LeClerc 01 - Autumn Ecstasy (20 page)

Her eyes raised to his, and with a moan of defeat, Bear lowered his head. He tasted the tears on her cheeks and kissed them away. His fingers slid farther to touch the tender bud. Linsey moaned at the touch, arching her back so that it fit more tightly in his hand.

Bear moved his mouth to hers, wanting to devour her but only tasting lightly. If he didn’t stop soon, he wouldn’t be able to stop at all.

“Is this the time?” Linsey asked softly.

He lowered his head to her shoulder and kissed the bruises. He had won the fight with Small Dog but couldn’t begin to win the one against himself.

“Yes,” he whispered, admitting defeat.

CHAPTER NINE

Leaning over Linsey and staring down into the swirling depths of emerald green eyes, Bear regretted his answer. She looked at him in such a trusting manner he wondered if she would accept his change of mind.

“Luc, kiss me?” Linsey whispered. “Please?”

With a moan he complied, and regret was swept into oblivion. Lowering his head to hers, he softly stroked her lips with his, just barely touching. The tip of his tongue traced the shape of her lips, tasting, sampling.

Linsey opened her mouth, urging him to deepen the kiss. His teasing continued until she was nearly mindless, wanting more than the light touches he was offering.

His lips left her mouth, gently kissing her bruised jaw and making a trail up her cheek, over her nose then back to her lips. He raised his head, his burning eyes meeting hers.

“If I make you mine, my angel, I may not be able to let you go in the spring.” His voice was husky with his rapidly rising passion.

“Spring is far away,” she replied in a whisper. “I may not want to go.”

His eyes remained on hers as his hand slipped to the buttons of her dress. Slowly, giving her time to protest-hoping she would, praying she wouldn’t — he opened them. As he pushed the tattered garment aside, his lips closed on hers.

It was the kiss she had asked for. His tongue invaded her mouth, searching each hidden recess. His hand moved to cup her chin, his arm resting heavily between her breasts. Linsey had not realized she had quit breathing until his bps moved to the tender skin of her neck and she gasped with pleasure.

Sitting up, Bear pulled his shirt over his head. He threw it on the floor as he lifted her onto his lap. He slowly lowered the bodice of her dress, his eyes caressing her. The firelight played across her skin, dancing gold on the creamy flesh. He gritted his teeth at the sight of the finger-shaped bruises on her shoulders. One full breast was badly bruised from Small Dog’s rough handling.

He soothed the marks on her shoulders, his tongue delighting in her taste. Linsey turned her head, offering him easier access to her neck as flames of fire danced through her. He kissed his way across to her other shoulder, giving it the same tender treatment. Slowly, lingeringly he made a path to the slope of her breasts, cradling the feminine flesh in his big hand. He ran his work-roughened thumb over one peak until it hardened, eager for his touch.

He raised his head slightly until he could see the precious mounds. Her breasts looked small cupped in his massive hand; the hardened buds of her nipples were inviting, enticing. He delayed no longer, taking one of the nipples in his mouth and teasing it with his tongue.

Linsey moaned as he tugged and pulled, his lips gentle, his tongue rough. She found it harder and harder to breathe as he licked and suckled her breasts, first one and then the other. Never had she imagined the sensations that flowed wave after wave through her body. She was hot, burning with fever — the fever of passion.

Bear lifted her from his lap and laid her on the bed. He slid the dress down over her hips and removed her tattered drawers. When she was nude, he studied her as an artist studies the great masters.

“You are beautiful,
mon ange
, more beautiful than anything I have ever seen.”

Working quickly, he unlaced and removed his knee high moccasins and then his pants. He lay down beside her and was pleasurably startled when Linsey pushed him back and leaned over him. With a feather-light touch, she followed the path of the scars. Beginning at his temple and across his cheek, they dropped abruptly from his jaw. She heard his moan as her fingers traveled down his chest. Her hand moved slowly lower, and Bear grabbed it when it reached his belly.

His eyes were tender as he lifted her hand and placed a kiss in her palm. He then put it on the middle of his chest and held it firmly with his own.

“I am going to love you, little one.” His voice was filled with desire, and his eyes lowered to her pointed breasts bobbing invitingly near his face. “I am going to make you mine.”

He gently pushed her back on the bed and leaned over her. Throwing a leg across her flat stomach, he rubbed his throbbing hardness against her hip. He kissed the puckered nipples, a growl rumbling from deep in his chest as she arched her back in eager response. Moving his leg to between her thighs, he caressed her soft stomach and rested his hand at the moist entrance he longed to know.

Linsey was startled by the unfamiliar warmth throbbing against her hip, but Bear’s caressing hands and lips caused too many other sensations for her to give it much thought. Her breath came in short gasps when his knowing fingers found her femininity, quickly driving her to a frenzy of need.

“Open your eyes, sweet,” Bear whispered. “You are very tiny here —” he rubbed his fingers gently through the moist warmth “— and I am very big.”

He bent and suckled a nipple, unable to resist its tempting invitation. “When I make you mine the first time, it will be more painful than pleasant. I will try to make it easy for you, but there can be no help for it; it will hurt.”

Her emerald eyes were so glazed with passion Bear doubted she understood what he said. He raised himself up and slid between her parted thighs. Slowly he entered her until he felt the thin barrier impeding his progress. Holding his weight on his elbows, he kissed her open mouth and gave a final, swift, sure thrust.

Linsey gasped at the agony burning through her middle. Brought abruptly back to reality, her passion fled from the force of the pain.

Bear lay still, deeply embedded in her raging heat. He waited for the pain to ease and for her to become familiar with the new sensation. Whispering words of love in both French and Shawnee, he nuzzled her neck, making trails to her breasts. As he said the words, their truth wove around him like a shimmering veil. Against his will, knowing the pain that would come in. the spring, he had fallen in love with her.

