Wild Splendor

by Cassie Edwards

  “You are so confident of this, are you?” Leonida said, her heart pounding. She feared what he had planned in the next moments, yet anticipated it all the same.

  She expected him to kiss her.

  She expected him to hold her.

  She knew that she would allow it.

  Both became silent as he carried her farther and farther away from the campsite. They were a part of the intimate hour of dawn. The air was fresh and cool, and smelled sweetly of wildflowers just opening their faces to the first light of the sun rising from behind the mountains.

  Sage carried Leonida until he came to a huge, thundering waterfall that tumbled over a high peak above them. The ground was carpeted in green, the grass thick and soft beneath Leonida’s bare feet as Sage lowered her from his arms. She clung to the blanket, embarrassed as he began undressing before her, shocked at his boldness.

  Although in awe of his muscular copper body, she had to turn her eyes away, her pulse racing. She had just seen a man totally nude for the first time in her life. Seeing the part of his anatomy that she had only heard women whispering about had made a strange sort of thrill shoot through her, and she was ashamed of such wanton feelings.

  She flinched when she heard the splash of water, yet was relieved to know that he had dived into the river, thankfully hiding his body from her wide, wondering eyes.

  Knowing that it was now safe, Leonida turned slowly around. Fear gripped the pit of her stomach when she did not see Sage anywhere in the river. A sudden thought came to her that made her knees grow weak: perhaps he had hit his head on rocks at the bottom of the river and had been knocked unconscious.

  When his head popped to the surface, she could not deny the relief that flooded her. That alone revealed to her just how much she did care.

  The reprieve from her anger at him did not last long. She blanched when he shouted something to her, another order that she most definitely refused to follow.

  Sage treaded water and gazed up at Leonida, admiring her spunk, her fire. He smiled, then gave her the same command a second time. “Unclothe yourself and come into the water to bathe with Sage,” he shouted, seeing that her stubbornness did not wane as she clutched the blanket around herself and stared angrily back at him.

  “I shall not,” she shouted back. “And you cannot make me.”

  “Oh?” Sage said. With long and masterful strokes, he began swimming toward shore.

  Leonida looked frantically around, feeling a desperate need to flee and hide from him, yet afraid to budge. He had carried her far from the campsite. Who knew what lurked out there?

  Sage began climbing from the river, water surging from his lovely copper body. Leonida’s breath caught at the sight of him. It was so captivating, she could not deny how her insides were melting. So taken by him, Leonida was locked in a strange sort of trance. As he moved toward her, his muscles flexing, his nakedness so blatantly beautiful, Leonida swallowed hard, her eyes following his every movement.

  Then she looked up into his eyes, her heart beating so loudly she felt as though she might faint.

  And then the spell was broken when he grabbed the blanket from her and began undressing her.

  Again she struggled and tried to get away, only to become weakened and breathless in the process.

  Seeing that her struggles were futile, Leonida stood stiffly before him as he tossed aside all her garments except for her petticoat. “Why are you doing this?” she asked, her voice quavering. Although her body was still covered, she tried to hide her breasts beneath her crossed arms, and she tried to cross her legs to cover that most intimate place at the juncture of her thighs that she feared might be visible through the thin gauze of her undergarment.

  Sage refused to answer her. Words would come later, after she realized that what he asked of her this morning, before everyone else arose for a full day of travel, was right. Their closeness was needed to make everything in her heart and mind turn to a clear understanding of why he had gone against the white people.

  To him it was very important that, above all else, she understand. It was their destiny to be together, as kindred spirits instead of enemies.

  It was their destiny to be man and wife, their hearts locked into a mutual respect and loving forever.

  And he would make her understand, even join him against those who were threatening the Navaho’s existence.

  Yes, for him, the man she would love, she would do this.

  “Sage, it’s so cold,” Leonida said, the crisp air brushing against her body.

  “The water is warm in comparison,” Sage said, quickly sweeping her up into his arms. “You will welcome its caress on your body.”

