Bride Gone Bad Page 18

  And then the power shifted, intensifying as the heat spiraled inward, growing hotter as it raced to his center. He felt a jolt in his cock that turned him desperate. He gripped her harder and felt her naked body writhe against him as she tried to escape his embrace and break the connection between their Soleil Wheels. Her actions inflamed him more. He fought to retain control, but he could think of little except driving deep into her hot, moist center.

  Now was the time to complete her initiation. He glanced up. The Moon rode high in the sky. The campfire burned low. And the protective circle he’d drawn in the dirt with a stick several feet out around the campfire hadn’t been broken. They were safely inside the Medicine Wheel, so no outside force could get in and harm them or interfere with the ceremony.

  As above so below, the power moved from spirit to Earth, from outer to inner, and was ready to be grounded in a man and a woman. Only two Rattlers with their level of abilities could safely ignite the old power. Even so, he wasn’t sure they could survive the joining, but they had no choice except to try. The Moon Rattler had set them on this path, or it had been ordained long before her gift to Tempest of a personal Soleil Wheel.

  Tempest struggled in his arms, kicking out and almost getting loose. He gripped her harder. He couldn’t let her break free now, not when they were so close. He had to protect her from herself, from unleashed power, and from outside forces. He strained with the effort because he fought his own powerful need for her, too.

  “Tempest, listen to me.”

  She tossed her head back and forth.

  “I’m going to lay you down on the blanket, but please don’t struggle.”

  She writhed harder in his arms. “I want—”

  “I’ll give you everything you want, but don’t fight me.”

  “I’m burning up.”

  “I am, too.”

  “Please make this stop.”

  “Soon. I’ll release one of your hands if you won’t try to break the connection of our Soleil Wheels. Promise?”

  “Yes.”

  He hoped she’d had time enough to gain control of her reaction to their combined power. He reached behind her. He released the chain around her left wrist and left it hanging from her right wrist. And then he hooked the chain around his left wrist so that their two hands were joined together.

  “Tempest,” he said solemnly. “You are now unbound from your old life to enter freely into your new life.” He pulled the silk scarf from her head and tossed it aside. “You move from the dark of your old life into the light of your new life.” He placed a soft kiss on her lips. “Abide with me.”

  She stared at him, tears sparkling in her violet eyes, and then raised her hand and gently stroked his face. “Yes, I’ll abide with you.”

  And her words freed him. All restrictions, restraints, reservations disappeared in a blaze of fire.

  He sank down to his knees, taking her with him. He kept her right arm behind her back so he could control the connection of their Soleil Wheels. But with his right hand, he was free to stroke her hair, down her shoulder, across her back, and clutch her butt as he pushed his prick hard between her thighs and urgently moved against her. He felt hotter and harder than he ever had in his life. He fiercely needed to complete their union.

  And she rained hot kisses across his face, digging her fingers into his hair, scratching his shoulder with her nails, and undulating with her hips as she bathed his prick in her thick, hot honey.

  Any other time, he would have teased and tormented her until she was wild with desire. Now there was no need. She was ready. He was ready. There was no reason to wait. He eased her down onto her back. He raised her right hand above her head and held it there as he nudged her thighs apart.

  “Ladylove,” he whispered against her ear. “I’ll try not to hurt.”

  He’d lack finesse, knew it, but couldn’t stop the urgent desire, change the position of their bodies, or hold back another moment. He raised her hips with one hand, centered the tip of his prick against her hot, slick, swollen lips, and then pushed hard, met resistance, and then thrust deep inside her.

  She cried out in pain as she clutched his shoulder.

  He didn’t apologize. He couldn’t say anything. He was lost in stroking her harder and deeper, relentlessly joining them as he felt heat and power and passion combine and swirl and pull them higher and higher toward the spirit plane as she moaned and moved with him, timing her motions with his strokes as if they both danced to the same beat of one drum.

  But his release didn’t come, no matter how hard he drove into her hot, wet depths. Instead, he spiraled tighter and higher, reaching up, striving for completion. And he felt her stay with him, riding and undulating and urging him onward. Until he felt as if there was no world except this one of power and lust and . . . love.

  In that moment, he realized that he truly loved her. Nothing, not even Soleil Wheels or Rattlers, could ever be as important to him as the woman in his arms. She was his life, his light, his ladylove. And he would do everything in his power to keep her safe and by his side forever.

  With that realization, he reached his peak and bathed her in his hot fluids just as she screamed his name and joined him in flight from the physical to the spiritual where they floated together.

  And in time, he lay down beside her and she nestled close to him. He took deep breaths to slow his racing heart and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. He glanced around to see if the world reflected the huge shift in his own life, but only the fire had burned down to embers to mark the passage of time.

  They’d completed the initiation. The Soleil Wheel on his chest lay cool and dormant. She was safe from Crawdaddy or any other. And they were alive.

  He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. She was his bride. She was now part of his Sun Rattler clan. And those facts made all the other considerations pale in comparison.

  She nuzzled against his neck. “That was the most incredible experience of my life.”

  “Mine, too.”

