“Take my son back to camp and leave me to speak with Halle.”
Tani cut her eyes at Halle, then back at Antonio. “Please do not be angry with Halle.”
“Go now, Tani. You and I will speak later.”
Tani and Lukachukai ducked between them, Max wriggling in the youngster’s arms.
Once they were out of earshot, Antonio lifted his gaze to Halle’s. Her heart thundered in her chest when she looked into his eyes, but not because of the fierce expression on his handsome face. This was the first time in weeks they’d been alone together—physically closer than they’d been since their arrival. Every morning Antonio rode out before daylight and didn’t return until long after dark. She only saw him in passing and even then, he never spoke. Was it her imagination, or was he looking at her in that special way?
His hot gaze flicked over her, lingering at her breasts a moment before lifting to her eyes again. No. She hadn’t imagined his sexual interest. She perused him openly as well. He wore a new leather vest, open with no shirt beneath. The buttery colored buckskins that molded to his strong, muscular thighs appeared to be new, too.
His skin, glossed with a fine sheen of perspiration was also darker, as was hers—at least what had been exposed to the harsh sun over the past weeks. She noted a long, unusual abrasion across the left side of his abdomen. At second glance, it might have been a combination scrape and bruise. He must have realized she’d seen it for he quickly shut the vest.
How weird. What was he trying to hide?
Warmth crept into her cheeks as a twinge of arousal caught her unaware. She inhaled sharply and swallowed hard, hoping he didn’t notice how his presence affected her.
He set his feet wide apart and crossed his muscular arms over his chest. Oh, yeah. He was definitely trying to conceal the mark.
“Did Tani help you uncover all my dark secrets?”
Halle eased from her sitting position on the rock and stood. She didn’t know whether to be pissed at him for eavesdropping, or throw her arms around him and hug him for all he’d endured. “Tani is my best friend. I don’t need your permission to talk to her.”
“I am not concerned that you talk. What angers me is that you lured my cousin away from camp in order to extract information about me.”
“Oh yeah, right. As if I have the time to be sooo calculating between grinding corn, sweeping the hogan, slaving over an open fire to cook meals…washing clothes in the muddy river. Why I just have all the time in the world, Antonio.”
“I overheard your conversation, everything from One Ear’s exceptional endowments to your wild imaginings that I am bedding another woman!”
Halle gave an indignant cry. Oh, my God. How long had he been listening? He must have been following them all this time!
“You were manipulating Tani.” He pointed a finger at her. “You guided her into a conversation about my deceased wife and child.”
“I did no such thing! We spent the day gathering pine needles to patch the roofs. If you don’t believe me, ask her. Can I help it if our conversation turned in your direction?”
“With your help.”
“You blame me for being curious? You’ve told me nothing of yourself—your past, who you really are, or even why you’re here with these people.”
“You already know why I am here.”
“I know what you told me, but I there is more you’re withholding. You’re not a full-blooded Navajo. You had family in California. Your grandfather trained you to be a doctor.”
Halle watched his jaw clench at the mention of the word.
“There’s more,” she continued. “I know about your wife, too. I know what the soldiers did to her and to the—” She swallowed hard, unable to say the word baby. The haunted look in Antonio’s eyes spoke for her, warning her not to tread on painful ground. “I also know what they did to Lukachukai. You were going to make him a prosthetic hand. That’s what your sketches are about.”
“You know nothing!” he thundered. “Don’t ever speak of my drawings again!”
Taking her by the arm, he hustled her back toward the trail. “You should never have left camp. There are dangers for young women who wander away.”
“I already told you I was only helping Tani and the boys with their chores!”
“Tani knows this area is forbidden!”
“You really aren’t going to punish her, are you?”
“That is none of your concern.”
“She’s not a child, Antonio. She is a young woman.”
“She is a disobedient girl who suddenly has become argumentative. No doubt her behavior is due to your poor influence.”
Halle shrugged free of his grip and whirled to face him. “Poor influence my ass. I’ve been a good friend to your cousin—to all the children. There’s no need to be angry with her or me. Neither Tani nor I were doing anything wrong.”
