Wild Is the Night by Colleen Quinn Page A

her breast, his thumb brushing the erect nipple, making her squirm against him. Amanda nodded, then her eyes closed as he bared a breast and began to knead it with his fingers.
    Hot excitement surged through her, excitment so intense that she didn’t bother to hide it even if she could have. He fumbled with the buttons of her dress and she helped him, wanting more of the feelings he was artfully arousing in her. Hot blood surged to meet him as he stripped the dress and underclothes to her waist, then cupped both breasts in his rough hands.
    The sandpaper quality of his fingers aroused her, as did the mind-numbing kiss he gave her at the same time. Amanda sighed, reaching for him, letting her hands explore him the same way he explored her. She touched him innocently inside his shirt, gasping at the firm hard muscles beneath, then her hand slid lower, to where his chest hair traced down. She had scarcely reached his belly when he grabbed her hand roughly, his grip almost painful.
    “We’ve got to stop this,” he panted, though his eyes burned a hot blue, like the flame of a candle. “If we don’t stop now I won’t be able to.”
    Amanda wanted to object, but he forced himself away from her and retrieved a flask from the saddlebag. He took a long drink, then he glanced back toward her. When he saw her standing beneath the cotton woods, her dress around her waist, her body exposed to his gaze, he shuddered in suppressed desire and annoyance at himself.
    “Get dressed,” he said harshly, then gentled his voice. “I’ll heat some cloths for your legs. It will help the pain.”
    Mortified, Amanda slid the dress and chemise back over her arms and buttoned it with shaking hands. He didn’t want her. The first time between them had been so horrible that he didn’t want to go any further. She sank down to the grass, unaware that night had stolen over the land, or that Luke was building up the fire. Pain overwhelmed her, emotional pain, and when he approached her with his shirt soaked in hot water, she nearly threw it at him.
    “I can take care of myself,” she reminded him. “As Homer says—”
    “Amanda.” Luke cut her off, still fighting the desire that surged through him. “Put this on your legs. We have to ride tomorrow, and you won’t get very far in the condition you’re in.” And I won’t get anywhere in the condition I’m in, he amended to himself.
    She snatched at the shirt, turning so he couldn’t see her tear-streaked face, revealing to him what the darkness would have hidden. Night sounds, katydids, and the rustling of nocturnal animals mingled with the crackling from the fire. Amanda put the cloth on her legs, feeling the warmth soak through to her battered skin, then she curled up in the grass, her stomach lurching, her throat tight.
    What in God’s name was happening to her? Amanda didn’t understand any of this. She didn’t know why her body wanted him, nor why her emotions made her feel wretched inside. For the first time since they’d set out, she regretted her decision to have him accompany her. She’d made a bargain with a man she hardly knew, set off with him on a journey where there was no one to advise or protect her. She was at his mercy, yet that wasn’t what frightened her.
    It was herself. Amanda Edison had always been in control. Her brilliant mind had done that for her; made her able to take any situation in hand and triumph. And now this man barely had to kiss her and she was like any other simpering schoolgirl, as weak in the knees as in the mind.
    She should be glad he’d stopped. It was the agreement they’d made, yet as she watched him drink his whiskey, she wanted to hurt him the way she was hurting. Luke Parker was definitely a distraction.
    And one she couldn’t wait to do without.
    Luke waited until he was sure she was asleep, then he softly covered her and returned to his bedroll. That same refuge eluded him, however, and when he was tired of trying, he sat up and