Wild Ecstasy (24 page)

Mariah laughed loosely, sighing with relief. She gladly walked with Echohawk and her brother to William Joseph's cabin. Once inside, she went to the fireplace and let the warmth soak into her flesh, then removed her coat and gloves. Echohawk followed her lead, removing his.

“You two make yourselves at home,” William Joseph said, his gaze sweeping around the sparsely furnished room, where he had stayed only since his parents' departure for Saint Louis. “It's not much, but there is plenty of food. Eat what you like. I'll see you two in the morning.”

William Joseph turned to leave, but stopped, having just remembered something. He went to a cabinet and opened a drawer, taking a small buckskin pouch from inside it. He took it to Mariah and placed it in her hand.

“My father left this with me to give to you when I next saw you,” he murmured, closing her fingers around the pouch. “He said that he'd owed your father a debt for some time—something about gambling while they were stationed with General Hull's army in Detroit a long time ago. Somehow they both forgot about the debt. Father just happened to remember it the other day. He said that since your father is no longer alive to collect on it, then it should be yours.”

Mariah's lips parted in a surprising gasp. From the heaviness of the pouch, she knew there must be considerable money there. “Why, I don't know what to say,” she said, her face coloring with an excited blush. She had never had anything she could call her own. The money she had spent at Fort Snelling had always been her father's, used only for supplies.

Oh, how often she had eyed the lacy bonnets in the mercantile!

And the satin ribbons!

Now she could buy what she chose, yet it felt strange to be taking money that was not really hers.

“Thank you, but I can't accept this,” she murmured. “Please, William Joseph, take it back. It was my father's. Not mine.”

“Mariah, it is now rightfully yours,” William Joseph said, moving toward the door. “And you deserve it. From what Mother and Father told me, you were hardly more than a slave to your father.” He smiled at her over his shoulder. “Take this as fair payment.”

Mariah stared at the pouch, then looked up at William Joseph. “Yes, I shall,” she said, smiling.

As William Joseph placed his hand on the door latch, she rushed to him and flung herself into his arms. “Thank you,” she murmured. “I shall miss you.”

“We shall never truly be apart,” William Joseph said, relishing having her in his arms, at least just this once. “You will always be in my thoughts.”

He gave her one last hug, then swung away from her and left, Mariah feeling strangely empty in his absence. But she understood why. She had only recently discovered that she had a brother, and she'd expected to develop a close relationship.

It tore at her heart, thinking of this loss.

Seeing Mariah's sadness, Echohawk drew her into his embrace. He ran his fingers through her hair, comforting her. “I am sorry about your father,” he said softly. “That you did not see him is unfortunate. And I am sorry about your brother—that you did not feel free to tell him that you are blood kin.”

Mariah sniffled, fighting back tears. “I wish there was a way . . .” she whispered, clinging to Echohawk. “Being able to see my true father and telling him my discovery meant so much to me.”

Her eyes widened and she leapt from Echohawk's embrace, the pouch of coins still heavy in her hand. “Echohawk, there
is
a way!” she said in a rush of words. “I am sure that I have enough money to take us to Saint Louis by riverboat! And there would surely be enough for our lodging once we arrive there. What a wonderful idea! We can go to Saint Louis and surprise my father with the news!”

Echohawk's jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed. “It is not a thing a Chippewa does—ride in a white man's great wheeled vessel, the ‘walk in the water.' It is a strange canoe, even larger than the voyageurs' big transport canoes,” he said uneasily. “The Chippewa's place is with his people. Not on a giant canoe among whites.”

“Echohawk, this is something new for me also,” Mariah pleaded. “Let us share this new experience together.”

When he did not answer her, she knew that she had no choice but to defy him, for she had made up her mind to go to Saint Louis. She would never be totally content until she came face-to-face with her true father.

“Echohawk,” she quickly added, “I
must
go to Saint Louis.
Please
understand. And if you do not go with me, I will be forced to travel alone.”

Echohawk's eyes blazed with fire. “You would do this even if I forbid it?” he said, his voice drawn.

“‘Forbid' is a strong word,” Mariah said, taking a step back from him. “My father forbade me so much. Am I now to expect such behavior from the man I love? I cannot live like that, Echohawk. My judgment—my decisions—must be considered important or I . . . I cannot live with you.”

