Savage Spirit (10 page)

He took a pinch of the
hoddentin
and blew it toward the dark east. Another pinch he blew west.

She breathed much more easily when he placed the pouch back inside his saddlebag. She could not get over her dread of the powder. It reminded her again of the differences in her own culture and the Apache. It made her realize the foolishness of allowing herself to feel anything but a loathing for this Apache.

But when he came to her, all muscle and so handsome, and sat down beside her, again revealing his gentle ways to her, she knew that   she could never loathe this man.

When he removed the quiver of arrows from his back, slipped the bow from across his shoulder, and laid them beside the blanket, Alicia imagined that this was the moment when he would ask her to disrobe, and when he would also remove his clothes, so that they could enter the water together.

The prospect unnerved her because she knew that he would have to carry her. Her leg was too sore to attempt entering the water alone.

"The
hoddentin
powder has been offered to the spirits so that goodness will attend your thoughts," Cloud Eagle said, looking past her at the hazy steam that was rising from the water. "These springs flow from the spirit hills in which the sun dies each evening. It smiles upon my people with its bounty."

Alicia badly wanted to point out the error of these things that he said, but she could not find it within herself this time to tell him that these things that he did and said were foolish.

This time something held back such spiteful words and she knew that it was his mysterious allure that was drawing her into caring for him. He was such a gentle man. He was so thoughtful. Not once had he given her a true reason to fear him. From the beginning he had treated her with a respect and gentleness that she had never gotten from any other manexcept her father.

She had avoided all other men like poison. That was the only way she could survive in a land where she had been left alone, without family.

Fleetingly she remembered Charlie and wondered where he might be.

The letter.   If she could have only gotten the letter to him.

Suddenly all her concerns for her brother, and her special feelings for Cloud Eagle, fled from Alicia's mind when a low growl rolled through the air.

Cloud Eagle sprang to his feet, took an arrow from his quiver, and notched the arrow to his bow. He searched with his eyes for the beast that filled the night with its threatening sounds. He looked overhead. Creeping along a limb was the most dreaded of the night creaturesthe mountain panther.

Cloud Eagle stumbled backwards and dropped his bow and arrow as the panther leapt upon him and tore at the flesh of one of his arms with its jagged teeth. Cloud Eagle struggled with the panther and was finally able to grab the beast by the throat and hold it at bay.

Her father having taught her the skills of archery, Alicia moved quickly. Everything within her knew that she wanted no further harm to come to Cloud Eagle. She loved him. With all of her heart and soul, she adored him. She pulled the bowstring taut and released an arrow.

The arrow flew through the air and struck the panther in a hind leg. A terrible scream of pain followed. Cloud Eagle then knocked the animal away.

The panther staggered and stumbled. The chill moonlight held the cat in its glow. Its terrible green eyes were still fixed on Cloud Eagle. The panther growled deeply. There was hunger and pain in its face.

Trembling, knowing that she must kill the panther to save Cloud Eagle, Alicia scrambled for another arrow and sent it into the panther's   side, stopping the animal just as it was preparing to leap again.

When the animal fell over dead, Cloud Eagle rose to his feet. He was stunned by it all, especially by Alicia's showing that she cared enough to save his life. It proved that he might be able to pull her into totally loving him.

Horrified by the sight of the wound on Cloud Eagle's arm, Alicia dropped the bow and arrow to the ground. She took his hand and led him to the stream.

Cupping water into her hands, she slowly drizzled it over Cloud Eagle's wound; all the while, Cloud Eagle gazed at her with dark, wondering eyes.

Forgetting the pain of his wound, Cloud Eagle suddenly pulled Alicia into his arms and kissed her passionately.

She twined her arms around his neck and returned the kiss, body and soul lost to this gorgeous man.

She no longer resented being with him. She wanted to be there, to be loved by him.

Cloud Eagle picked Alicia up and carried her far from the death scene. He laid her beneath a cottonwood tree and began to slowly undress her. He was not surprised when she allowed it. He could read the passion in her eyes. He had felt it in her kiss.

