White Fire

Forking an eyebrow, he straightened his back, and grabbed a towel. As he dried off his face and hands, he gazed at the door, wondering who might be there so early in the morning.

He looked at the gray eagle feather on the kitchen table that Gray Feather had left for him. He looked away when someone knocked at the door again.

Could it be Gray Feather? he wondered, realizing that hardly any time had passed since the chief’s last visit. But he knew the chief well enough to know how persistent he could be when he wanted something.

“Or someone,” White Fire whispered to himself.

Again someone knocked. He glanced down at himself. He wore no shirt or moccasins, and he hadn’t yet shaved.

But the persistent knocking caused him to forget his dishevelment. He tossed the towel over the back of a chair, rushed to the door and opened it. Then he took an unsteady step away from it. He was stunned to see Flame standing there so fresh and beautiful, attired in a green riding habit, her long hair pinned up under her hat, a jeweled riding crop in one of her gloved hands.

Flame was taken off guard when she saw that White Fire was half dressed. She could not help but stare at his smooth, copper chest, and then at the muscles bulging in his shoulders and arms.

He could not help but stare at her loveliness, the dream still lingering in his mind, the remembrances of her soft, silken body against his causing fires to rage inside his loins.

But he managed to shake himself out of the reverie. It was dangerous with her there so close, so alone, so vulnerable to a man who had been without a woman for way too long now. He was able to think more logically after forcing his foolish desires from his mind.

And what he suddenly realized made his jaw tighten.

“What on earth is your father thinking allowing you to ride alone in this wilderness?” he said.

Her eyes suddenly widened and her jaw went slack and she stared up at him in total surprise at his brusqueness.

“How can you be so daring and foolish to ride alone when you know that I myself was only recently set free from my three-year captivity with the Sioux?” he demanded. “Do you not know that they would not hesitate to steal you away? They only recently abducted Chief Gray Feather’s daughter.”

Her mind scrambled by his rush of words, and by the anger in his voice, Flame was momentarily at a loss for words.

Then she inhaled deeply and squared her shoulders. “I’ll have you know, that after last night, when my father embarrassed me by treating me as a child in your presence, I made it clear to him that I am no longer one, and that the only way he can stop me from doing as I please is to tie me to a bedpost. And he wouldn’t dare do anything as rash as that.” She tilted her chin. “And I am not afraid of the Sioux,” she said tightly. “I’m afraid of no one.”

White Fire was taken aback by just how stubborn and high spirited she was. And though he was worried about her being so daring, he could not help but admire her.

“Well?” Flame said, straining her neck to look past him. “Aren’t you going to invite me in for a cup of coffee?”

White Fire laughed throatily. “I believe you came too early for coffee,” he said, unable to stop himself when he thought back to the dream that he had only moments ago awakened from. In truth, he wished to whisk her up into his arms and carry her to his bed.

He had to wonder what her reaction would be if he chanced it.

It was certain that she was not going to give up on their relationship as easily as he had decided to. But that was last night. This was today. He knew that he could never cast her from his mind, or heart.

And though he knew the obstacles that would stand in their way, he would let nothing or no one stop what had begun between them.

“Then I shall make the coffee,” Flame said, brushing on past him into the cabin.

In awe of her, and how she so fearlessly trusted him, White Fire closed the door and stood there and watched her as she slipped off her hat, then her gloves, and then the coat of her riding outfit.

The coil of red hair was stunning in the soft sunlight streaming through the windows. The generous swell of breasts was obvious as they pressed against her cotton blouse. Her waist was small where her skirt flared out away from it.

Everything about her threatened to rob him of his senses. He fought to keep sane and to push his hunger to kiss her from his mind.

As she tinkered in the kitchen, preparing the coffeepot with water and coffee, he grabbed a buckskin shirt from a peg on the wall and hurried into it. Nervously, he raked his fingers through his long, black hair. Then he stiffened as she came to him and looked him square in the eyes, with a smile that melted him almost into the wooden boards of the floor.

“Do you truly mind that I am here?” Flame asked, awash with feelings that she had only felt while in the presence of this man.

The dream that she had had last night made her even more determined not to allow her father to keep her from being with White Fire. After their embrace and kiss on the balcony she had gone to bed and dreamed sensual dreams of him the entire night.

She could hardly wait to get bathed and dressed this morning to come to him, to be with him.

Now it was like in the dream again as his dark eyes devoured her, telling her more than words could ever say.