«I like it better when it’s free,» Reno said.
«It’s in the way.»
«Not for me, gata.»
«Lift your hands,» was all Eve said.
Reno moved his hands and waited while Eve poured more water into the basin and rinsed him thoroughly from crown to collarbones.
«Not a single cut,» she said with satisfaction. «While you finish your bath, I’ll get some witch hazel.»
Before Reno could object, Eve was hurrying back to camp.
The thought of stripping, bathing, and waiting naked for her to return tempted him. The thought of the deeply cut hoof marks by the water hole told him how foolish he was being even to consider it.
He could divide his attention long enough to taste Eve’s cool skin and hear her breath break with desire; but if he had his pants off when she came back, the next thing he would be wearing would be soft, sultry woman.
Cursing silently, Reno stripped, washed himself, pulled on the clean underwear he had brought with him, and yanked his pants back on. Only then did he begin on his chest. He was just reaching for his clean shirt when Eve’s voice came from the darkness.
«Reno?»
«Come ahead. I’m decent.»
She walked close enough to see the faint shine of his damp, naked shoulders and the dark silhouette of his jeans.
«Thank you,» she said.
«What for?»
«Not shaming me.»
«An odd choice of words for a…»
Reno found he couldn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t like thinking of Eve as a saloon girl. With an irritated sound he turned his attention back to straightening out his shirt so he could put it on. Then he had a better idea.
«Fix this, would you?» Reno asked, holding out his shirt.
When Eve hesitated, he said sarcastically, «Never mind. It wasn’t part of ourbargain, was it?»
She took the shirt and shook it vigorously. He watched with eyes moonlight had transformed to the color of hammered silver. It was obvious that men’s clothing was almost as familiar to her as her own.
«You’re real good at that,» Reno said.
«Toward the end, Don couldn’t get into his clothes, much less fasten them,» Eve said.
«Then you wouldn’t mind helping me out?»
Surprised, she said, «Of course not. Hold out your arms.»
He did, and she slipped the shirt on.
«Fasten it for me?» he asked blandly.
Eve gave him a wary look.
«You don’t have to,» he said. «It’s not part of —»
«Our bargain,» she muttered, reaching for the first button. «Perdition. I suppose you’ll want me to undress you, next.»
«Hell of an idea. Are you volunteering?»
«No,» she said instantly. «It’s not part of —»
«Our bargain.»
She looked up sharply. He smiled.
Eve concentrated on the buttons. As she worked, she tried not to notice how different his powerful body was from Don Lyon’s frail, agetwisted form.
It was impossible. Health and strength radiated from Reno’s big body.
«Why didn’t his wife take care of Lyon?» Reno asked.
«Donna did what she could, but a lot of the time her hands were worse than his.»
The smell of lilacs rose from Eve’s hair, infusing Reno with her fragrance more deeply than even the scented soap had.
The matter-of-fact skill with which Eve worked told Reno she had spent a lot of time caring intimately for a man who couldn’t — or wouldn’t — care for himself.
It’s just as well that cheating whoremaster is dead, Reno thought grimly. The temptation to kill him might have put my good sense in the shade.
«There. All finished,» Eve said.
«Not quite. It’s not tucked in.»
«You’ll manage.»
«What’s wrong? It’s not like I’m asking you to undress me.»
When she gave him a skeptical look, Reno smiled.
«Guess you’d rather I went back to touching you, huh?» he asked.
«Perdition.»
Before Eve could think better of it, she reached for Reno’s waist. As his belt was already undone, it was only an instant’s work to open the metal buttons. Moving quickly, she began tucking in his shirt as she had Don Lyon’s, starting at the back and working forward.
Moments later, Reno’s breath hissed in as he felt the pressure of Eve’s fingers slide across his aroused flesh. She made a startled sound and tried to jerk her hands out of his jeans.
Reno was faster. He caught Eve’s wrists and held her fingers where they were, where he had wanted them to be for so long he almost lost control at her mere touch.
«Let me go!»
«Easy, gata. There’s nothing down there that’s going to bite, and you’ve unfastened enough pants to know it as well as I do.»
The shocked look Eve gave Reno made him want to laugh, but the ache of his hunger was too fierce.
«I’m tempted to have you pet me a little, but it would be too damned distracting. I’ll settle for a kiss or two….» Reno said.
Eve struggled against his grip. It only served to rub her fingers over his aroused flesh.
Reno couldn’t stifle a groan of pleasure and need. He looked hungrily at the soft lips that were only a few inches from his mouth.
«Be still —» he began roughly.
«Let go of —»
«— or else I’ll pull off my pants,» Reno continued in a hard voice, «and make you finish what you started, and to hell with anyone who might be following us.»
«What I started? You were the one who —»
«Be still!»
Eve froze.
Reno let out a strained breath. He started to ease her hands from his pants, then stopped, for her balled fists made it difficult.
«Open your hands,» he said.
«But you said not to mo —»
«Do it,» he interrupted. «Slowly, gata. Very slowly.»
Eve uncurled her hands. As she did, she found herself measuring Reno inch by hard inch.
A thread of sound came from Reno, as though he were being drawn on a rack. He eased her hands from his pants, but instead of releasing her wrists, he pulled them up and over his shoulders.
«Stop fighting me,» he said. «It’s time to show me how well you can keep your word.»
Fear and the memory of the pleasure she had found in his kisses fought for control of her body.
Maybe when he sees that I keep my word, he’ll look at me with more than desire. Maybe…
«You’ll keep your word, too?» she asked.
«I won’t take you unless you want it,» he said impatiently. «Is that what you mean?»
«Yes, I —»
Reno’s mouth closed over Eve’s. His tongue slid between her lips, cutting off the possibility of talking.
Other than a startled sound, she made no protest. Despite his obvious strength and hunger, he wasn’t being hard on her. Quite the opposite. Once he understood that she wasn’t going to struggle against him, he held her rather gently.
The sensitive edges of Eve’s lips were caressed by the silky thickness of Reno’s mustache. The tantalizing currents of awareness that had shimmered into life the instant she had first seen him became stronger as the kiss inevitably deepened. Warmth flared in the pit of her stomach, making her shiver with a delicious awareness. She had wanted this without knowing it.
But she knew it now.
Eve’s eyes opened, wide and curious, wondering if Reno was feeling the same unexpected warmth. All she could see of Reno was the dense black eyelashes any woman would have envied. Their softness reassured Eve.
Tentatively she touched Reno’s tongue with her own, rediscovering the textures of his mouth, the velvet and the silk and the heat. For a moment she forgot all about fear and bargains and her hopes for the future. She simply savored the kiss in a hushed, trembling silence that was like nothing she had ever known.