Heart of the Storm

by Lindsay McKenna

  As he deepened the kiss, Chase got lost in her fragrance, the tickling sensation of her hair against his cheek. The world ceased to exist. The danger he was putting her in faded to the background, superceded by all he was feeling. His hands itched to explore her.

  Despite his wild desire, Chase knew he couldn’t go further. Not yet. Maybe never.

  There was such bittersweetness as their mouths clung hungrily to one another. Chase felt Dana’s warm, ragged breath upon his face, felt the rapid rise and fall of her breasts against his chest. With a life of their own, her fingers slid across his shoulders, then touched his sandpapery face like a lover.

  How he wanted to love Dana! Tearing his mouth from hers, Chase opened his eyes. He framed Dana’s face with his hands and gazed into her face. What new emotion did he see in the haunted depths of her eyes? Chase didn’t know what to call it. He was afraid to try.

  “Chase…” Dana gasped. She blinked through the veil of tears beading her dark lashes. She was the only woman in the world and he, the only man. As he held her in his steely embrace, Dana had never felt more safe or more loved. Her lips tingled with the sensation of having that flat, hard mouth against hers. She’d kissed him!

  Her heart thundered in her chest and made her feel shaky and tremulous. Dana could do nothing but cling to his golden gaze. She saw so much in Chase’s face now. The change was remarkable. Breath-stealing. Frightening.

  Dana didn’t know what to do or say. Her hands rested against Chase’s mighty shoulders and felt the tense play of muscles there. As he cupped her face, she closed her eyes and surrendered to him. Dana was so lost, so alone, and so hungry for the strength of a man in her life. After her five-year marriage to Hal, the desire for a man to sleep with each night, to share her life with, often overwhelmed her.

  As she absorbed Chase’s embrace, the feel of his hands moving from her cheeks to her shoulders, Dana trembled. She didn’t want this moment to end. She didn’t want Chase to stop holding her, because that eviscerating pain and grief would return. Hiccupping through her tears, Dana felt like a beggar stealing something that didn’t really belong to her—Chase’s touch. But after two long, barren years, she desperately needed to be held. Dana released a ragged sigh and leaned forward once more. Her brow came to rest against the thick, tense cords of his neck.

  When he began to gently rock her, the rest of her lonely, ailing heart dissolved. Somehow, Chase sensed how badly she needed to be held, like a lost, hurt child. And that was how Dana felt after the news that Rogan had murdered her mother and Hal. Yes, she needed a safe harbor, and Chase had given it to her.

  Before, she would never have thought him capable of such warmth and humanity, toward her or anyone. But she’d been wrong. Her hand stole down his chest, to rest against his pounding heart. Her nostrils flared as she inhaled his delicious male scent. How badly she wanted to stretch out on the floor and make torrid, passionate love with him.

  As she trembled at the realization, she felt Chase’s body tighten momentarily. His mouth was so close. So close…. Dana knew she could ease her head from beneath his jaw, look up and kiss him again. She felt his mouth open and then shut, felt him begin to gently rock her once more. The sensation was like that of a mother protecting a child. But it was also the gesture of a man who loved his woman and was trying to shield her from the atrocities of life.

  For a moment, Dana wanted to forget everything. She pressed her face more surely against Chase and lost herself within him. He was the last person she had ever expected help, sustenance or support from. Yet she kept hearing his voice washing over her, comforting, warm and soothing. “It’s all right, Dana. Everything’s going to be all right. Just let your grief go, let it fly away from you.”

  Chase spoke those words in a husky tone that reverberated throughout her supersensitized body. There was no question that his voice was healing her bleeding, torn heart. She wondered if he realized the magical effect he had upon her. Dana had never experienced this from any man in her life. His vibrant warmth stole through her dormant, grief-constricted body. Suddenly, Dana wanted to live life once more—fully and completely. Chase was giving her a great gift, whether he knew it or not. She was ready to be present, not held a prisoner of her horrific past.

