A Heart So Wild by Johanna Lindsey

Author:Johanna Lindsey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-06-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

ALL the next day, Courtney was in love. Nothing bothered her, not the heat and insects, not the monotonous riding. Nothing penetrated her bliss.

Two days later, she wasn’t sure. And three days later she had changed her mind. She couldn’t possibly love an exasperating man like Chandos. She could still want him—and despise herself for it—but she couldn’t love him.

What had Courtney fuming was that he returned to his enigmatic self. He had made her his, transported her to the heights of ecstasy, and then treated her with the same old indifference! She was stupefied.

There was no escaping the truth. She had been used. Everything Chandos had said to her that night was a lie, everything. He had satisfied his lust, and now he had no more need of her.

The evening of the seventh day on the trail, they crossed another river, as Chandos had predicted they would. Since Courtney was already wet, she decided to bathe after supper, without telling Chandos. She took particular pleasure in this bath because she was spiting Chandos by disobeying his orders.

But when she started to leave the water, her underclothes plastered wetly to her body, her hair dripping, she sensed rather than saw that she wasn’t alone. After a heart-stopping minute, she saw him. It was Chandos. She wasn’t exactly relieved, however. He was hunkered down in the shadow of a tree and had been watching her, for how long she couldn’t guess.

He rose, stepping out of the shadows toward her.

“Come here, cateyes.”

He hadn’t called her that in three days, nor spoken in that husky voice, either. He had gone back to calling her “lady”—when he spoke to her at all.

Courtney’s nostrils flared and her eyes sparked.

“Damn you!” she shouted. “You’re not using me again!”

He took another step toward her, and she moved back into the water. She might have gone farther, but he stopped. She glared at him, every line of her body defying him. Then he swore in that other language he often used, and turned and went back toward camp.

She had done it. She’d stood her ground with daring and courage, and she was proud of herself.

Courtney decided not to leave the water just yet, even though she began to shiver. It wasn’t that she was afraid to face Chandos, exactly. She just wanted to give him time to cool his anger. And when she heard a gunshot coming from the direction of their campsite, she didn’t budge. She wasn’t stupid. If he was using such a ploy to make her come running to see what had happened, then he hadn’t cooled off.

Another ten minutes passed before Courtney began to worry. Maybe she’d been wrong. He might have killed a wild animal. Or someone might have shot Chandos. He might be dead!

Courtney rushed out of the water, but she didn’t go running up the slope as she was. She changed her wet underclothes for dry ones, and put on her skirt of beige and white stripes, along with the white silk blouse she had recently repaired.

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