Free The Bronzed Hawk by Iris Johansen Page A

still not out of hot water.”
    Kelly felt a shiver of fear run through her as she looked around the clearing at the men who were gazing at her in leering speculation. “I see what you mean,” she said, moistening her lips nervously. “Do you think you can discourage them?”
    “I’m going to do my damndest,” he said tightly, his eyes darting warily about the clearing.
    She nestled closer and turned her frightenedgaze up to his hard, taut face. “Would it help if you told them that I was a virgin?” she whispered anxiously. “No one wants an inexperienced woman these days. They’re out of fashion.”
    O’Brien’s shocked gaze flew to her worried face, then he gave a mirthless laugh. “It might help at that. If they knew what an experienced little madam you are, they’d probably be standing in line for your favors.”
    “Will you stop joking?” she cried desperately, her green eyes suspiciously bright. “Damn it, I
am
a virgin, and I don’t want my first experience to be a gang bang.”
    His body stiffened as if he’d been struck by a bullet. He drew a deep breath. “And what about your magnificent bullfighter and that Nigerian game warden?” he asked carefully, his tone all the more menacing for its very control.
    Kelly flushed, her gaze shifting away guiltily. “Well, I actually exaggerated a little last night,” she told him sheepishly. “I knew that you really wouldn’t want to become involved with me, either, once you had time to mull it over, so I did the only thing I could think of to keep us frommaking a terrible mistake.” She peeped at him sidewise to see if he was as angry as she thought. He was. She continued in a rush, “Besides, you probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it, anyway. A man of your experience would find a virgin staggeringly boring.”
    “Boring you’re not,” he said, enunciating each word carefully. “Your little ‘exaggeration’ almost caused me to do something we both would have regretted, and I assure you that lying beside you all night and aching to take you was far from dull.”
    She bristled indignantly. “That wasn’t my fault. I did—”
    “We’ll discuss it later,” he interrupted grimly. “Right now I’ve got to try to get you out of this mess.” He removed his arm from around her and started toward the bandit leader. He turned to say harshly over his shoulder, “You needn’t look so anxious. I’m not about to let any of these clowns rape you. It’s
me
you’ve got to worry about.”
    The negotiations and discussions between O’Brien and the bandit leader took most of theday. Much to Kelly’s disgust, she was left to sit by herself under a tree while Nick spent the day talking with Pedro and his cohorts. Nick seemed to be in no hurry at all and was as lazily relaxed as if he were at a bachelor stag party. By late afternoon, judging by the joking and backslapping on both sides, he appeared to be on excellent terms with all of them. To Kelly’s extreme irritation, he even spent the last few hours before sunset playing
cards
with them, for heaven’s sake!
    As darkness fell, the campfire was rebuilt, and meal preparations got underway. The appetizing smell of bacon and beans wafted to her along with that most delicious scent of all, fresh-brewed coffee. Her stomach was growling as the men sat down to eat. She had been sent a water canteen earlier in the day by the bandit leader, obviously at his buddy O’Brien’s suggestion, Kelly thought crossly. But she’d been given nothing to eat, and it seemed that they had no intention of supplying her with any supper. O’Brien was certainly not so deprived, she noticed resentfully, as he took a second helping of beans and sat back down byPedro Garcia. He could at least have sent her some coffee.
    The meal was over, and some of the bandits had started unrolling bedrolls beside the fire when Nick finally stood up and stretched lazily. He murmured something to Pedro that evoked a loud guffaw, then stooped