Untamed (27 page)

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In the tipi with the women who were fussing and giggling over her, Josie finally began to relax and enjoy herself a little. After they'd discarded her buckskin shirt and trousers and washed her, they covered her in a splendid dress of the softest elkskin imaginable. The fringed bodice was decorated with white, black, red, and yellow beads, the four sacred Cheyenne colors that Daniel had sewed onto her boots. Those were exchanged for another pair of high winter moccasins with fringed flaps that were also made of elkskin and decorated with beads in a pattern that matched the dress. When she sat down again, careful to rock back on her heels the way Daniel had instructed, an older woman began to drag a porcupine-tail brush through Josie's hair, and another got busy painting red dots on her cheeks.

The third, a young girl who seethed utterly fascinated by Josie's pale skin and freckles, approached her with a parfleche full of trinkets and jewelry after the painter had finished. Motioning for Josie to hold out her hands, the girl began to push a series of brass rings and bracelets onto her fingers and wrists. When her hands and arms were sufficiently weighed down with glittering baubles, the girl crawled around back to where the old woman continued to brush her hair, and then helped her to plait it into two braids that hung down the front of the dress. They left her hair unadorned and completed the wedding costume by adding a three-tiered necklace made of porcupine quills and colorful beads.

After they'd finished with her, the women shooed Josie out of the tipi and into the waning afternoon sunlight. Chattering among themselves, they linked hands and ran up behind her, bumping against her bottom.

"What?" she said, trying to push them away. Again they bumped her bottom. "You want me to sit on your arms?"

She squatted slightly, pretending to sit, and they nodded enthusiastically. Shaking her head, Josie backed away from the tangle of women. "Appreciate the offer, but no thanks. I'd just as soon walk as be paraded in front of a bunch of heathens like some kind of prize."

Despite her refusal, the armchair continued to follow her, some of the human links babbling excitedly, others giving orders. Then suddenly the older woman broke away from the human chair and came at Josie, muttering sharp, harsh words that transcended the language barrier.

"And the same to you, you old bitch," she snapped back without thinking.

The old woman responded by slapping her across the face.

Josie's first instinct was to punch the weathered squaw in return, but common sense prevailed. Any form of retaliation would undoubtedly be taken as an invitation for the others to pounce on her. With four against one, it wouldn't take them long to pummel her into the ground. Or worse. There was only one thing to do—find Daniel.

Turning on her heel, Josie hurried toward the lodge he'd pointed out. As she bent over to open the flap, the old woman grabbed her from behind and pulled her away from the tipi. This time instinct did take over.

"Take your hands off of me and leave me alone."

As the squaw barked hateful words in her ear, Josie whirled around, locked heels with her, and then gave a mighty shove, tripping the woman into falling backward. While her victim sat stunned on the ground, Josie returned to the tipi, tore back the flap, and stepped inside the large lodge.

A small fire burned at the center of the room, and the air was bitter with the flavor of tobacco. The smoke made it difficult to see, but she recognized the shadowy figures of no less than ten Cheyenne warriors sitting cross-legged in a circle. She couldn't make out any of their features, but all eyes were on her as she stood there, knees knocking. Remembering Daniel's advice, she moved to the left.

"Ah—afternoon, gentlemen," she said, wondering if she hadn't made a mistake in coming here. "Don't bother to get up on my account. I was just wondering if I might have a word with my husband. Is he here?"

In the midst of a sudden profusion of male chatter she couldn't understand, Josie heard Daniel's voice coining from somewhere in the shadows. "Yes, unfortunately, your husband is here. What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Following the sound of his voice, Josie picked him out of the darkness. "I'm having a little trouble with these fool women outside. You said you'd be here if I needed you. What did I do to get these fellahs so riled up? I went left like you said."

"I didn't say you could come inside this particular tipi, and you are never to just waltz into any lodge unannounced if the flap is closed. Never."

As her eyes grew used to the darkness, Josie realized that the malevolent stares she'd been expecting had finally descended upon her. "Sorry. I didn't know."

