Her voice was soft as she asked, “Didn’t you say you would kiss me?”
“I already did,” he answered.
“No, you didn’t,” she contradicted. “That was a mere peck on my cheek.”
“It was a kiss.”
“When I asked my invisible friend to kiss me, I meant on the lips. And, since you are and have become that invisible partner, will you do it?”
“No.”
“Why not?” It was more than her tone of voice that had laced her question with disappointment.
He sighed. “Because,” he said, “you are my ally in the show, and there must be no hint of your womanhood allowed into our relationship. Besides, although you stand before me in all your womanly beauty now, I know that on the morrow when we have our next performance, I will behold a woman pretending to be a boy. I do not kiss such women.”
She sighed. “Then I guess I will remain nineteen, and ne’er be kissed.” There was a twinkle in her eyes as she looked up toward him.
He stated a warning, saying, “Do not tease me, and do not dare me to do it.”
“I am not. I am stating a truth. I have never been kissed. Not by anybody.”
He blew out his breath in a hiss. “What is wrong with the men of your acquaintance?”
She laughed a little. “I think, Mr. Eagle, that they are afraid of me. But I don’t believe that you are.” She smiled up at him.
He bent toward her, and, despite himself, he was well aware of his body’s readiness for her. But this was all wrong. And, in self-defense, he uttered, “I must go.”
“Will we have no more dances, then?”
“Not tonight.” He dropped his arms from around her. He needed to get away from her. In truth, he was in great need of a long, cold swim, followed by intense soul-searching.
And then she did it. Rising up to tiptoe, she brought her face up to his and urged her lips to his. It was nothing, really. Just her bare lips against his own; no lip pressure in the gesture.
Yet, it was as though a light flashed brightly within him. Indeed, the simple kiss provided him with such a perfect carnality, he felt himself ready to make love to her now, and to the devil with the consequences. But he mustn’t. All the same, he whispered, “You call that a kiss?”
“Well…yes, I believe that I do.”
“You are truly innocent, I fear.” And with nothing else said, he threw away all his reasonable arguments against her, and took control of the kiss, opening her mouth and tracing its inner recess with his tongue, kissing her as a lover might, discovering the taste of her, playing tag with her tongue. He felt her surrender to him, and, without thinking, he broke off the kiss on her lips to trail wet caresses over to her ear, down her neck. It was with the barest of grips on himself that he drew back and brought his head up to a level with hers, placing his forehead against hers. Then he whispered, “That, Miss Deceiving Woman, is a kiss.”
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The Eagle and the Flame (The Wild West Series Book 1) by Karen Kay
Historical Native American Romance
A vision foretold his tribe’s doom. Is the flame-haired beauty the trickster or his true love?
Lucinda Glenforest’s father, a general who’d fought in the Indian Wars, taught his flame-haired daughter to out-shoot even the best men the military could put up against her. When Luci’s sister is seduced and abandoned, it’s up to Luci to defend her honor in a duel. Although she wins, the humiliated captain and his powerful family vow vengeance. The sisters’ only hope is to flee and hide until their father returns from his overseas mission. Out of money, Luci hatches a plan to disguise herself as a boy and use her sharpshooting skills in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.
The chief of the Assiniboine tribe has a terrifying vision, that someone called the deceiver, or trickster, spells doom for the children of his tribe. He enlists Charles Wind Eagle to join Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, in hopes of appealing to the President of the United States for help, and to find and stop the deceiver. When Wind Eagle is paired with a girl whom he knows is disguised as a boy, he believes she might be the deceiver. Still, she stirs his heart in ways he must resist, for he has a secret that can never be told, nor ignored. And Luci can never forget that her father would destroy Wind Eagle if she were to fall in love with him.
Forced to work together, they can’t deny their growing attraction. Will Luci and Wind Eagle find a way through the lies to find true love? Or will they be consumed by the passion of deception and slander?
Warning: A sensuous romance that might cause a girl to join the rodeo in order to find true love.
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