Savage Spirit (6 page)

And fearing these new feelings, she turned her back to him. She inhaled a shaky, nervous breath and closed her eyes.

But sleep would not come to her.

She kept seeing, feeling, and wanting him.  

While the gray before dawn still ghosted the land, distorting shapes of cactus and bush, Cloud Eagle awakened Alicia.

She blinked her eyes open with a start, momentarily disoriented. And then, as she gazed up into midnight-dark eyes and a smile that warmed her through and through, she remembered where she was.

"It is time to move onward," Cloud Eagle said. He awakened Snow, drew the coyote into his arms, and gave her a bear hug, then shoved her away. Snow meandered off and joined Gray down by the stream to take her morning drink of water.

Alicia yawned, stretched her arms above her head, then sat up. She groaned when pain shot through her wound as she moved her leg too much in one direction.

Yet she realized that the pain was not half as   bad as yesterday. She had to admit that Cloud Eagle's medicinal herb had helped her.

"The pain will be almost totally gone by tomorrow," Cloud Eagle said. When he saw that she was trying to get up, he stopped her by placing his hands gently on her shoulders. "Stay. I will bring water and food to you."

"I imagine I should say thank you," Alicia said, combing her hair back from her eyes with her fingers. "But I would not even be here if not for you and your renegades, so I won't waste my breath."

Cloud Eagle gave her a hard, perturbed stare, then went to his horse and took several things from his buckskin pouch.

Alicia watched him carry a small wooden dish to the river and fill it with water. She watched him place a cloth in the dish and bring it back to her.

"Bathe as best you can today with this, and tomorrow, when your leg is better and we are at my stronghold, I will carry you into the river for a true bath," Cloud Eagle said, placing the dish of water next to her.

Cloud Eagle left her to her privacy in the small shelter. She continued to watch him as he walked toward the stream.

Then, embarrassed, she gasped when he dropped his breechclout to the ground and stepped out of his moccasins, leaving him stark naked.

Her heart pounded at the sight of his nude body. She had never seen a man undressed before, especially a man who already disturbed her heart in too many strange ways.

Realizing just how well-built he was in places that she had never seen before, she inhaled a   quavering breath and covered her mouth with one hand.

"Good Lord, are all men as well-proportioned as that?" she whispered, her face hot with a blush.

She watched him wade into the stream. He then sat down in the water and splashed it over his muscular shoulders and chest.

Mesmerized, Alicia continued watching, forgetting that she had her own bath to attend to. This handsome Apache had not only stolen her breath away this morning, but most certainly had taken her heart as well. Not until now did she realize that wanting a man could be so exciting. The proof of that was in how her pulse raced and her heart pounded.

"Alicia Cline, shame on you for such sultry thoughts," she whispered to herself.

When he rose to his full height, the water rippling along his copper flesh, she was in awe of him all over again.

He turned suddenly toward her.

Their eyes met and held.

Alicia was afraid that he could read her thoughts by the expression on her face and by the blush on her cheeks. Embarrassed anew, she turned her eyes quickly away.

But shutting him out of her sight did not erase him from her memory. As she began to scrub her face with the soft cloth, she fought longings that she had never felt before.

And she hated it that Cloud Eagle had caught her staring at him. If he did lust after her, she might have just encouraged him to try his hand at kissing her. If so, what then might he try with her?   Her heart skipped a beat when she focused her thoughts once again on that part of his anatomy that stirred her imagination to thoughts that she had always been taught were sinful.

''Mama," she whispered, as though her mother were there to listen. "Surely you enjoyed sinning with father. You always went to bed with him so eagerly and willingly."

She nodded, as though her mother were there, responding. "Yes, Mama, I know that you had a wedding band on your finger when you bedded with Papa," Alicia whispered. She rolled her sleeves up to wash her arms. "But Mama, surely you felt the same as I before those vows. It is such a delicious feeling, Mama, when I think of being held within Cloud Eagle's arms. And when I think of touching him where he is so different from me, a strange, wondrous thrill overwhelms me."

Cloud Eagle left the water. He drew on his breechclout and stepped into his moccasins. He straightened his hair over his shoulders as he walked toward Alicia.

