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“There is much between us that you are fighting,” Sage grumbled, frowning down at her as she stopped pummeling his chest. “We will bathe, talk, and settle our differences before we travel onward. The journey will become less strained for both of us.”
“The journey is only strained because you are constantly forcing me to do things I don’t wish to do,” Leonida said, inhaling unsteadily. In his arms she was weakening in her defense against him. He troubled her so, in all ways sensual. If he kissed her, oh, but how she would be lost to him, to his desires, to his demands.
She was thankful that he could not read her thoughts, even though sometimes she wondered if he just might be able to do exactly that. Although he still expected her to be betrothed to another man, he was obviously pursuing her affections.
He would do that only if he realized that she cared for him instead of Harold.
“After today I will not have to force you to do anything,” Sage said. “After today, you will no longer think of the other man in your life. He will become as the fleeting wind.”
“You are so confident of this, are you?” Leonida said, her heart pounding. She feared what he had planned in the next moments, yet anticipated it all the same.
She expected him to kiss her.
She expected him to hold her.
She knew that she would allow it.
Both became silent as he carried her farther and farther away from the campsite. They were a part of the intimate hour of dawn. The air was fresh and cool, and smelled sweetly of wildflowers just opening their faces to the first light of the sun rising from behind the mountains.
Sage carried Leonida until he came to a huge, thundering waterfall that tumbled over a high peak above them. The ground was carpeted in green, the grass thick and soft beneath Leonida’s bare feet as Sage lowered her from his arms. She clung to the blanket, embarrassed as he began undressing before her, shocked at his boldness.
Although in awe of his muscular copper body, she had to turn her eyes away, her pulse racing. She had just seen a man totally nude for the first time in her life. Seeing the part of his anatomy that she had only heard women whispering about had made a strange sort of thrill shoot through her, and she was ashamed of such wanton feelings.
She flinched when she heard the splash of water, yet was relieved to know that he had dived into the river, thankfully hiding his body from her wide, wondering eyes.
Knowing that it was now safe, Leonida turned slowly around. Fear gripped the pit of her stomach when she did not see Sage anywhere in the river. A sudden thought came to her that made her knees grow weak: perhaps he had hit his head on rocks at the bottom of the river and had been knocked unconscious.
When his head popped to the surface, she could not deny the relief that flooded her. That alone revealed to her just how much she did care.
The reprieve from her anger at him did not last long. She blanched when he shouted something to her, another order that she most definitely refused to follow.
Sage treaded water and gazed up at Leonida, admiring her spunk, her fire. He smiled, then gave her the same command a second time. “Unclothe yourself and come into the water to bathe with Sage,” he shouted, seeing that her stubbornness did not wane as she clutched the blanket around herself and stared angrily back at him.
“I shall not,” she shouted back. “And you cannot make me.”
“Oh?” Sage said. With long and masterful strokes, he began swimming toward shore.
Leonida looked frantically around, feeling a desperate need to flee and hide from him, yet afraid to budge. He had carried her far from the campsite. Who knew what lurked out there?
Sage began climbing from the river, water surging from his lovely copper body. Leonida’s breath caught at the sight of him. It was so captivating, she could not deny how her insides were melting. So taken by him, Leonida was locked in a strange sort of trance. As he moved toward her, his muscles flexing, his nakedness so blatantly beautiful, Leonida swallowed hard, her eyes following his every movement.
Then she looked up into his eyes, her heart beating so loudly she felt as though she might faint.
And then the spell was broken when he grabbed the blanket from her and began undressing her.
Again she struggled and tried to get away, only to become weakened and breathless in the process.
Seeing that her struggles were futile, Leonida stood stiffly before him as he tossed aside all her garments except for her petticoat. “Why are you doing this?” she asked, her voice quavering. Although her body was still covered, she tried to hide her breasts beneath her crossed arms, and she tried to cross her legs to cover that most intimate place at the juncture of her thighs that she feared might be visible through the thin gauze of her undergarment.
Sage refused to answer her. Words would come later, after she realized that what he asked of her this morning, before everyone else arose for a full day of travel, was right. Their closeness was needed to make everything in her heart and mind turn to a clear understanding of why he had gone against the white people.
To him it was very important that, above all else, she understand. It was their destiny to be together, as kindred spirits instead of enemies.
It was their destiny to be man and wife, their hearts locked into a mutual respect and loving forever.
And he would make her understand, even join him against those who were threatening the Navaho’s existence.
Yes, for him, the man she would love, she would do this.
