Dana nodded. “I know this. My mother trained me well. I’ve just been a person of peace, that’s all.”
“Nothing wrong with that, because you hold a world vision of peace, Dana, for everyone. We need peacemakers now, more than ever.” Chase released her hand and sipped his coffee. Warmth returned to Dana’s eyes and her once wan flesh was now looking more natural in color. Chase understood that he needed to talk her out of her shock. He was more than willing to do it for her, because he loved her.
As she scrutinized Chase, Dana saw that his jaw was swollen and that the knuckles on his right hand were bruised and scraped. “Are you going to tell me how you found Rogan?”
Shrugging, Chase said, “I used the trees as cover, while he was tearing the van apart looking for the pipe, to get close enough to disarm him. It became a karate battle.” Chase flexed his right fist, showing her his swollen knuckles. “Rogan was good and he took me down. But he made the mistake of going for the knife that he knocked out of my hand.” Chase didn’t want to get into too many details because he wanted to protect Dana from such violence. “He ended up with my knife in his heart.”
With a shuddering sigh, Dana flinched. “I’m not sorry he’s dead. I’m sure you’re in shock over this, too.” She studied Chase’s hard, unreadable features.
“No one deserved dying more than he did, Dana. Remember? I’m the warrior to your peacemaker.” Chase leaned forward and caressed her cheek. “Maybe by us being together, we will symbolize that tension of opposites.”
Oh, how wonderful Chase’s unexpected caress felt! Hot tears rushed to her eyes. Lifting her hand, she pressed his palm against her cheek. “Do you know what I want?”
“Tell me and it’s yours,” Chase promised, his voice gritty.
“I need to be away from here for a while. I know Grandma Agnes will be fine, because she’s lived here all her life. Plus, she has neighbors who visit, and make sure she has enough food from the trading post. I know of a little cabin on Oak Creek, down below Sedona, that is isolated and beautiful. I’d like to drive down there for a month, Chase, and just be with you. Be there without any expectations, with no one knowing where we are, except, of course, for Grandma. I need time to heal, but I want that time with you, to see what we have. We’ll have time to talk, to explore one another.” Dana gazed into his widening eyes. “Will you go with me? Please?”
THE WHISTLE OF A wood duck plying the clear-green depths of Oak Creek announced to Dana that they were reaching their favorite picnic spot. Chase walked at her side, carrying a woven willow basket that contained their lunch. Dana brought a thin, blue wool blanket. The smooth white bark of some huge old Arizona sycamores hid this spot from the prying eyes of the world. Oak Creek flowed wide and shallow here, sparkling in the sun. The dappled gold highlights danced endlessly behind the brightly colored male wood duck. Somewhere, Dana was sure, mama wood duck had her babies in tow, looking for food along the creek banks, and daddy wood duck was playing the part of protector and guardian. Tall, waist-high grass lined the banks, a green border to an incredible view of the red, white and black rocks strewn along this stretch of the slow-moving creek.
“Here we go,” Chase said. He stepped through the grass onto the smooth red sand beneath a sycamore. A perfect spot for their picnics, which they enjoyed nearly every day. The breeze was inconstant, the melodic call of a nearby male cardinal the perfect background music for their noontime meal.
Dana followed. She quickly unfolded the blanket and spread it across the sand. The creek was less than thirty feet away, with a perfect view of the wood duck following the grassy bank opposite them. She glanced over at Chase, who wore a pair of old, stone-washed jeans, his hiking boots and a dark-red cotton shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
In two weeks, Dana’s life had turned from terror-filled to peaceful. As she sat down on the blanket and settled the basket between them, she was amazed at how this time alone with Chase was healing her.
“What did you make today?” he asked. He’d just arrived back from Cottonwood, a town about ten miles south of the isolated cabin that had become their Eden and hideaway. While at the cabin with Dana, he saw his job to be getting the groceries and anything else she might need or desire. She wanted to be alone to do a lot of serious meditating, thinking and healing, and Chase hoped that he was giving her everything she needed, including space.
“Turkey and cheddar cheese sandwiches, some raspberry Jell-O with marshmallows on top, a thermos of coffee and for dessert—” she held up the plastic container “—your favorite.”
Chase grinned. “Apple pie?”
“Yep. Homemade, the old-fashioned way. While you were gone to town this morning, I made the crust from scratch.” Dana tested the bottom of the container. “I took the pie out just before you got home.” How easy it was to say “home” to him. Dana smiled and set the dessert aside.
In the time they’d been together, Chase had been circumspect. The cabin had two bedrooms, and he went to his room every night. He seemed to sense that Dana wasn’t ready to be intimate with him. But now she was. Chase had given her two weeks to get her own internal house in order. And now, today, Dana wanted to be assertive and let him know how much she wanted to share a bed with him tonight.
