River Lady Read online

  Refusing to comment or even look at Wesley, she put on her much smaller pack. She was swearing to herself that she’d show no fear.

  Kimberly stayed close to John and it was unusual to see her up so early in the morning. Usually she stayed in bed until breakfast was cooked. Leah wasn’t sure if Kim wanted to be near John or if he was insisting she stay there. But Leah was too caught up in her own problems to worry about Kim.

  “Ready, Mrs. Stanford?” Wes asked.

  Leah wouldn’t look at him, but when he started walking, she was behind him.

  Now they’d been walking for hours. Leah was tired, and long ago they’d left all sights and sounds of other people. Only she and the buckskin-clad man in front of her seemed to be left on the earth.

  “Can you climb up there?” Wes asked, stopping and pointing.

  Leah looked up at the steep climb to what seemed to be a cave opening. Curtly she nodded, but she wouldn’t look at Wes.

  “Give me your pack.”

  “I can carry it,” she said, starting forward.

  Wesley caught her pack and half pulled it from her back. “I told you to give me your pack and that’s what I meant. You give me any more trouble and I’ll throw you over my shoulder and carry you.”

  Still without looking at him, she slipped out of the pack and handed it to him. It wasn’t an easy climb, especially in her long skirt, but every time she had difficulty, Wes was there with a hand freeing her skirt edge, steadying her at her waist, and once giving her a boost on her seat.

  When she reached the top, she didn’t thank him but stood on the ledge, flattened against the stone wall and peering into the blackness that was the cave. “Do you think there are any bears in there?” she whispered.

  “Maybe,” Wes answered unconcerned as he put their packs on the ground. “I’ll have a look.”

  “Be…be careful,” she murmured.

  “Worried about me, are you?”

  She met his eyes. “I don’t want to be left here alone.”

  “I guess I deserved that,” he half grunted, removing a heavy knife from the sheath at his side and a candle from his pack.

  “Shouldn’t you take the rifle?” she asked, aghast.

  “Rifles are useless in close combat. How about a kiss before I enter?”

  “I’m to reward you for putting us in the middle of nowhere in front of a bear’s den? Maybe there’s a whole family of bears in there and we’ll both die.”

  His eyes twinkled. “If I could but die with your kiss on my lips…”

  “Go on! Get it over with.”

  Wesley’s face turned serious as he disappeared into the cave. “It’s bigger than I thought,” he said, his voice sounding hollow. “There’re some Indian paintings on the walls and some signs of camp fires.”

  She could hear him moving in the cave and when he spoke again his voice sounded farther away.

  “Doesn’t look like there are any signs of bears. A few bones. Looks like lots of people have camped here.”

  For a few minutes he said nothing else and Leah began to relax from her rigid stance and took a step closer to the cave opening. She could hear Wesley walking about and now and then see the flicker of his candle flame.

  “Is it safe?” she called.

  “Sure,” he yelled back. “Clean as a whistle.”

  In the next few seconds everything happened at once.

  Wesley said, “Uh oh,” then bellowed, “run, Leah! Hide!”

  Instantly, Leah froze right where she was, smack in the middle of the wide cave opening.

  In a lightning flash of buckskin fringe, Wesley came tearing out of the cave, and inches behind him was a big old black bear, its fat rippling as it lumbered after Wesley.

  The bear brushed past Leah so closely that her nostrils flared at the smell of it. But she could no more move than the rock behind her could.

  The bear didn’t seem to notice her at all in its pursuit of Wes.

  Only her eyes able to move, Leah watched Wes tear down the hillside.

  “Climb a tree, Leah,” he yelled back at her.

  Tree, Leah thought. What is a tree? What does it look like?

  She was still wondering this when she heard a loud splash to her left.

  “Move, Leah,” she commanded herself. But nothing happened. “Move!”

  When she did move, it was quickly. She ignored Wes’s order to climb a tree and took off, running toward the sound of the splash. She stopped, chest heaving, by a little pool of water that was surrounded by rock. Everything was perfectly quiet. There was no sign of Wesley or the bear. Just the birds singing, the late afternoon sunshine, the smell of grasses.

  The next thing she knew her ankle had been grabbed and she was being dragged downward. Instinctively she began to struggle.

  “Stop kicking!” Wes’s voice hissed—his voice alone, because Leah still saw no one.

  When she paused in her struggles, Wes jerked her into the water.

  “What—?” She gasped just as Wes put his hand on the top of her head and pushed her underwater.

  Her breath held, furious, she saw him submerge and she glared at him through the clear water.

  He pointed and she looked. There above them, sniffing the air, was the bear. Wes motioned for her to follow him underwater and she did.

  He swam to the opposite side of the little pool and stuck his head up behind some hanging greenery. Leah came up struggling for breath and instantly Wes put his fingers to her lips.

  With a sideways glance Leah saw the bear in the same place and she moved away from the animal, which happened to be nearer Wesley. His arms opened and he pulled her to him, her back against his front. She couldn’t struggle because the sound might carry to the bear.

  Wesley caught her earlobe between his teeth and began to nibble on it.

  She tried to move away.

  He released her ear and nodded meaningfully toward the bear.

  She tried to tell him with her eyes that she almost preferred the bear’s mauling, but Wes’s grip wouldn’t let her move.

  He began to nuzzle her neck, his kisses trailing upward to her hairline.

  The water was warm, heated all day by the sun, and it was relaxing Leah’s tired muscles. As Wes continued to explore her neck and the side of her face, Leah leaned back into him, turning her head to give him freer access.

  “The bear’s gone,” he murmured.

  “Mmm?” Leah said, her eyes closed.

  Wesley ran his teeth down the sensitive cord in her neck and Leah turned a bit in his arms. Her body felt as soft and liquid as the water surrounding her.

  “The bear’s gone,” Wes repeated as the tip of his tongue touched her earlobe. “Shall we finish this on land? Of course maybe we could continue in the water. I’m certainly willing.”

  She whirled about, treading water. “How dare you—.”

  “How dare I!” He laughed. “Why do you keep lying to yourself, Leah? All I have to do is touch you and you’re mine. Don’t leave. Let’s stay in the water. I’ve never—.”

  Leah, who was trying her best to make a dignified exit to the shore, turned to face him, her eyes flashing fire. “If you are planning to inform me of your previous conquests, please restrain yourself. I have no interest in what you have or have not done. And for your information, I react to all men who touch me just as I react to you. It’s something all of us Simmons women are born with. I thought you knew that. After all, isn’t your interest in me due to my whorelike nature?”

  “Damn you, Leah!” Wes seethed, moving near her. “Why do you keep saying those things about yourself? I saw you with Justin. I’ll wager he never touched you.”

  “Then you’d lose your money.” Grabbing her skirt she left the pool to stand on the bank, wringing out the wetness.

  Wesley stood beside her, his big body outlined by his wet buckskins. “You’ll give me what I want, Leah.”

  When she didn’t look at him, he moved away. “We’ll camp over there,” he