She now heard the snorting of the buffalo.
She could hear its hoof pounding the earth as it continued to paw.
She could even feel its eyes on her.
Jolena gazed at the cliff which was only an arm's length away. If the buffalo charged before Spotted Eagle could kill it, she and Spotted Eagle would join the others at the foot of the cliff, but in a most unexpected way.
She closed her eyes and began praying. She flinched when she heard the sound of the released arrow, then sighed with relief when she heard a loud thumping sound, knowing that the animal had fallen and that she had been saved by her beloved Blackfoot warrior!
Dropping the cardboard, yet clinging to the precious sheets from her journal, Jolena turned to face Spotted Eagle. After fitting his bow back over his shoulder, he went to Jolena and framed her face between his hands, yet his eyes were on the journals that she clasped to her chest. He shifted his gaze to the cardboard on which were displayed the bits and pieces of butterflies.
He looked up at her again, glowering. "You risk your life for these useless things?" he growled. "Why?"
"For my father in Saint Louis," Jolena murmured. "Having something left of the expedition might help ease the blow of knowing that he has lost me."
"Would it have been worth it to him to have foolish papers only to lose his daughter altogether?" Spotted Eagle said, jerking his hands from her face. He started to take the papers from her arms, but she turned away from him.
"Please don't," she said, her voice drawn. "These are valuable."
"You must forget this part of your life if you are to become Blackfoot in all ways," Spotted Eagle reminded her.
Feeling guilty for making Spotted Eagle angry with her and for putting him in danger again for her, Jolena went to him and rested her cheek against his muscled arm. "Darling, you said that you were going to kill a buffalo bull today, and you just did," she murmured. "He will make much meat for our table."
Spotted Eagle said nothing for a moment, then turned his eyes down to her. "Lay your papers aside," he said gently. "It is time for you to learn the ways of butchering."
Jolena's smile faltered. She stepped away from Spotted Eagle, looking waveringly down at the rescued s of her journal. She realized that Spotted Eagle was forcing her to choose between keeping the papers she'd rescued and freeing her hands to begin the butchering.
She was torn, but this time she knew what she must do, for her place was with Spotted Eagle, and if that meant more sacrifices being made to have a future with him, then she knew what she must do.
Lifting her chin proudly, Jolena opened her arms and watched the s of her journal flutter away from her again.
Spotted Eagle went to Jolena and drew her into his embrace. "Again, you are a woman of courage," he whispered, twining his fingers through her hair.
Jolena gazed up at him. "It was not courage that made me let go, but love for my man," she said, then leaned into him as his lips crushed down upon hers in a kiss.
Chapter Thirty
A feast to celebrate the successful buffalo run would begin as the sky bade the stars and moon good-bye and welcomed old man Sun.
Jolena had slept soundly after the tiring outing, her dreams filled with wondrous moments alone with Spotted Eagle. Even now as she slept, she sighed and stretched her arms above her head as she dreamt that Spotted Eagle was kneeling over her, awakening her to an even more intense rapture than she had shared with him before as he sucked her nipples into tight nubs of pleasure and his hands swept caressingly down her body, stopping at the heart of her desire, splaying his fingers over her crown of black hair. When he thrust one of his fingers inside the warm cocoon of her femininity, Jolena gasped passionately. As his finger moved within her, kindling the flames that were already lit inside her, she slowly opened her eyes, realizing that she was not dreaming at allthat this pleasure she was feeling was real. She found Spotted Eagle's midnight-dark eyes gazing into hers, his lips tugging into a smile when he discovered that his ploy had worked, that he had awakened her this morning to how it would be for the rest of their lives. He would greet her at each sunrise with this proof of his love.
He would make sure she never regretted having chosen his way of life over that which she had known for the first eighteen summers of her life.
In many ways he would make up to her that which she might secretly pine for.
Her heart throbbing, her insides melting with rapture, Jolena smiled softly up at Spotted Eagle and flung a leg around him, bringing him closer. She trembled with ecstasy and swallowed hard when she discovered how much even he was aroused when she felt his manhood lying thick and full against her thigh. She felt dizzy with need of him and placed her hands to the nape of his neck and drew his lips up close to hers.
Before she could kiss him, he was whispering something against her lips.
