Travis followed her. "I said I'm going with you."

"All the way to my room?" She took the next step. "It's not allowed."

Using only his right leg to climb, he moved up the stairs. "I'm going with you," he repeated more slowly as if he thought she'd missed a word.

By this point she was so frustrated she wanted to kick his good leg. The man was taking his guard duty to the extreme. She lifted her head and walked up the stairs not even glancing back to see if he followed.

When she reached her door, she was surprised to find him only a few steps behind.

"Turn around," she said, blushing.

"What?" He moved closer.

"Turn around. I have to get my key."

He raised an eyebrow. "Afraid I'll see where you hid it?" He glanced around, as if he could guess.

"No, I'm afraid you'll see what I hide it in."

Travis didn't move.

"Suit yourself," she finally said as she lifted her skirt and pulled the key from deep inside her petticoat pocket.

When she looked up, he seemed totally surprised and embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I didn't know ladies' underwear had pockets."

She rolled her eyes. "Did you McMurray men split one brain evenly among yourselves, or did you get shortchanged?"

He grinned. "Maybe the widow's right. Maybe I don't know much about women. Sage usually wears trousers and when she does wear a dress, she has no use for a place to put a key."

Rainey unlocked the door and he pushed it open, brushing her shoulder as he walked in ahead of her. "Lots of room," he mumbled as he took one step and bumped into the bed.

"It's plenty of room for me." She gathered up a change of clothes. "I can go downstairs to change."

"I'll turn around." He shifted until he was looking out the window. "I don't want you that far away in case there's trouble." He tested the bed. "Mind if I sit down?"

Rainey bit her lip. She wanted to say that nothing had happened all day, surely she'd be all right in the bathroom. The hip tub and washstand wouldn't harm her. "Suit yourself," she finally answered.

She unbuttoned the buttons at her throat and hesitated. "I don't think I can do this," she whispered. "Not with you so near."

He looked back at her. "Don't you trust me?"

"I do. But this isn't proper."

"And sleeping with me in your nightgown is?" he questioned, then turned back to the window. "Forget I said that. Just get changed."

She unbuttoned her blouse as he opened the window. He hadn't shown any interest in her all day; why should she think he'd change suddenly?

"What was the first sign you saw or heard that told you trouble was hear the other morning?"

She slipped out of her skirt. "We heard the four horses in the alley."

"Four?" He glanced back at her, then raised one hand as if to say he was sorry and returned to stare out the window. "I thought there were three men."

Folding her skirt and blouse, Rainey tried to remember. "Three men came into the house. One was killed in the foyer, two rode away with me. But… I remember looking down and seeing four horses."

Excited, she leaned one knee on the bed beside him and gripped his shoulders, turning him to face her. "Travis. Why would they bring four horses?"

Travis frowned. "Maybe they planned for Sage to ride one? No," he answered his own question. "You said they put a bag over you. They would have had to take the time to tie you up if you were riding alone."

"Maybe there was another man out front."

"Maybe, but why didn't he ride off with them?"

"I don't know. I don't remember them saying anything about anyone but Haskell and Frank, the brother in black whom Dottie shot." Rainey moved closer and asked, "What happened to Haskell?"

Travis turned to look at her. "They brought him in to question. He said he planned to hold Seth at gunpoint and get the reward, but when he saw them all at once he chickened out. All the money he got was the double eagle they offered him for calling the slave over."

He looked past her toward the door. "You'd better get dressed. The extra horse could be nothing, but it's a clue. We probably need to tell Dillon. If there was someone with them, who knows what extremes he'll go to keep quiet."

She looked down, realizing she wore only her undergarments. Travis wasn't even looking at her. She had a feeling if she stripped down to her skin, he'd probably jump out the window to get away from her.

She stood, walking right into his range of vision.

He looked back toward the window.

"How long until we need to be at the judge's?" she asked.

"It's another hour until dark. The judge likes to dine late in southern style. We've probably got a few hours if you want to go by the station first."

