Savage Conquest Read online

  Truthfully, the longer she lay among the furs, the more uncomfortable she was with the memories that seemed determined to play over and over in her mind. She didn’t like to think she hadn’t comported herself like a lady and yet ….

  She bit her lip. There was no use in pretending, to herself, that she hadn’t enjoyed her disgrace thoroughly. Wolf still bore the angry red marks of her desperation, and it hadn’t been desperation to get him off of her … unfortunately.

  A wave of self-pity washed over her. She was ruined! It only made it worse that she had gloried in it, that she couldn’t blame it all on him!

  When she had agreed to go with her sister and her brother-in-law when they moved west, she had hoped to find a husband. Now she feared that no one would ever want her once they found out what had happened to her, which they would. It was likely that everyone in the small town already knew her fate, and she hadn’t even met any of them yet. What did she have to look forward to if she returned to her family? Raising her sister’s children? She would never get the chance to have her own now. She would be stuck at her sister and brother-in-laws mercy for the rest of her life. She would die old and alone.

  And all because that horrid savage had decided to kidnap her!

  She sighed gustily and gave up on thoughts of sleep after a while. There was certainly no way she would leave the furs, though, when she was stark naked! It wasn’t as if she was waiting obediently for Wolf’s return with any sort of expectations.

  Sitting up abruptly, she scanned the teepee for anything she might use to cover her nakedness. She was surprised, annoyed, and deeply mortified when she spied her rumpled dress in one corner. She hadn’t even thought to look for it, she thought crossly. Why would it occur to her that he hadn’t simply torn it off and thrown it away?

  Shaking the thought, she glanced toward the opening and scrambled across the teepee to retrieve her dress and then struggled in to it. It was in positively appalling condition but that hardly mattered! Brushing as much dirt off as she could, trying to smooth it with her hands, she crept to the tent flap and very carefully lifted it just enough to peer out.

  Her heart nearly failed her when she saw the Indians moving about the village. She didn’t see Wolf, but she spied several other warriors and they were very scary looking. Deciding retreat was the better part of valor, she returned to the pallet and plunked down on it, wondering what in the world she was going to do.

  * * * *

  Gabrielle had spent the entire day doing nothing but going over plans to escape and discarding them—when she wasn’t dwelling on the fact that her life was ruined and the reception she was likely to have if she did manage to escape. The end result was that she’d finally reached a surfeit of self-pity and exhaustion and cried herself to sleep.

  She had no idea, at first, what awakened her or even where she was when she woke, for it was as black as a cave. It only took moments for everything to come tumbling back, however, and fear surged through her when it did, expanding her senses until she finally realized that it was Running Wolf’s return that had woken her.

  She could feel him waiting there in the shadows. She was suddenly very awake. Her heart pounded. She was both frightened and exhilarated. He stood in silence over her, watching her, a dark shadow waiting like a mountain cat, full of potential power that she could feel and smell. The air fairly sizzled with his presence.

  She got up to face him, to tell him off for what he had done to her, for ruining her, for ruining her chances at having a husband and family, for ruining her chances at happiness. Before she could say anything, he grabbed her up by her arms. She suddenly forgot everything she had been about to say. The promise of his embrace made her weak and light-headed. She flattened her palm against his warm, smooth skin.

  He lowered his head to hers. His lips were a whisper away.

  She had scarcely moved her head in assent when his full lips parted and covered hers and caressed them hungrily. In truth, she knew little about what she wanted, but the tangy flavor of his lips was surely part of it.

  He pulled her tight against him, and his breathing quickened.

  He was all sinew and heated flesh, and he made her feel utterly unfamiliar with herself, as though much of her body were just awakening.

  He moved her to the blanket. He aligned her hips with his and drew himself up, arching against her, hard, so that it created a tremor deep inside her.

  She made a small, soft sound of astonishment. She tightened her arms around his neck and offered herself to the stimulating pressure of his body.

  “Why have you waited?” he asked.

  She realized he was talking about the fact that she had never been with a man before him. “It was not something I thought about in my head, exactly.” She would never have dared to think about it, not before him. Before her capture, she had never thought about a man the way she thought about him, never wanted a man the way she wanted him. Yes, she had dreamed about having a husband, but she had never thought about desire, about wanting her husband the way she wanted this man. And it disturbed her greatly to admit it to herself.

  Wolf had left his teepee early that morning while she had slept. He had needed to get away from her so that he could think clearly. This woman had gotten to him the way no other woman had. While he had been away from her, he had spent the day thinking about how he would feel if she escaped or was taken from him. He had become very angry at the thought, and he knew why. Because he did not want any other man to touch her. She was his. He decided right then and there to stake his claim.

  “I took you and I will keep you,” he informed her. He took her face in his hands and made her look into his eyes, even as she clung to his neck. “You will bear my children. You will live with me among my people,” he said, looking at her expectantly.

  There was only one answer that came to mind. “Yes,” she said.

  He was relieved to hear her acquiescence. It was exactly what he wanted to hear. “You have chosen a warrior and a hunter. I will provide for you, and I will breed you well and often.”

