The Loner And The Lady. Eileen Wilks

turned out to be what I really wanted to write. I’ve always had a weakness for dark, brooding heroes, so I loved the time I spent with Seth and Sophie. I hope you will, too.

       One

      Only a fool would be out on a night like this, Seth Brogan thought, scowling as the wind lashed rain in under the brim of his Stetson and sent another rivulet running under the neck of his slicker. Only a fool would come out on the mountain in this weather, looking for a stupid female that didn’t have enough sense to stay home when a storm threatened.

      Seth’s drenched jeans chafed his skin with every step he took along the uneven path. His left thigh ached the way it always did in the cold these days, but so far, at least, it wasn’t seizing up on him. Now if he could just find that bitch—his foot slipped in the mud and he cursed—find her before she started dropping those pups. She had to be nearly due, the way her stomach practically dragged the ground.

      “Rocky!” he hollered, but the wind snatched the dog’s name out of his mouth so quickly he hardly heard it himself.

      Nothing. His frown tightened down another notch. As he followed the murky beam from his flashlight farther up the path a rock shifted underfoot, nearly sending him down.

      So he was a fool. What else was new?

      He rounded the big boulder that he’d named Mama Bear soon after finding this refuge. His light stabbed beneath the overhang he’d been aiming for, where an ugly yellow dog lay on the sheltered dirt, panting cheerfully.

      When lightning seared the sky, he had about one second’s warning. One second to hear something crashing through the scrub to his right, something large and very close, its approach hidden in the maelstrom of wind and renewed darkness after the lightning’s glare. Barely enough time to turn and brace himself.

      “What the hell!”

      Thunder boomed about two feet above his head. He reached out and caught the slim form that ran and fell right into him—caught it by its shoulders as another fork of lightning stabbed the sky. In the stark, actinic brilliance he saw that he held a woman, a young woman, with fear-blank eyes and blood—oh, Lord. Blood, black as sin in the brief dazzle of light, covered the side of her face.

      Thunder followed lightning as fast as the tail follows the dog. The woman jerked under the onslaught of noise and threw herself up against him.

      Seth froze in astonishment so complete that, for one foolish moment, the storm ceased to exist. She’d come right at him, right up into his arms as if she hadn’t seen him. Well, he realized, as his arm moved belatedly to steady the frightened creature plastered against his chest, obviously she hadn’t seen his face as clearly as he’d seen hers. Too seared, and maybe halfway into shock.

      He felt the sigh that shuddered through her as his arm tightened around her. With that exhalation, she went limp.

      He damned near dropped her. She wasn’t all that heavy, but the startling nearness of her, the foreign sensation of touch, dulled his reactions. Clutching her body tighter to him, he searched out the tender spot under her jaw with his other hand. The skin there was sticky with her blood, but he felt the rhythm of her heartbeat, a little too fast but strong enough.

      Thank God.

      He’d never get her into a proper carry, not when he had to keep hold of the flashlight to have any hope of making it back down to the cabin. But once in a while his size came in handy. He bent, tucked his shoulder into her stomach and stood. His knee protested sharply. He looked over his unburdened shoulder. “Dammit, dog,” he yelled over the wind, “come on!”

      Rocky didn’t always come when he called her. She was a stray, after all, and didn’t know him that well, though she’d hung around for a month now. Seth started down the path. He didn’t look back. But his heart gave a relieved thump when he felt a fat, warm body press up against his legs.

      “Good dog,” he said, though she probably couldn’t hear him over the storm. “Good girl.”

      By the time he reached the cabin, his knee ached steadily and his calf muscles burned and twitched. He knew what that meant. Not much longer, he mentally told his leg as he staggered with his limp burden onto the covered porch that ran along the front of the cabin. Hold up a few more minutes, he told the throbbing muscles as he limped into the cabin’s one large room.

      He’d been too low on fuel the past couple days to run the generator, so the only light was a fitful reddish glow from the fireplace in the center of the big, undivided room. It was enough for him to steer his way to the sleeping area on the opposite side of the room, but once there he didn’t dare bend to set her down on the oversize bed. His knee might buckle and he’d fall over on top of her. So he more or less dropped her onto the quilt-covered mattress.

      His calf spasmed. “Ah, hell,” he gasped, sinking to one knee, his bad leg stretched out straight. The muscles of his face clenched almost as tightly as the ones knotting his calf as he rubbed the leg. After a moment the spasm eased.

      He needed to get the leg warm and stay off it. He knew that but couldn’t do it yet. With a grimace he pulled himself onto the bed beside her and laid his fingers on her throat to check the pulse—still rapid, but was it a little weaker?

      He had to get her warm before she went into shock. He threw the bed covers over her, then stood and limped back to the door to shut out the rain.

      Rocky had curled up in her favorite spot, the rag rug in front of the fireplace. “Sorry, old girl,” he said to the dog watching him curiously. “I know you don’t like closed doors any more than I do, but we’ve got to get this place heated up for whoever is bleeding all over my bed.”

      Seth hung the slicker onto its peg and tossed his Stetson on the table by the door. When he did, the strip of cloth he’d used to tie his hair back came out. He muttered under his breath but didn’t bother retying it as he grabbed his first aid kit and two kerosene lanterns.

      He lit the lanterns and set one on the table by the bed, the other on the shelf above it. Extra blankets came from the chest at the foot of the bed. His kit went on the floor beside him. Then there was nothing left to do but tend her, and for the first time since moving to the mountain, Seth regretted his refusal to have a phone line run to the cabin. Not that help could have reached them. The storm would render the road impassable for days, and no helicopter could fly in this weather. But he could have talked to a physician, gotten some backup. It had been a long time since he’d used any part of his training.

      Her lapse into unconsciousness worried him. A subdural hematoma could send a person into coma hours after the original blow to the head, even if they’d been up and lucid afterward. He checked her pulse again. It was still fast, which didn’t indicate hematoma but might presage shock. She was very pale. Even the warm glow of the lanterns hadn’t put any color in her face.

      It was a lovely face. Delicate. He couldn’t help noticing that as he pulled the penlight from his kit. She had a dainty little nose, and lips that were probably pretty when they weren’t all cracked and colorless. He peeled back one of her eyelids, shining his light directly into her eye. The pupil contracted quickly. He let the lid close again.

      Even her coloring was delicate. Her eyebrows arched in perfect, pastel half-moons above her closed eyes. Pale lashes rested, motionless, against her bleached cheeks, and short blond hair clung to her scalp like mud.

      He checked the other eye. Her pupils responded evenly, thank God.

      Blood covered one side of that pretty face. He hesitated briefly—his kit was fairly complete but lacked disposable gloves, since he’d never expected to treat anyone but himself with it. Still, what choice was there? Leaving her untended wasn’t an option.

      He explored the left side of her head carefully and found