  Leonida’s eyes widened as she looked from Sage down to the water, then up at Sage again. “Please don’t,” she said, clinging to his neck. “I don’t want to . . .”

  Again her pleas fell on deaf ears. She choked back a scream as he let her ever so casually roll out of his arms. She kicked frantically and swung her arms in the air as she plummeted downward.

  As she entered the water, she stiffened her legs and closed her eyes and felt herself plunging deeper and deeper. Then when she began paddling her feet, she stopped her descent and pushed herself back to the surface.

  Infuriated, coughing, and wiping her drenched, clinging hair out of her eyes, Leonida glared at Sage. When he dived into the river, she made a quick turn and began swimming in the opposite direction. Her petticoat kept getting tangled around her legs, making it impossible to pick up speed, and then her breath caught in her throat when something else became even more of a threat. She began battling the motion of a whirlpool that was sucking her beneath the great splash of the waterfall.

  Floundering, fighting to keep her head above the water, Leonida screamed between swallowing great gulps of water. “Help me!” she cried as her head went under. Then she bobbed back up to the surface, which took all the effort she could muster. “Sage, help . . . me . . . !”

  She saw a great blur of black as another vicious spin of the whirlpool pulled her under. Leonida stared with wide eyes through the hazy water at the fish swimming past, and then . . . and then . . .

  She breathed in a great gust of air as Sage grabbed her by the waist and tugged her upward. Surfacing beside her, he drew her into his embrace and held her there until she was breathing more easily, then swam her to safety on a ledge hidden behind the falls.

  Shivering and coughing, her eyes and throat burning from the water, Leonida welcomed his comforting arms around her as he held her close. She lay her head on his chest, still heaving from exhaustion. “Uke-he, thank you,” she murmured, twining an arm around his neck. “For a moment I thought . . . I thought that I was going to drown.”

  “Not with Sage so close,” he said thickly, leaning her partially away from him, weaving his fingers through her thick golden hair, spreading it away from her entrancing face. “Never would I let anything happen to you. Surely you know that.”

  “Yet you take me captive so easily?” Leonida murmured, searching his eyes, melting inside from his closeness.

  “Do you think I knew you were aboard that stagecoach?” he said, tracing her chin with a fingertip. “Do you think I would have ambushed it had I known I was placing you in danger?”

  “You should not have placed anyone’s life in danger,” Leonida fussed, now knowing for certain that he had not planned just to steal her away. She was torn in her feelings about that. She had felt honored, in a way, that he might have cared enough for her to go to any lengths to stop her flight from Fort Defiance, and him.

  “The white leaders should not have placed the Navahos’ lives in danger,” Sage said, slowly drawing her into his embrace again. “Then not everyone’s life would have been altered. Yet weren’t our lives altered the moment we spoke that first word to one another? Did you not feel the magic being spun between us? Did you not feel the energy flowing between us, as though we were one heartbeat—one soul? Let us explore those feelings. Let me
show you the extent of mine for you. Show me the extent of yours for Sage.”

  Leonida drew in a ragged breath as he gently framed her face between his hands and lifted her lips to his. Her whole world seemed to begin spinning as his mouth bore down upon hers, so hungry, so demanding, awakening her to an ecstasy she had never experienced before. The first kiss they had shared had been filled with wonder and rapture, but it had been too short-lived.

  This time she could not pull away. She had dreamed of this moment, of the thrill of being held and kissed by him again. She would not deny herself the pleasure anymore than she would stop herself from breathing.

  Sweet currents of warmth spread through her, and she twined her arms around his neck and clung to him as he lowered her to the shelf of rock beneath the falls, ignoring the occasional sprays of water and the coldness of the rock pressing on her back.

  Sage leaned over her, his mouth never leaving her lips, and she shivered with passion when she felt his hand cup one of her breasts through the clinging wet material of her petticoat. She moaned and leaned into his hand as he began kneading her breast, the nipple hardening from the fires that his fingers seemed to be igniting. The heat spread as Sage’s hand trailed downward, soon gathering the petticoat between his fingers and shifting the wet garment upward . . . upward . . . upward.