“You sorely test my patience, woman.”
“Yeah? Well here’s a news flash mister. You sorely test my patience!”
His pale eyes narrowed on her. “If you were my wife I would punish you for your sassy tongue.”
Halle lifted her chin a notch for she damned well knew better. In this matrilineal society, women owned the house and the children. A wife could put her husband out the door on a whim and the marriage was over. Apparently, he didn’t think she knew. “Well, I’m not your wife and I never will be.”
He flinched, ever so slightly but she caught it.
“Yes. I heard you made the decision to marry One Ear.”
Her jaw dropped. Was everyone in on the great big wedding secret except her? Sadness flickered in his pale eyes and her heart squeezed in her chest. Oh, God. He still cared. Despite everything they’d said to one another. That meant….
No.
Yes.
His gaze locked hers and she could almost swear she could see it in his eyes: I love you.
On the other hand, maybe she’d imagined it all. There was one way to find out. She plastered on her best poker face, and played it for everything it was worth. “Yeah, old One Ear has asked for me,” she replied coolly. “I guess word gets around camp fast, huh?”
His dark stony face could have been etched in marble at that moment. “Sonny said your adoptive parents are in a hurry to see you wed.”
Aha! So there was gossip going through camp. Probably the juicy dirty kind. They thought she had been diddling old One Ear. People could be so nasty. She nibbled her lower lip as she pondered her situation, concluding that one of three things had happened. Either her adoptive parents accepted One-Ear’s proposal because they thought she might be pregnant, or Sonny was running interference. That wasn’t a far flung idea considering his sense of humor. Besides, she’d always known he wanted to see her and Antonio married.
Or perhaps it was none of those. Maybe cool, suave Antonio was playing her, trying to get at the root of her relationship with One Ear.
Had he started the rumor?
They stared at one another for an awkward moment. Only once did he swallow, though his fierce, unwavering expression gave nothing away. Yep. Something was definitely eating him alive. Jealousy? Or was it true—wedding plans were actually in the works?”
“One Ear is one of the wealthier men I’ve been told,” Halle said, carefully gauging his reaction. There was none. “He has a crap load of sheep, too.” Still nothing.
Then she saw it. A tell-tale nerve in his jaw twitched.
“He has many children, too,” Antonio muttered through gritted teeth.
Aha! Anger. Now they were getting somewhere! “I rather like children,” she added as she watched a fine sheen of sweat bead across his handsome brow. “In fact—” She hesitated before dropping the bomb. “I wouldn’t mind if One Ear fathered a few of my own.”
He hauled her against him before she could say another word, his mouth slamming across hers in a quick bruising kiss. Then he was pressing her back against the rock wall, his hands claiming her, kneading her
breasts through the thick, woolen dress.
He tore his mouth from hers and seized her face with his hands. “So you want children with One Ear, do you? Has the old man kissed you? Put his hands beneath your dress? Pleasured you in all the ways I have?” His cheek rested against hers “I swear that I will kill him if he has defiled you.”
Realizing she’d taken the joke too far, she was quick to respond, “He hasn’t touched me. One Ear has been a gentleman the entire time.”
“What is it I must do to win your trust? Tell you everything of my life?”
“I only wanted to know about...”
“My dead wife and daughter?” Bracing an arm on either side of her, he stared into her eyes. Their faces were but inches apart. His warm breath fanned her face. “My wife, Ooljee, was shot by soldiers first. According to eyewitnesses, she was attempting to get the children to safety when they were caught in the crossfire. When it was over, a Colonel Simmons ordered the suffering ones put out of their misery. They bayoneted my baby daughter Mariposa as she lay wounded, strapped helplessly to my wife’s back. Lukachukai was beneath Ooljee’s body when the blade pierced them both. It sliced through his tiny wrist, nearly severing his hand.” He pushed away from her and thrust his hands through his hair. “I should have been there! I never should have gone back to California!”
