by Conn, Phoebe
erated sigh. Did the woman think he would shirk his share of their work?
The feisty blonde was tired, and covered a wide yawn as she directed her attentions to the cat he held rather than her maddeningly critical husband. "I was afraid it would be an all-night wait, and I would have gotten very cold."
"It is not that cold tonight," Viper contradicted her. He dropped the cat on the foot of the bed before crossing the room to stand at her side. Now that he was with her again, he knew he had to do something to earn her sympathy as well as her respect. They could not argue forever when there were so many more amusing things for a man and woman to do with their time. "Have you heard of the Indian, Inkpaduta, Scarlett Point?" he asked casually as though he had left the house for a stroll rather than in nearly a blind rage.
"No. Is he a friend of yours?" Erica inquired curiously.
"No, he is no friend of mine," Viper scoffed with a frown. "He was an outlawed chief who led a band of Lower Sioux renegades in the spring of 1857. They murdered more than thirty settlers in Iowa, then returned to Minnesota and killed a few more before they escaped into the Dakota territory. The army tried to catch them, but could not. The Indian Office then made the Sioux responsible for capturing Inkpaduta. They said we would not get our annuities until we brought him in. I went with Little Crow to search for the renegades, but we could not find them, either. We finally got what was owed us, but Inkpaduta went unpunished for the settlers' murders.
None of us forgot how we were blamed for his deeds, though. We knew then that those in Washington lacked any real power, but would use any excuse to avoid paying us the money and food we were promised." Viper took Erica's hand and pulled her down beside him on the quilt before he continued.
"Five settlers were murdered in Acton last week. Since we knew we would all be blamed again, not just the four killers, many believed it was a good excuse to go to war, but I did not agree. I do not hate all white men, but I am tired of being treated like a child. I am a man. Why can't I live where I wish to live, as white men do? Why should I let the government tell me I must stay on a tiny patch of land where I will soon starve? Why must I do that?"
Erica could not help but believe that the fiery anger which glowed in Viper's eyes was completely justified. "I am ashamed to tell you how little I knew of your plight before coming here. In Delaware, our only concern was the war between the North and South, not what was happening here in Minnesota,"
Viper nodded in agreement. "We knew that, too. So many men have left their farms to join the army that there were few here to fight us. The army had little real strength, either." Viper glanced into the flames on the hearth for a moment, desperately wanting to make her understand his reasoning. "This is not a fight between Indian and white. Erica. We are in the right, and we want only the respect that is owed us. You will never be my enemy. It is only the government, which tells us nothing but lies, that I despise."
"I don't blame you," Erica agreed. "But still—"
"No," Viper interrupted emphatically, "I have not turned my back on my people by taking you as my wife. Do not say that ever again. Do not even think it. I can love you and my f)eople, as well. I do not have to make a choice, and neither do you."
While his words were wonderfully reassuring. Erica still had another concern. "Are you certain all those braves wanted this afternoon was the horse?" she asked with clear feelings of apprehension. "I could have sworn—"
"It was the horse," Viper insisted stubbornly. "They were from another camp and do not like me. You do not
need to worry. My friends will not bother us."
Erica was still not convinced that was true, but she dropjjed the matter, since she had still another concern. She rubbed her thumb lightly over Viper's knuckles, then laced her fingers in his. "Will the Sioux consider us married now? Do we need to do no more than live together to be husband and wife?"
His eyes were on their hands. His were deeply tanned, while hers were fair. The colors of their skin blended together well in Viper's view, and he gave her hand a loving squeeze. "A white man may take a wife in the same way," he pointed out.
"Yes, that is one type of marriage," Erica admitted reluctantly. "I would rather be married in a church ceremony, though. Would you do that for me, Vif>er? Would you marry me in a church?"
Viper drew in a deep breath then, let it out slowly. While that delay did not influence him to change his mind, it provided sufficient time for him to gather the composure to answer politely. "No. No words that any priest or missionary could ever say would make any difference. You are already mine."
