Savage Spirit (27 page)

Once there, Cloud Eagle escorted each of Red Crow's wives and children to their parents' lodges, where they would stay until the mourning was over.

Then, in due time, they would marry again and begin a new life, a new family.

Alicia was glad when they finally returned to Cloud Eagle's lodge. She sat down beside the fire and watched him. He was in a fretful mood, and it seemed to stem from more than having lost a dear friend and four favored warriors.

Yes, she thought, it was because someone had stolen Red Crow's knife. He would not rest easy until he found the thief.

She watched as he removed his clothes, then,   stark naked, burned them, a piece at a time, in the fire.

She went to him and knelt beside him and ran her hands over his tautly muscled back. "What can I do to help alleviate some of your pain and anger?" she murmured.

"Tonight I must carry the burden alone," he mumbled. He watched the last of his garments burn into dark ashes. "Tomorrow I shall bring you into my life again."

He rose away from her and flung a blanket around his shoulders. "I must go to the river and cleanse myself," he said, giving her a heavy-lashed look.

"Can I go with you?" Alicia asked softly, feeling as though she shouldn't leave him alone for a second. Never had she seen him so despairing. So empty-eyed. He looked as though he might not be able to come out of this well of sadness in which he seemed to be drowning.

Cloud Eagle did not respond right away. He gazed at her at length, and she was glad when she was able to see some sparkle enter his eyes again, and a softness come to his jaw that meant that he was emerging somewhat from his dark void of unhappiness.

"Yes, come," Cloud Eagle finally said, opening the blanket for her to enter it with him. "Tomorrow is too far away to bring you into my life again. I need you today."

Sighing with relief, Alicia hurried to him and melted inside when he wrapped her into the blanket with him.

They did not leave right away. Instead, Cloud Eagle bent his lips to Alicia's and gave her a long, soft kiss, careful not to cause the wound on her   lip to break open and bleed again.

"My
Ish-kay-nay
," Cloud Eagle whispered, his muscled arms holding Alicia to him. "You fill my life with sunshine when there are too many thunderheads trying to overshadow my very existence. You are good for me. You give me reason to look ahead instead of allowing myself to sink further into my unhappiness over my friends' deaths, and into anger over the theft of Red Crow's knife when he was not alive to defend himself against such a thief."

"The lowdown, no good, sonofabitch thief," Alicia said, then giggled when she saw the look on Cloud Eagle's face at her return to speaking in such an unladylike fashion. "Sorry, Cloud Eagle. I'll try and watch myself more carefully when I get riled up over anything." Her eyes twinkled into his. "But Cloud Eagle, whoever stole Red Crow's knife
is
a''

He placed a hand over her mouth and stopped her flowery expressions. "Let us go to the river," he said, his eyes dancing into hers.

"Where you can wash my mouth out with soap for having said things that displease you?" Alicia teased, glad to find at least some lighthearted moments among the heavy hours. "When I was small and I let slip a word that I had heard my father say, but which was too delicate for a child to repeat, my mother washed my mouth out with soap."

"Perhaps she should have used the suds from the yucca plant," Cloud Eagle teased back.

Clinging, and finally able to feel at least a small measure of contentment, they started to leave the tepee.

Then Alicia stopped and grabbed Cloud Eagle's   arm. "Gray," she gasped. "Have you seen Gray? I haven't since I left the tepee to join the burial rites."

This was enough to cause their moment of lightheartedness to turn to weariness again as they broke apart and searched the tepee.

They searched beneath the blankets and behind the store of weapons and bundles of clothes.

They met by the fire, their eyes troubled.

"He's gone," Alicia murmured. "But why, Cloud Eagle?"

Cloud Eagle shook his head and sighed heavily.

"Is he well enough to fend for himself?" Alicia worried aloud.

Cloud Eagle turned and gazed toward the closed entrance flap, not voicing his concern out loud to his woman. Gray was not like Snow. He had never ventured far from the stronghold. He had learned to depend on man for all of his needs.

"Should we go search for him?" Alicia asked, following Cloud Eagle's troubled gaze.

