"If we don"t find it, it won"t be anybody"s deer."
"Look!" Daisy said, pointing to a paw print in the snow.
"The cougar," Zac said. "That deer"s a goner. We might as well go back."
Daisy should have been frightened. But she had defied the beast once. For some crazy reason, she felt certain she could do it again. "We can"t just leave it."
"You plan to tell that cougar he can"t have it?"
"You"ve got a rifle. Shoot him. Now stop talking and hurry up."
"I"m just as crazy as you," Zac muttered. "That d.a.m.ned cat is liable to decide it would like some young, tender Randolph flesh better than a stringy deer."
"You may be young and tender," Daisy snapped, "but you"re bound to taste sour."
"For a country girl, you sure have got a nasty tongue."
"Hush!" Daisy hissed. "There"s the cat."
The cougar was perched on the lowest limb of a Douglas fir. He was watching something. As they watched, he gathered his muscles under him, ready to spring.
"Shoot him!" Daisy urged Zac. "Hurry up."
"Be quiet, you silly female. I can"t aim with you screeching like an Indian."
"Shoot!" Daisy shouted. She grabbed for the rifle. It exploded into the silence.
"Dammit to h.e.l.l!" Zac cursed as they both tumbled into the snow.
Tyler muttered under his breath as he tramped through the woods, ripping branches from trees as he went.
"You fool! You big, stupid, h.o.r.n.y fool! Why couldn"t you keep your hands to yourself? The least you could have done was work up to it gradually. How did you expect her to react when you grabbed her like some s.e.x-starved lunatic who hasn"t seen a woman in six months?"
He cut a limb from the sapling, tossed it into a pile to be picked up on his way back, and moved on.
"You had no business putting your hands on her. You asked her up to the ridge to look at the view. You said you wanted to show her something more beautiful than anything man could create. And what did you do? You pounced on her like a bull in rut."
He swung down around a large boulder and stopped where a trickle of water had melted a path through the snow. Listening intently, he could hear the sound of water falling over rocks. The snow was melting. If it stayed clear, Daisy would be able to leave before long.
"You"ll be lucky if she doesn"t take out while you"re gone."
He was mad at himself for losing control. It was stupid, especially after he"d been so careful for so long. Until today she had no idea of the need burning inside him. Now she wouldn"t feel safe. She would only have to look at him to be reminded of what he had done.
"She"ll probably hide behind Zac."
That would hurt. It would be bad enough if she kept her distance -- he deserved that -- but he didn"t know if he could stand it if she turned to Zac for protection.
It was time Tyler admitted he liked Daisy. A lot. The l.u.s.t was still there, but it was all mixed up with something else now. He wanted to kiss her because he wanted to touch her, to feel her in his arms, to feel her close to him. He was haunted by the memory of her in the bath. Last night he had dreamed of making love to her again. He had lingered lovingly over every inch of her body until he lost himself in a release so exquisitely powerful it woke him. That"s probably what sent him over the edge. He"d been able to hold himself together when he put his arms around her and drew her to him, but he"d lost all restraint when she threw her arms around him.
He found a grove of oak trees and proceeded to cut several supple branches. He didn"t know why he was being so particular. Any animal that could strip the bark from a tree could eat any kind of limb. He had just started to collect the branches when he heard a shout followed closely by a rifle shot.
The killers! How could they have found the cabin so quickly? He had been a fool to get so caught up in his own thoughts he forgot about them. Cursing himself, he started for the cabin at a run.
Chapter Thirteen.
"Did you hit him?" Daisy asked, scrambling to her feet.
"Not likely with you throwing my aim off," Zac grumbled. He picked up the rifle and held it out of Daisy"s reach. "At least he"s gone," he said, pointing at the limb.
"He"s after the deer." Daisy started in the direction of the tree at a run. "Hurry!"
"Stop! You can"t go running after a cougar," Zac called as he started after Daisy. "You might catch him."
Daisy didn"t slow down. She stumbled through the snow making as much noise as possible. She wanted to scare the cougar, but she hoped she wouldn"t scare the deer so badly it would run too far for her to find it. Zac followed, making almost as much noise, only he was shouting at Daisy, not the cougar. She didn"t pay him any attention, just kept plowing through the snow until a blood-curdling snarl brought her to an abrupt stop.
The cougar was a short distance ahead. But instead of running after the deer, he was facing her. Only then did she notice the splotches of red in the snow. Zac had hit the cougar, not enough to kill him, but enough to make him mad. And he was intent upon taking out his anger on Daisy.
Daisy turned and headed back, but a glance over her shoulder told her that despite a badly wounded hip, the cougar was gaining on her. She couldn"t see Zac. If he wasn"t going to keep up, he should have given her the rifle.
After climbing to the crest, worrying over Tyler"s kiss, and trailing the deer, Daisy wasn"t sure she had enough energy to make it to the safety of the cabin. She stumbled then scrambled to her feet immediately. She was surprised to see blood on her hands. She had cut them on the ice when she fell.
Ignoring the blood, she struggled on. She considered climbing a tree. Her skirts would be a serious handicap, but maybe the cougar couldn"t climb with a wounded hip. She stumbled again. She tried to get to her feet, but she slipped on the ice and fell flat. She looked over her shoulder, fearful the cat would already be upon her.