That was not the answer Erica wanted to hear. To be Viper's common-law wife simply didn't satisfy her sense of propriety. If she was going to have an Indian brave as a husband, she wanted their ties to be legal ones that would be recognized by everyone. She was proud to be his wife and didn't want to have to make any apologies to anyone about the circumstances of their marriage. She began to argue, then realized that even if she managed to talk Viper into agreeing to marry her in a church, they would be unlikely to find a clergyman who had not fled the uprising to perform the ceremony. Surely the war couldn't last too long, and then she could ask him again to marry her in a church. She smiled as she looked up at him, but it was a smile of subtle surrender, not defeat. "I loveyou," shesaid sweetly, and she was enormously pleased by his answering smile.
With an agile grasp. Viper pulled Erica across his lap. "You brushed your hair," he finally noticed. Her curls were now attractively styled to softly frame her face and cover her shoulders rather than merely falling free down
her back. "Your hair is so pretty," he murmured softly as he buried his face in the glorious blond cascade. "You look like an angel."
Erica was certain she had seen the same illustrations he had and could not help but laugh. "I am very seldom good! No one ever mistakes me for an angel."
Viper gave her a lingering kiss before arguing that point. 'I think you are good, very, very good."
Erica knew exactly what he meant and responded with a throaty giggle. "You are better than good. Viper. Your kisses taste marvelous." She hugged him enthusiastically then, content to rest in his arms, but she soon realized rest was the last thing on his mind.
With a deft touch Viper undid the buttons on Erica's bodice and slipped his hand inside her camisole to caress the pale, creamy smoothness of her breasts. His fingertips brushed the tips gently, teasing them to flushed peaks. "Let me undress you this time," he murmured against the soft curve of her cheek.
Before she could agree or object, he lowered his mouth to hers, silencing any response she might have cared to make. He loved everything about her: the delectable sweetness of her kiss, the enticing softness of her skin, the incredible oneness they had found in each other's arms.
He trailed light kisses down her throat, then nibbled at her ears until she began to giggle. "Do you like that?" he whispered.
"No!" Erica insisted as she gasped for breath. "Well, yes. It is nice, but it tickles." She reached up to bite his earlobe then, but he didn't laugh. Instead, he lowered her down upon the quilt, nuzzled her neck playfully, then pushed her already open dress aside to shower the lush fullness of her breasts with tender kisses.
Erica had never expected to spend her wedding night in so small and humble a dwelling. Nor had she ever dreamed she would spend it with a passionate Indian. Her well-ordered life had been turned upside down since she had left home. Yet the fact that Viper was now all she knew of her future home did not frighten her.
The amorous brave sat up to remove her slippers and then her silk stockings. He was tempted to toss the sheer stockings into the fire, but since he had not provided the
buckskin clothing he had promised, he dared not diminish the small wardrobe she had. Laying the stockings aside, he stretched out beside the lithe blonde and again pulled her into his arms. He was in no hurry this time. He wanted to savor each minute they shared, to make the night last forever in both his memory and in fact.
"Why don't you undress me first?" he offered generously.
"Undress you?" Greatly intrigued. Erica snuggled against him as she reached for his belt buckle. "This won't t3ce long, since you wear so little."
"Indian girls do not complain I am poorly dressed," Viper teased.
"I did not say you were poorly dressed, my beloved," Erica responded with a musical purr, her comment as teasing as his. "I said you did not wear many clothes. There is a difference."
Viper caught her hand and brought it to his lips. "I understand. My clothes are very fine, but few. Is that it?"
"Precisely," Erica agreed. His eyes held a smoky warmth, and she reached up to pull his mouth back to hers, her efforts to help hmi disrobe forgotten for the moment. "I will never tire of kissing you," she vowed softly. "Not if I live to be one hundred."
"I think you will be as beautiful an old woman as you are a young one." Viper's words were not spoken as empty flattery, but were sincere. "It will be very nice to grow old with you."
