Spirit Flight (5 page)

His father moved around from behind the
counter and flipped the
open
sign in the store's window to
closed
. "I'll take Marisa to Ukiah."

Marisa sagged with relief and let herself be
led to a battered black Jeep with streaks of mud sprayed along its
side.
I'm not crazy. It happened. All of if happened.

She'd told them a thunderbird had saved her
life. She'd told them a thunderbird had killed Kaitlyn and injured
Ethan. She'd told them Ukiah
was
a thunderbird and they
hadn't looked at her as if she was crazy.

Even now, Ukiah's father wasn't glancing at
her warily. He wasn't trying to run her out of town. He was taking
her
to
his son.

They passed a handcrafted sign for the
Thunderbird Lodge.
It startled a laugh out of her and
Ukiah's father chuckled. "Sometimes it's easiest to hide out in the
open."

Questions formed. So many questions. They
rounded a curve and a beautiful wooden lodge came into view.

The front door opened and Ukiah stepped out
onto the porch, dressed in jeans and a blue flannel shirt.

Her heart swelled and raced. He was
everything she wanted in a man.

The Jeep stopped but Ukiah remained on the
porch, his face expressionless. He crossed his arms over his chest
and ache spasmed through her chest and knotted in her throat.

Was his claim that she was his a lie? That
he'd found her and he intended to keep her, just the great sex
talking?

His father reached over and clasped her
hand. He gave it a gentle squeeze. "Go on. Whatever differences
exist between the two of you, they'll work themselves out. You're
the wife of his soul."

* * * * *

Chapter
5

Ukiah remained on the porch, stoic and
unmoving. Making her close the distance between them, each step
adding to the suffocating ache in her chest.

She longed for his smile and to have his
arms around her, for the solid feel of his chest and the rub of his
cheek to hers, for his steady strength and the connection she'd
come to crave.

Her eyes and throat burning, she reached him
and silently begged,
Say something
.

Pain flickered across his face and stabbed
into her. "Why did you leave me?" he asked.

The question was so unexpected that for an
instant she remained mute. And then she hurtled herself at him.

"I didn't leave you! I had to go to the
bathroom and afterward I was too scared to climb back down to the
cave!"

His arms crushed her to him. "Never again.
Don't ever scare me like that again. Promise you'll never risk
yourself again."

"I didn't think Ethan and Kaitlyn would be
anywhere close."

His arms tightened. "Promise me."

"I promise. I won't knowingly put myself in
danger." She breathed in his masculine scent, hugged him more
fiercely, absorbing his strength. "You saved me—again. Just like
you did before. You
were
the thunderbird. I wasn't
hallucinating."

Ukiah slammed his mouth down on hers and
plunged his tongue against hers.
His. She was his. Had always
been his.

When he'd woken to find her gone he'd feared
the worst. That she'd run after seeing the thunderbird's shadow
when he'd taken her on her hands and knees. That she'd finally
guessed the truth—not only guessed it, but had been terrified by
it, preferring to risk death rather than to stay with him.

He had never known such pain. And then when
his spirit had shed the temporary form and he'd taken to the air,
seen her once again under attack— Only the knowledge that it might
make matters worse if he killed her brother had enabled him to rein
in the thunderbird's fierce desire not only to protect its mate and
unborn offspring, but to destroy anyone who threatened them.

She met the thrust of his tongue with hers,
clung to him. And the feel of her body pressed to his became the
need to share the full truth.

He scooped her into his arms and her
laughter broke the kiss.

"I can walk."

"But I enjoy carrying you."

Marisa thought he'd do something romantic
like carry her over the lodge threshold. Instead, Ukiah left the
porch. His mouth returned to hers, his kisses long, sensuous
assaults that left her aching and needy, wet and swollen.

He took her a short distance into the woods,
to a tiny building surrounded by totem poles. "Is this a ceremonial
sweat lodge?"

"No. It's a sauna I built for the guests to
enjoy."

