Leonida watched him begin to walk away beneath the thundering falls, then moved quickly to her feet and went to him and grabbed his hand. “Don’t go,” she said. “I love you, Sage. Oh, how I love you.”
When he turned to her, his eyelids heavy with passion, she twined a leg around one of his, moaning as she felt her swollen, throbbing center come into contact with his flesh as her petticoat scooted up her leg. Closing her eyes, Leonida began rubbing herself against him, becoming dizzy with the pleasure.
Feeling that part of her moving against his flesh drove Sage almost out of his mind. He wrapped his arms around her and helped anchor her to him as she continued moving herself on him.
But afraid that she was nearing that point of no return when pleasure would seize her like explosions of fire, he placed his hand on her waist and lifted her away from him.
Her face hot with a sensual blush, Leonida smiled up at Sage, her whole body seeming to be one consuming, throbbing heartbeat. “Make love to me,” she whispered, reaching a hand to his manhood.
She watched his eyes become glassy with pleasure as she moved her fingers on him, herself mystified by that part of him that seemed so hot and alive. She watched his expression as he closed his eyes and moaned, the ecstasy seemingly mounting the more she moved her fingers.
When his body stiffened, and he jerked quickly away from her, she questioned him with her eyes.
“We will ride the wings of eagles together,” he said huskily. “Not apart.”
His hands moved to the hem of her petticoat and gathered it into his fingers. Slowly he lifted it away from her. Tossing it aside, he gazed with pleasure at her slim, curvaceous body. His hands began traveling over her, following the path of his eyes, first touching and kneading her breasts, then moving lower, across her fiat tummy, lower still to that golden floss of hair between her legs.
When he again found her center of passion, this time he slowly thrust a finger within her. He gazed down at her as he explored and found that tight membrane within that proved that she was a virgin.
“You are willing to become mine today, totally?” he asked, his voice low. “You will be my woman, forever?”
Anxious and afraid, Leonida could manage only a quick nod, giving her approval. What happened next was quite a surprise to her. Her eyes widened and she cried out when he thrust his finger quickly deeper into her, causing her a moment of pain. She gasped when he withdrew his fingers and she saw blood on their tips.
“Oh, Lord,” she whispered, covering her mouth with a hand. “Why am I bleeding? What did you do?”
“I prepared you for lovemaking,” Sage said, leaning his bloody fingers out into the waterfall and washing them. “Now it will be easier for you. You will not have to suffer pain at the moment you should be experiencing rapture.”
He gave her no further cause to wonder about this. His fingers reached up to entwine her hair and he drew her close. His mouth forced her lips open as his kiss grew more passionate.
She was filled with strange, wondrous desires, acutely aware of his body as he leaned against her while leading her down onto the slab of rock again. As he leaned over her, one of his knees parted her thighs. He surrounded her with his hard, muscular arms, pressing her against him as his lips moved from her lips to a taut, pink-tipped breast. She threw her head back in ecstasy as his tongue swept around her nipple and his teeth nipped at its throbbing point.
And then once again his mouth bore down upon her lips, causing threads of excitement to weave through her heart. She clung to him, then sighed deeply and moaned with intense pleasure when she felt him thrust his manhood deeply within her. As he held her close, he began his masterful, rhythmic strokes that sent her soaring above herself, seemingly separate from that person she had always known. Never had she felt such bliss, such joy. She clung to him and rocked, allowing herself to enjoy this wild, sensuous pleasure.
Sage yearned to find that final plateau that would send his heart leaping, and he felt the urgency building as he moved within her. Surges of warmth swam through his body, causing a wondrous tingling from his head to the tip of his toes.
Becoming breathless with pleasure, he leaned his mouth away from her lips and lay his cheek on her heaving bosom. Tremors cascaded down his back, and he caught his breath when he felt the familiar rush of ecstasy claim him. He held her tight as his body spasmed into hers, smiling amid his pleasure when he felt her body explode with rapture to match his own.
> Taking from each other that which they both gave willingly, they clung together a moment longer after the passion was totally spent. Then Sage rolled away from her, lying on his side next to her. His hands touched her, almost as though she were a precious flower. Then he turned her and drew her into the warmth of his body.
“You fill my heart with gladness,” he whispered, caressing her back with gentle fingers. “It is easy to forget the sadness in the world while with you. You are like a soft ray of sunshine, warming me through and through.”
“You showed me such gentleness,” Leonida whispered back, softly touching his face. She brushed his lips with a kiss. “My darling, you are everything to me. Everything.”
“Sage will make things right for you,” he said, leaning away from her, gazing at her with a deep devotion in his eyes. “We will be man and wife. Soon.”
“I already feel as though I am your wife,” Leonida murmured, moving into his arms, hugging him. “Today you and I committed ourselves fully to each other. There will never be another man or woman in either of our lives. Our moments shared within one another’s arms will be solely ours alone to enjoy. We could not be more married than that, do you think?”
“I will never have enough of you,” Sage murmured, placing a finger on her chin, bringing her eyes up to meet his. “Never.”
His mouth bore down upon her lips in a bruising, lingering kiss, then he broke away from her. “Although my body cries out to have you again this moment, time does not allow it,” he said as he rose to his feet. He reached for a hand, which she gave to him. “Come. We must return to our clothes, and then to the campsite. We will eat, then once again move more deeply into the mountains. Soon you will see my stronghold and meet all of my people. Pure Blossom will welcome you with eager arms, I am sure.”
They kissed again, and then Leonida slipped her wet petticoat over her head. Together they moved to the edge of the ledge and dived into the river below. When Leonida splashed back to the surface, her face became hot with a blush. One of Sage’s warriors had appeared, looking anxious.
Sage bobbed to the surface beside Leonida. He treaded water as he gazed questioningly up at Spotted Eagle, the trusted scout that he had sent back to keep an eye on the trail behind them.
“What is it?” Sage shouted, still treading water. “What have you found that is of so much importance you come to interfere in my private affairs of the morning?”
“Kit Carson and the white pony soldiers have left Fort Defiance in search of you and the captives,” the scout said, clamping a hand on a knife sheathed at his waist. The fringes of his buckskin breeches and shirt blew in the gentle breeze.