Stunned by Mariah's stubbornness, Echohawk stared at her for a moment, then went and jerked a blanket from the bed and placed in on the floor close to the fireplace. Stretching out on it, he ignored Mariah as she gaped at him in disbelief. It was not a time to speak further words. He had much to sort out within his heart.

Seeing that Echohawk was settled in for the night, his back to her, Mariah stifled a sob of agony, then went to the bed and threw herself across it. Silent tears flowed from her eyes. She had never thought that her need to see her father would come to this. Echohawk was actually making her choose between him and her father, a father she had only recently discovered.

Chapter 24

—Eastman

 

 

 

The pit of her stomach feeling hollow, seeming always to lose more than she gained, Mariah wiped a fresh flow of tears from her cheeks, yet did not allow herself to cry out loud. She did not want Echohawk to know that he had hurt her so deeply.

Yet he had, and she was not sure if she could ever forgive him.

His mood—his anger—had stung her heart, her total being!

So caught up was she in her hurtful feelings that Mariah did not hear Echohawk's approach to the bed. When he was suddenly there, stretched out behind her, his body pressing into hers from behind, her breath was momentarily stolen away.

Then she closed her eyes in ecstasy as he turned her around to face him, his mouth soon covering her lips in a tender, loving kiss. She was fighting her feelings, appalled that she could so quickly forgive him his anger. Even that he had made demands of her seemed to be dimming in her consciousness.

She loved him so much, so very, very much....

Echohawk drew his mouth from her lips. His hands framed her face gently. “No-din, I was wrong,” he said, drawing her eyes flutteringly open. “I should never have made demands on you. While with me, my woman, I want you to feel free to make your own decisions. I understand how it was for you while living with the man you thought was your father. I never again want to be compared to that tyrant. If you have the need to seek out your true father, I will not object. It is not my right to. Although you have promised yourself to me, that does not mean that you have handed over to me your freedom. Perhaps that is so between many men and women. But with us it will not be so. I love you too much to stifle you.”

“But moments ago you . . . you behaved so differently,” Mariah murmured, unable to completely relax with Echohawk's change in moods. She wanted to, oh, how she wanted to! “Echohawk, you made demands on me. Are you saying that you will no longer do this? Ever? Once I speak wedding vows with you, it is to be
ah-pah-nay
, forever. I want to live with you with a peaceful heart.”

“My woman,” Echohawk said, brushing a soft kiss across her lips. “Did you not listen well to what I said? I have seen the wrong in my demands. Never will I do this again. While with me, you will have the freedoms you desire, to make you feel a complete woman. No-din, your pride is as important to me as my own. Never will I give you cause to ride with lowered, humble eyes. While riding at my side on your steed, always you will have a lifted chin and proud, bright eyes!”

Tears filled Mariah's eyes again, but this time they were of pure joy. She crept into Echohawk's arms. “My darling, handsome Chippewa chief,” she said, her heart soaring. “Oh, how I adore you.”

They kissed. They embraced feverishly. And then Echohawk drew his lips away only a fraction. “One thing,” he said thickly. “You cannot go alone to Saint Louis on the white man's large canoe. My people are at peace and safe with Chief Silver Wing. I will send him a message that my return will be delayed.
Our
return will be delayed. Together, you and I, we will go in search of Colonel Snelling. You will have that opportunity to speak words of love to your true father.”

“You would do that for me?” Mariah said, breathless at the thought of traveling on the riverboat, the thrill now doubled at the thought of being with Echohawk on such an adventure.

“For you, anything,” Echohawk said, smoothing his hands through her hair. “My woman, you have been without a happy heart for too long. It is my duty to see that your heart has cause to sing all the days of the rest of your life.”

“Only moments ago I was filled with such despair,” Mariah said, gazing into his fathomless dark eyes. “But now? I feel as though I am floating. And all because of you, Echohawk. You are so understanding. So kind.”

“And I am sorry for having caused you despair,” Echohawk said, gazing lovingly at her. “You have forgiven me my moment of stubbornness?”

