The Renegade's Woman (2 page)

And something else.

Something that felt strangely thrilling.

Excitement.

She slammed down on the feeling.

No! She didn't want this! Couldn't want this! He was a godless savage, and no decent white woman would willingly let a renegade like him touch her. She tugged frantically on her bonds.

"You don't have to do this, " she pleaded desperately.

"I want you, " he answered, removing his moccasins and quill chest-plate as he knelt over her. A huge bear claw tumbled onto his bare chest, suspended on a leather thong around his neck. "And I see your desire for me. "

"You don't. " Again, she yanked at her restraints, twisting her body under him, trying to rid herself of his all too tempting weight. "I don't... desire you. "

He looked down at her, eyes smoldering, his shapely lips curved in a sensual invitation. Did he know what the sight of those masculine lips did to her?

"You do. "

She felt her resistance waver when he gently ran his fingers through her hair, fanning it out on the blanket. The bear claw tickled her throat.

"Your hair is beautiful. The color of a newborn fawn. "

She swallowed. Nobody had ever called her beautiful. Not even Gregory. Alyssa was beautiful. Not her.

"And your eyes, " he said, tracing a finger over her eyebrows and around her cheekbones. "Like an icy lake in winter, reflecting the blue mountain sky. "

She blinked, totally shaken by his admiration. What was he trying to do? Ravish her or woo her? Her eyes squeezed tightly shut when he stroked his hands down her bound arms, over her ribs to the curve of her waist where his knees rested. The rope binding her to him scraped erotically over her nipples. Slowly, his hands retraced a path upward, until he touched the sides of her aching breasts. Unbidden, a whimper of enjoyment escaped her throat.

"Your skin is soft as a rabbit's ears. And pale as moonlight. "

She had to resist him. No matter how much her body disagreed.

He leaned in close, gently caressing her. "That shall be your name. Pale As Moonlight. "

"I already have a name, " she croaked, fast loosing the battle raging within her. "It's Sally. Sally Hewitt. "

"There is no more Sally Hewitt. " He spoke low in her ear, brushing his broad chest over her so he grazed the points of her beaded nipples. "You belong to me now. You are Standing Bear's woman. "

His hands enveloped her breasts and she arched into him. Pleasure lanced through her every pore.

Oh, God.

"Yes!"

Standing Bear smiled in satisfaction over his beautiful enemy's surrender. He'd known the minute he spotted her lying like a vision on that rock, sensually dripping water onto her breasts, that she would be unlike any other woman he'd known. Here was a woman who would match his own passion and love of physical pleasure.

He had to have her.

Not by force. But hot and willing, pleading and moaning for his hard cock to thrust into her.

He squeezed her breasts, savoring their pale weight in his hands. So firm and soft. Her nipples swirled into tight points. So full and responsive. A low moan floated up to his ears.

He would keep her, this spirited woman who feared nothing and lit like a flaming arrow under his touch. This was the woman whose life was meant to replace those so cruelly taken from him. He would keep her, to serve him and pleasure him, and bury himself deep inside her whenever he wished to feel the thunder. She would be his sweet revenge. He would treat this captive well and make her happy so she would never want to run from him.

"Untie me, " she whispered. Her voice was husky, but still uncertain.

He shook his head. "We played your game, now we shall play mine. "

She writhed under him, her abdomen rubbing provocatively against his taut balls. Already he was full to bursting, burning to spew his seed into her. But he wanted her ready, slick with need, and hungering for his penetration just as much as he wanted to give it to her.

"What game?"

"This. "

He lowered his mouth to her breast and licked her. His senses delighted. She tasted different from anything he'd ever experienced. Like the sweet cream his aunt, White Lily, had once given him. And how could her skin smell like crushed spring blossoms all over?

Starting at the outer edge of her breast, he worked his way inward in a spiral. She shuddered, and he rewarded her response by covering the rosy tip with his whole mouth and suckling. She cried out, a keening sound of pleasure and need. His own need flared. He sucked her again, laving the captive nipple with his tongue. Back and forth, around and around, sucking and biting until she sobbed with pleasure. And he throbbed with lust.

"And this. "

Settling onto her body, he moved to her other breast and subjected it to the same teasing. As she lost herself in the talents of his mouth, he sent his hands to explore the rest of her. Everywhere she was smooth and silky, her skin soft as a summer cloud.

"Oh, Standing Bear. "

She breathed his name on a trembling moan. The sound of it filled his heart with unexpected emotion. He wanted to hear it again and again. To have her always look at him with the dreams he saw in her eyes at this moment.

How had this woman of his enemy bewitched him so quickly?

Grasping her rosy nipples between his fingers, he trailed his tongue up her chest, tasting her long, slim neck, her delicate earlobes, her shapely jaw. He nibbled her ear and plunged his tongue deep into the whorling center. Exquisite.

She moaned and turned her face to his. Her eyes were glazed with passion, her lips parted. He wanted to lick her there, too. Inside her mouth.

"Will you... kiss me?"

Her eyes were focused on his, and she was watching him with shy trepidation. His cock swelled. "My aunt does this... kissing. It is for babies. "

The corner of his lip twitched at the memory of his mother's brother's reaction the first time his captive wife had kissed him in front of friends and family. Such a thing was unheard of. But she had persisted in the habit, and gradually his uncle's embarrassment had turned to something else, more akin to amused indulgence. Pride, even.

But it was still better practiced on the heads of babes, not warriors. The whole business seemed very strange to him.

"Men and women do it, too, " Pale As Moonlight said, an odd light in her eyes. It was obvious she wished to do this thing.

