It was Mariah's turn to hesitate. "Is that bad?"

"Only if Luke decides he didn't mean what he said about you and me."

"What did he say?"

"That you wanted me," Cash said bluntly. "That you were past the age of consent. That whatever the two of us did was our business."

Mariah flushed, embarrassed that her attraction to Cash had been so obvious from the start.

"I hope Luke meant it," Cash continued. "He and Carla are the only home I'll ever have. But what's done is done. We might as well have the pleasure of it because sure as hell we'll have the pain."

The bleak acceptance in Cash's voice stunned Mariah. Questions crowded her mind, questions she had just enough self-control not to ask. Cash had never said anything to her about their future together beyond how long he would be gone before he came back to the Rocking M and the two of them could go gold hunting again.

I haven't said anything about the future, either, Mariah reminded herself. I haven't even told him that I love him. I keep hoping he'll tell me first. But maybe he feels the same way about speaking first. Maybe he's waiting for me to say something. Maybe…

Cash turned, mounted the smaller horse, picked up the pack animals' lead ropes and started down the trail once more. Mariah followed, her thoughts in a turmoil, questions ricocheting in her mind.

By the time the ranch house was in sight, Mariah had decided not to press Cash for answers. It was too soon. The feelings were too new.

And she was too vulnerable.

It will be all right, Mariah told herself silently. Cash just needs more time. Men aren't as comfortable with their emotions as women are, and Cash has already lost once at love. But he cares for me. I know he does.

It will be all right.

As they rode up to the corral, the back door of the ranch house opened and Nevada came out to meet them. At least Mariah thought the man was Nevada until she noticed the absence of any beard.

"It's about time you got back!" Cash called out. "If I don't see Carolina more often, she won't recognize me at all."

The man took the bridle of Mariah's horse and smiled up at her. "With those eyes, you've got to be Luke's little sister, Mariah. Welcome home."

Mariah grinned at the smiling stranger who was every bit as handsome as his unsmiling younger brother. "Thanks. Now I know what Nevada looks like underneath that beard. You must be Tennessee."

"You sure about that?" Ten asked.

"Dead sure. With those shoulders and that catlike way of walking, you've got to be Nevada's older brother."

Ten laughed. "It's a shame Nevada's not the marrying kind. You'd make a fine sister-in-law."

Cash gave Ten a hard glance. Ten had no way of knowing that Mariah's gentle interest in Nevada was a raw spot with Cash. No matter how many times he told himself that Mariah had no sexual interest in Nevada, Cash kept remembering his bitter experience with Linda. It had never occurred to him that she was sleeping with another man. After all, she had come to him a virgin.

Like Mariah.

"Put your ruff down," Ten drawled to Cash, amused by his response to the idea of Nevada and Mariah together. "Nevada was the one who told me the lady was already taken."

"See that he remembers it."

Ten shook his head. "Still the Granite Man. Hard muscles and a skull to match. You sure you didn't just buy your Ph.D. from some mail-order diploma mill?"

Laughing, Cash dismounted. When Ten offered his hand to help Mariah dismount, Cash reached past the Rocking M's foreman and lifted her out of the saddle. When Cash put her down, his arm stayed around her.

"Not that I don't trust you, ramrod," Cash said dryly to Ten. "It's just that you're handsome as sin and twice as hard."

The left corner of Ten's mouth turned up. "That's Nevada you're thinking of. I'm hard as sin and twice as handsome."

Cash snickered and shook his head. "Lord, what are we going to do if Utah comes home to roost?"

Mariah blinked. "Utah?"

"Another Blackthorn," Cash explained.

"There are a lot of them," Ten added.

"Don't tell me," Mariah said quickly. "Let me guess. Fifty, right? Who got stuck being called New Hampshire?"

The two men laughed simultaneously.

"My parents weren't that ambitious," Ten said. "There are only eight of us to speak of."

"To speak of?" Mariah asked.

"The Blackthorns don't run to marriage, but kids have a way of coming along just the same." Ten smiled slightly, thinking of his own daughter.

"Is Carolina awake?" Cash asked.

"I hope not. She'll be hungry when she wakes up and Diana isn't due back from our Spring Valley house for another hour. She and Carla are measuring for drapes or rugs or some darn thing." Ten shook his head and started gathering up reins and lead ropes. "Life sure was easier when all I had to worry about was a blanket for my bedroll."

"Crocodile tears," Cash snorted. "You wouldn't go back to your old life and you know it. Hell, if a man even looks at Diana more than once, you start honing your belt knife."

"Glad you noticed," Ten said dryly.

"Not that you need to," Cash continued, struck by something he had never put into words. "Diana is a rarity among females – a one-man woman."

"And I'm the lucky man," Ten said with tangible satisfaction as he led the horses off. "You two go on up to the big house and watch Carolina sleep. I'll take care of the horses for you."

When Cash started for the house, Mariah slipped from his grasp. "I've got to clean up before Carla gets back. I don't want to get off on the wrong foot with Luke's wife."

"Carla won't care what you look like. She's too damn happy that Logan finally shook off that infection and both of them can stay on the ranch again instead of in my apartment in Boulder. Besides, I happen to know Carla's dying to meet you."

"You go ahead," Mariah urged. "I'll catch up as soon as I've showered."

He tipped up Mariah's chin, kissed her with a lingering heat that made her toes curl, and reluctantly released her.

"Don't be long," Cash said huskily.

She almost changed her mind about going at all, but the thought of standing around in camp clothes while meeting Carla stiffened Mariah's determination. As her brother's wife and the sister of the man she loved, Carla was too important to risk alienating. Bitter experience with Mariah's stepfamily had taught her how very important first impressions could be.

Putting the unhappy past out of her mind, Mariah hurried toward the old ranch house. She had her blouse half-unbuttoned when she opened the front door, only to encounter Nevada just inside the living room. He was carrying a huge carton.

"Don't stop on my account," he said, appreciation gleaming in his eyes.

Hastily Mariah fumbled with a button, trying to bring her dйcolletage under some control.

"Relax, he said matter-of-factly. "I'm just a pack animal."

"Funny," she muttered, feeling heat stain her cheeks. "To me you look like a man called Nevada Blackthorn."

"Optical illusion. Hold the door open and I'll prove it by disappearing."

"What are you hauling?" she asked, reaching for the door, opening it only a few inches.

"Broken crockery."

"What?"

"Ten and Diana are finally moving the Anasazi artifacts out of your way. I'm taking the stuff to their new house in Spring Valley."

"That's not necessary," Mariah said. "I don't want to be a bother. I certainly don't need every room in the old house. Please. Put everything back. Don't go to any trouble because of me."

The fear beneath Mariah's rapid words was clear. Even if Nevada hadn't heard the fear, he would have sensed it in the sudden tension of her body, felt it in the urgency of the hand wrapped around his wrist.

"You'll have to take that up with Ten and Diana," Nevada said calmly. "They were looking forward to having all this stuff moved into their new house where they could work on it whenever they wanted." He saw that Mariah didn't understand yet. "Diana is an archaeologist. She supervises the September Canyon dig. Ten is a partner in the Rocking M. He owns the land the dig is on."