Lifting Danielle’s head Wolfrunner cupped his hands in the water and held it to her lips. She stirred and her eyes fluttered open.
For a moment there was confusion written in her beautiful blue eyes. When she saw the look of concern on Wolfrunner’s face, she smiled weakly.
“Are we not dead?” she whispered through parched lips. “Do I walk among your spirit world?”
Wolfrunner laid her back on the grass. “It would seem the Great One smiled on us today. We should be dead, but we somehow survived.”
“It was because of you that we live,” she said, sitting up. A grimace of pain flickered across her face and she reached down to her ankle. “How was it possible that the whole prairie caught on fire?”
Wolfrunner’s eyes traveled across the river where earlier he had seen a lone Indian watching him, and he knew it had been his old enemy. “Scar Face set the fire. He must be very angry that we refused to die. He will try again.”
Danielle’s eyes searched the darkness. “Will he come tonight?” she asked fearfully.
“No, he is a coward and knows we will be watching for him. He will strike from behind when we least expect it, so we must always be on watch for him.”
Danielle tried to stand, but pain shot through her ankle and Wolfrunner pushed her backward. “You will rest and I will tend you. Why did you not tell me you were in pain? I can see this is very bad.”
“Would you have stopped for me had you known that I was injured?” she asked.
He plunged her feet into the cool river water and stood up. “I will find the soothing herb that will help you heal. It will be best if we remain here until you are well enough to travel. If you would have told me you were hurt today, we would not have to lose valuable time now.” His voice was cold, and Danielle shivered at the anger on his face. She didn’t know how to please him. If she had told him of her injury today, he would have accused her of complaining. Now, he claimed it was her fault they would lose time getting back to the village. Apparently anything she did would anger him.
Danielle watched Wolfrunner disappear, knowing he wouldn’t be far away. He might have threatened to leave her in the past, but she now knew he never would have. He had protected her with his own life today. She had never known a man like him. She wished she knew the words to say to him to let him know how grateful she was. She had come to know him well enough to realize he wouldn’t welcome her gratitude. What a proud man he was. Could no one break through that wall he erected about himself?
Danielle was experiencing a way of life that was as different from the way she had been brought up as day was different from night. Here in this lovely land of her Indian ancestors, she had lost her identity, but found herself. She had slowly been molded into a girl her friends would never recognize. Wolfrunner had helped her find the meaning of who she was. It didn’t matter to her any longer that she would be considered a half-breed. To her surprise she found herself feeling that she belonged to this land. It was as if she had been searching for something and someone all her young life. The something was the land of her mother’s people, the someone was Wolfrunner!
I love him, she thought. I love this man who has stood many times between me and death. She knew she could never tell him how she loved him—he would only scoff at her feelings. In the new person she had become, Danielle knew that she could be strong. She could face whatever the future held for her with pride and dignity.
How brave and noble Wolfrunner was. It would never have occurred to him to leave her today to save his own life. Again she found herself wanting to learn more about this man who had become her savior.
A short time later, Wolfrunner returned to her. He came so quietly out of the shadows that he startled Danielle. Sitting down beside her, he lifted her feet out of the river and gently dried them off. Danielle watched as he crushed some kind of leaves in the palms of his hands and then rubbed them on the bottoms of her feet. After that was done, he ripped a strip off her skirt and bound it tightly about her ankle.
“If you keep tearing my clothing, I will be wearing very little when we reach the village.” Her smile told him she was teasing, but he didn’t seem amused.
“White women wear too many clothes. It is not good to cover the body when the sun is hot.”
“Well,” she said, looking down at the once expensive gown, that now came just above her knees. “You couldn’t say I was overdressed.”
He caught the humor in her voice, and inside he smiled, even though the face he turned to her held a grim expression. His eyes ran the length of her shapely leg, from foot to calf, and he quickly looked back to the binding on her foot.
