CHAPTER FOUR
"I am coming to you," said Poka'aki in the mind-speak, interrupting Red Fox's thoughts. "Please show me again where you are. I am riding Mr. Dandy, the best buffalo pony in all the Pikuni camps."
Clearing his thoughts, Red Fox answered her in the same form of communication and said, "You should not come here where I am.
Nor should I have come here to greet you.
It is only because I promised you I would do so that I am here.
But, it is for the best that we do not see or speak to one another again. "
"What?" she answered. "But, I thought you said you were not married."
"So I am not."
"Then, why would you not—"
"Because I am not the one whose woman you should be," he answered, interrupting her.
"Not the one I should marry? But…do you no longer love me?"
"It is difficult for me to answer your question. I have changed, but not in the way you think."
"Either say it is or say it is not so. Do you still love me?"
In answer, he blocked his thoughts from her.
"I am coming to you" he heard her speak through their mind-to-mind connection. "Where is this place you showed me when I was on the ship?"
Still, he didn't answer.
"Well, I am riding the best buffalo pony in our nation, and I intend to find you. You can either show me where you are or I will simply wander over these plains looking for you. Or perhaps a war party might discover me instead, and I will become their captive."
He smiled. This woman he loved could certainly be stubborn. Via the mind-speak, he said, "I should not have spoken to you as I did when I first saw you on the boat-that-walks-on-water. It is only seeing you again…" Once more he barred his thoughts from her.
"Well, I for one, wish to discover more about why you feel I am not the one for you to marry. But, I am back in our country now, and you shall not stop me from finding you, though I might discover trouble this day instead of you. But, if this be what you wish…"
He laughed aloud, remembering again how beautiful and sweet, yet how persistent this woman could be. He said in mind-speak, "It is not what I wish! It is what must be!"
"Piffle! Oh, I see where you are now! We will speak of this more. Wait for me. I do not wish to encounter a war party."
"Are you certain you know my location?"
"Of course I do. It's in a coulee where you, George and I have often hunted. Stay there. I shall be with you shortly."
"I will not stay here like a dog in submission while you risk war parties who might even now be out upon the prairie! I shall meet you, instead!"
Poka'aki laughed.
He heard it within his mind and was glad, supposing even his best intentions sometimes could meet a strong opposition.
However, blocking his thoughts from her, he determined that one action he would never take with her was to make her his woman, and this included making love to her.
Niitá'p, he would once more assume the role of being her friend, instead.
áa, yes, this was a good plan. His time with the Lakota and Cheyenne had taught him this well: he must not marry her.
Quickly, he mounted his Paint pony, Flies-like-the-eagle, and seeing Poka’aki’s location within his mind, he kicked his horse in its flanks, setting out to meet her, while his faithful pet, Hunts-with-the-wind, kept pace with the pony.
Bending down toward his pony's ear, Red Fox said, "We go to meet Poka'aki. Remember her? Let us hurry."
His stallion, as was usual, seemed to understand exactly what was said, and with an intelligence that was rare, Flies-like-the-eagle knew what to do.
Racing up and over one of the hills between himself and Poka'aki, Red Fox came into sight of her.
Both he and she were whipping their mounts into a race toward each other, coming in closer and closer to one another.
Seeing her again as she pushed onward toward him, with her hat flying behind her, attached by its ribbon around her neck, and her dark-red hair blowing back in the wind, he was stunned at her beauty. How could he have forgotten?
There was no one like her in all the world. Not only was she lovely to look at, she was a woman determined to have her own way, and he loved her for it. Indeed, she possessed the spirit of a warrior, all wrapped up into the gorgeous figure of a woman.
He had loved her from afar for a long time before presenting himself to her.
And, his reasons now for denying her to himself had been made in order to keep her safe and alive.
And yet, suddenly and without his conscious will, many of these carefully thought-out logics concerning why this woman could not be his took flight, leaving his mind as though they had been no more than feathers caught up in the rage of a blizzard.