“
Ay-uh
,” Mariah said, smiling softly up at him. “How could I not forgive, when you are giving me the world? And how could I not, when I love you so much? You are my life, Echohawk. When I thought that I had lost you because of a misunderstanding, I could hardly bear it. I . . . I felt completely hollow. Thank you for giving me back my reason for living, darling.”

She frowned as a sudden thought came to her. “You say that you will send word to Chief Silver Wing about your decision to travel with me to Saint Louis,” she said. “Darling, whom would you trust to do this? You do not want the location of your village known to anyone but the Chippewa.”

“It is no longer a secret,” Echohawk said, his voice strained. “Do you forget the pony soldiers who accompanied William Joseph there?”

“How could I have forgotten?” Mariah said, paling slightly at the thought.

“I will question William Joseph about those who rode with him,” Echohawk said, his fingers busy working Mariah's dress over her shoulders. “I will ask him to assign his most trusted scout to go to my people—to speak with Silver Wing. He will do this for us, No-din. William Joseph is a man who cares, not only for his own welfare but also for yours—and mine—for everyone who deserves his kindnesses.”

“Yes, he is a most special man,” Mariah said, again filled with sadness over not being able to share her secret with William Joseph. “My brother is a very, very special man.”

“Enough talk,” Echohawk said, smoothing Mariah's dress on down her body, revealing her silken pink flesh to his feasting eyes. “We are alone. We are in love. Let us
make
love.”

Mariah sucked in a wild breath of ecstasy as he moved his lips to one of her taut nipples, taking it in his mouth, his tongue swirling slowly around it. Her heart pounding, she busied her fingers disrobing him.

When he was also nude, she ran her fingers down the smoothness of his copper skin, stopping one of her hands where his velvety shaft lay against her thigh, hard and heavy. As though having done this thousands of times before, in truth having only recently learned such skills, Mariah curled her fingers around his hardness and began moving her hand on him. When he threw his head back in a throaty groan, she knew that she was giving him pleasure— the same as he then gave her as his hands cupped her breasts, kneading them.

And then he urged her hand away from him and moved over her with his body. Gently nudging her knees apart, he pressed himself into her and began his rhythmic strokes.

Her body quivered with the wondrous rapture his movements created inside her. She locked her legs around his hips and rode him, her hips moving with him. She closed her eyes and moaned against his lips as he kissed her, the feelings awash throughout her a mixture of agony and bliss.

When he paused in his loving her, drawing his body away from her, she beckoned for him with outstretched arms, her heart on fire with need.

Echohawk smiled down at her as he moved to kneel beside her, his lips moving close to her again. Her blood quickened when his lips burned a trail down her neck, teasingly brushing them against her breast in only a slight touch, and lower still, across her abdomen.

When he moved his body again, this time positioning himself between her outstretched legs, she felt as though she was soaring above herself when he began loving her gently with his mouth and tongue where she so unmercifully throbbed.

She felt uneasy about this way of loving, yet she abandoned herself to the torrent of feelings that overwhelmed her, her excitement rising with this different, exquisite fashion of loving.

When Echohawk began to bring her to that ultimate of sensations, she gripped his shoulders lightly and urged him up and over her again.

His eyes dark and knowing, Echohawk twined his fingers through her hair and brought her lips to his. He kissed her long and hard, darting his tongue into her mouth, causing new sensations to awaken within her.

When he entered her again with his pulsating hardness, she shuddered and lifted her hips to meet his every thrust. His mouth moved from her lips, brushing the glossy skin of her breasts. Her head rolled and she bit her lower lip to stifle a cry of sweet agony when he began sucking her nipple. His mouth was hot and demanding on her breast. His movements within her were becoming more intense. She opened herself more widely to him, absorbing each of his bold thrusts.

And then she could feel his body stiffen and could hear his breath coming in short raspy sounds. He paused loving her for a moment, stopping to gaze at her with hot passion in his eyes. Then he brought his mouth to her lips with a savage kiss as once again he plunged into her, over and over again.

The euphoric moment they had been seeking suddenly claimed them. Their bodies jolted and quaked into each other, their moans of pleasure mingling as their lips met in an even more heated kiss.

