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Ja
"Sugar," Ty drawled, "you are a sight for sore eyes."
His glance moved over her like hands, reminding her that she was naked from the waist up. Blushing, she crossed her arms over her breasts but couldn't conceal the pink tide rising beneath her skin.
Ty's breath caught and then stayed in his throat at the picture Ja
"Ty… don't."
"Don't what?"
"Look at me like that."
"Like what?" he said huskily. "Like I spent most of the night licking and love biting and kissing those beautiful white breasts?"
Ja
"Put your arms down, sugar. Let me see if you remember, too."
Very slowly Ja
"God," breathed Ty, shutting his eyes, knowing that it didn't matter, the vision was already burned into his memory. Blindly he dug into his backpack, found the roll of cloth he had refused to let her wear, and dropped the cloth on her lap. "Here. Wrap up before you make me forget where we are. Do it fast, little one. A man never wants a woman so much as when he's come close to dying."
"Does it work that way for a woman, too?" Ja
"I don't know. How do you feel right now?"
"Shivery. Feverish. Restless. And then you looked at me and I felt hot and full where you had touched me…and yet empty at the same time."
"Then it works the same for a woman, if the woman is like you," Ty said, trying to control the heavy beat of his blood. "Satin butterfly. God, you don't know how much I want to love you right now. I saw Lucifer jump and fall into the ravine and then you threw yourself after him and I couldn't get a clean shot at his head and-"
"What?" Ja
"I know. That's why I was afraid he'd beat you to death with those big hooves."
"You would have killed him to save me?"
Ty's eyelids snapped open. "Hell, yes! What kind of a man do you think I am?"
Ja
"For the love of God," Ty said in a low voice. "Just because I seduced you doesn't mean that I'm the kind of bastard who would leave you to be killed when I could have saved you!"
"That isn't what I meant. It's just that… that…"
"What?" Ty demanded angrily.
"I'm surprised you would have killed Lucifer without hesitation, that's all," Ja
Chapter Twenty-Seven
"How bad is he hurt?" Ty asked.
Ja
After that, Ty had gone to Lucifer's head, knelt and put himself between the horse's teeth and Ja
"He's strong. He'll be fine," Ja
"That's not what I asked. I've treated horses for sprains and stones in their shoes and colic and such, but bullet wounds are new to me. It's not a deep wound, but I've seen men die of shock with wounds not much worse than that. Do you think Lucifer can walk?"
Ja
"I can't answer your question until I've looked at Lucifer's mouth," she explained.
Ty gave Ja
"What the hell are you doing?" Ty asked quietly.
"Papa said you can tell a lot about men or animals by the color of their gums. Lucifer was real pale when I first checked him, but he's nice and pink now. He'll be able to walk as soon as I untie his feet, but it would be better if he didn't move around much. That wound will start to bleed all over again at the first bit of strain."
Ty looked at the long gash on Lucifer's haunch and muttered something beneath his breath.
"What?" asked Ja
"We can't stay here. Those renegades could come back or some of their friends could come prowling to see if anything was missed the first time around. Lucifer left a trail a blind man could follow." Ty glanced at the sky overhead. "No rain today and probably not any tonight, either. And if there was enough rain to wash out the trail, we'd be washed right out of this gully, too. There's no food, no water and no cover worth mentioning. The sooner we get out of here the longer we'll all live."
Ja
"I wish he were human," Ja
"How far do you think he can go?"
"As far as he wants to, I guess."
"He moved fast enough getting here," Ty said dryly.
"He was ru
Ty said nothing. He had seen men in the heat of battle run on a foot that had been shot off; after the battle, those same men couldn't even crawl.
"The sooner we get going the better our chances are," Ty said finally. "At the very least we've got to get to decent cover and wipe out as much of our trail as we can. Do you know any place near the meadow?"
Ja
"And the renegades are real thick in Santos Wash," Ty added. "We've got no choice, Ja
Ja