Chapter Seven

Leah was angry and hurt. She had thought that things between her and Chase were changing. As a matter of fact she had been certain they were. She had been sure that he saw her as more than a possession. She had thought that he was falling in love with her just as she had him but now she wondered if maybe she had been wrong.

The kiss they had shared had rocked her to her core but then the instant they were back in camp he was ordering her around and pushing her away once again. She had no doubt that he had been able to hear her jealousy over Louisa and instead of reassuring her or letting her know where she stood with him, Chase had simply shrugged her off and told her to cook supper.

She would show him supper! Leah smoothed out the skirt that Chase had given her a few days before, spooned some stew into a bowl and strode from the tent.

She saw Chase sitting by the fire with Boss and several other men. The men were all laughing and talking as Chase simply sat there and stared into the flames. Leah paused, her resolve faltering but then her resolve became stronger than ever when Louisa came out of the woods and headed straight toward Chase.

Leah would be damned before she would let that woman get to him first. She strode straight to Chase and then walked around him to stand in front of him. He looked up at her and she saw the surprise in his eyes.

"Here's your supper," she hissed as she tossed the bowl at him. She heard his sharp intake of breath as the hot stew spilled on his legs. Chase and the surrounding men all jumped to their feet.

"You need to tighten the reins on that filly!" Boss exclaimed with a laugh.

"The stew's good," Tig added as he grabbed a piece of carrot off of Chase's shoulder and popped it in his mouth.

Leah looked up into Chase's eyes and felt her knees start shaking at the anger she saw there. She was suddenly certain that she had just made the biggest mistake of her life. Damn her temper and her rashness! She had gotten too comfortable with Chase and forgotten that underneath it all he was a dangerous and deadly man.

She bent quickly, picked up the fallen bowl and spoon and fled back to the tent.

"You gonna let that bitch get away with that?" Yancy demanded with a chuckle.

"You ain't getting soft on that filly are you?" Boss added as he rocked back on his heels and looked more than a little amused.

Chase noticed Petey off in the distance watching and he knew he had to put on a good show. "I will deal with her," he ground out as he stormed toward the tent and grabbed a large stick off the ground on his way. He saw Louisa's smug expression out of the corner of his eye just before he slipped inside.

Leah was sitting on the cot with her knees pulled into her chest and she was trembling with fear as she stared at him. Her green eyes widened when she saw the stick in his hands. "A...Are you going to hit me?" she whispered.

Chase felt a rock drop into the pit of his stomach. She was afraid of him.... Somehow he had failed his mate if she truly thought he was going to strike her. "You should not have done what you did," he scolded gently. "They expect a certain reaction from me and I have to make them believe that is the reaction I had."

Chase let out a long breath. "Yell." he said sternly. Leah's eyes studied him with confusion just before he swung the stick and it whipped through the air before landing with a sharp thwack across his own thigh.

Leah cried out in shock and Chase nodded just before smacking himself again.

Leah cried out his name once more and rushed to him. "Don't do it anymore!" she pleaded as hot tears filled her eyes. Chase kissed her hard and quick, pushed her back toward the cot and then left the tent.

Leah watched the tent fall closed and collapsed down on the cot with her fingertips on her lips. What had just happened? What had she just caused? She was smart enough to know that everyone in camp would think that Chase has beaten her when in truth he had just beaten himself and he had done so to the leg that was still healing from the mountain lion attack, which, had also been her fault.

She was confused, hurt, angry and now on top of those things she felt guilty. Leah had to keep her wits about her and force herself to understand she was nothing more than Chase's possession. Despite the kiss they had shared, despite the way her heart raced and her body melted when he looked at her, she was a 'spoil of war' as Boss had called her.

Still Chase had risked his life to save hers and he had spared her a punishment that clearly these men thought she was due and no doubt he had done those things because he was a good man deep down and hadn't wanted harm to come to her. Leah did not want him to get into trouble with these men and get hurt if they didn't believe his falsehood so she would help him convince them that she had been taught her place.

She quickly spooned out another bowl of soup and walked from the tent. She kept her head down and limped a little to make it seem she had just been beaten but when she looked around she didn't see Chase anywhere.

"He went to the river," Boss informed her as he walked up behind her.

Leah tensed at his nearness but nodded and quickly walked away toward her and Chase's favorite spot, hoping she would find him there.

She wasn't disappointed. He was standing beside the river looking down into the gently flowing water. He stood tall, proud and strong. Leah was again struck by just how powerful and deadly he appeared.

