Bride Gone Bad (19 page)

“Didn't you already do that?” She trailed kisses along his jaw, and then nibbled his full, sensual lips. “I'm still tingling all over.”

“That was Rattler to Rattler. I want to show you man to woman.”

“And woman to man?” She traced the Soleil Wheel on his chest with the tip of her tongue and tasted salty tartness.

“Anything you want.” He raised her hand and kissed her palm. “As long as you come to love me some day.”

“Love you!” She sat up and looked down at him. “I put my life in your hands. I followed you to Indian Territory. I have a permanent Soleil Wheel on my chest. And I just went through a ceremony that I have no way to understand. How can you doubt that I love you?”

He sat up, too. “You're truly my ladylove?”

“Oh, Lucky, how could any woman not love you? I am so blessed to be with you. And to think that you love me is almost beyond belief.” She tenderly kissed his lips. “I love you with all my heart and soul.”

He smiled, eyes turning dark amber. “From the first moment I saw you, I knew you were going to change my life.” He pressed a soft kiss to the tip of her nose.

She chuckled. “I bet you didn't think it was in a good way.”

“Your hatchet didn't appear to be a promising start.”

“How could so much have changed in so short a time?”

“Rattler power.”

She shook her head. “Lucky power.”

He kissed the Soleil Wheel over her heart, and then moved lower to tease her nipple with his tongue while he massaged her other breast with his hand. He lifted his head with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

She set her head to one side as she considered his challenge, and then slipped her left hand down his chest to clasp his hard, hot shaft. She stroked up and down while watching his face.

He groaned, shaking his head. “
Tempest power.
”

She stroked faster, taking pleasure in the feel of his smooth skin. “You may be right.”

He clasped her hand, stopping her movements. “Wait.”

“Why?”

He raised her hand and placed it on the Soleil Wheel over his heart. “I want to love every inch of you.”

She shivered in response, feeling a tug deep inside, and then heat blossomed outward to cascade over her skin. “Let me love you, too.”

He held up their wrists still bound together with links of chain, and then he looked into her eyes.

She caught her breath at the intensity of his liquid gold gaze.

“With silver I thee bind, with gold I thee anoint, with love I thee wed.” He unclasped the chain that physically bound them and clasped it around her throat to become a necklace.

“Oh.” She was absolutely speechless, feeling as if the foundation of her world had shifted into a new reality at the prophetic finality of his words.

He stood up, walked over to the campfire, and built it up so that it blazed again. He rummaged in his saddlebags, and then returned to her. When he sat down, firelight bronzed his skin and sharpened the planes and angles of his face.

Tempest felt cold, then hot, then cold again. She shivered as she looked at him. Naked with no clothes to mark time, place, or civilization, he could have been a warrior claiming his woman, a knight selecting his ladylove, or a medicine man performing an ancient marriage rite. Yet she knew one thing. He'd moved beyond the boundaries of present-day society, and he'd taken her on a journey into unknown territory.

“We are wed in our hearts and bound together in our Sun Rattler clan. Now we begin a new life together.” He lifted her left hand and slipped a gold ring onto her first finger.

She held her hand up to the firelight so that she could see the ring. A wide gold band engraved with a Soleil Wheel gleamed in the light. It was beautiful and fit exactly right. She threw her arms around his neck, hugged him, and then sat back with a smile.

“Thank you. This is lovely. I'm deeply touched.” She felt extremely happy until she had a disturbing thought.

“I placed it on your power finger.” He smiled, squeezing her hand.

“But why have you been carrying around a ring my size, or one that could fit some other women, too?”

“Don't think it was meant for just any woman. That belittles us. I was in Delaware Bend waiting for you.”

“That's not possible.”

“Maybe not in your former world, but it's very possible in the Rattler world. I didn't know your name or your face. I didn't even know that we would reach this point. But I've carried that ring for ten years, waiting, hoping, watching for my own true ladylove. And finally, here you are.”

“And it fits me.”

“Of course, the ring fits. It was forged in Sun Rattler fire for you.”

She pressed the back of her hand to her mouth and kissed the ring, believing him with her heart even if her mind insisted that his words couldn't be true. Yet he existed. The ring existed. She couldn't doubt her own eyes.

When he cupped her face with both hands and kissed her lips, she leaned into him, not caring about any reality except the one in his arms. She returned his kiss, delving deep into his mouth, pushing her fingers into his thick hair, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

She had lived in twilight until he'd brought her into sunlight. She couldn't get enough of him. She kissed down his throat, paused to feel the strong beat of his heart, and then moved lower to lick and nibble and suck on his taut nipples as she stroked the powerful muscles of his shoulders. She continued to blaze a trail downward, toying with his navel, following the rigid lines of his muscles, until she came to his engorged shaft. She kissed the tip that jutted up toward her, then licked and sucked, grazing his sensitive flesh with her teeth, as she stroked up and down the long, taut length with her hand, feeling him grow hotter and harder under her touch.

“Tempest,” he groaned, clasping her waist, lifting her up, and then setting her on his lap where he'd crossed his legs.

Now she straddled him, completely spread open, with one leg on either side of his hips. And under her, she felt his shaft press against her soft, vulnerable center that now ached and burned for him. She rubbed against him, back and forth, gyrating her hips harder and faster, wanting relief, wanting pleasure, wanting completion.

And with a growl, he took control. He leaned her back over his arm so that her breasts pointed upward, and then he feasted on them.

She felt his mouth like a hot brand on her bare flesh as he sucked each nipple into a hard peak, and then raked both with his teeth until she cried out. He massaged and squeezed her breasts as she moaned and shifted restlessly in his embrace. When he moved lower, leaving a hot, wet trail downward, she tried to rise up and embrace him, but he kept her spread before him, stroking her with one hand while he licked and nibbled her sensitive skin.