He placed her on her feet and unbuttoned her
torn, bloody shirt. Her nipples went instantly tight but she
grabbed his hands. A glance around and she saw several cabins
discreetly positioned among the trees. "I can't strip here!"

Ukiah laughed, enjoying the way she grew
flustered at the thought of someone other than him seeing her
without clothing.

Complete satisfaction followed his
amusement. Utter masculine contentment as he remembered how she'd
been with him in the cave. How freely she'd given him access to her
body, let him touch and kiss every inch. Let him keep her
naked.

His cock pressed urgently against the front
of his jeans. The throb of his heartbeat pounding through his
shaft.

He leaned in and kissed her, nibbled on her
lips because he couldn't stop himself. "There's no one here but us.
The lodge is closed for the winter."

She loosened her grip on his hands and he
finished removing her clothing, ushered her into the sauna building
before she grew chilled. Marisa laughed and tugged at one of his
braids, sending a jolt of pure happiness straight to his heart. "I
notice
you
didn't strip where someone might see you."

He kissed her again, found that having her
naked while he was fully clothed satisfied something deeply primal
in him. "That's because my clothing isn't covered in dried mud and
blood."

Her hands went to the buttons at the front
of his shirt. She undid them, then pushed the material away, baring
his chest. Her fingers teased over his nipple. His cock jerked and
leaked.

"Should I help you get undressed like you
helped me?" she asked, her voice husky and aroused, curling around
his erection and making him groan, each of her strokes to his
nipple sending shards of ice-hot pleasure straight to his cock.

His mouth reclaimed hers, his tongue thrust
and twined with hers. It became too painful to remain clothed. He
stripped, anxious to feel her against him. "A quick rinse and we'll
go into the main room."

She looked around at the small shower area.
He said, "This is the men's entrance. The women's entrance is on
the other side."

He led her to where the floor was tiled and
lifted the hand-held shower wand. He rinsed himself first, then
turned the spray on her.

"I can take care of myself," she said,
heating him with memories of bathing her in the cave.

Ukiah's hand swept down her body and hovered
directly over her sex, sending a stream of water pounding against
her clit.

"I like to take care of you," he said and
closed the distance between the wand's head and her swollen flesh,
intensifying the effect of the water.

When she would have moved away, he crowded
her against the wall, holding her there with the force of his will
and the pleasure he was giving her. "Spread your legs wider," he
commanded, his free hand dropping to his cock, encircling it.

He hadn't meant to linger in this room but
whenever she was naked he lost his concentration. Her gaze followed
his hand and his balls pulled tight in warning. She licked her lips
and the remembered feel of her mouth had him nearly coming.

Her hand joined his, covering it. Her thumb
brushed over his exposed cock head, a quick pass and then a
lingering rub against the slit.

Ukiah's buttocks clenched. He pumped into
their joined hands.

She'd bested him and they both knew it. If
they didn't stop now he'd spew his seed on naked flesh before he
could drive her to orgasm with the shower wand.

With a groan he pulled the wand away from
her, slipped it onto the wall mount and turned off the water.
Marisa started to go to her knees.

"No," he gasped, forcing his hand away from
his cock, and with it, hers, then pulling her against his chest and
holding her there.

She gave him a mischievous look through
lowered eyelashes. "Turnabout is fair play, Ukiah. What's good for
you, is good for me."

"Marisa," he groaned, wavering for a moment.
Hot need and the desire to feel her mouth on his cock very nearly
overwhelmed him. But he tightened his grip when she would have slid
down his body. "Later. You can do anything you want to me later,
when we get back to the lodge."

"Promise?"

She licked over a rigid nipple and his hips
bucked. He panted. "Promise," he said, then led her into the main
chamber and stopped next to a fur-covered pallet.

Marisa's breath caught at seeing the
restraints. Something darkly erotic uncoiled inside her at
imagining herself bound to the two strips of leather attached to
the floor at the upper corners of the mat. "I don't think this is
standard equipment for a sauna."

