It was a white stallion with a flowing mane, handsome tail, and bold, dark eyes.
As he grew a tight rein beside the fence the horse’s eyes locked with his and there was an immediate bonding.
“I have never seen such a magnificent steed,” he said. He stepped from the buggy as Lauralee slipped down from the seat on the other side. He tied the reins, then walked with Lauralee to the fence.
The horse came to Dancing Cloud as though a silent bidding had sent him there. He thrust his nose through the slats in the fence and nuzzled Dancing Cloud’s hand as he offered it to him.
Lauralee’s heart melted at the sight of the horse and Dancing Cloud’s bonding. She immediately knew that Dancing Cloud must have the horse, but she would not speak that aloud to him. She knew that he had no money for which to buy it, nor did he have anything to trade for it—except perhaps his own horse?
Then she cast that thought aside. Although his horse was beautiful and obedient to Dancing Cloud, to someone else who knew horseflesh well might think it was trivial. Most certainly his horse did not compare with this white stallion and no equal exchange could be possibly made.
She smiled to herself. She would use some of her inheritance money to purchase the handsome steed as a special gift for Dancing Cloud.
Her uncle! she thought. Just perhaps he might help her with this surprise. He was surely quite skilled at making purchases. She could give him the money. He could come and buy this horse for her while she was with Dancing Cloud elsewhere. Oh, how surprised Dancing Cloud would be if she presented this horse to him before they began their journey to his Great Smoky Mountains!
Yes, it was worth a try, she finally decided. She so badly wanted to see Dancing Cloud on this horse, the two seemingly meant for each other. And her uncle surely would not resent Dancing Cloud so much that he would refuse to help Lauralee in this little scheme. He knew by now that nothing he said or did would change her mind about him.
“He is truly beautiful.” Lauralee sighed, reaching a hand to the stallion’s mane, gently stroking it. “Wouldn’t you love to ride him, Dancing Cloud?”
She turned. A tall, thin man was approaching at a brisk clip. He wore denim breeches and shirt, high-heeled cowboy boots, and a fancy leather belt to match the boots. A large diamond ring flashing on a finger of his right hand revealed to Lauralee that he was a wealthy man.
“I don’t take to strangers hangin’ around my horses,” Kevin Banks said in a snarl, ignoring Lauralee’s show of friendship. His thick, black eyebrows fused as he frowned from Lauralee to Dancing Cloud. “Go on. Scat. The both of you. Get outta here.”
Lauralee was shocked almost speechless by his attitude, then she stubbornly lifted her chin. “You are quite rude, sir,” she said, placing her hands on her hips. “We were only admiring your horses, not stealing them.”
“One usually admires just prior to stealin’,” Kevin said in a low snarl. He turned slow eyes to Dancing Cloud and gazed intensely at him. “Injuns are clever at stealin’ horses.” He motioned with a nod of his head toward Dancing Cloud. “Get him outta here.”
“Sir, I am certain that Dancing Cloud is used to being insulted by cads like yourself,” Lauralee said, anger firing her eyes. “And he is being a gentleman for not taking a swing at you. But as for me? I have never been as insulted, as now.”
She paused and breathed in a deep gulp of air. “I shall tell my Uncle Abner about this,” she warned. “He won’t appreciate you treating me, or my fiancé, so callously.”
“Abner?” Kevin said, arching an eyebrow. He straightened his back and shuffled his feet nervously. “Are you speakin’ of Abner Peterson? You’re the niece I’ve been hearin’ about? This is the Injun? The Cherokee? And . . . you . . . refer to him as your . . . fiancé . . . ?”
“Yes, my uncle is Abner Peterson, and yes, Dancing Cloud is my fiancé,” Lauralee said, smiling smugly up at him. “And I don’t think you or anyone would want to fall out of grace with my uncle. He wields much power in this city. Should you ever give him cause to meet face to face with him in court, I pity you.”
Kevin stared down at Lauralee for a moment longer, then shifted a quick glance Dancing Cloud’s way, then hurried to the white stallion and patted him.
