To Tame a Renegade (35 page)

“Chad!” Abner cried, leaping into Chad’s lap. Sarah quickly moved to make room for him. “You’re here! Can we go home now?”

“Oh, yes,” Sarah agreed with alacrity. “Can we go home?”

“I bring food,” Spotted Deer said as she sat a pot of something edible beside them. “Eat. I will return later for the boy.”

“Can’t I stay with you and Chad tonight, Mama?” Abner asked, pouting.

“Abner will stay with Spotted Deer,” the Indian woman said, forestalling Sarah’s reply. Turning abruptly, she ducked through the tent flap.

“Let’s eat,” Chad said. “I’m starving. Afterward, I’ll tell you about my discussion with Cunning Wolf.”

Chad and Abner dipped their fingers into the pot and began eating the disgusting mess. When Chad tried to feed a morsel to Sarah, she gagged and turned away; the smell made her stomach roil sickeningly.

“Eat something, sweetheart,” Chad urged. “It isn’t too bad. Abner seems to enjoy it.”

Sarah buried her face in Chad’s chest. “I can’t. I haven’t been able to hold anything in my stomach since arriving here. It could be the vile-tasting food they bring me. Even water makes me queasy.”

Chad searched her pale face. In some ways Sarah was fragile, but she wasn’t a weak or sickly woman. Her puzzling illness worried him. He wouldn’t rest until Sarah and Abner were back home where they belonged.

Spotted Deer returned for Abner a short time later. No amount of pleading moved the woman as she took Abner away.

“Spotted Deer won’t let Abner sleep in my tent,” Sarah explained, once the Indian woman left with Abner in tow. “It’s a ploy to prevent me from escaping. She knows I wouldn’t leave without Abner.” She gazed at Chad, her concern obvious. “Are you a hostage, too? How are we ever going to get out of this? Will the army ransom all three of us?”

Chad didn’t want to alarm Sarah, but neither did he wish to lie to her. He had shed his heavy sheepskin coat and they were sitting side by side on the pallet now. With a deft movement, he brought her back onto his lap.

“I’m not a hostage, sweetheart. As much as I hate it, I’m going to have to leave you and Abner with Cunning Wolf a while longer.”

Sarah stiffened. “You’re leaving us?”

“Only for a little while. I don’t trust the army to ransom you, so I offered to do it myself. Cunning Wolf agreed, but I have to leave you and Abner here while I get the cows and return. A fortnight, Sarah. I’ll be back in fourteen days; less, if the weather holds. Cunning Wolf promised that no harm will come to you and Abner in my absence.”

Sarah mulled over Chad’s words, not completely convinced that fourteen days was enough time for all Chad had to do. “What will happen to us if you don’t return in the allotted time?”

“Don’t even think about it. I
will
return in time.”

“What if Major Dalton finds Cunning Wolf’s camp first?” Sarah asked.

Chad thought her too astute for her own good. “Although he’s camped not far from here, I intend to stop just long enough to make sure he doesn’t find Cunning Wolf. Leave it to me, love. I’ll do everything humanly possible to keep my future wife and son safe.”

“Your… your wife? You want to marry me?”

“Of course I want to marry you. You restored my sanity and gave me back my life. How could I not love you?”

“I never actually believed I was lovable,” Sarah whispered. “Everyone considered me the town whore. Even my parents found me offensive.”

“I hadn’t known you ten minutes before I knew you weren’t the kind of woman people described. It took me a great deal longer to realize I loved you and wanted you and Abner in my life forever. You will marry me, won’t you?”

“If that’s what you truly want,” Sarah said, breathless with wonder. She hadn’t believed there was a man worthy of love until she met Chad.

“That’s not all I want,” he replied in a voice that was seductively low and husky. “I want to love you tonight. When dawn arrives, I want to be sated with the taste and scent of you. I want to fill you with myself and feel my love flow from me into you. Oh God, love, I never would have believed there was this much wanting in the world.”

