Leoti (25 page)

“Go! Now!” Elu shouted at her. Josie stumbled back.

“Help him! Help him!” Josie shouted to the other man who had just been a bystander up until now. The stranger stayed near the trucks and looked on with wide eyed fright, unsure what to do. Josie turned to a snarling Po who kept Jeffery pinned to the platform screaming, snapping his jaws. He then ripped into the terrified man’s neck. Jeffery fired in the air during his death throws and went still.

Elu and Rex fought. They whirled in a circle and the gun was thrown free of the struggle. Elu’s hands closed around Rex’s throat. He was choking Rex, who had dropped to his knees.

Josie scrambled and got the tossed aside shotgun. She tried to aim but her hands were shaking so badly she could barely keep it raised. “Elu, stop!” Josie yelled. The platform buckled beneath them. It began to groan and creak. Elu released his chokehold and slammed his fist into Rex’s face. The man crumbled back but Elu grabbed him by the throat and lifted him from the ground. Josie lowered the gun in shock at Elu’s strength as he held Rex up and the man gurgled with a bloody nose and kicking feet.

“It’s going to cave!” The other man shouted. He was running for them. Before Josie could heed the warning or Elu could react properly the platform did as the stranger warned. Josie fell back on her hands and butt as the center fell inward and the men both dropped.

“No!” Josie shouted. She ran for the edge. His hands gripped the rocky surface. Half his upper torso was wedged on a protruding rock to give him some stability, but his arms and shoulders trembled with strain of Rex. The bastard clung to his legs screaming and howling not be dropped into the oily black abyss below. The opening of the cave was a ground tunnel that had caved in over the years. Josie couldn’t assess how deep the cavern was.

“Hold on!” She reached for Elu, but if he moved to reach for her they would drop. All he could do was hold on. The man who arrived with Elu dropped at her side and tried to reach as well.

“Hold on, Elu!” The man yelled. He turned and ran for the truck. Josie reached for Elu. His face was contorted with pain as he tried to hold on but she saw his fingers trembling. “Please! Please don’t let go! Please!”

“Help us!” Rex cried out in horror. “Help!”

Josie knew Rex would pull Elu off soon. “You can’t hold him, Elu. Save yourself, please. For me.”

“I won’t let go!” Elu said, his voice quivering and his face drenched with sweat. He continued to struggle to balance them both. “I won’t let go!”

Josie dropped her head and wept. Po barked frantically. If she lost him she’d never recover. Never in her life had anything been clearer than her heart at that moment. She prayed silently for help, for God to give them just one more chance at love. Then she heard the shouts of men. She lifted her head and looked back. Eddie came with a rope but the Sheriff and three of his men were with him. How did they get there so fast? Josie rose to her knees to get out of the way. A rope was tied to a man’s waist and he and another reached into the gaping hole. Po circled her legs. He was as nervous and panicked as she was. She heard the men shouting instructions to each other and to Elu and Rex. Then came a sharp cry of terror echoed up. It had a fading wail as if someone was slipping away.
Did Elu fall? Did he?
Josie put her hand to her mouth and stumbled back a few steps. Shock and fright had a strangling hold on her heart. She couldn’t take a breath. Then men slowly pulled Elu up, but he was alone. Rex was gone. Josie raced over to reach Elu and the men let her through. She threw her arms around his neck and held him.

“I’m okay.” He panted. “I’m okay.”

After the Rescue

The chaos ended as the sun began to sink lower in the sky. She answered so many questions from the Sheriff that her voice went hoarse. Elu was despondent, barely speaking. He kept glancing to the hole where Rex disappeared, and then to the sheet covering a dead Jeffery Henry. They were told they could go and silently held each other up returning to his truck. Po rode in the back bed of the vehicle. Josie sat close to Elu, keeping her arm around his waist. They didn’t speak. They were sick of talking.

Once they arrived to his home they showered and cleaned each other. Josie broke down in tears twice and Elu comforted her. She should be comforting him. She knew he was tortured over Rex’s death. She knew he tried to hold on to save them both, but fatigue and shock made her weak and clingy. They spent the rest of the day in bed with each other. Only leaving to get food or use the bathroom. And when night came she gave in to exhaustion and slept. She didn’t know how long she slept but she woke to Elu kissing her face. He cupped it in his hands. His hair fell over to her pillow and she stared deep into his eyes.

