outer edge of the valley. Seeing as he’d told her while holding her in his arms, she’d taken it way better than he might have expected.
She didn’t regret having sex with him. The only thing she was beginning to regret was that they probably wouldn’t get a chance to do it again. They’d made love once more during the night and he’d been so careful and considerate of her that she’d almost ended up in tears. She had a terrible suspicion that finding another man in her world who would ever come close to Ben Miller was already a lost cause.
Made love... Silver paused and looked over at an oblivious Ben who was busy dealing with the horses. She wasn’t going to pretend. That’s what it had felt like and even if she never acknowledged that to Ben, it meant something to her. The trouble was that now she wanted to touch him all the time, to feel his skin against hers, hook her foot over the tight muscles of his ass as he drove into her, and . . .
“You ready?” Ben turned to look at her.
“Almost.” She hurried to complete her task. There was barely enough light to see and it was still raining. “I just need to load this up on Bill.”
“I’ll do it.” He strode over, lifted the pack as if it weighed nothing, and took it over to the patient mule. “You can mount up when you’re ready. Ladybug’s all set.”
She walked over to her mare and managed to get up the first time. Ladybug’s body heat enveloped her in warmth as she settled into the saddle and took hold of the reins.
Ben brought Ted over and tied his lead rope to the back of Silver’s saddle. “We’re going to take this real slow. All you have to do is hold on, follow my lead, and by the end of the day, we’ll be out of here and back in Morgan Valley.” He looked up at her, his brown gaze steady. “I promise I’ll keep you safe.”
“Okay, then, cowboy.” She blew him a kiss. “Let’s go.”
He set off, following what remained of the bank of the overflowing creek, constantly scanning the steep slope. Silver wondered how far they would have to go before the horses could scramble upward, and whether she’d be able to hang on. She had to hang on. She reminded herself that falling off was not an option. When she got back to civilization, she’d tell the movie producers about her real live adventure on a trail ride, and they’d have to give her the part.
At least amongst the trees the rain was less heavy, which was a good thing, because the clay soil, which was already completely saturated, was falling off in chunks and sliding down the hillside. Eventually, Ben stopped and looked back at her, the rain dripping off the brim of his Stetson. She couldn’t come up alongside him because the widening of the creek had narrowed the available path considerably.
“We’re going to start up the slope, okay?”
She looked up at the sparse pine forest. “This doesn’t look any easier than the last mile or so.”
“It is, but we’re going to have to take our time.” He hesitated. “If it gets too difficult, just shout out, and we’ll try another way.”
“Don’t baby me.” She held his gaze. “There isn’t another way.” She pointed at the creek. “We can’t get across that because it’s flowing too fast, and there’s a lot of debris in there. We have to go up.”
“We could just follow the creek and hope it hasn’t completely taken out the path at some point,” Ben reminded her.
“Which you said it probably has where the canyon narrows.” Silver gathered her reins. “Let’s just try this, shall we? I’ll do my best to stay on Ladybug’s back and not slither all the way down into the creek.”
He still looked worried, but she also knew his commonsense would prevail.
“Okay, but take your time and be careful.”
“Will do.” She paused. “Will I get a reward if I make it to the top?”
His smile flashed out. “Maybe. I’ll think about that while we’re getting there.”
“Don’t think too hard. We don’t want you losing your concentration.”
He chuckled and turned Calder’s head toward the bank. “Let’s go.”
* * *
It wasn’t easy. The ground was so unstable that taking a direct path was impossible. He had to pick his way through the pine trees, making sure that both Calder and the mule could fit through