Mountain Moonlight - By Jane Toombs Page 0,46

eyes dazzled by the light, Vala found the darkness in the tent absolute. The same thing must have happened to Bram because he cursed. Then he stepped on her foot. Even though her foot was protected by her sleeping bag, it still hurt and she tried to jerk her foot away.

This must have tipped him off balance because, the next she knew, Bram was sprawled over on her so that she was no longer sitting, instead she was lying half out of her sleeping bag. Without thinking what she was doing, she put her arms around him.

With a groan, he gathered her to him, settling his mouth over hers in a kiss that demanded even as it offered. His hands slid under the sweat-shirt and caressed her bare skin, setting her on fire.

She knew there was a reason she must stop, must stop him, stop them both--but the reason seemed just out of reach. The reality was Bram and the urgent desire sizzling between them, luring her on.

Bram was starting to ease Vala out of her sleeping bag, when enough sanity returned so he remembered Davis. He stopped, letting her go.

He heard Vala release a long sighing breath. She must know why he'd halted the love-making, but he figured she couldn't possibly feel as frustrated as he did. Damn, but he wanted this woman. Not at the risk of Davis waking, though. The poor kid--as if having a night terror wasn't bad enough. He didn't need to be confronted with adult reality besides. As he crawled into his sleeping bag, Bram shook his head. Doing the right thing could be damn uncomfortable.

In the morning, Bram woke to Davis's voice.

"...dream about Mokesh," the kid was saying.

"A bad dream?" Vala asked. Her question wasn't surprising, considering the night terror.

Davis hesitated, finally saying, "Sort of."

Bram eased himself from his sleeping bag until he could sit up. Both Davis and Vala were still snugged up in theirs. "Hi, Bram," Davis said. "I was telling Mom about my dream." He frowned. "I think you were in it somewhere. Anyway, I dreamed I found the treasure and it was gold. Lots and lots of gold nuggets. I picked up some to look at and all of a sudden Mokesh was standing there."

"'No,' he told me, 'that's not what you need.' I looked at the gold nuggets to be sure they were still there and when I looked back at Mokesh he wasn't an old man any more." Davis's breath caught. "He'd turned into this great big really scary rattlesnake."

"He rattled his tail loud, like he was mad. I tried to get away from him and dropped all the nuggets. Mokesh hissed at them and they melted away and were gone."

"I got really scared then. I think that's when you were there, Bram. It's kind of fuzzy. But anyway, the snake disappeared and I don't remember any more."

"I'd say that qualifies as a bad dream," Bram told him. "Finding the treasure was a good part, though."

"If we don't get started," Vala put in, "we won't find anything. Who's getting up first."

Bram slid the rest of the way out of his sleeping bag and stood up, hunching over in the low tent. He opened the flap and assessed the day.

"Cool, some clouds, no rain." he reported.

"It looks like Bram is first up," Vala said.

"Me second," Davis insisted. "Mom, you got to close your eyes while Bram and me get dressed."

It amused Bram that she did close her eyes to humor the boy.

He and Davis were getting breakfast by the time Vala emerged from the tent.

Later, as they dragged the saddles from the extension and pulled down the tent, Davis said, "I bet it really will be gold. My dream was an omen."

"Your dream was not an omen." Vala's voice was unusually sharp. "Dreams reflect what's going on inside our minds, they don't predict the future."

Davis gave her a sulky look.

"Even if you wanted to think of your dream as an omen," Bram pointed out, "didn't Mokesh himself tell you the gold wasn't the treasure? What about that part?"

Scowling at Bram, Davis said, "You and Mom are spoiling everything."

"Fantasies stop being fun, when people begin to believe them," Vala warned.

Bram winced inwardly. He was beginning to be tempted to believe in his own fantasy, which had nothing to do with finding gold. Her warning came as a timely reminder not to lose his head.

By the time they mounted up and left the camp, Davis had lost his sullen expression,