“I must be imagining things,” she said aloud
as she set the lamp down on the nightstand.
She moved to the washstand, poured water
from the pitcher, and washed her hands and
face. Then slowly, with great difficulty, she
tried to unfasten the back of her dress. The
first two buttons came out of the holes easily,
but unfastening the lower buttons was more
difficult.
Wind Rider watched Hannah struggle with her dress, admiring her in the fetching calico
creation that hugged her curves. His lips curled
into a sneer when he realized that Gilmore
had bought her the clothing she wore. Two
silent strides brought him directly behind
her. Shoving her hands aside, he released the
remaining buttons.
”0h!” Hannah whirled, her knees buckling
when she saw Wind Rider. He grasped her by the shoulders, holding her upright. “Wind Rid
er! What are you doing here? Did Red Cloud
tell you what happened?”
Wind Rider’s lips compressed. “He told me.
Why did you lie, Little Sparrow? Why did
you tell the blue coat I raped and abused
you?”
Hannah’s mouth gaped open. “I what? Who
told you that? I would never tell such terrible
lies about you.”
“Your tongue is false.” His gray eyes glit
tered in splendid fury and his hands tight
ened on her shoulders, wringing a cry of
pain from her lips. “Why? Did you hate me
so much?”
“No, I didn’t want to leave. Ask Red Cloud;
he’ll tell you the truth. I-I don’t hate you
at all.”
“I have already spoken to Red Cloud.”
Relief surged through Hannah. “Then you
know I didn’t leave willingly.” His fierce expres
sion frightened her.
“I know no such thing.”
“But Red Cloud .. .”
” .. . Told me that you wished to leave.”
“If you believe that, why are you here?”
There was no weakness in his face, no sign at
all of softness. There was strength and determi
nation and harshness. And deep in the heated center of his silver eyes, she saw the need to
punish, to lash out, to repay her for what he
perceived as her falseness.
He stared at her, unable to give an answer that would satisfy her. To Hannah, he looked
like a caged animal, dangerous if angered,
predatory if aroused. As if to prove her assess
ment, he grasped the sleeves of her dress and
pulled them past her shoulders and down her
arms.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking what is mine by right. I do not
think your lieutenant will mind too much if we share you.”
Hannah gasped, staring at him as if he’d just
lost his mind. “What are you talking about?
There is nothing between me and Trent. He
is a kind man who has treated me decently
despite what every man and woman here on
the post thinks about me.”
One more yank brought the dress pooling
around Hannah’s feet. Wind Rider lifted her up and kicked the garment aside. Then he stood
back and stared at her. “White women torture themselves with too many clothes.” Whirling
her around, he fumbled with the ties of her
corset. When they refused to give he took his
knife and neatly slit the strings. He pulled
the steel-boned garment from her body and
held it aloft, looking at it curiously. “What is
this?”
“It’s a corset. All decent women wear them.
It molds their bodies into a pleasing shape.”
Raising his knife he slashed it in two and
tossed it after the dress. Hannah cried out in dismay. “You do not need such a contraption.
Your body is pleasing enough for me.”
Hannah flushed, wishing she wasn’t so
pleased by his backhanded compliment. Obvi
ously, he wanted to punish her and nothing
she could say would sway him. She could
not imagine why Red Cloud had lied, or who had told Wind Rider untruths about
her conversation with Trent, but she had a
sneaking suspicion Spotted Doe had had a
hand in it.
Wind Rider’s silver gaze slid over Hannah
with scathing contempt. After he had removed her dress and corset she still wore a chemise,
drawers, stockings, and shoes. He ripped apart
the chemise and tossed it after the dress. Then
he reached out to untie the strings holding up the drawers. Her hands grasped his wrists to
stop him.
“Don’t do this; we need to talk.”
“We have talked enough.”
“You’re punishing me falsely. Can’t you trust me a little?”
“You’re white.”
“So are you.”
He growled out something she couldn’t
understand and shoved her hands aside. His
eyes refused to meet hers as he pulled the
string and the drawers slid down her hips. He
sucked in his breath, fixing his gaze on the
fiery triangle between her legs. He stared a long
time, then lifted his eyes to look into her face.
His fierce expression chilled her blood and
filled her with a nameless horror. She made an unconscious move toward the door.
“Running outside naked isn’t a good idea.”
She stopped in her tracks, staring at him. “I should beat you, you know. Or at the
least cut out your tongue so you can tell
no more lies.”
“This isn’t going to settle anything,” Hannah cried when he scooped her off her feet and
tossed her on the bed. Then he slowly,
methodically, began peeling off his clothes,
his eyes never leaving the lush curves of her
nude body.
“It doesn’t have to be this way, Wind Rider.”
He seemed intent upon hurting her.
He fell to his knees beside her, placing his palm on her breast, measuring the throbbing
heartbeat with his callused hand, feeling it
become violent in seconds. “You cannot imag
ine how much I looked forward to returning
to you, to finding you waiting for me in our
lodge. I knew I had angered you by taking
Spotted Doe as a second wife, but I hoped to make it up to you. When I learned you were
gone I was beside myself with grief. I thought
you were forced to leave, until I questioned Red
Cloud and he told me otherwise. I wanted to
kill you when I learned that you told the blue
coat I raped and beat you.”
