Jessica looked at Wolfe curiously.

«I’m giving Reno the pick of the foals,» Wolfe said.

«That’s hardly a mistake. He earned it. Without him, we would have lost more than one foal.»

«That’s what I told him.»

As though pulled against his will, Wolfe turned again and stared out the window. Jessica saw deep emotion kindle in Wolfe’s eyes, then fade into the haunted shadows she had first noticed that morning when he watched the sunrise. She went and stood beside him. She saw nothing beyond the window but the beauty of the vast land.

«Wolfe? Is something wrong?»

He turned and looked at her with haunted eyes.

«Wolfe,» she whispered, reaching toward him.

«Kiss me, Jessi,» he said, bending down to her. «Kiss me hard and deep. When you kiss me, I don’t think about what must be.»

With a small sound, she went up on tiptoe even as he lifted her in his arms, letting the wildness inside him focus in the passion only Jessica had ever been able to summon from the depths of his soul.

«Does this mean you’ve forgivenJessi for going out in the blizzard?» Willow asked from the doorway.

Reluctantly, Wolfe ended the kiss and tucked Jessica’s scarlet face against his neck. He smiled at Willow despite the bittersweet combination of sadness and desire twisting through him.

«We’re negotiating,» Wolfe said.

«Her surrender or yours?» retorted Willow.

«Mine, of course. Elves are too fragile. They either win or die.»

«In that case,» Willow said dryly, «I’ll get Ethan’s bathwater and leave you to your, er, negotiations.»

As Wolfe lowered Jessica’s feet to the floor, a cool premonition slid down her spine, the echo of Wolfe’s words.

Elves are too fragile. They either win or die.

Jessica said nothing until Willow went out of the kitchen carrying a pan of warm water in her hands. When Jessica turned to Wolfe, he was staring out the window once more. The expression of sorrow in his eyes made fear squeeze her heart.

«Love, what’s wrong?» she asked.

«Nothing.»

She shook her head slowly. «Your eyes are haunted.»

«‘Tisyour imagination.» Wolfe smiled and touched her cheek gently. «Elves are noted for their imagination.»

«Wolfe,» she whispered. «I can’t joke about what I see in your eyes. Who or what are you mourning?»

His eyes narrowed in surprise. He hadn’t expected Jessica to see into him so clearly, even more clearly than he saw into himself.

Mourning.

«I’m always sad to say good-bye to Caleb and Willow,» Wolfe said after a moment, the only part of the truth he would discuss.

It was Jessica’s turn to be surprised. «We’re leaving?»

«It’s too wild here.»

Wolfe’s voice was resonant with finality and grief. A chill roughened Jessica’s skin.

«What are you saying?» she whispered.

«We’re going to England.»

«I’d rather hunt mustangs,» she said, «or did you want to wait until autumn, when this year’s crop of foals will be weaned?»

Wolfe turned away without answering.

«Wolfe?»

«We’ll be in England when the foals are weaned.»

«Then we’ll come back next spring.»

«No.» The word was soft, final.

«Why not?»

«Spring and fall are when Lord Robert’s managers are most needed on his country estates.»

The chill moving through Jessica congealed into ice and settled into the pit of her stomach.

«What does that have to do with us?» she asked tightly.

«I will be one of those managers.»

«What are you saying?»

Wolfe looked out the window. «We will live in England.»

«You hate England.»

Wolfe shrugged. «Parts of the countryside are quite pretty.»

«They’re not a patch on this,» she said, indicating the wild beauty of the mountains beyond the window.

«No. They’re not.»

«What of your mustangs?»

«I’m giving them to Caleb.»

Jessica swayed and whispered. «You mean never to come back to the West!»

Wolfe didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. The shadows in his eyes said all that was necessary.

«But why? You love this land. I’ve seen you, Wolfe. You watch these mountains the way a man watches a woman he loves.»

«Let it go, Jessi.»

«No! Why can’t we live here? Why must we live in England?»

«This is no place for you,» Wolfe said quietly. «You have to be born for this land. You weren’t.»

«And you were.»

He made an odd, almost helpless gesture. «Yes. But I can survive England. You can’t survive the West.»

«Dear God, how you must hate me.»

Swiftly, Wolfe turned and touched Jessica’s cheek. «I don’t hate you, elf.»

«You will. I’ve cost you the only thing you’ve ever truly loved. You will hate me as surely and as deeply as you love the land!»

Wolfe saw the shine of tears on Jessica’s face and gathered her into his arms. «Hush, wife. You’re only hurting yourself.»

«I don’t want to live in England,» she said flatly, pushing away from him. «Do you hear me? I love the mountains. Why can’t we live here?»

«You gave yourself into my care. I won’t watch this wild land kill you.»

Jessica’s hands clenched against Wolfe’s shirt, digging into the hard muscle beneath the cloth.

«Wolfe, listen tome.Iam stronger than you believe. If I were the weak little elf you think me, I would have died as a child!»

His hand curled beneath her chin. Silently, he felt the delicate bone structure and soft skin. He smiled sadly.

«You haven’t half my strength,» Wolfe said. «In England, that won’t matter.»

«In England no one looks beyond yourbastardy and Indian blood,» she said harshly. «Here you have friends and a chance to build a better life for yourself. Can’t you see that? Can’t you see what —»

Wolfe’s thumb pressed against Jessica’s lips, sealing in her urgent words. 1

«I’ve always seen that,» he said in a calm voice, «It’s why I left England, and you. I could have you or I could have the West. I took you, knowing what the end would be. England.»

