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He shuddered from the tickle of her warm breath and it sent a quiver through her, since they were still solidly joined. "You can ride me anytime," he said.
"Be careful what you offer, Mr. Stewart. I may just do that," she said, half teasingly and half meaningfully.
"I repeat, Mrs. Stewart, anytime." He bit playfully into the soft flesh of her neck.
She moaned and tilted her head, offering more of herself to him. "I wish we could stay like this forever."
"We can." He continued to taint her flesh with his warm lips.
"Promise me," she said fiercely.
"I promise, Pru," he answered with just as much fierceness.
They stayed wrapped around each other, kissing, tasting, touching, until Zac lifted her off him and carried and lowered her to the bed. She held her arms out invitingly to him and he covered her with himself.
The storm continued outside, but the lovers inside were lost in their own passion.
Prudence sat astride the saddle, waiting for Zac to finish closing up the cabin. She didn't want to leave, didn't want to return to the outside world. She just wanted to stay locked away with Zac forever. Here in this tiny cabin she could believe all he told her. Believe his unending words of love. Believe he really thought her beautiful. Believe their marriage was forever. In the outside world reality interfered, letting in doubts and fears.
"All set." Zac hoisted himself up behind Prudence. He reached around her to take the reins. "Well come back here often, just you and me."
"Promise?" she heard herself ask again.
"Promise," he said, and then laughed.
"What's so funny?"
"I just knew there was a reason why I didn't want to tear this cabin down."
"Don't ever tear it down," she cried.
"Never," he assured her with a hug.
He turned the horse around and the mare plodded slowly along, like Prudence, in no hurry to return to the ranch.
James sat on the apricot-colored medallion love seat next to Lenore. She would always be Lenore to him. Even though others referred to her as Silver Fox, to him she was his Lenore.
They had talked on and off for days, reasoning about and attempting to vanquish the past. At first it had been difficult even to look upon her without a twinge of pain. The years had treated her well. The only traces of age were a few lines and wrinkles barely noticeable except to those who had known her in her younger years. Her dark hair was still long and lustrous, the only difference being the silver streak that ran down the middle, which didn't detract, but rather added to her uncommon beauty. Even her trim figure had remained the same, and James found himself falling in love all over again.
"I can't believe you didn't tell me of this when it happened." Having heard her explanation yet again, he was hurting with her pain as well as with his own.
"I was frightened of his threats. I thought he would hurt you and Prudence," Lenore said, recalling the ugly threats Ralph Madison, Granger's father, had issued.
James reached over to her cupped hands resting in her lap and took one in his, gripping it firmly. "And did you doubt my acceptance of your heritage?"
She nodded, dropping her head sadly. "I wasn't sure of your reaction. How you would feel about my Cheyenne blood? Would you be shocked and disgusted? I couldn't face the thought of you turning away from me in disgust."
James felt both anger and sadness. "I love you, Lenore. I wouldn't care if you were full-blooded Indian. You should have trusted my love to see us through such an ordeal."
"But Ralph said it would ruin you. That when it was discovered I was a half-breed, people would shun you and Prudence that you would be brought to financial ruin. I couldn't take that risk."
"So you left?"
"Either that, or become Ralph Madison's whore."
James released an exasperated sigh. "I wish Ralph hadn't died last year so I could kill him myself."
"I had experienced much prejudice growing up. After my mother's death when I was ten, my father, being a trapper, didn't feel it was fitting for a young girl to travel with him. He saw that the Indian way of life would soon perish, and not wanting that fate for me, he took me to his sister in Philadelphia."
James squeezed her hand. "It must have been difficult for you."
"More difficult than you know. My Aunt Laura was kind and generous and did all she could to train me in the ways of the white world. But I always longed for the freedom of the West and my home. Until I met you and fell hopelessly in love."
"You should have confided in me, trusted me," James urged.
"Fear is a powerful emotion. And my fear for you and Prudence far outweighed any other thoughts."