Halle stood speechless, blinking back scalding tears. Words were inadequate to describe the emotion welling up within her chest. At that moment she wanted to pull him into her arms, but he shook his head and mumbled something as stared into space. She realized he wasn’t with her anymore but back in that horrible time, reliving his own sorrow—his guilt.
“Infection set in and Lukachukai almost died. Sonny removed his hand to save his life.”
She took a tentative step toward him. “I’m…sorry.”
“If I had been there to properly clean and stitch the wound, the hand might not have required amputation. True, he might have lost its use, but at least he would be a whole person. He would have never suffered the agony of septicemia, would not be the object of other children’s cruel teasing today. He might have grown up a strong man.” His voice broke and he lifted tear-filled eyes to hers. “Soldiers did that to my family, Halle. Men sworn to protect the United States mauled innocent women and children for no reason other than they claim a different culture.” He held his hands out in a pose of surrender. “Now you know everything.”
So this was the demon which haunted him—his inability to protect his children from harm. His mouth pulled into a grim line, the expression in his smoky eyes hollow, almost as if his soul had been ripped out. The pain she saw reflected in his eyes was too much to bear. She was sorry to have pursued a topic which caused him this much grief, but now she understood why Tani didn’t want to tell her. It was unthinkable that anyone would hurt a child.
More than anything, she needed to comfort him. Halle moved against him, slid her arms around his neck, and tugged his face closer. He resisted at first, but she held him firm until their mouths were a hair’s breadth apart. Pressing her lips to his, she poured everything she had in her into the kiss, trying to heal his wounds. He sobbed into her mouth—then jerked his face away and swore softly.
“Shhh, don’t.” She tried to soothe him by kissing his cheek feverishly “It’s all right.”
Antonio uncinched the sash at her waist and her breath caught in her throat as the blanket dress slowly opened at the sides. A scant breeze washed over her heated skin and her nipples tightened in anticipation of his touch.
He pulled back and she saw his eyes glistened with tears. “I...need you,” he rasped hoarsely. He hesitated several seconds, his lips hovering over hers. “Tell me you need me, too.”
She swallowed hard. “I do.”
His hands were warm and seeking beneath the thick, woven cloth, but welcome. She closed her eyes a moment, allowing him to freely caress and explore her body, relishing the feel of his rough palms as they slid lower to test her readiness for him.
She sucked in a breath at the contact and he pressed his cheek to hers. “Don’t hate me,” he whispered on a ragged breath as he shoved the dress aside with the other hand.
Hate him? She could never. She smothered his tear-streaked cheeks in kisses as if doing so would heal his pain, but his mouth slammed across hers again in a deep, seeking kiss. His knuckles brushed her skin as he reached between them to free himself. He sprang forth, hot and rigid against her belly and she pressed against his hardness, hungering for this primal intimacy with him and the pleasure only he could give.
She shifted her legs further apart to accommodate his seeking hand and felt her own silken wetness on his fingertips as he stroked her intimately.
He pulled back and stared into her eyes. “One Ear cannot have you,” he whispered roughly. “No other man can. You are my woman, Halle. All mine.”
Then he lifted her into his arms.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
With an impending sense of urgency, Antonio carried her down a narrow trail toward a sparse cottonwood grove. Warm afternoon sunlight filtered through gold and copper leaves that had begun to turn over the past week, dappling the ground with buttery sunlight. Far from the Navajo encampment and concealed in the trees, he set her on her feet and whisked the blanket dress over her head. A skitter of goosebumps danced over her bared flesh as his hot smoldering eyes perused her. After spreading her dress on the ground, he knelt at her feet and removed her moccasins, followed by the buckskin leggings, then cast them into a pile.
Hurriedly, he shrugged out of his own clothes, adding them to the ever-growing heap. His sex was thick and dark and erect, filling the empty space between their bodies.
He pulled her into his arms, kissed her fiercely, silencing the possibility of any further questions. His tongue plundered her mouth, enticing hers into a sensual dance that had her buckling at the knees. He left nothing to the imagination about what he wanted, for the kiss was purely carnal, fueled by animalistic desire. The ache in her womb grew as the frenzied kiss continued.
