Bound by Honor Bound by Love (20 page)

He cupped her breasts in his hands and
brushed her nipples, pleased as they hardened for him. A soft moan
escaped her lips, and he glanced up at her, noting the slight smile
on her lips and the way her head tilted to the side as she closed
her eyes. He leaned forward and kissed her neck and continued to
caress her breasts.

She lowered her hands and wrapped them
around his erection. She hadn’t done that before. Intrigued, he
grew still and waited for what she’d do next. This time, she kissed
his neck, and her hands explored the length of him from the tip to
the base and then back up. Groaning, he covered her hands with his
and guided her movement, encouraging her to tighten her hold on
him. She followed his silent instruction and soon established a
rhythm that nearly brought him to the peak. He stopped her before
he reached that point and settled on his back.

“
I want to be inside you,”
he murmured.

She straddled him, gracing him with a
wonderful view of her breasts but didn’t take him inside her right
away. Instead, she ran her hands along his chest until she was,
once again, exploring his arousal. He gritted his teeth in torment.
She traced the tip of his shaft with her fingers and wrapped her
hand around his base. In one delicious motion, she brought her hand
up and over his tip and brought it back down. While he wanted
nothing more than for her to keep touching him there, he didn’t
have much more willpower to hold off on the inevitable.

“
Onawa,” he whispered, “I
need to be inside you. Please…”

“
You mean you can’t control
yourself?” she teased with a seductive smile that drove him
crazy.

“
No.” He groaned and leapt
at her.

She shrieked but held onto him as he
moved on top of her. Had it not been so long since they last made
love, he might have been able to play around with her, but as it
was, he was ready to climax and her naked body was too much to
handle. Clasping her hands over her head, he made eye contact with
her and thrust into her. She gasped in pleasure, lifting her hips
to bring him deeper inside her, her body wet and clenching around
him.

He smiled, feeling strangely
triumphant as he heard her murmur his name in a way that told him
there wasn’t anyone else she wanted to be with. She wanted him and
no one else. And he felt the same. He watched her as he moved his
hips. His movements started out agonizingly slow in an effort to
make the exquisite torment last for as long as possible. He’d have
her again—and soon—but he was still in no hurry to end this round
of lovemaking.

They moved together, both slow and
purposeful. He’d grow still and wait until the urge to climax
subsided before he started moving again. He found this kind of
control was intoxicating, and from the way she whimpered beneath
him, he knew she liked this intentional delay as much as he did.
She completed him. It would always be her and no one else. That’s
all he could keep thinking as he gave into the urge to increase the
momentum of his thrusting.

Together, they moaned and, together,
their bodies grew tense as they approached their orgasms. As soon
as she cried out and clenched around him, he whispered her name and
found his release, feeling complete as they reached heaven
together. He remained deep in her even as they descended softly
back to earth. And when he collapsed in her arms, she wrapped her
legs around his waist and kept him there.

“
Onawa,” he whispered. When
he caught his breath, he lifted his head and brought his mouth to
hers for a soft, lingering kiss. “You’re the best thing that’s ever
happened to me,” he confessed when their kiss ended.

“
You’re the best thing
that’s ever happened to me, too,” she replied.

He stayed where he was, never wanting
to the leave the warmth of her body. He couldn’t recall a time when
he’d ever been happier. They remained entwined in each other’s arms
for a while, each content to listen to the crickets chirp and the
fire crackle nearby. It was a peaceful experience. It was a
wonderful experience. It was something he wished would continue
indefinitely. Just him and Onawa lying together in silence. But
then, he felt the stirrings of his arousal and began kissing her.
And soon after that, they were making love again.

***

Penelope couldn’t sleep, and she
couldn’t see her husband or children. Any attempt to go to the
ceremonial lodge where the men were keeping Cole prisoner was met
with resistance, and the men had also guarded the lodge where Etu
and Yepa were staying. She couldn’t remember a time when she felt
more alone. In her years in a small solitary cabin where she lived
after her first husband died, she hadn’t experienced a greater
loneliness than she was now.

Julia seemed confident that once
Chogan brought Citlali back to the tribe that Cole would be
released and she and Cole could take Etu and Yepa home, but she
wasn’t so sure. Never once did she and Cole think that bringing the
children here would result in a struggle to keep them. And she sure
didn’t think anyone would die. But now she was facing a situation
that was worse than any of the nightmares she ever had.

Deciding to leave her bed, she got
dressed and went to the fire pit in the middle of Woape’s lodge.
She stood before the fire and contemplated what to do. Dawn was
still a long way off. Did she dare try to sneak out? And if she
did, then what? Did she really have a chance against the strong men
who were guarding the lodges where her husband and children were
captive?

She placed her face in her hands and
took a deep breath, trying not to give into the urge to cry again
but quickly losing the battle. She thought of praying again, but
she was tired of praying. What good did it do? The situation only
seemed to get worse and worse.

A commotion outside the lodge
distracted her. She lowered her hands, shocked when she realized
Etu and Yepa were crying at the entrance. Her heart racing, she ran
over to it, only to knock into the broad back of one of the guards
who’d been at their lodge.

“
What’s going on?” she
demanded, pushing past him and the other guard so she could get to
her children.

“
Mama!” Yepa cried as soon
as she saw her.

Penelope opened her arms and embraced
her daughter before bringing Etu close to her side. Both children
clung to her, and though they still sobbed, they quieted
down.