“So you’d like to ride this grand beast, eh?” he said, giving Dancing Cloud a guarded, sidewise glance.
Dancing Cloud’s jaw was clenched and his lips were pressed tightly together. His eyes were filled with a loathing he dared not act out. “The horse intrigues this Cherokee, but no, I do not wish to ride it,” he said, his heart not agreeing with his words.
In truth, he wanted to feel the power of this horse beneath him.
He wanted to share this bonding that had been there at the first meeting of their eyes.
But to do so would leave him wanting the stallion. He had nothing to trade for the horse. Even if he did he would not make trade with this man, a man whose tongue was too loose and filled with venom toward himself, a Cherokee.
Lauralee understood why Dancing Cloud had refused the chance to ride the beautiful horse. She held her chin high as she walked back to the horse and buggy with Dancing Cloud, Kevin Banks gaping after them.
Just as Dancing Cloud started to swing away from The Stables in the buggy, Lauralee saw another place that her aunt had talked about often.
Tomaso’s.
It was the inn and tearoom that sat not that far from The Stables, where her aunt met her friends and had tea and cake.
An Italian man by the name of Tony Collodi owned the inn.
There had been some rumors that one of Mr. Collodi’s close relatives, who still lived in Italy, had written a children’s book that he had titled The Adventures of Pinocchio. It was about a little puppet boy whose wooden nose grew longer each time he told a lie, and after many adventures, Pinocchio’s ambition to become a real, live boy, was fulfilled.
The book had not yet been published, but there was much excitement about it. Some said that the book would one day reach America and be a classic!
As in the book, Lauralee’s life seemed to correlate somewhat with that small puppet Pinnochio who wanted to become a real, live person. She had always wanted to feel like a normal person, real in every sense.
And she had achieved the goal, thanks to her father for having come into her life again. Even if for only a short while. And also to the Petersons. But mostly Dancing Cloud. When she joined him as his wife, everything that she had wanted in her life would have come true.
She gazed at him. She ached inside over the constant humiliation that he had to endure because he differed from others in the color of his skin, and culture. A sudden fear came to her. What if her peace of mind and feeling of belonging were premature? What if Dancing Cloud’s people treated her as an outcast and wrought humiliation after humiliation upon her when she went to live among them?
What if they did not share Dancing Cloud’s feelings for her?
She was afraid they might even cause him to change his mind about her and send her away. She was not sure if she could stand another rejection, another deprival.
She scooted over on the seat and slipped an arm through Dancing Cloud’s and clung to him. When he cast her a look void of expression, a chill soared through her. What if he was thinking the same thing that had troubled her only moments ago? She might not even get as far as his village to be tested by his people!
“You do love me, don’t you?” she murmured. “You do still want me, don’t you?”
His silence caused her insides to run cold.
Chapter 20
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
They rode on through the hustle and bustle of the business area of Mattoon, then farther down Broadway. Lauralee felt as though her insides were being torn asunder when Dancing Cloud still refused to speak with her. He just sat there with an angry set jaw and narrowed eyes as he s
tared straight ahead, never casting her another glance since the last heated one that she had received just after they had left The Stables.
Still she did not question him as to why he was behaving so coldly toward her. Although she had done nothing but defend him, the mere fact that she had been forced to seemed to be the reason behind his behavior now.
He just might be thinking through marrying a white woman, perhaps thinking that down deep inside herself she had her own deep-seated bad feelings for Indians.
Lauralee did not see how she could convince him otherwise if he did not already know enough about her to realize that she was not a person of prejudice. She saw no one’s skin as cause to see them as different from herself.
If he did not understand that about her now, perhaps she, herself, had to reconsider marrying him.
Tears burned at the corners of her eyes but she willed herself not to cry. She just kept wondering what the next moments would bring.
Oh, but she had already battled so many tumultuous feelings over so many things. Could she bear to fight the worst battle of all? That of losing the man she would die for?
