Wild Whispers

by Cassie Edwards

  The way Little Sparrow smiled so devilishly up at her, Kaylene’s curiosity increased.

  With her hands she spoke to Little Sparrow, shaping the word surprise on her lips in a question.

  Little Sparrow giggled and shook her head, refusing to tell Kaylene what the surprise was.

  “Well, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see,” Kaylene said, letting out a frustrated sigh, then laughed softly.

  “There, darling, the roses are beautiful,” Anna said, stepping back to admire her daughter.

  Anna wore a new dress, also, one that she had purchased at San Carlos. To her surprise, only one week ago, several carnival men came to the village and handed her an envelope in which she found several hundreds of dollars.

  The men had sold the carnival. They had brought Anna her share of the money, having kept only enough to tide them over until they got established elsewhere, doing other work.

  Anna had been deeply touched by their generosity. She felt rich, not only money-wise, but also mentally, as well, for never had she been as happy as now.

  Fire Thunder went to Kaylene. He gently framed her face between his hands. He gazed at her, at her flawless features. He had never seen her so vibrant and glowing as now. He so badly wished to cover her moist lips with his mouth, but held back until later, when they would be alone and free to do as they pleased.

  The soft glimmer of her hair spilled over her bare, fair shoulders and tumbled down her back in thick waves.

  The bodice of her dress was low, and he gazed down the front of it, his heart leaping with desire at the sight of her tantalizing cleavage.

  He ran his thumbs over the exquisite, creamy flesh of her cheeks.

  Then his hands rediscovered the delicate contours of her face as she gazed up at him with eyes darkening with the depths of her emotion.

  Again Fire Thunder cradled Kaylene’s face in his hands and brushed a soft kiss across her lips. “Are you ready?” he whispered.

  “I’m somewhat frightened,” Kaylene whispered against his lips. “Should I be?”

  “There is no reason to be,” Fire Thunder said. He eased away from her and took one of her hands. He gave her a smile of reassurance, then left the cabin, with her mother and Little Sparrow following close behind them.

  When Kaylene stepped outside, her breath was stolen away as she looked at what awaited her. While she had been inside Anna’s cabin, getting ready for this special day, a great outdoor fire had been built. Large platters of various types of food had been placed around it. Wild flowers lay strewn along the ground that led to a platform that was also covered with flowers.

  Fire Thunder’s people were all there, smiling, and watching her.

  Something else drew Kaylene’s attention. She gasped when she saw the large pile of gifts that were scattered before the platform, among them everything that she could ever imagine that a woman might need for housekeeping, or to wear.

  She turned joyous eyes to Fire Thunder. “This is a wonderful surprise,” she said, tears filling her eyes. “Everything is beautiful.”

  “My woman, this is not the surprise I was referring to,” Fire Thunder said, his eyes flashing devilishly into hers, with almost the same expression that Kaylene had seen when she had tried to urge Little Sparrow into telling her what the surprise was.

  “Then . . . what?” Kaylene said, her eyes widening. “How could anything else be as wonderful as this?”

  “Come and you will see,” Fire Thunder said, placing his hand at one of her elbows.

  He led her through the crowd.

  She was touched by how some of them reached out and gently touched her, as though she were a fragile doll.

  She could tell by their smiles and gentle expressions that she had been accepted as she had wanted to be accepted. She was one with them in her heart, soul, and being. She was so touched by this, she could hardly keep from crying.

  And her knees were so weak from emotion, she could hardly step onto the flower-strewn platform.

  Once there, with Fire Thunder beside her, she turned and faced the crowd.

  Anna was standing with Little Sparrow among them, Midnight lying at Little Sparrow’s feet, his green eyes on Kaylene.

  Suddenly a young brave, the one that Little Sparrow had pointed out to her one day, as being the one whom she had special feelings for, came to Kaylene.

  Dressed in a buckskin outfit, and smiling broadly up at Kaylene, he handed her a small bird’s nest filled with wild daisies.

