Savage Illusions

And she had be­en right!

Tears rus­hing from her eyes, and kno­wing how de­vas­ta­ted Mo­on Flo­wer must be fe­eling, Jole­na went to her and drew her in­to her em­b­ra­ce. "I'm sorry," she whis­pe­red as the lo­vely, slight ma­iden clung to her, sob­bing. "I'm sorry my brot­her co­uldn't ac­cept both you and the child. I un­der­s­tand how you are fe­eling, and I want to be yo­ur fri­end."

Spotted Eag­le wat­c­hed the emo­ti­onal sce­ne with much lo­ve in his he­art for his wo­man. He went to her and drew both her and Mo­on Flo­wer in­to his arms.

Moon Flo­wer enj­oyed the clo­se­ness of her spe­ci­al fri­ends for a mo­ment lon­ger, then bro­ke away and went to Brown Elk. She ga­zed humbly up at him. "You will still ha­ve me in yo­ur dwel­ling?" she as­ked, her vo­ice bre­aking.

"As long as you wish to be he­re," Brown Elk sa­id, then drew her in­to his arms. "My lit­tle Blac­k­fo­ot prin­cess, you and yo­ur child will fill my dwel­ling with much hap­pi­ness. That will be go­od for an old man li­ke Brown Elk."

Jolena and Spot­ted Eag­le crept from the te­pee. When they got out­si­de, Spot­ted Eag­le swung Jole­na aro­und in­to his arms. He crus­hed his lips to hers and kis­sed her pas­si­ona­tely, then swept her in­to his arms and be­gan car­rying her to­ward the­ir te­pee.

"Kirk? Did Kirk tre­at her ter­ribly?" Jole­na as­ked, as she pe­ered up at Spot­ted Eag­le.

"He sa­id not­hing to her af­ter she told him," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id. "He just mo­un­ted his hor­se and ro­de away. I sta­yed be­hind with her, to re­turn her sa­fely ho­me. The ot­her war­ri­ors went on with yo­ur brot­her."

Jolena sig­hed. "Well, at le­ast the truth is out," she mur­mu­red. "Had Mo­on Flo­wer wa­ited, it co­uld ha­ve be­en tra­gic for them bot­hand al­so the child."

Spotted Eag­le car­ri­ed Jole­na in­to the­ir te­pee and la­id her down on a pal­let of furs be­si­de the fi­re. Hur­ri­edly, they un­d­res­sed each ot­her. Spot­ted Eag­le knelt down over Jole­na and brus­hed a kiss ac­ross each of her bre­asts, then mo­ved his lips lo­wer.

"Tonight," he sa­id bet­we­en kis­ses, "who ne­eds blan­kets?"

He wor­s­hi­ped her flesh with his lips and ton­gue, then mo­ved over her and fil­led her with his thick shaft. He held her hands abo­ve her he­ad as he be­gan his stro­kes wit­hin her, his mo­uth co­ve­ring her lips with anot­her fi­ery kiss.

Jolena co­uld fe­el the pas­si­on ri­sing in her. She lif­ted her legs and loc­ked them aro­und his wa­ist, al­lo­wing him to mo­ve mo­re de­eply in­to her.

"I lo­ve you so," she whis­pe­red, as he slid his lips away from her mo­uth and mo­ved them lo­wer, whe­re he co­uld flick his ton­gue over her nip­ples. She stra­ined her bre­asts up­ward, suc­king in a wild bre­ath of ple­asu­re when he pla­ced his mo­uth fully over one of them, suc­king, lic­king, bi­ting.

Spotted Eag­le be­gan mo­ving his hands over Jole­na, fin­ding and ca­res­sing her every sen­si­ti­ve pla­ce un­til she was tos­sing her he­ad back and forth, writ­hing from the rap­tu­re.

Then the ex­p­lo­si­on of the­ir pas­si­on erup­ted. They clung and roc­ked and sig­hed.

Afterwards, they lay to­get­her, Jole­na's leg dra­ped over Spot­ted Eag­le's thigh.

"Tomorrow you will be shown what is re­qu­ired of the Blac­k­fo­ot wo­man be­fo­re she be­co­mes a wi­fe," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, smi­ling down at her.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Spotted Eag­le had eaten his mor­ning me­al of co­oked sar­vis ber­ri­es wit­ho­ut sa­ying a word, ma­king Jole­na mo­re an­xi­o­us than ever. She had a hun­d­red qu­es­ti­ons to ask abo­ut the mar­ri­age ce­re­mony, and he had cho­sen to be un­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ve. She was so ex­ci­ted that her li­fe was fi­nal­ly tur­ning in­to so­met­hing swe­et and pe­ace­ful, per­haps even nor­mal­how co­uld she not want to ma­ke su­re that she did ever­y­t­hing right at the wed­ding?

Picking at the ber­ri­es in her wo­oden bowl, she kept gi­ving Spot­ted Eag­le har­ri­ed glan­ces but did not dis­turb him, for he se­emed to be lost in de­ep tho­ught abo­ut so­met­hing.

Then she jum­ped with alarm when he set his bowl asi­de and ro­se to his fe­et. He be­gan wal­king to­ward the do­or, still wit­ho­ut sa­ying an­y­t­hing to her. She wan­ted to go af­ter him but ref­ra­ined from do­ing so.

When he left the te­pee, Jole­na scam­pe­red to her fe­et, went to the en­t­ran­ce flap and slowly sho­ved it asi­de. Scar­cely bre­at­hing, she wat­c­hed Spot­ted Eag­le walk thro­ugh the vil­la­ge and then en­ter her fat­her's dwel­ling.

''Why did he go the­re and not ask me to go with him?" Jole­na whis­pe­red to her­self, hurt that even in this way he was le­aving her out this mor­ning.

Her eyes wi­de­ned when Mo­on Flo­wer step­ped from Jole­na's fat­her's te­pee and he­aded to­ward Spot­ted Eag­le's. When she got in­si­de the te­pee, Jole­na ga­ve her a warm hug, then to­ok her hand and led her down on soft mats by the fi­re.

"I know that I sho­uld of­fer you fo­od, but I'm so an­xi­o­us to ask you abo­ut Spot­ted Eag­le's stran­ge be­ha­vi­or that I wish to dis­cuss that with you first," Jole­na sa­id in a rush of words.

She mo­ved to her kne­es and fa­ced Mo­on Flo­wer who was sit­ting calmly. In her eyes the­re was a mis­c­hi­evo­us, merry glint.

"Well?" Jole­na prod­ded. "Why is Spot­ted Eag­le in my fat­her's te­pee? He told me not­hin­gj­ust left and went di­rectly to my fat­her's dwel­ling."

"You truly do not know, do you?" Mo­on Flo­wer sa­id, gig­gling be­hind her hand as she ga­zed in­to Jole­na's an­xi­o­us eyes. "You do not know the ac­ti­ons ta­ken by a war­ri­or when he wis­hes a Blac­k­fo­ot wo­man's hand in mar­ri­age?"

Jolena's he­art skip­ped an an­xi­o­us be­at, and she co­uld fe­el a flush warm her che­eks. "That… is why he went to my fat­her's te­pee?" she mur­mu­red. "It's abo­ut our mar­ri­age?"