the size and power of the grizzly bear that had left its sign so high in the tree.
«From the looks of those marks,» Whip added, «there’s a fair-sized grizzly that stakes his claim here in the summer.»
Instinctively Shannon’s fingers went to the saddle scabbard. The shotgun’s cool stock reassured her. The weapon was loaded, needing only to be cocked before it was ready to fire.
«Don’t worry,» Whip said without looking at Shannon. «It’s early for bears at this altitude.»
«Maybe. After the mule was killed, Silent John told me bears are notional creatures. Like Indians. They do or don’t do according to their own whims. And a female with cubs is pure poison. You see one and you go the other direction. Quick.»
Shannon looked away from the forest and smiled oddly at Whip.
«I think that was the most words Silent John ever spoke to me all at once,» she said. «It was his way of telling me how important the information was.»
The thought that Shannon had been so essentially alone for the past seven years troubled Whip. It made him feel like he was scheming to steal candy from a baby instead of planning to share mutual pleasure with a widow who understood what passed between men and women.
«Don’t worry,» Whip said tightly. «Those claw marks aren’t fresh. Anyway, most of the time bears want nothing to do with men, except to steal food if you’re fool enough to leave some lying around where you’re sleeping.»
Despite his reassuring words, Whip kept checking the back trail, as well as both sides of the vague track that led to the high claim.
As Silent John had warned, bears were notional creatures.
Whip saw nothing for his efforts but the untamed beauty of the country itself. It was a place of jagged stone crowns thrust up to the clean wind, of high green divides, and of quaking aspens whispering among themselves while thunderstorms stalked the skyline on stilts made of lightning.
«Can’t you get more speed out of the mule?» Whip asked after a long time of silence.
«I’ll try.»
«There will be sleet before long.»
«Hail, more than likely,» Shannon said. «Those are mean-looking clouds the wind is pushing toward us.»
She urged Razorback to a quicker pace. The mule didn’t object much. It, too, had smelled the raw edge of ice on the wind.
Once in the meadow, Whip and Shannon went about making camp as quickly as possible. While she picketed her old mule and Whip’s horse, he took the packhorse he had named Crowbait to the south edge of the meadow. There among the trees was a burned ring where Silent John had camped from time to time.
But not recently.
«How did you know this was the most sheltered campsite?» Shannon asked, coming up behind Whip.
«I’ve been here before.»
«When?»
«When I was looking for signs that Silent John was still in the area.»
«And?» she asked tightly, afraid that Whip might have discovered proof of Silent John’s death.
«No new sign. Not then. Not now. Near as I could tell, no one has been here but me, and I left damn few tracks.»
«Did you get up to Rifle Sight?»
«Yes.»
Shannon’s eyes widened. «Was there any sign of Silent John?»
«Nothing fresh. A broken pickax. A tin can filled with paraffin and sporting a tail of rag for a wick. The rag hadn’t been burned at all. The charcoal had been scattered by wind. There were signs of avalanche and a rock slide old enough to have wildflowers growing in the cracks.»
Shannon swallowed and tried very hard not to think of Silent John buried beneath the rubble.
«What about the Chute?» Shannon asked.
«If it’s over that ridge and off a bit to the north —» Whip began, pointing.
«It is.»
«— then it’s still buried in snow. Anyone there is buried, too. There are a few other places someone has been digging, but they’re up the north fork and don’t show any signs of recent —»
«Why didn’t you tell me?» Shannon interrupted.
«That I was looking for Silent John?»
Shannon nodded curtly.
«You weren’t talking to me then,» Whip said, his voice dry.
«Then why were you looking?»
«Because I don’t hold with adultery.»
The blunt words weren’t what Shannon had expected. She didn’t think of herself and Silent John in those terms, because it hadn’t been a real marriage.
Whip turned and faced Shannon fully. He looked very large to her with his broad shoulders and heavy wool coat and his collar lifted to turn the wind. But it was his eyes that held her. His eyes were as untamed as the sky.
«More than once in those first few days,» Whip said, «I tried to ride off and keep on riding. But I wanted you too much to keep my hands in my pockets.»
«You’ve done a fine job of overcoming that,» Shannon said ironically. «I’m proud of you.»
«You’re proud, period.» Whip smiled a slow, off-center smile. «I like that, Shannon. Gives you sass and vinegar to go with all the honey and cream.»
Abruptly Shannon turned her back and found something to do. She was no longer able to meet the sensual knowledge in Whip’s eyes without putting her arms around his neck and begging for a kiss that would never end.