  Touched deeply by the sweetness of it, Kaylene reached her hands out and took the nest of flowers. “Thank you,” she murmured, seeing how the young brave’s eyes shifted quickly to Little Sparrow as she moved to his side, smiling.

  Then the young brave lifted his eyes back to Kaylene. He smiled at her again, then stepped back with Little Sparrow into the crowd.

  One by one the people came to the platform, each taking Kaylene’s hand, then telling her which gift that lay beside the platform was theirs. Before it was all over, Kaylene’s jaws ached from smiling so much.

  Then it came to her that something seemed amiss here. No one had yet even mentioned the marriage today. It was as though she and Fire Thunder were already married. It was as though the announcement had already been made. Surely it had not been done in her absence. He had always talked about it as though it was something they would do together.

  Kaylene sent a quick questioning look Fire Thunder’s way. “When will you make the announcement?” she whispered as she leaned next to him. “When are we going to be married? It is as though your people think we are already. Why is that, Fire Thunder? Where is the surprise that you mentioned? I don’t understand.”

  “That is the surprise. We are married,” he said, smiling mischievously at her when he saw her stunned reaction. “My woman, all there is to a Kickapoo ‘marriage ceremony’ is ‘to bind,’ for the formal announcement comes after the marriage has been consummated, which it was, the first time we made love.”

  “What . . . ?” Kaylene softly gasped. “Why didn’t you explain this to me earlier? Why would you not tell me?”

  “Did it truly matter?” Fire Thunder said, taking her hand, squeezing it affectionately. “Do you not recall all of the traumas we have been faced with since we first met? It did not seem important to sit you down and explain to you what does or does not compose a marriage ceremony. What was important was getting to a point where we could celebrate our union with nothing else on our minds that would take away from the joy of it. Today is the right day, the right time for such a celebration for us. So much bad and ugly is behind us, a part of our past. Our future is what we should be concentrating on. And now, when we are among my people, showing them our devotion to one another.”

  “I love you so,” Kaylene murmured, beaming.

  He placed an arm around her waist and drew her close to his side. “Today I make the formal announcement that this woman is my wife!” he shouted, his voice reverberating skyward, reaching the far sides of the mountain, the trees, the streams, and the land that belonged to the Kickapoo.

  The people showed their feelings about his choice by raising their voices in loud cheers.

  Fire Thunder led Kaylene from the platform and once again his people floated past them, each of them taking turns embracing Kaylene and Fire Thunder.

  When Anna came to Kaylene, Kaylene looked deeply into her eyes and saw the intense love this lady felt for her. She drew Anna into her embrace. “I shall always love you,” she whispered. “Mother, thank you for giving me your love as I was growing up, which gave me the ability to love.”

  “I’m glad that you are happy,” Anna murmured. “Your happiness is all I ever wanted out of life. My own never meant all that much to me.”

  “And that is what makes you so special,” Kaylene said, stepping back from Anna. Her eyes blinked. “I was wrong to allow hate for you to enter my heart those few days when I was so confused about so many things. Do you forgive me?”

  �
�You have done nothing to be forgiven for,” Anna said, again slowly drawing Kaylene into her arms. “Child, child, I just wish I could have spared you so many things. It is I who should be asking forgiveness of you.”

  Kaylene clung to Anna, yet her thoughts strayed to someone else—her true mother. She had gone earlier in the day and had sat and talked with Eloisa from the short distance they now allowed themselves, where Fire Thunder himself had built Eloisa a cabin not all that far from his village. Kaylene had shared her happiness with Eloisa then, and her adoptive mother now.

  “Wife?” Fire Thunder said, taking Kaylene by the hand. “Are you through talking with Anna?”

  “Yes, I believe we’ve said all that needs be said for now,” Kaylene said, smiling from Fire Thunder to Anna.

  “I have one more thing that I would like to say,” Anna said. “My darling Kaylene, you don’t know how it thrills me, clean into my soul that you still call me mother. I thought I lost all rights to that when you discovered that your true mother was alive.”