Her breath quickened when Dancing Cloud made a wide swing with the horse and buggy and traveled down a narrow road where corn stood shoulder tall on each side. Afraid to hear the answer, she did not ask him why he had taken a road that traveled away from the Peterson House. Was he going to leave for his home in the mountains now?
But no. That couldn’t be it. He was going north instead of south. And there was his horse and belongings at the Peterson House. He would not leave without them.
They left the cornfield behind and now traveled beside a thick stand of oak, elm, and maple trees. Lauralee grabbed for the seat and steadied herself when Dancing Cloud swung left into a narrow road that took them beneath the sheltering of trees and to a small, winding creek.
Lauralee questioned Dancing Cloud with her eyes when he finally came to an abrupt halt. The horse whinnied and shimmied as it steadied itself and got a more solid footing.
Dancing Cloud jumped from the buggy and secured the reins on a tree limb, then went in wide, determined steps to Lauralee. He momentarily peered up at her with his midnight-dark eyes, then placed his hands at her waist and lifted her from the seat.
Lauralee clung to her straw bonnet as Dancing Cloud set her to the ground, his fingers still at her waist. Her breath was stolen away when he yanked her against his muscled body and kissed her long and hard.
Her head spun with questions when he released her. Her eyes were wide as he grabbed her up into his arms and carried her through the trees until they reached the banks of the creek.
Holding her steady, he pressed her down with his weight onto the ground, then knelt over her, his hands gently on each side of her face.
“How could you ever question my love for you?” he said thickly. “My anger that you have witnessed these past minutes? It was more toward you than the crass white man. You questioned my love for you so easily. Do you not know that nothing anyone says or does to me, red or white, could make me love you less?”
“But you looked at me as though you hated me,” Lauralee said, her eyes wavering into his. “And when I tried to get you to talk to me, you wouldn’t.”
“That is because of what you chose to say to me,” he said, brushing a soft kiss across her lips. “My o-ge-ye, it was your doubts voiced in your question that lay hurt upon hurt inside my heart. Do you truly doubt my love for you? Is one angry look that I gave you enough for you to doubt me?”
“I’m sorry, oh, so sorry,” Lauralee said, twining her arms around his neck. “All that I can say is that in my life I have never had much to hope for. And to have your love seems so very impossible. You are everything I would ever want in a man. How could I, someone who has never had anything to call my own, or to cling to, have you? So you see, my darling, how I could doubt so easily?”
“How can I make you know never to doubt my love for you again?” he said thickly. “I thought I already had.”
“You have, oh, but you have, but because of my insecurities, I forget so easily,” she murmured. “I shall try to place those insecurities behind me. I vow to you that I shall try my very hardest.”
“I shall help you do this, always,” Dancing Cloud said. “I should have known the cause. I should never forget those long years you were forced to live in an orphanage away from family and the security that family brings into a child’s life.”
“I am no longer a child,” Lauralee whispered, her hands at his fringed shirt, smoothing it upward, across his hairless chest. “Let me prove to you once again that I am a woman.”
They slowly undressed each other.
Dancing Cloud led Lauralee to a thick bed of moss that grew spongy and green beside the creek. He lay her down onto it. He leaned over her. Their eyes met, locked in an unspoken understanding, promising ecstasy. The air was heavy with the inevitability of pleasure.
And when Dancing Cloud led himself into her warm, moist and tight place, she felt a soft, melting energy warming her insides. Desire raged and washed over her as he shoved into her, her hips responding as she thrust her pelvis toward him.
Although her senses were swimming with delicious sensations, she had enough rational thought to worry about his shoulder. “Darling,” she whispered, placing a gentle hand over the puckered skin of his wound. “I always fear hurting you while we make love. Are you certain . . . ?”
“Do not question anything at this time,” Dancing Cloud said. “Take. Enjoy what I give so willingly. In turn, I shall take what you so willingly give to me. That is all that should be on your mind now. Being together. Freely loving each other.”