  “Really?” She rose up on an elbow and looked at him. “How? Why?”

  He gazed up at her face. “I love you.”

  “Oh.” Tears flooded her violet eyes. “I never thought to hear you say that.”

  “Why?”

  “I’ve never been loved by a man.”

  He pulled her down to him by the silver chain that still bound them. “I’ll show you what it means to be thoroughly loved by a man.”

  Chapter 36

  “Didn’t you already do that?” She trailed kisses along his jaw, and then nibbled his full, sensual lips. “I’m still tingling all over.”

  “That was Rattler to Rattler. I want to show you man to woman.”

  “And woman to man?” She traced the Soleil Wheel on his chest with the tip of her tongue and tasted salty tartness.

  “Anything you want.” He raised her hand and kissed her palm. “As long as you come to love me some day.”

  “Love you!” She sat up and looked down at him. “I put my life in your hands. I followed you to Indian Territory. I have a permanent Soleil Wheel on my chest. And I just went through a ceremony that I have no way to understand. How can you doubt that I love you?”

  He sat up, too. “You’re truly my ladylove?”

  “Oh, Lucky, how could any woman not love you? I am so blessed to be with you. And to think that you love me is almost beyond belief.” She tenderly kissed his lips. “I love you with all my heart and soul.”

  He smiled, eyes turning dark amber. “From the first moment I saw you, I knew you were going to change my life.” He pressed a soft kiss to the tip of her nose.

  She chuckled. “I bet you didn’t think it was in a good way.”

  “Your hatchet didn’t appear to be a promising start.”

  “How could so much have changed in so short a time?”

  “Rattler power.”

  She shook her head. “Lucky power.”

  He kissed the Soleil Wheel over her heart,
and then moved lower to tease her nipple with his tongue while he massaged her other breast with his hand. He lifted his head with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

  “Rattler power.”

  She set her head to one side as she considered his challenge, and then slipped her left hand down his chest to clasp his hard, hot shaft. She stroked up and down while watching his face.

  “Lucky power.”

  He groaned, shaking his head. “Tempest power.”

  She stroked faster, taking pleasure in the feel of his smooth skin. “You may be right.”

  He clasped her hand, stopping her movements. “Wait.”

  “Why?”

  He raised her hand and placed it on the Soleil Wheel over his heart. “I want to love every inch of you.”

  She shivered in response, feeling a tug deep inside, and then heat blossomed outward to cascade over her skin. “Let me love you, too.”

  He held up their wrists still bound together with links of chain, and then he looked into her eyes.

  She caught her breath at the intensity of his liquid gold gaze.

  “With silver I thee bind, with gold I thee anoint, with love I thee wed.” He unclasped the chain that physically bound them and clasped it around her throat to become a necklace.

  “Oh.” She was absolutely speechless, feeling as if the foundation of her world had shifted into a new reality at the prophetic finality of his words.

  He stood up, walked over to the campfire, and built it up so that it blazed again. He rummaged in his saddlebags, and then returned to her. When he sat down, firelight bronzed his skin and sharpened the planes and angles of his face.

  Tempest felt cold, then hot, then cold again. She shivered as she looked at him. Naked with no clothes to mark time, place, or civilization, he could have been a warrior claiming his woman, a knight selecting his ladylove, or a medicine man performing an ancient marriage rite. Yet she knew one thing. He’d moved beyond the boundaries of present-day society, and he’d taken her on a journey into unknown territory.

  “We are wed in our hearts and bound together in our Sun Rattler clan. Now we begin a new life together.” He lifted her left hand and slipped a gold ring onto her first finger.

  She held her hand up to the firelight so that she could see the ring. A wide gold band engraved with a Soleil Wheel gleamed in the light. It was beautiful and fit exactly right. She threw her arms around his neck, hugged him, and then sat back with a smile.

  “Thank you. This is lovely. I’m deeply touched.” She felt extremely happy until she had a disturbing thought.

  “I placed it on your power finger.” He smiled, squeezing her hand.

  “But why have you been carrying around a ring my size, or one that could fit some other women, too?”

  “Don’t think it was meant for just any woman. That belittles us. I was in Delaware Bend waiting for you.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  “Maybe not in your former world, but it’s very possible in the Rattler world. I didn’t know your name or your face. I didn’t even know that we would reach this point. But I’ve carried that ring for ten years, waiting, hoping, watching for my own true ladylove. And finally, here you are.”

  “And it fits me.”

  “Of course, the ring fits. It was forged in Sun Rattler fire for you.”

  She pressed the back of her hand to her mouth and kissed the ring, believing him with her heart even if her mind insisted that his words couldn’t be true. Yet he existed. The ring existed. She couldn’t doubt her own eyes.

  When he cupped her face with both hands and kissed her lips, she leaned into him, not caring about any reality except the one in his arms. She returned his kiss, delving deep into his mouth, pushing her fingers into his thick hair, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

  She had lived in twilight until he’d brought her into sunlight. She couldn’t get enough of him. She kissed down his throat, paused to feel the strong beat of his heart, and then moved lower to lick and nibble and suck on his taut nipples as she stroked the powerful muscles of his shoulders. She continued to blaze a trail downward, toying with his navel, following the rigid lines of his muscles, until she came to his engorged shaft. She kissed the tip that jutted up toward her, then licked and sucked, grazing his sensitive flesh with her teeth, as she stroked up and down the long, taut length with her hand, feeling him grow hotter and harder under her touch.