It had been a long time since he had been with a woman, and before he wanted it to, his control splintered. Unable to resist the invitation of her warmth, he began a gentle rhythm.

As the pain eased for Linsey, the passion returned. She caught his rhythm and followed it, meeting and returning each thrust. She willingly followed where he led to a world of their own, spinning through time past the stars, toward the horizon of eternity. Together they climbed the summit of desire and found the release their bodies demanded.

Fearing that he couldn’t support his weight and would crush her, Bear rolled onto his back and pulled her into his arms. Their breathing was slow to return to normal, and the chilled air played over their nude bodies. Feeling like it took superhuman strength, Bear reached for a blanket and pulled it over them.

“That was nice.” Linsey put her head on his shoulder; her small hand rested on his chest. Cuddling against him, she felt like a rag doll in his embrace.

“Nice?” Bear chuckled, the sound rumbling through his chest beneath her ear. “You call it nice?”

“There’s a better word?” she asked impishly.

“My sweet, I don’t think there is a word in any language to adequately describe what we just shared.”

“Then, it was nice!”

“Nice is too tame.”

“Well —” Linsey yawned “— you think of the word and let me know. Fm going to sleep.” She wiggled slightly, grimacing at the burning discomfort between her thighs.

Noting the fleeting expression and hearing her muffled moan, Bear twisted his head, looking for the snowfilled rag he had used earlier. It lay discarded on the furs beside them, the snow having melted from the heat of the room.

“Be right back,” he whispered, kissing her nose and climbing out of bed. Linsey was too near sleep to ask questions, but she missed him immediately.

Bear knelt at the fire and added several logs. As the flame blazed, he looked down at himself and saw the evidence of her virginity smeared on his thighs. It was a badge he would like to wear for the rest of his life, but he dipped the rag in the pot of warm water she always kept near the fire and reluctantly washed the stains away.

He carried the water and rag to the bed, setting them on the floor. Linsey slept quietly, her bps slightly parted, seeming to invite him to taste again of their sweetness.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Bear pulled the blanket up above her waist and carefully tended to her. Linsey woke at his first touch, and embarrassment colored her cheeks as she felt him part her thighs; but the warmth was so comforting that she sighed deeply.

“Next time there will be little pain,” Bear said softly, acknowledging that he knew she was awake.

“When will that be?” she asked in a husky whisper.

Bear chuckled. “You are in a hurry?” He dropped the rag into the bucket and lay down beside her, pulling the blanket around him. Linsey snuggled against him, her head pillowed on his shoulder.

Bear kissed the top of her head. “Sleep, little one.”

Wrapped in the arms of blissful contentment, the two were unaware as the night drifted past. One by one the stars were slowly covered as gray storm clouds filled the sky. When morning came, the sun was lost behind a curtain of white, for winter had returned to stay until spring.

Linsey leaned back against the wall, a fur pulled to beneath her chin, and watched as Bear knelt to add wood to the fire. He seemed oblivious to the chill of the room, his naked body gleaming in the glow of the dancing flames. Rising, he stood and watched as the logs were consumed by the hungry blaze.

Linsey wondered what words could be used to describe him. He could not be called beautiful; it was too feminine a word for the masculine perfection of broad shoulders rippling with muscles, narrow waist and tight hips. Thighs bigger around than her waist firmly supported him, the muscles so well defined they appeared rock hard even as he stood relaxed.

Bear turned and walked to the door, uncaring of his nudity as he opened it and breathed deeply.

“It’s snowing,” he called to her. The gray clouds were heavy with snow, and he knew it would be several inches deep on the ground before it stopped.

He closed the door and walked back to her, raised the furs and climbed into the bed. Linsey shivered as his cold skin touched hers.

“You’re freezing!”

Bear pulled her against him, his long body touching hers in as many places as possible. “Not anymore!”

“No, now Fm freezing!”

Bear chuckled until she bit his shoulder. “Why did you do that?” he asked, rubbing the offended area.

“Guess I’m just hungry… .”

“Hmmm, sounds like a good idea.” He bent slightly and tenderly bit the soft underside of her breast. He nuzzled and suckled her puckered nipples, making her moan and arch her back. “Someday these will be filled with milk and will give nourishment to a babe. For now, let them feed me. … “

It was hours later before they again thought of food.

Evening had come, and outside the cozy cabin the snow continued to fall quietly. Linsey marvelled that they had spent most of the day in bed. They had made love then drifted to sleep only to wake and reach hungrily for each other again.

Her bps made a moist path down the trail of scars on his chest, and she raised tender eyes to him. “Will you tell me how you got these?”

Bear pulled her head down to his shoulder and captured her wandering hand in one of his. He delighted in how freely she touched him, but he could not answer her question with her hand lying so warmly against his groin.

“Behave if you want me to answer your question,” he admonished when she threw her thigh over him, rubbing it firmly against his all-too-willing flesh. “Five winters ago a rogue bear attacked the village,” he began quietly, the memories flooding his mind.

“I thought bears hibernated all winter.”

He shrugged. “It is not unusual for one to leave his sleep. This bear was old, and maybe his pains of age would not allow him to sleep peacefully. It wasn’t the first time he had entered the village in search of food. He had destroyed lodges and possessions but had never hurt any of the people. They even had a name for him, called him Six Toes. One paw was deformed and had an extra claw. He was a wily old bear, always seemed to sense when the warriors were gone. He never came to the village when they were there …”

It was one of those beautiful crisp winter days with a clear blue sky overhead and a solid layer of snow on the ground.
Wolf and Bear had walked for miles, searching for deer. They and several other warriors had decided to take advantage of the day to do a little hunting. Already beginning to be bored with the inactivity of winter, they welcomed the opportunity to do something … anything.