so much of her. And she’d just thrown it all to the wind to make love to a stranger.
What had she done? Would he understand when she had to leave? For leave she must, just as soon as she could contact her government for help. Katya chewed on her lip, her brow furrowing. Having ditched her car, and lost her identification and credit cards back on the snowmobile somewhere along the river, getting help would definitely be a challenge.
Chapter Three
Maddox lay beside the woman, guilt gnawing at him. He’d made love to a stranger not quite two years since the death of his fiancée. Susan, who’d grown up in the Badlands, who knew the dangers of living on the prairie, who loved the land and wild horses as much as he did. His perfect match in every way. And in every way so different from the woman lying in his arms.
Susan’s sun-kissed tawny hair reminded him of wheat and late-summer prairie grasses, wispy and straight, always blowing in the wind. Her eyes as gray as a storm-filled sky. Her long, lanky body strong and adept at riding the range alongside him.
Kat was nothing like Susan. Her hair lay in a mass of long, loose, black curls, emphasizing her pale skin and eyes as light as his were dark. Her diminutive body, though small, had curves that fit perfectly in his palm, a fact that brought on yet more twinges of guilt. How could he compare them? Susan had been his life, his soul mate, the woman he’d planned to spend the rest of his life with. Only her life had ended and he’d resigned himself to continuing on alone.
Yet this dark-haired beauty, with hands so soft they couldn’t have worked a hard day’s labor her entire life, lay naked against him. The smell of her skin, the softness of her body, still made him hard as a rock.
Maddox stiffened, his hands dropping to his sides, his fingers burning as though on fire from touching her. He jerked the sleeping bag’s zipper down, a frigid blast of arctic air biting at his naked flesh. He reached for the flashlight and switched it on.
Kat blinked, her eyes widening as the cool air hit her skin and pebbled the tips of her breasts. “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing.” Before he changed his mind and claimed her, Maddox climbed out of the bag, reaching back inside for his clothing lodged at the bottom.
In the freezing interior of the cave, he dressed quickly, fully aware of Kat’s gaze watching him, and thankful for the effect of the frigid temps on his libido.
Kat pulled the bag up to her nose, her dark eyes rounded, each breath a puff of steam. “Did I do something to make you mad?” She laughed. “I apologize. I have never been this forward with a man. I’m not usually left alone with one long enough.” Her eyes widened and she clamped her lips shut.
Maddox slipped into his insulated trousers, buttoning the fly. “Dress inside the bag. We leave as soon as it’s daylight.”
“Leave?” She shrank deeper into the bag, a tremor shaking her cocoon.
“Yes, leave.” Her big eyes reminded him of a scared colt, and he almost softened. Instead, he turned on his heels and edged through the crevice out into the bitter-cold wind.
The sun hovered below the horizon, giving the landscape a steely, washed-out, gray-blue glow. Clouds clogged the sky in a blanket of charcoal-smeared waves of dirty white, churned by the ever-present wind.
Maddox braced himself before leaving the relative shelter of the tumbled boulders to stare up the hillside at the icy terrain. They’d have to climb the rugged sides of the canyon wall to reach the plateau. From there it was an hour’s trek on horseback to the ranch house.
As bitter cold and windy as it was, he preferred to get back to the ranch rather than spending another night in the sleeping bag with Kat Evans—or whoever she really was. The sooner he got back, the sooner he could relinquish his responsibility for the woman.
Maddox unclipped the radio from his jacket and flipped the On switch. “Tuck, you out there?” As he waited for any response, he knew he’d get none. The handheld radios had a short range. More than likely, Tuck had made it back to the ranch and was wondering what had happened to Maddox. He hoped they hadn’t sent out a search party. With the skies as heavy as they were, they could be in for another onslaught of the white stuff.
Maddox closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath, the frigid air stinging his lungs. He could taste the coming snow, feel it in his blood, chilling him to the bone. It would arrive soon. Too soon for comfort.
Something touched his arm, jerking him out of his trance and back to the canyon floor. He spun, braced for attack.
Kat stood with her arms crossed, the red scarf wrapped around her nose and mouth and her jacket hood pulled up over her hair. Buried in all those layers, her pale face peeked around the edges of clothing, her eyes as wide as icy-blue saucers. “I am r-ready,” she said, her voice muffled by the wool scarf.
“Then we leave.” He reentered the cave, making quick work of rolling up the sleeping bag. Flashlight in hand, he led the stallion through the entrance and out into the windy gray of predawn.
Kat waited at the cave entrance, stamping her boots in the snow, rubbing her hands along her arms, her gaze darting from side to side as if she feared venturing out for more reasons than the cold wind. “Are you sure we shouldn’t stay here?”
One look at Kat and the memories of the night before hit Maddox like a sucker punch to the groin. “We move.” He didn’t ask permission or warn her. With little effort, he grabbed her around the waist and swung her up into the saddle.
Kat squealed and held on to the saddle horn as Bear reared and danced to the side.
She sat the horse well, despite his nervous dance, as though she’d ridden before. A woman with soft hands who could ride.
Maddox tucked that little bit of insight away in the back of his mind. He’d get to the bottom of Kat Evans when they were safe from the weather. With gentle hands, he pulled on the reins, running gloved fingers over the horse’s nose, speaking to him in Lakota, calming him.
Then he set out at a quick pace, leading the horse along the base of the bluffs, searching for a suitable path to climb out of the canyon.
“Aren’t you going to ride with me?” Kat called out, hunkered down as low as she could get in the saddle to escape the full force of the driving wind. Her voice barely carried over the roar of wind bouncing off stony cliffs.
“Not until we’re out of the canyon.” Finally, a break in the sheer rock wall revealed a narrow path zigzagging up the side of the canyon, probably left by elk or big horn sheep. Maddox climbed the hill, the horse close behind him. Kat clung to the saddle horn as they rose from the riverbed up the treacherous trail.
Several times Maddox’s boots slipped on loose rocks, sending a tumble of gravel and stones toward the horse. Bear sidestepped and almost lost his footing. Kat’s hand flailed out for balance, her face even more pale and pinched than when they’d started up the incline.
Maddox found that the less he looked at her, the better he felt. Only when he had to did he turn to make sure that she hadn’t lost her grip and fallen from the horse.
Kat’s fingers and cheekbones burned with the cold. Not long after they left the cave, she started shivering and could not seem to stop. She could not afford to waste all her energy, not when she had to use all her strength just to hang