  “Mother, do you not know that that makes me doubly blessed?” Kaylene said softly. “Just how many can boast of having two mothers?”

  Fire Thunder swept Kaylene up into his arms. He started walking away from the crowd, toward his cabin.

  Kaylene looked over her shoulder at all of the people watching them, and then at all of the food that still lay untouched on the platters. “Darling, aren’t we going to join the feast?” she asked, gazing at him. His blue eyes melted her insides as they locked with hers.

  “Who needs food?” he said huskily. “At least for now, my wife, food is the last thing on my mind.”

  Kaylene rested her cheek against his chest, a sensual warmth already swimming through her body. “Yes, who needs food,” she whispered, so contented, she quivered from the intensity of it.

  After they were in their cabin, standing before the fire on a large, outspread bear pelt, Kaylene was the first to initiate undressing. As her eyes locked with Fire Thunder’s, his face a mask of naked desire, she slowly disrobed, teasingly at first, and then more quickly when her desire for him became too strong.

  Her last garment now tossed aside, and her shoes kicked off, Kaylene watched with a feverish heart as he disrobed until he was standing perfectly nude before her.

  Her gaze burned over his naked flesh, greedily absorbing the sight of his muscled limbs, the sleekness of his copper skin, and . . . and that part of him that was already aroused and ready to take her to paradise and back.

  She sucked in a breath of wild rapture. The air was filled with anticipation when he came to her, and his hands moved slowly over her, teasing, stroking, loving the supple lines of her body.

  She closed her eyes and threw her head back in ecstasy when he bent closer and his tongue slowly worshipped her body, beginning with her breasts. His tongue was wet and warm as he licked every inch of her breasts, stopping long enough to pull her taut nipples between his teeth.

  Then when his lips, hands, and tongue moved lower on her body, and he reached her throbbing center, Kaylene swooned from the intense pleasure when he knelt before her and kissed her where she so unmercifully throbbed.

  The kiss was wonderful in itself. But he did something else that made her cry out as though she were in pain. In truth, what he was doing was making her head spin so crazily with pleasure, she could hardly bear it.

  She wove her fingers through his hair and drew his mouth closer, trembling from head to toe with rapture when his tongue flicked and licked rhythmically across her woman’s center.

  “I . . . don’t . . . think I can last much longer,” she managed to say in a husky whisper. She looked wildly down at Fire Thunder. “Please, Fire Thunder, please . . .”

  Seeing her distress, that she was almost over the edge with total ecstasy, and wanting to join her on the journey as though on wings flying to the heavens, Fire Thunder rose to his feet.

  He drew her into his embrace and kissed her. He held her against his hard body as he slowly lowered her to the softness of the bear pelt.

  And when she was spread out below him, he stretched out over her and braced himself with his arms, his hands catching hers. His fingers intertwined with hers, and he held them slightly above her head and entered her in one deep thrust.

  They made love, his hands now beneath her buttocks, lifting her closer as he moved rhythmically within her.

  He touched his tongue to hers, then feverishly kissed her again, his mouth urgent and eager.

  His hands found the soft swells of her breasts. His mouth lowered and his lips fastened on a soft, pink nub, gently sucking.

  The ecstasy building, Kaylene strained her body upward. She drew him even more deeply inside her as he plunged over and over again into her willing, hot flesh.

  Her gasps of pleasure became long, soft whimpers. She felt the pleasure growing again inside her, spreading, filling her with such bliss she wanted it to never end. She clung around his neck. She felt his body trembling, knowing that his ecstasy matched her own.

  Fire Thunder was fighting off reaching the end, wanting it to last forever. He pressed endlessly deeper into her moist channel. He felt the need rising within him, burning with a fierce heat. It was both agony and bliss, these last moments before giving in to the intensity of the final sensual abandonment.

  He slithered his lips down her neck.

  He breathed her name against her flesh.

  His head reeled.

  His lips brushed the smooth, glossy skin of her breasts.