"Were your dreams good?" he teased huskily.
Jolena giggled. "Never better," she whispered back, then felt her euphoria mounting when he kissed her in a blaze of urgency, his hands cupping her breasts, his fingers pushing them up against his bare, powerful chest.
Spotted Eagle parted her legs with a knee and her body turned liquid and her breath was momentarily stolen away as he plunged his hardness within her and began his rhythmic strokes.
His arms swept around her and anchored her as he came to her, thrusting deeply. To Jolena it had seemed an eternity since they had been afforded the privacy of being together in such a way.
But never had she forgotten the golden web of magic that they spun between them as they made love.
Spotted Eagle kissed her hungrily, reveling in the sweet warm press of her body. He drank in her groans of pleasure, firing his passionspassions that had lain smoldering just beneath the surface as he waited to be with her again in this way. He felt the curl of warmth heating up and growing in his lower body, and his world melted away as he felt her hands sweep down his spine in a soft caress.
He moved his thrusts purposely slower within her, wanting to savor these moments until he could not help but allow the red-hot embers of desire explode into every cell of his body.
He clung to her and placed his lips to the slender, curving length of her throat and licked her flesh that was as sweet as honey.
His fingers dug into the soft cushion of her buttocks, holding her into the curve of his body as once again he began his eager thrusts that became faster, plunged more deeply.
Jolena's breath quickened as searing, scorching flames shot through her, her senses reeling. She sought his mouth with wild abandon and kissed him with quivering lips as she shuddered and arched, her climax sweeping through her like millions of tiny flames.
That feeling of white heat traveled through Spotted Eagle's veins as well, from the tip of his toes through the sinews of his thighs and upward, then leapt with a
cry from the depths of his throat as the explosion of ecstasy rushed through him. He drew Jolena into his arms and hugged her to him as his body shook against hers, sending his seed in violent spurts of warmth into her womb.
When their pleasure was fully spent, they clung together, their breaths mingling as they once again kissed, this time without urgency, but with sweetness.
Then they rolled apart.
Jolena lay on her back beside Spotted Eagle, her cheeks flushed, her heart still throbbing from pleasure.
Spotted Eagle lay on his side, his eyes closed, not wanting to let go of this pleasure. "My woman, did reality surpass the feelings you shared with me in your dream?" he asked, reaching a hand to cup one of her breasts. "Or was it better to dream than to do?"
Jolena turned to him and traced his lips with a forefinger. "Both my dreams and being with you in reality are wonderful,'' she murmured. She moved to her knees and began kissing his flesh, starting with the hollow of his throat and moving slowly downward. "But, darling, you are able to do much more than my mind would ever conjure up."
She paused and gazed up at him. "And how is it for you, my darling?" she murmured. "Would you rather I leave you alone so that you can sleep and search for me in your dreams? Or would you rather open your eyes and see what I am about to do?"
Spotted Eagle thought her voice seemed more teasingly husky than he ever remembered hearing it before. He opened his eyes and gazed down at her, then sucked in a wild breath as she sank her lips over his shrunken manhood, breathing life into it again as it quickly sprang forward, thick and full.
She pleasured him in this way for a moment longer, then he rolled her onto her back and entered her again, this time rapidly reaching that ultimate of pleasure. They clung and shook and sighed when it happened, then drew quickly away when they heard the sound of drums beating out a steady rhythm outside the tepee, and heard children laughing and women singing. The aroma of cook fires wafted down from the smoke hole in the tepee.
"The village is stirring. The celebration will begin soon," Spotted Eagle said, giving Jolena a hand as he helped her up from their bed of furs. "Let us dress in our finest clothes and join the others. There will be much singing, dancing, eating, and story-telling. It will be a day that will stay fresh in one's mind when the long days and nights of winter come and everyone stays inside beside their fires."
"I'm so glad that the buffalo run was a success," Jolena said, slipping her doeskin dress over her head. She turned her back to Spotted Eagle, allowing him to brush, then braid her hair.
"Ah, yes, it was a good day for buffalo," Spotted Eagle said as he slowly, almost meditatingly, began braiding her hair. "The Blackfoot are a race of meat-eaters. While we do kill large quantities of other game, we still depend for our subsistence on the buffalo. This animal provides us with almost all that we need in the way of food, clothing, and shelter, and while we continue to have an abundance of buffalo, we shall continue living in comfort."
