Savage Skies

He paused, then said as he lowered his hands from her shoulders, “My daughter no longer has a mother,” he said softly. “I cannot allow yours to suffer in the same way as my daughter, never being able to see her mother again.”

He framed her face between his hands. Their gazes met and held. “Don’t you know, deep down inside yourself, that you are now way more than a stranger to me?” he said hoarsely. “You surely know how deeply I care for you.”

The heat of a blush rushed to Shirleen’s cheeks. “Yes, I know,” she murmured. “Now I do know that you care for me. I . . . I . . . guess I have known for sometime now.”

“Then trust that I will bring your child home to you, no matter what,” Blue Thunder said. He wrapped his arms around her, drawing her into his gentle embrace.

She returned the hug, hating to let him go.

But she knew that this was not the time to think of herself and her need for Blue Thunder. It was time to focus fully on Megan. Only Megan.

She eased herself from Blue Thunder’s arms and turned to Speckled Fawn. “Why are

you risking so much for me? Until recently, I was only a stranger to you,” she said.

“Yes, perhaps a stranger, but I now see us as soul mates,” Speckled Fawn said, smiling into Shirleen’s eyes. “And know this, soul mate. I will help bring your daughter home to you. At any cost, Shirleen. At any cost.”

Shirleen reached over and embraced Speckled Fawn. “Please, oh, please, come home unharmed,” she said, her voice catching. “I have never met a woman such as you, a woman who gives of herself so unselfishly.”

“I only want to give back some of the kindness shown to me by the Wind Band,” Speckled Fawn said, tears filling her eyes. “Things could have been so different for us both. We were so fortunate to have been found and taken in by these wonderful people. I want your daughter to be a part of this life, too.”

“And she will be,” Blue Thunder said firmly as he managed to hug both women at once. “She will.”

Chapter Twenty

She was swayed in her suppleness to and fro,

By each gust of passion.

—Des Prez

Just as Speckled Fawn left through the entranceway, dropping the flap closed behind her, Blue Thunder turned to Shirleen. “Soon I must leave, but I feel a need to leave you with something that will help you pass the time more peacefully,” he said huskily.

He reached out and drew her into his embrace, all the while gazing down into her eyes. “I want to show you just how much I love you,” he said. “Will . . . you . . . allow it? I want you to see how a man can make gentle love to a woman. I want to be that man. I want you to be that woman.”

“I never wanted or needed my husband in a sexual way,” Shirleen said, on fire inside with needs she had never felt before.

But she had never been in love before.

She had thought she might be in love with Earl, but after their first time together in bed, she had known the horrible mistake she had made by marrying him.

She had been left cold by his hands, his lips, his brusqueness. He had taken her virginity and had not allowed her to feel anything but pain, then dread.

He had taken his pleasure from her body, giving nothing back.

Each time after the first, it had been so quick. He had shoved himself into her a few times, and then as soon as he received his pleasure had rolled away from her, not interested in whether or not she had felt anything.

It had always been one-sided.

All that he had cared about was himself.

She had grown to hate seeing the sun set, knowing what would ensue. She had been so glad when her monthly period arrived, for that would give her some reprieve . . . until Earl had not even taken that into consideration and had forced himself on her anyhow.

The first time she begged him not to, he had used his razor strap on her.

“You seem lost in thought,” Blue Thunder said. He placed a hand beneath her chin and lifted it so that they could look into each other’s eyes. She had lowered them as she became lost in sordid memories.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, near tears. “I . . . I . . . was wrong to allow my mind to wander at such a time as this, but there is such a difference between the way you treat me and the way I was treated by the man I married. And even though all of this has happened so quickly between you and me, I do love you so, Blue Thunder, and . . . I . . . do want you so badly.”