Etu and Yepa’s three aunts breathed a
sigh of relief. “They wouldn’t stop screaming and crying for you
and Cole,” one of them told Penelope. “We can’t take it anymore.”
Looking at the guards, she added, “You have to let the children be
with their mother. They aren’t happy here, and nothing the chief
says will make any difference. It’s not fair to make them and us so
miserable.”

“
The chief won’t allow it,”
one of the guards replied.

“
Then you can take the
children to the chief,” another aunt snapped. “If he wants to make
the rules, he can deal with the consequences of them.”

The guards protested, but the women
scurried away from them. While the guards weren’t happy by the
sudden development, Penelope was. Her children were in her arms
where they belonged. She kissed them and brought them into the
lodge. After she retrieved a blanket, she sat with them by the fire
pit. She sat between them and wrapped the blanket so they were
warm. Etu and Yepa sniffed back their remaining tears.

She kissed them on the tops of their
heads. “I missed you two so much,” she whispered, squeezing their
shoulders.

“
I’m sorry, Mama,” Etu
quietly said. “I shouldn’t have had those nightmares.”

“
Etu, you couldn’t help
having them. Your father and I hoped that bringing you here would
help them go away. We had no idea it’d be like this.”

“
They won’t kill Papa, will
they?” Etu asked.

Tears filled Penelope’s eyes and she
shook her head. “I don’t know, honey. Someone’s going to bring back
the second chief. They think he might help your father.”

“
Will he?” Yepa asked,
looking up at her.

She brushed back the girl’s hair from
her forehead and sighed. “I hope so.” She rubbed their backs and
kissed them again. “I hope so.”

Chapter Sixteen

Citlali and Onawa finished their
morning meal at the campfire when he made a reluctant decision. As
much as he wanted to stay with Onawa in the nice world where they
were isolated from everyone else, he knew he couldn’t delay talking
to the chief. And now that he knew Onawa loved him and would stay
with him no matter what happened, he didn’t have to worry that the
chief would remove him from his position.

He looked over at her, noting the way
her two braids fell softly over her shoulders. His gaze went to the
pattern she’d woven with the beads on her dress. It was a green
turtle surrounded by red, black, and yellow circles. “I like the
designs you choose on your dresses,” he said and ate the rest of
the corn in his bowl.

She glanced at him and offered a shy
smile. “Do you?”

“
Yes.”

“
I like to put a symbol for
you with every design I do.”

“
Do you?” he asked,
surprised.

“
The turtle is you because
your clan owns the sacred turtles.”

“
And the circles around
it?” he asked.

She shrugged and poured a pitcher of
water over her bowl to clean it. “You’re the center of all I think
about. The red circle is for your love, the yellow is for the light
you bring into my life, and the white is for your strength as
leader.”

Pleased, he grinned. “I like
that.”

Though she rolled her eyes, she
laughed. “I’m not surprised.”

“
Are there any other
patterns you created that I’m in?”

She sighed. “I don’t know if I should
tell you or not, but you’re in all the patterns I do.”

His eyebrows rose. “I am?”

“
Don’t look so
smug.”

“
I’m not looking smug.”
Even as he said the words, his grin widened.

She shot him a pointed look but didn’t
respond. Instead she took his bowl and washed it. She turned her
attention to something coming from the east, so he followed her
gaze and inwardly groaned. He recognized Chogan, even at a far
distance. No one rode a horse with determination like Chogan did.
He rose to his feet.

“
Who is it?” she
asked.

“
Chogan.”

“
Chogan? How can you
tell?”

“
By the way he rides the
horse.” He turned his attention to the teepee and their belongings.
At least having Chogan coming out meant Chogan could help them take
some of their things back. “I was thinking of returning to the
tribe today anyway.”

“
You were?” She placed the
clean bowls in the sun to dry.

“
Yes. I made a decision. I
have to tell the chief that I don’t agree with him about removing
the white people from our tribe.”

She gasped and stood up. “You
are?”

“
You have your family,
others have their families, Cole and Penelope should return home
with Etu and Yepa, and Gary is the greatest asset we have when
dealing with the white man. You and Chogan are right. If the white
people and their families left the tribe, we’d be
weakened.”

She went over to him and hugged him.
“Thank you, Citlali.”

He embraced her and buried his face in
the nape of her neck. “That doesn’t mean the chief will agree or
that he won’t replace me. It might not do any good.”

“
But you’re going to do
it.”

“
I am.”

She kissed his cheek and pulled away
from him. “Thank you.”

In silence, they extinguished the
fire, gathered their things and took down the teepee.

“
Maybe sometime we can come
out here again and spend more time alone together?” he asked before
Chogan got close enough where he could hear them.

“
I’d like that,” she shyly
whispered.

He glanced at Chogan who called out to
them. “When we decide to do this again, we’ll have to go to a
different location so he can’t bother us,” he quietly told
her.

As she chuckled, he turned toward
Chogan and approached him. “I’m heading back to the tribe. The
teepee and my things are over there.” He pointed to the items
behind him. “Onawa and I will take hers.”

“
I see you’re back to
barking out orders.” Chogan slid off his horse.

“
I can’t imagine why else
you’d come out here,” he replied with a shrug.

“
Actually, I did come out
here to take you back to the tribe.” Chogan glanced at Onawa who
was getting on her horse before he turned his gaze back to Citlali
and closed the distance between them. “Did Onawa tell you that Cole
shot Quanah?”

“
She mentioned
it.”

“
After she left to find
you, the chief ordered
Anoki to execute
him tomorrow. You need to go back there and stop it.”