Untamed (31 page)

At a loss, she simply said, "I just don't like it, that's all. We leaving now?"

He nodded, wriggling his long, enviably shiny braids. She started for the loft. "I'll just go get changed into my own clothes."

"There is no need for that. What you wear is yours to keep."

Since Sissy figured she'd earned the buckskins, she didn't try to decline the gift, "I'll just go pack up my things, then..."

''Later," he said, following her, then taking her by the shoulders. ''First we have business."

Assuming he wanted to get off with her one more time, Sissy began to unbutton her shirt. Long Belly slid his hand atop hers. "Our business today is between our heads, not our legs."

Long Belly was so tall, towering at least a foot above her, that Sissy rarely tried to look him in the eye. At that strange statement, she arched her neck back and gawked up at him.

"What kind of business could you possibly have with this thick head?"

He laughed, and then bounced his hands off the sides of her hair.

"You are a very funny woman, Buffalo Hair, one of the many reasons, I think, that I have grown these strange feelings for you."

Puzzled, she asked, "And what kinda feelings might they be, red man?"

He laughed, then repeated the second of the special names they called each other. "They are these, brown woman. I have a great warmth here for you." He put his hand over his heart. "A feeling that burns until it hurts when I think of sending you to live with the white man again. Do you have this strange burning for me?"

The feelings Long Belly spoke of were as foreign to Sissy as his Cheyenne language. She wasn't even sure what he was trying to say, or what those feelings meant.

Exasperated, she shook her head and said, "Maybe you got hold of some bad stew or something if you got a burning in your chest. Me, I'm the same as always. I don't feel nothing."

All the sparkle faded from Long Belly's eyes, but then it suddenly came back, even brighter than before. "You must feel something inside, even if it is hatred. I have thought of a way for you to discover what it is you feel for me. Will you let me try?"

Since he'd never done anything to hurt her before, and she couldn't imagine that he'd find whatever it was he was looking for anyway, Sissy reluctantly agreed.

"What do you have in mind?"

Without warning, Long Belly picked her up and carried her over to the counter, where he made a great ceremony of clearing a nice spot on which to deposit her. Then he spread her legs and moved up between them so the two of them were just inches apart. Sitting there at eye level with him, Sissy couldn't stop herself from smiling.

"There, see?" he said softly. "I think you are having a good feeling for me. Tell me what you feel when I do this."

He leaned into her, his mouth heading straight for hers, and Sissy brought her elbows up against his chest. "No kissing. How many times do I have to tell you? No kissing."

Long Belly smiled as if he hadn't heard. "Just once. Allow me to kiss you once. Then tell me you have no feelings for this red man."

Sissy would not admit to a certain curiosity over what it would be like to taste what others accepted as part of their daily lives. And she sure didn't want to examine why the thought of a harmless kiss frightened her so. In light of all that, it seemed that giving in would be the fastest and easiest thing to do.

"All right, go ahead, but be quick about it."

That said, she closed her eyes and offered her lips.

Long Belly was quick to take them, but that was all he did in a hurry. Once his mouth had claimed hers, he gently parted her lips with his tongue, and then somehow coaxed her into opening up for him. Images swirled in Sissy's mind the way his tongue twined around hers, brilliant reds and blues with shooting stars of yellow and white. She suddenly felt as if she were breaking up inside, losing little pieces of herself, and then her heart began to race, freezing her with fear. In a panic, Sissy began to fight against Long Belly's embrace.

He took his mouth from hers, but continued to hold her close as he whispered against her skin, "I have want of you as my woman, Buffalo Hair. I have no wish to take you back to Miles City. What do you want?"

She didn't know. No one had ever asked or cared what Sissy wanted, and now that someone did, the thought was terrifying, like offering freedom to a bird that had never known any life but the cage. She didn't know what she wanted.

Waiting patiently for her answer, Long Belly helped himself to another kiss, this one even deeper and more tender than the last. Something new stirred in Sissy as his mouth made love to hers, a feeling completely unrelated to the fear that any hint of intimacy usually spawned. She thought it might even be desire.

