“Hell, just looking at you makes me wild.” He placed a trembling hand on her soft belly and began a gentle, massaging motion that caused her to arch helplessly against the electric touch. “You’re so small,” he said wonderingly. “How is it that you can hold me?”
He lowered his head to brush his lips where his hand had been caressing. “You’re all softness and warmth and sweet-smelling woman.” His tongue darted out to stroke her sensitive flesh, and she inhaled sharply as her body quivered with response. “I love everything about you, do you know that? Even the taste of you turns me on.” His lips traveled up to the peaks of her waiting breasts and nibbled at the engorged nipples lazily.
Sheena was not feeling a similar leisureliness. Every touch of his hands was like a galvanic shock; each teasing bite at her sensitive nipples was causing a fever that generated a molten ache in every limb. She began to pant and make little moaning sounds deep in her throat, and he raised his head and smiled at her with almost savage pleasure before resuming his tormenting loveplay.
She felt as if she were about to go up in flames, and she bit her lower lip in frustration at the maddening slowness of his teasing arousal. Rand might have the experience and control to indulge in this type of sensual game, but she did not. Her hands clutched at his wide, muscular shoulders feverishly, and her nails unconsciously scored him with the urgency of her need.
He laughed deep in his throat and sat back on his heels, his golden eyes dancing with exultant amusement. “That’s right. Put your marks on me, little kitten. I want to look at them later and remember how you looked at this moment.” He leisurely parted her thighs so that she was open and vulnerable to his every whim, and he looked down at her, his eyes glazed to a dark amber. “You look like a sacrifice to an ancient pagan god,” he said thickly, his fingers stroking her inner thigh.
But Sheena couldn’t bear any more. Rand was evidently going to continue playing with her until she was out of her mind with hunger. That is, if she didn’t do something to rock his control, she thought mischievously.
With one swift movement, she closed her thighs on his hand, capturing him in her soft warmth. At the same time, she gracefully sat up and smiled at him alluringly. “But I have no desire to be a sacrifice,” she said throatily, then slowly got to her knees. “The role is much too submissive, I’d rather be the high priestess.”
She moved closer to him and rubbed her breasts against his chest like a sensuous cat, then lowered her lips to nibble delicately at his shoulder. “I’ll be very careful not to use my hands on you,” she said demurely. “I wouldn’t want to drive you wild, would I?”
She then proceeded to do just that. Her teeth and tongue moved to his hard male nipples and gave them the same teasing attention that he’d accorded her. He obviously found it just as arousing as she had, for she could feel his heartbeat accelerate. Her head moved down to his hard stomach, and she felt his muscles knot with tension as her lips brushed against him. When her warm tongue darted out teasingly to stroke his navel, he decided he had reached the limit of his patience.
With a groan that was like the growl of a wild animal, he pushed her away from him onto her back. He tore at his clothes frantically until he was as naked and vulnerable as she was, then came into her with the passion of a hunger suppressed too long.
For an instant Sheena felt a quiver of fear at the almost painful thrust of his arousal, but then she was lost in a rhythm so fiery that she knew only its exultant throb. She could see Rand’s face, stark and primitive with desire, above her. He was all golden power and beautiful naked aggression in the shadowy canopy of their leafy bower. She wondered dazedly if Adam had looked like this when he’d shown Eve a paradise more beautiful than Eden.
Then she couldn’t think at all as the fantastic tension mounted until it was a shimmering silver cord binding them together in the most joyously primitive captivity known to man. Then the cord broke, shredding into ribbons of sensation that was as dazzling as the glittering cord itself.
They didn’t leave the magical environs of the willow tree until the setting sun was a fiery ball in the west. Sheena couldn’t remember any of the words that were spoken in those hours. She was vaguely aware of broken murmurs of need and assuagement as they flowed together innumerable times in an almost dreamlike pattern of molten desire. No words were necessary in that curiously timeless period where there was only the language of smooth, yearning flesh and warm, inviting glances.