  And then he let it spill forth from within him, this sensual shock that came with the great bursts of passion. He felt it growing, growing, and the final bursting point came when he cried out after finding total fulfillment, his body quivering into hers, hers answering as it rocked and swayed against his.

  And then they lay quietly together for a moment longer, clinging, listening to the laughter and merriment outside their lodge.

  “My people are now dancing,” Fire Thunder said, hearing the rhythmic beat of the drums, and the shuffling of the feet in time with the music. “Shall we join them?”

  “Don’t you mean to say our people are dancing?” Kaylene said, laughing softly when he smiled at her, showing that he understood her meaning.

  “Yes, our people,” he said, chuckling.

  He took her hands and drew her to her feet. Slowly he dressed her, but not in the silk clothing she had worn during the ceremony. Right before Dawnmarie had left for Wisconsin, she had given Fire Thunder a beautiful, white doeskin dress, with the bead designs of the forest flowers sewn on the front.

  “This is a gift from Dawnmarie,” he softly explained. “It was a dress worn by her for special functions. She wanted you to have it. She said that when you wear it, you will remember her, and the friendship that you found together.”

  Kaylene gazed down at the dress, recognizing it, remembering when she had seen Dawnmarie wear it. She grew warm inside at the thought. “She is so special,” she said, choking back a sob. “I hope one day to be able to thank her for this wonderful gift.”

  When it was on her, she ran her fingers over the beautiful beads. “How lovely,” she said, touched deeply by the gift.

  “You are lovelier,” Fire Thunder said, then left the room for a moment.

  When he came back to Kaylene, he held something behind him. “Close your eyes,” he said softly. “Stand still and do not open your eyes until I tell you to.”

  “Another surprise?” Kaylene said, giggling as she closed her eyes. She grew quiet when she felt Fire Thunder pin something to the bodice of the dress.

  “Look now and see,” Fire Thunder said, watching Kaylene’s expression as she gazed down at the brooch. Her eyes were wide. Her lips were parted in a pleased gasp.

  “It’s beautiful,” she murmured, running her fingers over the small, elaborately etched brooch.

  “My woman, this has been in my family for many generations,” Fire Thunder said thickly. “It is a German silver br
ooch. It has been used in conjunction with rhizome to enamor the person one desired. It has the power to catch. It has worked, has it not? I have you, the light of my heart.’”

  “Does the brooch still have the power to ‘catch’ someone?” Kaylene asked teasingly.

  “Yes, always,” Fire Thunder said, chuckling. “Have you not noticed the two little claws which serve to catch the one desired?”

  “I will wear it proudly to keep the man of my desire,” Kaylene said, her eyes dancing.

  “You have me forever,” Fire Thunder said, stepping into his breeches.

  Again he gazed at length at her. “You are ever so beautiful,” he said huskily.

  “Yes, I must admit that I feel beautiful,” Kaylene said. Her laughter rippled as she looked up at him. “And those gifts, Fire Thunder, that your people gave us. I am so very touched by everything and everyone.”

  “They are all gifts from the heart,” he said, pulling his shirt over his head.

  “The bird’s nest filled with daisies was so sweet,” she murmured, as she ran her fingers through her hair in an effort to remove the tangles that lovemaking had created.

  She realized the roses were gone. She gazed down at the bear pelt and found them there, scattered across the pelt, as though they had been purposely placed there for their lovemaking.

  “That gift that you thought was so sweet could have gotten the young brave in trouble,” Fire Thunder said, his eyes twinkling into Kaylene’s.

  “How could it have?” Kaylene asked, her eyes wide.

  “Children are taught not to disturb bird’s nests,” Fire Thunder said, stepping into a moccasin. “But if they find them on the ground, abandoned, that is the difference. When I saw the young brave with the nest, I questioned him. He said that he had found it beneath a tree. No birds or eggs were anywhere near it.”

  The laughter and singing outside drew them. “Let us go outside and join the merriment,” Fire Thunder said, taking her hand, leading her toward the door.