Susan Fox - To Tame a Bride

“I’ll get as much gear and luggage as I can. When I throw it out, drag it to the clearing.”

Madison glanced toward the meadow, then back at the plane. The smell of fuel was still strong. “W-will it blow up?”

Linc ignored her question and started toward the wreck. She seized his arm and held him back, terrified of an explosion.

“We need what’s in the plane, if we can get it.”

Madison let go of his arm. Of course they needed what was in the plane. The clothing she’d brought, her makeup and toiletries, were necessities. But not if the plane was about to explode.

She was terrified again, this time for Linc. If the plane blew up, he’d be killed or seriously injured, and they were too far from help. All she’d seen from the air had been miles of trees and mountains. Anxious for Linc’s safety, Madison followed, but hovered a safe distance from the wreck.

The first things Linc tossed her way must have been his. A packaged blanket, a rope, a bundled piece of plastic, and his duffel bag. Finally, he got to her luggage and hefted out her small suitcase to send it tumbling toward her. She winced when it hit the ground sharply. Panicked, she grabbed it and gave it a careful shake. The sound of small bottles clacking against one another made her hurry through the brush to the clearing to check the fragile contents.

The catch had jammed and she crouched down beside Linc’s things to set her case on the ground and force it open. She was so absorbed in the task and so worried that the contents had been damaged, that she forgot to go back to the plane to help with the rest of her luggage.

“Thanks much, Princess.”

The sound of the suitcase and garment bag hitting the ground next to her made her jump. Madison frowned at the luggage he’d dropped, then jerked her head up to glare at him. He’d located his Stetson and it cast an appealing shadow over his handsome face.

“How dare you throw my belongings around?”

One corner of his handsome mouth quirked. “Didn’t exactly throw them. Unless you’d like me to demonstrate what that would look like, so you can tell the difference.”

Something about the way his dark eyes shifted to her large suitcase made her reach toward it protectively.

But Line stepped over it to get to his duffel bag. Madison watched him mistrustfully until he unzipped the bag before she went back to the stubborn catch on her small case.

“Go through your things and pick out a few essentials,” he told her as he sorted through his bag, discarding one thing after another.

Madison ignored the order. He might have packed things he didn’t consider essential, but she hadn’t. She needed everything she’d brought.

Especially the contents of the small case. The catch remained stubbornly closed. She reached for her handbag to find something she could use to pry it open. The Cadillac key on her key ring was sturdier than her metal fingernail file, so she used it. But the key was too thick for the thin crack of the case.

“Get busy with that luggage.”

Linc’s terse words brought her head up. He was hunkered down, balancing himself on the balls of his booted feet with a forearm resting on a bowed thigh. He’d finished going through his duffel bag and was watching her expectantly. She could see he’d packed the roll of plastic and the rope. The blanket must have been packed in the deeper part of the bag. A pile of clothing sat on the ground next to him.

“I am busy with my luggage,” she shot back irritably. “And you did throw this case. You damaged the catch.”

“Hand it here and start on the rest of your things.”

Maddie looked over at him a moment, reluctant. Did she really trust him with it? What if he managed to open the latch and saw the contents—looked through the contents? Her makeup and toiletries—her feminine hygiene products—were things she considered too personal for male eyes. Certainly too personal for Lincoln Coryell’s eyes.

Eyes that were so brown they were almost black, she noticed, and so intense that they seemed to miss nothing. She suddenly had the feeling that they were probing deep into her brain, as if he could read her next thought before she knew it herself.

No one had ever looked at her like that; she’d never have allowed it. She wouldn’t have allowed Linc to do so now except she couldn’t seem to look away. She couldn’t seem to keep from noticing how attractive his dark eyes were, and how frightening and wonderful it was to feel the odd power of them stroking so deep, so—

The small case slid from her fingers, startling her. She grabbed for it reflexively, but wasn’t quick enough to snatch it. A tug of war would have been undignified, so she pulled back and clenched her fists.

“Sort through that luggage.” The order was low, but this time, it carried a burr of steel that chafed her pride. “Pick the essentials.”

Her firm, “Everything I packed is essential,” brought his dark gaze homing in on hers like an arrow on a target.

“Humor me, Princess. I’m having a bad day.”

The harsh set of his mouth was surprisingly intimidating. And effective. Madison hesitated a moment before reaching for the suitcase. When she did, those dark eyes fell away to focus on the small case.

Madison opened the large suitcase, gave everything a token perusal, then snapped it shut. She went through the garment bag just as swiftly.

“Valium?”

The gruff question got her attention and Madison glanced Linc’s way. He’d got the small case open and she automatically reached for it before the grim look on his face registered. He was holding a prescription bottle between two callused fingers.

“You addicted to these things?” His obvious disapproval made her give a quick, “Of course not.” He ignored her outstretched hand.

“How often do you take them?”

She leaned forward to claim the bottle from him, but he closed his hand and held it just out of reach.

