Dana sat down beside him on the sandy earth, but seconds later, he stood and began to pace along the water’s edge.
“My brother better be out there, alive and well, or there’ll be more blood spilled. I’ll make sure of that.”
She walked over to where he stood and took his hand. “Concentrate on life. Celebrate it. You’ve always done that by living in the moment. Don’t stop now. Life is a gift and not even a moment of it should be wasted.”
Dana pulled him to the ground, sat astride him and slid her arms around his neck, molding herself to him. She would give him the comfort only love could bring-a reminder of life in the midst of death. She could think of nothing greater to give the man she’d fallen in love with.
As her lips met his, Ranger returned the kiss fiercely, taking what she offered like a dying man struggling for a breath of air.
She pushed back his shirt and covered his chest with tiny, moist kisses, wanting him. His need pressed intimately against her as her trail of kisses went ever lower down his body. She could feel the fierce pounding of his heart against her palm. She loved touching him and the way his breath sharpened when she caressed him.
“Slow down,” he whispered, bringing her face up to meet his lips. Ranger kissed her slowly. In contrast to her hurried movements, he was patient, parting her lips easily, deepening their kiss and letting her take a shaky breath before kissing her again. His voice was gentle as he pushed her hips down against him. “Feel me. I’m ready. But you’re not. Not yet.”
Steadying her between his arms, Ranger undressed her with unbearable patience, letting his fingertips glide along her breasts, then taking them into his mouth, suckling gently, until she cried out his name.
A whirlwind of emotions ribboned around her. She’d wanted to give comfort but now all she could feel was heat, the searing kind that melted everything in its path. Each nip sent her closer to the brink. Feeling him throbbing beneath her parted legs, she tried to unbuckle his belt, but her fingers were clumsy and her hands shaking.
“If you have any pity in you, you’ll help me with this thing,” she said, laughing out of sheer frustration.
His chuckle was a throaty growl that sent its ripples all through her. With one quick twist, he undid his belt, then opened his jeans. “Pull them down,” he ordered.
Dizzy with needs, she did as he asked because it was exactly what she’d yearned to do. Restraint had covered his body with a sheen of perspiration that accentuated every plane and rise. He was magnificent, his muscled flesh the color of a sunset. She smoothed her hand over him, learning what gave him pleasure.
When the heat became too intense, he gripped her hands and held them to her sides. “My turn,” he growled.
He tasted and loved the milky-white softness of her skin, then cupped her intimately, parting the velvety folds, and feeling the moist heat there. When he pressed into her, he could feel everything feminine in her welcoming the intrusion. She strained into him, moaning, and that anguished cry of pure need fueled his own.
Capturing her cries with his mouth, he caressed the center of her womanhood, slowly driving her wild in his arms.
“I can’t…”
“Yes, you can. Don’t hold back.”
His hands were rough and demanding, then tender. Waves of pleasure seared through her until her world came apart in one bright, shining moment. Then, in the safety of his arms, she rested.
Once her breathing evened, he shifted, positioning her beneath him. Passion stronger than anything he’d ever known gripped him.
“Look at me,” he demanded and when she did, he gripped her hips and pushed himself into her.
Seeing herself reflected in the black pools of his eyes, she understood the power of harmony and balance.
In a frenzy of need and heat, he drove into her. Her cries drove him crazy as did the way her fingers dug into his shoulders, almost to the point of pain. In freedom, and in love, their bodies became one, and he poured himself into her.
They lay quietly afterward, her arms and legs still entwined around him. She’d known intimacy before, but never like this. She’d felt as delicate as a flower that had come into bloom in the middle of a storm, and yet powerful, too, knowing she’d given a man like Ranger so much pleasure.
He rolled back, taking her with him, then held her. “You know what’s in my heart now,” he whispered. “At least in this, there are no secrets.”
Dana ached to hear him speak of love, but when he didn’t, she held back, too. Ranger was a free spirit, and she’d known that from the beginning. He’d given her all of himself and taken what she’d offered freely, but he would never accept being tied down.
“What I feel for you is real,” Ranger said, sensing her feelings. “But I’ve got nothing else to give you now-no promises or assurances. I haven’t got a future-not until I know what happened to my brother, and we finish what needs to be done.”
“What we’ve shared is enough,” she whispered. She’d fallen in love and had no regrets. What she’d discovered in his arms would be a part of her forever.
Chapter Sixteen
As they waited for the phone to ring, time passed slowly. Not knowing about his brother’s fate was eating Ranger up inside. Waiting was the worst of it, too-trying to hold on to his sanity while being torn between hope and fear.
“Let’s go to the police station in Shiprock,” she suggested, standing up and walking out toward the river’s edge. “They’ll get the news there first.”
He shook his head. “Too dangerous. There’s only one practical route there, and we could easily pick up a tail. We’ve kept ahead of them so far by going places no one expects us to be.” He stood and joined her. “But let’s hike back to the truck. This isn’t a good place to be once it’s dark. We can’t see around us beyond the cliffs, and if anyone’s tracked us, the rushing water will cover the sound of their approach.”
“Where else can we go?”
“I know of another place. We’ll be safe there, and it’ll give me a chance to figure out who I can use as our contact now.”
“Your brother was the one you were calling, and who’d been contacting you?”
“Most of the time.”
“Okay, so where’s this new place?”
“It’s not a place as much as a location up in the mountains. That’s where I was originally headed when Harris called. We’ll be able to spot any vehicle from miles away. And if they come on foot, it’ll take them hours to reach us.”
“Will you get phone service there?” she asked.
“It won’t be as reliable as it is here but, yeah, I think so.”
“Considering you’re waiting for news, are you sure that’s worth it?”
“It’s the only place I’m sure we can be safe tonight,” he answered.
They drove south from Farmington for almost an hour and a half, reaching the reservation community of Crown-point. Then they turned south down graveled roads, heading southwest into the mountains around the Continental Divide. Twice, he was sure they’d picked up a tail, but after a circuitous route along dirt roads, he couldn’t see any signs of a vehicle tailing them.
“Keep an eye out for a tail,” he said.
“I have been, but no one’s stuck with us.”
At long last, they came upon a big rockslide that covered many acres along the flank of a mountain. At first Dana thought it might have been an old mine site. But a closer look revealed no roads, buildings or machinery, and the stones all seemed to have originated from the cliffs above. Soon they topped a ridge that jutted out of the mountainside like a shoulder, and the road finally leveled off.
The ridge joined with the rocky cliff. Small caves and crevices dotted the mountain side opposite the slope, and only a few trees and shrubs were tenacious enough to hug the thin soil at this elevation.