The Alchemy of Desire (7 page)

Then someone cleared his throat behind them.

Diah broke away, and Oni whirled around to see Cager standing a few feet away with his arms crossed and a very amused expression on his face. “Were you teaching her how to shoot a rifle or how to handle another type of loaded weapon?”

Her gaze fell on the erection that strained against the buttons of Diah’s trousers. What she wouldn’t give to have that inside her right now. Instead, Cager’s interruption had ruined the moment. Homicidal thoughts flittered through her mind. Her grip tightened on the rifle.

Diah ran his hand through his hair. “I was—I mean, we were—”

“It was quite obvious what you were doing, little brother.” His grin grew less playful as he came closer. “Perhaps you should go back, tend to the cooking and leave the shooting lessons to a more skilled marksman.” His gaze focused on her lips.

She’d rather kiss a buffalo than Cager.

The heat of Diah’s temper rolled off him in waves. His hand balled up into a fist and he took a step toward him. “That won’t be necessary.”

Stars above, was there anything they didn’t want to come to blows over? “I think I understand how to shoot a rifle now.” Two sets of blue eyes turned to her and she lifted the rifle to her shoulder. As she exhaled, she squeezed the trigger. The rock on the prairie dog hill flew up into the air.

When Oni looked back, they both wore matching expression of shock. Perhaps there was some sort of family resemblance, after all. She giggled as she returned Diah’s rifle and walked back to the camp. He probably wouldn’t offer her any more shooting lessons in the future, but maybe she could find another reason to get Diah alone.

Chapter Seven

Diah yawned and stretched his aching shoulders as his horse plodded along. Between the hard ground and the memory of his kiss with Oni, he hadn’t slept well the night before. He still wasn’t sure if he should thank Cager or break his nose. If he hadn’t interrupted them, Diah doubted he would have been able to resist her much longer. She already occupied his thoughts too much as it was. He didn’t need desire clouding his mind.

But, dear God, I want her more than any woman I have ever known.

One thing still plagued his mind, though.

He nudged his horse forward and gritted his teeth. The jostling heightened the discomfort in his already sensitive groin. He breathed a sigh of relief when he came alongside her and could slow down. “Oni, if you already knew how to shoot a rifle, why did you allow me to teach you?”
And make a big fool of myself
. Based on her accuracy, she was more than familiar with guns.

“I thought the answer was quite obvious.” She lowered her lashes and cast a seductive glance in his direction.

His cock stiffened. She’d set him up. She wanted to be alone with him. She wanted to be close enough to him to kiss and tease. And he’d played into her plans like a fly in a spider’s web. Only now, he wasn’t so sure he could escape. Or if he wished to. But he still questioned her motives, and that was enough to keep from giving in to her forward advances.

“You know, if we were back East, I’d go about this in a different way. Maybe I’d start by asking if I could walk you home from church. Then, once I got up enough nerve, I’d come to call on you and sit in your front parlor with a chaperone present while we talked. After about a year, I’d ask you to go on a carriage ride with me.”

Her laughter silenced him. “Is that really how you court a woman back East?”

“Yes.”

“No wonder you’re still single. It sounds like it takes ten years of playing parlor games before you get up the nerve to propose.”

Annoyance gnawed at his gut and he started to turn his horse around.

“No, stay, Diah. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh at you. It’s just amusing how different things are over there compared to here.” She rode in silence for half a minute before adding, “I’m not like your delicate Eastern women. You don’t have to play those tedious games with me, although I like the fact you think you should.”

“What’s courtship like among your people?”

Oni lifted her eyes to the scant white clouds overhead. “It depends on who you are. Some marriages are arranged between the ruling families, and the children have little say in their parents’ decisions. But for most of the Lakota, it’s much simpler. A boy sees a girl he likes and speaks with her. If she returns his interest, she usually gives him some small token like a bracelet or a necklace, maybe even an article of clothing. He then asks her father for her hand in marriage. If the man is worthy, the father usually agrees. But we don’t see the need to wait until the marriage ceremony before we lie with someone. There are too many cold winter nights.”

He pictured her lying naked with some Sioux warrior, and jealousy threatened to consume him. He shouldn’t feel things like that. After all, he had no claim on her.

Yet.

It was the
yet
that bothered him. Why was he having thoughts of her being his and his alone?

“Hey, is that smoke ahead?” Cager asked behind them.

Diah squinted against the afternoon sun and saw multiple plumes drifting up into the sky.

“That’s Fort Pierre,” Oni said in a flat voice. “You’ll find saddles there.”