When he got close enough to hear her, he cocked an eyebrow, wondering who she was talking to. Perhaps one of her Gods that he did not know about?

He shrugged and sat down with her inside the shelter.

"We must be on our way soon," he said, interrupting Alicia's pretended conversation with her mother. "The heat will be with us most of the day. Do you think you can withstand such heat?"

"If you can, so can I," Alicia said, shoving the basin of water toward him. "I would think you would know by now that I am not a fragile flower that wilts in the sun."   Cloud Eagle chuckled.

He gave Alicia a piece of jerky from his small bag. He watched her tear a piece of it away with her teeth. He was amazed at how eagerly she ate. She ate ravenously and as much as he did.

Yet she was so tiny. He knew that if he placed his hands around her waist, surely his fingertips would meet.

Alicia ate hungrily and smiled awkwardly at Cloud Eagle when she caught him watching her. The memory of how he had looked without his breechclout seemed stuck in her thoughts. Surely he was recalling her staring at him, or why else would he be gazing at her in such a way?

When he returned her smile, she looked away from him. Suddenly her appetite was gone. What she truly wanted was to experience how it would feel to be kissed by him. She knew that she was wrong to allow her thoughts to wander so when she still suspected that he might be one of the renegades who had ambushed her.

Yet moment by moment she was coming to doubt that he was capable of such a horrendous act as that. Or else why would he continue to treat her as though she were a princess? If he had wanted her only to take advantage of her body, he would have not waited this long. He would have forced himself on her the moment they were left alone. He may have even left her to die after he had fed his manly hungers.

But he was still behaving like a gentleman. Except for disrobing in front of her. Had that been to titillate her thoughts in order to draw her into seduction? she wondered.

Or was it a natural thing for Indians to undress in front of one another?   She was grateful for one thingthat he had not asked her to get undressed for her bath. Yet he
had
said that he was going to carry her into the river for a bath later.

Certainly he would not do it while she was fully clothed!

Snow and Gray came and sat down between Cloud Eagle and Alicia. Cloud Eagle gave them some jerked meat, then gave each of them a pat as they began chewing their morning meal.

Having eaten all that she wanted, Alicia reached a hand to Gray and stroked his thick gray fur.

She smiled down at the coyote when he offered her a grateful look. If coyotes could smile, Alicia thought, this animal with friendly eyes would be smiling. It was obvious that Cloud Eagle spoiled both pets rotten. And they returned the favor by being devoted to him and those whom he befriended.

"You are no longer frightened of my coyotes?" Cloud Eagle asked, reaching to pat Gray himself.

"I especially like Gray," Alicia said, her heart lurching when her hand accidentally grazed Cloud Eagle's as he continued gently patting Gray's head. She could feel her face become hot with a blush when her eyes met and held Cloud Eagle's. Her heart beat thunderously within her chest when Cloud Eagle reached his hand over Gray and twined his fingers through Alicia's hair and drew her lips close to his.

When their lips met in a sweet and tender kiss, Alicia felt as though she were soaring. She closed her eyes and did not draw away when he held her closer, his lips now pressed hard into hers, his tongue darting.   Weakness consumed Alicia. Her thoughts were clouded, making her aware of nothing more than the bliss of his kiss.

Then, remembering her fears of where this might lead, and thinking that this might have been a ploy of his to pull her into wanting to share intimate moments with him, Alicia came to her senses. She wrenched herself away from him.

A wounded look came into Cloud Eagle's eyes as she stared defiantly at him.

"Don't do that again," she said, her voice breaking with emotion. Her heart pounded so hard she felt dizzy. "I'm not something to be used. Surely there are many women at your stronghold who can feed your hungers of the flesh. Just remember that once we arrive there, I am not one of them."

Confused by how she could change from one moment to another, Cloud Eagle took her by the wrists and drew her lips close again. "There are two wives awaiting my arrival," he said, his breath hot on her lips. "Can you say that truly pleases you to know that I have two wives who are very willing to feed my hungers? Or do I see jealousy flash in your eyes at the mention of wives?"

