Secluded with the Rogue

Chapter 7

Seven

B ethany reached the cave a full quarter of an hour before Zach. She used the time to strip out of her damp clothes and warm herself by the fire, still fuming from the argument they’d had outside.

How dare he infer she didn’t know her own mind? That what she felt for him was a product of fear and helplessness? Hadn’t she proven she could be resourceful? She’d made it to the coach and dragged her trunk almost back to the cave, and yet he acted as though she was a silly little woman who needed to be rescued from her own stupid feelings.

When Zach trudged into the cave, pulling the heavy trunk, she didn’t even turn to look at him. He thought she’d say please and thank you to a grizzly? Well, she didn’t intend to say please and thank you to him. Never again.

Let him go back to prison. Perhaps then he’d see the folly of his foolish pride!

Her senses thrummed with awareness as she listened to him open the trunk and sort through its contents. She’d never realized how hard it could be to ignore someone.

After a long time, he moved toward her, draping the warm folds of one of her grandmother’s quilts around her shoulders.

“Don’t be angry, darlin’.” He knelt before her, staring at her with unmistakable concern. “I didn’t intend to hurt you. Don’t you know how much you mean to me? I couldn’t bear it if something happened to you because of me.”

She let her pent-up breath escape in a shuddering sigh, unable to hold on to her ire when faced with his sweetness. “I’m terrified you don’t want to be with me, Zach. I fear all this has been a convenience, a way to pass the time until the weather clears.”

He gave a rough laugh and sank back on his heels. “What do you want me to say? I love you?” He shook his head. “I’ve only known you for three days. How can you expect me to promise a future when I don’t even know if I’ll have one?”

Her eyes welled with tears. She huddled deeper within the folds of the blanket, feeling as though she’d never be warm again. “I don’t expect your love. But I just offered you a way out, a way for you to have a future, and you act as though you’d rather go back to jail than rely upon me to keep your secrets.”

He shoved to his feet with an exasperated sound and strode to the other side of the cave as though he couldn’t put enough distance between them. “Aren’t you listening to me? I want nothing more than to do what you’ve suggested. I’d love to see you again, walk down the street with you, and not have to look over my shoulder for fear someone was watching. I just don’t want to buy my freedom at the cost of yours!”

She cringed as his shouted words echoed against the walls of the cave. Part of her knew he was right. She was being unreasonable. He’d made it clear he’d only objected to her plan because he didn’t want to put her in danger. But deep down, she’d wanted to hear him say those words he’d mockingly thrown in her face. She wanted him to promise they would be together forever, not just for a few more days.

She’d wanted to know he loved her as much as she’d fallen in love with him.

Z ach spent the rest of the afternoon going through their supplies, careful not to let his gaze fall upon his angry little companion. She hadn’t spoken to him since their furious exchange, and he was beginning to wonder if she ever intended to talk to him again.

He carried one of the heavy wool lap blankets over to the narrow entrance, hoping to figure out how to rig it across the opening, trapping as much of their heat as possible inside. They had a nice little stack of firewood now, but he didn’t know how long it would be before they could travel, and he didn’t want to run out.

As he wedged the blanket in a crack in the stone, he thought back to the fight he’d had with Bethany, wondering what the hell she wanted from him. Why was she so angry? He feared she’d been angling for some sort of a commitment. She wanted him to tell her he loved her, even though they’d just met.

He should have known she’d expect promises and sweet words after their lovemaking. Women could never let passion just be passion. They always had to complicate it.

Rigging the blanket to his satisfaction, he paced the cave with restless boredom, stopping at the far end when his gaze fell upon the second tunnel. He hadn’t given it more than a cursory examination the first day and had been too busy with surviving since then to give it a second thought.

Dropping to his knees, he took the matches out of his pocket and lit one, poking his head through the hole and peering into the gloom to see the passageway stretching at least a dozen feet back. Like the entrance, it widened toward another room.

He glanced over his shoulder at Bethany, but she was huddled in her blankets by the fire, still doing her best to ignore him. Shrugging, he pushed himself through the hole and found he could crawl down the passageway on his hands and knees quite easily.

Within moments, he found himself in a room even larger than the first. His match had almost burned away, so he lit another, illuminating a deep pool. Warmth from the hot water surrounded him, making the air sultry and steamy. Striding forward, he leaned down and dipped his fingers in the water, finding it as warm as any bath he’d ever taken.

Elated, he went back to the passageway. “Bethany,” he called. “Come here and see what I found. Bring some wood.”

