Bear’s breath caught in his throat as she pulled the dress up over her head. The shadows from the fire danced over her creamy skin, and he watched her nipples pucker from the chill in the room. All thoughts of tomorrow fled as he became a willing captive of her wild beauty. He put aside the hide he’d been working on and slowly approached the bed.
She unknotted her hair and let it fall in a cascade of russet fire around her shoulders. Grabbing the flannel shirt she’d claimed as her own, Linsey started to slip it on when she realized he was standing in front of her. He took the shirt from her hands and threw it to the foot of the bed.
“You don’t need that,” he murmured in a velvet whisper.
“It keeps me warm.”
“I’ll keep you warm.”
Bear sat on the bed and pulled her between his thighs. Her breasts were level with his mouth, and he eagerly sought one of the puckered peaks. He teased it with his lips and tongue until she buried her hands in his hair and pulled his head against her. Her knees grew weak, and her legs began to tremble as he supported her weight with his hands cupped around the fullness of her bottom.
Linsey unlaced the thong of his shirt, running her fingers over his muscular chest and shoulders. With a groan, he released her long enough to pull it over his head and toss it away. He nuzzled the soft skin beneath her breast, his tongue making ever decreasing circles around the globe until he reached his goal. Linsey was unaware of holding her breath until she released it with a shudder as his lips closed warmly over her nipple.
Bear gave her other breast the same treatment while Linsey gently rubbed her stomach against the thick hair on his chest. Growling deeply, he moved his mouth lower, sampling the firm skin covering her ribs, the crevice of her waist and the swell of her hips. His hand followed the enticing slope of her bottom, his fingers finding the moist warmth between her thighs. When his mouth reached unchartered territory, Linsey grabbed handfuls of hair, pulling his head away.
“What are you doing?” she asked, startled by the invasion of his tongue. Her eyes were as wide as saucers, clearly showing her unease with this new caress.
His eyes were burning with desire as they searched hers. “There are so many things yet to discover and learn,” he whispered huskily. Placing a kiss low on her stomach, Bear stood and easily picked her up. “When you are ready, I will show you other ways for us to please each other, for now this is enough.”
He placed her in the center of the bed and quickly finished undressing. Carefully parting her thighs with his knees, Bear lowered his body to hers until they were one.
His weight was familiar as he filled her with his burning velvet shaft. Thoughts of yesterday and tomorrow faded like the light in the sky at dusk. Just as the sun would rise to chase away the dark, so would their dilemma wait for their return to reality. Only now mattered as they journeyed to the world they knew awaited their return — a world that only two who love can share.
“Linsey!”
The bellowing roar outside the cabin door startled her so much that she jabbed the needle deep into her finger. Ruby-red blood beaded on the tip, and she stuck the offended finger into her mouth.
“Open the damn door right now!”
“He’s not happy,” she mumbled to herself as she placed her sewing on the table and stood.
“Did you hear me?” A rattling of the door told of his impatience. “Dammit woman, answer me!”
A heavy pounding on the door tested the strength of the bar across it, and Linsey considered not letting him in until his temper cooled somewhat. But the longer she delayed, the angrier he seemed to grow, and his curses came clearly through the thick wood.
She had known that he would discover her deception sooner or later, but she had hoped for later! With a resigned shrug, Linsey lifted the heavy bar free and jumped back as the door was thrown open.
Anyone with an ounce of common sense would have run in terror from the expression contorting his face. Linsey briefly wondered when her common sense had deserted her, for she felt no fear. Someone had to win this standoff, and she was determined it would be her.
“You’re back early today.” Linsey turned casually and walked back to her chair. She sat down and picked up her sewing.
Bear stalked toward her, his hands knotted into tight fists. “You owe me an explanation.”
“Why?” Linsey found it hard to maintain her casual pose. She knew he would not harm her; but only a fool baits a wounded animal, and standing over her with nostrils flared and a muscle jumping violently in his jaw, he much resembled his namesake.
“Woman! Don’t play with me!”
“That’s not what you said last night,” she mumbled softly, her eyes sparkling.
Bear gritted his teeth and brought his hand down on the table with a bone-rattling slam. “What are you doing here?”
“Sewing?”
“Linsey … !”
She tilted her head slightly to the side and looked at him with a gentle smile. “I think that’s the first time you’ve ever used my name.”
“Stop avoiding the question! Why aren’t you at the village?”
“Would you believe me if I said I got homesick?” His eyes narrowed.
“No, huh? How about Morning Moon got tired of my company and asked me to leave?”
“When did you come home?”
“A little earlier today than I did yesterday. I must have stayed fifteen minutes this morning; yesterday it was closer to an hour.”
“The day before yesterday?”
Her brow wrinkled as she considered the question. “It must have been mid-morning before I got home. I ran into Kaleb, and we talked for a while. You didn’t tell me he had been invited to winter with the tribe.”
“You’ve been at the village every evening when I’ve gotten there.”
She smiled sweetly. “You almost caught me yesterday! Pd just gotten back and sat down to play with Chattering Squirrel when you arrived.”
