Wild Desire

But until now, she had never been in love before. It was easy to forget the differences that might come between them. Now was all that mattered. She was heady with desire. She was breathless.

Stephanie closed her eyes as Runner pressed his mouth into her lips, making her go instantly weak and dizzy. She wove her arms around his neck, not questioning when he began lowering her to the ground, where the grass made a soft bed upon which to lie.

Her heart pounded when he rose over her and nudged her legs apart with one of his knees. Although their clothes were a barrier between them, Stephanie felt the heat of his need through both his fringed buckskin breeches and her travel skirt as he began pressing his hardness where she throbbed unmercifully with a need that she had never known before.

She could feel the shape of him, the long, thick pulsing of his shaft as he moved rhythmically against her.

She was mindless with passion.

As though practiced in the skills of being with a man, she worked her hands up the front of his shirt and frantically spread her fingers over his broad chest. Wantonly, she moved her fingers lower and unfastened his breeches in front and swept a hand down to touch that part of him that was sending her blood into a quickening she knew might be dangerous, yet was deliciously sweet.

Runner gasped with pleasure when he felt the heat of her hand surround his throbbing shaft. He turned his mouth from her lips and burrowed his nose against the long column of her throat. He scarcely breathed when her fingers explored this tender, hot part of his anatomy. He held his eyes tightly closed. He gritted his teeth.

Unable to stand anymore, he drew her hand away.

Standing, he reached a hand to Stephanie.

Completely under his spell, Stephanie took his hand and rose slowly to her feet. They stood for a moment while only looking deeply into one another’s eyes, and then Runner placed a hand to her cheek.

“I want you,” he said huskily.

“I need you,” Stephanie said, her voice sounding strange to her.

“I want to fight my feelings for you, but my heart will not allow it,” Runner said, his dark eyes showing a hidden torment in their depths. “I do not know how it is possible, but I know that I have loved you ka-biki-hozhoni-bi , forever. A love this intense cannot be born of only a few days . . . of only a few hours.”

“I shall always love you,” Stephanie said, flinging herself into his arms. “No matter how long I have known you, I know that what I feel is real and true. Make love to me, Runner. Please? I never knew the meaning of want until I met you. Please show me why, Runner. Now?”

Runner leaned her away from him and framed her face between his fingers. “I will be the first man for you?” he said thickly.

Stephanie’s eyes widened as she looked up at him. “How . . . did . . . you know?” she murmured.

“There are many ways a man can tell,” Runner said, his fingers lowering to undo her blouse. “Do not ask how.”

Stephanie willingly lifted her arms so that he could remove her blouse and undergarment. Her heart raced as she watched him drop the clothes to the ground, his eyes on her breasts.

And then his hands were on them.

She closed her eyes and sucked in a quavering breath as his hands kneaded her breasts, his thumbs circling her nipples.

When he fully cupped them in his hands and lowered his lips to one of them, to flick his tongue over the taut tip of the nipple, Stephanie’s knees almost buckled beneath her from the pure ecstasy of the moment.

And then his hands were at her skirt. After it was unfastened, he slowly pushed it down, over her hips and away from her. He continued undressing her until she was standing abashedly nude before him.

Unflinchingly, Stephanie could hardly stand the rapture that she was feeling when Runner began moving his hands over her body. When he came to that soft patch of hair between her legs, and he cupped it within the palm of his hand, Stephanie had to bite her lower lip to keep herself from crying out from the exquisite sweetness that it caused within her.

She tilted her head back and sighed when he began to rub his fingers where she throbbed. The more he caressed her, the more she felt a strange sort of wondrous bliss floating through her. She moaned with pleasure, then opened her eyes slowly when she felt nothing more.

As she opened her eyes, she found Runner stepping out of his final garment. Her gaze swept over him, seeing how much more tall and lithe and muscled he was without clothes.

She could feel the pulse of her desire quickening when her searching eyes stopped on that part of a man’s anatomy that, until tonight, had been a mystery to her. She stared at his thick shaft, standing out away from him.

Suddenly she was afraid. “I don’t know,” Stephanie said. She took a step away from him, her eyes glued to the part of him that seemed to get larger by the minute.

“Do not fear anything,” Runner said, reaching out for her hands, taking them. “You will know nothing except passion when our bodies intertwine. We will become one body, one soul, one heartbeat. You will know nothing but sheer pleasure.”

And she believed him when she became enraptured by the sure strength of his arms as he embraced her. He leaned over her with burning eyes and kissed her feverishly and hungrily, his body leaning against hers, urging her once again to the ground.

While his knee nudged her legs apart, his mouth forced her lips open. He gathered her into his arms, their kiss growing more and more passionate.