The ride seemed longer tonight than it had in the past, perhaps because the conversation he had just had with his father and brother only intensified the feelings he already had for Wild Rose, and he knew that these passionate encounters could not last forever. Soon they would have to think about the future.
As the sun dropped below the horizon, the heat of the late August day finally began to fade. If they didn’t get some rain soon, the entire land was going to burn up. He had heard that there were wildfires burning in numerous places around Colorado, and in some instances, the whites were trying to blame the Utes for starting the fires. White Owl grunted with disgust. His people would never destroy the land they loved so dearly. But he could not remember a drought that had lasted so long in this part of the country.
As a child he had lived for a time with his mother’s family, the Jicarilla Apaches, in New Mexico. The unusually hot weather this summer reminded him of the heat in the desert of New Mexico. But at least here they had the welcoming shade of the tall oaks and cottonwoods, as well as clusters of aspens that covered the countryside with abundance.
By the time he had reached the secluded area in a thick grove of cottonwoods where he would leave Niwaa, the nighttime temperature had grown cooler. He approached the Adair ranch slowly as his gaze carefully observed every detail that he could make out in the darkness. As had become the habit, Pepper ran out to meet him, tail wagging. White Owl took the time to give the animal a couple of pats on the head.
Everything seemed to be the same as it had been for the past few nights, and knowing that he would soon be holding Wild Rose in his arms made a tremor of excitement race through his body. When he slipped into the dark barn, he was prepared to climb up into the loft to wait for her. She usually showed up a short time after he arrived.
He had barely entered the dark quiet barn, however, when he was almost knocked to the ground. Wild Rose threw herself against him. Her arms wrapped tightly around his neck in a strangling hold. White Owl had barely recovered from his shock when he realized that her attack was not an excited reaction to his arrival. The sound of her sobs made his insides twist. He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and pulled her closer.
“What has happened?” he asked. He was afraid to think that her father had found out about them, because if this was the case he could probably expect to be shot dead at any moment. He glanced around the dark barn nervously.
“You have to take me with you tonight,” she finally choked out through her sobs.
White Owl pushed her away slightly. “Why? You must tell me what has happened? Your father knows—”
Wild Rose shook her head. “No, but it doesn’t matter.” She wiped at the tears streaming down her cheeks. “H-he’s taking me back to Denver, and I won’t go!” She stepped back far enough to point at the brown leather satchel that sat by the doorway. “I’ve packed my things, and I’m going with you tonight. I left my parents a note telling them I had fallen in love with a Ute warrior and that I was going far away from here with him and not to bother looking for me, because they would never find me.”
Her words did not sink in to White Owl’s thoughts for a moment. But as they did, he realized there was no way he could agree to her plan. If her family found out where she really was, they—and every other white man—would think he had abducted her. “No, that is not possible,” he said in a panicked voice.
Even in the shallow light he could see the expression on her face. She turned loose of him and backed away.
“Wait,” he said quickly. “I—”
“You don’t want me to go with you?”
The disappointment and hurt in her voice was obvious. White Owl felt a pang of guilt in his chest. “Yes, I always want you with me. Do you have any idea how it pains me to leave you every morning?”
She drew a trembling breath. “Then why—“
“Your father and dozens of other whites will come after you,” he interrupted. “He will not believe that you came with me willingly, and he will tell the others I took you captive.”
“You want me to go to Denver, then?” Another sob shook her body.
White Owl closed his eyes for a moment as the desperation of this unexpected situation twisted through his heart and filled his mind with confusion. He could not even begin to imagine not having her near. The conversation he had with his father kept echoing through his mind.
He opened his eyes and reached out to pull her up to him again. She came without hesitation and placed her cheek against his chest as her arms encircled his waist. “We will have to figure something out.” He buried his face in the sweet aroma of her red tresses. No, he could not let her go to Denver, or anywhere else, not without him at her side.
“I can’t leave you,” she whispered.
“You have stopped riding out alone. Why does he still want to send you away?”
She squeezed him harder. “He thinks there’s going to be more trouble between the settlers and the Utes soon. He said he doesn’t want to have to worry about me deciding to take off on one of my rides. I promised I won’t, but he said his mind was made up. He wants to leave tomorrow morning.”
The spot on his cotton tunic where she rested her cheek had grown wet from her tears. White Owl began to caress her long hair in comforting strokes. “Tomorrow?” he repeated. His voice was hoarse, and his heart felt as if it had just ceased to beat.
His thoughts were racing with indecision. He knew the consequences would most likely be dire if he took her to his village tonight. But if he didn’t take her with him now, there was no telling when he’d see her again—if ever. This was not an option.
“We should go now,” he said in a voice that sounded much more certain than he felt inside. “Get your pony and meet me on the top of the ridge.” He turned her loose and started toward the door, but then stopped and turned back around. In two strides, he grabbed her by the arms and pulled her up roughly against him. He brought his mouth down on hers with a sense of urgency that he couldn’t explain even to himself. She seemed to sense his mood and threw her arms around his neck again, enslaving him in such a tight embrace that he could barely breathe. Their lips pressed together, hard and demanding.
