The Temptress Read online

  “Well, I’m curious about what’s cooking in that pot.” He moved closer to her. “Maybe you could go hunting with me.”

  “I can’t leave Pilar.”

  “She can go with us. It’ll do her good to walk around some.”

  “I don’t think so. I need to clean up around here and…”

  Ty moved even closer to her, then put his hand to the side of her face. “Chris, please go with me. I promise I’ll behave. I won’t do anything you don’t want me to.”

  She took a step away from him. He could use that voice of his to make a person’s resolve melt. “I shouldn’t. I should…”

  “Should what?” he asked, following her as she backed away.

  “Chris!” Pilar called. “I’d love to get some exercise. Could you go with Ty for my sake?”

  “I…I guess so,” she began, looking into Tynan’s smiling eyes. “But don’t you try anything,” she warned. “I’m not going to give into you.”

  His eyelids lowered. “Sweetheart, I haven’t even asked you yet.”

  After Tynan had eaten most of the stew Chris had cooked, he took his rifle, helped Pilar to stand and started up the little trail behind the cabin. Chris complained twice about his walking on his injured leg, but he just grinned at her.

  “Remember the time you and the Chanry boys robbed that bank down in Texas and—” Pilar began.

  “Robbed the bank?” Chris gasped. “Robbed a bank!”

  Ty winked at Pilar. “She thinks I’m as clean as a new snow, that I’m innocent on all counts.”

  “I’ve seen you shoot people. I took him to a picnic and he got into a fight with a man and the man got shot. On a church picnic, mind you.”

  “Rory Sayers,” Ty said to Pilar as if that were answer enough.

  “I never met anyone who was asking for it more,” Pilar said. “Ty, didn’t you have a garden up here when you were a boy?”

  Chris trailed along behind the two of them and felt as if she’d just entered a party and she was the only one who didn’t know everyone. Pilar and Ty talked easily about things that were meaningless to her. They exchanged names of people and places, fantastic happenings such as repeated brushes with the law, shootouts, the names of outlaws she’d only read about.

  At the top of the hill, Tynan moved some underbrush about until they saw a little clearing. “It was here,” he said, “and I planted carrots and potatoes and strawberries. The strawberries didn’t make it and the rabbits kept eating the tops of the carrots as soon as they grew above the ground. Look at this,” he said, holding up a rusty can that had been flattened. “One of my first targets. I used to practice up here for hours.”

  “Not much else to do,” Pilar said. “Is the old man’s gold mine near here?”

  “Not far, just along that trail.”

  Pilar turned and started walking but Chris held back. Tynan went to her, and, before she could stop him, he put his arms around her. “Feeling a little lost?”

  She pushed at him but he still held her. “Of course not.”

  “We could tell Pilar to go away and you and I could go into the bushes. I know a place that was made for making love. It’s quiet, secluded, near a little stream and flowers grow there all summer long. Would you like to make love on a bed of flowers?”

  “No I wouldn’t,” she said, but there wasn’t much conviction in her voice. “I don’t want to be any man’s woman of no morals.”

  “Morals? What do morals have to do with making love? Chris, honey, I could make you feel so good. We could make each other feel good.”

  She twisted away from him. “Leave me alone, Tynan. I’m not going to be one of your women and you’d better get used to the idea. I’m going to go home to my father and I just might stay there and marry some rancher and have a dozen or so children.”

  “Who do you have in mind?” he asked angrily. “Prescott?”

  “I’m sure Asher would make a fine husband and he has asked me and I just might say yes. What does it matter to you, anyway? You don’t want to be saddled with a wife and kids. You’ve made your choice and I’ve made mine, so what do you have to complain about?”

  She could see the anger in his eyes.

  “You call yourself a woman of morals, but what’s the difference between selling yourself for a few bucks and selling yourself for a piece of paper and a gold ring?”

  She glared up at him. “At least I get to choose what the price will be—not you.” She swept past him and continued up the trail after Pilar.

  She found Pilar standing outside a dark hole that seemed to be the mine entrance, holding a rock like the one Chris had found in the chest in the cabin.

  “It’s full of this stuff. I guess he thinks it’s gold and everybody is just too stupid to know that it is.” Pilar looked up at Chris. “Uh-oh, it looks like you two have been at it again.”

  “No, we haven’t. He is the most stubborn man. He can’t seem to get it through his thick skull that when I say no, I mean no. Hasn’t any woman ever said no to him before?”

  “I doubt it,” Pilar said seriously. “But then I’ve never seen him pursue a woman before you either. He usually just sits down and that face of his does the rest. At worst, he has to open his mouth and speak and if there’s one woman who hasn’t yet thawed, she will when she hears that voice of his.”

  “I expect more from a man than just beauty and a nice voice. And Tynan doesn’t seem capable of giving that.”

  In the distance, they heard the sound of a rifle shot. “I think he got us something to eat. Let’s go and meet him,” Pilar said.

  When Chris seemed determined to stay where she was, Pilar took her arm. “In a few days your father will be here and you’ll never have to see Ty again. This is the first rest any of us have had in ages, so let’s make the most of it, all right?”

  Reluctantly, Chris allowed Pilar to pull her forward. She wasn’t about to show anyone how the thought of never seeing Ty again made her heart jump into her throat.

  When they found Tynan he was already skinning a small deer and Chris built a fire. Soon the smell of roasting venison filled the air.

  “Nice place, isn’t it?” Ty asked, handing Chris a piece of meat.

  She looked around and realized that this was the place he’d just described—the place where he’d wanted to make love to her. “It’s all right,” she said coolly. “Pilar, why don’t you tell us about the joys of married life? And about your children? How old are they?”

  She ignored Tynan’s heartfelt groan as she turned her head and began listening to a homesick Pilar as she told about her husband and children. She didn’t gloss over the hardship of their lives, or dismiss the constant poverty and struggle, but there was a lovely sense of togetherness that Chris knew she wanted in her life. In turn, Pilar asked Chris about her newspaper stories and said how exciting all that must be.

  “It was, but I’m ready to settle down.”

  “She’s been ready ever since a certain party jumped out of a clothes wardrobe,” Tynan said from behind her, his voice heavy with sarcasm. “She thinks that if a man touches her, he has to marry her.”

  “That’s not true at all!” Chris said, turning on him. “I don’t know why I ever thought I was in love with you. You are insufferably vain and are too used to getting your own way. I doubt if I’d marry you now if you were to beg me.”

  “Don’t hold your breath. A week from now, I’m going to be free. I won’t have the responsibility of taking care of some spoiled little rich girl who thinks she can have whatever—or whoever—she wants merely by asking. I’m going to be free, you hear me? Not you or anybody else is going to take away my freedom.”

  “Stop it, both of you,” Pilar said. “You sound like my two boys. Look, we have to spend the next few days together so why don’t we try to get along? Ty, you’re probably angry because you haven’t had any sleep and your leg hurts. Why don’t you lay your head in Chris’s lap and she’ll tell us a story? I’d offer my lap but I pl