“Thank God! I’m tired of my ass bumping along this old nag’s back.” The horse whinnied almost in protest when Cager kicked her forward.

“And I’m sure she’s tired of your uncoordinated ass trying to break her back,” Oni replied.

As they came closer to the fort, Cager rode ahead but Oni slowed her horse and frowned at the gates.

Diah pulled on the reins so his horse matched her pace. “What’s the matter?”

“I hate these places. You two go on. I’ll wait out here for you.”

Now it was his turn to frown. What was she hiding? Was she worried someone would recognize her from a wanted poster? “What do you hate about it?”

“Let’s just say they aren’t very friendly to people like me.”

“What do you mean?”

She sighed and nudged her horse forward. “Watch and see.”

As soon as they entered the fort, he felt hundreds of eyes on them. It took him a few seconds to realize the people were not staring at him. They were staring at Oni. Mothers shooed their children into the houses as they passed. Men reflexively reached for their guns. He couldn’t understand why they would be so suspicious of an unarmed woman.

“See what I mean,” she hissed.

“Don’t worry. You’re with me, and I won’t let anything happen to you.”

She snorted. “That’s very noble of you, Diah, but I doubt you could take on the entire fort.”

Cager was already negotiating the price for two saddles when they found him in front of the stables. Diah cast a worried glance in her direction. “Are you going to be all right if I join him?”

“The sooner we’re away from here, the better I’ll feel.” She tightened her grip on the reins and stared straight ahead

Diah nodded and dismounted. “I’ll try and keep this quick, then.”

“So how much for two of them?” He overheard Cager asking the man as he approached them.

“Fifty dollars.”

“Fifty dollars? That’s highway robbery. Thirty is more than fair for two used saddles.”

“But these are in almost pristine condition.”

“Except for the bullet hole here.” Cager poked his finger through the small, singed defect in the leather. “You can’t tell me you paid a lot of money for these, considering their previous owners probably weren’t alive to collect any money from you.”

“Reynolds, is that you?”

Diah flinched. Sweet Jesus, what kind of trouble had followed Cager all the way out here? But when he turned, the man was looking at him and not his brother. His face was familiar, especially the neatly trimmed moustache, but the uniform wasn’t the same one his artillery unit had worn. “Major Hinkle?”

“It’s Colonel now, Reynolds.”

A grin split his face as he shook his former officer’s hand. “It’s good to see you again, sir, although it’s a bit of a surprise to see you in that uniform.”

Hinkle rubbed the horse on his wool coat and laughed. “I’m a soldier by trade. After the war, I just exchanged artillery for cavalry. You still tinkering with that black fire stuff?”

“Yeah, still an alchemist.”

“And what brings you out this way?”

Cager cleared his throat and Diah stumbled to make introductions. “Forgive me. Colonel Hinkle, this is my brother, Cager, and our guide, Oni.”

Hinkle reached out and shook Cager’s hand with vigor, but he glared at Oni through narrowed eyes.

“Diah’s following me out west,” Cager replied. “We stopped by here to get some new saddles for our horses.”

“What happened to your old ones?”

Diah inched closer to Oni, wanting to shield her from the suspicion that oozed from Hinkle and other men around him. “They got burned up when the boiler blew on the
Big Sky Belle.
”

Hinkle rubbed his chin. “So that explains why she didn’t come in yesterday. I wondered why she was running late.” He turned to the man in the barn. “You’re going to give my friends here a fair deal, aren’t you, Charley?”

“Yes, sir.” Charley’s mouth formed a tight line. “So does thirty dollars sound fair to you?”

Cager grinned and pulled out a few bills from his wallet. “Fair enough.”

Colonel Hinkle clapped Diah on the shoulder. “Why don’t you and your brother stay at my place tonight? I’d be honored to have you join me at my table to let me know what you’ve been doing all these years. I haven’t seen you since Chickamauga. I was worried those Wielders had killed you.”

“Nah, my brother pulled me out of that mess. We’ll be glad to take you up on that offer for dinner.” But as they walked past Oni’s horse, he remembered her desire to leave here as soon as possible. “What about Oni?”

Hinkle looked at her. “Don’t worry about her. I’ll see that she’s taken care of. I doubt she wants to listen to a bunch of men talk about the war, if she even understands what we’re saying. Most of them Injuns aren’t too bright, you know.”

The scowl on her face made it clear she understood every word he said, but when Diah opened his mouth to correct him, she shook her head. She said something in a language he didn’t understand—he could only guess it was Lakota—and dismounted.

