Pressing her lips together, she drew in a long, shaky breath. “For your information, I’m tired. I’m not used to being in the outdoors this much. And the trip up here was tiring.”
Mocking amusement dented both of his cheeks. “I don’t believe you’re a bit tired. You don’t look it.”
She cleared her throat as nervousness overtook her. “You seemed to know a lot about me all of a sudden.”
He moved closer, and her breathing grew short and rapid as he reached out and placed his hand around her upper arm.
“Every minute I’m learning more,” he murmured.
She groaned with misgivings. “Daniel, please…we didn’t come out here for…this.”
“This? I’m just touching your arm.”
Turning ever so slightly, Maggie placed her palms against his chest. “That’s a start to something I—”
She couldn’t continue. Every beat of her heart was pumping hot desire through her veins.
His hands began to move up and down her arms in a warm, seductive way. “Maggie, I want you. I’ve wanted you ever since we kissed that night after we brought Aaron home from the mountains. If that’s bad or wrong, I can’t help it.”
Squeezing her eyes shut, she swallowed at the husky knot in her throat. It would be stupid of her to try to hide her feelings, she thought, especially when she wanted, needed him so much.
Her eyes dropped to the middle of his chest where her fingers unwittingly plucked at the fabric of his shirt. “I…want you, too, Daniel. But we can’t have what we want. It wouldn’t be—”
“Right?” he finished for her. “Why? Because I’m Ute?”
“No! That’s an awful thing to say.”
Lifting his hand to her face, he cupped his palm against her cheek. “What am I supposed to think? You’re a single woman, free from commitment. Why would it be wrong for you to make love to me?”
Make love to him. Yes. That’s exactly what Maggie wanted to do. What she’d wanted to do for weeks now. “I don’t know why it would be wrong—it just would.”
She could see he was fighting with himself as much as he was with her way of thinking. “Maybe.” He said. “But right now, tonight, I don’t care.”
He didn’t wait for her to reply. The tug of his hands brought her straight into his arms. Her head fell back, and Daniel took advantage by closing his mouth over hers.
The moment she tasted his lips, Maggie realized there was no turning away. The hunger deep inside her had been growing and building for days now. She couldn’t ignore it or deny it…no matter the consequences.
Rising up on tiptoe, she slid her hands up his shoulders and circled her arms around his neck.
Maggie’s welcoming response caused a groan to purr deep in Daniel’s throat, and his hands slid to her buttocks to pull her tight against his swelling manhood. Finally, when they were both desperate for air, he broke the contact of their lips and whispered in a gravelly voice against the side of her neck.
“I want you, Maggie. Very much. Feel me. Feel what you’re doing to me.” He unwound one of her arms from his neck and placed her hand on the fly of his pants.
If he expected her to be shocked by the bulge beneath the heavy denim of his jeans, she wasn’t. Not if he was feeling anything like she was at this moment. Her own body was aching desperately, and she wondered how this one man could have so quickly resurrected something that had been dead inside her for many years.
Pressing her cheek against his chest, she murmured, “I want you, too, Daniel. So very much.”
He didn’t waste time in saying more. He didn’t want to give her the chance to second guess what they were about to do. In his mind he had no choice. Tomorrow might bring regrets. But tonight, for the first time in his life, he was going to follow the calling in his heart.
Chapter Eight
Bending, he swept her up in his arms and carried her to his tent. Inside the small enclosure, he laid her on the smooth mattress, then began to remove his shirt.
Once it was out of the way, he lay down next to her and drew her into his arms. She was shivering, and as she clung to his shoulders, he reached down and pulled a blanket up over the two of them.
“Better?” he asked as she rested her head in the hollow of his shoulder.
“I’m…not cold,” she answered. “I guess I’m…a little nervous. I don’t have to tell you that it’s been a long time since—well, you know.”
Tilting his head downward, he placed his lips against the crown of her curly hair. “Not since Hugh?”
