"What is it?" he asked, sitting up beside her. Then, "Never mind, I can guess."

He wrapped his arms around her and dragged her almost into his lap. He proceeded to rub her shoulders and her back, but the trembling wouldn't stop.

"I won't let anyone hurt you, Mari," he said soothingly. "I swear, you're safe now."

"I know," she replied.

"It was just a dream. Forget it."

"I'm trying."

But she couldn't stop the shaking. Too much had happened that day and it was all catching up to her. His warmth surrounded her. That should have helped. But it wasn't cold that was making her shake. It wasn't him either. The fear she'd felt earlier had come back with the dream and it wouldn't leave now.

He continued to rub her gently, trying to soothe her, but it wasn't working. And then she heard, "Ah, hell," just before he kissed her.

That worked. There was no room for fear in her mind when it was filled with him. She had a feeling that was his intention, just to distract her. But like that day in the stable, her passion rose with amazing speed. So did his. His kiss might have started as another form of soothing, but there was soon nothing soothing about it.

His lips parted hers, pulling her into the intimacy he offered. She had craved the taste and smell of him without realizing it, but her body knew and was thrilled beyond measure. He placed her down on the blanket, was still kissing her deeply, leaning over her now, one leg thrown over her hips. He filled his hand with her breast, uncoiling the heat deep within her. She couldn't think, didn't want to think. She held him tightly, her only fear now that he'd come to his senses and stop.

He didn't. If anything, his kiss became more intense, as if he also had a fear that she might stop him at any moment. She should. She knew that, deep down, that she really should, but every time the thought tried to surface, she pushed it away. And his hand continued to roam, over her hips, down her legs. Even with the skirt and petticoat in the way, his touch enthralled her.

But his hand found her bare skin beneath the skirt, dragged it with him as he retraced his path, and stopped at the junction of her legs. Her pulse was racing with expectancy, the coil of heat unwinding even more. And then he touched her where she thought he might, and within moments that amazing pleasure burst on her that he'd given her once before. She was incredulous. He'd only had to touch her ...

Did he know what he'd done? She wasn't sure, but his kiss was gentle again as he smoothed her skirt back down and pulled her back toward him to sleep. Her pulse quieted. Lethargy stole over her. She slept like a baby.

Chapter 42

MARIAN WOULD SWEAR SHE woke up blushing. The memory of what had happened last night was immediately in her mind. Cheeks flaming, she tried not to look at Chad, who was getting his horse ready for riding.

He must have noticed the blush, though, because after a few minutes he said, "Look, you were in shock last night. I tried to help, but I'm afraid I got a little carried away. I know you'd probably rather not talk about it, but I'm sorry, Mari."

She didn't know whether to be grateful or disappointed. But he was right, discussing what happened between them would be much too embarrassing. Carried away? She should have known that's all it had been—for him.

They rode hard to reach the ranch by midmorning, only to find out that Kathleen and Amanda hadn't returned yet. They probably thought that Chad would be bringing Marian back to Stuart's place after he found her. He left to let her aunt know that she was home, and Kathleen rode in late that afternoon-without Amanda.

Marian didn't remark on her missing sister—well, Kathleen didn't give her much chance to, she was so full of questions, wanting to hear everything that had happened to her. And she assumed that with Spencer's having taken his carriage back to town again, Amanda was just waiting at Stuart's for Kathleen to send the wagon back for her.

But once she finished her own story, Kathleen began hers. "Your sister took advantage of the commotion caused by your disappearance to sneak off with Spencer without anyone's noticing."

"Sneak off with him? For how long?"

"She's still gone."

Marian's eyes widened. "Overnight? Where would they have gone?"

"To town to get hitched is my guess. I thought at first she might have talked him into bringing her home here, for whatever reason, but the carriage tracks point to town. I'll ride in tomorrow with some of the boys to let her know she's got my blessing."

Marian decided to join her aunt for the trip to town. She still wanted to buy some painting supplies, and she supposed it would be appropriate to congratulate her sister on her marriage. She wasn't all that surprised that Amanda had dumped Chad for Spencer. She had preferred Spencer from the start, his being the more debonair and citified of the two. She could have just said so, diough, instead of eloping.

