Dancing with the Devil

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Five

Ance woke with the dawn the next morning. In truth, he hadn't slept more than an hour the night before. His body had been too overheated from the way Audrey had given herself to him in that water--and his pride had been too wounded by her rejection of his offer to hold her. 

Ance had no idea why he'd thought they would curl up together and sleep. Hell, he had never, not once in his life, held a woman close to him after lovemaking....Shit, he'd never called it lovemaking before!

Ance chewed on the cigar in his mouth and studied her sleeping form. His mind drifted back to the night before. Ance growled low in his throat as he remember the way her touch had seared his skin. The sound of his name leaving her moaning lips had been intoxicating. 

And then, when Ance had been feeling open and more true emotions than he'd felt in his entire life, Audrey had turned down his invitation to give her more of himself and it had hurt. Ance couldn't explain it but Audrey made him feel...tender. 

Never before had Ance wanted to touch a woman tenderly, kiss her softly, hold her gently in his arms... Damn he had wanted to do those things so badly Audrey, which of course, only served to further piss him off. 

Hellfire!! He was supposed to be a full grown man in charge of his own emotions and body for God's sake! But even now, watching Audrey dream, Ance was fighting the urge to swoop down, take her in his arms and kiss those frown lines from her brow and he was losing the battle. 

Then Penelope shifted upon her bedroll and Ance's attention was drawn to the girl. He remembered Audrey's excuse for turning him down and he sighed as he sat back on his heels. 

Audrey had been right to deny him. If Penelope had seen them sleeping together, the girl would have asked questions that Ance had no idea how to answer. He didn't want to do anything that would hurt or confuse that girl. 

Penelope's brown eyes opened slowly and lit up when they fell upon him. Ance saw her mouth open and he quickly put his finger to his lips and tilted his head toward a slumbering Audrey. Penelope giggled and nodded as she sat up and stretched her arms over her head. 

Without a word, Ance grabbed up her metal brace, raised her skirt up a bit and fastened it to her leg. He could still remember the difficulty he'd had accomplishing that simple task when Penelope had first come into his life. Things had certainly changed a lot since then--hell, he had changed a lot since then. 

Ance shoved himself to his feet and held out his hand to help Penelope get to hers. "Where are we going?" she whispered. 

"For a walk. I want to gather up some things for breakfast," Ance replied. 

Hand in hand, Ance and Penelope walked into the sparse forest they'd spent the night beside. "Those birds sure make pretty music," Penelope noted happily. 

Ance frowned. He hadn't ever bothered listening to the songs of birds. He would have considered that a foolish thing and a waste of time before Penelope. Now he decided to give it a try. Falling quiet for several moments, Ance let their whistles and tweets fill his ears. 

Finally he shrugged. "They sound alright." He grinned down at the freckled girl. "You sing better though." 

Penelope giggled and launched into a story about the horses at her ranch and how she was beginning to really miss home and wanted Ance to meet her favorite pony who, apparently, was solid black save for one white foot and a white heart on its forehead. 

Ance hung on her every word, partially because Penelope seemed to always steal his attention, but also because of the distraction that the chattering girl gave him from confusing thought of her mother.