Savage Autumn (36 page)

“I have not been truthful with you, Windhawk,” she said, removing the bandage and tossing it aside. “My sight has been restored and I can see perfectly. Forgive me for the deception but I had to know if you still loved me as I love you.”

His eyes moved quickly to hers and he saw his reflection in the violet-colored depths. Her eyes were shining with the love she professed to have for him. He reached out and crushed her in his arms as he had wanted to do when he first saw her today. Closing his eyes, he let her sweet smell and soft skin fill his senses.

Napi had sent him and Joanna on the long road to happiness, but he had also thrown stumbling blocks in their path. But their love had overcome all the obstacles. Joanna had returned to him of her own free will. There would never again be any doubt in his mind that she loved him.

“Joanna, later I will have many questions to ask you. For now, nothing matters but that you are here and you love me,” he whispered passionately.

Joanna raised her head and laid her face against his. “I just couldn’t go on without you, Windhawk. I have been so unhappy.”

He allowed his lips to brush her cheek. “I, too, have been unhappy, Joanna,” he said, lapsing into the Blackfoot language. “My eyes have missed your beauty. My lips have missed your kiss. My body has hungered for yours.”

Joanna slid her arms around his broad shoulders, feeling his love reach out to her. This was where she belonged. She had come home at last.

Windhawk lifted her face up to him. “Who sleeps in the tent tonight?” he asked, nodding to the tent which Farley and Tag had erected.

She smiled up at him. “I do, with my husband.”

Joy spread over his face as he lifted her in his arms and carried her into the darkened tent.

Joanna wound her arms about his neck. Windhawk found her eager lips and covered them with a hungry kiss.

“Joanna, this morning when I awoke it was a day like any other—a day filled with loneliness. I did not know that tonight I would hold you in my arms again,” he said in a deeply moving voice.

Joanna felt his strong hands move down to her hips and she laid her head against his broad chest, listening to his erratic heartbeat. “I did not know if you would want to hold me tonight, although I hoped you would. I love you, my husband.”

Windhawk felt the silkiness of her skin as she brushed his cheek with a soft kiss.

“Think well before you give yourself to me tonight, Joanna,” he said in a passionate voice. “I will never again allow you to leave me.”

For her answer, Joanna pulled his dark head down and parted her lips to receive his kiss.

All the past hurts they had caused one another seemed to fade into nothingness. The long days of being separated had come to an end.

Joanna knew she had found a man who was strong and yet sensitive to others’ feelings. He was the leader of his fierce warriors and yet, he had the ability to feel so deeply that she had seen him cry tonight. There was no weakness in this man who was her husband, but a gentle understanding of a woman’s heart. She doubted there had ever been a man to equal him.

Joanna felt his arms tighten about her and she knew that soon, oh so soon, she would be able to communicate her love to him with her body.

Windhawk set Joanna on her feet and she stood on her tiptoes, throwing her arms about his neck. She trembled with excitement when she felt his hands unhook the front of her gown. Turning her around, he easily slipped her gown over her head and dropped it to the floor.

It was dark inside the tent, but Joanna could imagine the glow that would be in Windhawk’s dark eyes. She reached out to him and found that he had dropped to his knees to unfasten her moccasins and remove them. A gasp escaped her lips when she felt his hands travel up her legs. When they reached her waist, he gently pulled her down into his arms.

Her flesh seemed to melt into his as he clasped her tightly against him. She could hear his heavy breathing as his hands roamed across the hills and valleys of her body, becoming reacquainted with her shape.

“You have lost weight,” he whispered against her ear.

“Do you want me to be fat?” she asked, as he pushed her hair aside and kissed the back of her neck.

“I want you just the way you are.” He covered her lips with a gentle kiss, then pushed Joanna off his lap, and knelt down bringing her close to him. They were both now in a kneeling position and Joanna felt the heat of his body warm her. For long moments he caressed and stroked her, while bringing her even closer to him.

Joanna could feel the swirling heat of desire run like quicksilver through her veins, and she moaned softly. “Windhawk, my dearest, dearest love,” she cried out, sprinkling kisses over his face.

Windhawk was drawing her under his spell. Tonight they would have their second wedding night, but it would be different.
ferent. This time Joanna had come home to stay. There was no voice calling to her from out of her past. His hands moved slowly over her body and a groan tore from his lips when her hand moved down his back and across his hips.

They were straining together, trying to find the closeness they both craved. Windhawk pushed Joanna gently backwards against the warm blanket and lay down beside her. Joanna felt him pull her into his arms as he kissed her eyelids, her ears, and then his mouth settled on hers in a deep, dragging kiss.

“Joanna, I have not been with another woman since I first had you,” he whispered raggedly in her ear. “I want you to know this.”

Joanna whimpered when his lips traveled along her neck and between the valley of her breasts.

A cold wind was blowing outside the tent and snow had begun to fall earthward, but the two lovers were unaware of anything but each other.