Then at last they lay clinging, sweat glistening on their bodies like small pearls shining beneath the sunshine. Mariah ran her fingers through Echohawk's thick hair and kissed his wet brow. “Will we truly have a lifetime of such moments as these together?” she whispered, her body still slightly trembling from the intensity of the lovemaking. “It is like a dream, Echohawk—being able to share such wondrous bliss with you.”

A sob rose from deep within her and she hugged him tightly. “I adore you so,” she whispered. “Please always, always love me as much as you do now.”

“Our lives are now intertwined, as one entity,” Echohawk whispered back, softly kneading her buttocks with his hands. “Your heartbeat is mine. Mine is yours. Our souls are the same.
Ah-pah-nay
, forever, No-din. Until the Great Spirit decides to take us from this earth.” He leaned away from her, smiling. “Even then we will be together. We shall walk hand in hand, always, in the Land of the Hereafter.”

“How wonderful it is,” Mariah said, smoothing her forefinger across his full sculptured lips. “That you are mine forever is a miracle.”

He rolled away from her and rose from the bed. Drawing a blanket around his shoulders, he went to the table and eyed the fruit that lay on a platter. He glanced over his shoulder at Mariah.

“Making love makes you hungry, does it not?” he asked, laughing softly as he heard her stomach growling even from this distance. He picked up an apple and took it to Mariah. “We shall share the fruit, like we have shared our bodies.”

He placed the apple to her lips. Leaning up on an elbow, Mariah smiled at him with dancing eyes as she sank her teeth into the apple, taking from it a large hunk. She began to chew, and watched as Echohawk took a bite, chewing also as he gazed at her with his deep black eyes.

Mariah rose suddenly to a sitting position and ran the fingers of a hand over his brow. “Darling, I'm so glad you can see more clearly now,” she said, looking into the depths of his dark eyes.

Echohawk sat down on the bed beside her and looked around the room, having to squint to be able to see the objects in the far, shadowed corners. “
Ay-uh
, I can see perfectly,” he said, “but when I look into the distance, there is still a slight blur.”

Mariah hopped from the bed, excitement filling her. “That means, Echohawk, that you will surely be able to see one hundred percent soon!” she cried, clasping her hands together before her. “Isn't that wonderful?”

Seeing her standing there, silkenly, exquisitely nude—the fullness of her breasts, her slimness, the supple broadening into the hips with their central muff of hair, and her long, smooth thighs—made his hunger increase, but not for food. He wanted his No-din again. This was evident in how his manhood had risen into a tight hardness again, the ache the kind that only being with No-din could quell.

Mariah saw the sudden passion filling his eyes, and as he tossed the apple and the bear pelt aside, she felt the heat of desire flood her through and through when she saw his readiness for her.

With a feverish need, she went to him and quivered with ecstasy as he gathered her into his arms and led her back down onto the bed. The sensations were searing within her as his fingers and lips moved purposely slowly over her body, teasingly stroking her flesh.

Her hands sought and found his pulsing hardness and caressed him, making him shiver and groan with the ecstasy. When he leaned away from her and brushed her hand aside, she molded her body up against his as he knelt over her and filled her with his length. She absorbed the bold thrusts with rhythmic upward movements of her hips, his mouth crushing her lips with a fiery kiss, drugging her.

Their bodies strained together hungrily, and then once again their passion was sought and found.

Afterward Mariah nestled close to Echohawk, breathing hard, her loneliness banished forever. When he leaned away from her and looked down at her with adoring love in his eyes, she pulled his head down and kissed him.

She melted into him when once again he entered her with his revived hardness. She shuddered and gripped his buttocks lightly. Her mouth clung to his in a long, blistering kiss. The delicious pleasure filled her again, and her body rocked and swayed in her passion.

She moaned throatily as once again she found that wondrous ecstasy within her lover's arms....

“How can it be?” she whispered against Echohawk's perspiration-dampened face afterward. “We have made love three times so quickly. My darling, not long ago I did not even know the ways of making love!”

“In time I shall show you many ways of taking and giving pleasure,” Echohawk said, smoothing dampened strands of hair back from her brow. “Nee-kah was right when she said that you were an astute student. My woman, you have learned already many ways of loving.”