  The awareness trickled through Dana like rain falling from Father Sky. That spark of wanting to do more than just survive burst through her and took root in her heart. The sensations were magical and shocking, in the best possible way. At the same time, old feelings warred with the newly birthed ones.

  “Oh, Chase,” Dana whispered, her voice shaky and unsure.

  Easing Dana away from him, Chase found it was the last thing he wanted to do. But one of them had to be responsible. He had to put the mission before their own needs. Grimly, he realized he could no longer protect himself from the lush promise of Dana. She was like a beautiful flower—one that, if he wasn’t careful, he could crush and destroy. The expression in her eyes tore at him. She was looking at him completely differently now. As if he was the man of her dreams. That realization shook him.

  Chase did his best to sound hard. “Dana, this shouldn’t have happened, I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself, you were hurting so much.” He kept his hands on her shoulders, because she was trembling.

  Her palm fell away from his chest, and Chase immediately missed her tender touch. What would it be like to have Dana explore his naked body with those long, wonderfully artistic fingers of hers? The thought sent a wave of violent heat to his core. No, he couldn’t think of that!

  The chances were good that Dana would be killed by Rogan and his women long before she ever found the Storm Pipe. Chase knew that, but he couldn’t tell Dana. He needed her to believe that she could pull off this mission successfully. And he needed to detach himself.

  His heart cried out that he shouldn’t throw her life away like this. But the mission took priority. In the military, people’s lives were sacrificed all the time for the good of the larger group. One life for many. Oh, yeah, he was more than a little familiar with that refrain. Chase had spent six months in captivity because of that belief. Now, he was putting Dana in the crosshairs to do the same thing: sacrifice a life to save many. It was a virtuous and courageous sacrifice, one that few people would ever know about.

  “It’s okay. It was my fault,” Dana managed to reply in a hoarse tone. She forced herself to pull away, and sat back down on the stump. Wrapping her arms around herself, she tried to think clearly through the jumble of emotions. Her lips remembered his branding mouth upon them. She could still feel his power and tenderness as he’d swept his mouth across hers with strength and adoration. Oh! She’d felt so cherished in that moment.

  Dana realized how starved she was to be loved once again. For two years she’d denied herself the longings of her body and heart. Now, one indelible kiss had brought her full circle: out of her grief and into a new awareness. And looking at Chase, his face dark with desire and disappointment, Dana knew he was the man she wanted. When had she fallen for him? She couldn’t recall the exact moment. She realized she’d been unaware of so much—until now.

  Chase slowly rose from his crouched position. His hands tingled with a burning desire to drag Dana back into his arms. She looked bereft, as if she’d lost another loved one. Grimacing, he shoved his hand through his short hair. Well, hadn’t she? He’d delivered the rest of the grisly story to Dana, of Rogan murdering her mother and her husband.

  What kind of person was Chase to hurt someone as fragile and beautiful as Dana? His heart ached over what he’d told to her. He struggled to rise above his emotions and focus on the mission. It had to come first. But dammit, he wanted to keep Dana at his side, protect her and love her. What was he going to do?

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “GRANDMOTHER,” Dana began, her voice strained as she sat opposite Agnes in her hogan. “I have just found out the truth of who killed my mother and Hal.”

  Reaching out, Agnes patted Dana’s hand. “Yes,
I told Chase to tell you the rest of the story, child. You need to know the truth for many reasons. I’m sorry it had to be done like this. I withheld the information for so very long because I didn’t want to hurt you any more than you had been already. I was hoping to tell you in another year or two, when you were more healed from the experience.” She sighed heavily. “But that was not to be. Please forgive me for this poor timing.”

  Sniffing, Dana gently squeezed her grandmother’s thin fingers. “I—I would rather know than not know. Don’t feel badly. I—it was just a shock. And of course I forgive you, Grandmother.”

  “You understand why you had to know?” Agnes poured them sage tea and handed Dana a mug. The July heat of the noontime sun flowed into the hogan.

  Nodding, Dana sipped the hot tea. “Yes, I think I do. Chase is worried I don’t have my heart and soul invested in this mission.”