She shook her head. “I’ve never wanted anyone like this. I’ve never felt this way—ever.”
The glow of the nearby fire illuminated the interior of the tent with dim yellow light. Maggie tilted her head back to search out the handsome lines of his face.
“I’m glad,” he said simply. “Because I’ve never felt like this, either.”
It wasn’t something he’d wanted to admit to her. He wanted to keep this need, this connection to her purely physical. But that idea had flown away the moment his lips had touched hers. Something about Maggie made his head and his heart merge in an all-too-vulnerable way.
To push the worry away, Daniel moved his head forward and began to kiss her again. The warm response of her lips heated his blood until the pleasure exploding in his body overcame the trouble in his mind.
Soft kisses turned hungry, and soon he was peeling away the two shirts she was wearing, her blue jeans and hiking boots. When he’d finally stripped her down to a scanty pair of panties and a bra, he turned to remove the rest of his own clothing.
As he lay down next to her on the makeshift bed, Maggie allowed her gaze to roam over his perfect body. He was lean in all the right places, while the rest of him was hard muscle.
She reached for him at the same time he reached for her, and his bronze skin was hot and smooth beneath her fingers. Maggie buried her face into the crook of his shoulder and allowed her hands to explore his back, his ribs and the rock-hard muscles of his stomach.
His lips found the side of her neck and he nibbled his way softly upward until he pulled the lobe of her ear into his mouth and bit down with teasing pressure.
Maggie moaned with pleasure and snuggled closer to the hard heat of his body.
“Will Aaron wake up?” he whispered the question even as his hands worked to undo the clasp between her breasts holding together the two pieces of fabric.
“No. Once he’s asleep, he goes out like a rock,” Maggie told him.
“I’ve tied the zipper to our door closed. Just in case,” he assured her.
Their brief words caused a moment of sanity to enter her brain, and she looked at him with a measure of hesitation. “Are we—is this really what we want, Daniel?”
Groaning deep in his throat, he pushed the lace away from her breasts. “A long time ago when I had just grown into manhood, my grandfather told me that I would someday make love to a woman with fiery hair and she would change me. I never thought of his words again—until tonight, as we stood by the fire.”
Shaken by the old Indian’s prophecy, Maggie searched his face. “How did he know such a thing?” she asked in a surprised tone.
Daniel’s fingers threaded themselves through the silky curls at the side of her face. “He said he saw us one morning as he watched the sunrise. He said we were naked and entwined as one.”
“Oh, no.” She groaned with embarrassment and turned her face away from his.
“Maggie, why does that cause you shame? It made him very happy.”
Her fingers traced lazy circles upon his chest. “He talked to you about—sexual things?”
The surprise in her voice put a faint smile on Daniel’s face. “He talked to me about everything that had to do with the earth and the spirits beyond.”
She thought about the whole thing for a few moments, and then she suggested, “Maybe you’ve already made love to a fiery-haired woman.”
His response was nothing like she expect
ed. He began to laugh, almost loudly, and she pushed the upper part of her body away from his to stare at him.
“Is that supposed to be funny?” she asked.
“I have never made love to a white woman, period. And a few weeks ago, if someone had told me that I would have Maggie Ketchum in my bed tonight, I would have considered him crazy.”
“Why?” She wanted to know.
He made another grunt of amusement. “Because you are the rich princess on Ketchum Mountain. Women like you don’t rub shoulders or anything else with a Ute.”
Anger slashed through her and she pressed her palm over his lips so that he couldn’t speak. “Do you think I am really that way? That I’m prejudiced? That I’m just a money person? Dear Lord, if you do, then I shouldn’t be here in this tent with you!”
Drawing her hand from his mouth, he brought his lips close to hers. “Shh! I didn’t say I thought that now. I’m only telling you how I felt before I really got to know you. And now every time I look at you I want you. I don’t care if you are a Ketchum or a rich, white woman,” he said fiercely.