  She liked the sound of that.

  He studied her for an interminable time, taking his turn to touch her face, outlining her features with a forefinger, a gentle thumb. It was enough to send a waterfall of excitement sluicing toward her feminine core.

  He took hold of her shoulders and lowered her to the buffalo hide pallet. His hair slipped over his shoulder and mingled with hers.

  “I know your scent well,” he whispered as he nuzzled her neck. “It is the soft scent of woman. If I found you asleep in the dark of night, I would know you before I touched your face. I would recognize you before you spoke my name.” He looked down at her, smiling at her. His smile cut deep grooves in his sun-bronzed cheeks. With a kiss, he moved her hand aside and continued his quest.

  He touched her breast, cupping it, molding it as though he were creating it anew. He brought it to life with his thumb, rubbing the tip with a light touch until it tightened into a tender bead. His kisses were hot and moist, his tongue delving into her mouth like a shock of flame.

  His caresses stirred something distinctly pleasurable deep in her belly.

  He moved his mouth over her breast and lathed her aching nipple.

  The pleasure in her stomach intensified.

  He accosted her in earnest with his kisses now, nipping at the curve of her lower lip, diving deep with his tongue before going back to her breast.

  The delicious tugging at her breast increased the pleasure in her stomach, making her head spin.

  With a quick pull he freed the thong that held his buckskin breech clout.

  She watched it fall away from him before sliding her hands over his smooth chest. His chest was hard muscle, his torso was long and lean. There was no hair on it, although she had noticed a nest of hair around the part of him that sprang forth when he undressed.

  His dark eyes smoldered as he watched her examining him.

  “Touch me,” he ordered.

/>   She looked at him in dismay. She did not know what to do.

  “Now,” he ordered again, his eyes dark thunderclouds.

  She closed her hand around him carefully.

  His eyes drifted closed as though he were on the verge of savoring something wonderful or losing something vital. She moved her hand experimentally and found that his stiff weapon was encased in a sheath. The sharp catch in his breath surprised, then empowered her. Emboldened, she traced the warm shaft to its coarse-haired nest.

  He moved his thighs apart, straddling her, giving her free access to him.

  Instinctively she caressed him, making him moist at the tip. “Is this what you want?”

  He slid his hand between them and possessed her feminine mound beneath his palm. “Yes.”

  She gasped as he slipped one finger into the cleft between her legs. His touch felt at once pleasant and perilous, and squirming only intensified the sensation. “Oh!” she breathed.

  He chuckled, nuzzled her neck, and touched her some more.

  He touched her until she was on fire and embarrassingly wet and completely a-tremble. She hid her face against his arm and whispered his name.

  “You are mine,” he said as he penetrated her with the first swift thrust. He took her startled breath into his own open mouthed kiss and groaned appreciatively as he rocked his hips, his sensuous rhythm slowly mounting, plunging deeper inside her.

  He made slow, gentle love to her, gliding through her wetness. Her sheath seemed formed for him already, and she was unable to imagine anyone else ever touching her so deeply.

  Bliss crashed from the frantic move of her fingers, the pulse of him in her depths. She moaned, freeing her hand to clutch his arm and widen her thighs, take him deeper. He sank as far as the position allowed, spewing seed inside her, giving her achy release and then holding her to the feel of him as he drained his life into her womb.

  He gave her no time to wonder at his possession, no time to worry on the future. There was only now—this.

  Completely exhausted, their lust sated, they slept through the night.

  Chapter Three

  The next day when he woke up, he woke her up as well.

  Still bleary eyed from sleep, she looked at him in confusion.

  “I have to go with the hunting party that leaves shortly, but there is something I must do before I go.”

  He had not taken a wife, even though it was time. No one had questioned his reasons or his intentions, and no one knew how heavily it weighed on his mind.

  With his fiery one, he was in constant turmoil, either wildly happy or insanely angry. He could not even begin to imagine what life would be like as her husband, but, suddenly, he could not wait to find out.

  He grabbed one end of his ceremonial blanket, wrapping it around his shoulders before he wrapped the other end around hers.

  “I do not understand what you are doing,” she said in confusion, stepping away from him. “I am warm enough.”

  “What I am doing will persuade the other warriors of the village to leave you alone when I am gone.”

  “What else should I do to make sure that they leave me alone?”

  “All you need do is follow my direction.”

  As they walked through the village, there was not a soul who was unaware of his intentions—if one did not count the bride. Once they stepped back through the portals of his lodge, they would officially be as one.

  Stepping back into his teepee, he looked at his new wife. He stared into her defiant brown eyes, careful not to become lost in them, and grinned as he slid his index finger under her chin. He could tell that she was not convinced that what he had done would protect her while he was gone. He could tell that she was upset. He hoped that part of the reason she was upset was because they would not be together. “Will you miss me?”

  “I’m not staying here without you!”

  “I’m afraid you have no choice. I cannot bring you with me on the hunt.”

  She lifted her chin defiantly, as if to tell him that she had already made her decision and he was not going to change her mind.

