LEGEND Read online

  With that, he turned on his heel and headed back toward Legend.

  Feeling very alone, Kady walked toward the mountains. She was fairly sure that she could find the petroglyphs by herself, and when she did, she knew that she would find the doorway. And when she went through it, what would she find? Maybe there’d be a time error and she’d arrive in Legend in 1917. Or maybe the rock would close around her as she walked through it and she’d be trapped.

  Suddenly, she wished Tarik were with her, then told herself that was a stupid thought. Why was she so attracted to a man like him? Why wasn’t she remembering every minute she’d spent with Cole and longing to go back to him? Why had this dark man blocked out her memories of any other man?

  “He means absolutely nothing whatever to me,” she said as she put her chin in the air and kept walking, not noticing that “he” meant Tarik.

  In the hundred years since she’d been there last, the trail up the mountain had changed. Some of the rocks had eroded, and the trees had changed. A big old cottonwood was gone, and in its place were several seedlings. But the ancient piñon trees didn’t seem to have grown an inch.

  When she finally reached the sheer rock face, she had to pull aside scraggly vines to see the petroglyphs, now not as clear as they had been many years before, but she could still see them.

  Stepping back, Kady looked at the rock and waited for it to open. When nothing happened, she went to it and ran her hands over the surface as though she were looking for a latch.

  “Try, ‘Open sesame,’” came a voice from behind her.

  Turning, Kady saw Tarik standing there, the now-familiar smirk on his handsome face, but when he saw her, his expression changed. Leaping down from the rock he was standing on, he put his arms around her and drew her to him.

  “Kady, honey, you’re shaking like a leaf. Come on, sit down.” With his arms still around her, he led her to a low rock and gently seated her, then gave her a drink of water from a bottle he had hooked to his belt.

  “Better?” he asked, sitting beside her, his arms still around her.

  “I’m not your honey, and what are you doing here?”

  “Taking care of my wife. You like habibbi better?”

  “I don’t like any endearments from you, and I’m not your wife.” Her words would have had more impact if she hadn’t remained in the circle of his arms and hadn’t put her head down on his shoulder and hadn’t allowed him to brush her hair from her eyes with his fingertips.

  “How do you know so much?” she asked softly as she leaned against him.

  “I know surprisingly little, but I’m a good listener. Want to tell me everything?”

  She did want to share what had happened to her with someone—no, not just anyone, with him—but at the same time she was afraid to allow herself to indulge her feelings since they could lead nowhere.

  “No,” she said as she pulled away from him and made herself sit upright.

  “Damn it! What is it about me you don’t like?”

  “Lawsuits!” she said. “And . . . And . . .”

  “That suit was prepared years before I met you. Fowler was instructed to call another law firm if you showed up, and the lawsuit was sent automatically.”

  “Is that supposed to make me forgive you?”

  When she tried to move away, he caught her shoulders, turning her to look at him. “Yes,” he said softly, “I want you to forgive me. I want—Oh, Kady, I want you.”

  Before Kady could form a protest, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her, and she knew that never in her life had she been kissed before. Not like this man kissed her. Gregory had kissed her with reservations and caution. Cole’s kisses had been filled with humor and the excitement of a young boy. But this man kissed her in a way that made her want to become a part of him.

  Turning her head in his big hand, he moved her mouth so he could better reach parts of it that no other man had. His tongue touched hers, and Kady felt so weakened that she seemed to melt her body into his, hers so soft, his so hard.

  His hands moved down her back, entangled in her hair that came loose from its thick braid. His mouth seemed to cover hers; his hands caressed her, his fingertips easily finding her breasts and covering them.

  “Kady, I . . .” he said as he moved his mouth away and pulled her close to him. His grip was almost crushing her, and she could barely breathe, but that didn’t seem to matter right now.

  “Yes,” she whispered, encouraging him to speak. But what would he say? That he too had never felt this way? That no woman had ever made him feel this way? Not likely!

  As Tarik held her, knowing that he was not going to be able to prevent himself from making love to her here and now, and thinking, So this is what it feels like to be in love, he glanced up at the rock and what he saw made his thoughts freeze.

  It was as though the solid rock face had turned into a life-size movie screen, and through the opening he could see what was undoubtedly Legend of long ago. There was a saloon with four garishly dressed women sitting on the balcony. Horses, tied to rails, flicked flies with their tails while two men who looked as though they’d never had a bath in their lives walked through muddy streets.

  The sight was so shocking that for a moment Tarik forgot all about having finally achieved his goal of holding Kady in his arms. Instinctively, his arms tightened about her, not in passion but in protection. Up until now he had not believed a word of what he’d been able to piece together of her story of what had happened to connect her with the Jordan family.

  Years ago, he had researched all he could find about his family history, trying to figure out why his ancestor Ruth Jordan had left all their family’s money in trust to a stranger who had yet to be born. He’d found out a great deal of family history but no explanation.

  Now, as Tarik stared at the living, breathing scene in front of him, he knew that whatever Kady said had happened to her was true.

  The doors to the saloon opened, and he could hear the sounds of a badly tuned piano coming from inside. And he could smell the mud and horse manure and the unwashed bodies.

  “What was that?” Kady asked, but when she tried to turn her head, he held her fast.

  “Nothing, sweetheart,” he whispered, pushing her head back to his shoulder and holding it there. He’d never felt this way about a woman before, as though he wanted to wrap her in silk and protect her from all harm.

  “No!” Kady suddenly cried as she pushed against him sharply, then looked at the rock.

  To Tarik’s astonishment, the second she turned her head, the rock closed, and for several moments both of them stared in silence at nothing but the ordinary rock face.

  “It was open, wasn’t it?”

  “Open?” Tarik asked, doing his best to feign ignorance. But what he had seen had shocked him, and he was having difficulty hiding that shock. “What was open?” He gave her a hot look. “Just you, open to me.” He knew he was acting like a dirty old man, but he wanted to make her angry, so angry that she’d turn and run down the mountain, as far away from this place as she could possibly get. If that vile rock “opened” again, would she jump up and run through it?

  “Get away from me,” she said, pushing at him. “And in the future I’d appreciate it if you kept your hands off of me.”

  “How can I do that when there is so much of you that I want to touch?”

  Tarik had wanted to anger her, but he got more than he bargained for.

  Jumping up, Kady put her hands on her hips and glared down at him. “So you think I’m fat, do you?”

  “Fat?” Tarik said and was so bewildered by this statement that he forgot about the rock. What in the world had he said that made her think he thought she was fat? He knew she wasn’t as thin as was the fashion now, but Kady was the most luscious woman he’d ever seen in his life. Every second that he’d had to force himself not to touch her had caused him real pain.

  “I want you to stay away from me,” she said in a hiss, then turned an