Savage Spirit (37 page)

His whole body seemed fluid with fire when he felt the warm wetness of her tongue as it was suddenly there on him, and then her lips.

He turned over onto his back so that she could have more freedom with what she was doing. As she knelt over him, giving him what she felt might be a forbidden pleasure, he positioned her so that he returned the pleasure in kind.

His hands clutched her breasts.

His tongue flicked.

His manhood pulsed.

When he felt that he was too close to that edge of rapture, he lifted her away from him and placed her on her back, then straddled her and entered her in one deep thrust.

He pressed into her, his mouth wild upon her lips as he kissed her. He pressed endlessly   deeper. He clutched her waist and molded himself perfectly to the curved hollow of her hips.

A sensual shock then engulfed them both.

There was a great shuddering in Cloud Eagle's loins.

A flood of ecstasy swept through Alicia. She strained her hips up at him and cried out at her fulfillment.

The pleasure found for a second time tonight, their bodies subsided exhaustedly together.

Alicia brushed her lips across Cloud Eagle's cheek, her hands touching him everywhere, for she did not feel that she could ever have enough of him tonight. She did not want to relinquish him to the everyday world of sorrow and worry.

Tonight was everything to her.

Cloud Eagle was hers tonight. All hers.

Cloud Eagle slipped away from her and stretched out on his back.

Alicia was soon on top of him, straddling him. She leaned over and took one of his nipples into her mouth, her tongue flicking it. Her hands moved slowly and teasingly over him again, stopping only when she found his limp manhood resting against his thigh.

She raised her eyes to him. She smiled slowly as she circled her fingers around his manhood. "Shall I?" she whispered. "Or is it impossible to make love again? A third time?"

The fact that she felt him growing within her fingers was all the answer she needed. She gently kneaded him until her fingers were filled with his throbbing flesh.

She leaned over and kissed him as she slowly slid him inside her again.

When he began pushing himself rhythmically   within her, she threw her head back in a throaty sigh. His powerful thighs lifted her. Her emotions were endless, like the thrust of waves. She cried out when she reached that ultimate of pleasure again, sobbing from the sheer bliss of the moment.

Cloud Eagle's loins shuddered into her. He closed his eyes as the pleasure consumed him. He heaved himself into her, over and over again.

Then, spent, he lifted her from him and cuddled her to his side and held her. His fingers wove through her hair and directed her lips to his. He trembled as he kissed her, then held her only slightly away so that he could gaze at her blushed cheeks.

"
Ish-kay-nay
," he said thickly. "They say that women tend to beauty with child, that a woman is never more beautiful than while she carries a child within the cocoon of her womb. But never could any woman be more beautiful than you are at this moment. You are radiant. The sun does not shine at this moment, yet I see it in your face and eyes. There is such a warm peace,
Ish-kay-nay
, about you."

"You are the cause," Alicia whispered back, stroking his back with her hand. "You have changed so much in my life, Cloud Eagle. I feel blessed to have met you."

"I wish to change more in your life," Cloud Eagle said, slipping his hand to her abdomen. Almost meditatingly he laid his palm against her soft flesh. "One day I hope to see you growing with child. Then you and I will both be blessed.
Twice
blessed."

Alicia smiled up at him. She wanted to tell him that she thought she might be pregnant, yet held   back. She did not want to tell him that she was carrying his child until she knew for certain that she was. She had only missed her monthly flow by a few days. The excitement in her life during these past weeks might be the cause.

But she had experienced much excitement in her lifetime and never had she missed a monthly flow, nor had she ever been late even one day. She always kept track of when it was due so that she would be ready with the cloths that she wore to save herself embarrassment.

"You seem deep in thought," Cloud Eagle said, brushing a strand of her hair back from her eyes.

"My silence is only because of my contentment while lying here with you," Alicia said, covering his hand which still lay on her abdomen. "And I too hope to carry a child within my womb one day soon. It will be my gift to you, Cloud Eagle, for all that you have done for me."

"The gift of a child will belong to us both," he said, brushing a kiss across her lips. "And if it should be in your image, ah, how beautiful a daughter we will have."