As she set the Doritos chips in front of Chase, Dana made herself go through all the positives of moving forward. For one, she knew that he loved her. And she loved him. It was a matter of timing, she realized, to seal their love with one another. When they sat on the porch swing together, watching dusk steal upon the cabin, Chase would wrap his arm around her shoulders and she’d willingly snuggle close to him. Many times, he would kiss her hair, her cheek or her hand, but never her mouth. He was waiting, Dana realized. And a fierce love for Chase, for his understanding, his care of her, welled up within her. That was enough for her. She would act today.
They started to remove the items from the willow basket and spread them out when Dana looked up into Chase’s golden eyes. Grasping his hand, she whispered, “Come here.” She gave him a slight tug.
Surprised, Chase saw a new glimmer in Dana’s cinnamon eyes. Her voice was low, filled with promise of something he so badly wanted to share: his deep love for her. He cocked his head slightly and assessed her.
“Is this what I think it is?” Above all, Chase wanted no misunderstandings between them. Not now. Not on something this important.
Her lips curved softly, and the gleam in her eyes turned to a sparkle. “It is. I’m ready, Chase. We can eat later, if you want.”
Ready. The word drummed through him and his heartbeat picked up and thudded heavily in response. Releasing her hand, he gave her a careless smile. “Okay, let’s put all this food back in the basket, then. We need the blanket for ourselves, woman of mine.”
Dana gave a breathy laugh and agreed. Within a minute, they’d replaced all the plastic containers and put the basket near the trunk of the sycamore. Her pulse accelerated as Chase walked back over to the blanket where she knelt. The look on his face sent a wild yearning through Dana. Eyes hooded and blazing with hunger, he settled on his knees before her. Lifting his hands, he framed her face.
“Let me love you, Dana.”
“Yes,” she whispered, closing her eyes as he leaned over to kiss her. She eased her chin up and waited a heartbeat in time. Then his mouth, strong and willful, met and melded with hers. As he eased her lips open, he took her warm breath deep into his lungs and then gently gave his back to her. The whistling of the wood duck, the trilling of the cardinal high in the sycamore above them, all melted away as she focused completely on Chase.
In all her life, Dana had never felt so loved. As his hands moved from her cheeks to hold her captive, she leaned against his hard, unyielding chest. Chase was at once dominating and sharing. Their breaths mingled and became one, coming more quickly as his mouth moved solidly and confidently against her lips. He was exploring her, appreciating her, and cajoling her to do the same with him.
It was so easy to open herself up to Chase. For as much a warrior as he was, he could also be excruciatingly tender. When his mouth left hers, Dana felt momentarily bereft. Opening her eyes, she was sure Chase saw a question in them.
He gave her a very male smile. “Turn around.” He helped her settle with her back to him as he knelt on the blanket.
Dana felt him slowly unbraid her hair—first the left braid, then the right. Her mane reached nearly halfway down her back, and as he sifted his long fingers through the strands, her scalp tingled with pleasure over the simple, adoring act. She moaned softly as his fingers combed through her hair. Dana had never had a man treat her like this. She could feel Chase loving her with each stroke of his fingers. It was as if he was beginning to know her, to memorize each part of her in his heart and soul.
Her eyes closed when Chase turned her around and eased her down beside him. Dana understood the depth of his love for her as never before. It was a beautiful, shocking understanding, one that opened her wounded heart to new possibilities with him and him only. When he reached for her waist and tugged her pink top up, Dana relaxed and accepted the gift of his care and love. The warm breeze made her nipples harden as he pulled it over her head and dropped it on the sand behind her. When Chase gazed down at her naked torso, Dana felt her entire body respond to his burning, hungry look.
She began to pull the snap buttons on his shirt open slowly, one at a time. He gave her a wolflike smile as he sat up to get rid of the shirt. Pushing it aside, he took her hand, pressed the palm against his chest and whispered, “My heart is yours.”
Those simple words made her want to cry for joy. Sitting up, Dana unsnapped her jeans and then leaned down to untie her boots and kick them off her feet.
“Here, let me help,” Chase said thickly as he got to his knees and helped pull the jeans off her long, beautifully curved legs. Legs that were firm, in wonderful shape, and seemed to go on forever. He slid his fingers into the waistband of her white silk bikini briefs and pulled them downward. Dana’s face glowed with the light of what Chase could only interpret as love—for him. That someone would love him with such fierce gentleness made him feel even more male and protective. The look in her shining eyes brought him to his knees, emotionally. There was such guileless beauty radiating from her.
She reached over to unsnap his jeans, and he helped her pull them down. Getting rid of the boots first, he was more than happy to remove his comfortable pair of jeans. And if Dana was shocked that he wore nothing under them, he didn’t see it in her face, only appreciation. For him. For his obvious need of her.
Naked and wanting, Chase drew Dana into his arms, glad the sycamore was shielding them from the burning noontime sun. Her firm womanly form melted against him, and, as her arms went around his shoulders, she gave him a tremulous smile of wonder. Yes, loving her was more than a joy, it was a gift that he’d never thought would be bestowed upon him. And yet, as he drowned in Dana’s luminous eyes, Chase understood the pure power of love as never before.