«But I —»

«It’s done, Jessi,» he interrupted flatly. «It was done when I took your maidenhead.»

«Wolfe, please believe me. I didn’t mean for this to happen! Not like this. Dear God, not like this!»

Gently, Wolfe took Jessica’s clenched hands from his shirt. «I know. But all your pleas and tears won’t change what is. You are what you are. I am what I am. We are husband and wife and England will be our home.»

Jessica closed her eyes. She would have preferred blows to Wolfe’s calm summation of their marriage.

«Go begin packing,» Wolfe said quietly. «I’ll help Caleb for the time that is left.»

The kitchen door opened and closed softlybehindWolfe.

For a long time, Jessica stared blindly at the door, seeing nothing but the tears overflowing her eyes, understanding too late what Wolfe had always known: Their marriage would destroy one of them, if not both.

Agree to an annulment. Damn you, let me go!

I’m the wrong husband for you. You’re the wrong wife for me. Lying together would be the worst mistake of my life.

You were not born for the Western wilderness. I was.

Don’t love me, Jessi. It will only hurt us both.

It’s done, Jessi. It was done when I took your maidenhead.

You are what you are. I am what I am.

Tree That Stands Alone.

Jessica opened her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stave off the ice radiating through her soul. With the same fierce determination she once had used to survive as a child, she searched now for a way out of the trap she had sprung around Wolfe.

When she finally found it, she washed the marks of grief from her face and went to find Caleb Black.

«DELAYING won’t accomplish anything,» Wolfe said, continuing the argument that had begun the moment Jessica had awakened him at dawn. «Whether we leave today or ten days after, we’re still leaving.»

«I said I would return to England without a fuss if you would hunt mustangs for one last rime,» Jessica said evenly. «I meant it.»

Warily, Wolfe looked at Jessica. He had seen her in many moods, from intense fear to intense passion, but never had he seen her like this. There was nothing fey or elfin about her now, nor anything fragile. There was simply an ingathering of strength and purpose that reminded him of nothing so much as himself.

«I don’t want to hunt mustangs,» Wolfe said carefully.

«Then do it for Caleb. He needs more horses in order to work his ranch properly. He said so himself.»

Wolfe looked uneasily at Jessica. He sensed the wild grief in her as clearly as she had sensed it in him that morning. Yet there were no tears in her eyes, no resonances of passion in her voice.

He didn’t know her this way. The realization frightened him.

Wolfe’s hands flashed out, pulling Jessica into his arms. «I won’t take you into the wild with me,» he said harshly.

«I know.»

«Is that why you’re so eager for me to hunt mustangs? Are you already tired of having me in your bed and body?»

The words were hardly out of Wolfe’s mouth before Jessica was kissing him as though she expected to die in the next moment and wanted him never to forget what she had been like when fully alive. He kissed her in the same way until they both were breathing brokenly, consumed by passion.

«Fill me,» Jessica whispered against his mouth. «Fill me until I can’t remember what it is to be separate from you. Fill me as though it were the last time.»

With a hoarse sound, Wolfe swept the filmy layers of Jessica’s nightgown above her waist. He whispered her name as he knelt between her legs and drew them up over his thighs. The melting ease of his penetration told him more about her love than any words could have. The sweetness of being possessed by him and possessing him in turn dragged a husky sound from the back of her throat.

«More,» Jessica said urgently. «Wolfe, I must have more of you.»

«You’re too small. I’ll hurt you.»

«Please…»

She pulled at him, straining against him, asking for more of him, asking for all that he had to give, her words a dark fire licking over him, making him shudder with a need unlike any he had known before. With a hoarse sound, he slid his arms beneath her knees and lifted her legs, opening her without reservation. She moaned and bit her lip and arched against him, asking for more. Her silken heat spilled over him, underlining her whispered pleas.

«To think I called you a nun,» Wolfe said hoarsely. «You are fire, elf. Burn for me.»

Then he gave her what she was crying for, filling her, sinking into her so deeply that she felt him all through her body until she was stretched on a golden rack of ecstasy and she burned.

Wolfe felt Jessica’s wild release begin and laughed with elemental triumph. He moved slowly, deeply, dragging cries from her, watching her burn, burning with her as the silky fire of her ecstasy fused their bodies together. He drove repeatedly into her, sinking more deeply into her fire, wanting it never to end. But she felt too good, she lured him too profoundly. Her words and rippling cries and sleek body demanded that he give himself to her as completely as she had given herself to him.

Even as Wolfe tried to hold back, he knew it was too late. He was too much a part of her, his body so deeply joined with hers that he didn’t know where he ended and she began, two flames intertwined, burning redoubled with each breath. Fighting no more, he gave himself to her and to the ecstasy that burned ever higher, feeding on his release, renewing and consuming both of them until they burned as a single flame, inseparable.

CALEB was waiting for Jessica in the kitchen. He looked at her pale, drawn face and bleak eyes and said something savage beneath his breath.

«You really mean to go through with this damn fool idea?» he demanded.

«Yes.»

«Did you tell Wolfe?»

«That wasn’t part of our bargain. I agreed not to set out alone if you would agree not to tell Wolfe that I was going.»

Caleb took off his hat, ran long fingers through his black hair, and said bluntly, «I think this is a piss-poor idea.»

«I’m aware of that,» Jessica said in a clipped voice. «I’m also aware that Wolfe would probably kill Reno orRafe if they helped me. Wolfe won’t kill you.»

«You’re a lot more certain of that than I am,» Caleb retorted.