“I saw my life flash before my eyes,” he began. “I tried to save him. He slipped from my legs. There was no hope.”

“I know you did what you could, baby. I’m so sorry that he died that way. I thought I lost you.”

“I have to tell you something,” he said. “When I thought all hope was lost, when Rex let go, I slipped and nearly lost the battle too. I looked up into the light, to my rescuers and there was another with them. My grandfather. I saw him. He told me why I had to climb out, why I had to come back to you.”

Josie listened intently. “To protect this land? Keep others from disturbing the resting place of the Chicatee?”

“No. He told me I had another purpose.” Elu smiled. “You.”

“Me?”

“Our future.”

“So we have a future?” she gave him a teasing smile.

“We do, you and I.” Elu nodded.

“Tell me more,” she said growing weak and sleepy.

Elu’s face lowered and he brushed his lips over hers. He ran his tongue over her bottom lip for a final taste before drawing away. “You touched my soul,” he said. Elu’s face grew serious. He pressed his hand to her belly. Josie looked down at his touch and then back up to him curiously.

“We are going to have a child,” he said.

Josie blinked up at him in surprise.

“That’s what my grandfather told me. Another protector. With a strong spirit and loving heart. Just like you, Leoti. I’m here because you have given me the greatest gift. A girl. She’s coming.”

She gave a nervous chuckle. “I’m not pregnant.”

“Yes, you are. I promise my life to you both.”

Elu rested his face on her breasts and lay between her legs with his arms wrapped around her waist. Josie stroked the top of his head, adjusting to the news. The idea of a baby was so overwhelming she felt humbled with hope that his news was true.

“A baby?” she mumbled.

“A girl.”

“Our baby?”

“Our baby.” Elu said, with such contentment it covered her like a warm blanket.

“Our baby.”

Epilogue

Six Months Later

She was making him crazy
. Then again when you loved a woman as much as he loved her a little insanity should be expected. Their marriage was quick. Quicker than he knew she’d like––it was her first after all. That was his fault. He just couldn’t stand another day without her being his wife. Surprisingly she understood. She was good at understanding. They were married on his land, a simple ceremony with a holy-man from his tribe. She wore a white dress with a crown of white roses on her head and an anklet made by women in their community. Her sister and mother were in attendance, and the rest of the small town of Mission Creek. They were married near Chicatee, in the open prairie he once was lost in as a boy. She stood before him on a cloudless day and said words that he’d carry in his heart to his grave.

It took place six weeks after the terror at Chicatee, four weeks after the Blackfoot tribal council joined them in the fight to preserve all rights to the land in and out of Blackfoot Mountain––another victory in his life thanks to his wife. And now she was his.

Elu pushed up from his pillow angling on his side to get a better look at her. Josie had rolled over to her back, which was rare. She mostly slept on her side due to her size. She pouted constantly over the changes in her body and how uncomfortable she was in her expanding skin. But he loved the change. In fact he found her even more beautiful. His eyes went over her. One of the commandments in their marital bed was they slept in the nude. It just added to his torture, having her warmth so close.

With the sheet between his thumb and forefinger he pulled it gently to uncover her body. Her breasts bounced free and for what seemed like endless seconds that ticked to countless minutes he studied every new delicious detail of them.
Beautiful
. The change in the contour, how the areolas were slightly darker and wider…the rounded lobes heavier. He salivated wanting to run his tongue over the Hershey darkness and let her nipple melt against it.

He eased the sheet down further. The swell of her belly came into view. A soft sigh escaped her, then she returned to her light snoring. The more she grew the heavier the snoring became. He loved that too. In the night, when she slept, and Po slept, and the home they shared was still, he stole the moments he wanted with his daughter. Outside the desire he had for his beautiful wife that clawed at his scrotum and left his cock jumping against her thigh, was the sweet love he felt for his unborn child. Josie wanted a boy, refusing to find out what the baby would be until she was born. Though he was right about the pregnancy she laughed at the prediction of the baby being a girl. Not mockingly, but sometimes the connection with them was so strong it scared her. She compensated with those small bouts of doubt. He understood. Leoti had her world turned upside down when he came into her life. It would take time for years of disbelief to fall away. He was a patient a man.

