Give Me Tonight(21)

"Should I just—"

"Gentle. Be easy on her."

Addie's face was drawn in concentration. The rhythm of the horse's gait seemed to echo in her head, pounding, pounding on a locked door, while an elu­sive memory struggled to break free. Staring at the horse's fluttering mane, the land around her, the blue sky with its white clouds yawning in the distance, she searched her mind and tried to remember. Then it hap­pened. One moment there was nothing but blankness, and in the next, a bolt of understanding burned through her. All of a sudden she knew what she was doing, as if she had remembered something she had learned long ago. But that was impossible. She had never been able to ride.

"Take her around the other way and bring her to a walk," Ben directed, and Addie discovered that the mare obeyed with just the lightest pressure on the reins. Magic. Addie gave a breathless laugh, and she could sense Ben's wry smile.

"All coming back to you?" he inquired dryly, his hand sliding upward until his thumb rested in the val­ley between her br**sts. The heat from his palm seared through her blouse. Swallowing hard, she said noth­ing, concentrating on bringing Jessie to a stop.

When the sound of the mare's hooves had gone and all was still, Addie was acutely conscious of that hand, the caress of his thumb in the hollow of her bosom. "And this was all for my benefit," Ben said softly. "I had no idea it would be such an enjoyable morning. Tell me, how far in advance did you plan this? Or have I been treated to a spontaneous performance?" One part of her mind demanded that she struggle away from him in outrage, but she was confused and strangely weak. Not a sound escaped her lips. Her heart was thrashing in her chest, her breathing shallow. His thumb stroked the undercurve of her breast as she sat there facing away from him, and Addie was tormented by shame and pleasure as she felt her ni**les harden. What am I doing? she wondered frantically. Stop him!

Ben was silent, but Addie could feel his chest rising and falling at a slightly faster rate. With horror, she felt his hand begin to move upward, and she grabbed his wrist, making a strangled sound of protest. His arm dropped away from her, and he dismounted lei­surely. Then he turned around to face her, bracing his hands on either side of the saddle.

They stared at each other in silent fascination. Addie waited for him to jeer at her for the way she had let him touch her. It had been disrespectful and insolent, something she should have demanded an apology for. Ben's eyes raked over her, and he swallowed hard, the only indication that he'd been affected by her. For dif­ferent reasons, they each chose to pretend it hadn't happened.

"All right now?" Ben asked quietly. For once, there was no mockery in his gaze.

"Yes," she answered, nearly inaudible. "I think I can ride her now."

"Sure?" he pressed, and for the first time his tone was gentle.

"Yes. "

Almost reluctantly he pulled away and strode to his horse. Addie watched him with wide eyes. She actu­ally missed the presence of him at her back, the hard arm around her, his voice close by her ear. He had meant to taunt her, had taken liberties in order to teach her a lesson, but his closeness had had a different effeet than either of them expected. Something was ter­ribly wrong with her, to find a man she knew to be a murderer so attractive.

She tried to find excuses for herself. It's all because of the men I'm used to. He's different from them. He has things they'll never have. The men she'd dated had been preoccupied with the defeat that faced them daily, the unemployment, the scarcity, the lack of control. Their lives had been robbed of the security their par­ents and grandparents had enjoyed, Sooner or later they were forced to move to the city for work. Their women were hard and sophisticated, scornful of love, eager for excitement.

And here was Ben Hunter, the exact opposite of those weary young men. Arrogantly he had made his own place in a rough world. Life was his to tame, or at least he thought so. It had been a long time since she had met a man with Ben's confidence, his vitality. He would never be bullied by a woman, never be crushed by her scorn. He's not used to a woman who'll stand up to him, she thought, and that realization made her more than a little intrigued. It would be soul­satisfying to force his respect for her, to make him acknowledge that he couldn't dominate her.

His face was inscrutable again as he mounted his horse. To look at him, she would never have guessed anything out of the ordinary had happened. Self­ consciously she did what she could to fix her clothes, knowing she was disheveled.

"Let's go," Ben said dryly. "I think we've kept Jeff waiting long enough, don't you?"

She nodded and applied her heels lightly to Jessie's perspiring sides. When she was assured that the mare was going to give her no more trouble, Addie cleared her throat and tried to appear as unruffled as her com­panion.

"Why are you going to the Double Bar?" she asked.

"Business."

"Concerning what?"

"That unbranded calf we recently acquired."

Addie couldn't hold back a triumphant smile. "The one we branded that you said was fair game? The one we stole in order to teach them to keep their strays off our land?"

"Yeah, that one. And while you're looking so self­ satisfied, you should know they moved their boundary line into our territory yesterday to pay us back for it. Ripped our fence clear out of the ground. "