Free Simply Heaven by Patricia Hagan

over falling. "Don't you know you can break a leg by not watching where you're going? What were you doing anyway?"
    "I wasn't spying, I swear," Raven babbled, finally yanking her foot free.
    Steve knew then he had bee spying. Lord, he was a strange one, all right. But enough was enough. It was time for him to get over his shyness. "Come on and take a swim. The water feels good, and it's going to be another scorcher today. You'll be glad later that we took the time."
    "No!" Raven knew she had spoken more forcefully than she should have, because as she scrambled to her feet she saw the gleam in his eye. He had taken her refusal as a challenge.
    "Oh, yes, you are!" he cried, determined to break the boy out of his shell. "We're taking a swim together."
    Raven yelped in protest as he threw her over his shoulders. Kicking her legs frantically, she beat on his back with her fists, but then she looked down to see how close her face was to his bare bottom, groaned, and squeezed her eyes shut.
    Reaching the edge of the pond, Steve pulled her into his arms, then sent her sailing through the air to land in the middle with a splash.
    Raven hit on her back and sank, immediately stretching out her legs so as soon as she touched bottom she could spring quickly back to the surface. With broad strokes, she swam for the opposite side, intending to scramble out and hide till he tired of bedeviling her.
    But he was right behind her, diving to land only a few feet behind. "Oh, no, you don't. You're not getting away that easy. Now I've got you in here, you're going to have a bath if I have to give it you myself." His hands clamped on her shoulders to push her under.
    Flailing at him with her fists was useless below the water, but when he yanked her to the surface she managed to land a sound punch to his right cheek.
    "Well, that merits another dunk," he bellowed, unhurt by the blow but fast becoming annoyed that Little Crow continued to fight him. "Can't you relax and have some fun?"
    Down she went again.
    This time Steve's hold slipped and he also went under, but when his hands reached out, it was not Little Crow's narrow shoulders he felt but two well-rounded... breasts?
    He burst to the surface. "What the hell?" he spat out around mouthfuls of water.
    Raven tried to get away from him, but his fingers were clamped firmly on her torso, and she cried fiercely, "Let me go, damn you!" She swung at him again, but he dodged the blow.
    Nearly struck dumb with wonder, he released her to yank her arms behind her back. Then, with his free hand, he quickly explored the body beneath the clinging army shirt, astonished to positively identify breasts, a narrow waist, and, plunging downward—the final shocking realization that he was not holding an Indian boy.
    He was holding a woman.

 
     
     
    Chapter 7

     
    Raven knew the charade was over.
    Her mind frozen in horror, she was unprepared for him to let go of her so abruptly. When he did, she sank into the water again.
    This time, he did not pull her up. Instead, he swam out, not trusting himself to say or do anything till he could sort out what it meant.
    Raven surfaced, shaking with rage. If only he had left her alone she could have gone her own way, and he would have forgotten all about Little Crow. Now he would tell everyone. Word would spread. Now she would have to get to Mexico right away, lest some of the men she had fooled be so angry they would want revenge—in the worst possible way for a woman.
    "You should have kept your hands off me," she said as she stepped out of the water.
    Steve had pulled on his trousers, strapped on his holster, and now sat on the ground, waiting for her. "I wish I'd dunked you sooner." He was tight-lipped and grim. "Then you wouldn't have made a fool out of me for so long."
    "If you had minded your own business, you would never have found out."
    "What I want to know now is why you did it, why you wanted me and everybody else to think you're a boy."
    His eyes dropped to