Shawnee Bride Read Online Free PDF Page B

giggles had faded to breathy moans. It didn’t take a vivid imagination to picture what was happening.
    Clarissa blotted the forbidden image from her mind, her heart lurching as a new possibility struck. The rocky pool was a natural spot for dalliance. And Wolf Heart seemed to know the place well, perhaps too well. How many young women had he taken here for the very same purpose? she wondered. How many before her?
    The rage that boiled up in Clarissa was sudden, hot and dangerous. What a silly little fool she had been! He had brought her here with intentions that were no better than a common knave’s, and she had all but succumbed!
    Too indignant to hold her tongue, she charged up the path to where he waited, his torso glistening, his arms folded across his broad chest. “You!” She hurled the word at him like an epithet. “You knew exactly what you were doing down there, didn’t you? You arranged it all, from the very beginning!”
    His craggy features might as well have been cast in stone. “You were the one who wanted to learn to swim,” he said in a taut voice.
    “Oh, but I got more than I bargained for, didn’t I? You had more than a swimming lesson in mind! You were planning to—to have your way with me!”
    “Have my way with you?” he echoed her words incredulously. “Have my way with you?” His throat made a little half-choking sound. Then he burst into raw-edged laughter.
    “I don’t see what’s so funny!” Clarissa stormed, heroutrage growing by the minute. “Just because I wasn’t inclined to become one more notch on your lodge pole, or however it is you keep track of your conquests-”
    “My conquests!” He was struggling for composure now, his long cheek muscles determinedly rigid. “Give yourself some credit, Clarissa Rogers. You wrapped yourself around me like a she-lynx in heat!”
    “Oh!” She glowered at him, a vein throbbing in her temple. A freshet of hot tears stung her eyes as she pushed her way around him and veered off the path. “Get out of my way, Wolf Heart or Seth Johnson, or whoever you are! I don’t care how many Shawnee girls you take to that pool or what you do with them there! Just don’t you come near me—not ever again!”
    Wolf Heart stood rigid on the crest of the bluff as Clarissa’s stumbling footsteps faded into darkness. She would be safe enough, he told himself. The village was not far, and there was no one in it who had any reason to harm her. All the same, he worried. Clarissa was as unpredictable as a half-grown wildcat. On her own, there was no telling what kind of devilry she might stir up.
    A shadowed object at the side of the path caught his eye. Dropping to a crouch, he picked up one of the oversize moccasins Swan Feather had given Clarissa to wear. For the space of a breath he cradled it in his hand, remembering the scent and feel of her in his arms and the taste of her lovely wanton mouth on his. He should have known better than to get so close to her. The sensual explosion had only made things more awkward and painful between them.
    Walking back the way they’d come earlier, he found the mate to the moccasin. Clarissa had no other shoes. He would need to find her before she came back lookingfor them, or perhaps injured a bare foot on the treacherous ground.
    Bracing himself for another confrontation, Wolf Heart strode off in the direction she had gone. The full moon cast the landscape into hues of old silver and tarnished gold. Hickory and alder, their branches fuzzy with newborn leaves, whispered in the night wind. Although Clarissa could not have gotten far in such a short time, the fact that she had left the path would make finding her more difficult. He thought of calling out, then remembered that in her stubborn pique, she would not be likely to answer him.
    Guided by instinct, he wound his way among thickets of willow and blackberry. Just ahead, cast into stark light and shadow by the moon, was an outcrop of rocks, some of them half