Chapter Twelve
John had gently massaged her scalp while drawing her hair into the braid that now draped down her back, and Maire had melted under his touch.
Relaxed and comfortable, she reached for her second piece of rabbit. She savored every succulent bite of the meat. The men were quiet, also eating. The snow had stopped, but the wind whipped it into a veil of white, obscuring anything more than a few feet away.
“No need to try going anywhere in this,” Gus commented.
“I hope Masichuvio is having the same trouble,” John answered.
“Why do you believe Gray Deer is guilty of this murder?” she asked. “Is he such a bad person?”
Gus and John exchanged looks. “It’s not that he’s bad, exactly,” Gus said hesitantly. “But he gets angry easily. He’s upset over several situations and doesn’t stay quiet about it.”
“He hates me,” John said in a bland voice.
“And me,” Gus agreed.
She smiled. “Maybe that’s because he sees all the women in the area chasing after the two of you.”
They burst into laughter. “What in the world are you talking about?” Gus said between laughs.
“Are you blind?”
“I think you’re imagining things, Maire,” John said, giving a playful tug on her braid.
She shook her head. “I had no idea you were so oblivious to what goes on around you.” She pointed a rabbit-leg bone at Gus. “Do you mean you never saw that sister of the toddler you play with make moon eyes at you?”
“Happy Flower? You must be kidding. She’s only sixteen.”
“Old enough for marriage, if that hairdo of hers means anything.”
“Well, I’m not interested.”
Maire turned to John. “And you never noticed the lowered gazes and fluttered lashes of at least three ladies in the Clan aimed your way?”
John braced his elbow on his raised knee. “Maire, since the day we found you, Gus and I have seen only you in our dreams. We’ve thought only of you, of your comfort, of your desires.”
“Oh,” she whispered. “What a wonderful thing to say.”
“It’s true,” Gus said.
“You’re not just saying that because—because of what happened last night, are you?”
John skimmed the back of his hand down her cheek. “Maire, do you not recognize us? Do you not remember the eagle keeping watch over you? He led me to you. And do you not remember the coyote who warmed you during the nights? That coyote was Gus’s totem. We cared for you even before we knew you.”
“Before we loved you,” Gus added.
All breath left her as she stared first at John and then Gus. “I don’t understand.”
“My totem is the eagle. He guides me. He watched over you until we could get to you.”
Hard as the story was to fathom, there was still one problem with it. “But, Gus, you aren’t Indian.”
“John adopted me.” He shrugged. “I am the coyote. I’ve had dreams about him. Through him, I felt him wrap around you. I heard your chattering teeth and knew that he licked your cheek. He wanted nothing more than to protect you until I arrived. I want nothing more than to love you and protect you for the rest of our lives.”
Her emotions overwhelmed her. “I don’t understand all of this, but I love you both enough not to worry about it.”
John grinned, an expression Maire had hardly seen. “You don’t need to worry,” he said. “We’re here.”
“But who will protect and keep Clear Water if the Army kills Gray Deer?” Maire asked, her heart losing some of its previous joy.
John stiffened. “She will return home.”
“She doesn’t want to return home, John. She loves him.”
He faced the cave entrance and said nothing.
“Maire,” Gus started, “there are dynamics here you don’t understand.”
“Explain them to me,” she pled.
“The Army has Masichuvio’s medicine bag. He’s pissed off at the Whites, and the Army specifically. The Clans are having conflicts with the Navajo and the Army seems to be siding with the Navajo. If Masichuvio saw or heard something that grated on him, he’s very liable to strike out.”
“Liable to. That doesn’t mean he did.”
“I’m not saying he did. But he’s caused the Clans trouble before, raiding Navajo sheep, setting Army horses free. Even hinting that he would ride with the Apache.”
“Did he do that?”
“No,” John said. “We stopped him.”
Gus shrugged in a way that confirmed John’s words.
Her shoulders slumped in defeat. She didn’t know Gray Deer, and only had Clear Water’s conviction of his innocence.
“What is a medicine bag?”
John shifted toward her and pulled a leather pouch from under his shirt. He held it out to her. “It holds some herbs for healing, and usually some symbol of our totem. I have an eagle feather and a talon.”
She examined it curiously. “So this has your own touch on it. I mean, it’s your totem that’s represented.”
“Yes.”
“How would anyone else get their hands on this?”
He seemed to consider.
“The bag is worn under the shirt, it would be nearly impossible to get hold of, and the thong is leather. Not easy to rip off,” Gus offered.
“Someone could steal it from me.” John glanced at her. “I’m trying to think like you and Pavati, and assume he’s not guilty.”
Relief and gratitude surged through her. Even if the worst happened, John showed faith in her. “Who could steal it when you keep it so close?”
“Someone close to him,” Gus said, rubbing his chin. He shot her a look. “Someone he trusted. A woman. A best friend.”
She sat up straight, sharing her attention between the two men. “Mochni was upset that Clear Water preferred Gray Deer.”
The men regarded each other. “It’s possible,” Gus said slowly. “Mochni holds a lot of Masichuvio’s opinions. But would he implicate his best friend in a murder out of jealousy?”