They were in for another surprise, though, when they got to town the next day. Gossip was already running rampant that Amanda had spent the night in the saloon—without benefit of marriage. Marian couldn't imagine what her sister was diinking of, but she was too sore after the ride to find out immediately and elected to rest at the hotel while Kathleen got to the bottom of what was going on.

Chad caught up to Red before she reached the saloon. He'd come to town himself just to make sure he was off the hook. After hearing that Amanda had eloped with Spencer, he wanted to verify it, so he could relax again. He'd been crushed, though, to find out they hadn't married after all. Apparently, they'd intended to but had postponed the ceremony because of an argument, and they hadn't made up yet. But Amanda had spent the night in the saloon, whether in Spencer's bed or not didn't make much difference.

Red got angry, hearing this, and went off to gather some forces. It was quite a little crowd that headed to Not Here. The sheriff did his part and cleared the lower floor of all customers and employees alike. His deputies stationed themselves out front, to keep anyone from trying to see what was happening inside —as if anyone couldn't guess. And a good number of Red's crew were on hand to gather the rest of the participants.

Chad sat back and watched the show. It was as much a surprise to him as it would soon be to Spencer that Red was going to invite Spencer to his own wedding. He'd thought she'd at least talk to him first, try to persuade him to do what was "right" for a change. But she'd obviously concluded that that would be a wasted effort—and that her shotgun would speak louder than any words.

It did. Spencer didn't need to ask why his saloon had been taken over. When he was ushered downstairs, pushed and shoved to be exact, he started laughing when he saw Red standing next to the preacher waiting on him.

"You have got to be kidding."

" 'Fraid not," was all Red replied.

Amanda appeared at the top of the stairs next. At least she was fully dressed for a change, though in a pink-and-black edged getup too fancy for midday, more in line with what Spencer's female employees wore day and night, semi-evening gowns. She had apparently been willing to fit right in with the atmosphere of a fancy saloon.

She didn't laugh like he did, however. When she saw Red standing next to a man with a Bible in hand, she immediately tried to head back down the hallway to Spencer's rooms. That avenue was blocked, however, with Red's cowboys shaking their heads at her. So with an indignant huff, she marched stiffly down the stairs and straight over to Red.

"I thought I told you that you have no say over what I do," Amanda said haughtily to her aunt. "I remember saying it. Others heard me say it. So just what do you think you're going to do here— aside from making a fool of yourself?"

That brought a few gasps. If anyone had been feeling sorry for Amanda by that point, they no longer did. Red didn't take the bait, though, didn't even blush. She didn't get angry again either. It might have been a hard decision to make, but having made it, she had the backbone to stick with it.

Her tone was quite placid when she answered Amanda. "I'm correcting a wrong, sweetie."

"There's been no wrong done," Amanda tried to insist, but Red wasn't finished.

"Correcting a misconception as well," she said. "When your father made me your guardian, he put the decision of whom you could marry on my shoulders. In no way conceivable did he intend for the decision to be left up to you. Now we could have accomplished this in one of two ways. You could have taken some time and reviewed your possible choices of a husband, and we would have eventually agreed on a man suitable for you, or I could have gone through all possibilities willing and able and made the decision for you. Either way, the decision was still mine in the end, and circumstances have forced me to make it without any further consideration. But at least I have taken your preference into account."

"You haven't!" Amanda cried. "Did you ask me? No, you didn't! Or I would have told you that no one around here meets my standards. So go home, Aunt Kathleen. You will accomplish nothing here."

Red still didn't get angry. Chad was feeling some inklings of disgust himself. Spencer was gritting his teeth over being included in the reference to Amanda's standards. But Red wasn't going to be goaded into backing down.

"You can say it as long as you like, as loud as you like, or until someone puts a gag in your mouth," she told her niece. "You did state your preference when you came to town with Spencer Evans and moved right into his bed. No ifs or buts about it. Not a single person here, myself included, doubts that you made a choice. Now we'll make it legal."