Erica's eyes sparkled with mischief as she thought of the years ahead. Surely they would be paradise with him by her side. "It will be a very long time before we are old. Viper, years and years and years." She lost herself in his kisses then, preferring to glory in the beauty of the moment than dream of what lay ahead.
Between both playful and loving kisses they managed to remove each other's clothing, but the warmth of the fire was so inviting they did not leave the Quilt to move to the bed. The golcSn light throv^m by the flames illuminated the planes of Viper's deeply bronzed body in high relief. Like a classical statue, he was perfectly proportioned, and his muscular body radiated strength even when his pose was relaxed.
152
I
"I will never tire of looking at you, either," Erica mused aloud. "You are so very handsome." Running her fingers through his hair, she let it fall about his shoulders like an ebony cape. "I have seen only a few Indians up close. Are there many Sioux braves who are as handsome as you?"
Viper laughed as he replied, "No, I am the only one. You need look no further for a husband."
"I didn't plan to," Erica whispered seductively as she leaned across him. The tips of her breasts brushed his chest and he wrapped his arms around her waist to hold her tight. The lissome blonde kissed his eyelids, then his cheeks, before her mouth returned to his for a long, slow kiss that filled his heart to overflowing with desire.
Capturing her in a fond embrace. Viper rolled over to pin her beneath him, but despite the intensity of his need he was still determined to be considerate of her. His lavish kisses gave silent proof of his abundant love, while his tantalizing caresses led Erica's senses on a wildly pleasurable journey that skirted the very brink of madness. He allowed her to hover there on that narrow precipice, her body trembling in anticipation of the rapture she had but glimpsed when they had first made love. When he was certain her body would welcome his, he entered her only partially, then withdrew and slowly entered her again. It was a pattern he repeated, taking her with an exquisite stealth, until the ecstasy he had awakened within her cried out to be released. He abandoned himself in the beauty of their union then, quickening his pace to keep time with the furious pounding of his heart. Lost on the cresting wave of passion, he rode it to the shimmering shores of paradise and then, his ardor spent, he lay still in her arms, more in love than ever with the astonishingly responsive woman he had wed.
"I promised you it would be better this time. I was right, wasn't I?" he whispered when at last he had the breath to speak.
Curled against his sleek body, for a long moment Erica was too content to reply. Then she agreed. "Yes, if making love felt any more glorious than this, I don't think I would survive."
"Yes, you would survive, and want even more," Viper assured her.
Snuggled in his arms, surrounded by the lulling warmth of his love, Erica had no wish to argue that point and drifted off to sleep, but when he left her side to add wood to the fire she awakened, her hunger for him unquenched. "You are right," she murmured as he returned to the quilt. "I do want more. I will never have enough of you."
With a sly grin. Viper pulled her into his arms, then slowly, tenderly, and with a remarkably sensuous grace, he made love to her a^ain. "You are my wife. Erica. For all time you will be mine," he vowed as his lips brushed her ear. He buried his face in her golden-blond curls and wondered how he had found the strength to exist before he had met her. She filled his life with meaning the way the sun filled the day with light, and he knew he would never stop loving her.
When Erica awoke, she did not at first recall why they had slept upon the smooth plank floor when the small house had a perfectly good feather bed. She stretched languidly ana then decided it mattered not at all where she and Viper slept as long as they were together. As she wrapped the quilt around them she finally took the time to notice the beauty of the pattern. Called Ocean Waves, triangular pieces of contrasting dark and light shades of blue and gold cloth had been pieced together to create the lively rhythm of the sea. It called to mind the lovely quilt her aunt had been making, and grabbing the intricately stitched fabric blanket to cover her breasts she sat up and shook Viper's shoulder roughly. "Wake upl" she cried in so anxious a tone he was instantly awake and alert, expecting to find himself facing some terrible danger.
"What is wrong?" he asked with a menacing scowl when he saw nothing amiss. He was understandably displeased at having his dreams interrupted so rudely.