"You sure as hell know now." Daniel sighed heavily, then said something in Cheyenne to big-bellied Indian seated directly across from him. After he got to his feet and picked his way through the men to where Josie stood, he took her by the arm and escorted her out of the tipi.

The minute they were outside, the group of women converged on Daniel, each of them firing a steady stream of complaints as they pointed accusing fingers at Josie. The old woman got in the most licks, and finally finished her tirade with arms folded tightly across her breasts.

"What did she say about me?" Josie asked. "All I did was refuse to be carried around by them. The old woman even hit me, trying to make me sit on their arms."

"You really got them mad," Daniel said, glancing from the women to Josie. "They were just trying to carry the bride to the feast, as is the custom."

"If that's a custom, then you should have told me about it."

"Yes, I should have," he conceded, furrowing his brow anyway. "Did you knock the old lady to the ground?"

She hesitated as long as she could. "Sort of."

He nodded. "She's pretty pissed about that."

"She had it coming. She's the one who slapped my face."

"That doesn't matter," Daniel said, still stern. "You'll have to make amends somehow. They like your pretty red hair—a lot."

"You—you mean they want to scalp me?"

"I don't think so, but then again, I'm afraid you picked a mighty ornery female to piss off. Maybe if you let me cut a length of your hair as a present for her, she'll calm down a little."

Josie glanced at the old woman. Her arms were still crossed over her chest, her nose was tilted up, and her mouth was set in a firm, hard line. There was no way that woman was going to get so much as a strand of her hair. "Over my dead body."

"I'm sure that She Bear would consider that amends enough." Daniel turned to the old woman and began to speak in that funny, choppy way.

"Wait a minute," Josie said. "I didn't mean that. Go ahead, cut off whatever you think she wants."

"Now you're learning. Excellent decision, sweetheart."

"Just get on with it," she snapped in a whisper. "Before that bitch takes it in her head to come get the hair herself."

Daniel took a knife from the scabbard he wore at his hip and quickly shortened each of her braids by a couple of inches. He then dropped the severed sections into her palm, removed the thongs from each, and used the bits of leather to tie the now-reduced plaits in place.

"I suggest," he said, sheathing his knife, "that you make the offering yourself. Just be careful about the name-calling. I think she has a very good idea what a bitch is. I've used that term on her a time or two myself."

Josie had taken a step toward the woman, but paused to look back at Daniel. "Why would you have used that name on her?"

"Because she's my mother-in-law," he explained. "And believe me, they don't call her She Bear for nothing."

Josie turned back toward the old woman with new respect, to find that She Bear was glaring at her though narrow eyes as black and hard as coal. Keeping her distance, she held out the severed tails of her braids. "These are a gift. I'm sorry if I offended you."

The old woman lunged toward her, snatched the hair out of her hand, and then retreated with her prize. As she flaunted her new possession to the other women, Josie said to Daniel, "Don't you think you might have mentioned She Bear's relationship to you before you left me at her mercy?"

He shrugged. "I didn't think she'd be so jealous of you or your hair."

Behind him the women began to grumble, old She Bear the bitch in particular. Daniel glanced at them, said something in rapid-fire Cheyenne, and then turned back to Josie.

"You'd better wipe that scowl off your face," he warned. "My Cheyenne family and friends will forgive you for the mistakes you've made here today, but I don't think they're that all-fired fond of you just yet."

Josie didn't have to be told twice. She immediately lowered her head and assumed a more humble demeanor. She even managed to stay that way for the rest of the afternoon and all through supper, a surprisingly tasty, if meager meal that included a portion of fish, a small chunk of beef, a turnip, and some unleavened bread made of cornmeal that was smeared with a paste of wild berries. When the wedding feast was over, she and Daniel were escorted to a tipi on the fringes of camp, and then left to themselves.

After they'd ducked inside the dwelling, Josie immediately noticed that someone had been there before them to build and light a fire in a ring at the center of the room. Instead of the dirt floor she expected, the ground was covered with a raised mat carpeted with buffalo hide. A pair of grass-covered sod benches sat to each side of the entrance, accommodations for visitors, she assumed. A single bed made of buffalo fur and blankets occupied the back wall of the tipi. All in all, the dwelling was, like the other tipis, surprisingly civilized.