Pushing away from Long Belly's sensual lips, Sissy said, "Let me get this straight. Did you say you wanted me to go live with you on the reservation?"

He pursed his lips as if deeply troubled. "This is what l asked of you, yes, even though I know that it will be a hard and simple life for you. Difficulties will come, too, because ask you to live among people who do not speak your language. None of this is good or fair to you, but I need to have you by my side. Will you join me?"

Sissy's throat swelled, almost closing up on her, but she managed to eke out, "Will I? Oh, red man, that sounds like heaven."

"This means you will go with me?"

"Kiss me again first, would you, just like before?"

This time, when he took her mouth, there was a new urgency, a deeper thrusting of his tongue, a tighter embrace. Unmistakable desire quickened in Sissy's loins as the kiss wore on, and suddenly she knew exactly what she wanted.

Tearing away from Long Belly, she said, "I'll go with you, and stay as long as you want me to. But first, would you take me up to the loft? And, red man—hurry."

* * *

In the barn, Josie sat on a grain barrel while Daniel went on and on about his wonderful boys and how much she would enjoy tending to them if only she'd give herself half a chance.

"It seems to me," he said, "that since you have all those brothers, you should probably know a lot about children."

She nodded grimly. "I do. In fact, I know a lot more about them than I ever wanted to know."

He paused to glare, making damn sure she realized how testy he was getting. "Why don't you just try a little, harder to get along with the twins? There isn't a woman alive who can keep from falling in love with those boys after you get to know them."

Josie seriously considered telling Daniel that yes, there was such a woman, and she was sitting right in front of him. She refrained, knowing such an admission would only hurt his feelings—and probably make him madder as well.

"I'm not making any promises," she finally said. "But I'll try a little harder if they will."

"Josie." He spoke to her as if she were a child. "They're four years old. What do you expect them to do? Behave like short little adults?"

She expected them to behave, period, but Josie said, "I'm just asking for a little respect. I don't think they like me very much."

"You're new to them, is all. Maybe if you do something special for them, they'll warm to you a little faster."

"Special? Like what?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe bake something for them, like that cake you made for Sissy."

Josie sighed, feeling as if she were taking a backward step into the past, but agreed to give it a try anyway. "I guess it wouldn't kill me to bake some cookies for the little fellahs."

"Now there you go." Daniel leaned over and kissed her lips. "Your mothering instincts just needed a little nudge to wake them up."

"Mothering instincts," Josie muttered. "Right."

Having deluded himself into believing that she would actually enjoy baking for his little pisspots, Daniel then dragged Josie out into the yard and called his heathens in from their play.

Grumbling under her breath, she pulled away from him and said, "Send the boys on in when you get them rounded up. I'd better go get started on that batter."

When she stepped inside the cabin, Josie saw that Long Belly was just coming down the ladder from his loft. He carried a small bundle in his arms along with his parfleche.

As he passed by her, he flashed a rare smile and said, "I will say good-bye now, but hope to see you and my brother at the reservation soon."

Surprised to find that she actually had some friendly feelings toward him, Josie returned his smile, "Good-bye, Long Belly. It's been real... different knowing you. Where's Sissy?"

"She gathers her belongings." He inclined his head toward the loft. "Do not keep her long."

That sense of camaraderie rapidly fading, she muttered, "Don't worry. I'll see that she doesn't dawdle too much."

Josie resisted the urge to bury her foot in his backside as he strolled out of the cabin and contented herself instead by kicking the door shut behind him. She wondered if he'd been as abrupt with Sissy when he explained that he'd be taking her back to her life as a whore and got mad all over again as she dug through Daniel's meager pantry for cooking supplies.

Josie managed to find molasses, sugar, eggs, vinegar, flour, and even cinnamon, which meant that she only lacked one ingredient in order to make her usually delicious molasses cookies—ginger. Figuring the twins already had so much of that particular spice that they wouldn't notice if it was missing from the cookies, she cleaned up the only bowl in the house and began measuring flour.

