Once outside, J.T. didn't give King a chance to put up a fight or turn wild on him. Keeping up a steady, fast-paced stride, with Caitlan jogging to keep up, he dragged the skittish stallion to an empty corral. Letting go of Caitlan long enough to unlatch the gate, he removed the towel from King's head, then led the horse inside and set him free.
Then he turned toward Caitlan.
Now that the crises was over his blood ran hot in his veins and his pulse beat erratically. Knowing Frank and his men could handle things without his assistance, J.T. focused on the more important matters pressing in on him.
Needing to affirm that Caitlan was truly alive and unharmed, he dropped the towel and took her face in his hands. He cupped her warm, smooth flesh, his thumbs caressing her cheeks, her nose, her lips. Reassured by her presence, giant shudders of relief rippled through his body.
Her thighs pressed against his and her fingers curled desperately into his shirt. She drew in a deep, cleansing breath; then her lashes fluttered closed and her lips parted on a sigh.
"J.T.," she whispered, leaning into him, lifting her mouth to his.
Sensing the same urgent need in Caitlan that flowed through his own body after such a harrowing experience, he crushed his mouth to hers without coaxing preliminaries or gentleness. No, this kiss was meant to possess and brand her as his own.
God, he could have lost her, he thought desperately, wrapping his arms around her back and hauling her body flush to his. He could have been thrust back into the same kind of nightmare that had shattered his life sixteen years ago. If he lost Caitlan, he'd die inside. She'd become a part of his heart and soul and he couldn't imagine living without her. He refused to think of living the same lonely, desolate existence he had before she'd arrived on the Circle R.
With a groan of surrender, he opened his mouth wider over hers, kissing her deeply, thoroughly. Her mouth was warm and sweet and generous. The gates imprisoning his emotions broke, and he poured every worry, every need, every feeling he had for her into the hungry kiss.
She tasted like smoke and woman, like life itself. He saturated his senses in her, took greedily and gave openly.
When he finally lifted his mouth from hers they were both breathing hard. Shimmering moonlight enabled him to see the exhaustion painting her features and the desire brightening her eyes. As he looked at her, drinking in her disheveled appearance and dirt-smudged face, an incredible protective feeling drenched his heart. This time he accepted the emotion willingly, treasured and cherished it like a rare jewel.
Sweeping a hand down her spine, he molded her to him. He held her so close they were practically one, so intimately he was certain she felt the hard, aroused length of him straining the confines of his jeans.
"Don't ever do anything so foolish as that again!" he said fiercely, burying his face in her neck, skimming his lips along her soft, warm flesh. He couldn't get enough of her. Touching her, tasting her, confirmed that she wasn't just an illusion.
She pulled back so she could look into his eyes. "I had to save King." Her resolute tone clearly stated that she would have risked her life for the horse again if faced with the need.
Her goodness and loyalty should have surprised him but didn't. Not anymore. "You could have been killed trying to save him." His arms tightened around her. "Don't you understand? I could have lost you!" I love you! his heart shouted, but the actual words snagged in his throat.
She smiled and touched her warm fingertips to his jaw. "I'm fine, really."
An abrupt laugh escaped him, releasing the last of the tension coiling his body. He shook his head, unable to believe how unflappable she was about the incident. "Only you would shrug this off as an everyday event. Until I find out what happened in the barn I don't want you around here. Take Laura and go on up to the house."
Her gaze flickered to the stallion in the corral. "But King-"
"I don't want you near him right now, Caitlan. He doesn't look in the mood for company." She opened her mouth, but he covered it with his hand. "If you don't stop putting yourself in danger with that horse, you're going to make me crazy," he growled. "And if you don't stop arguing with me, I'm going to throw you over my shoulder and haul you up to the house myself." His voice lowered huskily. "And I won't be responsible for what happens after that."
His sexy threat registered in her eyes.
"What's your decision, Caitie?"
She hesitated a moment, something warm and inviting glistening in her eyes; then she backed away. "I'm going." She gave him one last, lingering glance that filled him with warmth. "Be careful," she said softly, then turned and headed toward Laura.
J.T. stood there, watching Caitlan take Laura under her arm and comfort the girl as they walked up to the house. Once they were inside J.T. strode into the barn. The fire had been extinguished; now his men were busy sopping up water and piling the debris. The pungent scent of burnt wood and wet ash surrounded him.
Glancing around the immediate area, he found no fire damage. He moved with purpose down the row of stalls toward the back of the barn and froze when he saw King's burnt and blackened stall, and the stall directly next to his, the only area seemingly devastated by the fire. The beams overhead had collapsed into the stalls and would have crushed King if Caitlan hadn't saved him. Hell, those beams could have been her coffin!
Impotent anger tangled with new emotions swirling inside him. Who was behind this latest incident? he wondered.
Frank walked into the barn from the south end, followed by Jack, a lanky hand of twenty-two. "Once we get this mess cleaned up let's start moving the animals back into their stalls," Frank ordered.
"What should we do about the stallion?" Jack asked.
Frank picked up a water hose and began coiling it. "Hitch one of the other mares at the far end of the barn and give him his own stall for the night so he doesn't hurt anyone."
"Who's gonna bring him in?" Jack asked, hands placed defiantly on his hips. "Andy's the only one crazy enough to drag King into the barn, and he isn't here. You can't pay me to get within five feet of the beast."
"Then leave King in the corral for the night," J.T. ordered. "Andy can bring him in the morning."
Both men glanced his way. Jack's expression turned sheepish and his hands dropped back to his sides.
"Here, Jack." Frank passed the other man the water hose. "Take this back to the shed."
Jack took his cue and left.
"How's Caitlan?" Frank asked, his tone softening.
"Fine. I sent her up to the house with Laura. I think I'm more shaken by what happened than she is." J.T. rubbed at the tense muscles in his neck, still baffled at how calm Caitlan had been. No tears over the ordeal, no hysterics, just a hot, needy kiss that reached to his soul and beyond.
Glancing back at King's incinerated stall, a fresh batch of fury coursed through him. "What, exactly, happened here?"
Grabbing a rag from his back pocket, Frank wiped his dirty hands. "Seems like a fire started in the empty stall next to King's. All the animals are fine and the damage minimal, thanks to Caitlan's foresight."
A prickle of awareness skittered over J.T.'s skin. "Foresight? What do you mean?"
Bewilderment creased Frank's bushy brow. "It's the damnedest thing. From what Laura says, Caitlan ran out of the house earlier like something was wrong. She got to the barn just as the fire started and began releasing the horses from their stalls."
J.T. dragged a hand down his face, somehow not surprised that Caitlan had sensed the fire. Strange. Strange like her drawings. Strange like her medallion. Strange like the link that made her seem so much a part of him, even when she wasn't around. Who could explain any of that?
Kicking that nonsense out of his head, he rerouted his thoughts back to business. "What do you think about the fire? Was it set deliberately?" Did he even need to ask?