  Leonida sucked in a wild gasp of pleasure when she felt his first touch at the center of her passion. She drew her lips away and closed her eyes in ecstasy as his fingers began caressing her, arousing her to blissful feelings.

  When his mouth found her lips again and his tongue flicked between them, tongues meeting, tip to tip, she began running her hands over his bare flesh, thrilling at the feel of his taut muscles, and then dared to move her fingers lower, breathless at the thought of touching his manhood. Could she give him the same sort of pleasure that he was giving her by the mere caress of her fingers?

  Then she drew her head away and closed her eyes, shame filling her at where her thoughts had taken her. She began shoving at Sage’s chest, but he grabbed her wrists and held them as he began caressing her passion’s center with his manhood, his eyes dark and passion-filled as he gazed down at her.

  Leonida’s eyes widened as she felt his manhood begin to twitch and grow against her flesh. Her heart was thundering wildly from these feelings that she seemed to have no control over.

  “Sage, please . . .” Leonida said with her last trace of reason. “Let’s stop now, or . . .”

  “Or else Sage might take you to paradise and back?” he said huskily. “Or Sage might prove to you the extent of your love for this Navaho chief?”

  “I’m so confused,” Leonida murmured. “I want you, yet I do not want to be forced. I want it to be beautiful, Sage.”

  He released her wrists and held his hands out away from her. “You are no longer being forced to do anything,” he said. “Rise and leave if you wish. Sage will even give you a horse to return to Fort Defiance. You are captive no more. In truth, Sage is the captive—to your heart. I will love you always, even if only in my midnight dreams.”

  Leonida scarcely breathed, understanding what he was doing and why. She had just won her freedom. Yet she could not find it in her heart to leave. She saw no future now without Sage, and she would have to come to terms, somehow, with what he had done. The ambush had been wrong, yet . . . She suddenly realized that had she been in his place, she would more than likely have taken the same road as he.

  “You are free to leave,” Sage said, moving away from her.

  Leonida watched him begin to walk away beneath the thundering falls, then moved quickly to her feet and went to him and grabbed his hand. “Don’t go,” she said. “I love you, Sage. Oh, how I love you.”

  When he turned to her, his eyelids heavy with passion, she twined a leg around one of his, moaning as she felt her swollen, throbbing center come into contact with his flesh as her petticoat scooted up her leg. Closing her eyes, Leonida began rubbing herself against him, becoming dizzy with the pleasure.

  Feeling that part of her moving against his flesh drove Sage almost out of his mind. He wrapped his arms around her and helped anchor her to him as she continued moving herself on him.

  But afraid that she was nearing that point of no return when pleasure would seize her like explosions of fire, he placed his hand on her waist and lifted her away from him.

  Her face hot with a sensual blush, Leonida smiled up at Sage, her whole body seeming to be one consuming, throbbing heartbeat. “Make love to me,” she whispered, reaching a hand to his manhood.

  She watched his eyes become glassy with pleasure as she moved her fingers on him, herself mystified by that part of him that seemed so hot and alive. She watched his expression as he closed his eyes and moaned, the ecstasy seemingly mounting the more she moved her fingers.

  When his body stiffened, and he jerked quickly away from her, she questioned him with her eyes.

  “We will ride the wings of eagles together,” he said huskily. “Not apart.”

  His hands moved to the hem of her petticoat and gathered it into his fingers. Slowly he lifted it away from her. Tossing it aside, he gazed with pleasure at her slim, curvaceous body. His hands began traveling over her, following the path of his eyes, first touching and kneading her breasts, then moving lower, across her fiat tummy, lower still to that golden floss of hair between her legs.

  When he again found her center of passion, this time he slowly thrust a finger within her. He gazed down at her as he explored and found that tight membrane within that proved that she was a virgin.

