Free Apache Fire by Raine Cantrell

her sadness. He leaned down and brushed his lips against hers. “I would see the joy in your face once more.”
    â€œTell me about you, Niko. What was the boy like? Was he very good?”
    â€œNiko became good. Many times the Clown came to frighten me before seven seasons had turned.”
    â€œThe Clown? I do not understand.”
    â€œWe hobbled our horses far in the woods. I would sneak off to learn to ride. When I would not come back before dusk, they sent he-who-is-gone dressed as the Clown to frighten me. When I went on my first hunt alone for the deer that numbered ten times the people, he-who-is-gone told me what had been done. Does not the iszáń have a thing to frighten the child to obey?”
    â€œA bogeyman. We were warned to stay close to the house and to obey our parents, or the bogeyman would take us away. I used to wake up at night thinking I had heard a noise beneath my bed. I would be afraid to move for fear that he could grab me and take me away.”
    â€œNow you are woman and know that the dark shadows of a child shall be no more. We will return, and iszáń will feed me.”
    They shared the food from one plate, and Niko, to keep the shadows from her eyes, told her stories of his childhood. Some made her laugh, and he took the smile that curved her lips into a place in his heart. She again made tea, this time a little less sweet, and they shared it in a silence tense with the awareness of each other.
    As he had done the night before, he set the cup aside on the floor beside him and drew her close. Iszáń , I must know if you come to me because this is a thing that is forbidden to you.”
    â€œForbidden, Niko?”
    â€œThe touching of you brings joy here,” he explained, then lifted one of her hands and touched his forehead. Lowering it to his heart, he pressed her hand against his chest. “Feel how you make the blood quicken, iszáń . Here,” he whispered, his dark gaze holding hers as he drew her hand slowly down his chest, and lower still, to curve her fingers beneath his own around his manhood. “This is where you bring a fire to me.”
    Her eyes fluttered closed, and she shuddered to know that he wanted her so much. Even through the layers of supple hide, she could feel the heat. The strength. The male power that made her imagine she could feel the lifeblood flowing.
    Forbidden? How could this be forbidden? She opened her eyes and looked at his face. His features appeared sharper. His mouth fuller, his eyes black and hot. There was a faint, deeper color to his cheekbones. Angie gazed at their hands, fair and dark, then looked up at him.
    â€œIf this is a thing that is forbidden, it is by others. I desire a man who brings me joy here,” she said, lifting his hand with hers and resting it against the side of her head. She held his gaze as steady as he had held hers, drawing his hand down to curve it over her breast. She felt the instant swell of flesh, the hardening of her nipple with this lightest touch from his palm. And she smiled to know that the fine trembling besetting her had hold of him, too.
    â€œNiko is a warrior. But a man who touches me with a gentle hand. There is an empty place inside me that hungers to be filled.”
    It took great courage for her to lean closer to him, for she had never initiated a kiss before. But she wanted to with him, for him, needing to show him what words could not.
    He shook with the need of her that coursed through him, but held her away. “ Iszáń , if you accept me as a man, there will be no going back. I would not let you go.”
    â€œThere is nothing for me to go back to, Niko. All waits for me… now, with you and the love I need to give….”
    All day he had thirsted, and now he quenched himself with kisses that spoke of hunger, of need, of the pleasure her words brought him. The sweet grass beneath the blanket rustled and released its faint scent as he