"More," she whispered. "Or you may find that your cat has sharper teeth than you thought." She playfully bit his shoulder to punctuate her threat.
His laugh was deep, rich. "Your pleasure is my pleasure, Glee." Again and again, Alex's tongue laved the peaks of her breasts, and soon he was coaxing little growls of pleasure from her with his teeth, too.
Glee's body reached for the pinnacle again, stretching, arching, smoothing the way with liquid heat which ran through her veins and pooled between her legs. But just as she thought she might find that incredible bliss as she had done at the jail in Fort Kearny, Glee felt Alex pull away from her.
"Why," she panted, "are you...stopping?" She gripped his forearms as he rose to his knees on her right.
"I want to feel it with you, querida," he said hoarsely, his hands moving with awkward clanks to his belt buckle.
As she listened to the sound of his buckle and then the buttons of his pants, Glee became rather abruptly aware of what she was doing. The finality of what was about to happen struck her like ice water. His pants brought up a slight puff of air as they landed in a heap not far to Glee's left. As he eased himself down next to her, a very hard reality brushed first against the side and then the top of her thighs.
"¿Querida?" he asked, one knee forcing hers to open. "Why do you tense so?" He was kneeling between her legs now, but did not prod or force her. "I am a man, Glee, but I will not hurt you."
She didn't know what to say. Some part of her was paralyzed with fear, another dying with eagerness.
"Ah, Glee, you are trembling. I don't wish to frighten you." She felt him shift his weight and heard the clank of his chain rattle where it rested along her left arm. She imagined that he was pushing his dark hair away from his face. "Shall I kiss you first?"
Kissing did not paralyze her, did not turn her brain to mush. "Yes," she whispered, amazed at the desperate quality of her voice. "Kiss me, Alejandro." Her hands reached for his face, caressing his long, thick sideburns and the stubble of beard on his cheeks and chin.
Again he shifted his weight, and the cold metal of his chain brushed across her breast as his first kiss found her lower left ribs. His tongue trailed toward her navel and delved within, causing her to giggle and squirm. He must have liked this because he did it several times before he left off and placed kisses as soft as butterfly wings down the plane of her belly.
Glee groaned when she realized the kind of kiss he intended. It wasn't what she had meant when she asked, but she wasn't sorry for the miscommunication. An erotic illustration she'd see in one of the teaching books came to Glee's closed eyelids. They were performing the act; they were doing something she'd only imagined before! She touched Alex's thick hair as she felt his warm breath stir the red-gold curls he sought. Her legs fell open, relaxed and tense with anticipation all at once. She felt his hands on her thighs, felt him applying a steady pressure there to expose her further, and then it happened.
Glee's sweet cry of pleasure mixed with a piercing shriek from somewhere outside of the wagon.
Chapter 14
"Dios!" Alex's head shot up. The screaming had not stopped and was now interspersed with low voices and someone crying. Glee tried to rise beneath him, but he pushed her back down with firm hand between her breasts. "There may be danger, Glee. Stay here."
She started to murmur a protest but he quickly silenced her with a kiss and then crawled out the back of the wagon. Alex assessed the scene with a cool eye, searching the dark horizon and darker trees lining the river for any sign of Indians or marauders. Nothing seemed amiss, so his attention went to the four people in the camp.
Amina sat just in front of Glee's tent, sobbing and holding her right leg. Hakki bent over her, examining the limb, especially her foot. Erdogan stood by, wringing his pudgy hands, tears streaming down round cheeks with a forlorn expression as he seemed to search the darkness for something. As he was, Erdogan suddenly reminded Alex of his four-year-old son Rudy after losing a favorite toy. The absurdity of likening a grown man to a four-year-old brought a slight twist to Alex's mouth, but that was short-lived.
"Will you go'damn sons of whores just shut the hell up!" shouted Jake Fletcher. He stood near the foot of his little tent, wearing only his long, red underwear and boots, swinging a pistol wildly.
There was immediate silence as all eyes turned first to Fletcher and then to Alex. Alex only saw their surprised expressions at his presence. He didn't realize just how he looked, bronzed skin cast silver by the light of the full moon, naked and in bold proclamation of his masculinity. White glimmers shot from the dark sheen of his hair and off the few clean links of the long chain which bound him to the wagon axle, and his eyes glowed with gold fire. A more primitive, compelling sight could not have met their eyes.
"What is the problem?" Glee said as she walked from the front of the wagon, casually, as though she had just been out for a moonlight stroll.
Erdogan spoke for a few moments in rushed Turkish, his voice wavering with fear. Hakki made some comment as well; he was calm and remained primarily focused on Amina’s foot.
"What the hell 'r they sayin'? When ya gonna teach them slaves ta speak right, anyway?" Fletcher asked irritably.
Glee hugged Erdogan and then sent him to the wagon for medicinal supplies before she turned to Fletcher. "Erdogan is upset, Mister Fletcher. He always speaks Turkish when he's upset, and Hakki was simply doing the same. What they told me was that Amina has been bitten by a spider, or some other insect, and that her foot is beginning to swell. Do you know of any poisonous insects in this part of Nebraska, Mister Fletcher?"
