Sweetbriar Read online

  “You’ve told me no before, but I wanta make love to you now. Would you say no to me again?”

  She didn’t answer him but pulled his face down to hers. She was hungry for him and her fear, the long journey with Yellow Hand, seeing Devon hurt and in pain, all these things lent a fierceness to her passion, a longing and desperation.

  “Sssh, love,” he calmed her and kissed her temples, and Linnet could feel her own tears as they rolled down her cheeks.

  Devon understood the tears and he wished he could promise her they were useless, but he couldn’t. He joked with her, teased her, but he never let her know the danger he knew they could be in. Crazy Bear was a lazy man, and Devon doubted if he’d follow them this far, but he wasn’t sure. They shouldn’t have stopped now, at least not on the ground, in a tree maybe, but he couldn’t let her know how close to death they could be. Whether she knew it or not, Linnet was near exhaustion, and as yet he was still too weak to carry her.

  “I love you, Lynna, remember that, I love you.”

  “Yes, Devon, yes.” But Linnet no longer cared for words of love or for any emotion but the weight and feel of the man above her. Her hands ran down his sides, fingertips on his ribs. Her mind turned about in a whirlpool as he touched her. She wanted to scream with the pleasure, the joy of him. She arched her body to meet him, drawing him closer, nearer. She did cry out once, and he heard it and should have silenced her, but his own ecstasy was too sharp, too exquisite, to stop.

  He hovered above her, looking at her, her face and hair pale in the moonlight. She smiled like a cat, dreamy, languid. He moved slightly, and her eyes flew open and her legs locked around him.

  “No! Don’t leave me.” She couldn’t get enough of him. He had left her before.

  “Never, love, never. I’ll not move all night if you don’t want me to. I’ll not crush you?”

  She just closed her eyes and smiled that little cat smile again. “I’ll manage to bear the pain,” she whispered and soon slept, contented, her mind not even aware of the concept of danger.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  IT WAS VERY EARLY MORNING WHEN DEVON’S tenseness woke her. He rolled from her, his eyes searching the grayness around them as he silently drew on his pants. One look of warning was enough to keep Linnet from either moving or speaking. Devon vanished into the half-light, and she turned to her stomach, watched and listened, but hearing or seeing nothing. The sun began to lighten the day, the birds called to one another, but Linnet still saw nothing. She began to relax and felt herself falling asleep.

  “So we meet again.”

  Linnet opened her eyes but she didn’t look up because she knew the voice and dreaded it.

  “I reckon Mac heard me comin’,” he said.

  She turned her head and looked up at the brilliant, white form of Cord Macalister. She pulled her petticoats closer about her, the covering that Devon had draped over her nude body.

  “You don’t have to look at me like that.” He smiled, and Linnet felt herself warming to him in spite of herself. Cord’s handsomeness had that effect on most women.

  “Why are you here?” she managed to ask from her undignified position.

  “I saw you floatin’ down the river, looked like you needed help.”

  “Then it looked wrong,” came Devon’s quiet voice.

  She hadn’t heard him approach, and from the surprise on Cord’s face, neither had he. Something strange passed across Cord’s eyes for a moment, and then he smiled lazily.

  “Mac, it’s good to see you again. At least it’s better’n last time.” He made a noise that was meant to be a laugh.

  Linnet couldn’t read Devon’s face, as his eyes turned hard and brittle, his wide-legged stance unforgiving.

  “I brung some birds,” Cord continued. “Thought you could use ’em.”

  Devon nodded his head once, and Linnet knew he thought of her more than himself.

  The five birds, skewered and dripping into the fire, Linnet considered the most beautiful sight in the world. Cord grinned at her as she pulled away one leg, black, crusty skin on the outside, pink, hot, and succulent on the inside. Cord helped himself to an entire bird, but Devon remained immobile, watching Cord, wary, untrusting. Linnet could say nothing. This conflict was between two brothers, and she had no right to interfere.

  Cord licked a finger, studying the half-eaten bird. “Now, Mac, this ain’t no way to greet your long-lost brother.” He watched Devon, saw he showed no sign of surprise. “You tell him?”

  “Yes,” Linnet answered. “Devon, would you like something to eat?”

  He ignored her.

  Cord chuckled. “Seems the boy’s afraid he takes his eyes off me, I just might run off with you—again,” he added, his eyes sparkling as they left her face and flickered briefly on her body, one shoulder exposed by a torn sleeve. “What he don’t seem to know is that I come to make my peace with him. I had a long while to think on what happened and I decided women are easier to come by than brothers, and if it’s all the same to him, I’d like to start over again.”

  Linnet looked at Devon, his face unreadable. She knew well how hard it was to forgive someone for what seemed unforgivable. She stood and held her hand out to him. “Walk with me?”

  He stood silently, seeming reluctant to leave Cord, to let the man out of his sight. They were some distance from the little camp before he spoke. “Linnet, if you think you’re gonna talk me into—”

  “I have no intention of talking to you at all,” she interrupted. “I just wanted a little privacy. I think we have nearly three years of wasted time to make up for. I thought you might like to kiss me.”

  He grinned crookedly. “I dare say I might like to,” he mocked her accent. He grabbed her in his arms and twirled her around, then held her close, not noticing that he supported her entire weight, her feet completely away from the forest floor.

  “I’m glad it’s past,” she said into his neck.

  “You mean the bad times?”

  “Yes.” Her teeth nipped his neck, her tongue savoring the smooth skin.

  “Lord, Linnet!” He bent and put his arm beneath her knees and lifted her. “I never want to let you go. I never want you to be out of my sight.”

  She smiled, unnaturally happy, too happy. “I never thought we could have gotten over all the bad times, did you?”

  He brought his lips down on hers, his mouth open, swallowing her, pulling her from herself. Suddenly he broke away and she saw anger in his eyes. “I know what you’re tryin’ to do, Linnet Blanche Tyler.”

  She looked at him in astonishment. “I don’t know what—”

  “Oh yes you do, and stop tryin’ to look innocent. You’re about as innocent as…as, well, I don’t know what, but I do know what you’re doin’, and you can stop it.”

  She snuggled against him, nuzzling his shoulder. “Whatever do you mean?”

  He pulled her face back to look at him. “Now I know some men let their wives tell them what to do, but I’m not one of ’em, and you can start gettin’ used to the idea right now. You mighta spent your life in school, but I ain’t exactly dumb and I can see through your little tricks.”

  “Devon, I have no idea what you’re speaking of. Could you possibly explain it to me?”

  “You’re tryin’ to get me to talk about how mean I was to you and how you forgave me. Now you want me to forgive Cord, after all he’s done to me.”

  “And what would be so wrong with that?”

  “First of all, I ain’t the forgivin’ kind. When somebody does me dirt, I don’t forget it in a hurry.”

  “That’s a fine thing to say! What if I felt that way about you?”

  He grinned. “You were influenced by wantin’ to be in my bed.”

  “Devon!” She looked shocked.

  “But I ain’t got no feelin’s like that towards Cord. He wants my forgivin’ he’s gotta prove himself before I say he’s my brother.”

  She looked away and found it almost im