And the way he had looked into her eyes made a sensual thrill ride her spine.
There were many things that she hoped she had interpreted correctly. Only in time would she know.
She looked quickly at the entrance flap as it was shoved aside and the shaman came into the tepee with his bag of cures. Two Eagles entered behind him.
Candy scarcely breathed as Crying Wolf medicated the wounds caused by the irons. All the while Two Eagles stood back, only watching.
Soon Candy and Two Eagles were alone again.
She started to thank him for his change of heart toward her, but stopped when he reached for her hands and drew her to her feet before him. He gently took her into his arms, their gazes meeting and holding.
“I have wanted to hold you in my arms since the first time I saw you,” he said thickly.
When she stiffened, he wondered if she was misinterpreting his behavior toward her.
Did she feel threatened?
“Are you afraid?” he asked. “Should I not have done that?”
Candy gazed into his eyes. “No, you . . . should . . . not have done that,” she replied, for she was suddenly thrown back in time. She recalled the screams overhead when she was hiding in the tunnel beneath the ground at the fort, and then the unbearable silence which meant that the slaughter was complete. Not only were her father and Malvina dead, but also everyone else who was stationed at Fort Hope!
How could she forget for one moment that this man who held her in his arms was the one who had done these horrible things?
How could she have ever wondered what it would be like to be loved by him?
How could she have ever allowed herself to feel something
besides loathing for him?
She yanked herself away from him and lowered her eyes. “I am your enemy,” she said, her voice breaking.
She then gazed into his eyes. “And you . . . are . . . mine,” she murmured. “You might as well place me in captivity again, for I will never want anything from you except . . . except my freedom.”
Torn between her need to hate him and her want of him, Candy quickly turned her back to him.
Two Eagles was momentarily stunned silent by Candy’s sudden change in behavior. He hated the fact that she believed he and his warriors had killed those she knew. Two Eagles placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her slowly to face him.
“You are wrong,” he said, causing Candy’s eyes to waver. “It was not me nor my warriors who attacked the fort. It was the Sioux. They killed, rode away, and then we came and saw the slaughter. So you see, you are wrong to condemn me. I only want to be the one to protect you, now and forevermore, since your father is no longer alive to do it.”
He drew her closer in his arms. “Will you allow me to protect you?” he asked thickly, his eyes searching hers. “Will you allow me to love you, for I do. My heart beats only for you.”
She was so glad to know that he had not done the horrible deed. And she was so glad that he had just confessed to her how much he loved her, for she loved him just as much.
It was hard to believe that she was now free to love him, but she was, and she did!
“Just . . . please . . . kiss me,” she murmured, finding it, oh, so natural to twine her arms around his neck.
He did not have to be asked twice. He drew Candy tightly against him, her lips sweet against his as he kissed her.
Candy couldn’t understand how she could be doing this. All of her life she had heard horrible tales about what savages did to white women.
Yet even then she’d known that the true savages were the soldiers, among them her father, who so openly mistreated the Indians.
Oh, yes, she did care for Two Eagles. She knew that she had, almost from the moment she was alone with him and knew the gentleness of his touch and voice.
She just hadn’t allowed herself to show anything but loathing for him because she thought he had killed everyone at Fort Hope.
Even now that she knew the truth, she was afraid of loving him. He was an Indian, someone taboo to a white woman.