  “You are willing to become mine today, totally?” he asked, his voice low. “You will be my woman, forever?”

  Anxious and afraid, Leonida could manage only a quick nod, giving her approval. What happened next was quite a surprise to her. Her eyes widened and she cried out when he thrust his finger quickly deeper into her, causing her a moment of pain. She gasped when he withdrew his fingers and she saw blood on their tips.

  “Oh, Lord,” she whispered, covering her mouth with a hand. “Why am I bleeding? What did you do?”

  “I prepared you for lovemaking,” Sage said, leaning his bloody fingers out into the waterfall and washing them. “Now it will be easier for you. You will not have to suffer pain at the moment you should be experiencing rapture.”

  He gave her no further cause to wonder about this. His fingers reached up to entwine her hair and he drew her close. His mouth forced her lips open as his kiss grew more passionate.

  She was filled with strange, wondrous desires, acutely aware of his body as he leaned against her while leading her down onto the slab of rock again. As he leaned over her, one of his knees parted her thighs. He surrounded her with his hard, muscular arms, pressing her against him as his lips moved from her lips to a taut, pink-tipped breast. She threw her head back in ecstasy as his tongue swept around her nipple and his teeth nipped at its throbbing point.

  And then once again his mouth bore down upon her lips, causing threads of excitement to weave through her heart. She clung to him, then sighed deeply and moaned with intense pleasure when she felt him thrust his manhood deeply within her. As he held her close, he began his masterful, rhythmic strokes that sent her soaring above herself, seemingly separate from that person she had always known. Never had she felt such bliss, such joy. She clung to him and rocked, allowing herself to enjoy this wild, sensuous pleasure.

  Sage yearned to find that final plateau that would send his heart leaping, and he felt the urgency building as he moved within her. Surges of warmth swam through his body, causing a wondrous tingling from his head to the tip of his toes.

  Becoming breathless with pleasure, he leaned his mouth away from her lips and lay his cheek on her heaving bosom. Tremors cascaded down his back, and he caught his breath when he felt the familiar rush of ecstasy claim him. He held her tight as his body spasmed into hers, smiling amid his pleasure when he felt her body explode with rapture to match his own.

>   Taking from each other that which they both gave willingly, they clung together a moment longer after the passion was totally spent. Then Sage rolled away from her, lying on his side next to her. His hands touched her, almost as though she were a precious flower. Then he turned her and drew her into the warmth of his body.

  “You fill my heart with gladness,” he whispered, caressing her back with gentle fingers. “It is easy to forget the sadness in the world while with you. You are like a soft ray of sunshine, warming me through and through.”

  “You showed me such gentleness,” Leonida whispered back, softly touching his face. She brushed his lips with a kiss. “My darling, you are everything to me. Everything.”

  “Sage will make things right for you,” he said, leaning away from her, gazing at her with a deep devotion in his eyes. “We will be man and wife. Soon.”

  “I already feel as though I am your wife,” Leonida murmured, moving into his arms, hugging him. “Today you and I committed ourselves fully to each other. There will never be another man or woman in either of our lives. Our moments shared within one another’s arms will be solely ours alone to enjoy. We could not be more married than that, do you think?”

  “I will never have enough of you,” Sage murmured, placing a finger on her chin, bringing her eyes up to meet his. “Never.”

  His mouth bore down upon her lips in a bruising, lingering kiss, then he broke away from her. “Although my body cries out to have you again this moment, time does not allow it,” he said as he rose to his feet. He reached for a hand, which she gave to him. “Come. We must return to our clothes, and then to the campsite. We will eat, then once again move more deeply into the mountains. Soon you will see my stronghold and meet all of my people. Pure Blossom will welcome you with eager arms, I am sure.”

  They kissed again, and then Leonida slipped her wet petticoat over her head. Together they moved to the edge of the ledge and dived into the river below. When Leonida splashed back to the surface, her face became hot with a blush. One of Sage’s warriors had appeared, looking anxious.