It was only when Challon noticed Sheena give an involuntary shiver that shook her body even in the warm shelter of his arms, that he reluctantly put an end to their idyll. He pulled on his clothes slowly, his eyes fixed compulsively on her pale, languid body, which was now bathed eerily in the soft green glow evoked by the setting sun on the thick green foliage. “You look like a lovely alien from outer space,” he said, watching her sit up lazily and begin to arrange her tousled hair into some sort of order.
“I feel like one, too,” Sheena said dreamily, as she looked vaguely around for her clothes. She felt almost too deliciously weary to move, and she gave up looking for her clothes to gaze with frank enjoyment at Rand’s swift, graceful movements as he donned his own garments. Watching the rippling muscles in his brawny shoulders as he pulled on his shirt, she felt a surge of familiar heat.
“Oh, no, you don’t, love,” Rand said, noting and comprehending the growing languor in her dark eyes. “No more until I get you home. I’m not having you develop a chill while I sate myself on that gorgeous body.” He finished buttoning his shirt and then briskly hurried about collecting her discarded clothing, which he handed to her.
He bent down and gave her a swift, hard kiss. “I’m tempted to stay and watch you dress, but I don’t trust my willpower. I’ll water the mare while you remove temptation from my path.” With another quick kiss, he parted the long, lacy fronds and strode out of the haven beneath the willows.
Sheena sat still for a brief moment and then started hurriedly to dress. She shivered, suddenly conscious of how cool it had become. For some reason when Rand had left, he had seemed to take all the vibrant warmth with him. The dark shadows and strange, eerie glow no longer appeared beautiful but silently menacing. Sheena pulled on her jeans and white shirt, her hands moving swiftly on the zipper and buttons, and then looked around her for the brown loafers.
She spotted them by the root of the tree. Sinking back down on the ground, she slipped on the shoes. Then she rose to her knees and tucked her white blouse into her jeans. A sudden breeze disturbed the willow fronds, and she sat back on her heels, her gaze fixed on Rand’s powerful silhouette at the bank of the pond some ten feet away. Standing by the chestnut’s head, he looked like a painting of one of the colorful cowboy figures by Remington, she thought dreamily.
She rose to her knees again as she prepared to stand up. There was a sudden peculiar sound like the rattle of dry peas in a metal cup, and she froze in position, more in surprise than fear. She casually looked toward the direction from which the sound had come. Her body turned to a rigid block of ice as she faced the flat, triangular head and the evil, glowing eyes of a rattlesnake!
The snake was only a scant three feet away and almost on a level with her kneeling form; it was coiled to strike. The ominous rattle sounded again, and she gave a low moan of pure terror. Such a short time ago she had compared this spot to Eden, she remembered with panicky horror. How ironic that it was another serpent that was destroying their magic garden as well.
“Sheena!”
It was Rand’s voice, but he was outside the leafy enclosure and seemed a million miles away. Only she and the swaying white and tan monster existed in this world. The rattle sounded again, and Sheena sobbed uncontrollably.
“Sheena, how far away is the snake?” Rand’s voice was as commanding as a whiplash. How far away? He was practically in her arms. She had an instant of wondering how Rand had known about her predicament before she realized that he must have heard the telltale rattle and her own te
rrified cry.
“Sheena, damn it, speak to me! I can’t see through these branches, and I can’t charge blindly in there if it’s close enough to strike. How far from you is it?”
“Three feet,” she gasped, watching the flat head sway back and forth. No wonder the devil was personified as a snake. There was something so malevolent in its eyes.
She heard Rand swear, and then once again his voice roared. “I need to know the exact location. Do you hear me, Sheena? Tell me precisely where it is.”
Her throat felt dry as cotton as she tried to force the words from her throat. “It’s facing me, about three feet away. It’s about six feet from the bank near the trunk of the tree.”
“Good girl! Now don’t move a muscle, do you hear?”