Rainey studied his profile. Her man of oak. How could he have held her so tenderly last night and not look at her now? She guessed it would be a waste of time to ask him what was wrong. He'd never tell her.

She touched his shoulder. When he turned to see what she wanted, she moved between his knees and wrapped her arms around his neck. If he was no longer attracted to her, he was about to have to prove it.

For a moment he didn't move.

She leaned into him, letting her body make contact with his as her cheek pressed against his hair.

When he looked up at her, she held his face in her hands. She could think of nothing funny or smart to say. She voiced the only thing on her mind. "Don't you want me anymore?"

He snapped. His arms circled her waist and he crushed her to him. He buried his face against her throat and breathed deeply. "Want you," he finally said in an angry rumble. "I haven't been able to breathe with the need for you all day."

Twisting, he lay her on the tiny bed and pressed her to the mattress. When they came face-to-face, he kissed her hard with a hunger that shocked her.

She shook with the sudden flood of feelings volting through her body.

Travis pulled an inch away, breathing heavy against her ear. "I didn't mean to frighten you, Rainey. I think I've answered your question; now answer mine. Do you welcome my advance?"

Trying her best to stop shaking, she whispered, "Yes."

He kissed her gently then, as he had the first time. Slowly he lowered his body over her, allowing her time to welcome him.

She lay her hands back on the pillow above her head and invited his advance. When he finished kissing her lips, he moved to her throat as if he were dying of thirst and she was his only drink. She could feel his breathing as his chest pressed against her breasts, and his warm breath tickled the flesh he'd left damp with kisses. Any doubt that he wanted her was erased as his hands moved over the cotton of her underthings, feeling, exploring.

"You feel so good," he whispered. "So soft. I've been starving for the need to touch you since the minute you left my bed last night. If I could have, I would have climbed the stairs to you."

She let out a small cry of pleasure when he covered the camisole over her breast with his hand.

"And this," he added against her ear, "feels better than anything I've ever held in my hand."

She turned her head away, trying to remember to breathe. When she looked back, she saw only worry in his dark eyes. "Are you all right? I didn't hurt you?" His hand still lay on her breast, but he was no longer branding her with his touch.

She smiled. "No, you didn't hurt me." She wanted to ask him why he'd been so cold all day. Why he hadn't touched her or even kissed her when they were alone. But his actions now told her all she needed to know.

She tugged his hand away. He watched in silence as she untied her camisole and let the cotton fall open. Then, she put his hand back on her breast with no material between them.

"Continue," she whispered against his ear.

He laughed. "I always follow orders."

A few moments later she cried again in pleasure as his kisses moved down her throat and found the breast he'd already warmed with his hand.

She rocked gently in paradise as he explored her body, kissing and tasting. The gentle warrior she'd seen before returned as he touched her in places no man had ever seen. It crossed her mind, as his fingers molded into the flesh at the back of her leg, that maybe she should be shy, or even hesitant, but Rainey could never pull off such a lie.

He took his time showing her that he thought she was beautiful, and with each touch, each kiss, she wanted more.

As the room darkened into shadows, her underthings fell one by one to the floor of her tiny room and she was wrapped in his warmth. He took great care in moving his hands from her hair down along the center of her back to her hips, then he'd turn her to face him and kiss her until she felt she was floating. While she drifted, he explored, gently pulling her legs apart until she felt a fire of need build deep in her belly.

When she stretched like a cat across him, he whispered, "I want you, Rainey. I want to watch the graceful way you move all day and hold you like this every night. I want to move inside you so deep that we won't even know where I end and you begin. Marry me."

"No," she answered, no longer angry at him because he asked. "I can't."

He pulled her close. "And I have to have you." He spread his hand wide across the inside of her thigh and gripped her flesh. Covering her mouth with his, he caught her sigh of pleasure and tasted deeply as she pressed her body gently against him in wave after wave of sensations.

She wanted to feel his flesh against hers, but when she began unbuttoning his shirt, he stopped her.

"I have about one ounce of self-control left, my fairy, so don't push this further. I have to think of your safety and be ready to act without having to look for my clothes first."