Maire persisted. “Love can cause a person to do some strange things.”
John snorted. “Like sharing a woman.”
“We’re different.” Maire held her head high and met his gaze without hesitation.
“Yes, we are,” Gus said with a smile. Then he looked at John and raised his brows. “Looks like we’d better track two men, not just one.”
“Trust me,” Maire said with more confidence than she felt. “If Gray Deer loves Clear Water half as much as she loves him—half as much as I love you two—then he wouldn’t put their future at risk by doing something as foolish as killing an Army man.”
“I hope you’re right, Maire,” John said. “I hate to break my sister’s heart, but if they have proof that Masichuvio is a murderer, I will turn him over for punishment.”
The sureness in his voice made her shiver with fear rather than cold. She hoped she was right, too.
* * * *
John was proud that Maire spoke up for his sister and even for Masichuvio, though he still had doubts that the man deserved her good will. But he remained disturbed that she believed he would hand over the Indian to be hanged with nothing more than bad feelings between them. Didn’t she think him honorable?
“Yes,” she whispered in his mind. “The most honorable.”
He snapped his head to the left, where she rested with her head propped on a rolled-up blanket. As though he called to her, she opened her eyes and stared back. Gus’s light snores came from the other side of her. The fire warmed his right side, but now he rolled onto his left side to face her.
“Did you say something?” he whispered.
“No. I was asleep.” She smiled sleepily. “Dreaming of eagles and coyotes.”
He returned her smile and reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “They will watch over us.”
“And lead us where we need to be?”
“Yes.”
They lay there quietly, looking into each other’s eyes. “I think the wind has died down.”
“We leave tomorrow and hope we find the hunting party soon.” Strangely, he had nearly forgotten why they were out here. For the past two days, since he’d sunk his cock into Maire’s precious body, the cave had been all the world he wanted or needed. Tomorrow reality set in again.
“I don’t want to think about leaving,” she said softly. “I wish we could stay here forever.”
“As do I.” He raised the edge of his skin blanket, and she slid from under hers to his. Their warmth mingled. Tangled legs and heated breath quickly took them to skin against skin.
“Oh, John. I love you.” She licked his nipple.
He sucked in a harsh breath and brushed his hand over her hair, letting her explore him with her hands and mouth. She straddled him. His cock rose hard and long between her legs, teasing the crack between her ass cheeks. Her mouth stirred the chronic desire always present within him for her, into mad need. Then she moved farther down his body. Her pussy slid over his cock as she moved, wet and hot. With little effort he could have taken her, but he wanted to see what she would do on her own.
In seconds he found out. Her hands roved his body, seeking lower and lower until she grasped his dick. He almost shot his cum into her palm. For control, he turned his mind to a river he and Gus had been forced to ford last winter. The water had been mind-numbingly cold. The memory helped calm him as Maire slid her hand up and down his length, testing to see what made him squirm and moan. He did plenty of both.
Nothing could calm him when she tested the head of his cock with her tongue, however. From the first, hesitant lick across his crown to her exploratory sampling, he thought he’d lose his mind. When she sucked his head and then found a rhythm—up and down, up and down—he had all he could take.
Grasping her arms and pulling her over him, he sank deep into her body, feeling her tight cunt close over him. Slanting his mouth over hers, he tasted himself on her tongue.
Moisture flooded her pussy. Her quick, hard thrusts against him and wild moans told him she was ready to come. Fortunately, because he wouldn’t be able to control himself for long.
John drove hard. Reaching between them, he sought her clitoris. He pinched it between his forefinger and thumb, and set her off. Her cunt squeezed his cock with spasms so strong he could feel them in his belly. His balls drew up, but he fought his climax, wanting the moment to go on and on.
“John!” Her soft cry broke his resolve, and he let go.
Mindless, he didn’t know how long they pulsed together, or how long it took for their breaths to reach a normal level. He only knew that when he opened his eyes, Maire was asleep on his chest. He adjusted their covering, settled her more comfortably, and finally dropped into a deep sleep himself.
Why this woman had been chosen for him, he didn’t know. He only was sure that with her and Gus, he would have that home he’d dreamed of for years, that place to seek through the trees where the lights always blazed to show him the way. With his best friend and this woman, he was no longer a man between two worlds. He’d found his world with her and within her. They would get this job of Masichuvio behind him, and then the three of them would find the place to build their home.
Chapter Thirteen
Traveling proved slow the next day. Maire hated leaving the cave where they’d found refuge from both the storm and the world. Where they’d found their love and let it blossom.
But with Gus’s help, she dutifully climbed on her horse and set out between the two men.
The wind remained brisk and chilled. It blew from the south, though, so already the snow started to melt. The horses picked their way along the trail, stopping here and there to pull scraggly green twigs from the ground.
“We’ll stop here for a short time and eat,” John announced a few hours after leaving the cave. A stream gushed out from under a rock and into a gully.
“Floods happen often around here when we get a lot of snow and the southern winds aren’t done yet,” Gus explained. “They come about in a damn hurry, so don’t ever use a gully to ride in.”
