Intense pleasure eventually overtook her senses. Closing her eyes, she gave into instinct as her body began to move in perfect rhythm to match his. A wave, building from her core broke and crashed and he urged her on. When she was utterly spent, she lay still beneath him, completely sated, but still clinging to his arms and holding him fast.
Just when she thought it was over, another wave of intense warm light filled her. She struggled higher and higher to rise above. She crashed in a dizzying kaleidoscope of sensations, opening her eyes in time to watch his face contort and feel his body shudder violently.
Antonio’s eyes opened, and his breath came in deep, choking gasps as warmth spilled within her. She locked her ankles behind his knees, keeping him close, loving the intermittent spasms of his body and the feeling of completion. Of possession. She never wanted to let him go, never wanted this moment to end.
He gave a silly, sensual grin that made her heart turn over. Wisps of his tousled hair drifted across her face. She inhaled the sunshine scent of him, loving the softness, the wild feel of untamed man.
When the spasms subsided and she could breathe normally again, Halle smacked him playfully on the arm. “Okay. You’re in big trouble now, mister. Why didn’t you tell me that having sex felt this good?”
He closed his eyes and drew in a deep, ragged breath before chuckling softly. “I never knew it could.” Easing from her body, he collapsed onto his back beside her.
She rolled onto her side and propped herself on one elbow.
“Well, before this day is over we are definitely going to do this again, mister.Maybe two or three times. You can bet on it.”
* * * * *
Antonio laid an arm over across his eyes to shield them from the sun. “I need a while to recover.” Although he had taken her once, he already felt the stirrings of new arousal. He prayed she would not be the death of him this afternoon.
He scarcely heard the breeze in the sycamores over the savage pounding of his heart. Recalling her question, he lifted a weary hand and waved it. “I assume you enjoyed yourself?”
She stretched out her legs and arms long like a happy cat. One long perusal of her soft, feminine curves once again stroked the fire in his loins. He studied her slender hips, her small, but firm breasts and the flat planes of her stomach. She was the most perfectly proportioned woman he’d ever seen, other than her curiously large feet which he actually found rather enticing.
“So Antonio tell me something,” she began, a devilish gleam in her eyes.” Would you say you’re a large man or an average sized man?”
At first, he did comprehend her question. Then she wiggled a brow and he understood. His face warmed at her candor. “I have never pondered such.”
She grinned. “You felt large.”
He laughed, oddly embarrassed by her bold statement. “You felt small,” he countered.
She moved in close, so close he could feel her breath on his face. “Maybe that’s why I feel grrreat. How about you? Do you feel grrrreat, too?”
He chuckled. “Yes, I feel grrreat, too.”
“Well if I’d known if sex was this much fun, I would have let you seduce me weeks ago.”
Seduced? He stared into her eyes, the startling realization crashing over him. Is that what she thought? He’d seduced her? But wasn’t that exactly what he had done?
True, he was been furious to discover she had left with Tani and the children without asking permission, a foolish decision that might have cost one or all their lives. Then she’d taunted him with One Ear’s marriage proposal. Had he taken her body today in anger? Or had lust been driving him these past few weeks?
The enormity of his actions hit him with the force of a rock slide. Halle was too inexperienced to fight his seduction, and he had been too caught up in the intensity of his own desire to claim her. Yet this had felt right.
“Antonio?” Her soft voice drew him back into the moment. “Is everything okay? You look sick. Are you going to puke or something?”
He sat up and shook his head, but it had nothing to do with her question. His eyes raked over her nude body again. So innocent and young. Easy prey for an experienced man such as himself. He grimaced at the smear of blood on her inner thighs, evidence of her lost innocence. A pang of regret stabbed at his heart. He had not only taken her virginity, but had taken her on the ground like an animal!
Why had he lost control? She made it clear weeks ago she would not marry him and that she did not want children. Had he branded her because he feared One Ear might claim her first?
“Antonio, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
A wisp of some unnamed emotion shadowed her face. She reached for her clothing and drew it to cover herself. Shame.
He blew out an exasperated breath. “You already regret it?”
“No.” She slipped the blanket dress over her head but did not tie the sash. “What happened was, you know...nice.”
He stared. Nice? What they had shared had been a hell of a lot more than ‘nice’ and she damned well knew it.
She slipped on one moccasin. “Okay. There was pain at first but after that it wasn’t so bad.”
He regretted such and feared in his ardor he might have hurt her. “May I examine you?”
“Not necessary.”
“If you will recall, I am a physician.”
She cut her eyes at him, a half-smile tilting the corners of her mouth. She looked positively impish. “Use that as your classic pick up line often, Doc?”
He blinked. What was a ‘pick up’ line?
The smile faded and her eyes filled with tears. “You know, I think I’d like to be alone for a while.”
He stroked her arm. “Do not be ashamed.”
She flicked tears away with her fingertips. “I’m not ashamed. Really.”
“Are you certain you’re not in pain?”
She averted her eyes. “No.”