"It would be useless," Cloud Eagle said, his voice drawn. "Gray has not been among those of his own kind for many moons. Who is to say that once he finds a pack that will accept him, he might not turn against his friends and see them as enemies?"

"So we just let him go, the same as Snow?" Alicia asked weakly.

"That is the way of nature," Cloud Eagle said. He swung the blanket around Alicia's shoulders again, drawing her into its cocoon with him. "Perhaps Gray will find his way back to us. Perhaps not. It is just another thing that we are forced to accept, whether it makes us sad or happy."   Alicia nodded. She placed an arm around Cloud Eagle's waist and walked with him outside to a gray, cool, and misty day. The aroma of food cooking in a tepee close by made her realize that she had not yet eaten today.

She glanced up at Cloud Eagle. For now he was all that she needed to sustain her. She felt lucky to be with him. She had come so close to losing him, and along with him her sanity.

The shine of the river was inviting. And even though she knew that it would be cold, she savored the thought of bathing with Cloud Eagle in the river, where she could become reacquainted with his ways of making her feel deliciously wonderful.

Her footsteps quickened. He gave her a knowing smile and walked more quickly alongside her.  

Day had turned into night and night had given way to dawn. Strong hands moving over her body awakened Alicia. She felt as though she were floating, yet she knew she wasn't still in the river. She and Cloud Eagle had returned home after their swim and long embraces in the water. They had fallen asleep in one another's arms, their satiated bodies intertwined.

Now she was being awakened in the best way imaginable. His lips were now on her body, brushing soft kisses everywhere that was sensitive. His hand moved to that wonderful magic place between her legs, and suddenly there was nothing to mourn. Their love was propelling them to that place where sadness was left behind and there was only light, a dancing light of magical moments.

As Cloud Eagle caressed her throbbing center, he bent low over her and kissed her everywhere, then licked her.   She held her head back and moaned, her hips gyrating against his hand that pressed into her trembling spot.

Cloud Eagle rolled on top of her.

Alicia reached down to guide him inside her.

He kissed her long and deep and moved slowly, powerfully within her. He squeezed her breasts, pulling, rotating the stiff, resilient nipple against the palm of his hand.

Her hips rocked. Her pelvis reached up and pushed against him, bringing him more deeply within her.

She twined her arms around his neck, wrapped her legs around his hips, and thrust her tongue between his parted lips.

A tremor went through her body when his tongue met hers in a soft dance; his hands, now at her hips, lifted her more tightly against him.

She opened herself wider to him and her hips responded in a rhythmic movement.

She clung and rocked with him.

His mouth left her lips and moved over one of her breasts, his tongue lapping the nipple into a throbbing hardness. Breathing in the sweet scent of her body, his tongue and lips skillfully teased her taut breast.

His lips brushed her throat as he moved slowly toward her mouth. His hands pushed her hair from her face as he kissed her, his mouth searing into hers, leaving her breathless and shaking.

The sudden onslaught of passion captured them both, the tremors beginning from deep within them. Cloud Eagle swept his arms around Alicia and anchored her fiercely still as he thrust himself more intensely into her, then groaned   against her lips when the ultimate of pleasure was felt.

Their bodies strained together hungrily as they quaked together.

They kissed.

His fingers ran down her body, caressing her.

Afterwards they lay perfectly quiet, clinging.

Alicia's soft laughter bubbled from deep within her as Cloud Eagle rolled away from her. She turned to him and placed her hands at his cheeks. "Darling, did you hear?" she murmured. "I can laugh again. After all we have been through recently, I can actually laugh."

She snuggled close to him and pressed her head against his powerful chest. "Because of you, I am for a moment able to put all sadness behind me," she murmured. "I wish we could stay together like this forever and keep everything and everyone else locked out. Wouldn't it be wonderful, Cloud Eagle? To live forever just for each other?"

"That is the way it is for me, no matter what else I do through the day," Cloud Eagle said, hugging her close to his taut body. "You are always with me. Your lips. Your smile, the touch of your delicate hands goes with me while I am away from you."

"It is the same for me," Alicia said, sighing. "You are now a part of me. You are my very soul, Cloud Eagle. I could not exist without you."