"Your arm," Alicia questioned softly. "Surely it pains you too much to . . ."

He placed a soft hand over her mouth, stopping her words. "I feel nothing at this moment but my need for you," he said huskily. "Do you want me as well? You proved your love by saving my life."

Totally undressed, and not ashamed of it as   she would have expected, Alicia reached her arms around Cloud Eagle's neck and drew his mouth to her lips. This action gave him her permission to teach her the meaning of being a true woman.

As they kissed, Cloud Eagle disrobed. Shadows seemed to dance across the water as Alicia drifted toward him and started to yield to his lovemaking, then pulled away from him.

"Your wives?" she said faintly, questioning him with her eyes.

"They share my lodge, but not my heart, or my bed," he said huskily. "For so long I have not seen them as wives. They have been useless to me. From this night forth, Cloud Eagle will never again refer to them as wives."

Alicia heard in his voice the sincerity of his words, and although she did not understand his feelings for the women he had married, she felt the freedom to love him as she so very much desired.

And how he loved her.

It was with an exquisite tenderness.

As his fingers ran down her body, caressing her, she shivered. Then his fingers surrounded her slim, white thighs and lifted her to him as he moved over her.

She held her breath when he parted her legs and she felt the hardness of his manhood resting against her flesh. Her pulse raced when he probed softly at the center of her desire. In her mind's eye, she was recalling how large he was.

Her heart fluttered wildly with the thought of him filling her so magnificently. And when he reached her shield of womanhood, tenderly breaking it, the pain was brief.

She relaxed and savored how it felt to have a   man enter her for the first time. She became dizzy with pleasure when he began taking delicate, leisurely thrusts within her.

She clung around his neck.

She kissed him with a fierce abandon.

As though practiced, she lifted her hips to make herself more accessible and open for him. The sensations he was arousing within her as he buried himself more deeply inside her were searing. She was no longer even aware of the pain in her leg. His loving her was erasing everything from her consciousness but sheer blissful pleasure.

One kiss blended into another. Cloud Eagle tried to keep his weight off her sore leg. He tried to protect his wounded arm by holding it away from her.

But it was hard to concentrate on anything but loving her. He was filled with a drugged passion that he had never experienced before.

He cupped her breasts, the soft touch of them causing his senses to reel in drunken pleasure.

His hands on her breasts caused a searing, scorching flame to shoot through Alicia. She roamed her hands over his muscled shoulders, sleek back, and hard buttocks with wildness and desperation.

Feelings that she never knew before were being awakened within her. She felt as though she were floating, flying, soaring with joy. She was wild and weak with sexual excitement.

Then she felt the ultimate pleasure sweep through her. She shuddered, arched, and cried out, just as Cloud Eagle's body shook and quavered into hers, his groans filling the night air.

With a sob, Alicia clung to him.

He leaned away from her and looked down into   her eyes. ''Why do you cry?" he asked, brushing a damp strand of her hair from her eyes. "Did I hurt you?"

"I'm not sure why I'm crying," Alicia said, wiping tears from her cheeks. She smiled awkwardly up at him. "I rarely cry. But Cloud Eagle, I couldn't help it. You brought feelings out in me that were so deliciously sweet. Did I do the same for you?"

"I could never describe the extent of my feelings for you," Cloud Eagle said, brushing a kiss across her lips. He caressed her breasts, causing Alicia to close her eyes and moan with pleasure.

She trembled with ecstasy when he placed his mouth over a nipple and lapped it with his tongue. She sighed heavily when he rose away from her. She looked up at him, her eyes roaming slowly over his nakedness, seeing him as nothing less than beautiful.

Her eyes locked on that part of him that had sent her into another world. She leaned up on her knees and touched him there. She circled him with her fingers and looked smilingly up at him.

He placed a hand over hers and guided her hand into caressing him. He closed his eyes and stiffened when he felt the pleasure mounting again.

Alicia could sense the thrill that she was causing Cloud Eagle and continued moving her hand even when he removed his from over hers. She watched in total surprise when something soon spilled forth from his manhood just as he gave off another groan of pleasure.