  “Tempest,” he groaned, clasping her waist, lifting her up, and then setting her on his lap where he’d crossed his legs.

  Now she straddled him, completely spread open, with one leg on either side of his hips. And under her, she felt his shaft press against her soft, vulnerable center that now ached and burned for him. She rubbed against him, back and forth, gyrating her hips harder and faster, wanting relief, wanting pleasure, wanting completion.

  And with a growl, he took control. He leaned her back over his arm so that her breasts pointed upward, and then he feasted on them.

  She felt his mouth like a hot brand on her bare flesh as he sucked each nipple into a hard peak, and then raked both with his teeth until she cried out. He massaged and squeezed her breasts as she moaned and shifted restlessly in his embrace. When he moved lower, leaving a hot, wet trail downward, she tried to rise up and embrace him, but he kept her spread before him, stroking her with one hand while he licked and nibbled her sensitive skin.

  When he grasped her hips and raised her to his mouth, she braced her hands on either side of him, shuddering with desire. With the first touch of his tongue to her sensitive nub, she groaned and writhed in his grasp, almost unable to stand the feelings he was kindling in her. He licked deeper between her hot folds, nibbling, sucking, thrusting, till he returned to her nub and plied that sensitive flesh until she gathered into a fiery storm and then released in a torrent of pleasure that rushed through her entire body.

  She was panting when he lifted her again, and she grabbed his shoulder for support, feeling weak and sated and yet still unsatisfied.

  “I want you.” She pressed a hot kiss to his lips.

  “Take me.”

  From where she straddled him, she rose up on her knees, pressed his hard shaft to the heart of her, and then impaled herself in one quick movement. She felt his intrusion as ecstasy and agony, for she was sore and tight and he was big and hard. And yet, there was nothing she wanted more in that moment than to be joined with him.

  When he grasped her butt and started sliding her up and down on his shaft, she gasped and clutched his shoulders for support. She felt hotter and wetter as he thrust deeper and harder, driving them both on. And yet, he took his time, alternating his thrusts with wet kisses to her mouth, her throat, her breasts. She rode him, undulating around him as he thrust within her, gasping and moaning and striving toward completion.

  And when he finally thrust fast and hard, he squeezed her butt with his powerful hands and she clung to him, pushing her tongue into his mouth as he thrust deep into her.

  They spiraled higher and higher together, striving for complete union, and finding it in a shower of hot sparks that scalded them both. And they hung together for a long moment before they plummeted back to Earth.

  She collapsed against him, panting and trembling as he stretched out, keeping her sprawled on top of him.

  “I love you,” he said, stroking down her back with a warm hand. She nuzzled against his neck. “I love you, too.”

  And as she lay still, basking in the glow of the aftermath of their lovemaking, a thought struck her. She rose up to look at him.

  “What is it?” He smiled. “Do you want more?”

  “I’ve been so caught up in . . . well, everything that I just remembered something important. You used those French caps, didn’t you?”

  She didn’t like the look that crossed his face. Guilt? Regret? She slid to one side and sat up, feeling a chill drive the warmth from her body. She also felt liquid slide out between her legs. She glanced down, shocked, and th
en looked back at his face.

  He sat up and gazed at her.

  “You said you had protection for me. Isn’t it in your saddlebags?”

  “Yes. French caps are there.”

  “You used one, didn’t you?”

  “No. Didn’t you notice?”

  “I don’t even know what one looks like, so how could I notice? Besides, we agreed you would protect me. I didn’t question or think about it.”

  “You’re innocent, but—”

  “I could be with child. Your child.” She felt frightened. And angry. Maybe she shared some of the responsibility, but she’d completely trusted his word that he’d protect her. “Of course, it’s not likely.”

  “It’s very likely that you’re now carrying our baby.”

  “What!” She jumped to her feet, and more liquid ran down her thighs. She pointed at it. “That’s you!” She stalked away several feet, and then turned back. “How can you be so calm? I suppose it’s no problem for you. You’ll simply ride off into the sunset. I’ll be left with the shame and the blame. My child will be called a bastard, shunned and ridiculed.”

  “That will never happen. We’re married and we’ll stay that way. Any child we create will be loved and treasured.” He stood up and closed the distance between them.

  She backed away, holding up her hands. “Don’t come near me. You’ve sold me a pack of lies. You must have been laughing at me the whole time. I must have appeared so needy for a man that I’d accept anything you told me.” She bit her lower lip, anger warring with despair.

  “Tempest, don’t do this to yourself, or me. It’s not worthy of you.” He held out his hand.

  She tore off his ring and tossed it at his feet. She unclasped the necklace and threw it at him, too. “I don’t need anything from you. Not your gifts. Not your Rattler world. And certainly not your child.”