  “That’s true, you don’t. But now you have reason to fully commit yourself. I am not talking about being vengeful, for that is not the right reason to do this,” Agnes counseled quietly. “Rather, you are here to right a wrong, which your mother and husband can no longer do for themselves. You will be the catalyst to rebalance the scales. Rogan will get what rightfully belongs to him, and you will return the Storm Pipe to the Blue Heron Society.”

  Pain flowed into Dana’s heart as she sipped her tea. “Yes, I understand.” Her lips still felt the molding strength of Chase’s male, commanding mouth upon hers. He had urged her to go talk to Agnes after that life-changing kiss. Dana had left him at the winter hogan and walked down the canyon, in tears most of the way.

  Holding the ceramic mug between her hands now, she cleared her throat. “I have only a week more before I try to get the Storm Pipe back, Grandma. I’ll do my best. I know you’re counting on me. The whole society is. I’m so afraid I’ll disappoint all of you. And I don’t want to do that.”

  “Listen,” Agnes said gently, “we want the pipe back, that is true. But I do not want you killed trying to get it.”

  Shrugging, Dana stared down into the pale-green contents of the mug. “Right now, I don’t know up from down. I’m so torn up over this information.”

  “Of course you are. When we are done with our tea, I want you to ask Chase to come down and talk with me.”

  CHASE GRIMLY LISTENED to Grandmother Agnes. As he sat cross-legged in front of her, his hands rested tensely on his knees. His heart twisted like an angry snake inside his chest. He wondered if Dana had confided the details of their hot, shocking kiss to the elder. Pushing the thought from his mind, he willed himself to be patient.

  “I believe a change of plan is needed,” Agnes was saying. “Dana simply cannot go into Rogan’s compound and get the pipe by herself. I think you’ve known this all along.”

  Chase’s heart churned. So did his gut. “Yes, Grandmother, I’ve known this from the time I met Dana. She has a good heart, but it’s not in her to kill, if that’s what she needs to do to defend herself against Rogan or his militant women. They will kill Dana if they find her in the compound.”

  “I have worried about this,” Agnes admitted, her voice soft and thin. “I don’t wish to send Dana to her death. That is not what the society wants.”

  “Then the only choice we have is for me to join Dana. For us to go in as a team to retrieve the pipe,” Chase said. “I will kill, if necessary. And I will protect Dana.”

  The passion in his tone was palpable. Agnes studied him for a long moment. Then she blotted the corners of her mouth with her handkerchief. “You have fallen in love with Dana.”

  He avoided her all-seeing gaze and stared down at his scarred hands. To Chase, the words felt like a crushing weight. Mouth tightening, he realized the elder had not posed it as a question, but a statement of fact. Medicine people were highly clairvoyant and knew things that most never would. Agnes was well aware of the chemistry that had rocked his and Dana’s world less than two hours ago.

  “I feel…” Chase began awkwardly, casting around for words despite the powerful emotions exploding through his chest “…that a window in my dark soul has just been thrown open, Grandmother. Kissing Dana was the most right thing I’ve done in my life, so far.” There, the truth was out. It lay naked in front of the wise old woman. Chase tried to steel himself against what Agnes might say. He lifted his head and searched her wrinkled features.

  “Love has its own way of making two people discover that they are bound to one another.”

  Nodding, Chase felt a weight lift from his shoulders. “I didn’t know. Oh, I liked her, Grandmother. What is there not to like about Dana?” He gave the old woman a searching look. “She’s all heart, and she wears it on her sleeve. Dana is kind, sensitive and mature. She sees the world in a way I never will.” His mouth quirked. “I wish I could see it like she does. It would take away a lot of bad memories and experiences I’ve had.”

  Giving him a slight smile, Agnes reached out and gripped his hands. “My son, your heart yearns for her idealism and purity. She is, after all, the next woman in line to carry the Storm Pipe. We want to see that kind of heart in ceremonial pipe carriers.”

  “Yes, I know that. Dana’s the right one to carry that pipe, Grandmother, no question. She will make the society proud of her, and she will use the Storm Pipe only for good, not evil, as Rogan is doing right now.”

