Free Simply Heaven by Patricia Hagan Page A

her bosom. The wet clothing was like a second skin, and now her shape was obvious, her nipples distinct. "Tell me, you conniving little liar. Hell, I ought to wring your neck."
    "Why? I saved your life yesterday, didn't I? And I was able to provide food for us last night. I haven't gotten us lost. So all in all, I'd say you don't have anything to gripe about, mister, and you won't be bothered with me anymore, anyway, because I'm getting out of here and you can go to hell for all I care."
    She started to walk away, but he grabbed her ankle to bring her sprawling down beside him. He caught her wrists and yanked her arms above her head to restrain her. "Now listen. You aren't going anywhere except to the Sabine reservation. And then you can go to hell for all I care."
    "I won't take you there, because you'll tell everyone about me, and then it will be like it was before—the young bucks wanting to bed me and the old geezers wanting to marry me. That's why I pretended to be a boy, so they'd all leave me alone."
    Tears stung her eyes, and she blinked furiously, determined not to cry. "And you can't make me take you, because I'll do what I've been doing ever since we left Fort Inge—lead you in circles, and the first chance I get I'll leave you, and then you'll be lost. Let me go now, and I swear I'll point you in the right direction and you can make it on your own."
    She had absently pushed her wet bangs back from her face, where they fell in with the rest of her hair. The dunkings had washed the dirt from her cheeks, and Steve got his first really good look at her. With a bit of doing, she would be pretty. And as he thought that way, leaning over her so close he could feel her nipples against his chest, he cursed himself to experience a stirring in his loins.
    "You mean to tell me you've deliberately delayed us? I told you I'm in a hurry to find that girl. The man who sent me may not live long." He released her. "Oh, to hell with you. I'll get there without you. You'd probably lead me into a nest of Indians anyway."
    Raven felt no reaction to hear her father might be dying. She had never known him; she had no reason to care. But enraged at Steve's accusation and overcome by the intensity of the moment, she lost control and cried, "I wouldn't do that to you or anybody else. Go your own way. I don't care. And I don't care about Ned Ralston either, so go back to Alabama and tell him you found his daughter and she said she hopes he rots in hell."
    Jolted, Steve stared after her as she scrambled to her feet and stalked towards the mustang. "What... what did you say?" he stammered, sure he had not heard her right.
    She turned to repeat her venomous decree, watching his eyes grow wide. "Yes, I'm the one you've been looking for. Your search is over. Good-bye."
    He was after her in a flash, but she heard him coming and was ready, whipping to face him, her knife drawn. "Don't touch me."
    Steve eyed the weapon warily. He knew how well she could ride and shoot a bow and arrow and had no reason to doubt her skill with a knife. "There's no need for that," he said gently. "I'm not going to hurt you— Raven ." It felt strange to call her that for the first time, and now he wondered how he could have been so blind, but he had not been the only one she had fooled. She was a very intelligent and clever girl.
    "Did my father send you to kill me?"
    "Good God, no. Why would you think that?"
    "Maybe he was afraid once my mother and stepfather died that I might go looking for him and try to make him take care of me, and he didn't want his wife "—she sneered—"to know he had fathered a bastard—especially by a lowly squaw."
    "That's crazy. Aren't you forgetting I first asked about Seth Greer? Ned didn't know he was dead. He was just trying to find out what happened to you after Seth wrote him that your mother died, because there were no more letters after that and all of Ned's to him were returned."
    "He waited a long time to worry about