She flushed. Her fingers drew soft patterns on his shirt under the shepherd’s coat. “Well, actually, we…couldn’t,” she said, and couldn’t look at him. She didn’t want to mention that horseback riding was giving her some problems, although she’d wanted to go with Cort too much to mention that she was uncomfortable. But sleeping with him would be painful.

Cort sighed. It had been her first time and her body was reacting to it in a way he should have realized. She wasn’t saying it, but he saw it in her embarrassed face. He tilted it up to his eyes. “Sore?” he asked gently, and without rancor.

She grimaced. “Sorry.”

He drew her head to his chest and took a deep breath. “No. I’m sorry. I should have realized how new it was to you. And I shouldn’t have taken you riding.”

“I wanted to go with you,” she said huskily.

He realized that. It made his heart swell. His big hand smoothed over the long, thick hair over her shoulders. “It’s too soon.” He smiled wistfully. “Even if it wasn’t, where the hell would we go?”

She laughed, too. “I guess it would have to be a motel, because there’s no privacy here at my place.”

“Or Bart’s. Not that he’d approve of me bringing you there,” he added.

Which brought to mind what she’d heard about Cort asking Bart if he could bring Ida over for the night. Her self-confidence took a nosedive. He’d been dating Ida. Everybody knew that she was promiscuous. Did Cort think Mina was like that, too?

She looked up, concern darkening her eyes.

He shook his head. “We aren’t going that route,” he said quietly. “I respect you too much.”

She felt elated at his expression, which was both protective and possessive.

He traced a pattern on her cheek. “I’ve never been much for emotional ties,” he said haltingly. “It’s pretty much been take them and leave them, when it came to women. But you’re not like that, Mina.”

She searched his eyes in the silence, unbroken except by the gurgle of the stream. “You were dating Ida,” she began worriedly.

He put a long forefinger over her soft lips. “Ida isn’t what she seems. And I haven’t slept with her, regardless of how it might look.”

She caught her breath. “I didn’t ask…!”

“I wanted you to know the truth,” he said, sketching her face. “People will think what they want to.”

She bit her lower lip. “I guess you know what they think.”

He nodded. “Ida encourages gossip. I’m not overly fond of it. Gossip can destroy lives,” he added quietly.

“Yes.”

He smoothed her fingers over his shirt. “We’d better get going, before the horses decide to leave us here,” he mused.

She laughed. “Okay.”

THE NEXT FEW days were like magic. Mina was in love and falling deeper as she spent more time with Cort and learned more about him. He borrowed Bart’s truck to take her over to Yellowstone National Park and watch Old Faithful erupt with her. Big game was all over the highway, where many tourists stopped in the middle of the road and got out with cameras to film bighorn sheep and even a moose.