Before his pony had even stopped, Red Fox jumped off of it, coming down onto the ground in a run, and he sprinted toward her, his pet wolf at his heels.
Intending to catch her pony and help her down, he did not expect her to dismount also, and he watched her slide down her pony and hit the ground in a run toward him.
They met one another with an impact, his arms coming around her to hold her close, while her arms came up to wind themselves around his neck as she lifted her face up to his.
And then, all his well-thought-out resolves against making her his evaporated, as though they had been mere shadows within his mind. He kissed her once, deeply, then again, caressing her lips over and over with a passion that is felt by a man when he is hungry for a feast set out before him.
Even knowing he was going against his own decision regarding her, he couldn't resist deepening their kiss until, quite naturally, he began making love to her with lips and tongue alone. How was it even possible to resist her?
With her enticing scent and the feel of her curves within his arms, he could not allow so much as a feather's depth to come between them. And, he rained his kisses upon her lips, her cheeks, her eyes, her nose and then down to her neck before lifting his head up to taste her lips again.
Surely sanity would soon insert itself between them.
But, it was not to be. He tried, when he came up for breath, to tell her he could never become her husband, but then she reached up to envelop his face within both her hands, and when she brought his head down to hers and she kissed him with a passion that had not been a part of her demeanor two winters ago, his mind blanked out everything but her.
She scooted, if it were possible, even closer to him, her curves fitting perfectly within his hard contours. And, then it became too much to bear. Such fervor, such kissing, though fulfilling, was simply not enough.
Lifting her up into his arms, he told his pet, "Guard the horses," while he trod toward a strand of willows that were hugging the shoreline of the fast-running stream in the canyon. And, with every step, he kissed her over and over, inhaling again the welcome and enticing scent of her.
Pausing for a moment, she whispered, "Let us become man and wife now, as we should have done so long ago. You know what I ask?"
He found he could only nod.
She whispered, "This is right. I know it's right. The need to feel you against me is more than I can stand. Do you feel it, too? I must have your body against mine as we become one, this which we should have done years ago."
Not even a weak protest rose up within him, and, although he knew he should voice his doubts about the wisdom of what they were about to do, when she lifted her face up close to his neck and when she commenced to shower his neck with one kiss after another, he knew he was lost. And, as a feeling of ecstasy fled like fire through his body, he surrendered to her. How could he not?
It occurred to him that during these last two winter counts their passion for one another had been simmering within the both of them, awaiting only this moment when they would reunite with one another.
Niiitá'p, it was as though what had been a love between them then had been only a whisper compared to what they were feeling now.
The strand of willows wasn't far away, and when he came into the trees' welcome shelter, seeking asylum from any wandering war party, he surrendered to the beauty of her.
Indeed, in the state he was in, it was almost impossible to spare a thought about fighting and war.
Yes, a war party might know someone was nearby because of Red Fox's and Poka'aki's ponies.
But, knowing his pet wolf would warn him if there were a war party in sight, he spared only a moment worrying about the possibility.
With her enveloped so close within his arms, he found it impossible to keep his hands and his lips from her, and he kissed her neck and her cheeks over and over, using both lips and tongue to caress her as he trod quickly to a spot beneath a willow tree that would easily give them shelter.
At last, the present moment met the exact time two winters ago when they had almost accomplished the deed which would have made them a man and his woman.
It could not be denied; this passion between them had been left there to simmer all this time, lying dormant within them both, awaiting only a single touch to restore it.
He didn't spare a moment to remember why all those winters ago he had stopped himself from making love to her.
True, both their families might, at this very moment, object to a union between them.
But, although his family was important to him, who were they to object?
They didn't know; they didn't experience the passion, the beauty and the all-encompassing love between himself and Poka'aki.
This was right…so very right. It had to be right. Nothing as beautiful and soul-fulfilling as this could be wrong.