Savage Illusions

As the fi­nal rays of a mag­ni­fi­cent sun­set fla­med ac­ross the sky, rap­tu­re wel­led up in­si­de Spot­ted Eag­le and Jole­na, fil­ling them, spil­ling over, dren­c­hing them with warmth and de­ep fe­elings of ful­fil­lment.

Afterwards, Jole­na clung to Spot­ted Eag­le, her che­ek on his sho­ul­der. She ca­ught her bre­ath, da­ring not to bre­at­he, af­ra­id that if she did, she wo­uld dis­co­ver that this was just anot­her il­lu­si­on, one that she wo­uld awa­ken from with empty lon­gings.

She was so­on awa­re that this was no il­lu­si­on. She sig­hed le­isu­rely and tre­mors cas­ca­ded down her back when Spot­ted Eag­le be­gan stro­king her legs, his fin­gers mo­ving slowly up­ward, the su­re­ness of his ca­ress lig­h­ting her with de­si­re aga­in.

When his fin­gers te­ased cir­c­les aro­und her belly, up to her bre­asts, just mis­sing the nip­ples each ti­me so that they stra­ined with ad­ded an­ti­ci­pa­ti­on, Jole­na felt as tho­ugh she might melt right in­to the wa­ter.

The air he­avy with the ine­vi­ta­bi­lity of ad­ded ple­asu­re, Spot­ted Eag­le to­ok Jole­na from the ri­ver and lay her down on a soft bed of moss. She clo­sed her eyes and bit her lo­wer lip to ke­ep from crying out with rap­tu­re when he be­gan ma­king his way down her body with his lips and ton­gue, awa­ke­ning anew her every sec­ret pla­ce with fresh de­si­re.

When he be­gan ca­res­sing her ten­der mo­und of ple­asu­re with his ton­gue, she suc­ked in a wild bre­ath and clo­sed her eyes. The fe­elings we­re so won­der­ful­ly swe­et, she felt as tho­ugh she might be flo­ating high in the sky, a bird with wi­de-sp­re­ad wings, so­aring hig­her and hig­her and hig­her…

Then Spot­ted Eag­le mo­ved over her and fil­led her on­ce aga­in with his thick shaft. He held her hands abo­ve her he­ad as he kis­sed her, his body thrus­ting mad­de­ningly fast wit­hin her.

Surges of warmth flo­oded Jole­na's body on­ce aga­in and she knew that Spot­ted Eag­le was fin­ding as ke­en a ple­asu­re as she by the way he gro­aned and con­ti­nu­ed plun­ging him­self in­to her, con­ti­nu­ing at this spe­ed un­til his se­ed splas­hed aga­inst the walls of her wo­man­ho­od. Jole­na lay per­fectly still when Spot­ted Eag­le rol­led away from her.

"I've ne­ver be­en so con­tent," Jole­na fi­nal­ly sa­id, her eyes still clo­sed, fe­eling at pe­ace with her­self and the world. "I'm so very, very happy."

There was a pa­use when ne­it­her of them sa­id an­y­t­hing, then Spot­ted Eag­le le­aned on one el­bow and ga­zed over at Jole­na. "I know yo­ur true fat­her," he sa­id sud­denly, wit­ho­ut war­ning.

Jolena's eyes flew open and she lo­oked up at Spot­ted Eag­le, her eyes wi­de and im­p­lo­ring.

Chapter Sixteen

Stunned, Jole­na ga­zed in­to Spot­ted Eag­le's eyes, then sud­denly ca­me to her sen­ses. In­s­te­ad of re­ac­ting with cu­ri­osity to his sta­te­ment, an­ger was sud­denly her ma­in emo­ti­on. He had su­rely known from the very be­gin­ning who her fat­her was, and he had cho­sen not to tell her!

She wan­ted not­hing mo­re at this mo­ment than to know who her fat­her was and whe­re she co­uld find him, but her an­ger with Spot­ted Eag­le se­emed to blind her to all lo­gic. She felt as tho­ugh he had pla­yed a ga­me with her, by kno­wing all along so­met­hing that wo­uld ma­ke her he­art sing, and yet not tel­ling her.

She won­de­red now if all words that he had sa­id to her we­re just part of a ga­me!

Heatedly, she gat­he­red her clot­hes up from the gro­und and mo­ved qu­ickly to her fe­et, turn- ing her back to Spot­ted Eag­le. She co­uld fe­el his eyes on her as she hur­ri­edly dres­sed, su­rely as stun­ned by her at­ti­tu­de as she had be­en by his sud­den de­ci­si­on to tell her sec­rets abo­ut her­self, her fa­mily, and her past.

Her he­art cri­ed out to turn to him and ple­ad with him to tell her ever­y­t­hing. But the stub­born si­de of her ma­de her re­ma­in qu­i­et, kno­wing that if Spot­ted Eag­le knew the­se an­s­wers, so wo­uld so­me­one el­se.

Perhaps even Two Rid­ges!

Surely that was the re­ason he al­ways sta­red at her!

Yet if he knew, why wo­uld he, al­so, not sha­re the­se won­der­ful things with her?

She had the right to know!

Sudden, tight fin­gers on her sho­ul­ders ma­de Jole­na's in­si­des stif­fen. Her lips par­ted and her eyes wi­de­ned as Spot­ted Eag­le qu­ickly spun her aro­und to fa­ce him, his eyes two dark, angry pits as he gla­red down at her.

''I was wrong to tell you that I know yo­ur true fat­her?" he sa­id, his vo­ice drawn. "That I even knew yo­ur mot­her?"

Jolena win­ced as his grip on her sho­ul­ders tig­h­te­ned, yet she so­on for­got the pa­in when she ab­sor­bed his wor­d­s­he had even known her true mot­her! It was hard not to blurt out all sorts of qu­es­ti­ons to him, yet still she co­uld not get over be­ing up­set with him over ha­ving not told her the­se truths as so­on as he re­ali­zed who she was.

"It is not what you told me, or pro­fess to tell me," she fi­nal­ly sa­id, her thro­at dry. "It is when you cho­se to tell me. Why did you wa­it so long? I find that very hard to un­der­s­tand. Did you enj­oy ke­eping sec­rets from me?"

She pa­used and pe­ered mo­re in­ten­sely up at him. "How do you even know who my true pa­rents are?" she sa­id, her fin­gers trem­b­ling, her vo­ice bre­aking with emo­ti­on.

Spotted Eag­le eased his fin­gers from her sho­ul­ders. He to­uc­hed her che­ek gently with a hand.

"The mo­ment I first la­id eyes on you, I knew you must be the da­ug­h­ter of Swe­et Do­ve and Brown Elk," he sa­id, his thumb ca­res­sing the flesh be­ne­ath her chin. "Yet do you not al­so see this as per­haps too much co­in­ci­den­ce? I wan­ted to study you and be cer­ta­in be­fo­re I told you."

Deep down in­si­de him­self, he knew that was not to­tal­ly true. The truth had mo­re to do with Swe­et Do­ve than an

­y­t­hing el­se. If Jole­na ever dis­co­ve­red his boy­ho­od fe­elings for Swe­et Do­ve and that Jole­na was the mir­ror ima­ge of her mot­her, wo­uld she be­li­eve that it was she he lo­ved, in­s­te­ad of a me­mor­y­per­haps the spi­rit of a wo­man who had co­me back to him?