and then winced when Jonah nearly jerked her arm out of its socket in his haste to hoist her behind him on the saddle. When another bullet whistled past them she pressed herself against the solid wall of Jonah’s back. Maddie wrapped her arms around his waist and prayed for all she was worth.
Being shot at was a new, unnerving experience for her, but it didn’t seem to faze Jonah. He leaned sideways to grab the mare’s trailing reins, then took off like a cannonball. While they rode hell-for-leather, Maddie wondered how many consecutive days of dodging flying bullets she would have to endure before she could remain as unflinching and focused as Jonah.
My God, how did he deal with this kind of fear without having the living daylights scared out of him on a regular basis?
“You okay, princess?” Jonah called over his shoulder as he set a swift pace through the trees that lined the creek.
“I’ve been better,” she mumbled against his back. “I’m sorry I’m responsible for getting you shot at during your vacation.”
When they encountered the dense underbrush that grew along the creek bank, Jonah reined the gelding to a walk, then drew the mare up beside them. Using his good arm, he grabbed Maddie around the waist and deposited her on her own horse. Her feeling of security vanished when she was no longer wrapped around Jonah’s sinewy form. She shivered as remnants of icy fear spiraled through her body.
To her stunned amazement Jonah leaned toward her to kiss her squarely on the mouth. His scorching kiss caused an explosion of her senses and sent hot sensations sizzling through her body. Maddie was still savoring the taste of his full, sensuous lips—and the delicious feelings he aroused—when he withdrew abruptly. Bewildered, she licked her lips and stared goggle-eyed at him.
“Do I have your attention now, princess?” he asked in a gruff voice that was a direct contradiction to the passionate kiss he’d just bestowed on her. When she nodded mutely, he said, “Good. I don’t care how scared you think you are, you’re still going to be fine.” He moved his horse in front of hers, zigzagging through the maze of trees and brush. “Your friends—”
“I keep telling you that they are not my friends,” she interrupted emphatically.
“—will have a hard time taking potshots at us if we use the trees as shields,” he said implacably. “They might decide to follow the road so they can be ready and waiting to confront us. But we’re going to avoid the road entirely. It will take longer to reach Fort Griffin, but at least we won’t be sitting ducks.”
Jonah picked his way northwestward and silently cursed himself for yielding to the need to kiss Maddie. She’d looked so shaken and terrified that he’d wanted to comfort and console her. He should have given her a consoling pat on the back instead. Now the sweet taste of her was on his lips and her clean scent invaded his senses—feeding his forbidden desires, tormenting him until hell wouldn’t have it.
Jonah had sworn he was about to suffer heart seizure when bullets started flying earlier and Maddie had almost been shot. He was accustomed to facing personal danger, but it had unnerved him when her safety was threatened. Jonah had accepted the inevitability of his own death years ago, but he hadn’t been prepared for the possibility of watching Maddie die while she was under his protection.
She had a lot of living left to do. She had a life and family to return to, would-be fiancés waiting in the wings—if her story was to be believed. All Jonah had to his name was a well-trained horse and an arsenal of weapons. His only connection was to a company of Rangers who were careful about getting too attached to each other for fear of losing a dear friend when a gun battle broke out.
“You’ll have to find yourself an experienced guide at Fort Griffin,” Jonah said a few miles later. “A novice won’t do you a damn bit of good. Your two pistol-packing friends mean business.”
“Would you please stop referring to those bushwhackers as my friends?” She scowled at him. “And for your information, I am not going to hire another guide or take the stage. I refuse to involve anyone else in my problems or become personally responsible for causing someone else’s injury or death.”
Jonah swiveled in the saddle to stare disapprovingly at her. He wasn’t surprised to see her chin elevate a stubborn notch when she met his gaze head-on. The woman had cornered the market on stubborn and defiant.
“And furthermore, you are fired,” Maddie decreed. “You have an injured arm already. I have to get used to taking care of myself and I’m sorry I made the selfish mistake of involving you in this affair.”
“One kiss does not make an affair,” he said dryly.
Maddie flung him another irritated glance. “Don’t practice your rarely used sense of humor on me, Danhill. I am not a simpleton whose attention is easily diverted. I will not be listed as the cause on your death certificate.” To make her point she drew the mare to a halt, then hitched her thumb over her shoulder. “You’re off the hook. Go back to Coyote Springs. You didn’t want to come in the first place.”
He had expected her to stick to him like a sand burr after the ambush, but he’d forgotten to take into account her independent nature. Every mishap she had encountered since he’d met her served to stiffen her resolve about confronting her problems alone. He admired that—in a frustrated sort of way—but he’d made a promise he intended to honor.
“Damn it, Jonah,” she railed at him when he nudged his steed forward. “What does it take to get rid of you?”
“I would have left if you had walked naked from the water. That would’ve evened the score between us,” he teased, straight-faced. “Now that’s what it’ll take to get rid of me. Go ahead, strip naked and I’ll backtrack to town.”
Maddie’s disbelieving snort transformed into a chuckle. “You are, without a doubt, the most outrageous, perplexing, disagreeable and impossible man I have ever met. I swear, it seems you have made it your mission to deliberately shock and provoke me.”
“Sticks and stones, Garret,” he said with a careless shrug. “But regardless, I’m going to take the roundabout route to Fort Griffin so we can avoid your cohorts.”
“How is it that you know this area so well when you claimed you never trekked across it?”
Her question convinced Jonah that she had finally given up her objections to his friends-and-cohorts comments. “I didn’t say I wasn’t familiar with the area,” he corrected grimly. “I said that I preferred to avoid it.” He stared stonily at her. “I’m half Comanche. The half that counts. This is where I grew up. This was the Comanchería, until the army descended like hornets to slaughter Comanche warriors, old men, women and children, and march the survivors to Indian Territory.”
Maddie flinched when she noticed the hard expression that settled on his rugged features. She had unintentionally hit an exposed nerve. Quite frankly, she was surprised that he had opened up to her, since he had refused to do so earlier. Jonah was a prickly man who had built walls around himself and rarely let others close enough to know and understand him.
“I was fourteen when I watched my father die,” he muttered as he stared into the distance. “I was fifteen when I was herded onto a train with the rest of the Comanche children and shipped to Pennsylvania to a boarding school designed to train us to think and behave like whites. I was seventeen when I sneaked away, took a new name and made my way back to Texas to work any job I could get in order to survive.”
His gaze swung back to her and