"Chase..." she called out softly.

"You should be in the tent," he replied without turning to her. "Did someone bother you?"

"No... I need to talk to you."

Chase turned then and Leah saw the tension in his strong face. Her eyes went to his leg and she saw the blood seeping through his pants. "Chase! You're hurt!" she exclaimed as she started toward him.

He held his hand up and she stopped in her tracks. "My leg is fine." he assured her. "There are some things we need to get straight, Leah. It is difficult for me because I am not a man of words. I never had much use for them."

"Chase, you don't have to...."

"You thought I was going to hit you, didn't you? Earlier in the tent? You thought I was going to hit you with the stick."

"Yes." Leah admitted looking down at her feet when she saw the flash of anger in Chase's dark eyes. "You confuse me, Chase... One minute I'm sure I know you and I know how to read you and then the next you turn into someone else and I'm left wondering..."

Leah didn't even realize that Chase had moved until he put his hands gently on her upper arms. "Look at me," he ordered and while it was one of the hardest things she had ever done, Leah managed to raise her eyes and meet his gaze. She gasped when she saw the emotions shining out of their black depths.

"You never have to fear me, Leah. I would never harm you," he vowed. "You have to understand these men. They prey on weakness and there are those among them that would love to put me in my place. If they knew the truth about my weakness they would not hesitate to go after it."

"What weakness?" Leah asked with disbelief. "A man like you has no weakness."

Chase's face softened as his hand moved to her cheek and his fingertips stroked her skin. "Yes I do."

"Me?" Leah gasped. "Why would I be a weakness?"

"My father always said that the great mother wanted each of us to find that one person made for us. Our life mate. I knew you were that for me the night I first saw you. That's why I protected you. That's why I took you before they could."

"You didn't tell me this..." Leah replied as she tried to wrap her mind around what he was saying.

"No, I didn't. As I said I'm not much for words. I am and always have been more a man of action."

"What are you saying, Chase? Are you saying that you... that you love me?"

"I know nothing about love," Chase admitted. "My mother died when I was five. She was raped and beaten to death. My father was not a man who showed love after that. I was taught to hide emotions because they give away our weaknesses. All I know for sure is that this feeling inside of me consumes me. All I can think of is you and all I want in this world is to be your man and to make you happy. I want to make you proud and keep you safe. But, you have to understand that I can't let these men know that."

"Because you're afraid they'll hurt me to get to you?" Leah asked softly, understanding finally dawning on her.

Chase wiped his thumb across her cheek, swiping away the tear that fell from her long dark lashes. "Yes."

Leah fell silent and Chase searched her face for clues to what she was feeling or thinking. "I have confessed my feelings to you, Leah," he said hesitantly. "What do you feel for me?"

"I..." Leah stared at the black cotton covering his broad chest. Tears clogged her throat as she laid her free hand on his stomach and her fingertips danced across the hard muscles beneath them.

"Speak to me." Chase urged feeling more desperate than he had ever felt in his life. He wondered if Leah realized she had the power to destroy him with a single word—or the lack of one.

"I'm a horrible person," she finally whispered.

Chase frowned. "Why would you say that?"

"Because I had a fiance only two weeks ago. A man that I was going to run away with and marry--that I would have married within days if those men hadn't killed him!"

"You did not love him," Chase stated, knowing it was the truth.

Leah sighed and pressed her forehead against his chest. "I thought I did. But what I felt for him was nothing compared to what I feel for you. That makes me a horrible person."

"Because I'm an Indian?" Chase asked as he stiffened.

"No!" Leah quickly assured him. "Because I was ready to make a vow to a man that I have all but forgotten after just two weeks with you."

Chase shook his head. "He was not your life mate. You have nothing to be ashamed of and you are not horrible." Chase kissed her brow. "I will take care of you, Leah. We will leave these men and I will build us a home."

Leah didn't want to talk about that. She didn't want to talk about anything. All she wanted was to have him kiss her the way he had earlier. To feel his hands and his body caressing her.

He seemed to read her mind and his eyes darkened. "Not here. Not where someone will see. We will go back to camp. You will act defeated as you go immediately to the tent and I will join you once camp has quieted tonight."

"That long?" Leah asked with a pout.

"You are the damndest woman I've ever met." Chase replied, pressing his lips to her forehead. "Innocent and yet full of fire at the same time. You are a grown woman with the heart of a child at times. I will never grow tired of simply being around you."