A rifle shot rang out. The cat let out a heart-stopping snarl that nearly caused Daisy to faint. A second shot cut the snarl short.
Daisy looked up to see Tyler standing over her, a rifle in his hand. The look on his face was balm to her soul. He was too frightened to be mad, but that wouldn"t last long. She knew now there had been a reason for the kiss on the ridge.
Tyler helped her to her feet. "Are you all right?"
"Yes," she said, brushing some of the snow from her. "I just slipped."
"You cut yourself."
"Not badly. Just some scratches."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
Tyler looked to where the cougar lay still in the snow. "He was close."
"Zac wounded him."
"Where"s the deer?" Zac asked, coming up behind his brother.
"I don"t know," Daisy answered. "Gone, I guess."
"Why did you let it out?" Tyler demanded, his temper flaring out of control.
"You must have left the door unlatched," Daisy said. "It was gone when I came out."
"And you went after it?"
"I had to. It was hurt."
"It wasn"t hurt so much as tired. It"s probably half way to Colorado by now." He turned to Zac. "You should have had better sense than to let her go after it."
"Me!" Zac exclaimed.
"You know more about living wild than she does."
"She"s the one who grew up in this miserable place," Zac pointed out. "I"ve been in Boston, remember. We don"t have stupid deer and rampaging cougars there."
"You still knew better," Tyler said, really angry now. "I ought to wring your neck." Tyler took Daisy by the elbow and started for the cabin. "She could have gotten killed or seriously hurt. I hold you responsible."
Zac gaped at his brother. "You try stopping her from doing any addlebrained thing she takes into her head. I told her not to go. You ought to be thankful I took the rifle from her. She"d probably have shot herself."
Zac protested all the way back, but Tyler refused to speak to him. When they reached the cabin, he ushered Daisy inside. Zac followed close on his footsteps, but Tyler blocked the doorway. "You can stay outside until you get some sense."
With that he closed the door on his brother and bolted it. Zac banged on the door with his fists and shouted curses at both of them, but Tyler ignored him.
"You can"t leave him outside," Daisy said. "It was my fault. He told me not to go."
"He could have stopped you."
"I wouldn"t have listened to him."
"He could have made you stay."
"How?"
"Like this," Tyler said and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Do you think I would have let you go?" he asked in a tight voice.
"No."
Zac had started kicking the door with his boots, but the door showed no sign of breaking. Daisy found the banging very distracting, but Tyler seemed oblivious to it.
"You had no business out there, not even in the yard."
"I had to find the deer."
"That deer is a wild animal. It knows how to live outside. You don"t."
"But he was your deer."
"What difference does that make?"
"I don"t know. It just did."
Tyler stared at her hard for a moment. "You faced the cougar because of me?"
"I didn"t know it was there. I"m not sure I"d have gone if I had," she confessed.
Now Zac was banging on the window. Daisy was sure he"d break the panes any minute.
"You went after that deer because of me?"
"I thought it was important to you," she answered, distracted. She expected to see the floor covered with broken gla.s.s any minute. "You went to all that trouble to take care of it and find it something to eat. I thought you"d be upset if it got away."
Zac left the window and started hitting the door with something like an ax handle or a log. Daisy couldn"t keep her mind on Tyler with all that racket.
Without warning, Tyler pulled her close and kissed her with such fierce intensity Daisy thought her legs would buckle under her. There was nothing tender or loving or gentle about it. It was a hot, fierce kiss born of tightly held pa.s.sion. When Tyler released her, she simply stood there, unable to move, unable to account for what had just happened.
She would probably have remained in a state of shock for some time longer if she hadn"t heard footsteps on the roof. Next thing she knew, the sound of sizzling and popping came from the stove.
"Zac"s putting snow down the stovepipe," Tyler explained.
"Don"t you think you ought to let him in?"
"Not until he starts to tear off the roof. I figure he"ll start in about five minutes. Either that or break the windows."
Daisy had the distinct feeling she was in a dream. None of this made sense, not the deer, the cougar, Tyler"s kiss, or Zac on the roof. It couldn"t be happening. If she wasn"t already as crazy as the Randolphs, she soon would be.
"You"ve got to let him in," Daisy said, starting for the door. "It was all my fault. I can"t let you lock him out or tear up your cabin. You"ll freeze without windows."
"I"ve more gla.s.s and shingles," Tyler said.
Daisy wasn"t capable of dealing with anything more just then. She opened the door. "Zac," she shouted. "Come on in."
About three seconds later Zac and an avalanche of snow landed at her feet. Delivering himself of a string of curses that caused Daisy"s eyes to widen, he stalked inside. Much to her surprise, he didn"t say a word though he was clearly enraged. He stomped over to the table, sat down, picked up his cards, and began to deal. Daisy glanced at Tyler, but he showed no visible reaction to his brother"s silence. He merely put his coat up, sat down, and began cleaning the rifle.
Daisy felt incapable of dealing with the whole situation and retreated to the privacy of her corner.
Tyler had kissed her again. Once could have been a fluke. Twice was no accident.
He had been afraid for her. She saw it in his face. But there was more than anxiety for her safety. It was fear of irreparable loss. Daisy could not believe she could have been the reason for such a look.
It was hard to know what he meant by that kiss. It was so hard and fierce and short. It couldn"t have been much else, not with Zac banging over their heads. But he wouldn"t have kissed her like that if he didn"t like her.