Becky Lower

by The Reluctant Debutante

  “How many acres does your father own?”

  “Several hundred now, but we have plans to add more next year. We are talking to the farmer whose property adjoins ours about buying his land, which would enable us to have more crops for our horses. With St. Louis expanding as it is, fairly soon our land will be at the town’s doorstep.”

  “Making it even more valuable.” Ginger’s analytical mind began to whirl with possibilities.

  “You are not to have any ideas tonight about how to help the family business. Tonight, you are to think only of how to please your husband.” As Ginger turned her head, he captured her full lips in a gentle kiss.

  “I have been thinking of little else for the past five months, Joseph. I may not know everything about lovemaking yet, but I know there is more to it than what we experienced in the cabin months ago. Where are we headed?”

  “We are going to our hunter’s cabin in the middle of the woods. My family uses it every fall, when we need to lay in a store of meat for winter.”

  “We were in a hunter’s cabin the night of the horserace, too!”

  “Which is why I chose it. I want to finish what we started, without the intrusion of Basil this time.”

  A shiver of excitement ran down her spine as she thought back to the night five months earlier, when Joseph had declared his love for her — only to be wrenched from her grasp immediately afterwards.

  She smiled up at him. “I can’t wait. Gizahgin, Joseph.” She kissed him passionately.

  “Gizahgin, ma petite. My heart, my odayin, is yours and has been since the night of the Cotillion. The minute I touched you as we walked to the dance floor, I knew my life would never be the same.”

  “You certainly hid your feelings well!” she teased him.

  “Not well enough. I could not keep from thinking about you, and wanting you.”

  She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. “I want you, too. In every way possible. Are we almost there?”

  “It is a bit of a ways into the woods. My mother and Elise were there earlier, getting the cabin ready for us.”

  Ginger’s body hummed in anticipation of the upcoming evening. “Your mother told me about how she and your father got together. Your grandfather sounds like a very wise man. It takes a man with great vision to have known thirty years ago that the Indian ways were changing. But doesn’t your grandfather still live in an Ojibwa camp?”

  “Yes, but he is on a reservation and cannot stray from the designated ‘Indian’ area. If my mother had taken another Indian as a partner and had children, we would all be confined to the reservation and would not be free to walk the streets of town or earn a living. It is not like the old days. Grandfather was right, as he is about many things. I will have to tell him I now understand the dream I had many years ago.”

  “What dream?”

  “My dream of lilacs. When I was still a young man, I asked him to interpret the dream for me, and he said it was not time for me to know the answer. But you are the answer, I now know. Ever since I first took your hand to lead you to the dance floor and smelled your lilac scent, I knew meeting you was what the dream was about. And today, our wedding, is the culmination of the dream.”

  Ginger thought her love for Joseph could not grow any more, but she was wrong. Her heart expanded in her chest as he revealed this part of his past to her. Let no one say again we were not meant to meet each other. She was stunned to realize Joseph had dreamed of her years before their actual first encounter. It was as if some force beyond their control had moved them into position so they could find each other.

  She turned her face up for another kiss before she snuggled even deeper against his chest. “Isn’t your brother, Raoul, living most of the year on the reservation? Why would he turn his back on his white roots? Why would your grandfather allow it, if he knows the Indian way is dying out?”

  “Raoul is a very angry young man. He hates it when white people taunt him about his Indian blood, when he is so proud of it. He asked my mother why it was only the Indian blood people found so offensive — he considers his white blood tainted. My father and Raoul had a bitter battle, and Raoul packed up and went to Grandfather’s. I imagine he will return to Canada shortly. If anyone can survive being a traditional Indian, it will be Raoul.”

  “I hope someday Raoul finds what he’s searching for. But as for us, any sign of the cabin yet?”