  The expression on her face was the end of Wolf’s control. His mouth closed over her bottom lip, parting it from its mate as he searched for the delights he knew lay beyond. He indulged his hands, allowing them to roam over her back and down to her firm round bottom where he clasped then crushed her to his hips. There he lingered, even as his need grew, even though he knew she would realize how much he wanted her.

  Releasing her hips, he cupped her face. His mouth only inches from hers, he murmured between nibbling kisses along her cheeks, “My fiery one, I will miss you.”

  He kissed her neck, teasing the sensitive flesh with his talented lips.

  She gasped then moaned.

  His mouth still caressing her, he moved back up her throat, then nipped the tip of her ear before releasing her and stepped back.

  “I must leave.”

  “Do not leave me. Please,” she cried. She was terrified of what might happen to her while he was gone, what the other Indians might do to her without him there. And, if she admitted it to herself, she was worried about him. She had no idea if venturing out with the hunting party would be dangerous for him.

  She discovered, however, that she was almost as afraid that something terrible would happen to him as she was afraid for herself. He must have seen something of her fears in her eyes despite her best efforts to hide it. He pulled her into his arms. “You will be safe here. I have made certain of it. You are my woman and everyone in the village knows this now.”

  Gabrielle felt her throat close. Try though she might to convince herself that it was only because she was afraid for herself, she couldn’t. It felt too good being in his arms. The way he held her was so protective, so eloquent of feelings she hadn’t been willing to attribute to him, that she felt it all the way to her soul.

  She had so hoped to find a man that she could respect and admire who would treasure her and yet all she had been able to think of since Running Wolf had captured her was escape. She’d been too focused on that and her prejudices against the Indians to consider that he had not taken from her. He’d given to her.

  It wasn’t merely chance that he’d given her pleasure. It wasn’t something wrong with her that she’d enjoyed his touch. He’d known how to give her pleasure and he had sought to give it to her. He’d claimed her as his woman.

  Fool that she was, why hadn’t that occurred to her before? That she’d found what she was seeking—a man she could respect and admire who seemed to treasure her?

  She smiled at him tentatively when he released her and looked down at her.

  Suspicion instantly flickered in his eyes.

  Dismay settled in her belly. Perhaps she had protested just a little too much?

  “You’ll be careful?”

  He frowned slightly, but he merely nodded. After studying her for a long moment, he finally turned and left.

  Doubts flickered back the moment he was gone. Sighing, Gabrielle settled on the pallet to consider her situation, trying to decide if she actually did want to stay or if she’d simply begun to accept that she had little hope of escaping.

  She didn’t think it was the latter and yet she wasn’t certain that she could trust the confusion of emotions she’d had to deal with since he’d taken her. He had certainly taught her passion and that wasn’t something she had ever looked to find, but was it nothing more than the wicked desires of the flesh that made her want to stay? Or was she beginning to feel that she wanted to be Wolf’s woman because he was just the sort of man she’d hoped to find?

  * * * *

  Suddenly, she heard a whole lot of noise, whooping and hollering, warrior cries and gunshots. She raced out of the teepee to see what was going on as the noises became louder and louder. Not five feet from her she spied, Phillip, her brother-in-, on a horse, waving his gun around, yelling at the Indians. He had come to rescue her! Oh no! She did not want to be rescued! Before she c
ould retreat back into the teepee, he spotted her.

  Gabrielle turned and started running for cover. She heard the ominous sound of horse’s hooves close at her heels at the exact same time she felt a tremendous force grab her around the waist and haul her up off of her feet. She landed face down across her brother-in-law’s lap hard enough to knock the breath from her.

  From her position on Phillip’s horse, she saw the hunting party return. Leading them was Wolf. His beautiful face was clenched in anger as he kicked his horse, issuing a loud warrior cry as he barreled toward them on his horse. They were ahead of him, but with the weight of two, Phillip’s horse was slower, and Wolf was catching up.

  A thrill of both fear and joy went through Gabrielle. She desperately wanted him to catch up to them and rescue her and the same time she was fearful of what might happen if he did.

  “He’s coming. I’ll get him,” Phillip vowed, drawing his pistol.

  “No!” Gabrielle shouted, trying to get up and wrestle the gun away from him.

  “Shut up, woman,” Phillip said, shoving her back down on the horse.

  “He’s trying to kill you, Wolf. Run! Go back!”

  Gunfire exploded. The echo of the first shot magnified the report of the second. It was so close and so loud it paralyzed her for an instant.

  “Stop it!” she screamed. She clapped her hands over her ears, and her shrill voice seemed distant. “Stop it!”

  “Must’ve hit ‘im. Don’t see where he fell because of that cloud of dust his horse is stirring up, but he ain’t ridin’ that horse no more.”

  “No!” Gabrielle’s heart sank, she could not catch her breath, and her chest hurt with the dearth of air. She felt numb. “Wolf, you can’t be . . . . Oh, no, Wolf, no, what have you done . . . ,” she demanded, turning to look at Phillip.

  “Crazy bastard. Likely they’ll all end up like that ‘un, sooner or later,” Phillip said before giving her a disgusted once-over. “I oughta thrash you for interfering, woman.”