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?