Savage Spirit (36 page)

Alicia leaned closer. "I despise her so," she whispered to Cloud Eagle.

"And so is she despised by most who know her," Cloud Eagle said, shrugging.

"The child's welfare is at stake here," Alicia said, torn with all that was swirling around inside her head. "If you allow Lost Wind to stay, I imagine I could make the sacrifice of having to be around her, for the child's sake."

"Your heart is big," Cloud Eagle said, yanking her into his arms. He hugged her tightly. "It is good that your feelings are pure, instead of filled with jealousy. This is another reason why I love you so much, my
Ish-kay-nay
."

Alicia clung to him, then stepped away and gazed up at him. "Where is she to sleep?" she asked warily.

Cloud Eagle gently took one of her hands. "I take her now to Turtle Crawls' lodge," he said, smiling reassuringly down at her. "There she will stay until the child is born. Then I will see that a lodge is prepared for her. But even then, I will have her watched day and night. Never shall she have the opportunity to run away with my child."

"Her existence will be miserable," Alicia said, shuddering at the thought.

"Her existence is how she has made it for herself," Cloud Eagle said, unmoved.

He turned from her and went to Lost Wind. He took her by an elbow, but she jerked quickly away. "I heard all that you said about me and what my   future holds for me," she said. She lifted her chin proudly. "You can force me to stay only as long as I am with child. Then, Cloud Eagle, Lost Wind leaves your stronghold. I do not wish to stay near you, a man I despise, any longer than I must. I even relinquish my child to you willingly."

Alicia stifled a gasp behind her hand. When Lost Wind turned toward her and gave her a mischievous smile, Alicia felt a coldness seize her insides. She dreaded the coming months.

Cloud Eagle quickly ushered Lost Wind from the tepee. Alicia stared blankly at the closed entrance flap. Her world seemed topsy-turvy and she wondered if it would ever be any other way if she stayed with Cloud Eagle.

Doubts crept in like fire spreading across an open prairie. And when Charlie spoke behind her, what he said made her die a slow death inside.

"If Cloud Eagle truly loved you, he wouldn't force that woman's child on you," her brother said. "Nor would he force that spiteful wench upon you. Honey, you've got to get out of this mess. Return to Saint Louis with me. Forget you ever knew Cloud Eagle. He's nothing but trouble for you."

Alicia turned slow eyes to Charlie. "Cloud Eagle isn't forcing Lost Wind's child on me," she said, her voice tight. "In his eyes, it is only
his
child. And since she is willingly giving the child up to him, then I also see it as only his. And furthermore, Charlie, I understand that things are looking a mite difficult for me now, but I will get through it. For Cloud Eagle, I must. He needs me now. I would never turn my back on him."

"But another woman's child?" Charlie persisted. "You can honestly say that you wish to   raise another woman's child?"

"Charlie, I don't think you are hearing what I say at all," Alicia said, sighing deeply. "The child is Cloud Eagle's. That's what makes all the difference in the world to me. I shall love this child. I know it. Because it will be of Cloud Eagle's flesh and blood."

"You have several months to think this through," Charlie said, groaning as pain shot through the scars on his chest and the stump of his arm. "And in the end, I am certain that you will wish that you were back in Saint Louis. Little sister, you need your big brother's protection."

Alicia saw the pain that he was in. She knelt beside him and began smoothing a fresh mixture of the medicinal herbs that Cloud Eagle had prepared for the sores. "Big brother, I think you need me more than I need you," she murmured. "Oh, Charlie, I thank God every day that you are alive. You've been through hell and back, and all because of me."

"Another reason why you should return with me," Charlie said, gazing up at her. "You owe me, sis. You owe me."

Her brother had never resorted to blackmail before, and Alicia was taken aback by his tactics now.

Yet what he had said had hit a nerve.

Torn with emotions and guilt, she continued spreading the herbal mixture along his scarred flesh.

And then suddenly Cloud Eagle was there.

Alicia's breath was stolen when he grabbed her up into his arms and carried her from the lodge.

