There had to be some changes made to make room in their lives for Sky Dancer. But the one thing that Sage would not allow to change was his determination for Thunder Hawk to have a complete, proper schooling. If his son thought otherwise, he had a surprise coming on the morrow. Tomorrow he would be in the classroom again, wife or no wife.
But Sage would not break that news to his son until later on tonight. For now, his son’s responsibilities to his wife were beginning. His first duty was to take her to his bed. He owed her a lifetime of loving.
He stepped away from Sky Dancer and faced Thunder Hawk. “My son, your mother and I will go and stay with Pure Blossom the rest of the day and tonight,” he said. “Your mother and I will give you the privacy of our hogan this one night. But after tonight, you will have to see to your own lodging.”
Thunder Hawk gasped. “You would do this for us?” he said, having never thought that his father would be this understanding, this generous. Perhaps having a wife would give him the excuse he needed not to have to go to school ever again.
“I do not approve of you taking a wife while you are so young,” Sage said, stepping back to slip an arm around Leonida’s waist. He smiled do
wn at Sky Dancer. “But I very much commend your choice of wives.”
“Thank you, Father,” Thunder Hawk said, beaming. Everything, absolutely everything was working out for him. He could not ask for any more than this.
“I have a pot of mutton stew cooking over the fire,” Leonida said, snuggling close to Sage. “There is fresh bread warming on the stove. Please feel free to eat your fill. We shall eat our meals with Pure Blossom today.”
“How can I thank you both?” Sky Dancer said, hugging Leonida and Sage again as Thunder Hawk went to his horse and removed Sky Dancer’s satchels. He handed the reins of his horse to one of the small braves, to take and tend to it in the corral. Then he took Sky Dancer’s hand and they hurried inside the hogan.
Once inside, when they finally had total privacy, Thunder Hawk set Sky Dancer’s belongings aside, then drew her into his embrace. He smoothed his hands over her cheeks, then through her long, waist-length black hair.
“Do you know how long I have wanted to be with you like this?” he said huskily. “My wife, I so hunger for you.”
She moved into his arms. When their lips met, it was awkward between them at first, and then their kisses became frenzied, as did their hands as they disrobed one another.
After Sky Dancer was totally nude, Thunder Hawk stepped away from her and for the first time, ever, saw a woman fully unclothed. Because of his feelings for Sky Dancer, he had not taken another woman into his blankets with him.
And now he had her all to himself, and no midnight dreams could have been this exciting and beautiful. Her body was tiny, yet her breasts were large and firm.
His pulse racing, he reached his hands to her breasts. As he cupped them, a sensual thrill raced up and down his spine, and a fire never known to him before lit in his loins. He could feel his manhood filling with heat. It was throbbing.
Drawing her into his embrace, he lowered her onto a soft pallet of sheepskins beside the fireplace. His hands moved over her, searching and caressing her body. When he kissed her, she moaned against his lips and urged him over her.
Instinctively, she spread her legs and sucked in a wild breath when she felt the strength and the fullness of his manhood as he began probing where she throbbed at the center of her desire.
Thunder Hawk continued kissing her as he made the one last thrust that broke that wall of defense that all women had until taken that first time by a man. He kissed her pain away, his hands on her breasts, softly kneading. He moved himself endlessly deeper within her, then began his rhythmic strokes.
As she clung to him and moved her hips with his, Thunder Hawk was amazed at the skills she had at not only receiving him as a lover but also in giving herself back to him.
He was fast discovering that he had made an even wiser choice than he had ever imagined when he had decided to marry this beautiful, amorous young lady. She was taking Thunder Hawk to heights of passion that he never knew were possible.
He lowered his mouth to one of her breasts and took his first taste of her sweetness. She twined her fingers through his hair and moaned.
“Thunder Hawk, I never knew paradise until now,” she whispered.
He lifted his gaze and met hers. “I will be good to you,” he said thickly.
The remembrance of the dreaded schoolroom came to his mind’s eye in a flash. He brushed it aside just as quickly. That schoolroom was now a thing of the past.
“My wife,” he whispered against her parted lips, “I owe you more than you will ever know.”
He thrust into her one last, lingering time, then kissed her as together they found ultimate pleasure in one another’s arms.
Pure Blossom was stretched out on her bed, pale and gaunt. She clutched at her stomach, and then her throat. She could not count the endless trips that she had made outside to retch at the back of her hogan. She had heard it called “morning sickness.”
She had just started experiencing this today. She had even been too ill to go outside and greet her brother and the woman he had taken as his bride.
Although shocked that Thunder Hawk had taken a bride without sharing his decision with his family beforehand, Pure Blossom could not feel slighted because of it. She was as guilty as Thunder Hawk when it came to behaving on one’s own. She would not be pregnant now if she had shared everything with her parents and brothers.
“Oh, how I hate Adam,” Pure Blossom said, pummeling her fists against the blankets cushioning her bed. “How could he be so cruel? So cold-hearted? I will show him. This child that comes from my imperfect body will be perfect in every way. I shall flaunt the child before him one day. It will give me such pleasure to laugh in his face and deny him even the first touch of his child.”