Hannah swallowed convulsively, imagining how deeply Wind Rider had been hurt. Why
had he been lied to? “Is that why you’re here,
to kill me?”
Wind Rider stared at her. “No. I did con
sider it, but that action no longer appeals
to me.”
She slid her tongue across her lips to mois
ten them. Wind Rider seemed mesmerized by the simple act. He moved his hands over her
breasts, refamiliarizing himself with them. He
thumbed her nipples, watching her green eyes
darken.
Hannah realized Wind Rider meant to
humiliate her, but she couldn’t control the
way her body responded to his touch. With
satisfaction she noted that his body was not immune to hers. His sex was large, impossibly
large. She could see it pulsing to life, its head
wet and throbbing as it rose thick and hard
from his groin. It was a formidable weapon,
but one she did not fear.
“I’m surprised you came to the fort. Don’t
you know it’s dangerous for you here?” She
knew she was prattling, but she needed time
to defuse Wind Rider’s anger.
“I’m a white man; have you forgotten?”
“No, but I thought you had. Unless ...” Her
words faltered. It seemed highly unlikely that Wind Rider intended to leave the People forever and live as a white man, but the notion
brought a glimmer of hope. “Do you intend to
take me back to Red Cloud’s camp? If so, it
would be unwise. The army would only search
for me again and bring trouble to your peo
ple.” Her eyes narrowed in speculation. “Why
did you leave Red Cloud’s camp? Didn’t you
consider my being returned to Mr. Harley sufficient punishment?”
Wind Rider’s hands moved idly over her
flesh, considering her question. He decided to answer truthfully. “I went on a vision quest. I
sought an answer to my dilemma. The Great
Spirit set my feet on the path to the white world. At first I could not believe he meant
for me to do this, but Coyote said it is so and
I have obeyed.”
“You have left for good?” Hannah asked, a
resurgence of hope rising in her breast. “What
about me? What about us?”
“I do not want a woman who does not want me. I will try living as a white man, but it will
be on my own terms.”
“I want you, Wind Rider. I’ve never stopped
wanting you.”
Wind Rider scowled. “Is this another lie,
Hannah McLin?”
“It is the truth. Will you take me with you?”
“We will talk about it later.” He was annoyed
at how easily his anger had dissipated, how desperately he wanted to believe her words.
His hands slid over her belly and lower
still, his gaze intense, his breathing labored.
A moment later he was molding his hands
against the most intimate part of her. His
thumbs separated and explored, his fingers
thrusting into the deep cleft he found there.
Hannah cried out, undulating her hips to
match the rhythm of his fingers. Then he
was kissing her, his mouth open and wet,
his tongue matching the thrusting of his fingers below. Hannah whimpered, desperately
needing to feel his thick manhood against her
softness. It had been so long—so very long ...
Wind Rider felt a dam burst inside him as his control shattered. He had dreamed about
taking Hannah like this for so long that it had
become a constant ache deep inside him. When
he thought he’d never see her again something
inside him had died. At first he had wanted to
punish her for leaving him, for lying, but all
he could think of now was thrusting inside
her and filling her with himself. It had been
so long—so damn long .. .
He tore his mouth abruptly from hers and stared at her. Hannah met his gaze. She felt
swollen, close to exploding. He climbed atop
her and she arched upward to meet him. He
slid down her body and lowered his head. Wind
Rider’s glance met hers for the space of a heart
beat, and then she felt his breath touch her. Fierce pleasure radiated inside her. His thumbs held her open and his mouth ravished her. The wet sweep of his tongue brought wave after
wave of rapturous spasms. They continued
unabated as his tongue continued to circle
her relentlessly, endlessly. If this was Wind
Rider’s idea of punishment, Hannah thought
dimly, then she would suffer it gladly, ecstati
cally. She cried out again and surrendered to
another wave of potent, heady pleasure.
The spiraling, throbbing splendor had not
yet receded when Wind Rider rose to his knees,
spread her legs and thrust his engorged sex into
her, dropping frenzied kisses over her face, her
breasts, and finally on her mouth. He could
have climaxed instantly but forced himself to
control the hot blood thundering through his
veins. It was too soon .. . too soon ...
Unaware of the battle Wind Rider was
waging as he strained over her, Hannah jerked her hips up to meet his frantic strokes. Wind
Rider cried out, calling upon the Spirit Above
to calm him. Desperate to contain the wild
thrusting of her hips, he anchored them to
the bed with his hard hands. But Hannah was
beyond the point of no return as she cried out and hurtled toward a second climax fully as
dramatic as the one she had just experienced.
Wind Rider felt his own control slipping and
kissed her hard, thrusting his tongue into her mouth. Then he removed his hands from her hips and let her have her way.
He pumped himself into her, deep, hard,
huge. Hannah felt fierce joy in his violent
penetration, pulsing inside her so hot, so
deep, as she contracted around him. They
came together. This time the pleasure was so
intense, tears streamed down Hannah’s cheeks.
Moments later he collapsed atop her.