"What do you think?" asked Daniel, guessing the direction of her thoughts.

"It's... nice. Very nice."

"It belongs to Long Belly, who usually lives here when he's not out chasing buffalo or taking care of me." He began to undress as he spoke, removing his jacket and shirt, then folding them carefully and setting them on one of the sod benches, "One day he'll share this home with a wife, I suppose, if he ever makes up his mind to marry."

He tugged off his boats, dropped them near the door flap, and crossed over to where Josie stood. Firelight flickered over his naked chest, defining the hard ridges of muscle beneath the otherwise smooth, slick skin of his hard belly and shoulders. He was magnificent and, it suddenly occurred to Josie, he was also hers to do with as she pleased—and if she didn't know another thing, she had learned much about pleasing this man. She swallowed hard and began to fiddle with her brass rings.

Daniel took her hands into his. "Let me help you with those."

Then, every touch a tender caress, he slowly slipped the bracelets from her wrists, never taking his eyes from hers, and brought her hands to his lips when he finished. Instead of simply removing her rings, Daniel took each of her fingers into his mouth and worked the brass baubles loose with his tongue as he sucked them off, one at a time. Before he was half finished, Josie's knees had turned to jelly and an earthquake had begun somewhere deep inside her belly.

"Daniel," she said, breathless with need. "Let's go to bed."

"Soon." Smiling crookedly, he pulled the thongs from her braids, then unplaited and smoothed her hair with his fingers. "I hated having to cut your hair today, but I see that it's still as beautiful as ever. So are you."

Josie raised her chin, looked him in the eye, and slowly ran her tongue over her upper lip. "Now?"

Daniel leaned into her, enveloping her with his heat and his scent, robbing her of the ability to think. Lowering his head, he nuzzled the side of her neck and drew in great breathfuls of her skin, as if he couldn't get enough of her scent. When he brought his lips back to her mouth, kissing her with a passion that rocked her soul, Josie felt as if every bone in her body had melted away.

All through their previous experiments in pleasure, she'd never let Daniel see her naked body. The thought alone made her feel too vulnerable and submissive, as if stripping herself were tantamount to handing him the reins of her life. Still, as Daniel pulled away from her, then began to lift her dress over her head, Josie forced herself to allow him this much, and didn't even object when he opened her chemise, exposing her breasts to his gaze and his hands.

"You really are a beauty, Josie," he said, admiration shining in his eyes. "Absolutely splendid."

She fell into his arms, rubbing her naked breasts against his smooth, warm chest, and Daniel responded by slipping one of his hands between their bodies.

His palm cupping her breast, thumb circling and teasing the nipple, he whispered, "You feel good, so soft, so..."

He finished the sentence with his head buried between her breasts, but Josie couldn't make out the words. By then Daniel's mouth had gone to the hard little nub his fingers had made of her nipple, and his tongue began to circle it in place of his thumb. A bolt of sheer, unbridled desire shot through her, arching Josie's spine and sending spasms of pure pleasure throughout her lower belly. Caught up in the sensations, alternately wishing that Daniel would end this torment and hoping that he never would, it occurred to her that he might not have been kidding about his end of the bargain. Was it possible that he really did expect more than the usual from her this night?

Daniel wanted her as much as ever, that much was certain. And it wasn't just the heat of his rigid sex pushed against her belly that told her he was highly aroused, more so than he'd ever been before. She felt it in his voice, in the electricity of the air around him, and in the hot puffs of his breath against her skin. Surely he hadn't deluded himself into believing that she planned to submit completely to his desires.

Pushing away from him with the last of her strength, Josie drew her arms to her breasts and said, "Just what do you expect from me tonight?"

Reeling from the want of her, at first Daniel didn't understand what she was trying to say. Desire for this woman, hotter than anything he'd ever known, had him fully in its grip. He felt drugged, hot blood pooling heavily in his groin. The tantalizing glimpses she'd allowed of her breasts did nothing to cool his ardor,