“Oh, I do love you, Dancing Cloud,” Lauralee whispered, feverishly moving her fingers over his face. “Oh, my love, kiss me. Hold me. Take me to paradise with you.”
His lips came to hers in an explosive kiss. Only half aware of making whimpering sounds, she clung to him. She rocked with him. Caught in his embrace, all of her senses yearned for the promise of what they sought—the ultimate of giving, of sharing, of enjoying.
She ran her trembling hands down his back, savoring the feel of his sleek, copper body. She could never get enough of him. The touch of him. The feel. His pleasant manly aroma. His hands. His lips. Everything about him was wonderful . . . was perfect.
Dancing Cloud pressed endlessly deeper. He gathered her into his arms and sculpted himself to her body. Feeling as though a great fire was burning within him with a fierce heat, he inhaled a quavering breath. The pain of need that was building inside his loins was both agony and bliss. He felt it growing, growing, almost to the bursting point.
Wanting to delay the pleasure, to the limits of his endurance, knowing that it would be twofold if he waited, he fought to go slowly within her. He willed himself to wait.
He paused and leaned away from her so that he could take in her loveliness with his feasting eyes . . . the slimness of her body below her breasts, the supple broadening that led to her hips, the muff of hair that lay between her long, smooth thighs.
“Why have you stopped?” Lauralee questioned, her heart pounding, her body aching for that final fulfillment. She tremored when he reached his hands to her breasts and cupped them, his thumbs circling the nipples.
“To delay the pleasure so that it will be enhanced,” Dancing Cloud said, softly kneading her breasts.
Then he shifted his position. She rolled her head and closed her eyes when he began loving her body with his mouth and tongue. She abandoned herself to the pleasure that was swimming through her like sunshine spreading its warmth over a newborn day.
He made love to her slowly, finding every part of her body to delight and pleasure her. Each lazy caress, each exploratory sweep of his eager tongue over her warm flesh, brought her ecstasy.
“Darling, I am so close,” she murmured. “Please?”
His eyes dark and knowing, he rose above her. Without hesitation he came to her, thrusting hard into t
he rose-red slippery heat of her body.
She shuddered and gripped him lightly.
Their bodies strained together hungrily as his mouth covered hers with a fierce, fevered kiss.
The urgency then gave way to total pleasure. He kissed her long and deep. He thrust powerfully into her, bringing her to a wild abandon that matched his own.
Spent, his shoulder aching, Dancing Cloud rolled away from Lauralee and stretched out on his back. Panting, he closed his eyes.
“Darling, you’re in pain,” Lauralee said, her eyes wide as she moved to her knees beside him. She bent low over him and gently kissed his wound. His fingers laced through her hair and drew her lips to his.
A curling warmth spread through her again. She stretched out beside him, thankful for his muscular arms that swept around her, and the wonders of his kiss. They made love again, then both lay side by side, breathing hard.
“Let us leave now for my home in the mountains,” Dancing Cloud suddenly blurted, drawing Lauralee out of her pleasant reverie. He turned and faced her, his hands gently stroking her face. “We shall go to the Peterson House and pack our belongings, then leave. Why delay it? Have I not just proved that I am strong enough to travel?”
“You have just proven many things to me,” Lauralee said, laughing softly. Then her smile faded. “But, darling. I’ve promised the Petersons that we will spend one more night with them. What can it matter? I have already inflicted hurt on them. Why make it worse by leaving earlier?”
And she wanted to have time to talk her uncle into going and purchasing the stallion for her so that she could surprise Dancing Cloud with it early in the morning. How handsome he would look on such a magnificent steed as that! They were meant for each other, it seemed, as though it were their destiny.
“It would mean so much to you to spend this one more night with your blood kin?” Dancing Cloud asked, running his hands up and down the velvet smoothness of her body.
“So very much,” she whispered, sucking in a breath of pleasure as he again stroked her where she still throbbed from the aftermath of their lovemaking.
Wild Abandon Page 19