He scratched his beard. "Naw, don't s'ppose I do. Probably nothin' though."
Glee nodded. "All right, then we'll just have to assume that it will not become more serious." She eyed Fletcher with obvious distaste. "I think things are under control here, Mister Fletcher. You can return to your bed. I assure you we'll be more quiet."
"Yeah. You do that," he grumbled, but crawled into his tent.
Once Fletcher was out of sight, Alex turned to Glee, watching as she directed Erdogan back to the wagon again for a different basket of supplies. Her green-blue gaze found him and they stared at each other for several seconds.
"You're completely naked, Alex," she whispered. "And-and..." She glanced toward his protruding phallus, and he watched her cheeks redden before her eyes met his again. "Aren't you cold?"
He laughed low. "Your eyes warm me, querida." She went a little more red. "I am not ashamed of my body. Should I be?"
She shook her head, but her eyes never left his face. "I've never seen you... Never imagined... No, that's not true. What I meant to say was-"
"Gracias, amor," he finished for her. He took the three steps left to him due to the length of his chain, and bent to whisper in her ear. "I too, admire your body, Glee. And the way the moonlight turns your hair to copper. Magnifica. But one thing is wrong."
"Wrong?"
He fought to keep his voice from reflecting his amusement. "Yes, sweetheart. Shouldn't your nightdress fasten in the front? I seem to remember it was that way before I helped you-"
"Oh!" Her hands shot to her throat where the sought-for ties were not. Alex watched her eyes round in horror and then glance with guilty self-consciousness toward her busy servants.
"Perhaps they will not notice. Perhaps they will not realize that you have been making love with me tonight, mi tigresa. Perhaps they did not hear your abandoned cry of pleasure so rudely interrupted."
Her eyes lost that look of horror and warmed, closing for a moment and then opening again. "Stop, Alex," she breathed. "You're torturing me on purpose."
He laughed. "Torture requires intent, Glee," he corrected. "But I was only teasing you. I wanted to see you blush, and see? You are."
She frowned and wrinkled her nose at him. "You're an arrogant bastard, Alejandro Pacheco," she grumbled.
"Si, Glee Montrose," he said on a chuckle. "I am." He waved a jingling hand toward the flo
undering trio at the big tent. "Now go. Your cubs need you, little tiger."
"Stuff!" she spouted, and then flounced off, dignity slightly bruised.
He put his pants on, then stood and watched her for a time. She took charge of the situation like a benevolent dictator, directing Erdogan to one task, Hakki to another, as she examined and then treated Amina's sore foot. The black woman asked her questions, directing a glance at Alex now and again as she gestured. But very little of what she asked was clear to him, and all of Glee's responses were in Turkish.
After an hour or so, Hakki carried Amina into the big tent and Erdogan followed. Glee put the last of the supplies back into the basket and brought it to the wagon. She stopped on her way back to the tent and Alex could feel the heat of her body as she approached him.
"I'm sorry," she said softly. Her smooth hands reached up to touch his shoulders, and Alex felt his body react to her with hot need. He pulled her against him by her waist, and reveled in the gentle caresses which brought her fingers into his hair.
He, too, was very sorry they had been interrupted. But, he thought, there would be other nights to make love to her. Soon, he would be in a position to escape his bonds. Hakki would be careless sometime, and then Alex could flee. With sudden clarity, he knew he would take her with him. The pleasure of finding her next to him each morning would far outweigh any difficulty she might present. But he did not tell her of his plan. She would never agree, and though she professed to believe that he was Alejandro Pacheco, he had seen doubt flickering in her eyes more than once.
"Another night, Glee. Or, better, another day so that I may see what you have hidden from me first with ugly gowns, then in the dark of night."
She blushed. "Why do you say things like that to me?" Her voice was a whisper, almost as though she didn't intend him to hear.
His lips descended toward hers and he breathed his reply against them. "To make you hot with wanting me, as much as I want you."
Her soft moan was lost in his mouth as their lips met and sealed an unspoken agreement to meet again and finish what they had started.
Chapter 15 – Fort Laramie, Wyoming
Glee thought she had never been so grateful to sink into a tub of warm, soapy water. Her sigh of contentment brought a smile to Amina, and Glee returned the expression. "It's been a very, very long week, my friend."
Amina nodded. "I am sorry that I have been so useless," she signed.
"You couldn't help it. And anyway, it was partially my fault. If I hadn't left the tent, you would have never ventured out to find me."
"You never have said what you were doing, Glee," Amina pointed out.
"No, I never have," Glee agreed tersely.
It wasn't that Glee didn't trust her friend. It was simply that she didn't want to worry her. And, she admitted to herself, some little part of her wanted to hold her new-found joy close, selfishly, greedily keeping it with a miser's grip. At least until she had gone past the point of no return and really made love with Alex.