Sarah flushed with pleasure. His words were more potent than the headiest wine. She could feel herself swell and dampen in anticipation of his loving. She realized suddenly that lust and wanting were all part of love. One couldn’t exist without the other. She wanted both… she wanted it all.

“I want the same things you want, Chad,” she said on a sigh. “I need you.”

He claimed her lips with an urgency that left her breathless and as needy as he. His kisses sent her stomach into a wild swirl, and she returned his kiss with reckless abandon. She had loved him for so long it was difficult to believe he returned her love, but she could taste it on his mouth. The proof was in the desperate yearning of his kiss, the way he held her and caressed her. His body proclaimed it with every breath he took.

With a tenderness that belied his need, Chad removed her clothing, piece by piece, nuzzling and caressing each portion of skin he uncovered. Then she helped him to undress, baring his muscular flesh to her searching lips. She kissed and caressed him just as he had done her, delighting in the hair-roughened skin stretched over rippling muscles.

“Your body is so different from mine,” she whispered against the warm hollow of his throat.

“Thank God,” Chad muttered fervently. She was so delicate, so exquisitely made, he feared he would break her. Yet, he knew she was stronger than she looked, that her passion matched his in intensity, and that her strength of character was invincible. God, he loved her!

The fierceness of her response to his caresses, the tantalizing thrust of her lower body against his, were almost more than Chad could stand. His tenuous hold on his control snapped as his hands tightened fiercely around her hips and jerked her hard against him.

He felt Sarah arch up into him and her fingers clench in his hair as he brought his mouth down to meet hers. Buffeted by potent emotions, he kissed her with almost savage urgency, his tongue surging boldly into her mouth. He was mindless and wanting… and impatient.

He bent forward, flicking his tongue against the sweet fullness of her breast, then took a nipple into his mouth and suckled her. Sarah went wild beneath him, arching and bucking, moaning softly as he licked and sucked hungrily.

“Chad, please…” She reached for his staff; it slid smoothly into her hand. He gave a violent shudder and went still.

“Soon, love, soon,” he murmured against the lush ripeness of her nipple. Reluctantly, he removed her hand from his member. “Behave yourself. Tonight I’m going to take my time loving you.”

His hands brushed between her legs. He heard her breath quicken and when he lightly cupped her there, she gave a muffled groan. But Chad wasn’t finished. He caressed her soft folds, parting her with his fingers, then slipping them inside, savoring the powerful sensations overwhelming him. His swollen, wet member slid smoothly back and forth against her belly and he wanted it inside her, filling her with himself.

“Open your legs,” Chad urged hoarsely.

She opened immediately. “What are you… oh…”

Her words ended on a ragged sigh as Chad’s head dipped between her legs and he tasted her. She cried out softly as his tongue parted her and slipped inside her moist passage. A great shudder shook her body as a delicious agony seized her.

“Don’t hold back, love,” Chad murmured as he lifted his head and smiled at her. “Come to me now.” Then he returned to his magical caresses and took her over the edge. Violent tremors created havoc within her as rapture mounted, carrying her into a churning sea of pleasure.

Trembling with the force of his passion, Chad slid up her body and went deeply inside her, thrusting repeatedly in and out of her welcoming warmth. Incredible pleasure surged through him. His mind and body were overwhelmed by the exquisite softness of her flesh, the sweetness of her kisses, her tightness, the slick heat of her body. The sexy sounds that came from her throat as he buried himself in her silky passage increased his own exhilaration and nourished his hungry need to attain rapture.

Sarah found that lofty place first A startled cry escaped her. Her body went rigid as wave after wave of unspeakable pleasure swept through her body. The utter delight, the sheer sweetness of it, left her dazed as she lay beneath his thrusting body.

Chad felt the vibrations charging through her body, and something untamed inside him took over. His thrusting grew frantic, each incredible sensation that cascaded through him more potent than the last It was pure magic, created by the love that flowed between them, a magic he’d never felt before with any other woman.

