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He looked back down at Anna. “I never should have done that.”
Her mouth snapped shut, and the light in her eyes faded.
“You should have stopped me,” he muttered. He gave her a little shake. He should have stopped himself. “It can’t ever happen again.”
She ducked her head, and the ridiculous flowers of her hat filled his vision. “It was just a kiss.” Her voice shook.
It had been so much more than “just a kiss.” He’d felt her hesitation when he’d deepened the kiss. Not in the way she pressed against him, or wrapped her arms around his neck, but as if she hadn’t been quite sure what she was supposed to do. But she’d figured it out damn quick.
Oh, God, she had felt perfect, her response eager in a way that only fueled his passion even more.
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and squeezed. A brotherly hold. “You didn’t do anything wrong. It was just a kiss.” Just a dance, just a kiss, they couldn’t continue or it would be something that couldn’t be mistaken as less than it was.
She pushed away and stared at him. “Why did you do it then?”
What kind of woman needed an explanation of why a man kissed her?
An innocent.
Which only made him feel a thousand times more guilty. If Rafe had been well enough to marry her, Daniel never would have had a chance with her. “I lost my head.”
She gave him such a skeptical look, he had a hard time not laughing, but it was not a laughing matter. “And I’m not taking you to town if all you’re going to do is run straight to the sheriff and tell him what I told you. We don’t know anything yet.”
She blinked, then seemed to find herself. “I could walk.”
“You could.”
He glanced past her toward the horse on the other side of the water, wondering if one of the tethers on the horses he’d staked had broken or the horse had pulled the stake from the ground.
He really looked at the horse, then swallowed hard. It wasn’t either of the horses they’d rode here, but one of the ones he’d set loose in the foothills of the Sierras the other night.
His spine stiffened.
Anna swung around following his line of sight. “Oh, my.”
How in the hell was he going to explain this one? His steps jerky, he walked toward the river, trying to get his mind off Anna and that explosive kiss and sorting through the dozens of lies he’d told her in the past couple of days.
“Looks like one of our horses is trying to come home. Must be the one that Rafe thought they lost.”
“No, it couldn’t be. This is the one that the robber with the rope was riding. I recognize the white spot on its nose.”
Daniel winced, wishing her memory wasn’t so good. It was indeed his mount of the other day. He stepped to the edge of the water. He clicked to the horse. “Come on, old boy.”
The horse splashed into the water and crossed to them. “You’re certain it’s the same horse?” he asked, although he knew the answer.
His horse nudged him, and he stroked the white blaze.
“Do you think the robbers only borrowed your horses so that their own wouldn’t be recognized?”
“Possibly.” He pushed his face into the horse’s neck as if he were overjoyed to have the horse back, but really to hide his mirth. He had to stop laughing at the wrong time. The day couldn’t get any worse.
“We have to go to town now,” Anna said.
He bit back his amusement. “No, we don’t.”
She put her hand on his back, and a shaft of desire stabbed him low and hard.
“We have to tell the sheriff that your horse came back and that...that...”
He twisted to look at her and why she was having difficulty speaking.
She swallowed hard. “That the robbers were your cousins.”
“No.” How in the hell did she reach that conclusion, other than he’d put it in her head?
“They must have set the horses free after they stopped the stage. And you said it yourself, the ranch is not easily located.” She rubbed his back, and her touch was agony although he knew she meant it as comfort. “And the robbers looked a lot like you and your brother.”
Tension zinged through him. The irony was too great for him. “Great, I’m going to get my cousins hanged.”
* * *
Anna hated to be the one to confirm what must be Daniel’s worst fear. She stood behind him and rubbed along his ribs trying to offer comfort. Of its own volition her hand stroked longer, reaching his waist. His muscles were taut. The heat of his skin reached through his shirt. Her bones seemed to melt as she remembered being pressed against him.
“Anna,” he said in a low voice that sent a shudder racing down her spine.
How would she ever hear him say her name again and not think of that amazing kiss?
“If you don’t stop touching me like that, I’m going to do a whole lot more than kiss you.”
She froze. Could he feel the prurient interest in her touch? She jerked her hand back. “I’m sorry.”
“Just go over to the blanket and give me a minute to think.” He sounded strangled as he spoke.
“What is there to think about? You and Rafael must have believed your cousins were responsible from the beginning. We have to tell the sheriff.” She wished he would turn around, but he buried his face in the horse’s neck.
His shoulders shook.
Was he crying? Dismay swept through her like a raging current leaving her cold, drenched and heavy.
“Daniel,” she said softly, stepping toward him. She hesitated to touch him after his warning. In the end the compulsion was too much to resist. She put her hand on his shoulder. “It is not your fault if your cousins did something heinous.”
The shaking stopped.
She tried to give him consoling pats, but the warmth of his skin through his shirt had her stroking his shoulders, first with one hand, then with both.
“Do you ever do as you’re told?” He spun around, caught her wrists, pulled her arms apart and looked down at her. His eyes were completely clear, his lashes dry.
If he had not been crying, why had his shoulders been shaking?
“I was only trying to console you. I know it must be difficult to think your own flesh and blood behaved so dastardly.”
“You have no idea.” His mouth twitched as if he was trying to hold back a grin. “And neither do I.”
The light in his eyes danced, and he folded his lips inward.
“Were you...laughing at me?”
“You are so serious. Come on, Anna. All we know is that one of the horses managed to find its way back home. Not an uncommon thing with animals. I know of one man who lost his dog after coming to California and six months later he got a letter from his folks back in Missouri saying his dog had shown up at their door.”
“But the robbers looked—”
“Like every other man of Spanish decent. Dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin.”
“You’re not so dark skinned,” she said weakly. She’d thought there was something similar about them, but was it just their Spanish blood that made her think that?
“The sheriff already believes the bandits were Mexicans. Did you see their faces well enough to identify them? Did anyone? How long a look at them did you get?”
“It seemed like forever,” she whispered.
His eyes flickered, and then the light in them faded as if his amusement had disappeared. “But it was likely only a few seconds, and they were masked.”
Her belly knotted as her fingers curled into fists. She sputtered, “But—but you said—”
“There’s no proof yet. Let Rafael learn what he can before you go off half-cocked. If he has to, he’ll go down to Mexico to visit our cousins and learn if they were away.”
Her face hot, she twisted her wrists out of his grasp. She felt unbalanced. A moment ago she had felt so connected to this man; now she was uncertain of him. “I don’t understand you.”
“Don’t you? I would rather not know if the robbers were people we knew. I would not go searching for the truth, but Rafe is different from me.” He tilted his head. “He thinks he must find the men responsible, especially if there is a connection to us. Apparently you two are well suited in that regard.”
So was he saying she and Rafael were better matched? Or just trying to remind her she was engaged to his brother? A fact she shouldn’t have forgotten. Somehow that made the kiss they’d just shared feel tawdry and cheap.
And it didn’t seem as if Daniel was suggesting she should end her engagement with Rafael and marry him instead. She wouldn’t make the mistake Selina made in thinking when a man kissed you or more he was intent on offering marriage.
She didn’t want to marry a penniless younger brother anyway. Except the idea that the kiss meant nothing to him burned holes in her resolution. She needed to remember she was to marry Rafael—whenever he’d finished this business with uncovering the robbers’ identities.