Over the past week, while she'd nursed a fevered Amina, and had taken over all the girl's chores in addition to her own, Glee had been buoyed by Alex's tawny-gold regard now and then. He smiled at her often, sharing their secret with patient amusement. Several times, when they were alone, he whispered about some of the delicious things they would do together. Only that morning, as they sighted Fort Laramie, he bent to her ear and said, "Soon, querida, we will finish what we started. Perhaps you will find a way to sneak me from the jail and into your bed. But we will not sleep; not even for an hour. We will be too busy making the tiger purr, yes?"
A shiver and flush of heat went through Glee as she remembered the sound of his voice, so deep and seductive in her ear. Somehow, some way, she had to arrange to be alone with him for a night. Perhaps her forthcoming meeting with the commander of this fort would be more fruitful than her conversation with General Clement at Fort Kearny had been. The last thing she wanted was to go to Alex in another jail cell. Her mind still recoiled in horror at what had almost befallen her the last time.
Amina clapped and Glee looked up to see her put aside the heavy iron and shake out Glee's aquamarine silk day dress. Another of Aunt Ulalie's purchases, it was a beautiful creation of pale, blue-green, watered silk, flounced and puffed around the skirt, and rich with white lace at cuff and collar. Another set of hoops had been hastily constructed from an extra set of cane rings and ribbon tape and waited, a series of concentric circles, on the floor by the guest room's big bed.
"Time to get dressed," Amina signed.
Glee made a face, but rose from the water. "Is Erdogan outside?"
Amina finished wrapping a towel around Glee's dripping hair and then answered. "Yes. I'll get him, go lie down."
Eagerly anticipating her first real massage in nearly a week, Glee flopped onto the big feather bed and waited. Soon the door opened and there was a shuffle of feet.
Erdogan's high voice sounded excited as he puffed into the room. "Oh, mistress, what a place this is! So busy, so new. There are soldiers and red-Indians everywhere."
"Indians?" she asked, suddenly alert.
"Oh yes, and they have some very useful things to trade, if one is interested." He held up two bottles. "Will you have rose or spice today, mistress?"
"Spice, Erdogan. Tell me more about the Indians. How is it they are here? I thought there was war, even though a treaty had been signed last year."
Erdogan's reply came from down by her feet. "Only some of the Sioux (that's what the Indians around here are called) participated in the treaty," he informed her, proud of his newfound knowledge. "Others, led by some fellow called Red Cloud, alternate between war and peace, depending on the army's movements here, and the time of year."
"What has the time of year got to do with it?"
"I don't know," he answered, now massaging her thighs. "But a whole lot of them rode out just after we arrived to hunt beflolo."
"Buff-a-lo," Glee corrected.
"Mmhmm," he went on excitedly. "Beflolo. A great herd of them was seen northwest of here and the Indians want to capture a few for the winter."
Erdogan was massaging her wagon-weary bottom and she sighed. Something about his explanation didn't sound quite right, but Glee didn't think she'd get a better answer, so she changed the subject. "Has Mister Pacheco been secured in the jail by now? Did you and Hakki do as I told you and go along to make sure he wasn't abused again?"
"Oh yes, mistress! We did just as you said, and there was no struggle. But they weren't able to put him in the jail. Some soldiers and Indians had a skirmish yesterday, and all the cells are filled with Indians awaiting trial."
"What has been done with him then?"
"He is again chained to Hakki, and we were given beds in the soldiers' house."
"The barracks?"
"Yes," he confirmed.
"And Jake Fletcher?"
"He left perhaps half-an-hour ago. There is a town not far from here, and he said he would return in the morning."
Glee rolled over and closed her eyes as she considered this new information about Alex. It would mean that there could be no real privacy for them unless Glee let her trio of servants in on her secret. They'd treat her differently, she knew, but did it matter? How could anything matter when it meant that she could spend the night in Alex's arms. In his arms!
* * * *
All her fuss and bother, digging out a proper dress, fishing out clean, polished shoes, and a beaded reticule, had been for nothing. The commanding general couldn't see her after all. He was busy directing troops to some battle to the west, and couldn't take the time to sort out some minor difficulty like hers. Glee came directly from his office and down the wooden sidewalk toward the little cottage she had been given. She was angry and frustrated, not even stopping to politely acknowledge the soldiers and officers who wished her well.
Damn! Now what was she to do? There was only one more military outpost between here and Salt Lake City, and if sh
e was as unsuccessful there as she had been so far, there was a real possibility that Alex would go to trial as Esteban Garcia. Perhaps she'd just have to trust her instincts and find a way to let him loose.
She stopped in front of the cottage and bit her lip as she considered the idea. Would Fletcher continue to guide them without Alex to motivate him? And, where would Alex go? California, of course. But where in California?
How odd that she would seriously consider making love with a man whom she knew so little about! She knew only that his smile made her want to smile back, that he was very strong, and very handsome, and he made her feel beautiful and complete for the first time in her life. Still, it wasn't enough to feel her knees turn to water when he kissed her, she had to feed her intellect, too.
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