Windhawk caressed Joanna’s silky skin while inhaling the sweet scent of her glorious hair. He wished it were not so dark so he could see her beautiful body.

Joanna pressed her face against Windhawk’s chest; he was filling her whole being with his touch. His sensuous, manly smell heightened her sense of awareness.

She was startled when he rolled over on his back and lifted her above him. He lowered her slowly down to his body and his lips settled on her breasts.

“Windhawk,” she breathed, as her body trembled with anticipation. He was loving her leisurely, lingeringly, and Joanna thought she would die from the ache that throbbed deep inside her.

He moved her hips until she fit firmly against him. Joanna could feel his swollen manhood pressing against her inner thigh and she began to squirm. Windhawk was trying to hold his desire under control, but when Joanna began moving on top of him, he could feel his restraint slipping.

His warm breath stirred her hair when he lifted her up and Windhawk plunged his pulsating manhood deep into her warm moist body.

His hips moved upward until he came to rest fully inside her.

“You have never done this before,” she whispered with pleasure.

He laughed roguishly. “There are many things I will teach you, Joanna.”

Yes, she thought, as he thrust forward again and again. He had taught her to be a woman. Since the first time he had made love to her he had stamped his ownership on her heart. She must have known that first night that she belonged to him body and soul.

Windhawk groaned as she threw back her head, slipping her legs on either side of him and sitting up. “Jo-anna, Jo-anna,” he whispered, through a haze of unleashed pleasure.

She instinctively seemed to know how to move to please him. Her slight body was made to bring a man pleasure, he thought passionately.

Windhawk wished he could see her beautiful eyes. He knew if he could, they would be passion-laced and wild at the moment.

It seemed to Joanna that her sense of touch had been heightened as never before. She knew no matter how many times they would love each other in the future, she would always remember this night.

Windhawk arched his hips and Joanna rolled her head from side to side as beautiful feelings shot through her body and seemed to lift her higher and higher.

“Jo-anna,” Windhawk whispered lovingly, as her body and his shuddered and trembled simultaneously.

Joanna went limp and lay forward to rest her head on Windhawk’s chest. She closed her eyes and listened to his heartbeat slow while his hand moved caressingly across her hips. There were no words that could describe what had just happened between them so they just lay quietly—holding, feeling, touching.

Yes, Joanna thought, it had been a long way home but at last the journey was over. Since the day she had been born, fate had been moving her in the direction it had mapped out for her. She felt with Windhawk beside her there was nothing which could stand in the way of total happiness.

Windhawk kissed her closed eyelids. With this slight little girl at his side there was no mountain he could not climb and no feat he couldn’t perform. She was courageous and loyal, and there were many things she could teach him. His love for her seemed to spill over when he heard her sigh contentedly.

“Joanna, I never thought I would say to any woman…teach me to be the man you want me to be…show me the way to walk so our footsteps will meet.”

She raised her head and placed her cheek to his. “Oh, my dearest love, I would not want you to change. Stay the man you are.”

“Do you regret that I am of Indian blood and you are white?” His hand drifted up into her silky hair.

“No, you would not be Windhawk if you were different, and if you weren’t Windhawk, I would not love you.”

“Since you have been away I have spent much time alone, Joanna. I began to examine the differences in our two worlds. I know your world is filled with marvelous things which I have never seen. I said to myself—I must learn about these things that touch Joanna’s life…” He paused, as if trying to think of the right words to say. “…I reached for the moon and caught the sun, Joanna. You shine so brightly it sometimes hurts to look at you.”

Joanna reached up and kissed his lips. “No woman ever had a more beautiful declaration of love than the one you have just given me, Windhawk. I admire you so deeply. You are truthful, honorable, brave, and so many things, that I could never name them all. I knew from the moment I saw you that you were someone special, but I didn’t know how special until I really came to know you. You cannot know how honored I feel being your wife.”

He crushed her tightly to him, thinking she was like no other woman. “Will you not miss your old life, Joanna?”

She heard the doubt in his voice and hoped she could wipe away any fears he might have that she would ever leave him again.

“Windhawk, I feel that I am where I belong. I love you so much it hurts. I will never want to go back to the life I had before I met you. I have no ties in the white world.” She smiled against his face. “I am tied to the fierce, prideful chief of the Blackfoot. I yearn for the day when I can have your child. We will teach him the best of both worlds.”

Windhawk touched her face lovingly. “I hope the seed has been planted that will put my child in your body. Then I will know you really are Windhawk’s woman.”

Joanna clamped her hands behind his neck and laughed playfully. “Perhaps we should make sure the deed is done.”

He rolled her over on her back. “How will we do this thing,” he said, smiling.

“If you don’t know, perhaps I can show you. I had a very good teacher.”

He laughed deeply. “I still have many things to teach you.”

“Am I docile like the horse you once compared me to?” she asked lightly.

“No, my flaming-haired one, nor do I want you to be.”

Outside, the wind howled and blew the snow into great snowdrifts. Inside the tent Joanna was warm and cozy, locked in the arms of her tall, dark husband. There were still many unanswered questions between them and Joanna knew that they must each answer to the other before they could find complete happiness.