Her hair now braided, Jolena handed Spotted Eagle a lovely beaded necklace to place around her neck. After it was latched, she turned to him and gazed at how handsome he was in his fringed hide clothes, remembering how stunned she had been that first time she had seen him, when he seemed to have stepped right out of her dreams!
"Shall we join the others outside our tepee?" she asked softly. She had not seen Kirk since he had left Spotted Eagle's tepee in anger. As long as she had known that he was being well cared for, that had been enough to keep her from worrying needlessly about him. But now she would have to face him again.
"Your thoughts carry you far away," Spotted Eagle said, drawing Jolena out of her reverie.
"Yes, I know," Jolena said, her eyes wavering up into his. "I was thinking of Kirk and also of Moon Flower. Surely we will see them both sometime today during the long celebration."
"And it would displease you to see your white brother?" Spotted Eagle said, his eyes searching her face for answers.
"No, darling," Jolena murmured. "It's not that at all. It's just that I don't know what to expect of him when he sees me and you together. He might say things to hurt you. Please don't let his words hurt you, Spotted Eagle. They will be those of a brother who fears losing a sister. He will one day understand and wish both of us a happy future."
Spotted Eagle did not reply. He swept an arm around Jolena's waist and whisked her from the tepee. They walked slowly through the village, observing the gaiety.
Spotted Eagle's chest swelled with pride as he looked at everything and everyone. The village was such a happy place at times like this. Everywhere was heard the sound of drums and song and dancing.
" Wo- ka-hit! Listen," the people said. " Wo-ka-hit! Listen! Mah-kwe-i-ke-tum-ok-ah-wah-hit! Ketuk-ka-puk-si-pim, You are to feast! Enter my tepee with your friends!" Here a man was lying back on a blanket just outside his tepee, singing and drumming. There a group of young men were holding a mock war dance.
The women were dressed in their best dresses, the men in their best fringed garments.
As the sun rose higher in the sky, the people came together for a dance beside the large outdoor communal fire. The men stood on one side, the women on the other. They all sang, and three drummers furnished an accompaniment. The people joined together in the dance, the women holding their arms and hands in various graceful positions.
The people then stepped aside, silent, as a group of men came to the center of attention. They wore animal-head masks, and their bodies were brightly painted. When their dance was over, the people gathered together and sat on blankets around the large fire to listen to the stories of an elderly warrior who had seen his best days. His tales were the explanations of the phenomena of life and contained many a moral for the instruction of youth.
The storyteller spoke in so much earnest, and became so entirely carried away by the tale he was relating, that he fairly trembled with excitement. He held his audience spellbound with yet more tales about the ancient gods and their miraculous doings.
And then it was time for more games!
Jolena laughed softly as she followed Spotted Eagle to a group of warriors. She could see his eagerness to challenge those of his same age. He pulled her aside as the others gathered in a circle, preparing themselves for the game, laughing amongst themselves.
"Watch as your man plays a game called hands," he said, smiling at her. "Let me warn you, my woman. The stakes are sometimes very hightwo or three horses, or more. Some have been known to lose everything they possessed, even to their clothing."
Jolena watched as Spotted Eagle stepped away from her to join the group of a dozen men. The warriors were divided into two equal parties, one group standing facing the other. Otherswomen, children, and older menpressed in be
hind Jolena to watch as the betting began, each person playing the game betting with the person directly opposite him. There were wagers for horses, moccasins, headbands, arrows, and prized bows.
Jolena listened for Spotted Eagle's wager, smiling when he made a simple offering of an eagle feather for someone's headband should he lose.
Two small, oblong bones were used, one of which had a black ring around it. The first man took the bones, and by skillfully moving his hands and changing the objects from one to the other, sought to make it impossible for the person opposite him to decide which hand held the marked bone.
Jolena's eyes widened, now recognizing the game as "Button, button, who's got the button?" which she had played with her friends in Saint Louis. Now truly enjoying watching, having herself played this same game so often, Jolena watched the players' hands and listened to the various bets. Ten points, counted by sticks, won the game and the side which first got the number took the stakes.
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