“How often?” The no-nonsense look he was giving her warned he meant business.

Madison’s temper shot high and hot. “None of your business. Give them to me.”

Instead, he glanced down at the bottle to read the label. “Looks like a big dose for a beginner.”

She felt her face flush. “Are you suggesting I’m an addict?”

He leveled a hard look on her and studied her face a moment. “What’s a woman like you got to be nervous about?”

The low question hit her like a slap. Line Coryell had not only gone over the line, he’d managed to strike deep into painful places. The emotion that surged up caught her by surprise and her eyes were suddenly stinging.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she shot back, dismayed that her voice was choked. And that made her angry. “Give me the bottle.”

Linc slipped it into his shirt pocket and buttoned the pocket flap. The action sent her temper skyrocketing.

“How dare you?” Her voice shook with outrage.

“You keep asking that, Miz Maddie,” he said calmly, his gaze unwavering. “I dare a lot, and I’ll dare a damn sight more in the next few days. But I’d rather walk out of here with a neurotic sissy on my hands than a neurotic stoned sissy.” He nodded in the direction of her luggage. “Now let’s get that out of the way.”

The quick shift of subject and his smooth move to reach for the large suitcase caught her off guard.

He had it open in a moment and began to sort through everything. The sight of his big hands rifling carelessly through her personal belongings offended her.

“I need everything there,” she repeated, then reached over to close the lid of the suitcase. Before she could, Line seized her wrist. Her gaze flew to his.

“Look around, Maddie.”

The solemn order sent a spear of terror through her that made her forget her luggage. The utter grimness on Linc’s face was unmistakable. A picture of dense green forest and high mountains flashed in her mind. But the endless forest she’d glimpsed from the sky would look even more awesome and terrible from the ground. The weird sensation she had—that the wilderness was closing in around them—sent her terror bounding higher. In spite of Linc’s order, she couldn’t look around, couldn’t make herself.

CHAPTER THREE

LINC SAW THE TERROR in her eyes. He could also see that she was in shock. Madison St. John might be vain and obsessed with her looks, but she wasn’t stupid. She had at least enough common sense to know they couldn’t carry everything out of the mountains with them. Her fixation on her luggage was a denial of what lay ahead for them both: a long and probably dangerous hike through the wilderness. And certainly the worst hardship imaginable for a pampered little aristocrat like her.

He felt the weight of the valium bottle in his pocket. If she couldn’t cope with life’s little jiggles without sedation, she’d never get through this. Instinct warned him not to coddle her. If he did, she’d go to pieces. If he could tap into her legendary temper and distract her, they’d both be better off.

He released her. He ignored the way she rubbed the wrist he’d touched, almost as if she was trying to soothe away pain. There shouldn’t have been any pain for her to soothe.

He hesitated a moment more to study her pale face. She wasn’t looking at him now; she was staring to the left of the suitcase into the grass. Her slim, perfectly manicured fingers still circled her wrist, but the soothing motion she made was an absent one. Clearly, her mind was on other things—and from the stark look of vulnerability about her—she was about to fall apart.

Linc glanced into the suitcase. He spied a small, neatly folded stack of frilly panties and grabbed them. They were the first things he sent sailing into the grass, making sure they landed in the exact spot her eyes were focused on. A flimsy scrap of bra followed before he got down to business with the contents of her suitcase and silently counted the seconds.

Two...three...

“How dare you?”

She’d used that low cat growl again. He pretended to ignore her as he lifted out a sky-blue satin robe and stripped the tie belt from its loops. He discarded the robe beside the suitcase, but tossed the belt toward the duffel bag. He added two rolls of thick white socks to the satin belt, and a stack of packaged panty hose. Next, a fold of netting got his attention and he pulled it out. It was a bag, probably for dirty clothes, and it was a good size. He gripped the netting in his hands and gave it a stout yank to test its strength before he tossed it to the pile on top of the duffel bag.

Madison looked on, appalled at his rough treatment of her belongings. It was clear that he only meant to select a few odds and ends from her suitcase before he forced her to leave everything else behind. She clutched the wad of panties and bra to herself. My God she couldn’t go anywhere without clean underwear! The fact that he’d thrown her most intimate apparel into the grass with bugs and chiggers infuriated her.

Wary of him because he was so rough with her things, Madison cautiously reached for the satin robe and bundled her underwear in it. She retrieved the net bag from the top of his duffel and stuffed the rolled robe into it.

Linc got out her shoebag next and rummaged through it, selecting the athletic shoes she’d had packed. He tossed them in her direction and they fell to the ground at her feet.

“Put those on and take the laces out of the boots you’re wearing.”

Madison stared down at the shoes, then at the lightweight boots. “These are hiking boots,” she said, struggling to keep her voice steady while she defied the order. She’d accidentally glimpsed the dense wall of trees on the other side of the high meadow. The sensation of wilderness creeping closer was strong again. Arguing with Linc was the only thing she could think of to distract herself from mindless terror.