His hand touched her curving hip, her mouth molded with his own, and his maleness brushed between her welcoming thighs. As he slowly moved into her, Chase groaned and shuddered, his arms tightening around her yielding, soft form.
Dana moaned as she felt the surge of Chase coming into her open, greedy body. The union met with heat and friction. His body stiffened against hers, and she held him even more tightly. The sensation of moving together as one was the greatest pleasure she’d ever experienced. Their bodies were in sync, like a current of water ebbing and flowing in the creek. The restless wind cooled their damp, glowing skin. All the sounds and sensations melted into an orchestra of profound beauty and even deeper meaning for Dana.
As Chase’s mouth sought and found hers, he arched deeply into her, until her entire body was thrumming. Moving sinuously against him, with him, she became the rhythmic pulse of water, of wind, of the breath of life itself. His mouth was strong and insistent, hers pliant and responsive. His tongue tangled gently with hers. Then Chase slid his hand beneath her curved, arching back and captured her hips against his.
The powerful, surging motion of his body into hers caused an avalanche of heat within her. As the shimmering eruption of light and warmth moved outward, a cry of surprise and happiness tore from her lips. Chase growled in response, a man claiming his woman in this most priceless and sacred of moments. Experiencing a pure, white-hot pleasure, Dana threw back her head, eyes closed, and dug her fingers spasmodically into his tense shoulders.
A rainbow of light filtered through her, one color at a time. First a white-gold tunneled down from the center of her head and deep into her singing body. It was followed by other vibrant hues, until finally violet flowed through her. The color was incredible, and reminded Dana of the ocean’s flux and flow.
Chase groaned and found his release deep within her. The descending colors of energy melded with his pleasure. She could feel his joy over what they’d just shared. It enveloped them as they clung together hotly.
Dana had always understood the physicality of sex, but now, for the first time, she’d experienced it on all levels simultaneously. As Chase buried himself within her, gave her the ultimate gift of himself, she opened herself up as never before to trust and love. Together they transcended time and space, and Dana floated in a blissful mix of color and light.
Their auras were glowing with energy and life, she realized, orbs filled with swirling rainbow colors. Dana watched as they overlapped, creating an eye, or middle oval, where they met. In that moment, Dana saw the many lifetimes she and Chase had shared. It was a swift-moving movie, so quick that she saw only parts and pieces of lives played out on alien landscapes, on planets she had no name for, as well as here on Mother Earth. There were times when she was a man and he was a woman, and vice versa. Sometimes they were married; often they were relatives or friends. She saw lives in China, the Middle East, in South America and on islands in the Pacific. There were so many Dana could not remember them all.
What came of this unexpected awareness was that she and Chase had been working together for hundreds of lifetimes. And in her heart, they were equals. Equals working to bring peace to this earth so ravaged with hate, war, prejudice and politics.
Drawing a deep, ragged breath, Dana pried her eyes open. Chase had pulled her onto her side, next to him. His arm was beneath her neck; her cheek lay against his damp shoulder. Slowly, the sense of time and place came back to Dana. She heard the joyous trilling of the cardinal somewhere in the branches above them. The soft breeze caressed her superheated flesh and cooled her. Her hair was damp and tangled around her shoulders, and partly covering her breasts. Chase was still within her, and Dana gloried in that oneness.
She lay a helpless prisoner to his caresses, his suckling, the slow, grinding thrusts of his hips, which gave her such raw pleasure. She had never experienced this level of oneness with another human being, not even Hal, whom she’d loved unequivocally. For whatever reasons—perhaps the ones that Dana had been shown earlier—Chase was her soul mate. Dana knew that when people who had shared many past lives met in this life, the old bonds would reactivate, drawing them to one another all over again, like a powerful magnet.
As she reached up and kissed Chase with all her womanly strength and love, she found herself smiling. Pulling away just enough to drown in the burning gold of his eyes, she whispered, “My love, my life, we’re together. Again, as always.” Dana dissolved beneath his male smile, that glimmer in his narrowed eyes. She knew he understood.
“Now you know the rest of our story, woman of mine.” He eased his hand across her supple flesh, holding her firmly against his lower body. “We’re one. We always have been. I couldn’t tell you that, even though I knew. You had to discover this on your own.”
Giving him a soft smile, Dana raised her hand and ran her fingers through his short, damp hair. “I didn’t know,” she whispered, “but I do now, beloved one.”
Her words flowed thro
ugh Chase like sunlight, releasing his heart, which had been imprisoned so long. Dana’s fingers caused wild, hot tingles across his skin. And when she softly caressed his cheek with her palm, he opened his eyes and smiled down into her own. “We’ve earned this right to be with one another, Dana. And I don’t ever want to leave you.”
“You won’t,” she promised, moving her hips suggestively against his. Dana saw Chase tense, found his groan a sound of beauty. “From this day forward, we’re together,” she promised him.
“Forever…” Chase agreed.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-0917-9
HEART OF THE STORM
Copyright © 2007 by Lindsay McKenna
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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