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fervently and full and hard and deep.
    Who was this girl?
    His hold released, and she dropped back to earth, staggered as he stepped away. Breathing heavily, he stood there staring at her like she was a puzzle he couldn’t possibly piece together.
    “To think I believed there was nothing else you could do to surprise me,” he said on a husky rasp. “I’m beginning to wonder if there’s anything about you that isn’t a surprise.” Spinning on a moccasined heel, he whistled for the stallion. “We’d best go now.”
    What? He was still going to take her to Abilene?
    Tabitha watched through a cloudy red haze as the Comanche led his Appaloosa to the spring. Gradually, her breath and pulse returned to normal. She shook her head. It was impossible to accept what had just happened.
    I don’t do things like that. I don’t even consider them!
    Maybe it was some kind of momentary hallucination?
    “I must have hit my skull in the scuffle and imagined the whole thing,” she told herself. “I mean, I know I’ve been up to some foolish business lately, pretending to be Lady Gabrina and all. But there was a good reason for that.”
    What possible motive could she have had for…for kissing him?
    At the memory of his lips on hers, her recalcitrant body flooded her with so many reasons, she couldn’t suppress a groan.
    The reason for the groan glanced over his shoulder at her. “You’d best come drink. ’Tis a dry ride back.”
    Still dazed, Tabitha walked to the spring. “It never happened. I never did that. I imagined it,” she repeated inaudibly, over and over, while drinking and splashing cold water on her face and arms.
    That’s right. You imagined it , a voice spoke in her mind. And you’ll go on imagining it. If you live to be a hundred, you’ll never forget it.
    “Oh, shut up,” she said.
    The Comanche glanced at her, the ghost of a grin haunting his lips. “Who are you arguing with?”
    “Myself,” she answered through clenched teeth. “I do it a lot.”
    His eyebrows rose. “Interesting. You must always win, then.”
    “No, hardly ever.” She sighed. “Can we go now, please?”
    The moment they were remounted, he swung the stallion’s head in the direction they had previously galloped from.
    “Wait a minute!” Tabitha squirmed around to glare at him.
    “Do you know your eyes flash like emeralds in the moonlight?”
    “Don’t change the subject. This isn’t the way to Abilene!”
    The arm about her waist tightened. “I realize that.”
    “But you promised!” She struggled against his hold.
    “So did you. Sit still or you’ll startle the horse,” he ordered, as she tried to throw herself free.
    “This isn’t fair.” She pulled as far away from him as was possible in the short space on the stallion’s back.
    He yanked her back against himself, sending a hot flush spiraling through her. “Isn’t it? I kept my end of the bargain.”
    “You did not . You said you’d take me to Abilene!”
    “I said I’d help you away from the castle. And that, I did,” he corrected. “I never promised I’d not return you.”
    Tabitha strained around to glare at him again, but all she could see was his firm mouth scant inches from her own. She hastily faced front again.
    “You never had any intention of taking me to Abilene Station,” she ground out. “Why did you go to all this trouble to bring me out here, anyway? Simply to…to molest me?”
    A maddening low laugh rumbled against her spine. “’Twas only a kiss, dear. Don’t tell me you’ve never been kissed before.”
    She clamped her mouth shut, but her sudden trembling gave her away.
    “I never would’ve guessed it,” he said more to himself than her. “One more surprise.”
    “Let me off this horse,” she said darkly.
    The arm about her hardened into hot steel.
    “Let me off this instant . Or…or I’ll spur him into that ravine ahead and kill all three of us!”
    “You can try. But he can jump that ravine.”
    As her