Sarah slowly floated down from a place only lovers dared to venture, into the arms of the man she loved. Chad was waiting for her. He gathered her close and held her rightly as she drifted off to sleep. Several hours later she awakened to the arousing touch of Chad’s mouth on her sensitive breasts. She opened her eyes and smiled at him.

“I love you,” she said.

“Don’t ever stop loving me,” Chad replied. “How do you suppose Abner will react to our wedding plans?”

“Hell be ecstatic. He’s crazy about you, Chad.”

“I feel the same about him.” He kissed her eyelids and brushed her lips with his. “I couldn’t sleep. I hope you don’t mind being awakened.”

Her arms came around his neck. “That depends. What did you have in mind?”

“I’d rather show you.”

Sarah squealed with surprise as Chad lifted her and set her atop him. He rubbed his sex against her stomach and she was surprised to find him already swollen and slick.

“You’re insatiable,” she said, laughing.

“Only with you, love, only with you. Take me inside you.”

She grasped his stem with both hands, raised her hips, and slid down onto him. She gave a little sigh, loving the way he filled her. He fulfilled her every desire, then brought them both to shattering climax. She remained atop him, resting her head on his chest until he softened and slipped from her body. Then she stretched out beside him and joined him in slumber.

The next time Sarah awakened she was alone on the pallet Chad was standing beside her, pulling on his doming. “Is it time?” she asked.

“The sooner I start the sooner I can return,” Chad said. “I want to say goodbye to Abner before I leave. Don’t give up hope, sweetheart, I’ll be back before you know it”

She pulled a blanket around her and stood to help Chad with his jacket. Suddenly she clutched her stomach and moaned. “Oh God, it’s happening again and I didn’t even eat anything last night” She sent Chad a helpless look. “I’m going to be sick.”

Chad reacted with incredible haste. He swept her into his arms and carried her outside, supporting her while she retched in the bushes. When she finished he carried her back inside and handed her the waterbag he found hanging from a lodgepole. Sarah rinsed her mouth and spat into the firepit.

“I can’t leave you here,” Chad said with concern. “You’re sick. Are others in the camp ill?”

“I don’t know,” Sarah said miserably. She didn’t think it was the right time to tell him what she suspected about her condition.

“I’m going to speak with Spotted Deer. Rest until I return.”

Chad charged out of the tipi. He found Spotted Deer cooking over a communal firepit at the center of the camp.

“Where is Abner?”

“With Cunning Wolf. Will you eat before you leave?”

“Is there illness in the camp?” Chad asked abruptly.

Spotted Deer stopped stirring the contents in the pot and stared at him. “There is no sickness. Why do you ask?”

“Sarah is ill. She vomited this morning. She said it wasn’t the first time. If there is a serious ailment in camp, I want to know.”

“There is nothing. We are hungry, not sick.”

“How do you explain Sarah’s illness?”

Spotted Deer sent him an inscrutable look. “I suspect it is a passing thing. I will prepare an herbal remedy to soothe her stomach.”

“I want to take Sarah and Abner with me. My word is good. You’ll have your cows.”

“Wait here,” Spotted Deer said as she turned abruptly and went to her father’s lodge. She returned several minutes later. “You can take the woman, but the boy stays until you have fulfilled your promise.”

Chad’s fists clenched at his sides. He knew Sarah would never agree to that arrangement. “Is that the best you can offer?”

“Cunning Wolf has spoken.”

“Very well. I’ll speak to Sarah”

First Chad went to find Abner. He saw the boy sitting beside Cunning Wolf, sharing his breakfast. Chad beckoned to him, he came immediately.

“What is it, Chad? Are we leaving now?”

Chad hunkered down beside him. “Your mother is sick. Cunning Wolf has agreed to let your mother leave with me, but he wants you to stay until I return with the cows I promised him.”

Abner chewed over Chad’s words. “If you and Mama leave, I’ll be alone again.”

“I have Spotted Deer’s word that you’ll be safe here. It will only be for a few days, son. I’ll come back for you, you have my word on it. Then the three of us are going to live on the ranch and be a family. Would you like that?”