Chapter Twenty

She was swayed in her suppleness to and fro,
By each gust of passion.

—Des Prez

Just as Speckled Fawn left through the entranceway, dropping the flap closed behind her, Blue Thunder turned to Shirleen. “Soon I must leave, but I feel a need to leave you with something that will help you pass the time more peacefully,” he said huskily.

He reached out and drew her into his embrace, all the while gazing down into her eyes. “I want to show you just how much I love you,” he said. “Will . . . you . . . allow it? I want you to see how a man can make gentle love to a woman. I want to be that man. I want you to be that woman.”

“I never wanted or needed my husband in a sexual way,” Shirleen said, on fire inside with needs she had never felt before.

But she had never been in love before.

She had thought she might be in love with Earl, but after their first time together in bed, she had known the horrible mistake she had made by marrying him.

She had been left cold by his hands, his lips, his brusqueness. He had taken her virginity and had not allowed her to feel anything but pain, then dread.

He had taken his pleasure from her body, giving nothing back.

Each time after the first, it had been so quick. He had shoved himself into her a few times, and then as soon as he received his pleasure had rolled away from her, not interested in whether or not she had felt anything.

It had always been one-sided.

All that he had cared about was himself.

She had grown to hate seeing the sun set, knowing what would ensue. She had been so glad when her monthly period arrived, for that would give her some reprieve . . . until Earl had not even taken that into consideration and had forced himself on her anyhow.

The first time she begged him not to, he had used his razor strap on her.

“You seem lost in thought,” Blue Thunder said. He placed a hand beneath her chin and lifted it so that they could look into each other’s eyes. She had lowered them as she became lost in sordid memories.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, near tears. “I . . . I . . . was wrong to allow my mind to wander at such a time as this, but there is such a difference between the way you treat me and the way I was treated by the man I married. And even though all of this has happened so quickly between you and me, I do love you so, Blue Thunder, and . . . I . . . do want you so badly.”

“I will never harm you in any way,” Blue Thunder said, brushing soft kisses across her brow. “My woman, oh, how I love you. I need you.”

“I am yours,” Shirleen said, smiling sweetly at him as the tears dried in her eyes. She was now only thinking of this wonderful man and the coming moments when she knew she would finally discover how wonderful lovemaking could be.

This man she loved with all her heart was so gentle, so caring, so loving!

She trembled with ecstasy as Blue Thunder slowly, almost meditatively, removed her clothes, bending to one knee to take off her moccasins, slowly, one at a time, while still gazing up into her eyes.

What he did then made Shirleen’s heart skip a beat. She was uncertain whether it was right or wrong; all she knew was the sheer bliss it was causing inside her. He placed his hands at her hips and drew her closer to him, his tongue flicking out and touching, then caressing, that part of her which had only now come alive.

She threw her head back in ecstasy, moaning with a pleasure she had never known existed, as he continued to caress her there with his tongue.

And then she was aware that he was kissing his way up her body, causing tremors across her belly as his lips touched the sensitive skin there.

And then she felt as though she might melt from sheer ecstasy as he stood and bent his head low, flicking his tongue across the nipple of one of her breasts. He transferred his attention to the other, his hands cupping her breasts, lovingly cradling them.

“What are you doing to me?” Shirleen said in whisper, arching her back in invitation. She reached up and twined her fingers through her hair, lifting it from her shoulders, then let it fall back down again.

“I have never felt anything like this,” she murmured.

“There is so much more to feel,” Blue Thunder said, fully standing now and slowly turning her so that her back was to him.

She gasped with the wonder of it when Blue Thunder began gently kissing her scars, first one and then another, making her feel something far different from the pain that had come when they were inflicted.

As Blue Thunder’s tongue licked each scar so lovingly, Shirleen could not help crying softly at the thought that this man could love her so much, even though she had been so terribly scarred by a madman.

And then he turned her to face him.

She brushed the tears away as she watched him slowly disrobe until his magnificently muscled body was revealed to her eyes in its total nude splendor!

She could not help herself.

She reached out and moved her hand over his muscled arms, his powerful shoulders, and then his hairless, muscled chest.

She saw how the touch of her fingers made his hard body tremble. When she came to that part of him that proved his sex, she blushed at how God had bestowed him with such power even there!

She had only seen one man nude.

Earl.

And he was nothing in comparison.

His manhood was small, sort of wrinkled and shriveled, whereas Blue Thunder’s was, oh, so much larger!

“Touch me there, too,” Blue Thunder said, reaching for her hand and placing it on his throbbing member. “Caress me there.”

Having never tried such a thing before, yet strangely tempted by the thought of doing it, Shirleen gazed bashfully into his eyes. As she slowly wrapped her fingers around him, his heat against her flesh made her eyes widen.

“Move your hand on me,” Blue Thunder encouraged. “For a moment, and then I want to be inside you. I want you to know the gentleness of a man, yet the full pleasure that a man who loves you can give to you.”