White Owl wished that they could just climb up to the loft and lose their cares in the pleasure of lovemaking. But tonight change was in the air, and he could only hope that it would not be the beginning of the end for their forbidden love.
Chapter Thirteen
“I’m worried,” Rose said as they rode to his village. “I don’t want to cause trouble for your family. Maybe we should go up into the mountains for a while.”
White Owl gave a sarcastic chortle. “My family—my people—have much worse trouble than us, Wild Rose.”
Rose heard him sigh. She felt a deep ache in her heart. She had no idea what to expect when they reached the village, and she didn’t want White Owl to know how terrified she was of facing his family and friends. He had talked some about his childhood and the customs of his people, but he had told her very little about his family. Her fear of meeting them was not because they were Indians, but rather because she was afraid that they would not approve of her—a white woman.
They spoke very little as they rode, which only increased Rose’s worries. She needed White Owl to reaffirm that they had made the right decision to come with him, but he was solemn and silent. She wanted nothing more than to be with him, but to be with his family and the rest of the Utes in his village was another matter altogether.
“It will be late when we reach the village,” White Owl said after a long silence. “We’ll sleep tonight, and you will meet my family tomorrow.”
“That’s good,” Rose answered, relieved. The few things he had told her about his family had completely evaporated from her mind. Back then, she had been anxious to meet them. Now that their meeting was imminent, she was not nearly as excited. She clutched Molly’s reins tighter in her sweating hands as White Owl led them into the quiet village.
The air was thick with a mixture of smells from campfire smoke to cooked meat, but all the fire pits were nothing more than cold ashes at this late hour. She was certain this had to do with the drought. It wouldn’t be safe to go to bed and chance a stray spark starting a fire. Still, she was amazed that there was no activity in the village, because it couldn’t be much past midnight. The howling of a lone dog somewhere in the distance was the only sound, until she heard coughing coming from one of the tepees. She held her breath until they had ridden past. She wasn’t ready to face anyone yet.
As much as she wanted to be with White Owl, she was beginning to wonder whether she had made a mistake by insisting that he bring her to his village. She trusted White Owl with her life, but now she was among hundreds of other Utes who might not be as friendly toward a white woman. A sense of dread overcame her, but she straightened up in the saddle as she braced herself for whatever was waiting for her when the sun rose.
“This is my tepee,” White Owl announced as he halted Niwaa at one of the many dwellings. “You can wait here, and I will take care of the horses.”
“O-oh, all right,” Rose stammered. He sounded so strange—so much like he regretted bringing her here. She climbed down from Molly’s back and grabbed the leather satchel that held the few personal belongings she had brought with her. He grabbed the reins from her without further comment and led her horse away. She stood mutely in front of his tepee, watching him until both he and the horses had disappeared from her sight.
Unconsciously, she reached up to touch her gold heart necklace. She clutched at the bare skin at her neck . . . in her rush to leave the house earlier she must have forgotten to put it on. A deep sadness filled her at the realization that she had left her cherished memento behind.
Alone, the insecurities that she had been trying to avoid began to overcome her. She started to shake and she had to clench her teeth together to keep them from chattering. The temperature was probably seventy degrees, but she felt as though an icy wind had just engulfed her. Did White Owl feel forced to bring her here with him? Could that be why he was acting so strange now? Maybe he had been content to just see her at night to please his manly urges.
“Wild Rose.” His voice sounded impatient. “Wild Rose,” he repeated. “Are you coming in?”
Rose nodded. She had been so engrossed in her thoughts that she had not even heard him return. As he held the flap of the tepee open for her to enter, she ducked down and stepped inside. It was completely dark, and she could not make out any of her surroundings. She stood rooted to the spot, waiting and shivering, for him to tell her what to do.
When his hand grabbed hers in the darkness, she was so startled that she cried out in terror.
“What is wrong?” he asked as he pulled her close.
“I could ask you the same.” Her voice was trembling and she had no doubt that he could feel how hard her entire body was shaky just by holding her hand.
“Why are you afraid?” His voice was softer now.
She took a deep, quivering breath. “Because it’s obvious you don’t really want me here.”
He sighed loudly. But when Rose tried to draw her hand away, he pulled her up against him so suddenly that she gasped and dropped her satchel on the ground at her feet. She didn’t have time to react as his strong arms encircled her upper body, pinning her own arms to her sides. A moment ago he couldn’t even find words to say to her, and now, he was holding her so tightly that it felt like her ribs were being crushed.
“You don’t know what I want,” he whispered.
Rose could feel the heat of his breath against her hair. The trembling that had been in her whole body a moment ago now settled in her knees and she wasn’t sure they could support her weight. “Tell me, then,” she demanded.