It had been too long since she’d tasted him…smelled his outdoorsy scent…or touched the sleekness of his silky hair. Wanting to experience him in every way, she broke the kiss and urged him to his knees.
“Lie back,” she commanded.
Questioning eyes held hers, but he complied. Without shame, her hands explored the curves and angles of his sleekly bronzed, sculpted body. She marveled at the smooth texture of sun-darkened skin covering every hard inch of muscle beneath. Deftly, she touched the bruise on his side and he grasped her hand, grimacing as if in pain.
“What happened?”
“It’s nothing.”
Nothing my foot.
She continued her exploration. He was magnificently aroused, his sex thick and rigid and springing from a dense nest of crisp, dark curls. Beautiful and perfect were words that came to mind as she bent to kiss his chest and inhale the musky, masculine scent of his flesh. She licked one chocolate nipple which tasted slightly salty. He jerked. Pleased by his response, she did it again, this time drawing the tiny, dark bead into her mouth and suckling it gently the way he had hers.
He moaned softly and his fingers threaded into her hair. “Halle, what are you doing?”
I’m loving you. She lifted her face to look at him. Tears which had streaked his face were dry, yet the expression in his eyes still held a wealth of pain. “Do you want me to stop?”
“No.”
She bent again and swirled the tip of her tongue around the other nipple, then eased lower to kiss the flesh of his taut stomach, tasting his skin, loving each buck of his body, each deep moan she elicited. Dipping her fingertip into his innie navel, she traced the dark whorl of hair around it, then playfully drew her finger down the furry line that disappeared into thick, dark pubic hair.
He sucked in a breath, his body going rigid when she took him in hand. Awed at the steeliness of his engorged sex, she eyed the swollen tip with its glistening bead
of dew and the velvety soft dark skin encasing him.
His attention never left her as she stroked him up and down. She he wondered what he would do if she kissed him on the tip of his penis. So she did, not once, but twice.
With a growl, he rolled her beneath him, settling his hips between her thighs. He ground his erection against her and gazed down into her eyes, a puzzled expression on his face.
“Why did you do that?”
She blinked. She didn’t actually know, except she’d wanted to. “I thought you might like it.”
“I did.” He began to move slowly, rocking softly against her thigh, intimating what was to come with each punctuated thrust against her body.
Halle clung to his biceps, gasping softly as he coaxed her body to accept his a bit. So this was it—the moment of truth. She swallowed hard, her eyes fixed on his handsome face. In that moment she knew with certainty she loved him. No matter she didn’t want to or that she’d tried to hate him these past few weeks.
She clutched his arms tight and closed her eyes and felt his body tremble as he pressed deeper. After that she didn’t think anymore, but could only feel, reveling in the sensation of having his body join hers. She skimmed her palms over the damp flesh of his muscular shoulders and upper back, loving the feel of his heated skin beneath her palms. As if of their own accord, her legs snaked around the back of his upper thighs and she locked her ankles behind them, tilting her pelvis to draw him deeper into her body if that was at all possible.
“From this moment on, you belong to me, Halle, and only me.”
She didn’t fully comprehend the meaning of his words until he surged into her. Scalding pain ripped through her. The breath left her lungs. Halle shoved at his chest and tried to twist her body in an effort to free herself but, he pinned her hips with his and stilled.
“Shhh” He dropped a kiss on her lips, moved achingly slow within her as if he were afraid he might hurt her again. “I’m sorry there is pain, but only this once. Then there is pleasure.”
Soon the discomfort became a memory. And he’d been right about the pleasure part. Delicious curls of desire swirled throughout her body as he began to thrust slow and steady. Curious to see how they fit together, she lifted her head slightly and looked down at where they were joined. Darker skin met lighter. Hard body filled soft. He moved achingly slow yet deep inside, the wonder of what they were doing taking her breath away.
Ride The Wild Wind (Time Travel Historical Romance) Page 24