She'd just dumped the third cup of 'dumpling dust,' as Daniel referred to it, into the bowl when Sissy came down from the loft and joined her at the counter.

"What are you cooking up now?" she asked, peeking into the bowl.

"Cookies for Daniel's little pisspots." Josie wiped her hands on the scrap of linen she used for a towel. "Not that it was my idea."

"It's right nice of you no matter whose idea it was."

Turning to her, Josie decided she might as well let Sissy believe that if she wanted to, and then noticed that there were several changes in her friend's appearance. For one thing, Sissy's checks were kind of flushed, not precisely rosy they way her own got, but shiny, as if glowing from within. Her dark eyes, usually so flat and dull, were sparkling with something that hinted at contentment, maybe even fulfillment. Strangest of all, she was smiling. Not simply smiling, but grinning like a big ole jack-o'-lantern.

"Sissy?" Josie said, unable to fathom this sudden transformation. "What's come over you? You're positively radiant."

Sissy averted her gaze with a coy little smile that made Josie think of innocence, debutantes and balls, and all the things that had never been a part of either of their lives. What had happened between her and that crazy Cheyenne?

"Sissy?" Her tone deeper, demanding, Josie finally got her attention. "Are you all right?"

"I'm better than all right." Again the big grin. "Long Belly wants me to stay on with him. I said I would."

"You're gonna stay here, on the reservation?" Josie threw her arms around her and squeezed. "Then we'll for sure be seeing each other from time to time."

"For sure," Sissy agreed, hugging her back. "And as often as the weather permits, I guess."

Josie had more questions, a full string of them, but those pesky twins rolled through the doorway then, cutting the conversation short.

Sissy went right to them, her eyes even more brilliant than before, and said, "Hi, fellahs. What's your names?"

The boys just stared at her, in particular that great tumbleweed of dark brown hair, taking in her unusual skin color and features as if she were some kind of aberration. In these parts, Josie figured that maybe she was. But that didn't make the twins' reaction any less rude.

"Don't mind them," she said. "They're just gawking at you because they don't know what you said."

"They cain't speak English?"

"No," Josie muttered. "And they're not much on manners either."

Her covetous eyes all over the two young boys, Sissy sighed wistfully. "They look so much alike, I don't know how poor Daniel tells them apart. What are their names?"

"That one is Hell," Josie said, picking one at random. "And the other's Damnation."

Sissy turned to her in horror. "Really?"

"No," Josie said with a laugh. "But those names fit them better than Bang and Two Moons, which don't make a lot of sense either."

Although she was laughing along with Josie, Sissy scolded her. ``Hell and Damnation aren't very nice names for their new mother to be calling a sweet little pair like this."

"I'm not their mother, and that's about as nice as I can be considering these sweet little pisspots tried to kill me."

Sissy cocked her head. "Kill you, princess?"

"Okay, maim me. They snuck up behind me and threw a spear that could have put out my eye." She looked down at the boys. "That is what you two had in mind, isn't it?"

When they grinned back at her in that irritatingly smug way, Josie pointed to her eyes, then crossed them and stuck out her tongue. The twins shrieked and ran screaming from the cabin.

"Oh, no. Here we go again." Josie rolled up her sleeves, preparing for round two.

"Daniel?" Sissy guessed.

Josie nodded. "Daniel. He thinks those two are little angels that could never do wrong. If he only had eyes in the back of his head, he'd soon see that what he sired is a couple of ill-bred brats."

Sissy shook her great head of hair and laughed. "I don't think them boys grate on you nearly as much as you let on, princess. Why cain't you just enjoy 'em a little? They could be a real comfort to you over the winter."

Josie would have laughed out loud had Daniel not come through the door about then.

He paused there at the threshold, his skin looking sallow beneath its usual nutmeg hue. His fists were clenched and the muscles of his neck continually flexed as he clenched and unclenched his teeth. His eyes were on fire and bluer than they'd ever been, as startling as periwinkles in the snow. Bad to worse, the little pisspots were clinging to his pant legs as if they were frightened, but their expressions were pure rascal.