Savage Spirit (13 page)

Again he took her mouth by storm, his hands gripping her breasts.

His body tightened and grew still, then he plunged into her again, the hard nipples of her breasts stark against the palms of his hands.

Alicia felt the passion peaking.

She felt as though she were drowning in pleasure.

She was shaking all over when the climax caught her, sudden as a whip's crack.

Cloud Eagle's own passion peaked. He wrapped his arms around Alicia and held her tightly as he drove into her, spasmodic gasps erupting from deep within him when the pleasure overwhelmed him.

Their bodies quavered together, then grew still.   Alicia stroked his hard, manly buttocks, then reached around and cupped him as he slid from within her.

He gasped as she softly stroked him, giving his throbbing member life enough to maintain its fullness for a moment longer.

Then he eased her hand away and held it to his chest as their eyes met.

"Will you stay?" he asked, stroking the tender flesh between her thighs with his free hand.

"Yesoh, Lord, yes," she murmured.

He rolled over and pressed his body against hers and gave her a heated kiss.

She flung her arms around him and spread her legs apart when she felt him hardening against her thigh again.

When he entered her, she cried out against his lips.

This time their climax came quickly and fulfillingly, leaving them both exhausted.

Cloud Eagle rolled away from her and lay on his back, as though deep in thought. "I want to tell you about myself, my people, and anything else you might want to know that will familiarize you with the way the Apache live," he said, turning to face her.

She turned on her side and smiled at him. "Tell me everything," she murmured. "I so badly want to know."

"Long ago, when I was only a seed of thought somewhere in the heavens, my ancestors first saw the white men," he began. "The Apache went down on the plains to meet the white men and gave them venison and meal. The white men gave the Apache shirts and money. They shook hands and promised to be brothers. Those white men   left. Others came later who wore blue coats and carried guns. Although I always felt that there was an eventual end to everything, there was no end to the bluecoats. When the Apache sought to visit them, some of our people were killed. My people fled back into the mountains."

His eyes became haunted. "Trust had to be gained again by the white pony soldiers," he said in a low voice. "And for the most part, for
our
band of Apache, a truce has held between us. But there are others who speak even now of warring with the soldiers. There is one who calls himself Geronimo whose economy is an economy of war. War is his trade. He says it is the way of the Apache! I see a time when he will go against the white pony soldiers and learn for himself that because of the harm this warring will bring to his Chiricahua band of Apache, peace is a better way for them."

"I have heard of Geronimo," Alicia said, leaning on an elbow. "Most fear him."

"It is this fear that will cause his end to come to him," Cloud Eagle said, rising to a sitting position. He reached for Alicia and drew her up next to him. "He who will run into the face of danger is considered little better than a fool."

He continued telling her about the ways of his people, Gray asleep beside them.

Then Cloud Eagle lowered her to the pallet of furs again. "Enough talk of serious things," he said, laughing lightly.

He leaned over her.

His mouth browsed over her at leisure, teaching her ways of loving that if she were not with him, she would think forbidden. But under his patient, unhurried mouth, Alicia's resistance melted, and   she banished all doubts from her mind. She became caught up once again in a frenzied desire. Her stomach churned wildly when he parted the soft hair at the juncture of her thighs and placed his lips to her throbbing center.

Her whole body tingled with aliveness when his tongue began a slow, wondrous caress. There was a stirring fire within her, soon fanned to roaring flames.

She had never felt so alive. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the incredible sweetness that swept through her.

When her body soon and unexpectedly exploded in spasms of desire, her eyes flew open, silently questioning Cloud Eagle about this strange way of finding total pleasure without him participating in the usual way.

"There are many ways of making love," Cloud Eagle said. He drew her into his embrace. "Stay with this Apache chief. He will teach you the ways."

Alicia twined her arms around his neck and drew his lips to hers. "Teach me, teach me," she whispered against his lips.

He smiled.  

Still trembling from Cloud Eagle's passionate lovemaking, Alicia slipped back into her dress. She glanced upward and stiffened when, through the smoke hole, she could see that it was totally dark outside.