He regretted she had covered herself so soon, for he would have liked to touch her again, to hold her in his arms a while. “I have not changed my mind about one thing, Halle.” She perked up, only to wilt at his words: “I still want to marry you.”
“You don’t have to marry me because we had sex.”
Antonio realized this talk was due to her inexperience. For all he knew he might have put a put a child in her womb today. Leaning forward, he brushed his knuckles against her silken cheek. “Is that all you think it was today between us today—sex?”
“Antonio, I need to tell you something but I’m afraid.”
“Never be afraid to tell me what is on your mind.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but hesitated. “You’ll think I’m crazy.”
“Too late.”
“Okay. Then you’ll think I’m crazier.”
“Must we talk at this exact moment?” Amid her slight protest, he lifted the dress over her head and laid it aside, then skimmed his knuckles down the side of her throat and over her shoulder. She shuddered, her nipples puckering into tight beads as he lazily stroked her arm up and down.
“You know, Antonio, it’s really hard to make a confession when you’re…um...”
He bent and circled one nipple with his tongue.
“T-t-touching me like this,” she finished with a shudder.
He pressed her to the ground, suckled hard at one breast, eliciting a moan of pleasure from deep in her throat. “Damn, but I want you again.”
“I want you, too.”
“But I fear I will hurt you if I take your body again so soon.” He drew himself up to a squatting position. “Perhaps it is a better time for a surprise.”
She reached for her clothes. “Surprise? Now?” she asked, disappointment edging her voice. “But I thought we were going to um...”
He nodded. “We are. Only this time, I have a special place in mind.”
* * * * *
The hogan where Antonio took her was located at the edge of camp. Clean inside with a hard-packed red dirt
floor, it was fragrant of newly hewn cedar logs, earth, and animal hides. The ceiling was absent of soot and the fire pit in the center of the structure appeared as though no one had ever used it. Even the thick bed made of furs looked fluffy and new.
Halle walked the perimeter of the hexagonal shaped, domed roofed house, surveying the pots and utensils and a few other odd items. “Whose house is this?”
Silence. She wheeled to find him still leaning in the doorway, his large dark form filling most of the space.
“Do you approve?”
She shook her head, not understanding his question, but her heart skidded to a thump as the realization of what he’d done washed over her. Oh, no. He couldn’t have.
He stood by silent, his gaze averted. Was this why he’d been absent from camp? He’d been building a home? She glanced overhead at the heavy cross beams in the ceiling, then around her where thick clay was chinked between the log walls. Not a speck of sunlight filtered through the thickness. How had he done this without a hammer and nails?
Halle moved toward a wall and touched her fingertips to the fresh wood, imagining his hands shaving away the bark and setting the logs in place. The craftsmanship was remarkable. She turned toward him and the look in his eyes told it all. “You did all this?”
He nodded. “For you.”
She gestured to the bruise on his side. “And you hurt yourself building this house.”
He grinned. “I had a brief scuffle with a log. As you can see, it won.”
Words would not form in her mouth. Tani had once told her that Navajo wives owned the home and everything in it, including the children, even if a couple divorced. Yet Antonio had built her this beautiful house, unsure whether she would marry him. That he would do this for her—that anyone cared enough to give her a home—was overwhelming.
She’d never told him of her childhood spent in foster care. How did he know how much having her own home meant? She bit down on her quivering lip to keep from bawling like a baby. “And you thought I was going to marry One Eye.”
He looked away. “Yes.”
Now she really did feel like crap. No, like a mean heartless bitch. She sniffed hard and wiped away tears that sprang into her eyes.
“No matter what happens between us, Halle, whether you marry me or not, the house and everything in it is yours. It is my gift.”
She crumbled. “I can’t accept this.”
“Why? Do you not find the home acceptable?”
She gaped at him. Was he kidding? The house was fabulous. Way more than ‘acceptable.’ The fact he’d built it for her with his own hands made it even more incredible. “It’s perfect.”
The love in his eyes for her was unmistakable. Warmth crept over her breasts and abdomen as desire flared within. She knew Antonio did love her. He must. Still, why couldn’t he say the words she longed to hear? Better yet, why couldn’t she?
She eyed the piece of hide covering the doorway. “Can you somehow close that thingy?”
He ducked out of the doorway and dropped the flap.
“No, don’t leave!”
The hide lifted and he popped his head around the doorway, a wicked twinkle in his eyes. “I thought you wanted me to go away.”
“I never said that.” She nibbled her lower lip, then glanced toward the bed of hides and blankets, then back to him. “Stay. I want to make love again.”
He dropped the door’s covering and began to unlace his buckskins.
Halle awoke in his arms a few hours later, her back pressed to his solid chest, his dark, muscled arm around her midsection—his thighs tucked beneath hers. And the new erection he’d been growing in his sleep nestled against her rump. They hadn’t fully made love this last time, but had instead explored and pleasured one another.
“I want to stay here forever and make love with you six times a day.”
“Six times a day?” He chuckled. “No man has such stamina, and I am certainly not young enough to even try to keep up.”
Halle scoffed at his remark. At thirty, Antonio wasn’t old, or at least not by her time period’s standards. Besides, he was in great physical shape. How well she knew.