Alicia's mouth dropped open in surprise. She was stunned numb by his confession. "You are married?" she murmured, before she could stop the words from flowing across her lips. "You have two wives?" She could not help but admit to feeling the pangs of jealousy. It was cutting clean into her heart.

"I am an Apache chief," Cloud Eagle said, his eyes dancing. "An Apache chief can take as many wives as he wishes. Perhaps I will make you my third."   Alicia gasped and paled. "Never!" she said in a hiss. "I would share a man with no one."

"Especially Cloud Eagle?" he teased back.

When Alicia did not reply and only sat there, breathless over his nearness, Cloud Eagle once again twined his fingers through her hair and brought her lips to his. He kissed her passionately, then released her.

"Your kiss speaks a different meaning than your words to Cloud Eagle," he said.

He smiled knowingly at her again, then left the small shelter.

Certain now that she was in love for the first time in her life, yet feeling as though it were a wasted love, Alicia watched Cloud Eagle prepare to leave. He took the blanket that he had slept on, shook it free of dust, and slapped it across his horse's broad back. With one hand, he swung the saddle up, buckled the cinches, and tested and dropped the stirrups.

Without any words spoken between them, Cloud Eagle went for Alicia and carried her to the panther-skin saddle. Soon they were traveling again, the coyotes following and playing with one another behind them.

The slow-rising sun was flinging crimson banners across the sky, but the valley was still in chilly shadow. But it did not take long for the sun to become glaring and hot over the eastern rim of the desert.

Alicia was amazed at what the brighter light of day revealed. There were canyons to enter by and canyons to leave by, but she and Cloud Eagle were still surrounded by a high wall. Shadows deepened as they rode into the foothills of the mountain. The flow of a ravine gave off the warm   smell of sweet grass as water splashed from the rocks. They rode past a desert hackberry that was in full foliage, a deer bird picking the yellow berries.

After several more hours of travel, they rode into another narrow canyon. In its depths were lush grass greened by the river's moisture, piñon trees, mesquite, live oak, and wild bursts of flowers carrying a warmth to the cooling air of the higher elevations.

Deep springs were cradled in the canyon. Westward, the horizon swallowed the sun, belching red skyward and turning the desert purple.

Fear grabbed at Alicia's insides when she saw something else. Small fires flared before many apache lodges in the distance.

Alicia was almost used to being with Cloud Eagle, no longer feeling threatened by him, but now that the stronghold was so close, where so many Apache were housed, apprehension crept into her heart again.

There were at least two hundred tepees. They were made from buffalo skins, tanned white, fired by the sun, and swept by the wind. They sat in an uneven line on the bare banks of the Gila River. The Gila was revered by the Apache as the river that flowed into the sunset without end.

Alicia was aware of, and welcomed, Cloud Eagle's comforting arm around her waist as she sat before him in the saddle. But the closer they came to the stronghold, the more her heart pounded with fear of what lay ahead of her, of how she would be received among Cloud Eagle's people.

To put that worry from her mind for now, she looked past the stronghold. In the valley were   vast fields. Indian women were busy working there amidst a bountiful crop of corn, squash, and pumpkins.

Alicia then looked again toward the dwellings in the village. Stunted cottonwoods sat among the tepees, their leaves rustling in the wind with the sound of rain. Several women had stepped to the entranceways of their tepees and had lifted the buckskin flaps, watching their chief bring a stranger into their midst. The children stopped playing long enough to stare. Several dogs met Snow and Gray's approach, barking and bouncing playfully around them.

Spring Dawn and Lost Wind, Cloud Eagle's wives, huddled together at the entranceway of their tepee, slyly watching the white woman.

"Lost Wind, do you see how our husband holds the white woman so possessively?" Spring Dawn said in a harsh whisper. "Red Crow warned us that she was being brought to our stronghold and that Cloud Eagle was looking after her. But he did not warn us about her loveliness, nor about Cloud Eagle's possessiveness of her. What are we to think? What are we to do?"

"It is not easy to see our husband with another woman, especially one whose skin is white," Lost Wind said, fidgeting with the end of one of her braids. She twisted and untwisted it around her finger. "We have neither one given our husband a child which he desires so badly. What if we are abandoned by him? What if he chooses the white woman over us?"