The urgency in his voice pierced something deep within her, and with a tiny groan she closed the distance between their lips and clutched her arms tightly around him.
“No! It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters,” she whispered once their kiss ended. “Except that you love me.”
With his hand upon her brow, he tilted her head and began to kiss the exposed curve of her throat. “My little night bird, let me spread your wings,” he murmured thickly.
Her head swimming, Maggie clutched his strong shoulders as his mouth made a wet descent down her throat and even lower to the soft spot between her breasts. There he laved her satiny skin with his tongue, while his fingers teased both nipples into hard buds.
The tug of his fingers and the intimate warmth of his tongue were enough to send her writhing with pleasure, and she moaned until he finally moved his mouth to her breast and began to suckle the nipple.
Intense pleasure shot through her like a flaming arrow, and her hand made a downward search for his manhood. As her fingers closed around his heated shaft, she heard him moan with pleasure, felt his teeth tighten upon the center of her breast.
“Daniel. Daniel.”
His name was a whispered plea from Maggie’s lips and he lifted his head and connected his mouth to hers. Nipping her lower lip with his teeth, he brought his hand between her thighs and pressed his palm against the moist ache.
Whimpering with need, Maggie stroked him, urged him to join their bodies. Desire consumed her and erased everything from her thoughts except him. She scarcely knew when he removed her panties, her hands were too busy searching out every hard muscle, every smooth contour of his body. Her lips were too distracted by the tug and pull of his teeth, the teasing touch of his tongue.
“Maggie,” he finally whispered against her throat. “I don’t have any protection. Do you?”
For a moment her mind was too drunk to realize what he’d asked, and then, as the question sank in, she pulled her head back and looked into his face.
“After all these years? I’ve never needed it.”
Even though she kept her arms wrapped firmly around him, he groaned. “Do you…want to end this?” he asked, his voice hoarse with need.
Did she? No! It was no longer a choice. She had to have this man. He’d opened her eyes and her heart. He’d made her body throb back to life. She couldn’t turn away from that now.
“No.”
He drew in several deep, shuddering breaths as he tried to maintain control over his body.
“What if you get pregnant?”
For some reason she couldn’t begin to fathom, the question didn’t scare her. Nor did the idea of having his baby. Dear Lord, what was happening to her? Was she falling in love with this man?
“If that happens, it’s meant to be,” she said simply.
She heard the sharp, sudden intake of his breath, and for several seconds she thought he was going to turn away from her, to tell her that he was a no-strings, take-no-chances kind of man.
But he didn’t turn away. Instead his fingers began to stroke her cheek, and her heart commenced to melt, to throb with an emotion so tender she thought it might rip her apart.
“My little Maggie. Oh yes, this was meant to be. Just as my grandfather predicted.”
As his words faded away, his knee separated her thighs, his mouth returned to hers. Maggie shifted her body to receive him and, as he slowly entered her, tears of emotion slid from the corners of her eyes.
Daniel bent his head to kiss away the tracks of moisture on her cheeks. “Am I hurting you?” he asked urgently.
Maggie’s head shook back and forth. “No. I don’t know. Oh, just make love to me, Daniel,” she pleaded.
She didn’t have to ask him again. His body began to move inside hers, and she lifted her hips to meet his eager thrust.
In a matter of moments Maggie, overtaken with sensations, clung to him tightly, afraid to let go, afraid both of them would float away on a cloud.
The air inside the small tent grew as hot as their bodies, and soon Maggie’s hair and skin were damp with sweat. Beneath her hands, Daniel’s torso was also slick. And as he worked to assuage both of their needs, a drop of his salty perspiration touched her lips.
It wasn’t long before Maggie felt the center of her being coiling tighter and tighter, until she was certain she would break apart. Finally, when the loop inside her snapped, she cried out as a million stars showered down on her.
Maggie’s sobs of pleasure spurred Daniel to reach for that same corner of the sky, and soon after, his body jerked then shuddered as his release spilled inside of her.
