by Peggy Webb
“Do you like that?” His hands kept up the erotic movements, and Callie nodded, moaning. “I see that you do.”
Setting the harmonica aside, he took her rigid nipples deep into his mouth and suckled until she was moaning and wet with need.
Then he reached for the rose.
One by one he tore the rose petals apart. The first he placed on her lips, the second over her heart, the third on her navel, and the fourth in that deep secret place he had branded his own.
And one by one he claimed them. His mouth closed over hers, and for a small eternity he nibbled at the rose petal and all it covered. Then he lifted himself over her, eyes blazing as he followed the rose path downward.
Intense pleasure flooded Callie. She tangled her hands into his hair and arched upward like a fish.
“Callie, Callie, my love,” he murmured. His eyes glowing, he finally lifted his head.
“Fly with me,” he whispered.
“Yes,” she said.
And she did.
She opened herself like blossoms in her grandmother’s garden, opened her heart, her body, her mind for the magnificent Sioux who thrust himself deep into her womb and planted his seed.
Languid, sated, she lay against the pillows while he smiled into her eyes.
“What’s the feather for?” she whispered.
Joseph’s laughter echoed around the room.
“How I love a greedy woman.”
Callie smiled. “Show me.”
And he did.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Five days after Joseph’s arrival in the White Mountains, Calder and Ricky returned from their camping trip. Riding down the steep trail on Sugarplum, Ricky sang old Apache chants Calder had taught him.
Callie and Joseph heard them coming.
Calder drew the docile mare to a halt in Callie’s front yard, then helped his grandson off the horse. Ricky took the front porch steps two at a time.
“Callie, listen to this.” He burst through the front door. “Granddaddy taught me…”
His sneakers skidded on the floor, and for a moment he was dumbstruck. Then he launched himself at Joseph, who caught him and spun him high in the air.
“How are you doing, pal?”
Ricky, still speechless, could do nothing but laugh.
Calder came into the room and put his arm around Callie’s waist.
“Looks like things went well with the two of you, Daughter.”
“You knew?”
“I not only knew, I gave my blessing. Don’t look so thunderstruck. Did you think a man like Hawk would not ask me for my daughter’s hand in marriage?”
He kissed Callie’s flushed cheek. “I said yes. Did you?”
“He hasn’t asked yet. At least, not in so many words.”
In the middle of the room, Joseph and Ricky still spun round and round, both dizzy with excitement and laughter.
“Action. That’s what counts.”
The human whirligig finally came to a halt. Breathless, Ricky looked up at Joseph with pure adoration and a smile as big as Texas.
“I knew you’d come,” he told Joseph.
“You did?”
“Yeah. Me ’n God talked about it.” Ricky cocked his head to one side. “Are you gonna be my daddy?”
Joseph had never known it was possible for a man’s heart to be so full. Unbidden, he had a spirit vision, and in it he saw the Hawk spreading his protective wings over the woman he loved, and her children.
His eyes sought Callie, the center of his universe, his heart, his life, his future.
“If you and Callie will have me,” he said.
“Yes, yes, yes,” Ricky chanted, dancing about the room.
Callie smiled. “Yes,” she said. “Now and forever.”
Joseph strode across the room and brushed the object he’d pulled out of his pocket across her lips.
It was the feather of a hawk.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-4889-2
SUMMER HAWK
Copyright © 2000 by Peggy Webb
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