White Eagle's Touch (27 page)

She whispered, “I would never let you take another to your bed.”

He smiled slightly. “I know,” was all he said.

“White Eagle, what am I doing? This can’t be happening to me. I have another life back in New York City, I have obligations, friends…”

He didn’t say a word back to her. He didn’t have to.

After a moment she whispered, “I am unused to hard work.”

“I know.”

“I would not be a good wife for you. Indian women do much labor and I…there would have to be some other way to get done those things that you require.”

He murmured, “I have realized this.”

“Our worlds are too different, White Eagle, how could we ever…?” Whatever she’d been about to say faded into a sigh.

He had bent back upon his task, and Katrina found she could little think.

“Besides,” she murmured, “I have received no gifts from you.”

He gazed up at her, then, from his strategic position, without, for a moment, ceasing what he was doing.

And she continued, “Nor has my family received a bride-price from you.”

That stopped him, as she had intended, but it also meant he ceased his erotic massage of her, and she became sorry that she had continued to tease him.

He said, “Your uncle will receive many fine gifts once I return you to him.” Then he grinned. “And as for you, this love I am showing you”—he gestured toward her and then toward his heart—“this is my first gift to you. I offer you all that I am, body and spirit.”

As he bent back toward her, she knew she could never have asked for a finer present. And she, too, would give to him, she vowed; she, too, would be his, body and spirit.

At least for this night.

Let tomorrow bring whatever it would. But always, she would have this memory.

He didn’t stop his onslaught of her. On and on he kissed her. On and on he caressed her.

She moaned, she sighed. She rolled her head from side to side. It was incredible; it was beautiful. It was all-consuming.

And then it built, this remarkable sensation. It built and built until…

She called out his name, she couldn’t help herself. Here was a release, an extraordinary feeling she’d never known existed. In truth, she felt she soared above them both, if only for a moment.

“White Eagle,” she murmured, a good deal later, “what was that?”

He rose up onto one elbow, gazing down at her. “Love,” was all he said.

“Is it always so…wondrous?”

“When two people care greatly for one another, it is.”

“Did you feel it, too?”

“I felt yours.”

“But, you… Did you also…?”

He gazed gently at her. “Not yet.”

“Then you must.”

He grinned, a half smile, and said, “I will.”

“Is there anything I should do?”

“Saa,
no.”

“But you did things to me that—”

“Later you will learn about love, about what pleases me. I will teach you.”

“Then there is something I should do.”

“Saa,
no,” he said, “not now. Looking at you is enough for me.”

He rose up onto his knees before her, and he beheld her, his gaze touching her everywhere, his admiration so tangible, she could have sworn it grazed her.

He whispered, “Never have I seen anyone so beautiful.”

She didn’t know what to say, and so she did the only thing which seemed natural. She smiled.

His fingers found that place most private to her, seeking, caressing, exploring, and she closed her eyes, the intensity of rapture he invoked within her almost overwhelming.

Still he gazed at her.

“It is here,” he said, “that we become joined in love.”

Her glance up at him was wide-eyed. “Yes, joined.”

He nodded. “It will not feel good at first, but I promise you that it will get better with each time we make love.”

She blinked and tried to look calm. But it was more than she could do.

She should have known what he meant, but Katrina had been strictly raised, without the influence of a more knowledgeable female. She’d never had a companion of her own age with whom to ponder the differences between men and women, nor had the subject of sex ever arisen amongst herself and the servants. And in essence, she had no inkling of what should occur next.

White Eagle continued to gaze at her as he said, “Surely you have been taught this.”

She didn’t know what to say and so she did the only thing she could in the circumstances. She stared back at him.

“It is difficult for me to comprehend that you have not…have never… What sort of society is this that does not educate their women? Here,” he said gently, “I will show you,” and he rose above her, his lips coming down over hers, as he positioned himself within her embrace.

She gasped. “Surely you can’t mean to—”

Her protest died on the sound of his moan as he kissed her once again.

“It is the way of love,” he explained on a whisper, “that a man enters himself here within a woman.” With his fingers, he made her to understand where he meant. “There is much pleasure for both people when this is done.”

“Is there?” she asked. “Will you show me?” And with this, she spread her legs more fully to accommodate him, although experiencing the bulge of him there, something further occurred to her and she said, “You are much too big to—”

He groaned. “Do you mean to compliment me?”

“Do I?”

“You do. I might seem too…large…at first and it will hurt, but do not worry, the pain will go quickly away. It is fleeting. I do not intentionally hurt you.”

She nodded, and, as she did so, he entered her.

She gasped.

But he kissed her immediately; and she soon found herself absorbed in his caress, forgetting for the moment the occurrence taking place down there.

She could taste her own fragrance on his breath, but oddly, the experience was pleasant, maybe if only because it was a part of him now, and she was discovering that she liked to be associated with him.

Besides, it gave her the feeling that she had left her mark on him, a pleasant sort of thought.

He began to move within her, slowly at first, as though she were as delicate as the fading colors of a morning sky.

He pulled his weight away from her, pushing himself up and onto his elbows as he proceeded to gaze down at her, all the while, he moved tenderly within her.

“Kitsikakomimmo,”
he said on a sigh as he thrust into her.