“Windhawk, when I aimed the rifle at you, I would never have been able to pull the trigger.”

“I know this.”

“When I ran away from you I didn’t really want to go, but felt I had to at the time.”

“I know this also.”

“Do you forgive me?”

“Joanna, as many times as you would come to me and ask forgiveness, that is how many times I would forgive you.”

“I thought when you sent me away you no longer loved me.”

He kissed her forehead. “I could easier stop breathing, than I could stop loving you, Joanna. The reason I sent you away was because I thought you never loved me. I was sorry for how cruelly I had treated you and I thought it was only right that I let you go. Had I known you wanted to stay with me, I would never have let you go.”

She laid her head against his shoulder and traced the scar where the panther had clawed him. “I think we will hold our love all the more precious, since we almost lost it.”

Windhawk buried his face in the thick curtain of red-gold hair. He was unable to speak past the lump in his throat.

“Windhawk, are you sure you never looked at another woman while I was away?”

“I could never be satisfied with the stars once I had touched the sun, Joanna.”

She cupped his face in her hands and laid her cheek next to his. There were no more explanations that were needed between them. There was only one thing that puzzled Joanna.

“Windhawk, how did the bear-claw necklace get in my trunk?”

He smiled. “I put it there.”

“But when? It wasn’t in my mother’s jewel case when I first went to the fort.”

He raised her hand to his lips. “I came to the fort with the intention of finding out if you might still love me.”

“Did you see me?”

“Yes, you were walking with that long knife. I wanted to kill him for touching you, but I did not.”

“When was this?”

“Does it matter?”

“No, I suppose not.”

“Joanna, what did the long knife mean to you?”

Joanna could hear the jealousy in Windhawk’s voice. “Harland was no more than a friend. At one point he did ask me to marry him but I refused, telling him I was married to you.”

“Did he ever touch you as I do?”

“I will be honest with you. I did allow him to kiss me, but the kiss meant nothing. I was too filled with loving you.”

“I don’t like it that he touched his lips to yours, Joanna,” Windhawk said, rubbing his lips against hers, as if to erase any trace or memory left by the long knife.

“Windhawk, there will never be any cause for you to be jealous. I have never loved anyone but you.”

His arms tightened about Joanna, and they both drifted off to sleep, knowing they had found a pure and lasting love.

The next afternoon when Joanna rode into the village beside her husband, she was quickly surrounded by happy, smiling faces.

Windhawk helped her dismount, and before she could turn around, Morning Song grabbed her and hugged her tightly.

“Joanna, I could not believe it when we heard you had returned,” she beamed.

“I am home to stay, little sister,” Joanna told her. Joanna’s eyes moved to Sun Woman, who was studying her quietly. Everyone seemed to be waiting for Windhawk’s mother’s reaction to Joanna’s return.

Joanna looked for some sign of welcome from Windhawk’s mother. Suddenly, the old woman’s face eased into a smile and she took Joanna’s hand.

“It is good to have you home, my daughter.”

Joanna slid her arm around Sun Woman’s shoulder. “It is good to be home, my mother,” she said, as happiness flooded her soul.

Amanda was overjoyed and her face declared her happiness at Joanna’s return. Joanna noticed Tag was receiving the same warm welcome that she was. It was wonderful to see the genuine love reflected on the faces that surrounded them.

Suddenly Joanna could feel other eyes watching her. She
looked over the head of Gray Fox’s wife, White Dove, and saw an old Indian woman staring at her. The old woman had not come forward with the others to welcome her. The crowd opened up as Joanna approached the old woman. She looked at a face which was wrinkled with age, and hair that had long been gray. She noticed the gnarled hands that had so tenderly treated her when she had been so ill.

“She Who Heals, I would know you anywhere.” Joanna reached out and lovingly touched the wrinkled face. She felt tears in her eyes when she saw the old woman’s eyes moisten.

“Flaming-haired-one, my eyes tell me that you are no longer blind,” She Who Heals said in a choked voice.

“That is true, my friend. I was told that it was because of your care, that I am able to see.”

Windhawk came up and stood beside Joanna. She was his woman and they would start their new life together on a firm foundation. At last their love had breached the gap between their two worlds. There might be times in the future when they would have different views, but Windhawk welcomed that. Joanna would stand up for whatever she believed in, and he knew he would not want her to be any other way. She would walk beside him as his woman!

Joanna looked up into his face and could almost read what he was thinking. His midnight-black eyes caressed her face lovingly.

She Who Heals laughed. “I think it will not be long until there will be a little one around the chief’s lodge.”

Joanna’s face flushed, and Windhawk’s eyes flashed. Taking Joanna’s hand, he led her to their tipi where they could be alone.

Inside the tipi, she went readily into his arms. Her heart was soaring as she saw the gleam in her husband’s eyes. She had no regrets. She had tested fate and come out the winner. She had touched the wind and had been caught up in a whirlwind.