Page 64 of Falling for the Cowgirl
Even though she wanted to give him permission to hang on to her all he wanted, she couldn’t make herself say the words. She already sounded too desperate and needy.
The flames from the small fire flickered even lower, settling the darkness about them. The cave opening was stillshrouded in smoke, which had sifted inside their cavern but thankfully hadn’t permeated enough that they couldn’t breathe.
The lack of light only made her want to curl up against him, just be with him, and make the most of the time they had together before it came to an end.
As if sensing the direction of her thoughts, he took another step away. “We can’t kiss again.” His attention dropped to her lips, and the heat that sparked in his eyes only ignited something inside her.
“Why not?”
“Because I can’t think straight when I’m kissing you.”
“What if I don’t want you thinking straight?”
He closed his eyes for a second. And when he opened them, he stared past her at the fire.
She was half tempted to brush against him, run her hands up his chest, and tease him until he couldn’t resist any longer and bent down to kiss her. But she held herself back. She had to wait for him to give himself—and kisses—of his own accord, not because she coerced him into it.
“Alright.” She released a sigh.
“What?”
“I won’t kiss you until you ask me to.”
He opened his mouth to respond, then stopped abruptly, narrowing his gaze, which was still trained upon the firepit.
He started toward the remains of their fire, and when he reached it, he crouched and used a bone to brush back the embers. Then he smoothed his fingers over the now-empty spot, revealing a groove in the granite.
Was it a crack in the rocks? What did that mean?
She knelt beside him and swept away more of the ashes,uncovering a deep line that ran underneath the center of the firepit.
It wasn’t long—only about a foot—and might not be anything at all. But it was a heap more than they’d discovered yet.
She dug harder, and the rock shifted. She didn’t want to get her hopes up, but was it possible they’d discovered the spot where the gold had been buried?
Chapter
20
The cut in the cave floor was too perfectly rectangular to be anything but manmade. And the position was too calculated to be anything other than a hiding place beneath the firepit. Not many who took refuge in the cave would clear the ashes.
Jericho wouldn’t have noticed it if not for the last glow of the firelight falling on the crack in just the right way.
At first, he’d thought he was seeing a small snake driven into the cave by the forest fire outside. In fact, he was surprised wild creatures hadn’t yet joined them to escape the heat and the flames. But when he’d taken a second look, he’d realized the dark line was too motionless to be an animal.
“It’s gotta be where they hid the treasure.” Ivy dug alongside him eagerly.
“Seems like it.”
Someone had hidden treasure there, no doubt about it. But who? Why? And more importantly, how did Hance knowabout it? The questions nagged him as they had ever since he’d left town. But now the need for answers grew more demanding.
The stone head of the snake pointed toward the center of the cave, right where they were digging. How had he overlooked the clue?
He knew exactly how. Because he’d been too enamored with Ivy, too caught up in admiring her, too occupied with battling his attraction to her. She was a huge distraction. And if he wasn’t more careful, he’d miss something bigger the next time and possibly put her in terrible danger.
He unsheathed his knife from inside his boot and wedged it down into the crack. Using the hard steel blade, he leveraged the stone upward. It didn’t move far, but it was enough that they could get their hands underneath and lift.
As they hauled at it, he wanted to warn Ivy not to get her hopes up. Whoever had buried a treasure here had more than likely come back for it. But seeing the brightness of her eyes and the anticipation on her face, he couldn’t make himself speak words of caution. She’d find out and be disappointed soon enough.