  Joseph laughed and urged the horse into a canter.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  By the time they got to the little cabin, both Joseph and Ginger were in a high state of arousal. Joseph quickly took care of Midnight. His mother and sister had lit and banked a fire earlier to remove the chill from the air. Joseph added wood and the small blaze soon began to crackle as it filled the air with warmth. He wrapped his arms around Ginger and pulled her into an embrace.

  His maleness had bumped up against her during the ride from the house, but, as she rubbed up against him, he got even harder. She was heady with excitement, and with the knowledge that she was, in her own way, as strong as he was, and able to make his body quiver just as he did hers. She kissed him with all the passion she had stored up for months. Tears began to make their way down her cheeks.

  “Why are you crying, ma petite? Are you now regretting your decision to turn your back on your old life?”

  “No, never. I’m just so happy, I can’t contain myself. I love you more than life itself. I never thought this day would come.”

  He laughed, a deep rumbling sound rising up from his chest. He stood an arm’s length away from her. “Let me see if I can remember the sequence of events correctly. The night we were in the cabin, you were unconscious and soaking wet. I wrapped you in a blanket and then I disrobed you.”

  At his words, a chill of excitement shivered down her body. “Yes, I believe you are correct, although I was not conscious at the time, so my memory could be a bit faulty.”

  He swooped her into his arms again, and laid her on the bed, pulling a quilt over her. “I should like to disrobe you again, this time while you are awake.”

  Ginger’s body began to shake as his lips caught hers. He pulled her lower lip into his mouth and began teasing it with a gentle rhythm she remembered from their first night.

  “Close your eyes, my oyadin.”

  Ginger obeyed, shutting her eyes, while every nerve ending in her body sang in excitement. She shivered again, in anticipation. Joseph slowly removed her moccasins. As he uncovered each foot, he stopped to caress it, rolling his knuckles into the arch of her foot gently. She sighed, and her breath caught in her throat.

  His hands moved slowly up her body underneath the covers. He slid the deerskin dress out of his way as he worked his way up, caressing her legs, running a large rough hand lightly over each hip. He gently tugged on her drawers and removed them. His hand moved lightly over the mound of hair between her legs and she shuddered. A moan escaped her lips. Her body flamed with desire, expanding from the core of her being all the way out to her fingertips.

  She moved her hands to stroke his body.

  “No, ma petite,” Joseph whispered as he pulled her hands away. “You first.”

  His hands went back to her body, and he lifted the dress over her head. He kissed her passionately as he unpinned the lace from her hair, and then removed the blanket.

  Ginger stared up at him, seeing the ardor in his eyes as he raked his gaze down her body. She boldly looked back at him as his eyes sought hers. “You are beautiful, Joseph.”

  “As are you, ma petite.”

  Ginger watched his face as his fingers traced the landscape of her cheekbones and fluttered over her eyes. She sensed the tenderness coupled with the fierceness of his need, and her heart filled yet again. He ran his thumb across her generous lower lip and her body quaked in response.

  Joseph took her face in his hands and began a leisurely exploration of her mouth with his. She eagerly opened herself to him, and their tongues entwined and rolled against
each other. In her nightly dreams of their short time in the cabin in the Hamptons, she’d relived the memory of his mouth on hers. Now she could truly drink him in for as long as she wanted. She delved her tongue deeper into his mouth, wanting to touch all of him, and knowing they had all the time in the world.

  She wove her fingers into his long, silky black hair and lost herself in the sensations he was creating in her. She tilted his head ever so slightly and kissed the beating pulse point she discovered on his neck. His low groan was her reward.

  She ran her hands down his chest, still covered with the deerskin shirt. Like at the cabin in the Hamptons, he was still completely clothed and she lay naked in his arms. Vowing silently not to let it happen again, Ginger began to slowly raise his shirt and touched an inch of his dark skin at a time. He lay beside her, his breath catching each time she exposed more of his body to her scrutiny. He put up little resistance, and Ginger smiled as she tugged the shirt over his head.

  She sat up and looked at his bare chest. “I’ve never seen such a fine chest in all my life,” she whispered as she ran her hands up and down Joseph’s upper body.

