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He knew that he could never take her to his villagenot as long as Spotted Eagle was alive! Spotted Eagle would take her away from him and condemn Two Ridges in the eyes of their people!
There was only one solution.
Two Ridges would have to ambush Spotted Eagle and kill him, so that Two Ridges would not have to live the life of a banished Blackfoot. He wanted to take his copper princess to his people and show her off to them. They would see why she would cause him never to take another woman to his bed.
She was the most beautiful of all the women he had ever known! He ached to touch her copper skin. He ached to bury his nose in the depths of her midnight-black hair, to smell its fragrance. His mouth wanted to know the sweetness of her lips.
But he knew that he would first have to gain her trust to have these pleasures!
Jolena was stunned numb with the news that she and Two Ridges were the only two of the expedition to come out of this tragedy alive.
She closed her eyes and sobbed out Kirk's name, then her beloved Spotted Eagle's.
She crumpled down onto the blankets and curled into a ball, still crying, her eyes closed, her heart shredding into a million pieces of despair. When a warm hand touched her face, she thought it was Spotted Eagle's, so much did she want it to be so. She leaned into the palm of the hand, sobbing softly.
When she opened her eyes, she lurched back wildly away from Two Ridges, jolted back to her senses.
"Allow me to comfort you," Two Ridges said, placing a hand to her wrist, attempting to draw her into a sitting position next to him. "For a moment you allowed it. Ok-yi, come. Kyi. Let me hold you. Cry until all of your sadness is washed from inside you."
"No," Jolena said, choking back another sob. "I'm fine. I don't need anyone. I'm going to be fine."
"You need not suffer through this alone," Two Ridges said, drawing her closer to him as he still held tightly to her wrist. "I was Spotted Eagle's best friend. He would want you to seek comfort in my arms."
"Please leave me be," Jolena said, yanking her wrist free. "I need no one. No one, do you hear?"
His eyes narrowing, Two Ridges moved away from her and resumed his place before the dying embers on the opposite side of the fire from Jolena. His eyes never left her as he placed more wood on the coals of the fire, and the flames soon ate away at the dry timber.
Jolena stared into the flames, trembling from the coldness she felt inside over her losses.
Her brother! Her wonderful Spotted Eagle! All of the others of the expedition of whom she had become so found!
And her beloved journals and her precious butterfly collection!
"Everything is lost to me," she whispered, tears again splashing from her eyes. "Everything."
Returning to her soft pallet of blankets, she stretched out onto them, meticulously covering herself with another one. When she closed her eyes, she found that there was too much there in her mind's eye that continued troubling her… the damnable Nymphalid butterfly that was known to portend death! And the damnable dream in which Spotted Eagle had died!
Although Spotted Eagle had not died from an arrow's wound, he was dead just the same.
She now wished that she had listened to Kirk and had turned back toward Fort Chance, leaving the butterfly to tease and cause death to someone else.
"Oh, why didn't I listen to Kirk?" she cried softly, pummeling her fists into the blankets. "Why? Why?"
She had been so caught up in her grief that Jolena had not heard Two Ridges coming toward her again, had not been aware of him lying quietly down onto the blanket beside her…
Only when he scooted beneath her blanket and placed his body behind hers was she aware that he was there, his breath now hot on the nape of her neck as his fingers lifted her hair so that he could kiss her sweet, soft flesh.
Jolena's eyes opened wildly and her heart skipped a beat when she felt the most identifiable largeness of his manhood through the material of his breeches and her skirt as he began gyrating himself against her from behind.
She was so shocked by his actions that she was momentarily rendered speechless and seemingly helpless. She lay there, scarcely breathing, as one of his hands moved around and cupped one of her breasts through the cotton fabric of her blouse.
In a flash, the blanket was thrown aside and Two Ridges was atop her, his mouth seeking her lips, his hands slipping quickly up the inside of her skirt.
''I will make you forget everything but the pleasure that you will receive from my lovemaking," Two Ridges whispered huskily against her cheek, his lips quickly claiming hers in a frenzied kiss.
With one shove, she pushed Two Ridges away from her.
She scrambled to her feet, and as he jumped to his feet and towered over her, she started to run. He grabbed her by the waist and spun her around so that she was held immobile against his body as he lowered her again to the blankets.