Feeling as though she were living a dream, hoping that someone would not suddenly awaken her, she began moving her hand on him. His body shuddered and his eyes closed, making her realize that she was giving him the same sort of pleasure his hands and tongue had given her.

She stroked him for another moment; then he reached down and took her hand away.

He drew her hard against him and enfolded her within his powerful arms. He lowered his lips to hers and kissed her passionately as he used his body to press her down onto the plush pelts and blankets on the lodge floor.

As she lay there on her back, she gazed up at him through a haze of sexual wanting.

He blanketed her with his body, and as he kissed her again, he thrust the magnificent length of his manhood deep within her. Each of his rhythmic strokes brought a newfound ecstasy to Shirleen’s pounding heart.

She sought his mouth with a wildness that was also new to her and kissed him as she twined her arms around his neck and clung to him, almost desperately, meeting each of his thrusts with abandon.

She was clinging, floating, laughing, and crying all at the same time as he rained kisses on her lids and on her hair. His own pleasure was building inexorably within him as he drove into her swiftly, surely.

Shirleen was very aware now of the urgency of his mouth and hands as he again took her mouth by storm, his palms moving seductively over her.

“Please . . . please . . .” Shirleen heard herself say. She was not even sure what she was pleading for, because he was doing everything wonderfully right as far as she was concerned.

He was making certain that she was receiving pleasure, just as she was giving it back to him.

“My woman, how I do love you,” Blue Thunder whispered against her parted lips.

“As I do you,” Shirleen whispered back.

And then he kissed her again.

With a moan of ecstasy, she gave him back the kiss, clinging, moving as he moved, and opening herself more widely to him so that she could feel him even deeper within her.

Blue Thunder could hardly hold back the final throes of ecstasy, for his whole body was on fire with a passion he had never known possible.

But now? While he was with Shirleen? It seemed that everything that had lain dormant within him for so long had awoken. He felt like a true man!

He felt the passion mounting, cresting, and exploding, his body quivering hard into hers as her pleasure matched his. She clung, moaned, and moved in time with his pounding thrusts.

And then it was over.

They both lay breathing hard and clinging to one another.

Their yearnings, their hunger for each other, had been fed.

Blue Thunder felt that he was ready to go and conquer the world for this woman he would always love!

But he knew there was only one thing that needed to be achieved this day. He had to rescue his woman’s daughter.

Shirleen was suddenly aware of movement outside the tepee.

Horses.

She knew that the warriors were taking their steeds from their corrals and readying themselves for travel. She could envision Speckled Fawn on her steed, ready to help rescue Shirleen’s precious Megan.

“I wish I could go with you,” Shirleen said. She sat up and pulled a soft blanket around her shoulders as she watched Blue Thunder quickly don his fringed buckskin clothing, and then his fringed moccasins.

She stood up, and the blanket fell to the floor around her feet. She wove her fingers through the thick locks of his hair, straightening it so the strands hung long and smooth down his back.

He swept his arms around her waist and drew her powerfully to him. “It is best that you stay and wait for your daughter to be brought to you,” he said hoarsely. “And I promise you that she will be with you, soon.”

She clung to his neck and pressed her cheek to his powerful chest, the buckskin of his shirt soft against her face. “I will miss you so,” she murmured, near tears. “I will pray for you and your warriors, and also for Speckled Fawn, the dear, courageous woman that she is.”

“I will take the memory of what we just shared with me,” Blue Thunder said, his eyes twinkling as he gazed down into hers. “Those memories will sustain me until we are together again in our blankets. My woman, I say to you that this will be soon. Your daughter will be sleeping near us in her own nest of blankets in this lodge. We will hang a blanket to secure both her privacy and ours when it comes time to go to our beds.”

“I will hold on to that thought while you are gone,” Shirleen said, smiling into his eyes.

“Dress, my woman, so that you can see me off,” Blue Thunder said, hurrying to his cache of weapons.

As Shirleen dressed, Blue Thunder sheathed a knife at his waist.

Then he grabbed up his rifle and returned to Shirleen, who was now fully clothed.

“I am ready,” she said softly. “I will try not to allow myself to worry too much while you are gone.”

“Worrying is for the weak,” Blue Thunder said firmly. “And, woman, you are anything but weak.” His eyes roamed slowly over her; then he chuckled as he gazed into her eyes again. “You might be tiny, but you are not weak. You have proven to me that you are a woman of much passion . . . much courage.”

She blushed and laughed softly, then left the tepee with him.

Just as he started to mount his steed, which had been readied for him by a small brave whose role it was to tend to Blue Thunder’s horses, someone came running up to him.

Blue Thunder turned and gazed at Moon Star, the woman who had been left in charge of Dancing Shadow while Speckled Fawn was away. Then he looked at Speckled Fawn, who was already mounted on her steed beside Blue Thunder’s.

“What is it?” Blue Thunder and Speckled Fawn said in almost the same breath.

“Dancing Shadow has taken a turn for the worse,” Moon Star said, and a strange silence fell suddenly all around her.