Not until camp was secure and a cold supper had been eaten did Shannon say anything to Whip again. She hadn’t meant to speak at all, but lightning struck and thunder pounded and then hail started hammering down.
Quickly Whip pulled Shannon beneath the tarpaulin he had drawn over himself when he realized how fast and furious the storm would be. With a few deft, powerful motions, he seated Shannon between his drawn-up knees with her back to his chest.
«Pull your knees up or else your feet will get hammered,» Whip said.
Shannon was drawing up her knees even before Whip spoke. Beneath the canvas it was like a sheltered golden dusk, except for the times when the wind tugged some of the tarpaulin out of Whip’s fingers or lightning burned so brightly that it turned the world white for a few instants.
«Hang on to this,» Whip said.
With her right hand, Shannon grabbed the corner of cold, stiff canvas he was holding out to her.
«And this,» he said.
The fingers of her left hand closed around the second bunch of tarpaulin Whip gave her.
«Got them?» he asked.
«Yes.»
«Good. Whatever you do, don’t let go, or we’ll get the coldest bath you’ve ever taken.»
Shannon nodded.
The motion knocked her hat askew. Instinctively she reached up to right the hat. A blast of ice-tipped air swept beneath the tarpaulin. Quickly she dragged her hand — and the cloth — back into place on the ground.
«Sorry,» she muttered. «My hat.»
«Come back more toward me.»
Shannon scooted backward until she felt the warm vise of Whip’s thighs closing on either side.
«More,» he said.
She edged back an inch or two. «How’s that?»
«Not enough. I still can’t reach your hat without letting in the storm.»
Shannon dug in her heels and rocked her bottom slightly, pushing herself against Whip until she felt the heat of his muscular thighs seeping into her.
«Okay?» she asked.
Whip dragged in a slow, hidden breath. The feel of Shannon’s hips rocking softly between his thighs had hardened him in a wild torrent that all but stopped his heart.
«Closer,» he said thickly.
«I can’t. There’s no room.»
«There’s lots more room. You’d be surprised how close two bodies can get if they put their minds to it.»
Shannon muttered beneath her breath and dug in her heels once more, rocking backward a fraction of an inch at a time. She felt Whip’s breathing break, heard a low sound that could have been a groan, and sensed the vibrant tension in his body.
«Whip?»
He managed a questioning sound.
«Are you all right?» Shannon asked.
«A little cold around the edges,» he said, lying through his teeth. «How about you?»
«A lot more comfortable than I was. You’re better for warming than a campfire.»
She sensed as much as heard Whip’s amusement.
«But my hat is still halfway off,» Shannon added. «It’s tickling my nose.»
«Sit tight. I’ll move around until I can get a hand free without freezing us.»
Before she could answer, Shannon felt Whip’s big body shift against her. The sensual, moving prison of his chest and thighs rubbed over her, sending heat like lightning through the center of her body.
«What are you doing?» she asked in a strained voice.
«Trying to sit on a corner of the damned tarpaulin so I can get a hand free to fix your hat. Why?»
«Nothing.»
Shannon’s nose twitched as a lock of hair slid free and slithered over her face. Hail drummed down on the tarpaulin, gathering coldly in the creases. Thunder chased lightning through the storm. Whip’s movements continued to send a different kind of lightning spearing through Shannon.
«There,» Whip said. «That should do it.»
Shannon let out a sigh of relief and tried to relax. She didn’t know her own body when Whip was this close to her, moving against her, sharing the very air she breathed.
«Lean back against me,» he said.
«Why?»
«Do you want that hat fixed or not?»
Grumbling, Shannon leaned back until she felt the hard coils of the bullwhip on Whip’s shoulder. Her hat loosened, shifted, and was tugged firmly back into place on top of her head by Whip’s hand.
«How’s that?» he asked.
«Better. But now my hair is in my face.»
«You’re more trouble than a sack full of puppies.»
Despite his complaint, Whip was smiling as he reached around Shannon, caught the lock of hair, and tucked it behind her ear.
«All set?» Whip asked.
«Yes. Thank you.»
«Nothing else bothering you?»
«No.»
«Good. I want you to be able to concentrate on what you’re feeling.»
«Right now I’m feeling — Whip!»
«Hang on to that tarpaulin, honey girl. The hail is damned cold.»
Shannon barely heard Whip’s words. His big hand had slid inside her jacket and cupped her right breast. Slowly, tenderly, he caressed her until her nipple peaked. He caught the hardened tip between his fingers and pinched lightly.
A gasp came from Shannon as fire licked out from her breast, consuming her. The flames leaped higher as Whip kneaded her soft flesh and tugged at the nipple until it stood proudly against her worn shirt.