“See? She knows her place. Nothing worse than an uppity Injun. Abrams!” A young soldier ran up to them. “Take Mr. Reynolds’ Injun here and make sure she’s taken care of for the night.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now you see why I hate this place,” she whispered as she passed him.

“Hold on a moment, Colonel Hinkle.” Diah jogged after her. “Oni, why are you letting him talk about you this way?”

“Why are you?”

Shame gnawed at his gut and he cursed under his breath. “Sorry, Oni. Come with me and we’ll show him how wrong he is about you and make him apologize.” He took her hand, but she yanked it out.

“Use your head if you want to stay out of trouble. He’s in charge here and he’s watching everything you’re doing with me. I suppose I can tolerate this treatment for one night, but I want to be gone from here before the sun rises. You got that?”

“But you shouldn’t have to tolerate it.”

She gave him a weak smile. “That’s what makes you different from him and most other white men. You’re the only person I would do this for. I don’t want you crossing him and getting hurt, Diah. I’ll be fine once I’m away from him. Enjoy your evening and I’ll see you in the morning.” She turned and followed Abrams to a small wooden building along the fort walls.

“You seem pretty worried about your little Injun, Reynolds.” Hinkle winked at him when he returned. “She must be something in the sack to have you acting that way.”

Diah’s anger seethed under the surface of his skin. He was now beginning to understand what Oni meant when she said most men treated her like cattle. “Please don’t talk about her that way. It’s disrespectful.”

Hinkle laughed. “You talk about her like she has feelings worth bothering over.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell him.” Cager fell into step with them. “But you know Diah—always trying to be a gentleman, even to a fault.”

“Yeah, he was always a good kid.”

“Sometimes too good.”

Diah frowned as Hinkle and Cager began swapping stories. He cast a quick glance over his shoulder at the small building where Oni was. He hoped she’d be safe tonight.

Diah studied the cards in his hand and listened as the other men laughed at a raunchy joke. Two other officers had joined them for dinner, and now they were sitting around the table, sipping whiskey and playing poker. After this hand, he’d be ready to call it a night and go to bed.

“Where are you going from here?” Hinkle lit his pipe and puffed a series of sweet-smelling clouds of smoke from its opening.

“We’re going to hunt for buffalo. I always said I wanted to kill one before my thirtieth birthday.” The same rehearsed story Cager had given before.

“So that’s why you have your little Injun guide, huh? Most of the good hunting is in Sioux country, and I bet she knows exactly where all those places are. Or if she doesn’t, I bet she could find out.”

“If she doesn’t stab you in the back while you’re sleeping,” added one of the younger officers, Kline. “Those Sioux are a bloodthirsty bunch.”

Diah lowered his cards and bunched his brows together. “Why do you say that?”

Hinkle pulled the pipe from his mouth. “Maybe you don’t hear about it much back East, but they’ve been giving us a fair amount of trouble lately. We’re trying to force the Sioux on the reservation. Some of them aren’t too keen on that idea. A few years ago, one of their chiefs named Red Cloud decided to give us a bit of trouble and ordered the slaughter of over a hundred of our men. You need eyes in the back of your head when dealing with them.”

“Earlier today I thought you said they weren’t too bright.”

Hinkle frowned. “Most of them aren’t. But their leaders are a wily bunch, and you never know how far you can trust them. Even their women can give you fits of trouble. That’s why I made sure your guide was placed under supervision tonight.”

“Oni’s harmless,” Cager said as he shuffled his cards.

“If you say so, but I’m not taking any chances in my fort.”

Diah ran his finger along his collar. His throat tightened like he was being choked. He looked at his empty glass and wondered if was due to too much whiskey.

Cager threw his cards down. “I’m out of this hand. Good a time as any to take a piss.”

As soon as he left the room, Hinkle refilled Diah’s glass. “Buffalo hunting, huh? Seems like an odd time of the year to be doing that. You wouldn’t be after the White Buffalo, would you?”

Diah’s hand stopped inches from his glass. “What makes you think that?”

“If you stay here long enough, you hear the legends. So, your little guide says she knows where to find it?”

Diah saw a shadow move out of the corner of his eye. Now he wished he hadn’t left his rifle by the door.

Hinkle’s voice lowered. “You don’t mind if I steal her from you?”

“What the fuck?” Cager said in the next room. The sounds of scuffling followed.

Diah stood to go to his brother’s aid, but something hard cracked against the back of his head, and everything went black.