"Where are you taking me?" Alicia asked.   The moon's glow revealed a steely, determined expression in Cloud Eagle's dark eyes.

When he did not respond to her, she wiped the remaining herbal mixture from the tips of her fingers onto her dress, then rested her cheek against his bare chest and asked him nothing more.

She knew where he was taking her.

Where they could be alone.

Where they could make maddening, enduring love beneath the stars.

Where they could forget at least for the moment those things that stood in the way of their total happiness.  

The darkness had a bluish quality. And although the wind was brisk and chilly on the hilltop where Alicia and Cloud Eagle stood, neither noticed. As they took turns disrobing each other, their bodies were warmed under the caress of each other's eyes.

Her eyes sheened by moonlight, the soft glimmer of her red hair draped across her pale shoulders, Alicia tossed her last garment aside.

Cloud Eagle reached his arms out for her, beckoning her to him. She smiled up at him and willingly melted into his embrace.

Their bodies strained together as they kissed heatedly. Cloud Eagle's fingers gripped Alicia's buttocks, bringing her closer so that her body was molded more perfectly against his.

Alicia moaned with pleasure, and her senses swam when she felt the heat of Cloud Eagle's manhood swelling against the throbbing juncture   of her thighs. She hungered for him, to be filled by him, to be caressed and taken to another world where there was only beauty and bliss.

She had found these things before with him and she knew that she could again.

With him there was only the moment.

There was only their enduring love.

No one could enter their little world while they embraced. Their minds were occupied only by the wonder of their passion, of their commitment to each other.

When Cloud Eagle held onto the soft flesh of Alicia's buttocks more tightly and lifted her from her feet, she followed his silent bidding and wrapped her legs around his hips.

Her breath quickened with yearning when she felt him probing at the entrance of her desire. She emitted a soft cry of passion against his lips when he found his way and buried himself deeply inside her. She moaned throatily against his lips when she felt the slow thrusting of his pelvis as he pushed himself even more deeply into her.

As an incredible sweetness swept through her, Alicia clung to Cloud Eagle and kissed him fervently as he began his rhythmic strokes within her, his powerful hands holding her against him. The pleasure began to spread a slow, delicious, tingling heat through her.

Cloud Eagle was propelled by a drugged passion. His heart pounded more excitedly with each thrust inside her. Her lips were voluptuously warm against his. Her breasts were like soft petals of flowers as they brushed against his chest while she rocked with him in rapture's throes.

He fought the rising heat, wanting to prolong   this precious moment. While he was with her, he forgot everything but the wonder of their love.

Needing to touch and kiss her everywhere, Cloud Eagle withdrew his throbbing member and laid Alicia on the ground, where he had prepared a lover's lair earlier.

Having planned these private moments with her even before he had decided to go and bring Lost Wind back to his stronghold, he had come to this hill and had spread a cushion of cedar boughs beneath a blanket.

He had been anticipating this time with Alicia even while he had performed the dreadful task of going for Lost Wind.

Now that anticipation had become reality. She was there with him. Her body was like wildfire beneath his caresses. Her lips were like the morning dew, clinging and beautiful.

Leaning on his knees over Alicia, his legs straddling her, Cloud Eagle smiled as he pushed her hair from her face.

''My
Ish-kay-nay
," he said huskily, his gaze moving slowly and seductively over her.

His hands followed the trail of his eyes, her skin warm, smooth, and a little moist.

In a state of suspended animation, awaiting the one moment when he would ride on clouds of rapture with Alicia again, his hands cupped her breasts. He squeezed them gently, pulling, rotating the stiff, resilient nipples.

His hands then moved downward.

He smiled again when he felt the quiver of her stomach against the palms of his hands.

He closed his mouth over her lips and kissed her wildly as his hand moved over one of her breasts and softly kneaded it, while his other   hand proceeded downward, following the curve of a buttock, around then, to run his fingers along the inside softness of her thigh.

He then moved his hand to that wonderful moist place between her legs. His fingers sought and found her mound of pleasure and caressed it.