He caressed her hip. “There is something I have intended to ask. You are tattooed. What does this mean—R.T.W.W. His fingertips lightly touched the quarter sized tattoo on her hip encased within a red heart.
“I got it when I was fifteen. I went wild that year. Dyed my hair red, bought a fake I.D. and went to a tattoo parlor. The initials, R.T.W.W. are an abbreviation for Ride the Wild Wind. It was my favorite song from Queen back then—kind of a theme song for my life at the time.”
“Which queen sang the song?” he asked.
Halle bit back a grin. “Not a queen as in a monarch. Queen is a singing group from a very long time ago.”
“I have never heard this song.”
“I know.” She turned and propped herself on one elbow to looked at him. A bit of afternoon light filtered through the center hole in the hogan’s roof and glinted off the golden highlights of his shoulder length hair. He was a beautiful man from head to toe and all delicious points in between. She reached over to brush a few wayward strands of hair from his face.
“Tell me what is this ‘ride the wild wind’ song is about?”
“Well…” She shifted to make herself more comfortable. “It’s about a rebel who lives life on his own terms and the woman he whisks away from her boring existence to experience an adventure. Together they ride the wild wind.”
“Will you sing it to me?”
“No way. If I sing, half this camp will come running with guns to shut me up.”
He chuckled, then his face grew serious again. “I recall you had a confession to make earlier. Now might be a good time.”
Oh, no it wasn’t. She’d hoped he had forgotten about that slip of the tongue. The timing was wrong. If she revealed her true identity—and that she’d come from the future—he’d think she was a nut case. She wouldn’t ruin things when this moment between them was perfect.
“Oh, that? Forget it. No big deal.”
“You can tell me anything.”
She couldn’t. Not yet anyway. She might have before he’d brought her here, before he’d proved how much he loved her by building her this beautiful home and making love to her in ways beyond her imaginings.
He leaned over and nipped at her shoulder. Halle shivered as he kissed a sensuous trail down her arm. He pressed her down to the soft, furry hides, his erection settling between her thighs. Primal was the only word that described the feeling of being possessed by him. Holding himself up on one hand, he reached up and smoothed the hair away from her shoulders.
“You are so beautiful.”
Hallie snorted. “You need eyeglasses.”
“I need you.”
He dipped his head, his warm lips replacing fingertips. Desire sparked as he nipped the flesh of her shoulder. He did it again, a low, deep chuckle escaping as if he delighted in the knowledge that he held her captive. Breathless, Halle arched her back, reveling in the sensual kisses he planted along her collarbone. As he edged downward to her breasts, one hand slipped between her thighs. She winced as he stroked her intimately but soon the soreness dissipated, replaced by pleasure.
“I want you, Antonio. Really really bad.”
“I want you again, too, but your body needs time to heal.”
Oh, no it didn’t. She’d heal another day. “It’s all right,” she reassured him. Although she was still sore from the first round, she didn’t want this magical moment to end.
He stilled, then reached beneath the pallet to retrieve a small clay pot.
“Perhaps this will ease any discomfort.” He dipped two fingertips into what appeared to be ointment, then applied the soothing, odorless cream to her intimate areas.
Afterward, he lifted her, positioned her atop him. Halle’s eyes widened as he filled her by degrees.
“Comfortable?”
The word ‘comfortable’
didn’t adequately describe the pleasure but she nodded. Smiling, he pressed deeper and she leaned forward slightly to brace her palms against his chest. She closed her eyes, savored the feeling of fullness. Nothing had ever felt so good.
She gasped as he began to rock upward.
“Shall I stop?”
“Don’t you dare.” She rode his rollicking movements. “I freaking love this position!”
His eyes glittered as he gave a series of hard, upward thrusts. “Then ride the wild wind with me, Halle.”
Antonio savored the feel of the taut muscles of her body caressing him, drawing him in deeper into the tight, slick recess of her womanhood. She was incredibly small but the differences in their size only seemed to enhance their pleasure. When she climaxed a final time, he grasped her by the hips, stilling her as his seed burst forth.
She lay upon his chest afterward, their bodies still joined, her head tucked beneath his chin, her warm breasts crushed to his belly.
“Oh my God, that was sooo nice,” she murmured.
“Better than the first time?”
“Mmm-hmmm.”
He drew a blanket to cover their nakedness, then nuzzled her soft, tousled hair as her heartbeat continued to pound over the roar of his own. He held her snug until she fell asleep, then eased from her body and laid her beside him. On his side, he watched her sleep for the longest time, remembering every moment from the day he found her dying in the arroyo until now.
While he didn’t know if she would marry him, even after all that had transpired today, he hadn’t built the hogan to ensure her love. He wanted her to have a home and roots, something she never appeared to know in her young life.
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and bent to kiss her cheek. He knew so much about her, yet so little. Since she never spoke of having a family, or wanting to return to them, he supposed they were deceased. Either that or she had run away from an unendurable situation.
Ride The Wild Wind (Time Travel Historical Romance) Page 25