Page 78 of Savage Illusions

"Do not mo­ve, Jole­na," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, swin­ging him­self up to so­lid gro­und.

"Do not even mo­ve yo­ur he­ad to see what I am do­ing," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id as he yan­ked the bow from his sho­ul­der and not­c­hed an ar­row on­to it. "It co­uld pro­vo­ke the ani­mal in­to char­ging me be­fo­re I can send an ar­row in­to its he­art."

Jolena's thro­at went dry and her in­si­des grew numb. She didn't mo­ve a mus­c­le, but not so much be­ca­use Spot­ted Eag­le had told her not to, but be­ca­use she was too frig­h­te­ned even to bre­at­he.

She now he­ard the snor­ting of the buf­fa­lo.

She co­uld he­ar its ho­of po­un­ding the earth as it con­ti­nu­ed to paw.

She co­uld even fe­el its eyes on her.

Jolena ga­zed at the cliff which was only an arm's length away. If the buf­fa­lo char­ged be­fo­re Spot­ted Eag­le co­uld kill it, she and Spot­ted Eag­le wo­uld jo­in the ot­hers at the fo­ot of the cliff, but in a most unex­pec­ted way.

She clo­sed her eyes and be­gan pra­ying. She flin­c­hed when she he­ard the so­und of the re­le­ased ar­row, then sig­hed with re­li­ef when she he­ard a lo­ud thum­ping so­und, kno­wing that the ani­mal had fal­len and that she had be­en sa­ved by her be­lo­ved Blac­k­fo­ot war­ri­or!

Dropping the car­d­bo­ard, yet clin­ging to the pre­ci­o­us she­ets from her jo­ur­nal, Jole­na tur­ned to fa­ce Spot­ted Eag­le. Af­ter fit­ting his bow back over his sho­ul­der, he went to Jole­na and fra­med her fa­ce bet­we­en his hands, yet his eyes we­re on the jo­ur­nals that she clas­ped to her chest. He shif­ted his ga­ze to the car­d­bo­ard on which we­re dis­p­la­yed the bits and pi­eces of but­ter­f­li­es.

He lo­oked up at her aga­in, glo­we­ring. "You risk yo­ur li­fe for the­se use­less things?" he grow­led. "Why?"

"For my fat­her in Sa­int Lo­u­is," Jole­na mur­mu­red. "Ha­ving so­met­hing left of the ex­pe­di­ti­on might help ease the blow of kno­wing that he has lost me."

"Would it ha­ve be­en worth it to him to ha­ve fo­olish pa­pers only to lo­se his da­ug­h­ter al­to­get­her?" Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, jer­king his hands from her fa­ce. He star­ted to ta­ke the pa­pers from her arms, but she tur­ned away from him.

"Please don't," she sa­id, her vo­ice drawn. "The­se are va­lu­ab­le."

"You must for­get this part of yo­ur li­fe if you are to be­co­me Blac­k­fo­ot in all ways," Spot­ted Eag­le re­min­ded her.

Feeling gu­ilty for ma­king Spot­ted Eag­le angry with her and for put­ting him in dan­ger aga­in for her, Jole­na went to him and res­ted her che­ek aga­inst his mus­c­led arm. "Dar­ling, you sa­id that you we­re go­ing to kill a buf­fa­lo bull to­day, and you just did," she mur­mu­red. "He will ma­ke much me­at for our tab­le."

Spotted Eag­le sa­id not­hing for a mo­ment, then tur­ned his eyes down to her. "Lay yo­ur pa­pers asi­de," he sa­id gently. "It is ti­me for you to le­arn the ways of but­c­he­ring."

Jolena's smi­le fal­te­red. She step­ped away from Spot­ted Eag­le, lo­oking wa­ve­ringly down at the res­cu­ed s of her jo­ur­nal. She re­ali­zed that Spot­ted Eag­le was for­cing her to cho­ose bet­we­en ke­eping the pa­pers she'd res­cu­ed and fre­e­ing her hands to be­gin the but­c­he­ring.