"A son," Alicia whispered. "The first child born of our union will be a son."

She closed her eyes tightly to thoughts that crept in to pain her. If Lost Wind's first child was a son, Alicia despaired, it would take away the importance of a son born to herself and Cloud Eagle!

She would wait with an anxious heart until Lost Wind finally gave birth.  

The activity in the Coyotero Apache's stronghold was back to normal in only a few weeks. The need to replenish their cache of food had forced them to leave their mourning behind before they wished to, for it was now late autumn. While the Apache women combed the slopes for piñon nuts and juniper berries, the men stalked deer and antelope and mountain sheep. Apache boys had to be nearly grown before they were allowed to hunt large game. It was said by the elders that a young boy's heart would not be strong enough to stand the hunt; it would make him ill, or even kill him.

The river and lagoons were infested by wild ducks, arriving in greater flocks every day. Preparations were being made to catch a good number of the fowl.

Marveling at how this was done, Alicia sat beside the lodge fire. She watched Cloud Eagle   scoop the insides out of a gourd, while other gourds that had already been emptied sat beside the entranceway.

"Cloud Eagle, do you mean to say that you are actually going to fit that over your head?" she said, as Cloud Eagle continued to dip a wooden spoon in and out of the gourd. She straightened the buckskin cloth upon which the seeds and flesh of the gourd were being placed.

"In the river bottoms and lagoons, the gourds grow big but the pith is not good to eat," Cloud Eagle said, casting a smile at Alicia, then at Charlie, who sat beside him, also watching and listening. "But the gourds make handy water vessels."

Subconsciously, Charlie rubbed the stump of his arm as he listened to Cloud Eagle. During the past weeks, he had come to admire and like the Apache chief. He understood well enough why Alicia wanted to marry him. Cloud Eagle was a gentle man of good heart.

Charlie was well enough to travel now but had chosen to stay a while longer to attend his sister's wedding. Now he did not mind seeing her stay behind with a man who seemed to worship her every movement.

Also, Charlie felt confident enough that his sister would be well cared for and safe with Cloud Eagle. It was evident that Cloud Eagle would willingly lay down his own life if that meant that Alicia's life would be spared.

Charlie's gaze shifted to Alicia's waist, then her abdomen. Both were thickening. He did not believe it was from her diet of Indian food. She sometimes only picked at it as she ate.

But he thought that she just might be pregnant.   That somewhat irked him, for she had not yet shared vows with Cloud Eagle. The reason for delaying the wedding had been explained to him, yet he still was not happy with the circumstances. The mourning period for the dead had interfered with most of the Coyoteros' lives.
No
wedding ceremony had been performed, nor had there been any celebrations.

Today would be the first feast shared by those who had survived the raid by the soldiers from Fort Thomas. Charlie felt confident that one day soon there would be a wedding ceremony between his sister and Cloud Eagle.

Only after Cloud Eagle was totally committed to his sister would Charlie proceed with his own life. Now that he was one-armed, everything that he did was clumsy. But nothing would interfere with his painting career.

He dropped his eyes and swallowed back bitter bile when he thought of those who had come trustingly with him from Saint Louis to find Alicia. None besides himself had survived the attack by Sandy Whiskers' renegades and outlaws.

He would have to carry that guilt with him all of his life.

Worst of all, he dreaded having to spread the news to the families of those who had died. At least he would make sure that the wives of those who had died would live comfortably for the rest of their lives. He had enough wealth to share with them all. And he would. Until his last cent was gone, if need be.

He wiped tears from his eyes and looked again at Cloud Eagle as he continued explaining how the birds would be caught today.   ''Several uncarved gourds will be taken to a nearby lagoon," Cloud Eagle said, reaching his fingers inside his gourd to gather the last of the seeds which stubbornly clung to the sides. "Those gourds will be set adrift on the windward side of this lagoon."

He proceeded then to carve out holes in the gourd, reminding Alicia of the pumpkins that she and Charlie had carved on Halloween when she was a child. Cloud Eagle was creating two eyes, a nose and a mouth on the face of the gourd.

