Her fingers tightened. Reflexively, she held them out of reach. Not the smartest thing she'd ever done, Amanda realized belatedly. Jake was already furious. To not give him back the reins would be pushing his anger. While she knew that, she couldn't bring herself to release them. Oddly enough, she seemed to have lost control of herself.
Why, she wondered, would Jake rather pass the storm in a crudely built shelter when there was a cabin with warm beds and hot food only minutes away? It made no sense. For an otherwise intelligent man, she thought he was acting like a fool. Amanda took it upon herself to make him see that. But how?
Her scowl deepened. "Jake," she began slowly, cautiously, "you said yourself the cabin would be warm and dry. You said the people living there would offer us a hot meal and a warm bed."
"You," he growled. "I said they would offer it to you." The rain was only sprinkling the ground now, but it would be coming down hard soon. The cold sting in the air said it would probably turn to snow. Jake knew that if he didn't get away from this woman in the next few minutes he could kiss all hope of finding a dry spot anywhere goodbye. Damn Amanda Lennox! Damn her pretty-face, her creamy white skin, and her stubborn-as-a-mule disposition to hell and back!
"But what about you?" she insisted. "Surely if they'd offer it to me, they'd offer you the same thing!"
"Trust me, they won't. Now give me back the—"
"They won't offer you hospitality?" Amanda countered, cutting him short when realization dawned. Her spine went rigid. "Or you won't accept it? Tell me something. These people in the cabin are white, aren't they? That's why you won't accept their hospitality, isn't it? Well? Isn't it?"
"Shut up," he sneered, his anger mounting in direct proportion to the raw nerve she'd just struck inside of him. "You don't know what the hell you're talking about, lady."
"Don't I? That's funny, because I think I do. In fact, I think the only thing that's keeping you from accepting shelter from those people is that stubborn, misplaced pride of yours." She planted her free hand on her hip and, chin high, huffed with disgust. "God forbid the mighty Jacob Blackhawk Chandler accept anything from a white man. Or woman."
"I said shut up, Amanda!"
"The truth hurts, doesn't it, Jake?"
His attention, which had been riveted on her throat, rose. Their gazes locked and warred. She watched his eyes darken to a murderous shade of midnight blue. The skin covering his cheeks was stretched tighter than a drum. There was a ruddy undertone of anger in his skin.
A warning bell went off in her head. Like its predecessor's caution, it was disregarded. Amanda had an unsettling feeling that their conversation went deeper than surface words. She also sensed that now was the time to drive her point home, while she still had his full attention, and not all of his fury... yet.
"I'm right, and you know it," she said coldly. "You have a chip on your shoulder that weighs a ton, and you can't see past it, can you?"
"I've seen what decent white folks do to those they consider filthy savages, lady," Jake hissed. "That's all I need to see."
Don't say it, Amanda. You'll be sorry if you push him.
She was too angry to listen to the warning voice inside her head. "Open your eyes, Goddammit! Not everyone looks at the color of your skin. Some of us 'decent white folks' can actually look beyond that and see the man inside."
"Shut—"
"But you wouldn't know about that, would you, Jake?"
"—up."
"Oh, no. You have all us 'decent white folks' pigeonholed into a neat little slot labeled Don't Trust. We're all—"
"Amanda..." his voice sounded grave, and furious as hell.
"—alike to you, aren't we?"
One inky brow quirked high. His lips were pinched in a tight white line. "Aren't you?"
She shook her head. "No. Not that you'll ever open your eyes far enough see it! You think we're all prejudiced against you because you look Indian."
He sneered, "Absaroke, Miss Lennox. Or, as your people call us, Crow. I'm half Crow."
"You can eat crow as far as I'm concerned, pal! Half Crow, half Apache, half whatever... the truth of the matter is, you are the only one who's prejudiced around here. I think you—"
"I've heard enough, that's what I think!"
"—have a real problem, Jake."
The muscle in his jaw stopped ticking. Had Amanda not been so intent on hammering her point home, she would have taken that as a sign that he'd finally lost what little patience he'd had with her.