Erica did not botJier to apologize before she explained her reason for waking him. "Yesterday you refusea to take me to where the captives from New Ulm have been taken. But you simply must. How can I be content with you when I don't know if my relatives are alive or dead?"
At that question, Viper's dark expression lightened to a teasing grin. "You are content with me, do not lie. If these relatives were truly precious to you, you would have
remembered them before now."
Embairrassed that she could not argue with that logic, Erica grew contrite. "Yes, I know. It was very selfish of me to think only of us when they may be suffering terribly. Won't you please take me to them so I can see for myself they are alive and assure them that I am also?"
Viper lay back and propped his head upon his hands. He considered her request a long moment, then decided she deserved to hear the truth. "The braves we met yesterday said there were no captives taken at New Ulm. The people were allowed to leave."
"What do you mean, 'allowed to leave? Where did they go?"
"Down river toward Mankato," Viper replied calmly. "I cannot take you there, and you know why. If your relatives are alive, they are alive. If they are dead, they will stay dead. It is not worth risking my life to satisfy your curiosity."
Erica chewed her lower lip with nervous nibbles, knowing he was right. At the same time, she was also certain she had to let her aunt and uncle know she was alive. "They must be beside themselves with worry. Viper. There's my father, too. He must have heard of the uprising and be terrified that something might happen to me."
"Mark will not worry?" Viper taunted sarcastically.
"Oh, he will worry even more than the others, because he knows how little I wanted to come here." Remembering their repeated arguments. Erica pushed her curls away frm her face with a saucy flip of her head. "He will never for^ve himself for this," she predicted softly. "Never."
Viper's scowl returned as he sat up to face his troubled bride. "Never forgive himself for what? That you have taken up with an Indian?"
Exasperated that he had misunderstood her. Erica leaned forward to give Viper a reassuring kiss. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to insult you, but that wasn't what I meant at all. I wanted to marry Mark and stay in Wilmington. He wanted to postpone the wedding until after the war. That's what will upset him. That we did not marry when I wanted to, and now he has lost me."
Viper's keen gaze searched Erica's expression for some sign of regret, but he found none. "You are not sorry to be my wife instead of
his?"
Erica shcxjk her head as she began to smile. She wrapjDed her arms around his neck and gave him an enthusiastic hug. "I will never be sorry I fell in love with you."
Before Viper could respond, the tomcat bounded across their legs. Hoping for breakfast, the rascal began to meow loudly and dance in circles to get their attention.
"Do you suppose he's hungry?" Erica reached out to pat the cat, and he rubbed his head against her hand, beggmg to have his ears scratched.
"Yes, he is hungry, and so am I. It's early. The fish should be easy to catdi."
Erica watched with an admiring glance as Viper stood up and pulled on his buckskins. He then donned his moccasins, retied the cougar claw necklace around his neck, and seemed satisfied he was dressed for the day. "Do you think I should come with you?"
Vip>er leaned down to tousle her curls. "No, I will not be long."
The cat followed the brave out the door, but Erica remained seated on the floor. Viper hadn't built up the fire, so she'd do it to heat some water to bathe. Despite the fact that it would be wonderful to have soap and hot water for a bath for a change, that was not a sufficiently inspiring thought to encourage her to get up and begin the day. Instead, she sat tracing the triangular patterns of the quilt with her fingertips as she wondered who had made it. Surely she must have met the woman at the store, but she had no idea which family had lived in the house she and Viper were now occupying. There was a trundle bed that pulled out from under the large bed, so there must have been a diild or two, but no toys had been left behind when the family had fled, and she hoped the people had gotten away without mishap.
Thoughts of the uprising made her shiver with dread. Quite unknowingly, she had entered an entirely different world when she'd come to Minnesota, a world poised on the brink of disaster. That Viper had appeared out of that tumult to become the central force of her life still amazed her, yet she felt so comfortable with him she knew she would never feel any need to explain toothers why she had wed an Indian brave. She knew it would shock her family and friends, but since it did not shock her, she saw no