flat.
Bram stopped in the midst of the trees where a tiny spring seeped out and ran into a shallow depression in the rock where it trickled over the edges. It wasn't big enough to be called a pool, but it was water and she gazed at it with avid interest. She hadn't had a decent wash since their second day on the trail.
"Bet I can read your mind," Bram said, dismounting and letting his horse have a drink, tugging him away and tying him to a tree before the gelding bloated himself.
Once Susie-Q had her turn at the water and was tethered, Vala said, "We don't get in that pool together."
"You don't get your back washed by yourself," he said, grinning at her.
"My back is the least of my worries. What if someone else is in the vicinity and shows up? One of us needs to stand guard."
"Not everyone knows about Spanish Horse Spring. A chance traveler isn't likely."
"Maybe not, but it's still no."
"That sounds regrettably final. Too bad. Ladies first, then."
"You can't look," she told him before starting to undress.
"Why not?"
Maybe it was unreasonable of her, considering what had happened between them during the night, but she couldn't bring herself to take her clothes off in front of Bram.
"I'm not used to--I mean, I'd be, well, embarrassed," she stammered.
He raised his eyebrows, sighed and turned his back to her. To make sure of as much privacy as she could in case he peeked, she also turned her back to him as she undressed. Naked, she splashed into the shallow pool.
"I forgot to give you Pauline's soap." Bram's voice sounded so close behind her that she whirled.
Soap in hand, he was just stepping into the pool--as naked as she.
Chapter 8
"You may not need someone to wash your back, but I sure do," Bram said, handing her the soap as he turned his back to her.
With him standing in the small, shallow pool next to her, no room was left. "I thought you promised you wouldn't come in until I was done," Vala scolded.
"I didn't promise, you made that assumption," he countered. "My rule is, no promises, no grief. You told me your objections and I appeared to agree, that's all." Deciding she'd been out manoeuvred, Vala muttered, "Never tangle with a lawyer."
Making the best of it, which wasn't all that difficult to do, she crouched and splashed water up along Bram's back. "Cold," he complained.
"You're here on sufferance. Don't disturb the back-scrubber with trivia," she warned as she soaped his back. Running her hands over his smooth skin and feeling the powerful muscles bunched underneath, she found, was really disturbing. She'd never realized touching a man could be so erotic. Hurriedly handing the soap back to him, she said, "I'm through. It's all over."
"That's what you think," he said as he turned and splashed water on her, then started soaping her breasts. "That's not my back," she complained.
"Lady, I wash whatever part's presented," he told her. "Nice parts, by the way."
"You're a wicked man," she said, concealing her amusement as she twisted away from him.
She slipped, grabbed at him and they both fell into the shallow water. Warmed by the high-altitude sun, the water was cool but tolerable once they got used to it.
"Not the biggest bathtub in the world," Bram said. "Nor the warmest water. Wait'll I get you in my Jacuzzi."
Vala, taken aback--when did he expect to do that?
She started to get up. Bram caught her arm and pulled her down again, this time on top of him. Holding her firmly against him, he kissed her.
All her concern about the possibility of somebody coming and finding them in the pool fled as she melted into the kiss.
Bram had her just where he wanted her--in his arms and naked. Her skin was so very white where the sun didn't reach, white and soft and arousing to caress. Pauline's soap had a faint herbal aroma which mingled pleasantly with Vala's own scent. He wanted her as acutely as he had the night before, with the added edge of having learned how passionate she could be.
He'd had vague dreams when he was young of finding out what she was like under that aloof manner of hers. What he'd finally discovered all these years later was beyond his wildest imaginings.
She was not going to be easy to forget.
Once they were locked together, the world vanished, except for Vala. Rockets didn't begin to describe the way she made him feel. He couldn't get