  Patting his hands, Agnes said, “So you will be a team. You must leave next Saturday. I feel the pipe is near to full power now, and I have no doubts Rogan will want to use its lightning energy to kill again.” Her hand tightened on Chase’s. “You must stop him. At all costs.”

  Those trembling, hushed words weren’t lost on Chase. He captured Agnes’s work-worn hands and gently squeezed them. “I understand, Grandmother. We will do our best or die trying.” Chase thought that if he had to die, at least he would die happy. He’d finally met the woman whom he dreamed of living with forever. And he’d found her in the most surprising of ways. Now that Dana was here, he’d damn well ensure that she wouldn’t die. He would protect her with his life.

  “I do not wish harm on either of you, but I know Rogan,” Agnes murmured, her voice reedy with worry. “I wish there was some other way, but there is not. We must put your lives in jeopardy and win back the pipe.”

  Getting up, Chase leaned over, opened his arms and carefully embraced the tall, thin woman. She reminded him of a paper doll, her bones so old and brittle with age that he was afraid to put much pressure on her. Yet, for all her advanced years, Agnes was strong of heart and had an indomitable spirit.

  “We will do our best,” he promised her, his voice raw with emotion.

  Now, Chase had to return to Dana and get her back on her training schedule. Just because she was hurting emotionally didn’t mean she shouldn’t continue to strengthen herself in every possible way.

  As Chase said goodbye to Agnes and left the hogan, he wondered how he was going to handle all his powerful feelings for Dana.

  DANA WAS ALREADY GOING through her series of exercises outside the hogan when Chase reappeared. The push-ups, the chin-ups always left her gasping for breath, but her muscles were taut and responsive after four weeks of effort. As she finished the last of her curls, Dana straightened and looked directly into Chase’s dark, moody-looking eyes. His mouth was set more than usual. Squatting down in front of where she sat in the red sand, he draped his hands loosely between his thick thighs.

  “You need to know that Grandmother Agnes wants me to go along with you to get that pipe back. I told her I would.” Chase searched Dana’s grief-stricken features, his gaze settling on those full lips he’d captured and cajoled less than two hours earlier. His body hardened.

  Relief swept through Dana. “You will? I mean, that’s great news.”

  Chase smiled briefly. “Grandmother feels better that I’m going along, too.”

  “And you, Chase? How do you feel about it?” Dana guardedly searched his face. Had their unexpected kiss changed things between them? Ope
ned him up to her? Dana unconsciously held her breath.

  “Truth be told, I didn’t want to come along since the beginning, Dana.” He gave a lazy shrug and looked past her to a hawk circling above the canyon. It was a zone-tailed hawk, with a white, horizontal band across its black, spread tail feathers. “I wanted this mission to be a one-person job. But Grandmother Agnes was running the show. I think she’s realized you’re going to need help.” Chase carefully omitted the other factor: that he was falling helplessly in love with Dana, and he wanted to protect her from Rogan and the women who were more than ready to kill her on sight. It was a selfish reason, but a damn good one.

  Perspiring in the hot sun, Dana stood up and moved over to the shade of a piñon tree. Chase followed, and she turned to look at him. How powerful he was, even when relaxed.

  “And why are you doing this?” she asked. Was it the kiss that had changed things between them? Dana knew how she’d felt toward Chase all along, but she’d hidden it from him—or tried to. Until this morning. Oh, nothing was ever simple in life. There was so much overlay, so much complexity.

  Chase cleared his throat and wrapped his arms across his chest. Dana looked beautiful with her braided hair framing her guarded face. But it was her cinnamon eyes that stole his heart. They were shining today. He could tell Dana liked him. How much? He didn’t know, and was afraid to ask.

  Dana was a widow coming out of two years of grief and loss. She’d just been told that Rogan had murdered the two people she loved most. So what was Chase seeing in her eyes? What emotion? And what fueled that feeling? He saw hope mirrored in Dana’s expression, the soft parting of her mouth, those delicious, soft lips, calling to him once more.