«There are times when leather gloves are a real nuisance,» Whip said. «Help me, honey girl. Set your teeth in the leather and pull.»
«But —»
«I’m just giving you the answer to your question about how you can learn without being touched. You can’t. So I’m touching you. If you don’t like the way I’m doing it, tell me what’s wrong and I’ll change it.»
Shannon bit down on her lip, trying not to cry out as Whip’s fingers teased and delighted her at the same time.
«Shannon?»
The low word was her name and a question and a caress spoken against the nape of her neck.
«Do you want me to stop?» he asked.
«Yes. No. I don’t know!»
She took a swift, wild breath. The movement pressed her nipple against Whip’s hand. Pleasure rippled through her.
«Yes,» Shannon whispered. «Touch me. Teach me.»
Whip tried to still the elemental response of his body to her husky words.
It was impossible.
Thank God it’s the middle of a hailstorm, Whip thought ruefully. I’m going to have a hell of a time stopping at a little petting.
«Help me with this glove,» he said in a low voice. «It will feel much better. For both of us.»
Whip’s hand lifted from Shannon’s breast and slid up to her chin, then her lips. Blindly she found the tip of one of his fingers, bit down on the leather, and tugged. She did the same with each finger until he was able to free himself of the glove.
Instantly his hand returned to her breast. Beneath her unbuttoned jacket, his fingertips circled the rigid peak without touching it.
«Does this feel better for you?» Whip asked huskily. «It damn well does for me. You make me think of hot satin and sunlight and a slow, aching kind of lovemaking.»
Shannon bit back a cry. Her back arched as she tried to bring Whip’s hand closer to her hungry nipple.
With a smile that Shannon couldn’t see, Whip bent his head and nudged her hat upward until he could set his teeth against the nape of her neck.
The primitive caress dragged a low sound from Shannon’s throat. She bent her head to give Whip greater freedom and was rewarded by another hot, tender bite. At the same time, his fingers caught her nipple and plucked.
Fire blossomed in Shannon’s belly. She didn’t know that her shirt was giving way a button at a time, making room for Whip’s big hand. She only knew that her skin was on fire and his fingers were hard, cool, delicious in their blind caresses.
Whip felt the shiver that went through Shannon’s soft breast, felt the rigid crown he had drawn from her, and wished that they were naked in a warm bed rather than fully clothed with a hailstorm beating at their frail shelter.
With a throttled groan, Whip eased his hand over to Shannon’s left breast. It was already firm, pouting for his touch, and when he plucked the nipple, it became a velvet dagger thrusting against his palm.
«You have the most responsive breasts,» Whip said. «A touch, and they harden.»
«I don’t — they don’t usually — I mean — unless it’s cold — wet — oh Lord, I can’t think.»
Whip smiled to know that he had taken the sharp edge off Shannon’s wit and replaced it with the scattered words of a woman whose body was focused entirely on pleasure. It was worth the ache in his crotch to hear her ragged breathing, to feel her writhe slowly against his hand, to sense the sweet violence of the heat gathering between her legs.
«Passion,» Whip said huskily.
«What?»
It was a sigh as much as a question. His hand slid from satin slope to velvet crown and back.
«You,» Whip said. «It’s passion that draws your nipples so tight.»
«It’s — your fingers.»
Laughing, Whip bit the nape of Shannon’s neck again. Then he licked the indentations where his teeth had tested the sweetness of her skin.
She moaned and pushed back against him, increasing the force of the caress.
A torrent of heat went through Whip, focusing him in the aroused flesh that now was pressed against Shannon’s hip. His teeth raked over her nape less gently than he had intended, but she didn’t complain. Instead, she moved against him again, and again he let her feel the lover’s caress of his teeth against her nape.
«Like that?» he murmured.
Shannon’s answer was a sound that had no meaning, but the slow rocking of her hips between Whip’s thighs told him all that he needed to know. He bit her with savage restraint as his hand swept down her body and burrowed between her thighs.
Her breath came in with a swift, ripping sound. Her whole body stiffened as though struck by lightning.
«Easy,» Whip murmured.
The advice was as much for himself as it was for Shannon. Through the old trousers she wore, Whip could sense the steamy heat between her legs.
A blast of hail hammered over the tarpaulin. Neither Shannon nor Whip noticed. They were both riveted by the sultry flesh that throbbed only inches from his hand.
«I won’t hurt you,» Whip said in a low voice. «I just want to feel the fire I’ve started. I want you to feel it, too. Open your legs, honey girl.»