She was torn, but this ti­me she knew what she must do, for her pla­ce was with Spot­ted Eag­le, and if that me­ant mo­re sac­ri­fi­ces be­ing ma­de to ha­ve a fu­tu­re with him, then she knew what she must do.

Lifting her chin pro­udly, Jole­na ope­ned her arms and wat­c­hed the s of her jo­ur­nal flut­ter away from her aga­in.

Spotted Eag­le went to Jole­na and drew her in­to his em­b­ra­ce. "Aga­in, you are a wo­man of co­ura­ge," he whis­pe­red, twi­ning his fin­gers thro­ugh her ha­ir.

Jolena ga­zed up at him. "It was not co­ura­ge that ma­de me let go, but lo­ve for my man," she sa­id, then le­aned in­to him as his lips crus­hed down upon hers in a kiss.

Chapter Thirty

A fe­ast to ce­leb­ra­te the suc­ces­sful buf­fa­lo run wo­uld be­gin as the sky ba­de the stars and mo­on go­od-bye and wel­co­med old man Sun.

Jolena had slept so­undly af­ter the ti­ring outing, her dre­ams fil­led with won­d­ro­us mo­ments alo­ne with Spot­ted Eag­le. Even now as she slept, she sig­hed and stret­c­hed her arms abo­ve her he­ad as she dre­amt that Spot­ted Eag­le was kne­eling over her, awa­ke­ning her to an even mo­re in­ten­se rap­tu­re than she had sha­red with him be­fo­re as he suc­ked her nip­ples in­to tight nubs of ple­asu­re and his hands swept ca­res­singly down her body, stop­ping at the he­art of her de­si­re, spla­ying his fin­gers over her crown of black ha­ir. When he thrust one of his fin­gers in­si­de the warm co­co­on of her fe­mi­ni­nity, Jole­na gas­ped pas­si­ona­tely. As his fin­ger mo­ved wit­hin her, kin­d­ling the fla­mes that we­re al­re­ady lit in­si­de her, she slowly ope­ned her eyes, re­ali­zing that she was not dre­aming at al­lthat this ple­asu­re she was fe­eling was re­al. She fo­und Spot­ted Eag­le's mid­nig­ht-dark eyes ga­zing in­to hers, his lips tug­ging in­to a smi­le when he dis­co­ve­red that his ploy had wor­ked, that he had awa­ke­ned her this mor­ning to how it wo­uld be for the rest of the­ir li­ves. He wo­uld gre­et her at each sun­ri­se with this pro­of of his lo­ve.

He wo­uld ma­ke su­re she ne­ver reg­ret­ted ha­ving cho­sen his way of li­fe over that which she had known for the first eig­h­te­en sum­mers of her li­fe.

In many ways he wo­uld ma­ke up to her that which she might sec­retly pi­ne for.

Her he­art throb­bing, her in­si­des mel­ting with rap­tu­re, Jole­na smi­led softly up at Spot­ted Eag­le and flung a leg aro­und him, brin­ging him clo­ser. She trem­b­led with ec­s­tasy and swal­lo­wed hard when she dis­co­ve­red how much even he was aro­used when she felt his man­ho­od lying thick and full aga­inst her thigh. She felt dizzy with ne­ed of him and pla­ced her hands to the na­pe of his neck and drew his lips up clo­se to hers.

Before she co­uld kiss him, he was whis­pe­ring so­met­hing aga­inst her lips.

"Were yo­ur dre­ams go­od?" he te­ased hus­kily.

Jolena gig­gled. "Ne­ver bet­ter," she whis­pe­red back, then felt her eup­ho­ria mo­un­ting when he kis­sed her in a bla­ze of ur­gency, his hands cup­ping her bre­asts, his fin­gers pus­hing them up aga­inst his ba­re, po­wer­ful chest.

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