She smoothed the dress down her thighs, then turned to Cloud Eagle, who was tying a bright scarf around his head. His body was already sheathed in fringed buckskin.

"Lost Wind and Spring Dawn," she said. "Where are they? By now they are usually back inside your lodge."

"You have the answer," he said. "Why ask the question?"

"I don't know what you mean," Alicia said, stiffening.

"They no longer share this lodge, or anything, with Cloud Eagle," he said matter-of-factly. He placed his fingers to Alicia's shoulders and drew   her close. "They are no longer a part of my life."

"You divorced them this quickly?" Alicia asked, her eyes wide. "This easily?"

"If a white man and woman are not happy with one another, is a divorce not done as quickly?" Cloud Eagle said, questioning her with his dark eyes.

"Divorces take much time, and usually many arguments, before they are granted in the white community," Alicia said softly. "The wives take much when they leave. Is it the same for the Apache women who are divorced by their husbands?"

"The Apache women take with them what they brought into the marriage," Cloud Eagle said, bending to slide a log into the flames of the fire. "Themselves."

"Where will they spend the night?"

"They have made themselves a lodge on the far side of the stronghold away from mine."

Alicia gasped. "When were they instructed to do this?" she asked, recalling their attack on her. Had they known then that they were no longer Cloud Eagle's wives? Was the attack meant to frighten her into leaving so that Cloud Eagle might reconsider and take them back?

"After Ten Bears came to me and told me about your misfortune today with Spring Dawn and Lost Wind, it was then that I returned to the stronghold and told them that it was time for them to find a new direction in life, to find a life with another man," Cloud Eagle said. "I scolded them for not giving this chief offspring. I also warned them to be decent to you."

"And?" Alicia said, leaning nearer to him. "What did they say?"   Cloud Eagle placed a gentle hand to her cheek. ''I am their chief," he said, smiling slowly. "What can they say?"

"You were their chief and they still attacked me."

"That is over and done with," he said firmly. "They are no longer my wives. They no longer have cause to annoy you. But if they do, they know they will have me, their chief, to answer to."

His smile faded. "And should Ten Bears lose the duel with me, his sister, Lost Wind, will leave the stronghold with him," he said solemnly.

"What?" Alicia gasped.

"That is part of the bargain between Ten Bears and Cloud Eagle," he said, then looked toward the closed entrance flap when a horse stopped just outside his lodge. "Someone has come. Perhaps it is Red Crow. He will have the mail sack to prove our total innocence in your eyes."

He swept her into his arms and leaned down into her face. He brushed a kiss across her lips, kissed the tip of her nose, and then her eyelids. "Proof is no longer needed, is it?" he said huskily. "You know of this chief's innocence, do you not?"

She closed her eyes, held her head back so that her red hair streamed down her perfect back, and trembled with ecstasy. "Yes, I am sure you are innocent of
one
crime," she said in a husky whisper. "But not of another."

"There was more than one crime that you accuse me of?" he said, yanking her close so that their bodies molded together.

"My heart," she said, smiling. "You are guilty of having stolen my heart."   He almost swallowed her whole with a passionate kiss, then drew quickly away when Red Crow spoke up from outside the entrance flap, calling Cloud Eagle's name.

"Enter," Cloud Eagle said. He took a step toward the entranceway to welcome Red Crow into the lodge.

When Red Crow entered, Alicia's gaze fell on the mail sack. She was not as relieved to see it as she had expected to be. She knew of Cloud Eagle's innocence without it. And now, under these newest circumstances, the letter to her brother was meaningless. She never planned to return to the drudgery of working at any stage station again. At long last, she had found her rightful home with Cloud Eagle, where she wished to stay, forever and ever.

She would rewrite the letter and place it in the mail sack and hope that Cloud Eagle could find a way to get it to Fort Thomas for the next stagecoach to Saint Louis.

But she understood that she might already be too late. If her brother was already on his way to the Arizona Territory, all of her efforts to get a letter to him,
any
letter, were in vain.

