Wild Whispers

Kaylene’s eyes were wide, stunned to know the extent to which the Kickapoo believed in, and feared, witches.

But her wonder was interrupted when Fire Thunder nudged the sides of his mustang with his knees and led his steed from the path on which they had been traveling.

They now rode through a thicket and trees toward a cliff.

“Come and let me show you the beauty of my land, and then I will collect sweet medicine,” he said huskily.

“Sweet medicine?” Kaylene asked. She swung her horse to one side and again rode beside Fire Thunder.

“That is another term for Solomon’s seal,” Fire Thunder said, smiling over at her. “Other than tobacco, Solomon’s seal is by far the most highly regarded and magical plant among the Kickapoo. It can only be harvested when the moon is full. That is when the plant’s complete potency is assured.”

When they got a few feet away from the cliff edge, Fire Thunder drew a tight rein.

Kaylene followed his lead, and before she could dismount, he was already there, his powerful hands at her waist, lifting her to the ground.

Hand in hand, they walked to the edge of the cliff and stood on a prominent shelf that jutted out. He gestured in a slow, wide swing of his other hand toward that which lay below.

Kaylene gasped. Now that they were this high, and were standing out on this cliff, she could once again see, way in the distance below, as though they were no larger than ants, Fire Thunder’s people’s huge herd of longhorns.

Elsewhere, the land was rippled and dotted with plant life. She took in the grasses and pines, content to absorb the panorama.

“It is beautiful,” she murmured.

She inhaled the sweet fragrance of the air. She closed her eyes, envisioning a perfect world while standing there with the man she loved.

She would not allow the circumstances that had brought them together to enter her mind.

She would not let anything spoil this moment, especially now, when Fire Thunder was placing his arms around her, drawing her close to his hard, perfect body.

“We have time before I collect the sweet medicine to do something my body hungers for,” Fire Thunder whispered huskily.

He grazed her mouth with his, brushing teasingly soft kisses across her willing, parted lips.

“Tell me how I can feed your hunger,” Kaylene whispered to him, her pulse racing.

“You tell me what you wish to do,” Fire Thunder teased back, his fingers now on the hem of her blouse, lifting it slowly upward.

He nuzzled her, kissing the corner of her throat, flicking his tongue against the delicate column.

Kaylene felt the soft caress of the breeze touch her bared breasts as Fire Thunder continued to lift her blouse. When his trembling lips sucked on one of her nipples, her heart leaped with passion.

She closed her eyes, wove her fingers through his hair, then sighed languorously when he slipped his arms beneath her and lifted her and carried her away from the cliff edge.

“I need you so much my insides are aflame with the longing,” Fire Thunder whispered as he lay her on a soft bed of grass. “My woman, I do not need you to tell me how much you desire me.” He knelt down over her as she tossed her blouse aside. “I see it in your eyes and by the blush of your cheeks that you want Fire Thunder’s heat.”

“Don’t you think that I might even want you more than you want me?” Kaylene asked, smiling devilishly up at him as she reached her arms out for him. “I feel wicked, yet deliciously so. All I want is you, Fire Thunder. My mind, my heart, my thoughts are full of you, only you. I cannot help but love you.”

“You are in love with your enemy?” he whispered as he slowly raised her skirt up past her knees.

“Yes, and the most handsome enemy I have ever known,” Kaylene said.

She smiled seductively up at him as she reached down and slowly shoved his breeches down past his hips.

She sucked in a wild breath of pleasure when she saw how ready he was for her.

It shocked her to realize just how much she desired this part of him, when until Fire Thunder, she had never even had a fleeting desire to see a man unclothed.

Now she did not only want to see this part of him, she wanted to touch him, to caress him.