Ukiah cupped her face and forced her to meet
his eyes. The dark, dark eyes of the thunderbird. "You are mine."
he said, and she felt the words all the way to her soul. Felt them
echoing from the past and had a fleeting image of standing naked,
her wrists bound in front of her as these same words were once
spoken in a language she didn't know, their meaning translated by
the way her captor's gaze roamed possessively over her body.

"I'm yours," she whispered, arousal
trickling down the inside of her thighs.

She allowed him to guide her to the bedding,
to tether her wrists and make her helpless. A symbolic gesture
because bound or freed, she trusted him completely and would never
willingly leave him.

Ukiah straddled her, his heart swelling with
pride and pleasure and possessiveness. She was beautiful, inside
and out. And even though she was the one in restraints, when it
came to her, he was equally helpless.

He lowered himself, groaned as his sac
settled on her warm belly. His mouth covered hers, captured,
claimed, then moved to her ear, her neck, and finally to her
breast.

He took her nipple between his teeth. Bit
down on it, flicked it with his tongue. Sucked it as she whimpered
and writhed beneath him, sending bursts of near painful ecstasy
through him.

Liquid heat escaped, coating the head of his
cock, wetting her in the places where their bodies touched. It was
primitive, raw. He had to fight the urge to take himself in hand
and bring himself to orgasm so he could mark her with his seed.

The heady scent of her arousal finally drew
him away from her nipple. He kissed and bit and licked his way
downward. Parted her thighs and held her open so he could look at
her, taste her, drive her to orgasm by swirling his tongue over her
clit, plunging it into her slit.

Over and over again he made her cry out in
release, her pleas turning to screams, her body bowing, arms
fighting the restraints.

Finally she went lax. And even then Ukiah
couldn't get enough of her.

He nuzzled her swollen folds, sucked on
them. Dragged his tongue along her creamy opening until she was
whimpering again, her hips undulating, his name a ragged whisper on
her lips.

Only the demands of the thunderbird gave him
the strength to crawl up her body and position himself above her.
His hands went to hers, fingers entwining though he didn't free her
wrists. He impaled her with a single hard thrust, forced open a
channel that still seemed barely able to contain him.

Thunder rumbled as she wrapped her legs
around him. Welcomed him completely. Held him deep in her body as
if she would never let him go. "Fly with me," he said.

Marisa stared into his coal-black eyes as
their bodies moved in a timeless rhythm. An ancient dance.

There was no fire in this room as there had
been in the cave, but at the corner of her vision shadows formed
and flickered on the walls. They blended and merged in time to
Ukiah's thrusts, to the drums and chants edging into her
consciousness, filling her and building in intensity.

He became more forceful, more frenzied as
another orgasm built, this one a tidal wave compared to the others.
And when release came, it arrived in a great sparkling wash of red
and black and white with hints of blue and yellow. It crashed over
and through her, took her with it as the chants and drums reached a
crescendo.

There was a wrenching sensation, followed by
gray, cold nothingness. And then she became aware.

Immense energy and power gathered and rolled
through her. Not her human form, but a body that was huge,
feathered, the wings outstretched, riding the thermals.

She faltered and immediately felt talons on
her back, a gentle grasp meant to reassure and guide.
Ukiah
.
She flapped the magnificent wings to communicate that she was okay
and felt him lift away.

She flapped again, more forcefully this
time, and reveled in the increased speed, the thrill of flight.
Mentally she explored every inch of the thunderbird, nearly dropped
from the sky at discovering the spark of life in her womb.

Once again Ukiah's talons on her back
steadied her focus. With a fleeting thought she became aware of her
human form in the building below. Her wrists freed, her back curled
against Ukiah's chest, their breathing synchronized and deep as
their spirits flew free.

Emotion surged through her. Raw and fierce.
Rumbling out in front of her as thunder. A shout of triumph. Of
joy. Of love. Of two souls reunited.