“You. It’s been you since that first day.” He released his enslaving hold on her and leaned back slightly. “But I don’t think you realize what you will be giving up to be with me.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Rose answered. Her heart was thudding frantically in her breast again. All that mattered was that he still wanted her.
He shook his head hard enough that Rose was aware of it even in the darkness of the tepee. “Tomorrow it might matter. When the sun has risen and you have had time to think about your family, your life, all that you will be leaving behind if you should decide to stay with—”
“I know what I want, White Owl,” she interrupted as she pulled away from him. “And if you want me, too, then nothing else matters.”
His response was to pull her in his arms again. “We need to rest now,” he said. “Tomorrow we will have many decisions to make.”
“My decision is made,” she retorted. She could feel his long hair brushing against the sides of her face as he leaned closer. She raked her hands through the raven strands. Almost immediately, he picked her up into his arms, carried her through the darkness and gently lay her down on a bed of furs. The soft bed smelled like him and filled her spinning senses with wanton needs that only this man could fulfill.
Tonight he made love to her only once, unlike the previous nights when they had been together in the loft at her parents’ home. Those nights had been filled with a frantic passion that was fueled by the fear that they might never see each other again. Long before daylight broke, he would be gone and she would be back in her bedroom alone . . . waiting for the next night when, hopefully, he would return. But now, surrounded by his arms, in his world, she knew that when the sun rose over the mountain peaks they would be still be together.
More contented than she had ever felt in her entire life, Rose was held gently in his powerful embrace as she lay her head on her man’s muscled chest and drifted off into a peaceful sleep.
Still tired from the lack of sleep for the past week, she could barely open her eyes when she felt White Owl’s fingertips tenderly smoothing her hair back from her forehead. For a few moments she was too groggy to remember where she was, but she knew immediately whom she was with. As her heavy eyelids struggled to open, she thought momentarily that they were still in the loft and had accidentally fallen asleep. The thought that her father or one of her brothers might discover them caused her to wake fully with a start.
An early morning haze filtering through the smoke hole at the top of the tepee lit the interior with a mellow glow. She blinked and focused on White Owl’s handsome face; his piercing dark gaze locked on hers. Her breath caught in her throat.
“Sorry. I did not mean to startle you,” he said.
Rose ran her tongue along her lips and attempted to smile. The only thing that startled her was the way this man affected every one of her senses. Since she was still enveloped in his arms, it was obvious that neither of them had moved one inch from the other all night long. She was on her side, her naked body fully pressed against him and using his shoulder for a pillow. She marveled at his bronzed beauty in the soft rays of the morning light. His thick waist-length hair was spread out around him on the brown fur, framing his dark face and shoulders.
“You take my breath away,” she finally gasped.
White Owl looked confused for a moment. “Am I that frightening in the morning?”
She giggled. “Not in a bad way.” There was no way she could put into words how she was feeling at this moment. If waking up next to him every day like this was in her future, then she would never regret her decision to come here no matter what the consequences.
Even at this early hour, the heat was uncomfortable, and the interior of the animal-hide dwelling was growing hotter by the minute. But it wasn’t only the temperat
ure that was sweltering.
White Owl pushed the last of the stray hairs away from Rose’s face and then lifted her chin up until she was in reach of his anxious lips. His good-morning kiss engulfed her mouth and every one of her senses. His lips were gentle at first, just barely touching hers. It was the only invitation Rose needed. She reached around his head and pulled herself on top of him and returned his teasing kiss with her own demanding one.
She felt his hands on her buttocks as he positioned her. Her hips moved on their own accord as he entered her. They fit together with perfection and began to move in a rhythm that was slow and sensuous at first, but began to build to a more intense summit as Rose sat up and let his swollen manhood fill her with sweet ecstasy. His hands held her by her hips as they moved with more urgency together, and just as Rose was feeling as if she was going to explode . . .
“White Owl, are you there?”
Rose’s eyes flew open. She clapped her hand over her mouth to keep from crying out at the unexpected and shocking intrusion. Her gaze met with White Owl’s, but he seemed more angry than surprised.
“What do you want?” he growled. He had not released his tight hold on Rose’s hips.
“I heard noises, I—”
“Go away!” White Owl yelled. The fury in his voice was evident.
The building passion Rose had felt just seconds ago was now replaced with embarrassment.
White Owl’s face was a mask of contempt as he glared toward the doorway of the tepee. Rose fully expected to drop dead of humiliation if that flap opened up and revealed their compromising position to the outside world.
“Sorry, my brother,” the voice on the other side replied. A chortle followed and then silence . . . well, the voice was silenced anyway.
Now Rose became aware of all the sounds coming from outside this tiny haven that had sheltered her and White Owl. She could hear many different voices far and near. Obviously, the entire village was awake and—oh Lord! Had they been able to hear them? She had been so engrossed in passion just moments ago that she didn’t even know if she had been crying out loud in sheer ecstasy. The thought made a very weak cry escape from her now.
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