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as he now knelt beside her and discarded all his clothes. Mariah’s face heated with a blush as she gazed down at his manhood, the first time she’d ever seen this part of a man’s anatomy.
Something strange happened at the pit of her stomach, as though someone had set a fire within her, when he began to move his hand in slow strokes over his hardness. It was such a seductive sight, and Mariah realized by the way his jaw tightened and the muscles of his legs corded that what he was doing must be intensely pleasurable.
Boldly, as though he silently beckoned her to, Mariah crept to her knees and replaced his hand with hers, her heart leaping when she felt the heat of his velvety shaft, and how it seemed to jump with a life of its own as she began moving her hand on him.
She watched his expression as his eyes closed and his teeth gritted together, wondering how anything could feel that wonderful, to cause such a reaction.
Suddenly Echohawk placed his hands to her shoulders. “Mee-eewh, enough,” he said huskily. “It is time to share our pleasure. It is time to fit our bodies together as one.”
Little stabs of warmth ran through Mariah and she felt a strange new sensation rise in her as his hands slid down her back, cupping her buttocks. Slowly Echohawk laid her down on the soft pelts, then moved over her.
Trembling, she let him part her thighs and caress the damp valley, unleashing waves of weakness in her lower limbs. She was acutely aware of his pulsating hardness, now pressed against her thigh.
And when he parted her legs with a knee and she felt the first burning touch of his hardness at the center of her passion, she melted into him.
As he slowly entered her, coaxing sweetness from her, Echohawk kissed her again, his mouth forcing her lips apart, his tongue hungrily surging between her teeth.
She felt herself surrendering to him, thrilling to every nuance of his lovemaking. She did not even cry out with the shock of his first plunge inside her. A sharp pain only momentarily robbed her senses of pleasure, before she once again abandoned herself to a wild ecstasy.
Sculpturing himself to her moist body, Echohawk anchored Mariah fiercely still as he pressed endlessly deeper inside her. She knew that the passion he offered her would overshadow any pain that she had felt.
His hands moved down her body and cupped her buttocks, relishing their softness, then urged her hips into his, glad when she strained toward him on her own. Their naked bodies sucked at each other, flesh against flesh in a gentle rhythm.
A surge of ecstasy welled within Mariah, filling her, spilling over and drenching her with a sweet warmth. She twined her arms around Echohawk’s neck and clung to him as she felt a great shudder in his loins and then experienced an incredible splash of bliss, crying out at her fulfillment as his body subsided exhaustedly into hers.
Stunned by the intensity of the feelings that had overwhelmed her, like white heat traveling through her veins, she lay within Echohawk’s arms, breathing raggedly. She was afraid that if either of them moved, she would discover that all of this had been of her imagination, caused by her longing to be free to love this handsome Chippewa.
But when he stirred and slid away from her, yet only as far as to lie at her side, one of his hands still on one of her breasts as though it belonged there, she realized that, yes, all of this had been real enough.
“My ee-quay, woman,” Echohawk said, his voice deep and husky. He drew Mariah next to him, her breasts pressed into his hard chest. He ran his fingers along her delicate facial features. “I cannot see you clearly with my eyes, but you are quite real in my arms and in my heart, and that is enough. Stay with me. Warm my bed every night until we are old and gray. Say that you will gladly be my wife.”
Mariah was glad that he could not see her at this moment. He would see the tears of regret in her eyes—regret for loving him so much and knowing that he should despise her!
Echohawk saw her hesitation in agreeing to be his wife. He was troubled by this, yet thought that perhaps she was carrying some pain in her heart at leaving her people forever. He would no longer press her for answers. He smiled to himself, knowing there was truly no need. Yet he would give her time to go and release her own sorrows within the peaceful confines of the forest and then reveal to her that she had already become his wife, through their own private ceremony tonight.
They lay within each other’s arms, for the moment blissfully content. For Mariah it had been proved tonight that no matter to what lengths her father had gone to turn her into a man, she was every inch a woman. And she owed it all to Echohawk. He had brought out the true woman in her.
And, oh, how she adored him!
Chapter 14
Sweet were his kisses on my balmy lips. As are the
breezes breath’d among the groves of ripening
spices in the height of day.
—Behn
Feeling herself to be part of a magical dream when she awoke in Echohawk’s arms at daybreak, Mariah now rode beside him away from his village. She liked the feel of the horse beneath her again. There was something about being on a horse, the feeling of freedom that it evoked, as though for that time, at least, she was the master of her own destiny.
Her gaze went to Echohawk, who rode tall in his saddle, the fringes of his buckskin shirt and breeches lifting gently in the breeze. He had said that their plans for today were special, but had yet to tell her exactly what these plans were.
But she had noticed that he had taken a much different weapon with him today. A spear. It seemed their hunt today would be for much larger prey than birds.
She turned her eyes away from Echohawk, just enjoying the moment, knowing that he would tell her in good time what their destination was. It was just enough for her that she was with him today, and at his very own request. He had told her that he trusted her and her skills with a horse and a gun, even though he was still amazed and puzzled by her prowess.
His confidence in her made her proud. Without knowing it, her father had taught her skills that had saved the very Indian he had wanted dead!