Spasmodic gasps arose from deeply within Alicia as the pleasure began to build into something magical and wonderful. She whimpered when his mouth slipped down and moved over a breast. His tongue was wet and wonderful as it flicked around the nipple.

Afraid that the ultimate of pleasure would spill over within her while Cloud Eagle was not inside her, Alicia reached for his manhood and guided him to that place where his hands had created such magic.

Once more he kissed her long and deep. His body moved rhythmically against hers, moving slowly, powerfully, wonderfully into her.

Her hips moved with him, rocking, her pelvis pressed against him.

Gripping her shoulders, Cloud Eagle's mouth brushed her cheeks and ears and lightly kissed her eyelids.

Then he placed his cheek against hers and burrowed closer against her and moved into her in an even wilder, more dizzying rhythm.

Feeling the pleasure building, Cloud Eagle moved his face from hers and gazed down at her, watching the hidden flames behind her eyes as she smiled seductively up at him.

Never wanting her as badly as now, and needing the final release that was burning like hot coals in his loins, Cloud Eagle placed his hands at   her waist and held her as though in a vise.

He plunged over and over again inside her.

His need was a sharp, hot pain within his loins.

The excitement was rising, building, ready to spill over within her.

Again he kissed her, then reverently breathed her name against her lips as their bodies began to quiver and quake.

Alicia clung around Cloud Eagle's neck and drew his lips to hers again. She moaned as his body hardened and tightened, then shook like thunder into her.

She absorbed the bold thrusts. The surges of pleasure that rushed through her came in exquisite explosions of ecstasy.

And then it was too soon over, leaving them hungering for more.

Cloud Eagle rolled away from Alicia and turned her on her side to face him. "We could stay here until the night fades into morning," he said huskily.

"Yes, let's," Alicia whispered, placing a gentle hand to his smooth copper cheek. "Let's never leave this wondrous place. Everything is so sweet here, so magical. I never want the loving to stop. I love you so, cloud Eagle."

"You never need to express in words how you feel about this Apache chief," Cloud Eagle said, taking her hand and kissing the palm. "Your body speaks very well of it to me."

"Am I truly enough for you, Cloud Eagle?" Alicia dared to ask, afraid that she might break this beautiful spell they were caught up in.

But something always made her ask this dreaded question again. It never seemed to stop   haunting her. Now that they weren't embracing and caressing each other, the real world had suddenly emerged again, and with it the consummate worry that Cloud Eagle might someday see a need for more than one wife.

"You should never have the need to ask this question again when I tell you quite adamantly that this Apache chief will never need more wives than you," Cloud Eagle said as he drew her lips close.

He kissed her, then lowered his lips to her breasts, taking one nipple, then the other between his teeth.

Alicia twined her fingers through his hair and drew him closer. She closed her eyes and trembled sensually when his tongue lapped the nipples to sharp peaks, his fingers kneading the breasts.

She was hardly aware of what she was doing when she guided his lips downward.

She was hardly aware of him changing positions.

Not until she felt his tongue on that wonderful place between her legs, where her heartbeat seemed to be centered. Her mound pulsed pleasurably against his tongue.

She sucked in a wild breath when his tongue crept farther and plunged into her pulsing cleft.

She tossed her head from side to side, her hair flailing like a whip. Her gasping breaths were like lightning flashes in the dark. Her body was heating up, the pleasure spreading through her like warm waves of sunshine.

Cloud Eagle placed his hands beneath her and lifted her even more closely to his mouth. He pleasured her until he felt her tremble and cry out,   then he moved over her and thrust his manhood deeply inside her and began his strokes within her in a frenzied rhythm.

He held his head back and gritted his teeth, the sweat pearling on his brow the closer he grew to his final explosion of ecstasy. The sensations were searing. His hunger was unending, ferocious in his need to have her tonight, over and over again.

They would never forget this night.

Tonight he would make a child within her womb!

Alicia ran her hand down his back, then around where she could get an occasional touch of his pulsing satin hardness.

When he realized what she sought, he withdrew and guided her hand to him. He sucked in a breath of pleasure when she shifted to her side and her fingers moved on him.