When Maggie finally caught her breath and recognized that she was still alive, she could feel Daniel’s soft, warm breath brushing the back of her neck, and feel his leg thrown possessively over hers. His hand was stroking the curve of her hip, and she closed her eyes to the pure pleasure of being his lover.
Lifting his hand to her lips, she kissed the back of it. “Tell me about Joe SilverBear,” she murmured.
A chuckle rumbled inside his chest. “I make love to a woman and she wants to talk about my grandfather.”
Smiling in the darkness, Maggie turned in his arms and snuggled her face against his shoulder. “We don’t need to talk about what we just did. It was perfect. Don’t you think?”
Closing his eyes, Daniel stroked her hair and the ridges of her spine. Making love to Maggie was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. His head was still reeling, and as far as he was concerned, to call their union perfect was not nearly a great enough description.
“It was beautiful, Maggie. More beautiful than I can tell you.”
Her soft fingers began to draw absent patterns across his belly, and Daniel felt the faint flutter of desire tease his loins all over again.
Tilting her head backward, she kissed his chin, his jaw and finally the hollow beneath his cheekbone. As her fingers brushed through his thick, damp hair, she said, “I thought I would feel like a tart if I made love to another man. But I don’t feel that way at all.”
There was a wondrous tone threading through her words that touched Daniel and caused him to close his eyes and clench his teeth at the soft, sweet emotions clawing at his heart. He didn’t want to give in to those feelings. He couldn’t give in to them. He wasn’t cut out to be a husband, a father. He would make a mess of their lives, just as Robert Redwing had made a mess of his and Pelipa’s.
Daniel had believed he would feel relief once he and Maggie made love. But relief was not among the commotion going on inside him.
“A tart, huh? My grandfather saw you as a special lady.”
Once again Maggie felt an eerie chill creep along her spine, and she reached for the cover at their feet.
“The fire is dying,” she reasoned as she drew the blanket over his shoulder.
He drew her closer and she sighed as his chin came to rest on the
top of her head.
“Do you really want to hear about Joe SilverBear?”
“Of course. He’s your grandfather. How old is he?”
“Eighty-two.”
Maggie was surprised. “That old? He’s old enough to be your great-grandfather.”
“Yes. Pelipa was past forty when she gave birth to me. Before that, she was barren. And she believed my father became an alcoholic because she could only give him one child,” he said with faint mockery. “I thank God my grandfather was around to keep her from falling apart when Robert left.”
“Joe SilverBear sounds like a strong man.”
“He is. Both mentally and physically. And a part of me has always wanted to be like him. Joe inspired me to be a lawman and wanted me to work for the tribal police. He never wanted to leave the reservation and he believed that I shouldn’t want to leave it either. I don’t think he’s ever quite forgiven me for that,” he said pensively.
“Does he still live on the reservation in Colorado?”
“Yes. He draws a retirement pension for all those years he served as a tribal policeman. It’s not much, but he has everything he wants. His house sits across a small mesa from my mother. She likes to say she is taking care of him, but I think it’s always been the other way around.”
Maggie went quiet for a few moments and then she mused aloud, “I wonder why he saw you making love to me—or some woman with red hair?”
Daniel’s hands gently caressed her back. “Down through the years Joe has seen lots of things. I used to think he must drink mescal and have hallucinations. But my grandfather doesn’t drink anything alcoholic. So it has to be some sort of gift—or cross to bear. Whichever way you want to look at it.”
“Hmm. Did he ever say anything about us doing it more than once?” Maggie asked playfully.
Chuckling, Daniel eased her onto her back and cupped both hands around her breasts. “I don’t know. I’ll ask him someday. Just to see if he’s right.”
It was the wee hours of the morning before Maggie finally got dressed and crossed the short distance to her own tent. Daniel had been reluctant to let her leave the cozy warmth of his arms. But she’d argued that she couldn’t allow Aaron to wake and find her in his tent. And thankfully Daniel had agreed.
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