When he was satisfied he had done all he could to make her comfortable, he bathed her face once more to remove the remaining smudges. “You must try to rest now. By tomorrow you will feel much better, I think.”
When he would have risen, she placed her hand on his arm. “Stay with me,” she whispered. “I don’t want to be alone. Could we talk?”
Wolfrunner’s dark eyes sought hers, and Danielle thought she detected a softness there. He said nothing as he stretched out on the grass beside her. Reaching out her hand, she found his and laced her fingers through it. He didn’t pull away as she expected. Somehow they seemed bound together in that moment. They had faced death today; tonight they had been blessed with another chance at life.
Danielle sighed and closed her eyes, immediately falling asleep. She didn’t know when Wolfrunner drew her into his arms, nor did she feel his lips brush against her cheek to rest at the side of her mouth.
Wolfrunner could feel his senses reeling. He felt as if he held the world in his arms. How easily he could have lost this wonderful gift today. Had the Great One placed her in his keeping for a reason? His hand wandered up to her silken hair. His heart felt as if it were overflowing. He wanted this woman—he needed her—she was the breath of life to him. His hand wandered down to her soft cheek. No, she wasn’t for him. She was a princess of his people. Even though he was the son of a powerful war chief, Danielle was as far from him as the invisible line that separated his world from the white world. He could only have her for the short time that it took for him to get her safely back to the village. Then she would be lost to him forever.
Wolfrunner’s body craved the closeness that was denied him. Sitting up, he moved down to the river and bathed his face in the cool water. He must not think of her. His only purpose was to keep her safe.
His eyes traveled across the river, knowing Scar Face was out there watching him. His trials were not yet over, nor would they be, until either he or Scar Face lay dead!
Danielle awoke with the sun shining on her face. Stretching her arms above her head, she smiled to herself. She had slept soundly all night and felt rested and refreshed. Rising slowly to her feet, she hobbled down to the river, cupped her hands, and took a cool drink.
Glancing about her, she looked for Wolfrunner, but apparently he was off scouting the area.
Turning her eyes toward the prairie, she gasped at what she saw. It was a wasted desert land now. Yesterday it had offered sanctuary and food to numerous kinds of wildlife. Today nothing could live on the ugly blackened land. Danielle shivered, knowing that if Wolfrunner hadn’t saved them yesterday, their bones would soon be bleaching in the scorching sun.
Danielle looked down at her feet. Although they still bothered her, the herbs Wolfrunner had put on them had gone a long ways toward easing the pain.
Danielle’s hearing had become attuned with the sounds about her. This time when Wolfrunner came up behind her, she heard his footsteps.
Placing the rabbit he had killed down on a rock, he smiled at her. “I have brought you a surprise, Danielle.”
The biggest surprise for her was that he called her by name instead of “white girl.” “What is it?” she asked, her eyes dancing with anticipation.
Pulling his hand from his back, Wolfrunner extended it out to her. Curled up in his palm was a tiny gray rabbit with a whi
te cotton tail.
“Oh, the dear thing,” she cried, taking the animal in her hand and raising it to her face. “Its fur is so soft. Where did you find him?”
“It is a she,” he corrected. “I fear I unknowingly killed her mother. I try never to kill an animal if I know it has young to feed.”
Danielle sat down on the grass and stroked the rabbit gently while talking to it softly. “I am going to call her Cottontail,” she said, smiling up at Wolfrunner.
He raised a dark eyebrow. “Not a very original name.”
“I don’t care, I like her. May I really keep her?”
“That is what I intended. She is young enough not to be afraid of you.”
“What will we feed her?”
“Grass, green leafy plants, and clover. You will have no trouble finding food for her.”
She noticed for the first time that he was stacking wood to build a fire. “Let me do that,” she said, placing her newfound friend on the grass and bending down beside Wolfrunner.
“No,” he said, picking Danielle up and sitting her beneath the shade of a tree. “Until you are recovered, I will take care of you.”