And she repeated, staring up into the depths of his dark eyes,
“Kitsikakomimmo.”

Her declaration, stated in Blackfoot, seemed to stimulate him beyond compare, and she began to move in rhythm with him, slowly at first, but then with more and more vigor, primal instincts taking hold of her and dictating to her through her veil of innocence.

She realized she wanted him to feel what she had felt earlier. She wanted him to experience the same sort of glorious release that she had, and she committed herself to doing all that she could to further that cause.

It didn’t come to her that in doing so, that same feeling began to build within her too.

“White Eagle,” she gasped, as she felt herself rising to yet another peak.

His only response was his own moan of satisfaction, and suddenly, as she reached her peak, she felt him release—felt, because he said not a word.

And his fulfillment intensified her own.

The both of them floated, soaring high above the prairie, high above the world, sharing their space, one with the other.

And at this moment in time, she could not remember ever feeling closer to another human being.

She would love this man forever, she realized. She might not always be here with him, she might not even be able to live with him, but it wouldn’t matter. No matter where she was, no matter what she was doing, she would love him, always.

And she realized it was really this simple.

White Eagle lay awake, watching her as the dawning of a new day began.

He didn’t feel tired; he didn’t know if he’d ever need to sleep again, so energetic was he.

They had loved one another throughout most of the night, Shines Like Moonlight giving in to passion as readily as he. But she had finally gone to sleep toward the early hours of the morning, while he had lain awake, pondering.

He wished he knew what the future held for them, and it troubled him that he didn’t. Perhaps he would seek out a man of medicine when he returned to his village, or mayhap he might fast until he, himself, received a vision. But this he did know:

He would introduce Shines Like Moonlight to his world as he knew and loved it. He would do all he could to give her reason to care for it, too.

Although, he wondered, would that be enough?

He realized that there were differences between his culture and that of the whites, but surely what he and Shines Like Moonlight felt for one another was enough to bridge those differences. Wasn’t it?

He hoped so.

And that troubled him. He didn’t
know.

He sighed. It was as it was, and there was little he could do about it now.

With one more look at her, one further caress, he arose and donned his breechcloth and leggings, bow, quiver and shield, all the while gazing steadily down at her.

He wondered what she knew, if anything, about his world. Did she even realize that he had to arise early each morning to hunt? That the Indian’s subsistence every day depended upon the success of that hunt?

He wondered, because he had never seen white men do this, the manager or engages at the fort sometimes hiring an Indian to do his hunting for him.

White Eagle released a deep breath. He knew Shines Like Moonlight loved him. Perhaps that would be all that was needed to make their union strong, although again, he wondered.

He would have to work at it; this he knew. He would have to ensure, by his own actions, that her love for him grew, that their affection became sufficiently strong to make her stay with him.

He only hoped that furious effort on his part would be all that was needed.

Again, doubt besieged him.

Chapter Sixteen

“That is very good. It is not easy to cut.”

White Eagle peered over her shoulder,

his chin close to her own, as Katrina received her first lesson in fashioning a pair of moccasins. She turned her head until her lips were only a scant few inches from his, and in a heartbeat he closed the distance between them with a sweet, though not so gentle, kiss.

She sighed. Three days they had been on the trail and she could not remember ever smiling so much, or being so happy. For three glorious days she’d had White Eagle to herself, and she was beginning to wish their trip would never end. And yet she knew that it must; in the end, she would go her way, he, his. But the thought of that remained so far away, in some indefinite time in the future, that she rarely brought it to mind.

How could she, when White Eagle reclined so close to her? When he filled her thoughts?

She could feel the imprint of his body now against her own, as he sat behind her, leaning over her, and she reacted to his nearness with an urgency, a heat, that was becoming as natural to her as this land over which they strode.

She leaned back against him, and he moaned in response.

But all he said to her was, “You are learning quickly. Tomorrow I will show you how to snare a rabbit or a prairie hen so that you can always find food if you are ever lost and alone on the prairie.”

“A rabbit, yes.”

He kissed her cheek. “Or a hen. They are the easiest of all the animals to catch. I will show you how to set traps. It is easy. Then, I will not worry so much.”

He had already pressed his knees against her, on each side of her legs, and now he enveloped her in his arms. “In your parfleche,” he said, pointing to it, “you must always carry an awl or the white man’s steel needle because when traveling as we are, you will go through several pairs of moccasins.”

“Hmmm,” she said, “do you?”

“Do I what?” He nuzzled her neck. “Do I want to love you right now? Do I want to lay you flat on the ground and kiss you until you beg me to make love to you?”

Katrina glanced at the other couple who traveled with them, as Good Dancer and his wife sat on the opposite side of the evening fire. She gazed at the two young people for a moment. Night had already fallen, spreading its secretive darkness over the land, but still she could discern the other couple quite distinctly. She said, “No, not those things.” She grinned up at White Eagle. “What I meant was, do you always carry a needle of some kind with you?”

“Oh, that is too bad. I was hoping you meant something else.”

She giggled. “Do you?”

“Always,” he said, his breath warm upon her cheek. “Sometimes, a man must leave his home without these things, but they are easily obtained from the bones of animals. I will show you how to make one, if ever you are stranded upon the prairie without these necessities.”