Alicia raised an eyebrow when Cloud Eagle picked up another gourd and began carving a face on it. He had said earlier that each person who participated in this strange ritual would need only one gourd with a face. She had to wonder who he was carving this second one for.

As he continued talking, she forgot her questions and again attentively listened.

"The wind will gradually propel the gourds until they reach the other side of the lagoon, where the ducks are gathered," Cloud Eagle said. "At first the ducks will be suspicious of the strange floating objects. Soon the ducks will get used to the gourds and pay them no further attention. Then my people will fit the gourds they have prepared for the hunt over their heads. Armed with bags, they will enter the water, which is not over five feet deep in any part. Exactly imitating the bobbing motion of the empty gourds upon the water, they will succeed in getting close enough to the ducks to catch them by the feet."

"How clever," Alicia said, taken aback when he handed the second carved-out gourd to her. She turned it around in her hands, finding the face on this gourd different from the other one. Cloud   Eagle had cleverly carved out eyelashes that looked feminine, as well as beautifully shaped lips and eyes.

"That is
your
water vessel mask," Cloud Eagle said, wiping his spoon and then his knife clean on a buckskin cloth. "You will hunt at my side in the water to replenish our stores of meat. Too soon the cold winds from the mountains will bring ice that seals the rivers closed and makes travel sometimes impossible."

Alicia paled as she gazed at Cloud Eagle. "You expect me to help catch ducks?" she said incredulously. "Cloud Eagle, since I have never done this before, I will more than likely frighten them away."

"I will be at your side to teach you how it is done in the proper way," Cloud Eagle said. He pushed himself up from the pallet on which he had prepared the gourds. "After the hunt, there will be a great feast. It will be good to hear and see my people laugh again."

Alicia slipped a hand over her abdomen. She was now absolutely certain that she was pregnant. At least two months. She had planned to tell Cloud Eagle tonight.

But now she wondered if she should tell him right away. She was afraid that this sort of activity, the strain of catching the ducks, might cause her to miscarry.

Then she scoffed at such a worry. She would perhaps have to endure worse activities than this during her pregnancy. Nothing about living the life of an Indian was simple.

And if Apache women could be involved in all sorts of hard labor and still gave birth to healthy children, then so could she. She had to prove not   only to herself, but also to Cloud Eagle, that she was the Apache women's equal in every way. She never wanted to give Cloud Eagle any reason to be disappointed in her.

"That sounds exciting," she said, forcing her voice to sound lighthearted. "The hunt
and
the feast."

Charlie held on to the stump of his arm as his muscled legs managed to get him to his feet. "Alicia, are you sure you should help catch the ducks?" he said, his eyes heavy with concern.

"Big brother, I'm a grown woman and still you worry about me as though I were that six-year-old sister who got into more fights than most boys my age," Alicia said, laughing softly.

She set her gourd aside and moved to her feet to embrace Charlie. "You can be sure, my sweet Charlie, that I've learned many lessons these past months," she reassured him. "I will be careful with what I choose to do, especially now."

"Especially now?" Cloud Eagle said, forking an eyebrow.

Alicia eased from Charlie's arms and turned to Cloud Eagle. The slip of her tongue had caught his attention. And she did not want to tell him about the child now. She had planned a private time, when Charlie took his usual long walk in the evenings, to tell Cloud Eagle about her pregnancy. They always took advantage of Charlie's absences to make love. Tonight there would be more than lovemaking. There were secrets to be shared! She had delayed long enough. She had waited this long to be absolutely sure that she was pregnant. She never wanted to disappoint Cloud Eagle, especially when it came to children.

"Especially since I have found you, darling,"   Alicia said quickly enough. She went to Cloud Eagle and embraced him. "My darling Apache chief, now that our wedding day is drawing near, do you think I would allow anything to interfere? I want nothing more than to be your wife."

Charlie's presence was no longer a deterrent to shows of affection between Alicia and Cloud Eagle. When they wished to embrace and kiss, they did so without hesitation.