“Don’t worry,” she said, gratefully accepting Gus’s help once more to get off the animal. “After this trip, I might never ride a horse again.”
“Better to ride a cowboy, darlin’.” He gave her a quick kiss and then let her go to where John already had a fire going. Gus led the horses to an eddy and waited while they drank their fill.
She made her way to the fire slowly. Her legs were sore, both from the riding and, she supposed, from what she had engaged in the past two nights. The past two wonderful nights. Well, soreness went away if you continued to engage in the activity. She grinned.
“What’s that for?” John asked, looking up from where he spooned coffee grounds into the pot he kept tied to his saddle.
“Just thinking of an interesting way to exercise my sore muscles.”
Immediately he frowned and reached for the medicine bag he kept around his neck. “Are you in pain? I can prepare you a drink that will ease it.”
She stilled his hand by placing hers over it. “Not pain. Just achy muscles. Leg muscles that have been doing a lot of things they aren’t used to.”
Realization lit his face moments later. “When a young warrior is learning how to ride and shoot, it’s a strain on his arms, calves, and back. It wears off with practice, however.”
“Lots of practice?”
“Oh, a great deal.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Gus as he strode up.
John quirked his brows at Maire. “A way for Maire to exercise her leg muscles so they won’t be so sore.”
Gus laughed. “I can think of a way or two. But it takes time. Are you committed enough?”
“Absolutely,” she said without hesitation.
Gus looked out over the expanse of scrub, cactus, and snow-dotted desert. John followed suit. Just thinking that they might make love right here, out in the open, made her nipples hard. She stepped closer to Gus. He’d gone out to bathe in the icy waters of the stream that ran near the cave that morning. It would wake him up, he’d said. Now, however, the smell of clean man, campfire smoke, horse, and fresh, pure air had her pussy weeping and her body aching to be held.
Gus shook his head. John said, “We’d be seen for miles. The hunting party is out there somewhere.”
She scanned the horizon. “We’d be quick,” she said, nearly screaming because she was so ready.
Both men laughed. John filled the coffeepot with water and set it on the edge of the fire. “Maire, do you want a group of men watching you have sex with us? Because that could happen.”
She stroked Gus’s head, where he sat on a rock protruding from the same formation that provided the torrent of water. He turned his head into her hand and kissed her palm.
“I have no shame when it comes to you,” she said. “The heart wants what the heart wants, and so does the body.”
“But…” John frowned and bit his lip. “We’re not in the cave any longer. Things are different now.”
Cold dread filled her. “Have you changed your mind? Did you take me out of lust alone?”
Startled, John stared into her eyes. “No!”
She exhaled in relief. “Do you think I will change my mind?”
“I don’t know,” John admitted, and he sounded unhappy.
“When I went back to my work, after the days in Bacavi, I could hardly sleep. I missed you and Gus. I missed the night noises and the sound of grinding corn. I missed the scents of life. But I always had an eagle flying above, and a coyote just inside the woods. I wasn’t alone because I had you two watching over me. The days you didn’t come to see me stretched out to forever, and that one short time you visited was filled with bliss. Before I came to Arizona, I didn’t know you existed.” She swept out her arm. “I didn’t know this existed. Now I do. Now when I close my eyes I see a small cave and feel
and smell the joining of the two of you with me. That will never change. And never will my desire for you.”
Gus stood, facing her. John stood behind her. His hands roved up her arms, to her neck and back down. Gus reached under her coat and stroked her breasts through her dress. Their touch sent frissons of need through her. How could they not know how much she wanted and needed them?
“It’s too cold,” John said.
“Not if we lay near the fire and cover ourselves.”
Gus chuckled. “Maire, with our minds on you, anyone could ride up and we’d never know it. Best to wait.”
Intellectually she knew they were right, but they had unleashed this monster of sensuality that now had her in its grasp. Never before had she yearned for a man’s touch, for his tongue to conquer her mouth, for his cock to send her soaring into mindless bliss. Now that she knew, she wanted it all, all the time.
“All right,” she said. “I’ll wait, but not happily.”
“We’ll make it up to you,” Gus promised.
“But maybe not tonight,” John said. “Look up on the rise.” He dropped his arms and stepped back. Gus did the same, peering off in the direction John indicated.
Maire shaded her eyes and also looked that way, but she saw nothing beyond dots on the top of a bluff that seemed about a mile away. “What is it?”
“They’re Clan,” Gus asserted.
“The hunting party, I’d say.”
As she watched, the dots began moving, slowly guiding their horses down the steep, rocky slope. On the flatland, they broke into a run, coming toward them. Only when they were very close did Maire recognize a few of the men.
John strode forward to meet them, Gus by his side. Maire remained by the fire and missed the conversation, but she saw one of the men point behind them, in the direction of the bluff. Shortly thereafter, the men pulled their horses around and headed away, toward Bacavi. Two horses pulled sledges stacked with well-wrapped bundles. Meat, she supposed, for the village to preserve for the winter months ahead.
Maire [The Sisters O'Ryan 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 10