  “And have you seen many a man’s chest, ma petite?”

  She cast a disapproving eye at him. “You know the answer to the question already. But I have lived with three brothers and my father, all of whom I’ve had the occasion to see bare-chested at one time or another.”

  “And you are now qualified as an expert, then?”

  “I didn’t say I was an expert, for goodness sake. Can’t you just accept the compliment and say thank you?”

  Joseph’s laugh rumbled up from his well-muscled chest. He caught one of her small hands in his and raised it to his lips. “Merci, my oyadin. So I have a fine chest. Do you see anything else you might like to explore?”

  Ginger smiled saucily back at him. “I want to see all of you, sir.”

  “I think you will tonight.”

  Joseph growled as he pulled her to him, and the sensation of his naked chest pressing up against her bosom nearly took her breath away. He cupped the silky sides of her breasts in his hands and she closed her eyes. He ran his thumbs across her nipples and her body quivered involuntarily. As he captured the tip of her breast in his mouth, she did quit breathing for a moment. The gentle tug of his lips on her nipple sent waves of desire coursing through her body to the core of her being. She lost herself in the sensation as her need swelled. When he removed his mouth, she let out a whimper of dismay. She opened her eyes and watched as he drank in the sight of her.

  She noticed his body quivering in anticipation, too, and she realized his need for her was making his body quake. The powerful thought made her even bolder.

  He lay at her side, running his hands up and down her body, raising her temperature to an almost unbearable point. Ginger thought every inch of skin his hands caressed was now branded with his touch. He raised one of her hands to his mouth and kissed the palm. Then, he led the hand to his leggings and breechcloth.

  Excited at the invitation, she dipped her hand under the cloth to find Joseph’s hard erection. She reached out tentatively and encircled the pulsing shaft. Joseph groaned and pitched on the bed.

  “Are you okay? Am I hurting you?”

  “No, ma petite. You are doing just fine.” His groans became louder.

  He reached for her hand after a few more seconds. “Perhaps you are too good. Let us save that for later. I would like you to undress me fully now.”

  Ginger got on her knees, shivering with anticipation. She untied his breechcloth and removed it, watching in wonder as his hard maleness lurched when she freed it. She next removed his moccasins and leggings. When she had divested him of the last of his clothing, she continued to sit on her knees and greedily look at him.

  “Have I told you lately you are a beautiful man?”

  Joseph’s eyes locked on hers, desire burning brightly in them, as he pulled her toward him. He reached between her legs and caressed the soft skin of her inner thighs. She caught her breath as his unexpected touch heated her yet again. She had been so enthralled at looking at him that Joseph had surprised her. She sensed the moisture gathering between her thighs as his hand drew nearer to her core. His hand grazed lightly over her mound of ginger-colored hair, and her body clenched at the brush, knowing somehow there was so much more to come yet tonight. Waves of sensation built in her body, and wanted the release he had given her in the cabin many months ago. She pushed herself into his hand, begging for fulfillment.

  Joseph laughed low in his throat, and his fingers did her bidding. His touch turned from gentle to indulging as he began to glide his fingers over her sweet spot. He nestled the pulsing nub between his fingers and caressed it back and forth. Ginger’s ragged breath gave way to gasps as rays of delight shot through her body to all her nerve endings. She moaned and bit Joseph’s shoulder lightly. The feel of her teeth on his skin inflamed his desire. His gentle rhythm became more insistent.

  Ginger’s eyes glazed over with emotion as she watched Joseph’s face. He kept his thumb on her nub as he pressed a long finger to her opening. She gasped as he slid his finger inside her. Her body bucked and she strained to give more of herself to him. He inserted yet another finger, all the while massaging her sweet spot. She threw her head from one side to the other as she fisted the covers in her lust.

  “Open your eyes to me, Ginger, my love. I want to watch you.”

  As Ginger crested in orgasm, she kept her eyes on Joseph and knew she was finally where she was always meant to be.