His voice lowered until it was deadly soft. “For three days you’ve gone to the village with me in the morning, then come back home a short time later. In the afternoon, before you think I’ll get back, you return to the village?”
“Well, not really.”
“Not really?”
“Actually, it’s been four days.”
“Linsey,” he spoke through clenched teeth, “I’ve only taken you there for four days.”
“I think I like it better when you call me Autumn Fire or Angel. The way you’re saying my name makes it sound like a curse.”
She didn’t understand what he said next because he spoke in Shawnee, but she decided she was glad she knew so little of the language. His voice was harsh, the words snarled as he dropped his pack and removed his coat. Linsey folded her hands in her lap and looked the picture of innocence.
Bear fought to control his raging anger. He’d been frantic when he’d arrived at the village and Linsey had not been there. Wolf’s face had been serious, but his eyes had sparkled with amusement when he’d informed Bear that she’d left early that morning and had not returned yet. The trip to the cabin had seemed endless as he pictured her hurt or lost. Finding her quietly sewing had only made his temper soar.
“Tomorrow you will stay at the village,” he ordered. “No.”
“No?” His look was incredulous. He’d seen grown men back down when his temper had flared. Now this little bit of femininity was sitting as calmly as if they were discussing the weather, occasionally looking at him as if he were a child throwing a temper tantrum!
“No! Before Zeke broke in, you didn’t worry about leaving me here. Nothing has changed. I refuse to continue going to the village every day.”
“You refuse! Linsey, I’m not giving you a choice!”
“I dinna ask for a choice, mon! You canna make me go.”
His eyes narrowed. “Would you like to place a wager on it?”
“You and whose tribe?”
“Woman, you will do as I say!” he r
oared.
“This is America. My father died from wounds he received fighting in a war that helped make this land and its people independent of a monarchy. If you want to be a king and rule your subjects, go back to France, but don’t stand here and try to rule me!”
“I’ll throw you over my shoulder and carry you like a sack of flour!” he threatened.
Linsey stood and placed her hands on her hips. “Aye, ya might get me there, but ya canna make me stay!”
“I’ll put a guard on the door!”
“Won’t that make you look just a little silly to your friends?”
“Hell with the way it looks! I don’t care what they think. Ail I care about is your safety, and if guarding you is the only way I can do it, then so be it!”
Linsey had the grace to feel a little shame. His only concern was protecting her. Somehow she had to show him that she didn’t need that kind of protection.
“Luc, when you got here, were you able to break down the door?” she asked quietly.
“What the hell does that have to do with anything?”
“Answer my question. Were you?”
“No.”
She approached him and placed her hands on his arms. “Few men are as strong as you. If you couldn’t break in, do you honestly think anyone else could?” Her reasoning was sound; he could feel himself sinking but couldn’t give up the battle quite yet. “Zeke got in!”
“That’s because I foolishly left the bar off the door. If I hadn’t been in such a hurry to take a bath, I would have replaced it, and nothing would have happened.”
“But it did!” Her soft emerald gaze pleading with him, he found it difficult to continue insisting that she do something against her will. “I only want you to be safe, mon ange.”
“As much as I like Morning Moon, I don’t want to spend every day, all day, with her.”
“I can’t protect you when I’m not here, and I can’t be here all the time.”
“I promise to bar the door when you leave and not remove it again until you return.”
Bear folded her in his arms, his head resting on the top of her head. He’d lost. How could he refuse her? He shuddered when he thought of what could have happened when Zeke broke in. The possibilities had played around and around in his mind until he thought he’d go mad.
As if reading his thoughts, Linsey quietly soothed him. “It won’t happen again. I won’t let in anyone I don’t know and trust.” She moved back slightly until she could look into his eyes. “I want to stay here. This is my home.”
The phrase echoed through his mind as he again pulled her against him. This is my home.
For the next few days, Bear left the cabin without comment but giving her a look that spoke volumes. He would wait outside the door until he heard the bar drop into place. Several hours later Wolf would come by, stay for a short visit and then leave. Finally Wolf’s visits ceased. Linsey was left to enjoy the solitude while she waited for evening and the return of the man she loved.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Enter, my sister,” Morning Moon called, hearing her friend outside.
Linsey raised the hide and walked into the warm lodge. As usual, Chattering Squirrel squealed and ran to her with arms spread wide. Linsey lifted the toddler and kissed the soft, copper creases of his chubby neck.
“You’re getting too big for me to pick up,” she said, tickling his ribs and grinning as he giggled merrily.
“Me big boy!” he said proudly.
“You sure are. Pretty soon you’ll be as big as your daddy.”
Linsey carefully set him on his feet and turned to greet Spring Flower, who raised red and watery eyes to her, smiling shyly.
“What are you making?” Even as she spoke with the child, Linsey’s eyes narrowed in concern. Spring Flower sneezed several times, followed by a hard, dry cough, rubbing the back of her hand over her runny nose.
Her English vocabulary was more limited than her mother’s, and she wrinkled her smooth brow as she concentrated on the correct words, fingering the colorful carved beads she was stringing together on a thong. “Beads for baby chew.”