No danger of that, she thought almost hysterically. She was too terrified to breathe, much less move. The horror was magnified by the almost unbearable tension of wondering when the serpent would strike. For a crazy moment, she had an urge to make a motion that would precipitate the strike just to end the nightmare once and for all.
What happened next was infinitely worse than the terror that had gone before. With speed too blinding to follow, Rand suddenly appeared through the fronds behind the snake and grabbed it by the rattles and slung it forcefully against the willow tree! Sheena heard a sickening crack as the snake hit the tree, then with an equally forceful backward motion, Rand sent the body of the snake flying into the pond.
Sheena stared at him dazedly as he calmly wiped his hands on his tan suede pants, then turned around to face her. Her eyes were fixed on him with the same horror they had held when she was mesmerized by that ancient symbol of evil. Rand’s expression darkened with concern as he saw her expression, and he took a swift step toward her.
“No!” The cry was almost a moan as Sheena leaped to her feet and tore through the delicate foliage into the sunset brilliance of the outside world.
“Sheena!” Rand’s voice thundered after her. She didn’t stop until she reached the bank of the pond. She bent over, holding her stomach with both arms while she fought the nausea that was threatening to overcome her. She took several deep, steadying breaths, and the sickness gradually faded.
“Easy, little dove,” Rand said gently, his hands closing on her tension-racked shoulders.
Sheena gave an outraged cry, like the sound of a spitting tiger, and whirled to face him. Her hand swung back, and she struck his cheek with all her might. “Damn you!” she shouted, her eyes dark with rage. “Damn you, Rand Challon! I could murder you!”
Her hands were beating at his chest with all her strength while Rand looked down at her with a dumbfounded expression on his face. “What the hell is wrong with you?” he roared, trying to ward off her blows without hurting her.
“What’s wrong with me?” she cried, as she knotted one small fist and punched him fiercely in the stomach. “It’s what’s wrong with you! You’re the stupidest, the cruelest, the most asinine man on the face of the earth. I hate everything about you! You’re a terrible, terrible man!” She ended the diatribe with a swift, hard kick to his kneecap that caused him to utter a surprised yelp.
“You ought to be locked away with the other loonies so that you can’t hurt yourself,” she told him, unaware of the tears running down her cheeks. “What kind of daft chance was that for any man to take? You picked that snake up with your bare hands. What if he had bitten you? What if he had killed you, damn it?” She kicked him in the other kneecap. “It would have served you right for being such an idiot. I wish that it had killed you!”
He grabbed her firmly by the shoulders, trying to avoid her lethally accurate feet. “Listen to me, Sheena,” he said earnestly. “It wasn’t as dangerous as it looked. The snake was probably sluggish from the evening coolness.” He gave her a little shake. “I know about snakes, for God’s sake. When I was a kid, we went on rattlesnake roundups in the hills every year.”
“Not dangerous!” she raged, struggling to escape that steely grip. “I was there, remember? There was nothing sluggish about that rattlesnake! The only thing that was sluggish about the entire situation was that tiny little brain of yours.” Noting how successfully he was evading her kicks, she lifted her knee, aiming at an extremely sensitive portion of his anatomy. It was a glancing blow but enough to cause him to utter a pained bellow and loosen his hold on her arms.
She broke away from him and was a full twenty yards away before he had recovered enough to persue her. But then his pursuit was swift and ruthlessly efficient. She found herself neatly tackled and falling to the ground. The earth was jarringly hard despite its covering of long grass, and for an instant the fall shocked her into immobility. Rand took advantage of her weakness to pin her on her back with her arms above her head. He quickly mounted her supine body and shook the sun-bleached hair out of his eyes to look down at her.
“Let me go!” Sheena demanded, trying to wriggle away from him. She had recovered quickly once the first surprise was over, and her fury was only aggravated by the frustrating feeling of helplessness she was experiencing under Rand’s weight. “You’re not only an insane egomaniac, you’re an abuser of helpless women!”