Cloud Eagle placed his hands to her cheeks and directed her eyes up to his. "Never depend fully on Cloud Eagle for your existence," he said gravely. "You have seen recently how quickly things can change, how quickly one's life can be snuffed out. Should I die, you must not look back. You are a woman with much strength. You could carry on   without Cloud Eagle. Without
any
man."

"I'm not as strong as you think," Alicia said softly. She blinked her eyes up at him. "I've learned that since I met you. Like most women, I have many weaknesses." She flung herself into his arms. "I so adore being a woman, with womanly feelings and desires. Never do I wish to be as I was before I met you. You've changed me. I love how it feels to be changed. Everything to me looks different. I see the beauty of life. I feel it."

"There is much ugliness in life," Cloud Eagle said, moving away from her. He rose from his pallet of furs and pulled on his breechclout. He frowned down at Alicia. "The man who stole Red Crow's knife? I believe I know who it is. I will go now and see if I am right."

Alicia leaned up on an elbow. "How could you know?" she asked, forking an eyebrow.

"One watches others to see if their behavior changes or stays the same after a theft is discovered in the Apache stronghold," he said. He combed his fingers through his long black hair and flipped it over his shoulders. "I have watched. This quickly I know who behaves differently."

"Perhaps this person is behaving differently because he is touched deeply by the recent deaths of your warriors?" Alicia said, rising from the pallet. She slipped her buckskin dress over her head. "If not for you,
my
burdens would be many, Cloud Eagle. Not everyone has someone like you to help remove the sorrow from their heart. Perhaps this person you suspect for the theft needs your council, your understanding . . . your guidance."

"This warrior knows that he has all of this from his chief, if he wishes it," Cloud Eagle said, tying a headband around his head. "Still he avoided my   eyes yesterday during the burial rites. I could not go to him then. In respect for my fallen warriors, I delayed until now what must be done. Their day was yesterday. Today is also theirs while everyone mourns. But today I make wrongs right for Red Crow!"

"But if you are wrong, Cloud Eagle?"

"Very rarely am I wrong about these things."

He turned to Alicia and swept her into his arms. "When I return, I will bring food," he said. "But beginning today, you must learn to prepare food for your man who will soon be your husband."

Alicia smiled wanly across his shoulder, at the cooking paraphernalia lined against the wall. During her growing-up years she had been too occupied with her father, being taught ways of young boys, instead of being with her mother, being taught ways of girls. Cooking would be more of a challenge for her than that first time she had picked up a rifle and took aim with it.

"I might disappoint you," she said, easing from his arms. She locked her hands together behind her. "What if I do, Cloud Eagle?"

His eyes danced into hers as he twined a hand through her hair and brought her lips close to his. "Food is not that important to me," he said huskily against her lips. "What else you do is enough to sustain this Apache chief."

"You say that now, but what about later, when I scorch everything I cook and your stomach growls and aches with hunger?" she said in a softly pleading tone.

He shrugged casually. "Then I shall have to bring another wife into my lodge," he said matter-of-factly.

Alicia paled. "You wouldn't," she said, gasping.   When his lips curved into a slow, teasing smile, she knew that he was jesting with her.

She laughed softly, but deep inside where her fears were formed, she knew that she must learn to cook, or he
might
be forced to depend on another woman for the preparation of the meals. If he did this, he might find it simpler to bring her into his household to live. Alicia could become second in his life.

"I shall learn to cook quite well," she said, stubbornly firming her lower lip. "Just you wait and see. I shall conjure up all sorts of delicacies to tease your palate."

He leaned a soft kiss to her lips. "I shall help you," he said. "While on the hunt, away from wives, I have done quite well at warming my belly with food. If I must warm yours also with my cooking, so be it."

He stepped away from her, grabbed his rifle, and walked toward the entrance flap. "What I must do now will not take long," he tossed over his shoulder. "Pity Running Free if my suspicions are founded."

"Running Free?" Alicia whispered, unfamiliar with that name. She watched Cloud Eagle leave, then sat down beside the glowing embers in the fireplace. Slowly she began adding wood, her eyes again moving to the cooking paraphernalia. She knew not one pot or container from the other, or how they should be used.