She poked her head through the hole, a mule-headed, irritated look on her face. “What are you doing?”

“There’s a hot spring in here. You can take a bath if you’d like, and this second cavern is much warmer. Warm enough that we’ll only need the fire for light.”

Her angry expression slipped, her natural exuberance bursting out in a tentative smile. “Really? A hot bath?”

He nodded. “I saw some soap in your trunk. Why don’t you grab it and get started while I move all our stuff?”

“I’ll be right back,” she promised, disappearing from view.

He started after her, filled with sudden optimism. Perhaps she'd forgive him once she’d had a nice, relaxing soak in the hot water. God knew the prospect put him in a good mood. The mere thought of watching her bathe and run that sweet-smelling bar of soap over her soft, pale skin aroused him to a fever pitch.

Once back in the main cave, he gathered all the things he’d organized so carefully less than an hour ago. He made three trips, stopping after the first one to help Bethany light a fire in the second cave.

By the time he finished, Bethany had already slipped naked beneath the steaming depths of the pool. “How deep is it?” he asked, coming to stand at the edge. “Can you touch the bottom?”

She nodded, giving him a look of rapturous pleasure. “It’s about three feet deep,” she answered. “And it feels heavenly.”

Holding her gaze, he peeled away his damp clothing and sat down on the stone ledge, dangling his bare feet in the warm water. He drew in a sharp breath as the heat seeped into his frozen toes.

“Don’t be a chicken,” she teased, her good humor obviously restored. “Come all the way in.”

Grimacing, he did as she’d commanded, sinking down until everything but his head was submerged. “Mmm. You’re right. It feels wonderful.”

“I was starting to think I’d never be warm again.” She glided toward him until less than a foot separated them. “Too bad we didn’t discover this earlier.”

He nodded, staring at her with unconcealed hunger. She’d dunked her head, and now her golden hair hung in heavy, wet spirals across her bare shoulders, and droplets of water glistened on her long lashes. He wanted to lick it off her, inch by lovely inch.

“Turn around,” she whispered. “I’ll wash your back.”

He did as she asked, rising a bit so she could soap his back, trembling with arousal as her soft hands moved over his skin. God, it felt good to be pampered. Once she’d finished with his back, she moved around him, soaping his shoulders, arms, and chest.

He held still, closing his eyes, more relaxed than he’d been in years. It could be like this always , a little voice in the back of his mind whispered. All he had to do was let her follow through with her plan. He could bury Zach Price forever and become someone new—someone who had the right to ask a woman like Bethany to be his wife.

“My turn,” she said after she’d washed everything above the waterline.

She pressed the soap into his hand, and he opened his eyes and looked at her, taking in the arousal shimmering in her lovely green eyes. Despite their earlier argument, despite everything she knew of him, she still wanted him.

He took the soap without a word, feeling behind him until he found a ledge in the rocks. Sitting down, he pulled her into his arms, shuddering at the delicious silkiness of her wet skin against his own.

She leaned against his shoulder, allowing her beautiful breasts to break free of the water. He soaped them first, loving the way her slick, smooth skin felt beneath his hands, loving the way her nipples puckered into hard little points, stabbing his palms with each pass of the soap.

After a long while, she turned in his arms, straddling his thighs as she caught his mouth in a searching kiss. He dropped the soap on the rocks behind him, buried his hands in her hair, and returned her kiss in full measure, drowning in the sweet taste of her.

All the anger and frustration of the last few hours fell away, and he knew he’d been lying to her—lying to himself—when he’d said he couldn’t love her after only two days. In truth, he thought he’d loved her since the first moment he’d set eyes upon her, or at least since she’d freed him from his shackles.

Groaning, he broke the kiss and slid his hands down her sides, clasping her hips and driving deep within her, burying himself to the hilt in her tight, welcoming warmth. She gasped and met his gaze, biting her lip as he began to thrust in a smooth, languid rhythm, determined to make this last a very long time.

Dipping his head, he caught one of her nipples between his lips, biting gently and then drawing her into his mouth, suckling as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Oh, Zach,” she murmured, her voice husky and strained. “That feels so good.”

The sound of his name on her lips broke his control. His thrusts became wild and hard, erratic, as the pleasure tore through him, making him grit his teeth and struggle to keep from exploding before she did.

Reaching between them, he found the sweet little bud of arousal and rubbed it, desperate to give her as much pleasure as she’d given him. She cried out, stiffening against him, the contractions of her orgasm milking him into his own.

“Bethany,” he moaned and let himself go, holding her tightly as his vision blurred and his world disintegrated around him.