He stepped away from her and gave her no explanation. Instead, he grabbed her up into his   arms and carried her into the steaming water.

Giggling and laughing, they bathed each other with the warm water, stopping only long enough to kiss and to touch each other's bodies.

Soon Cloud Eagle carried her to dry land. "Did you feel the healing power of the water?" he asked, slowly dressing her.

"How could I be aware of anything other than you?" Alicia asked, amazed at how free she felt now to speak peacefully and lovingly with him. "Cloud Eagle, I'm not even sure yet that you are not the renegade who caused my misery, and I gave my all to you. Wouldn't you call that foolish?"

"You are foolish to continue clouding your thoughts with doubts," he scolded. He cupped her chin with a hand. "Could I have just loved you so tenderly if I did not do it from the heart?"

"You could have had a change of heart since the ambush," Alicia murmured, then wished she hadn't when she saw the hurt in his eyes.

"I do not wish to discuss it anymore," Cloud Eagle said, searching her face. "As I look at you, I see the light of the stars in your eyes. When you laugh, it is like the morning sun. You would warm the soul of any man."

His words were hypnotizing Alicia. She was speechless. She trembled when he drew her into his arms. "You are no longer an
ish-kay-nay
. You are a woman."

They kissed and clung to one another.

Then Cloud Eagle left her and dressed, his eyes on the panther in the distance. "My heart is mourning for the beast that was killed tonight," he said sadly. "It was a creature that had the same   needs as humans. Tonight its hunger led it into a reckless action."

Fully clothed, Cloud Eagle lifted Alicia into his arms and carried her to the blanket that he had earlier spread for her. "Rest while I remove the animal's pelt," he said, jerking his knife from its sheath at his side. "It is yours. You killed the animal. It will be with us always, the proof of your love for this Apache chief."

Alicia reached a hand to his arm that had been injured. She ran her fingers just beneath the raw wound. "This should be bandaged," she murmured.

"The wound is nothing to worry about," Cloud Eagle said. "The water has sent its healing powers into it. The scars left by the panther's attack will be there, always, to remind me of this night and what turned your mood around in favor of this Apache chief. If not for the panther's attack, you might have never proven your love for me."

She leaned up on her knees and gently kissed his arm just beneath the wound, then placed her hands on his cheeks. "Cloud Eagle, I couldn't have held back my feelings for you much longer," she said softly. "They are so intense. They are so real."

She drew his lips to hers and kissed him, then eased away from him and sat down on the blanket. She watched Cloud Eagle and the mastery of each of his movements as he removed the pelt from the panther. She would not let any doubts ruin these precious moments with him. Her heart soared with love for this Apache chief.  

The next day everything seemed different for Alicia in the way she felt about being in Cloud Eagle's stronghold. As she ate her morning meal, she watched Cloud Eagle as he peered into a fragment of glass, meticulously plucking hairs from his face. She smiled softly at him and at his way of shaving. She didn't find it crude, but innocent as were so many of the Indians' customs.

She blushed like a young schoolgirl when her thoughts drifted to the previous evening and to the way she had given herself so openly and fully to Cloud Eagle. Deep within herself she knew that she no longer doubted his honesty. It did not take Red Crow's arrival with the mail sack to prove that Cloud Eagle had not ambushed her. No man as gentle and caring as Cloud Eagle was toward her could be a marauding, murdering thief. Cloud Eagle   seemed bathed in goodness, clear to the core of himself.

"You are quiet this morning," Cloud Eagle said as he slipped his mirror and tweezers into a buckskin pouch. He laid this among his personal belongings, then went to Alicia and took her empty platter and set it aside. He drew her into his arms.

"You regret having given yourself to me with such fervor?" he said huskily. "Would you rather I not hold you even now? I do need to kiss you, you know."

Her head spinning with rapture, Alicia twined her arms around Cloud Eagle's neck. "I regret nothing except not knowing you sooner," she murmured. "Cloud Eagle, I have never known such a sweet and loving man. You have changed my feelings about men. Except for my father, all the men I knew before you were brash, selfish boors."