if said woman probably deserved what she got for her reckless daring.”
To Rafe’s disbelief she didn’t snap back at him. She just sort of crumpled beside him and he reflexively reached out to steady her on her feet. He heard her muffled sob and felt her trembling hands clutch at his arm. In the blink of an eye his frustration evaporated and he gathered her compassionately to him.
“Damn it,” she mumbled against his chest. “The very last thing I meant to do was let you see me cry.”
“It’s all right,” he whispered as he impulsively brushed his lips over her bruised cheek. “You’re going to be fine now. After a warm meal and hot bath you’ll be your sassy self again.”
Well, so much for reading her every paragraph of the riot act—forward and backward, twice. When she broke down and soaked the jacket of his uniform with tears, he couldn’t work up the anger to chastise her.
Yes, she had it coming for putting herself in harm’s way. And yes, he had wanted to be the one to deliver a scathing lecture. But when a woman as strong as Karissa buckled to her emotions Rafe couldn’t bring himself to do anything except offer comfort.
And he was not even going to think about how good she felt in his arms or how much satisfaction he derived from being the one who had rescued her from disaster. As hard as he tried, it was impossible not to become emotionally involved with this woman, even if she was all wrong for him. Even if he was betrothed…
The thought prompted Rafe to release her and step back into his own space. He scooped Karissa off the ground, gently settled her on Sergeant’s back and then swung up behind her.
When he reined toward the fort, she clutched his hand. “I need to fetch my belongings,” she said brokenly. “I buried them near the spring…please?”
Rafe relented and allowed her to take the reins to ride toward her abandoned campsite. He listened to her muffled sobs for as long as he could stand and then said, “I’m truly sorry you met with trouble, Karissa. No woman deserves to be treated so disrespectfully. Rest assured that those three men will be punished severely.”
Ten minutes later Karissa halted beside the rock-covered hillside where a spring trickled into a shimmering pool. Rafe dismounted and then set her to her feet. Swaying slightly, Karissa approached the site of her buried cache and used a nearby rock to unearth her carpetbag. And then to Rafe’s tormented dismay, she burst into tears all over again. He tried to tell himself that it was a manipulative ruse, aimed at drawing his sympathy, but he doubted that even Karissa was that good an actress.
“Can’t you bend your damnable rules and just let me stay here?” she said on a sob and hiccup. “Every soldier at the fort thinks I’m your live-in mistress, even if most of them have been polite and respectful in my presence. I don’t want to go back there. I would rather take my chances out here.” She clung desperately to the carpetbag in her quaking hands. “At least out here I have a disguise for protection. If I had been dressed like a boy, those men wouldn’t have accosted me and your—”
Karissa bit down on her tongue before she blurted out that Harlan Billings had tried to do the very same thing to her. She knew Rafe was loyal to the army and to the men in his command. She had no doubt whatsoever that he would take Harlan’s word over hers.
“My what?” Rafe grilled her as he strode forward to tower over her. “What were you going to say?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. It’s not important. What is important is that I need to stay here so I can claim this property. It’s all I want in life. Is that asking so much?”
Rafe squatted down on his haunches and curled his index finger beneath her quivering chin. Steel-gray eyes bored into her and, even in the darkness, she could feel their intensity on her. “Tell me why it’s so important that you have this property?” he demanded. “Why should I grant you special privileges when this Run for free land is supposed to be a fair race for all other settlers?”
Karissa didn’t know why she wanted to take Rafe into her confidence when she had kept her own counsel for years. She supposed the unnerving experiences of the day had simply broken her spirit and left her with the need to lean on someone until she could gather her composure. She had never begged for anything in her life, but suddenly she found herself blurting out her thoughts like a witless ninny.
“As much as I love this property that calls out to me, I want to claim it for my brother and his new wife,” she gushed as she clutched her dirty carpetbag to her chest. “On the way down from Kansas, Clint was thrown from his horse. He suffered a broken leg and concussion. He barely gets around on the crutch I…found…for him and it will be impossible for him to make the Run. His wife is seven months’ pregnant and she is in no condition to take Clint’s place in the race for land. I’ve looked after my younger brother since we were kids. Now I want him to have a fresh start, the chance to make a new life.”
To her dismay, she realized tears were dribbling down her cheeks. She managed to reroute them, but she couldn’t seem to clamp down on her tongue as she should have. Rafe didn’t care what a difficult life she’d had. She wasn’t his responsibility. He had a blue-blooded fiancée waiting for him back East. He didn’t care that she had somehow gotten attached to him the past few days.
It was ridiculous, but it didn’t stop her from pouring out her heart to him. She felt the insane need to make him understand there was good reason she had turned out the way she had. She didn’t expect him to like her, but she wanted him to understand what motivated her.
“I doubt that you can begin to imagine what it’s like to be uprooted and moved from one lawless cow town to the next while your father drowns his woes in whiskey and gambles away every cent he’s accumulated. I doubt you know what it’s like to be a woman who has to dress as a boy and sweep up in smoke-filled saloons, while calico queens and drunkards paw each other and fling lewd remarks, just so you can acquire enough money to feed yourself and your little brother.”
“Where is your father now?” he asked gently.
“He got caught cheating at poker and the dispute ended badly for him. I couldn’t afford to give him a proper burial.”
“I’m sorry, Rissa.” Rafe tried to pat her consolingly, but she shrugged him off and rambled on before the tears washed away her voice.
“I never had the chance to make friends, only passing acquaintances. Never had a home to call my own or enough money to buy a gown as fine as this one that you borrowed for me. And now look at it!” To her horror, Karissa wailed like an abandoned baby when she realized the gown had suffered irreparable damage. “And how am I going to earn the money to replace this gown? What little money I made from washing, scrubbing and mending will barely cover food and supplies for my brother and his wife!”
Shamelessly Karissa fell into Rafe’s arms, knowing perfectly well she didn’t belong there, that she wasn’t particularly wanted there, but needing to be held and comforted.
Of course, she would never be able to look this man in the eye after she had reduced herself to blubbering tears, but she had to get through the night—somehow—if she was going to marshal her spirits to face another trying day.
“I—I’m s-sorry,” she whimpered, humiliated. “I— I—”
To her further mortification she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him squarely on the mouth. It was a reckless mistake, a complete lapse of good judgment. She had no idea why she thought she needed to