She watched him turn away, wishing he would always take care of her. Danielle noticed the way his back rippled with muscles as he broke the firewood in half. Her eyes went to his strong hands, and she felt a physical ache for him to touch her.
Turning away, ashamed of her outrageous thinking, she picked up Cottontail and held her next to her heart. She couldn’t touch Wolfrunner, but she could love and caress the living thing that he had given her.
Soon the aroma of cooking meat filled the morning air. Danielle watched Wolfrunner turn the wooden spit so the meat would brown evenly. She couldn’t help but notice he was acting differently toward her today—he was being kind and considerate. How unlike him to bring her the baby rabbit.
Suddenly the irony of it all hit Danielle, and she started laughing. Wolfrunner turned to her with an inquiring glance.
“I was just thinking. Yesterday we were fighting to stay alive. Today we are acting as if nothing ever happened. Life is strange sometimes.”
He said nothing, but turned back to remove the rabbit from the spit. Carrying it over to Danielle, he sat down and offered her a piece of meat.
“No!” she exclaimed, shaking her head from side to side. “I could never eat Cottontail’s mother. It’s like cannibalism.”
He shook his head. “What is that word?”
“It means when a human eats the flesh of another human.”
He chuckled just before he bit into the meat. “You have some strange ideas, Danielle. If you will not eat the meat, you must feast on roots and berries.”
“That suits me fine. I’m not in the mood for meat.”
Again he laughed. “It was not long ago that you declared you loved the meat of the rabbit.”
“Well, I don’t anymore. I will just have to eat something else from now on.”
As his strong white teeth tore into the meat, he smiled at her. The two sides of you battle, Danielle. I wonder which is stronger. Which one will win in the end?
She turned away from him, thinking he could see too much. Curling up on the grass, she fell asleep with Cottontail cradled in her arms.
It was almost sundown and so peaceful beside the river, if Danielle didn’t look to the south and see the ugly, charred prairie.
She sat with her back against a tree and Cottontail curled up in her lap. Wolfrunner had been gone all afternoon, and she heard him returning now.
As he dropped on the grass beside her, she couldn’t help but notice his hair was wet. “Did you go for a swim?” she asked.
He smiled slightly. “I took a bath. Regardless of what you may have been told, not all Indians are filthy savages.”
Shame washed over Danielle as the words she had once spoken to Wolfrunner came back to haunt her. “I never…I didn’t…” she stammered, trying to think how to retract her cruel words. “I know my aunt Joanna’s lodge is spotless, as was my grandmother’s.”
All of a sudden their eyes met, and Danielle had the sensation she was drowning in the dark, mysterious glow in his eyes. He reached around her and plucked a blue wildflower and brushed her lips with the petals.
Danielle drew in her breath, astounded by the wildfire that seemed to churn through her veins. Cottontail was resting against Danielle’s throat, and Wolfrunner reached up and softly stroked the rabbit. As his hand moved from the rabbit to Danielle’s cheek, she felt as if an earthquake shook her body.
His dark gaze seemed to be drawing her to him. They moved toward each other, and she could feel his breath on her lips.
Her breathing seemed to stop—she waited for him to move the final distance so their lips would touch. As her heart pounded against her chest, she watched his eyes change. Where they had been velvet-soft before, they now sparked with anger.
Before she could reach out to Wolfrunner he was on his feet and moved away quickly. She was stunned by what had just happened between them.
Resting her face against the soft rabbit fur, she tried to regain her composure. This man kept pulling at her, and when she was ready to surrender, he pulled away. She didn’t understand him at all.
Wolfrunner closed his eyes and allowed the night breeze to cool his face. He had almost lost control of himself a moment ago. He knew now that he was going to have to keep his distance from Danielle. He wanted her with every fiber of his being. Tonight he would fight the most bitter battle he had ever had to wage. He would fight his feelings for Danielle.
