Wild Whispers
“It took you too long,” Star Shine fussed at Running Fawn as she glowered at her. “Our boyfriends may have gotten too restless. What if they returned to San Carlos?”
Running Fawn mounted the burro and rode it bareback away from the village with her friends. “Pedro will wait for me,” she said, lifting her chin confidently. “He loves me.” She cast each of her friends a devilish grin. “But I am not sure about your boyfriends. Perhaps they do not care as much for you, as mine cares for me.”
They rode on in silence down the mountainside until they came to a cabin snuggled beneath a thick covering of trees into the side of the mountain, halfway between San Carlos and the Kickapoo village.
Her heart beating soundly in her anxiousness to be with Pedro again, Running Fawn slid from the burro, secured its reins to a tree limb, then ran breathlessly to the cabin.
When she stepped inside, she found Pedro and his usual friends sitting around a table, drinking tequila and laughing drunkenly.
“Señorita!” the boys cried in unison when they found Running Fawn standing in the shadows of the doorway. “Finally you have come. Where are the others?”
“Outside,” Running Fawn murmured as she stepped farther into the cabin. “They will be here shortly.”
Pedro flashed her a wide grin. He scooted his chair back and left the table and went to her. A small-built Mexican man of eighteen years, dressed in red velvet breeches and a white, ruffled shirt that was unbuttoned halfway to the waist, his dark eyes devoured her as he drew her into his arms.
“My love,” he whispered, his lips finding hers warm and eager as he kissed her.
Running Fawn felt her friends brush past her from behind. She heard the boys scoot their chairs back as the girls went to them, giggling.
Soon everything was quiet except for the moans, as everyone kissed and caressed.
Pedro was the first to speak. “Let us not be in such a hurry here,” he said, laughing boisterously. “We brought cards. Do you not think it would be interesting to play some strip poker?”
The young men drew away from the Kickapoo girls. They shouted and laughed drunkenly.
Pedro took the cards from his breeches pocket. He let them tumble from his hands onto the floor, one by one.
“Bring the tequila!” he shouted merrily, as he looked over at his best friend, Miguel. “Let’s sit on the floor and see whose clothes will be removed first.”
He winked at Running Fawn. “Hopefully yours, my very own sweet señorita,” he said thickly.
Running Fawn felt the heat of a blush rush to her cheeks at the thought of unclothing in front of everyone. Thus far, only Pedro had seen her naked.
But that was all right, she thought. She planned to run away from home sometime in the near future and marry Pedro. His father was the rich, powerful General Rocendo, and Pedro could offer her, ah, so many riches.
She had seen his father’s villa. Surely Pedro would inherit it. One day it could all be all hers and Pedro’s, and their children’s.
Giddy at the thought of the future, Running Fawn sat down beside Pedro. She didn’t hesitate to drink from a jug of tequila as they proceeded with the card game.
One by one Running Fawn’s clothes were removed as she lost at poker, more quickly than the others.
When it came time for her to remove her skirt, her breasts already bared to everyone’s gawking eyes, she hesitated.
But, heady with tequila, and her love for Pedro, she stood up and looked around at everyone. She smiled wickedly as she slowly slipped her skirt down.
The young men gasped and gawked and whistled and cheered as they stared at her total nudity.
Jealous, not enjoying his friends taking such advantage of seeing Running Fawn nude, Pedro rose to his feet. Teetering from having consumed so much tequila himself, he took Running Fawn’s hand.
“Come, my sweet señorita,” he said, yanking on her hand. “We will go outside where we can be alone. We will make love while these others play their stupid game of poker.”
His friends jeered him loudly. Pedro ignored it.
Running Fawn started t
o grab her clothes, but Pedro yanked her away from them. “You do not need clothes, señorita,” he said, half dragging her out the door. He chuckled throatily. “No one but me and the sky will see you.”
Lightheaded from the amount of tequila she had consumed, Running Fawn had no strength to fight back. She leaned into Pedro’s embrace as he placed an arm around her waist and led her away from the cabin.