Страница 69 из 74
She kissed Whip’s eyelids, his cheeks, the corners of his mouth.
«I never should have touched you,» Whip said, shivering beneath the delicate caresses.
«You never lied to me,» Sha
«I should be horsewhipped for taking your i
«I wanted you. You were kind and gentle when other men were savage and crude. I couldn’t have asked for a more decent man to teach me passion.»
«I didn’t want you to love me,» Whip whispered, for his throat was closed around emotions he refused to release. «I didn’t want to hurt you.»
Sha
«You’re the first one whose sorrow cut me until I bled and just kept on bleeding.»
There was pain in Whip’s tone, and accusation, and bafflement.
«You can no more change my loving you than I can change your not loving me,» Sha
Sha
«Whip,» she whispered. «Let’s not waste any more breath on what can’t be changed. Love me in the only way you can while you’re here. Join your body with mine and take me to the sun. We have so little time left….»
Whip’s breath came in with a swift, ripping sound as Sha
«No,» he said thickly. «It’s too dangerous. Too many days have gone by.»
«Then at least let me bring you ease.»
With an anguished sound, Whip dragged Sha
«No,» he said curtly. «Don’t you understand?I don’t trust myself. I start out telling myself that we’ll just pet each other a bit, no more. Just mutual ease and comfort. Then your breath begins to break and you tremble and I feel the honey and fire between your legs and all I want to do is bury myself in you.»
Sha
«And that’s just what I do each time,» Whip said bitterly. «I lock myself inside you and the honey flows and the fire burns and nothing else is real. No sorrow, no pain, no thought, nothing but you and me and the kind of white-hot pleasure I’ll die remembering.»
«It’s the same for me,» Sha
«Haven’t you been listening? It’s not safe! I don’t trust myself not to make you pregnant!»
A shudder went through Sha
A baby.
God, I want Whip’s child. But he doesn’t want to leave that much of himself behind.
Then Sha
«Cherokee gave me something so I wouldn’t conceive,» Sha
«What?» Whip asked, startled.
«Over there.» Sha
Whip gave her a strange look. Then he stood with swift grace and went to the shelf. Carefully he opened the bag and tipped it over his open hand. Tiny scraps of sponge rustled onto his palm. He took the stopper out of the vial and sniffed. His eyes widened as he smelled jumper and spearmint combined, plus a whiff of something sharp he couldn’t name.
«I’ll be damned,» he said.
«But I don’t know what to do with any of it,» Sha
He nodded.
«Oh, good,» she said, relieved. «What do I do?»
Whip selected a sponge, doused it thoroughly with the pungent oil and turned toward Sha
«I’ll show you,» he said.
She blinked, startled by Whip’s transformation. Gone was the wildness of an animal brought to bay. His elemental hunger and his certainty of ecstasy were all but tangible.
«Don’t be nervous, honey girl. You’ll love learning how to use this. And I’ll love showing you.»
«WHIP?» Sha
Prettyface’s head appeared from the corner of the meadow where he had been dining on scraps from Whip’s latest hunt. She had heard Prettyface bark wildly earlier, followed by Whip’s stern command for silence.
«Go on,» Sha
Prettyface vanished back into the tall meadow grass.
«Whip? Where are you?»
No answer came from the meadow, where three hobbled mules grazed. No answer came from the woodpile, which now held little but chips. No answer came from the lean-to, where strips of venison and fish cured over a slow, smoky fire. No answer came from the ridgeline, where trees stood tall and windswept, lifting green arms to the sky.
Abruptly Sha
Whip’s horses weren’t there.
«Whip can’t have gone,» Sha
Surely Whip hasn’t left.
Oh, God, not yet. Not yet!
Sha
«Whip, where are you?»
The ghostly keening of panpipes breathed over Sha
The haunting music came from behind Sha
She drew a swift breath and spun around.
There was no one behind her.
«Whip? Where are you?»
The trembling harmony of the pipes curled around Sha
Of course, Sha
Quickly Sha
Sha
«Whip, are you in the pool?»
There was a hissing whisper as a long lash curled out of the darkness. Sha
Sha
She looked around and saw nothing but twists of steam and the dark curl of the lash returning. Though she saw it coming, she still made a startled noise when the leather whip delicately, precisely, sheared cloth away from her body without touching her skin at all.
She shivered as the remnants of her trousers fell to the stone floor, leaving her wearing the shabby pantalets that were her only underwear.
«W-Whip?»
«I wanted to do this the first time I saw you dressed in ragpicker’s clothes that were an insult to your beauty. But I knew the bullwhip would frighten you then. Does it frighten you now?»