With a shudder, Shannon leaned against Whip fully and gave him what he wanted. Long fingers slid over her, pressed teasingly, cupped her, and held her in the palm of his hand. Slowly his hand rocked back and forth, opening her legs wider, pressing suddenly, urgently, sending a shock of pleasure surging up her body.
Shannon whimpered.
Whip’s hand gentled, simply holding her.
It wasn’t enough. Instinctively Shannon moved her hips, wanting more of the pleasure he had given her.
Whip unfastened her pants, smiling as he realized that he had never undone a fly before and found a woman’s very different flesh awaiting him.
«Whip — your hand —»
«Yes. My hand. Your softness. God, you are soft. Creamy soft and so hot it makes me want to —»
With a curse Whip bit back his incautious words. If he thought about how good it would feel to press into Shannon’s sultry, clinging heat, he would probably do something stupid like open his pants and slide her soft little rump into his lap and himself into her at the same time.
Not yet. She’s still too naive. She’s got to know what she’s asking me for when she watches me and smiles and crosses the room to stand next to me.
When she knows what she wants, I’ll give it to her. Every hot, aching inch of it.
Shannon made a ragged sound as she felt Whip’s palm nestling deeper and deeper between her legs, rubbing over her while pleasure coiled and coiled and coiled until it burst and spilled hotly over his caressing hand.
«I didn’t mean — I’m sorry — I don’t — I can’t — help it —» Shannon said jerkily.
«Help what?»
His hand moved and satin fire pooled again in his palm.
Shannon moaned as pleasure coiled even more deeply for having known just a small release.
«That,» she said raggedly.
Whip smiled despite the need raking him. He stroked Shannon again, pressing against the satin knot that stood out from her lush flesh. She shivered and heat licked over him in sultry caress.
«That,» Whip said huskily, «is the purest kind of honey.»
Shannon looked down and saw Whip’s hand moving inside her loose trousers, between her legs, touching her as she had never been touched.
«I shouldn’t — let you.»
«We’re just playing, honey girl. Men and women do this all the time. It’s a way of finding out if you want to play for real.»
Slick fingertips circled the knot Whip had drawn from Shannon’s softness. Instantly she stiffened and shuddered and cried out with surprise.
«Am I hurting you?» Whip asked.
«No,» she said, her voice ragged. «It feels — strange.»
«Strange bad or strange good?»
As Whip asked, he plucked and felt the hot rush of Shannon’s response spilling over his hand.
«Your body says that it feels good,» he said, biting her neck. «Damned good.»
Shannon’s only answer was a whimper and a jerk of her hips with each deft motion of his hand. Pressure coiled and coiled and coiled, driving her toward something she had never known.
«Whip! I can’t — stop! Stop! I’m scared!»
«It’s all right, honey girl. You’re nearly there. Lie back against me and let me take you the rest of the way.»
Shannon tried to answer, but Whip was caressing the lush, soft flesh between her legs. She whimpered as pleasure clenched tightly, summoned by his fingers and the pressure of his teeth at the nape of her neck. Helplessly her hips rocked and lifted, seeking something she couldn’t name.
Whip knew what Shannon sought. He circled the knot of her passion, caressing her with fingers slick from her wild response. He heard her whimpers come more quickly, felt the tension drawing her body until it was rigid, shaking.
Shannon’s breath fragmented over Whip’s name and she convulsed with a pleasure that was beyond anything she had eve imagined. Helpless in the grip of ecstasy, she called his name again and again.
It took an act of will for Whip to stop caressing the honey and silk between Shannon’s legs. He wanted to sheathe himself in the fire of her body, to feel her softness caress him with every sweet surge of her release.
And then he wanted to spend himself in her fire until he couldn’t remember what it was like to go hungry, aching with each breath, each heartbeat.
Shannon made a broken sound and moved against his hand. Heat pulsed between their skin. The air beneath the tarpaulin was steamy, mysterious, exciting beyond anything Whip had ever known.
«You’re everything your walk hinted you were,» he said roughly. «Honey and fire.»
Whip set his jaw against the temptation offered by the girl lying so seductively between his legs, her body open to his hand. Slowly, feeling as though he were tearing off his own skin, he forced himself to release the sultry, honeyed flesh.
He wasn’t nearly so slow about getting out from under the steamy intimacy of the tarpaulin. A few swift, savage motions of his hands tucked the tarpaulin around Shannon, protecting her from the violent weather.
«Stay here until the storm’s over,» Whip said.
«What about you?» asked a muffled voice.
«I’m hot enough to burn ice.»
Hail beat on Whip’s body as he went to check on the horses. Grimly he hoped it would put out the fire.
It didn’t.