Leah smiled and knew that was the truest compliment she had ever received. The words didn't flow smoothly from his mouth the way Benjamin's poetry always had. Chase's voice was rough and accented and clearly unused to saying such things and yet those words meant more to her than any words she had ever heard before.

"You better not keep me waiting too long," she warned.

Chase flashed her one of his rare smiles. "Outlaw savages honor." Leah had never felt so much trust in another person.

***

Leah could scarcely breathe as she lay on the cot that night in the glow of the firelight and waited for Chase. To say that she was anxious would have been an understatement. Tonight she was going to give herself to a man. And not just any man but a man that she knew she loved. A man that had come into her life for all of the wrong reasons but had become such a fixture in her life in such a short time that she didn't know what she would do without him.

Seconds seemed to stretch into minutes and minutes seemed to stretch into hours as she waited. She thought about how a woman could make herself more appealing to a man at night and wondered if maybe she should wait for him without her clothes on beneath the covers. Clothes would only get in the way after all.

She stood up on quivering legs and with shaking fingers undid the buttons on her blouse. She slid the cream fabric from her shoulders and tossed it onto the small stack of blankets in the corner. She slid off her brown skirt and then removed her petticoats and camisole. She let her hair down and felt the long waves fall down her back. The dancing flames from the fire felt warm on her bare skin and she stood in front of them with her eyes closed for several long moments.

She didn't hear Chase enter the tent but she felt his presence. She felt the heat he carried with him and the intensity of his eyes on her. She blushed deep red and jumped for the cot, desperate to cover her nakedness but Chase was quicker than she was.

He stepped in between her and her destination. Leah saw the firelight dancing wildly in his dark eyes.

"Beautiful," he mumbled gruffly, his eyes traveling up and down the length of her body. He wasn't touching her in any way and still Leah felt as if he was reaching into her soul.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do..." she admitted quietly.

Chase smiled down at her and then lowered his mouth to her neck. His lips danced along her neck, down to her collarbones and up to her ear. "My izdzan," he whispered. "You are more beautiful than the ya'ai and the tlegona'ai. Anything you do will be perfect."

Leah had no idea was he had just said but the words had been so exotic and alluring slipping from his tongue that she found herself lost in their magic.

His lips moved lower to her collarbones and down her chest. They found her breasts and began to suckle, nip and tease and if not for his arm snaking around her waist to hold her up, she would have fallen to the ground. She had never known that a mans attention there would cause so much tension and aching elsewhere in her body.

Chase growled as he pulled away from her and he chuckled as she whimpered and tried to pull him back.

"I want to lay you down on something more comfortable than a cot." he stated gruffly. He moved to the corner of the tent and grabbed a folded fur blanket from under some stiff woolen ones. He laid the blanket in front of the fire and went back to Leah.

Again he took her into his arms and this time he lowered his lips to hers. Tasting her, breathing her in and losing himself.

He laid her body down gently on the soft fur and then stood over her. He gazed down at her and knew that all he would need was her and her soft body for the rest of his life. No food. No water. No air. Only this beautiful woman.

Leah watched him as he slipped off his weapons and clothes. She had seen his bare torso many times during the last week while treating his wounds but she had never seen it from this angle, lying below him nude on furs beside a roaring fire while he stared down at her with passion.

He slipped from his pants and her eyes were instantly drawn to his throbbing arousal. It was big and hard and Leah felt an instant of fear wondering how he was going to fit inside of her.

Chase moved toward her with the grace of a warrior. He moved like a big cat himself. All lethal power and liquid muscle.

"I will do my best not to hurt you." he vowed as he lowered himself over her and his hands danced across her skin to the slick moist juncture between her thighs.

"Make love to me, Chase. Teach me." Leah purred beneath him as she arched her body against his hand and heard him growl.

"Only you. Only you forever."

***

Louisa felt jealousy like a hot coal burning in her gut as she watched the shadows dancing off the walls of Chase's tent. She listened to the moans, the soft whispers, the murmurs of love and knew that Leah was more to Chase than a prisoner.

Louisa continued to watch them, ignoring Tig's mouth as it closed around her breast. These men didn't care if she enjoyed herself. Only Chase had ever been sure to see to her pleasure as well as his own. She had thought she was special to him. She had thought that she meant something.

Louisa sneered before letting out the required moan when Tig pushed himself inside of her. She would make sure that Leah paid for taking what was hers. Somehow, someway that fat whore would pay for stealing Chase.