Chapter Twenty-two
Skyler moved out of the circle of Morgan’s arms and glanced up at him shyly. “I have offered myself to you. Do you not want me?”
Her hair was streaming across her golden-colored breasts like a black velvet curtain. Her hips were well rounded, and her tiny waist could easily be spanned with a man’s hands. Her legs weren’t long, but they were perfectly shaped. Morgan didn’t pause to wonder why her body was the same golden color all over. He stared at her in a half-dazed state, wanting her with every fiber of his being. His body trembled and he felt a need to touch her, to hold her against him forever.
“Damn you,” Morgan growled, pulling her back into his arms. “You know I want you, but not this way. Why are you doing this to me…to us?”
Skyler could feel the strength of his arms as he pushed her aside. She could sense there was pain as well as anger in him. He took the cushions from the window seat and angrily tossed them to the floor of the summerhouse.
“If you want me to lie you down, I’ll do it. I hope you know what you are letting yourself in for, Skyler. But I don’t think you do,” he said in a deep voice.
Her body trembled visibly as she watched him strip his shirt off and toss it aside. This wasn’t what she wanted, she thought in a panic. She had wanted to give herself to Morgan with love, not with anger.
When he had cast the last of his clothing aside, he walked toward her slowly. Skyler stepped back a pace. His eyes were burning into her, and she could see that his jaw was set in anger. Her eyes went to the magnificence of his body. She started shaking all over as he drew nearer. Her eyes fastened on the golden mat of hair on his chest that ran further down his body than her eyes were willing to go.
Morgan reached out for her and slammed her against his naked body. His form was lean and hard and the feel of his hardness pressing against her caused Skyler to gasp.
“Damn you for making me love you, and damn you for making me want you,” he growled in her ear.
“Morgan, please, I don’t want it this way.”
“How do you want it, Skyler?” he demanded to know. “I wish to hell I knew.”
“I…wanted to give you this night to remember,” she whispered through trembling lips.
He forced her head up so she would have to meet his gaze. “I don’t need this to keep you in my mind and heart. Wherever I go and whatever I do, the thought of you will always be with me. How
many ways do you want me to say I love you, Skyler? How many times must I prove that I want you for my wife?”
Tears blinded her, and she quickly brushed them away with the back of her hand. “I love you more than my own life, Morgan. Am I not proving that to you tonight?”
His head dipped, and she met his kiss eagerly. His hot body was pressed against her soft curves, and she felt a new awakening from deep within. His tongue parted her lips savagely and his mouth plundered hers. She was vaguely aware that he was lowering her back against the cushions.
“This isn’t what I envisioned for you and me, Skyler. I had thought to take you on our wedding bed,” he whispered hotly in her ear. “Hell, who am I fooling? I’ll take you any way I can have you.”
“Tonight I will be as your wife, Morgan,” she answered. “Take what I would have given you as my husband.”
His lips moved down her throat and across her silken breasts. Skyler gasped for breath as his tongue circled the rosy peaks. A white-hot sensation rushed through her veins, and she felt as if an earthquake shook her body. She experienced the after-shock all the way to her toes.
“Sweet, sweet, Skyler,” he murmured, and his hot breath sent shivers down her spine.
Morgan could feel his pulse beat madly as his hand drifted over her silken skin, down her smooth stomach, to rest against her thigh. He was inches away from paradise, and yet he couldn’t bring himself to touch her forbidden womanhood. He knew she had never been with a man, and he questioned his right to take what she so readily offered.
Skyler could sense his reluctance, so she drew his face up to her lips. “Take the gift I offer you, Morgan. It is all I have to give you.”
He moaned as her lips sought his. He could no longer reason past the wild desire that kept pounding in his brain. Kissing her all the while, he spread her legs and positioned himself between them. One hand pulled her head closer to receive his burning kiss, while the other wandered slowly and sensuously down to the valley of her womanhood. His hand shook as it moved carefully into the velvety softness of her.
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