It made chills ride her spine to think that she might never see Charlie again. If he became a target for the renegades and outlaws, he might not have someone like Cloud Eagle to come to his rescue.

"My friend, you have done well," Cloud Eagle said, taking the mail sack from Red Crow.

Red Crow's interest did not seem to be on the mail sack. He looked past Cloud Eagle and gazed with narrowed eyes at Alicia.

Then he took a step away from Cloud Eagle,   making Cloud Eagle's hand drop to his side, and gazed with an intense frown at his chief. "I saw your wives cooking outside a newly erected lodge on the far side of the stronghold," he said solemnly. "Why is that, Cloud Eagle? Do they not reside in your lodge any longer? Have you sent them away?"

Cloud Eagle did not respond immediately. He took the mail sack to Alicia and gave it to her and smiled as she clutched it to her chest with total trust in her eyes as she gazed lovingly up at him.

It was good, he thought, that the question of guilt about the mail sack was resolved.

But to his close friend, and perhaps his people as a whole, there was one major question that would need to be answered.

His choice of womenrather, his choice of
wives
, for he did plan to take Alicia as his wife soon. She had said that she wanted to stay with him forever. He would make her prove that statement by taking him as a husband. She would have to know that marriage to an Apache would differ greatly from marriage to a white man. The Apache did not have as many worldly goods to offer a woman.

He had to hope that their shared love would be enough for now. This woman made his insides turn warm just to be near her.

He went back to Red Crow. "Would you sit and have a smoke?" he asked, nodding toward a colorful pipe that rested on a flat stone beside the lodge fire.

"Another time," Red Crow said, again glancing at Alicia. "It is best to be with wives this time of evening." He turned quizzical eyes back to Cloud   Eagle. He stepped closer and spoke beneath his breath, only loud enough for Cloud Eagle's ears. "You take this woman as your wife soon?"

"Yes, soon," Cloud Eagle said back, as quietly. This was a private thing, not yet spoken of between himself and Alicia. He did not wish for her to hear his intentions in words spoken between friends instead of between her and Cloud Eagle.

"And what if Spring Dawn and Lost Wind make life miserable for this white woman? When you are away, they might tease and torture her," Red Crow whispered back, his concern sincere for how it would look for Cloud Eagle, not so much for Alicia.

"They know not to," Cloud Eagle hissed back in a harsh whisper. "But if they do these things to my woman, they in turn will be teased and tortured."

"It is rumored that your white woman was accosted by Spring Dawn and Lost Wind earlier in the day," Red Crow said, having heard this as he was met by warriors upon his return to the stronghold. "Does that not forewarn you of worse problems now that you have banished them from your lodge and your life?"

"This altercation that you speak of took place before they were told they were divorced from me," Cloud Eagle said. "Now that they know their standing with me, there will be no more trouble."

"Gossip also spread to me of a duel that has been arranged between you and Ten Bears," Red Crow added. "Is that wise? He is known for his skill at fighting."

"You belittle me by doubting your chief's ability   to defend himself," Cloud Eagle scolded heatedly as he leaned into Red Crow's face. "Perhaps it is
you
who should be challenged."

"No disrespect was meant," Red Crow said, then clasped his hands onto Cloud Eagle's shoulders. "You know that my concerns for you are because of our bond of friendship and brotherhood. It is not because I doubt you."

"That is good," Cloud Eagle said, nodding. "Now say no more about it, nor about my choice of women. My mind is made up. I want only one woman. Alicia feeds my every need, my every hunger."

"My chief's heart has spoken," Red Crow said, nodding. "This friend will say no more about it."

"Your wives await you, my friend," Cloud Eagle said, gesturing with a hand toward the entrance flap. "Go to them. They deserve your devotion. Have they not each given you offspring to carry your name on even after you are walking the road to the hereafter?"

"It is true that they have filled my lodge with the laughter of children," Red Crow said. He looked over at Alicia. "Perhaps soon children will brighten your life and your lodge."

Cloud Eagle looked at Alicia. It was true that children were important to him, so important that he had sent two barren wives away.