Elu placed his hand gently to the swell and moved down on the sheet carefully. The mattress sighed and she shifted just a bit, dropping her head to the left and silencing. He waited for her return to sleep. When the snoring resumed he pressed his face to her belly.

“Rayene. It’s your father,” he said softly. “How’s my girl?”

The small flutter where his palm rested said she heard him. Elu smiled. He ran his hand gently over it. He felt a powerful kick, and so did his wife. Her hand lifted and went to his head with a soft caress.

“I didn’t mean to wake you.” He lifted to look into her sleepy eyes. She was exhausted.

“It’s okay, baby. C’mere,” Josie yawned.

Elu moved up alongside of her. He was twice her size but felt so small and needy when she was close. She turned into him pressing her belly into his chest. Soft warmth of the bubble of life grazed the hard planes of his abdomen and the contractions in his cock made him wince. When she was up against him, smelling like the vanilla soap she used, and all lush and supple he burned with a need for her. So intense he didn’t trust it.

“Say it.” She moved her body against his and he closed his eyes to the temptation. She was his woman. She could handle him when it was just her. Sometimes his passion for her became a bit much. Now he feared with all the pent up desire and lust he carried in his dick each time she brushed a curve near him, he’d lose complete control.

“Elu, hey, I’m waiting.”

“I want you to cut back now. You’re tired and bigger—.”

“Bigger?”

Elu sighed. “I mean you are growing with my child.”

“Our child.”

“And you need to be taken care of. Rayene needs us both as she develops.”

She snuggled his chest. “I told you it’s a boy, a woman has intuition too. Elu junior.”

He groaned. The woman tested his patience. Josie sat up on her elbow and Elu sucked in a breath through his teeth when her breasts grazed his arm. He touched himself under the sheet to adjust the pain in his member and the movement drew her eye. The last thing he needed was her trying to help. It was hard enough resisting her. She looked up at him with a devilish smirk. So beautiful, she was a good wife. Okay he was being really selfish on this. He knew it. She’d walked away from a prominent legal career. The only law she practiced was the legal battle for their home. Other than that she was his.

But then again, she was
his
wife now and he had needs too. The land disputes were taking too long. They won the battle but she continued to fight to win the war. The Chicatee caves and the excavation brought on so many other legal matters that she insisted on handling. And his Josie was a brilliant attorney. Still he’d rather she sit before that antique typewriter of hers and write him more stories of their love. Or just remain here so he could take care of her, instead of venturing out to Libby twice a week.

“Why didn’t you say something sooner?”

“Sooner?”

“You’ve been feeling this way for awhile?”

Elu sighed. “I love you, Leoti. I want you happy.”

“And I am. Happier than I’ve ever been, but if you think I should cut back I can. Tim can handle things. I can advise him from here.” Her hand went to his groin and his buttocks clenched from her touch. He had to remove her hand immediately, instead he brought it to his face and kissed the inside palm.

“If you want me with you then say it,” she said.

His sweet Josie did the unthinkable. She rose and eased over him to straddle his lap. Elu dropped his head back hard on the headboard, a deep groan rumbling even deeper in his chest. He helped her with her weight adjustment supporting her lower back. The soft moist heat of her sex rested on his waking penis and again he had to suck in a deep breath. Sex had changed between them. His senses were keen. Problem was his hormones were off the charts just like hers. And her smell was the best and worst of it. She smelled different, felt different when he was inside of her. Underneath her perfumed skin she had a more earthy, naturally grounded smell and nothing in this life or the next smelled as beautiful. He feared his appetite and need to pound each inch into her would hurt her or the baby. Crazy, but it’s how he felt. So he held back. Came quick, when she pushed for sex, stopped initiating it after the fourth month. A simple picnic found her naked, with her brown skin glistening under the sun, begging for mercy during a wild moment of passion between them. So he just pleased her and avoided taking her. Really claiming her.