He strode across the room then paused, seeing how the moon entered
through the window and glowed upon bet.
Her hair was shining with greater splendor than any sunset, and it was
spread out behind her as if each strand were a glorious ray of the sun.
She was dressed in violet, a shade that matched her eyes in the darkness
of the night. A shade that was barely concealing, a shade that managed
to enhance every beautiful line and curve of her body.
'Tess, where the hell' -- He paused, clearing his throat, wondering why
the hell he was getting so damned angry.
'Tess, where am I supposed to--oh, the hell with it!' he growled.
He didn't see her smile as he dropped forcefully upon her, sweeping her
into his arms. He didn't really see anything 271 except the color of her
hair, entwining and tangling around him. He breathed in the clean, sweet
scent of her, and he could barely contain his longings. The Apache had
kept them apart for the last two long nights. He hadn't realized how
badly he could need her after such a short time, how much he could crave
her. She was like a sweet a man thought he tasted once, and yet wanted
more and more once he knew the exotic taste. He kissed her fiercely, and
he kissed her long, and he felt the frantic rise of her breasts against
his hand as she lost her breath. Only when she trembled and gasped did
he raise his head and stare at her.
'I'm staying here. We're doing it my way, remember?'
She returned his stare. Her arms wound around him, and she pressed her
lips to his, then she shoved him slightly away from her and started to
open his shirt buttons. Slowly, achingly slowly, she opened them one by
one, pressing her lips against his flesh. And when his shirt was east
aside she tenderly nipped and kissed his shoulders while she tugged at
his belt buckle. She inched his pants slowly down his hips. Boldly,
possessively she touched him, stroked him and trembled, her fingers
shaking as he came hard as steel to her ministrations. Then he could
stand no more of the sweet torture and she was on her back, with his
lips savoring her body beneath the gauze of the lilac gown. He tasted
her breasts and the valley between them and her navel and her upper
thighs and teased her more intimately still until she was thrashing and
calling his name to the moon-dusted night, begging that he come to her.
With the deepest pleasure, he obliged, and the feeling of being where he
belonged within her was almost as great as pure sexual excitement of
being so tightly, so erotically He shuddered with the force of his
desire, and deeper and deeper until they exploded as one. Then her
tightly into his arms, glad of her lips pressed to her head burrowed
against him.
You're mine, he longed to tell her. You were mine when I first found
you, and mine when I came to Nalte to ask for you. You are mine this
night. And if we can only survive, you will be mine forever. His
thoughts gave pause, and he added silently: even if you are the most
ornery and troublesome female in the western world.
In the morning his troublesome female was up and almost dressed by the
time he had pulled on his trousers.
'Afraid of my family?' he asked her.