If it would ease her way to becoming his, he could tolerate it. "Teach me. "

The pink tip of her tongue peeked out from between her moist lips and he nearly groaned out loud. How he longed to feel that tongue paint over his body like a wet chamois in a sweat lodge.

"Then untie me. "

He came back to himself. A wicked grin creased his face. "No. I think we will save this kissing for later. I am not ready to let you loose yet. "

"I won't run. "

"I know. " He reached between them and touched her breasts again. She was helpless to resist him when he did that, and he wanted her to have no doubt he could control her as he wished.

She sucked in a breath. "Then why?"

"It excites me. "

He lifted up and rose to stand above her, one foot on either side of her hips, the rope giving him just enough slack to straighten. He saw her swallow heavily, from both his words and the sight of his masculinity displayed so blatantly before her. She glanced at his belt buckle as he unfastened it, and he saw the flash of recognition at the familiar design worn by the white man's Horse Soldiers.

Her ice-blue eyes widened as he stripped off his leggings and tossed them aside. The implications of the buckle had brought a sheen of fear back into her eyes as they swept over his now-naked body. That was fine. A little fear enhanced a woman's passion.

"Spread your legs, " he ordered.

Chapter Two

Sally stared at Standing Bear, mortified by his softly spoken command.

"I--"

"Now. " His expression brooked no resistance.

What choice did she have but to submit? If she did so, he'd have no reason to harm her, and she'd be on her way back to the wagon train as soon as it was over. He couldn't possibly kidnap her this close to the wagon train. The consequences would be too dire, even for a lawless renegade.

She squeezed her eyes shut and moved her legs a fraction apart, turning her head so he couldn't see her raging blush. She coiled her fingers about the ropes that bound her, holding tight against what surely would follow. There would be no cavalry rescue from this man. His belt buckle said loud and clear who would win that battle. He would take what he wanted, and she must make it easy for him to let her go afterwards.

He knelt over her and wedged a knee between her thighs. First one muscular leg insinuated itself into the gap, then the other. He splayed her wide, opening her to his sight and his carnal demands.

She shook with terror. What had ever possessed her to think she might like this?

To her surprise, his hands began caressing her legs, running up and down them with light, almost tickling fingers. With every stroke he came nearer and nearer the site of her womanhood, the secret place no man had looked upon -- or touched -- before this day. For long moments she dared not even breathe.

"Be calm, Pale As Moonlight. I will not hurt you. "

She was beginning to believe him. If he had meant to roughly violate her, he would have done so by now. She let out the breath she'd been holding.

At his persistent gentleness, her fear slowly ebbed, but her trembling continued. She couldn't control it. Whenever his fingers neared the juncture of her thighs, she shook like a leaf caught in a lightening storm. Chills and hot bolts streaked through her body, radiating outward from the dark, velvet place she most feared he would touch.

She squirmed, opening her legs more fully.

The place she most wished he would touch.

Her eyes shot open at the realization. She wanted his hands on her. All over her. On every exposed curve and in every hidden furrow.

Oh, she was shamelessly wanton! His gaze was on her face now, measuring the depth of her depravity. How could he possibly miss her arousal at the sublime wickedness of her exposed position? At the way this savage stranger spread her legs apart to accept his male invasion? At the feel of his bronze fingers probing the moist folds of her untried virgin flesh?

His eyes darkened to raven black as he slid his thumb up, up her woman's crease to glide around the hard pearl at the apex. She convulsed, crying out at the tumult of sensation that exploded within her. She strained at her ropes, bucking and gasping with each pass he made over the sensitive nub. It was heaven. It was hell.

"What are you doing to me?" she moaned. "Is this some kind of barbaric magic?"

She was going to come apart. She'd never felt such blinding pleasure! She wanted it to go on and on, and yet every touch of his hands made her groan in frustration for... for what she didn't know.

"Do you like this magic?" he crooned.

"No! Yes... "

"Look at you, unfurling like a spring bud, dripping with nectar. Longing for the sting of the hummingbird's feed. "

She thrashed about, wanting to free her hands. She wanted to bury her fingers in his hair, pull him to her and--

"Or a sweet honeycomb craving the lap of the bear's tongue. "

His thumbs spread her nether lips and his unrelenting mouth covered her, sealing her in white-hot pleasure. His tongue stroked her and began a searing, twirling, primitive dance around the flaming bonfire of her need.

"Yes! Oh, yes!"

Unconsciously, she clamped her knees, holding him tight against her in the only way she could. She wanted him to -- needed him to--

The earth stood still and in that instant she knew pure lust. "Oh, God!" It crashed in on her, erupting in a gatling canopy of sensation, ripping her world apart with the intensity of a cannon blast.

She screamed.

When she came to, her bonds had been untied and Standing Bear lay on top of her, his broad chest pinning her to the blanket. She lowered her arms gingerly and with her fingertips touched his corded neck, the bear claw necklace, his darkly handsome face, until her head stopped spinning. He turned and pressed his mouth to her palm, licking and nipping at her.

She smiled uncertainly, utterly amazed. "I had no idea... "

He glanced up, his half-lidded eyes heavy with intent. "Good?"

She curled her arms around his neck, playing with the long strands of midnight hair. "Good doesn't even come close. " The two red stripes painted across his cheekbones had smudged.

He grunted, then teased the sensitive spot just below her ear with his tongue. "There's more. "

"I--" Unbelievably, a coil of desire tightened her womb to a tense spring of heated wanting. The man was a demon. He moved and she felt the thick, steely length of him nestle against her eager opening.

"Wrap your legs around my waist, " he ordered, nipping at her neck when she didn't obey fast enough. His arms slid around her and held her in a tight embrace. She felt the plum-shaped tip of his erection push into her slick passage, stopping when it met resistance.