Saddle Up(24)

He took a moment to digest her words. “If you look to others for validation, Miranda, you look in the wrong place. They’ll never give you what you need. What you seek can come only from within.” At least that was what he told himself.

She visibly bristled, telling him he’d touched a sore spot. “Easy for you to say.”

“I speak from experience, Miranda. I know it’s true.” It was the goal he’d been working toward for months—to find the inner peace and contentment that had always eluded him. He’d left the rez at twenty with stars in his eyes, but his success in the outside world had done nothing to soothe his restlessness or fill the emptiness.

“Shouldn’t you get some sleep now?” she asked.

“I doubt I can,” he replied. “I’ll be far too worried about you alone and shivering.” The temperature had already dropped at least twenty degrees from when they’d first set out.

“I’m fine.” She jutted her chin, hugging herself tighter. “Beth loaned me her jacket.”

He studied her. She looked cold and defiant sitting on a rock near the fire, arms wrapped around herself, but like the desert cacti, he recognized her prickliness as purely a defense mechanism.

“It’s going to get a lot colder before morning,” he warned. “There’s a blanket in the other saddlebag…or…better yet”—he patted the place beside him—“you’re always welcome to come here and share mine.” He grinned. “I promise we’d both wake up warmer and happier.”

“Or,” she replied, “they’d find our dead carcasses, half-eaten by a mountain lion.”

“Or that.” He laughed and rolled onto his back, where he continued to watch her through hooded lids. Although he’d allow himself to doze, his protective instincts wouldn’t let him fall into a deep sleep. He was also far too aware of her for comfort. His body was still coiled tight with unresolved sexual tension. Despite her viper tongue, her restless fidgeting and glances in his direction suggested that she felt the same. “Don’t wander off,” he mumbled. “If nature calls, wake me.”

It was too dark now to see her face, but he chuckled at the snark in her reply. “Yes, old woman. I’ll wake you.”





Chapter 10


Once she thought him asleep, Miranda plopped down cross-legged closer to the fire, staring thoughtfully into the flames. Though she’d rather have her toenails yanked out than admit it, Keith was right that she had no life. In truth, it sometimes felt as if she lived hiding in plain sight with no one ever really seeing her.

She’d given up almost everything to pursue her dream, but L.A. was expensive, loud, dirty, and very far from home and family. She had few friends beyond her roommate, Lexi, but hardly fit in with her crowd. So Miranda filled her waking hours with work, usually alone in her tiny apartment with a bag of Orville Redenbacher extra butter. She wondered now if the path she’d taken would eventually lead to happiness, or at least to the end of dissatisfaction with her life…with herself.

A coyote howl echoed her melancholy thoughts, breaking the silence with a long and lonesome cry. Another one answered. Was it a mating call?

She glanced again at Keith. Although his expression was relaxed, his face seemed sharper and more angular in the flickering firelight. She didn’t know what devil made her continue to taunt him. He looked very much the warrior, the kind of man who wouldn’t hesitate to take what he wanted. Her feelings about Keith were mixed and confused. He’d made her realize just how lonely and disconnected she was. Although she was more attracted to him than she’d ever been to anyone, she suspected he was just playing with her.

The fire popped, making her start. What was she doing here? She’d had a single purpose in coming out to the desert, but the whole situation seemed suddenly surreal, as if she’d been transported back in time. She almost wanted to laugh.

She shivered and hugged herself tighter. She could see her breath now. Maybe it was time to scrounge for that blanket. Keith had left a flashlight beside his rifle. She took it with her and scanned the ground as she walked, just in case he was wrong about the snakes. The horses stirred and nickered at her approach, suddenly restless…or were they nervous?

“What’s wrong, Sadie?” she asked the mare, whose ears were flicking in all directions. Their sense of hearing was acute, functioning much like radar. She shined the light into the darkness. Was something out there? She could see nothing. Her skin prickled.

She tried to shrug off her feeling of unease as a case of the heebie-jeebies, just like she always got after watching a horror movie. Unfortunately, that last thought only reminded her of The Hills Have Eyes, a horror flick set in the desert that had given her nightmares for months.

Perhaps it was just the coyotes’ cries that had the horses agitated? She found the blanket and clutched it around her shoulders with her free hand. She shivered again, but this time as much from nerves as cold. When she returned to the fire, Keith was sitting up, scowling at her.

“I told you not to wander off.”

“I didn’t wander. I only went to fetch a blanket and check on the horses. They seem jumpy.”

“So do you,” he observed.

“Maybe I am, a little. I think the coyotes spooked me. I’m not used to all this.” She added a dry laugh. “The closest I’ve come to experiencing wildlife in the past four years was a visit to Venice Beach.”