When he grasped her hips and raised her to his mouth, she braced her hands on either side of him, shuddering with desire. With the first touch of his tongue to her sensitive nub, she groaned and writhed in his grasp, almost unable to stand the feelings he was kindling in her. He licked deeper between her hot folds, nibbling, sucking, thrusting, till he returned to her nub and plied that sensitive flesh until she gathered into a fiery storm and then released in a torrent of pleasure that rushed through her entire body.

She was panting when he lifted her again, and she grabbed his shoulder for support, feeling weak and sated and yet still unsatisfied.

“I want you.” She pressed a hot kiss to his lips.

“Take me.”

From where she straddled him, she rose up on her knees, pressed his hard shaft to the heart of her, and then impaled herself in one quick movement. She felt his intrusion as ecstasy and agony, for she was sore and tight and he was big and hard. And yet, there was nothing she wanted more in that moment than to be joined with him.

When he grasped her butt and started sliding her up and down on his shaft, she gasped and clutched his shoulders for support. She felt hotter and wetter as he thrust deeper and harder, driving them both on. And yet, he took his time, alternating his thrusts with wet kisses to her mouth, her throat, her breasts. She rode him, undulating around him as he thrust within her, gasping and moaning and striving toward completion.

And when he finally thrust fast and hard, he squeezed her butt with his powerful hands and she clung to him, pushing her tongue into his mouth as he thrust deep into her.

They spiraled higher and higher together, striving for complete union, and finding it in a shower of hot sparks that scalded them both. And they hung together for a long moment before they plummeted back to Earth.

She collapsed against him, panting and trembling as he stretched out, keeping her sprawled on top of him.

“I love you,” he said, stroking down her back with a warm hand. She nuzzled against his neck. “I love you, too.”

And as she lay still, basking in the glow of the aftermath of their lovemaking, a thought struck her. She rose up to look at him.

“What is it?” He smiled. “Do you want more?”

“I've been so caught up in . . . well, everything that I just remembered something important. You used those French caps, didn't you?”

She didn't like the look that crossed his face. Guilt? Regret? She slid to one side and sat up, feeling a chill drive the warmth from her body. She also felt liquid slide out between her legs. She glanced down, shocked, and then looked back at his face.

He sat up and gazed at her.

“You said you had protection for me. Isn't it in your saddlebags?”

“Yes. French caps are there.”

“You used one, didn't you?”

“No. Didn't you notice?”

“I don't even know what one looks like, so how could I notice? Besides, we agreed you would protect me. I didn't question or think about it.”

“You're innocent, but—”

“I could be with child.
Your child.
” She felt frightened. And angry. Maybe she shared some of the responsibility, but she'd completely trusted his word that he'd protect her. “Of course, it's not likely.”

“It's very likely that you're now carrying our baby.”

“What!” She jumped to her feet, and more liquid ran down her thighs. She pointed at it. “That's you!” She stalked away several feet, and then turned back. “How can you be so calm? I suppose it's no problem for you. You'll simply ride off into the sunset. I'll be left with the shame and the blame. My child will be called a bastard, shunned and ridiculed.”

“That will never happen. We're married and we'll stay that way. Any child we create will be loved and treasured.” He stood up and closed the distance between them.

She backed away, holding up her hands. “Don't come near me. You've sold me a pack of lies. You must have been laughing at me the whole time. I must have appeared so needy for a man that I'd accept anything you told me.” She bit her lower lip, anger warring with despair.

“Tempest, don't do this to yourself, or me. It's not worthy of you.” He held out his hand.

She tore off his ring and tossed it at his feet. She unclasped the necklace and threw it at him, too. “I don't need anything from you. Not your gifts. Not your Rattler world. And certainly not your child.”

“Don't say those things.” He picked up the ring and the necklace. “These are yours. Please take them back.”

“No! They're not mine. They're meant for any woman stupid enough and needy enough to believe your pack of lies.” She turned, strode away from him, and then looked back.

He stared at the ground, but suddenly glanced up at her with a horrified expression. “You broke the circle.”

“What?”

He pointed at the ground. “You stepped outside of the Medicine Wheel I'd drawn to protect us.”

“I don't want to hear another word about secret societies or any of the other malarkey you've been feeding me.”

“I've done my best to protect you.” He held up the ring and necklace. “You've taken this off, you've broken the circle, but you can't undo your initiation into the Sun Rattler clan. That protection, that link, is within and without you forever.”

“For your information, I have my trusty S&W .32, and I'll be wearing it from now on at all times. You come near me again and I swear I'll shoot you.”

“The father of your child?”

“No matter what you say, that is a remote possibility. And if there is a child, you will never see her or him. I'll go far away.”

“Tempest, please try to understand. I had to protect you. That particular initiation was the only way to do it.”

“And you couldn't have used French caps?”

“No.”

“So you say.”

“And so it is.” He walked over to her. “If you believe nothing else, believe this. You can't run from me. You can't hide from me. You can't escape me. We are bound as surely as if we still were chained together. And you certainly can never hide blood of my blood from me.”

She felt chilled at those words, and the heat of her anger melted away. She felt defeated and tired and disillusioned. But Elmira and Lamira hadn't raised a weak-willed ninny. She straightened her back.

“I sincerely doubt that I am with child. If that later proves to be the case, then I will consider what is best for
my
child.”

“
Our child.
” He ran a hand through his hair. “I'm not handling this well. You needed instruction. But there wasn't time. When this is over, I want to take you to Grandmother Rattler. She's ancient and powerful. And she knows all.”