“They are beautiful, Spring Flower.” Linsey admired the beads. “I’m sure your new brother or sister will appreciate them when new teeth start coming in.”
“The baby will be brother.” Spring Flower seemed so certain, Linsey did not have the heart to point out that the baby could just as easily be a girl.
Finally Linsey turned to Morning Moon. “I always seem to greet you last.”
“You honor me by showing affection for my children,” Morning Moon replied softly. “I did not expect you today, Lin Zee.”
She removed her coat and sat down on a mat on the floor. “I need to ask you a couple of questions, if that is all right?”
Morning Moon spoke softly in Shawnee to Spring Flower, and Linsey watched as the child set her beads neatly aside and picked up Chattering Squirrel. She balanced him on her slender hip and quietly left the lodge, but Linsey heard her racking cough marking her passage down the road.
“I didn’t mean for you to send the children away. Spring Flower shouldn’t be outside; the child is sick!” Morning Moon shrugged. “It is only a cough that sometimes comes with spring. Several people also share it; it is of no concern, Lin Zee. They go visit their grandmother, who will fix her a soothing drink and fuss over her.”
Hugely pregnant, Morning Moon moved gracefully around the room. She poured liquid into two cups but had to hand them to Linsey before she could sit down.
A sneeze caught her unaware, and she grabbed at the huge mound of her belly. “Baby come soon,” she said, lowering herself to a mat.
Linsey tasted the liquid and found that it was the juice of some kind of berry, lightly sweetened with maple syrup. “This is delicious. Perhaps you will show me how to make it?”
Morning Moon nodded, then waited patiently for Linsey’s questions while Linsey searched for the way to ask them.
“I think I’m pregnant,” she finally blurted.
“Yes,” Morning Moon replied with a smile. “Bear very much … ah, warrior. It no surprise!”
“My breasts are swollen, and my stomach’s not flat anymore.”
“You lose morning food?” Morning Moon asked.
“I feel like I’m going to, even when I haven’t eaten!” Linsey’s grimace expressed her thoughts, and Morning Moon giggled, showing no sympathy.
“It will pass soon. You have woman’s time?”
Linsey had had her monthly flow only once since leaving Philadelphia. She smiled as she remembered the embarrassment she had suffered when it had been necessary to ask Bear for some rags.
“Not since the first snow.”
Morning Moon patted her swollen stomach. “Our sons will be brothers. They will grow together and learn much from each other.”
A few months earlier Linsey would have been horrified at the thought of her child playing with an Indian child, now the idea delighted her. But not nearly as much as the knowledge that she carried Bear’s child.
She did not stay long. It was obvious that Morning Moon was catching her daughter’s cold as her nose and eyes began to water. Suggesting that she take advantage of her children’s absence and get some rest, Linsey thanked her for the confirmation of her pregnancy. Now she was anxious to be alone to savor the idea.
At the top of the hill overlooking the peaceful village, Linsey leaned against a rock to catch her breath. The coat that had provided necessary warmth earlier now seemed too heavy, and she let it gap open. The happy shouts of children at play floated on the breeze as the sun shone brightly on her face. Where the snow had melted, patches of rich, black earth made a geometrical pattern on the ground.
The days blended one to the other, and it was easy to lose track of the date, but she didn’t need a calendar to know that spring was almost here. The snow disappeared a little more each day, and though the nights remained cold, the days were almost warm.
She
placed her hands protectively on her abdomen and felt its gentle slope. His child rested warm and safe in her body, and sometime late in summer she would present Bear with a cub. She wondered briefly why he had not noticed the changes in her. After a winter together, he knew her body better than she did.
Turning away from the scene below, she began the journey back to the cabin. Bear had been gone for three days, bringing in his traps and checking on the ice in the river. He had wanted her to stay with the Shawnee, but Linsey convinced him she would be safe alone. It had been lonely, and she’d never liked him being gone over night; but she’d survived and could barely wait for his return.
Overhead, a bird chirped loudly, the call cheerfully answered by another. From beneath them, the trees still appeared bare, but at the village, Linsey had looked at them from a distance and noticed a hint of green on the branches. Spring. She had dreaded its arrival; now it was here. She had to decide what to tell Bear about the baby. Would he still insist on taking her back once he knew? Or would he let her stay and then someday grow to feel trapped by both her and the baby?
He liked children. She had seen his reaction to both Chattering Squirrel and Spring Flower. He played with the other children in the village, at times getting so involved he seemed to forget he was the adult in the group. He gently teased Morning Moon about the new baby, delighting in his role as uncle to the child.
Linsey wanted to stand on the tallest mountain and shout to the world that she carried his child. She felt that her heart would burst with pride from the fact. But how would Bear react?
If the warmth of the sun and the hint of new leaves were not enough to proclaim the arrival of spring, the tiny buttercup-shaped flower she saw peeking through the snow seemed to shout the message. Linsey knelt and carefully brushed the snow away from the small petals, so vibrantly yellow against their backdrop of white. Standing, she took two steps away before returning and carefully picking the flower. It had survived against all odds, and so would she.
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