  They lay beside each other as Ginger’s breathing slowly came back to a normal range. Her hands ran over Joseph’s body, exploring at leisure all the places previously hidden from her. He kissed her, beginning at her hairline, and left a trail of scorching feather-light kisses down her face and neck. Her blood surged through her veins again as he teased the pulse at her neck into full awareness.

  “It is my turn now, ma petite.”

  “You must show me what to do. You have made me feel wonderful, and I want to know how to make you have these same feelings.”

  He laughed gently as he turned his attention to her breasts, first cupping each in a large hand and gently kneading them with his knuckles, much like he had her feet. Then, he lowered his mouth and took a nipple into it. She gasped in delight as he began to suckle her tip. So quickly after cresting in orgasm, her body was ready for more of his touch. She rose to meet his eager mouth, and again her heart was seared by this intimate gesture of his lips on her breast.

  When he removed his mouth from her breasts, she cried out in dismay. But Joseph lowered himself and kissed the sweet spot between her legs, teasing her into a fitful state of higher arousal than she had ever dreamed. She gasped with shock, then wonder, as he toyed with her and made her tear at the blanket in excitement. She ran her fingers through his long locks as she let herself drift into her arousal.

  Joseph moved his hand from her hip to her center and ran a finger around the cleft between her legs. She thought she had experienced all the feelings lovemaking had to offer, and was thrilled by the shockwaves of lust his touch sent coursing through her body. This, this was beyond words. She writhed on the bed, unable to do more than moan. Then, he plunged his finger inside her again, and her body lurched in anticipation.

  He swung his body on top of hers, and she was surprised to note his erection was still very hard. She looked up at him in wonder.

  He smiled at her, and replied to her unanswered question. “Yes, my love, there is more, and this is what lovemaking is all about.” He began to tease her to full arousal yet again by rubbing his pulsing erection up through the cleft between her legs. She shivered and reached to touch him as her knees fell open to invite him in.

  She ran her hands up his hard, muscular thighs, reveling at the touch of skin against skin. She raised her body to him and kissed him slowly. His hand moved to caress her breast, but she brushed it away.

  “No, my love. As you said, this t
ime it’s your pleasure.”

  She ran her hand slowly up and down his hard shaft as he continued to tease her opening, which was now slick with desire. In spite of the fact she was trying to see to his satisfaction, each time he ran his erection over her nub, she groaned in need as well.

  Ginger listened in delight as her fondling made Joseph’s breath become as ragged as hers had been moments ago. She lowered her mouth to his chest and suckled one of his nipples, teasing it to a dark brown pucker. She mimicked what he had done to her a few minutes earlier, and was pleased to hear his quick intake of breath. She moved her hands over his broad chest, marveling in his dark smooth skin.

  She returned her attention to his hard erection and smiled as Joseph’s breathing quickened as she tightened her hold on him. She began to stroke it up and down, matching the movement Joseph had used on her earlier. His body bucked as her fingers stroked him. She looked into his eyes and witnessed the smoldering embers there. He placed himself over her and slowly immersed the tip of his erection into her. She gasped as this new sensation overtook her.

  Joseph moved slowly, embedding himself into her a bit at a time, until he reached her maidenhead. He kissed her face as he whispered, “This may hurt a bit, but just this once, I promise.”

  “I know. Mother and I talked about it last night. It means I am yours completely once you breach my threshold.”

  Joseph grinned. “You know you have been mine completely ever since the first night we met. This merely makes it official.” He pushed through the small tissue barrier and filled her fully. Their moans and cries of lust filled the cabin and the night air, as they finally became husband and wife.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Shards of sunlight streamed into Joseph’s eyes, waking him from the soundest sleep he’d had in months. Admittedly, he had not slept long, for he and Ginger could not keep their hands off each other during the night, and their first evening of lovemaking continued well into the early morning hours. They finally fell into an exhausted sleep only when they could no longer keep their eyes open.