Beneath branches, through swarms of insects, around stumps and boulders the game horse ran. Across patches of moonlight and past a creek with a tumbling waterfall that sprayed a soft mist, he rode until at last the trees gave way to the ridge.

His heart stopped. He saw her silhouette, darker than the surrounding hills, astride Fire Cracker and riding wildly past the very tree struck by lightning ten years before. The old trunk was leafless and dead, the core burned black by the decade-old bolt from the sky.

“Slow down!” Mason yelled. “Bliss!”

She twisted in the saddle, her hair fanning around her. “I love you!”

She froze, but the horse kept moving.

“Bliss—”

She gathered the reins back, slowing the mare while rocking.

“Move,” he yelled at his mount. “Come on!” He remembered the last time, how she’d nearly died. Because of him. Again! “Oh, sweet Jesus!” He kicked his horse forward. Bliss toppled. She screamed. Thud! She hit the ground with bone-cracking certainty.

Mason vaulted off his horse. “No, oh, God, no!” He reached her in an instant, dragged her crumpled body to his. “Bliss, Bliss, oh, love,” he whispered, holding her and praying to a God he’d had no words with in years that she was all right. He couldn’t have hurt her again, couldn’t have been the cause of any more pain. But a bruise and scrape marred the perfect skin near her temple and she sagged limply, as if there were no life left in her.

“I love you,” he said and felt tears clog his throat. “Please, sweetheart, don’t . . .” He couldn’t lose her. Wouldn’t! She was breathing shallowly, but her eyes fluttered open for an instant and a faint smile touched her lips.

“Mason,” she mouthed.

“Hang in there, baby, I’ll take care of you.”

“I . . . I know . . .” Then she drifted off again and he felt the cold mind-numbing fear that she might be lost to him forever. He whistled to his horse, rose to his feet and carried her gently. She wasn’t going to die on him, nor was she going to leave him.

It had been ten years and he wasn’t going to wait any longer. This woman was the only woman he’d ever loved, the only one who could touch his heart. Somehow, some way, he was going to save her.

* * *

Bliss felt as if she were drowning. The water was warm and calm, a blackness dragging her under.

“Can you hear me? Bliss?”

A voice. Mason’s voice. Oh, Lord, how she loved him. “Blissie. Wake up now.”

Her father. And he sounded worried. So worried. About her.

“Don’t leave me.” Mason again. She would never leave him. Why would he think . . . ? She struggled to open her eyes only to allow a blinding flash of light to pierce her brain. Pain exploded at her temples.

“Did you see that?”

“She’s comin’ around.”