“Helpless! You damn near emasculated me. I’m not about to let you up until I find out what the hell is at the bottom of this.” His golden eyes narrowed as he looked down into her distraught face and snapping black eyes. “Why are you so upset? I can understand that an experience like that would shake you up a bit, but this is out of all proportion.”
She was stubbornly silent. Her only answer was the redoubling of her efforts to escape from him. Let the idiot work it out for himself, she thought defiantly.
It seemed that he had, for a jubilant glint appeared in Rand’s eyes, and his face lit up with the brilliance of his flashing smile. “You were worried about me,” he said wonderingly. “You were scared to death that the rattlesnake would get me.”
“Why should I be worried about a senseless, insensitive—”
“Why, indeed?” Rand mused. “Why would you be so upset that you nearly went crazy when you thought I was in danger? Why were you more afraid for me than you were for yourself?”
“I wasn’t afraid for you! Why should I be afraid for anyone so completely witless as to pick up a striking rattlesnake with his bare hands?” Despite her anger, a convulsive shudder shook her at the memory.
“I think we both know the answer to that, don’t we, dove?” he asked softly. His gaze was fastened searchingly on her face. “But that’s not enough for me. I want the words.”
Her lips tightened obstinately as she glared up at him.
“I guess I’ll have to do it the hard way.” He sighed regretfully, then his expression hardened. “I lied to you, you know. I knew damn well that snake was capable of striking. I wasn’t really worried about him getting my hand, but there was a possibility that he might strike at my throat as I swung him around. Snakebites that close to the heart are almost always fatal.”
“Shut up!” The picture that his words evoked was terrifyingly vivid.
“Of course, it’s not a hundred percent fatal if treated immediately,” he went on. “But we’re pretty well isolated here.”
“You’re a sadistic monster,” she hissed. She had stopped struggling, but her eyes were blazing ebony fire into his face.
“I want the words,” he said with steely determination. “Would you like me to go into the symptoms of snakebite?”
“No!” she cried hoarsely, her eyes tortured in her pale face. “Why are you doing this to me?”
“I want the words, Sheena,” he said relentlessly. “Give me the words.”
“Damn it, I love you!” she shouted. “Now will you please shut up?”
Rand chuckled exultantly. “I’d be delighted, sweetheart,” he said joyously, and his lips covered hers in a kiss of honeyed sweetness.
His lips were so warm, so alive, and his arms slipping around her were all vibrant strength. Without conscious thought, her arms
slid over his shoulders to the curly hair at the nape of his neck. Everything about him was so wonderfully, vividly alive, and he had risked that life with such careless disregard that she wanted to kill him.
“You’re so damn stupid,” she said huskily, when he lifted his lips from hers. “You had no right to take such a chance.” How could she tell him how she felt when she had seen him handle that deadly reptile? It was as if her world had been ripped from its axis and sent spinning into outer space. All the old values and loyalties had burned into oblivion at the realization that Rand could be taken from her just as Rory had. She had known with a primitive, blinding certainty that Rand Challon was the mainspring of her existence, and if he had died, there would be nothing left.
“Yes, I know, love,” he said soothingly, his hand smoothing her tousled curls back from her face. “I’m stupid and cruel and everything you say. Now will you stop crying?”
Her body was shaking with sobs, and her cheeks were wet with tears. “You had no right,” she repeated brokenly. “No right at all.”
He rolled over, taking her with him so that they lay side by side in the grass. He cuddled her gently, his hands stroking the curve of her back soothingly. “God, I’m sorry, dove,” he whispered huskily. “I was a bastard to put you through that, but I have my insecurities, too. I needed you to tell me that you loved me.”
“Well, I hope you’re satisfied.” Sheena sniffed indignantly, rubbing her wet cheeks on his crisp cotton shirt. “You got your own way and nearly gave me a nervous breakdown. I wouldn’t have put it past you to have arranged this whole thing.”
“I hate to disappoint you, but that would have been beyond even my capabilities.” Rand chuckled. “And I assure you, I wouldn’t want you to go through that again even to gain me an advantage. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw you waltzing eye to eye with that rattler.”