Once An Outlaw by Diana Bold

Author:Diana Bold [Bold, Diana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2017-04-07T18:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Bethany reached the cave a full quarter of an hour before Zach. She used the time to strip out of her damp clothes and warm herself by the fire, still fuming from the argument they’d had outside.

How dare he infer she didn’t know her own mind? That what she felt for him was a product of fear and helplessness? Hadn’t she proven she could be resourceful? She’d made it all the way to the coach, dragged her trunk almost all the way back to the cave, and yet he acted as though she was a silly little woman who needed to be rescued from her own stupid feelings.

When Zach trudged into the cave, pulling the heavy trunk, she didn’t even turn to look at him. He thought she’d say please and thank you to a grizzly? Well, she didn’t intend to say please and thank you to him. Never again.

Let him go back to prison. Perhaps then he’d see the folly of his foolish pride!

Her senses thrummed with awareness as she listened to him open the trunk and sort through its contents. She’d never realized how hard it could be to ignore someone.

After a long time, he moved toward her, draping the warm folds of one of her grandmother’s quilts around her shoulders.

“Don’t be angry, darlin’.” He knelt before her, staring at her with unmistakable concern. “I didn’t intend to hurt you. Don’t you know how much you mean to me? I couldn’t bear it if something happened to you because of me.”

She let her pent-up breath escape in a shuddering sigh, unable to hold on to her ire when faced with his sweetness. “I’m terrified you don’t want to be with me, Zach. I fear all this has been a convenience, a way to pass the time until the weather clears.”

He gave a rough laugh and sank back on his heels. “What do you want me to say? I love you?” He shook his head. “I’ve only known you for three days. How can you expect me to promise a future when I don’t even know if I’ll have one?”

Her eyes welled with tears. She huddled deeper within the folds of the blanket, feeling as though she’d never be warm again. “Of course, I don’t expect your love. But I just offered you a way out, a way for you to have a future, and you act as though you’d rather go back to jail than rely upon me to keep your secrets.”

He shoved to his feet with an exasperated sound and strode to the other side of the cave as though he couldn’t put enough distance between them. “Aren’t you listening to me? I would like nothing more than to do what you’ve suggested. I’d love a chance to see you again, to walk down the street with you and not have to look over my shoulder for fear someone was watching. I just don’t want to buy my freedom at the cost of yours!”

She cringed as his shouted words echoed against the walls of the cave.

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