Twilight Kisses

TWILIGHT KISSES An Ellora’s Cave Publication, August 2004 Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc. PO Box 787 Hudson, OH 44236-0787 ISBN MS Reader (LIT) ISBN # 1-4199-0021 Other available formats (no ISBNs are assigned): Adobe (PDF), Rocketbook (RB), Mobipocket (PRC) & HTML TWILIGHT KISSES © 2004 RUBY STORM ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. They are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously. Edited by Briana St. James. Cover art by Syneca.

TWILIGHT KISSES Ruby Storm

Ruby Storm

Prologue A twilight moon rose above the jagged landscape, outlining the darkened mountain against the horizon. A young Sioux boy swayed precariously on the edge of a high cliff that hung above a pristine valley. Small beads of perspiration trickled down his temples. His head lolled from side to side as he battled the weariness that threatened to claim him. Three days had passed since he had last eaten a meal with his family or had even a sip of cool, clear water from the nearby stream, but he would not give in to the temptation. He would not allow the lure of such insignificant enticements sway him from his purpose. He swallowed, trying to work up enough moisture to wet his parched throat. Do not think of water…do not think of food. Think instead of the man you will become… He would not allow his chance for a vision quest to disappear like vapor into the darkening sky. The young boy had proudly left his smiling parents, knowing that the next time they rested their loving eyes upon him, he would be considered a man in his own right. He swayed again, extreme exhaustion shrouded his body as he struggled against the escalating fatigue. He sank to the hard ground, but forced himself to stay upright. Dragging his knees wide to sit cross-legged, he waited…waited. The young man refused to blink and instead concentrated on a small tree that somehow had found root in a crack of the rock ledge. If the delicate twig can someday become a grand tree, then I can do without water for the moment… His youthful body had become taut with bulging muscle over the summer of his fourteenth year. He became stronger and leaner as the weeks went by, evidencing the massive, powerful brave he would become. But, now? His brain swirled. Great Spirit…he prayed. I await my vision… His blistered lips trembled with a quiet chant. The sound of his voice echoed quietly across the night… His body floated mere inches above the stony surface. Heavy lids lowered in surprise to where his fingers rested across his knees. Strange…he couldn’t feel his hands. He couldn’t feel the coolness of the rock against the back of his thighs. The blood rushed to his brain, suddenly sharpening his senses. His heart beat within his ears like the drums of his people. An eagle screeched as it soared above him, calling out to the ghosts of the past. He took up the chant once more. “Moon Runner…” The name whispered around him, startling the youth into acute awareness that he was no longer alone on the ledge. Not another living soul knew that

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Moon Runner was the name he’d chosen for himself. It was his vision quest name—one that would mark him for a lifetime. The boy had always run to the moon, had always found the answers to any problem as the bright globe glowed in the sky above him. “Moon Runner…” Slowly, he turned his head, his lids heavy with fatigue. He squinted at the light illuminating the ledge he perched upon. As his vision focused, a slender woman with hair of white wavered against the backdrop of the twilight sky. Heavy breasts shimmered within the halo of brilliant radiance surrounding her. His eyes lowered to the downy patch of hair resting in the vee of her legs. Her gentle smile settled in his heart as she reached out her hand. “Moon Runner…wait for me… I will come to you…” The soft voice whispered around his body once more, cloaking him with the earnest plea. The misty apparition was like a spirit of the night, but love for him shone in her eyes—eyes bright with the color of a cloudless day. The boy forced his mouth to open. “Are…are you a ghost woman? Are you my vision?” She nodded. “I am your Ghost Woman, Moon Runner. Wait for me. We will find great love in the future.” His lids fluttered shut. The tingle of rushing blood returned to his limbs. His brain cleared further, and his heart swelled with pride. He was a man. His chin lolled against his chest as he battled to stay upright. “I will wait for you, Ghost Woman,” he mumbled incoherently. “I will wait for you…only you…” Darkness entered his mind. The boy fell to his back as the bright light dimmed and took its place among the stars.

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Chapter One Shannon Dunne adjusted the thin leather strap of her purse over one bare, silken shoulder, and used her slender hip to slam the driver’s side door closed. A flick of her thumb preceded the click of the electric lock as she rounded the shiny red hood of her sports car, stepped up onto the curb, and headed for the Eastside Chicago Library. She lifted her face to the warm June breeze as she strode purposefully across the hot concrete glad that she’d pulled her thick blonde mane back into a ponytail. Curly strands of hair escaped to bat against her cheeks as finely muscled, suntanned arms clutched a notebook against generous breasts outlined beneath the thin jersey of her sleeveless tank—one that hugged a nipped waist and skimmed her navel. Shannon’s low-riding shorts hugged her hips. Bronzed thighs, shapely calves, and dainty feet shoved into flip-flops completed the picture. As she neared the bottom of the library’s steps, she was completely unaware of the male heads turning in her direction. She took the steps easily and, moments later, entered through the expansive glass doors, relishing the instant coolness of the building’s interior. Her blue eyes darted to the front desk when the doors swung closed behind her. A smile instantly curved her full lips as she crossed to Ritchie and Tom, two college interns who worked for the library. Shannon had become friends with both the young men over the course of the blustery Chicago winter. “Good morning, guys! I didn’t know you’d be here on a Saturday morning. What gives?” The boys’ gazes settled on the taut material of the coral-colored tank stretched across Shannon’s ample breasts. She set her notebook on the raised counter and rested an elbow against the cool marble. Ritchie popped up from his seat, but Tom stayed rooted to his chair in order to hide a quickly swelling penis in response to the peaked nipples beneath the thin jersey. Ritchie forced his eyes to leave the generous swell of Shannon’s chest and meet the sea of twinkling blue across from him. He gulped once. “Hi, Shannon. We decided to take advantage of some offered overtime. What are you doing here so early on a Saturday?” “I thought I’d do a little research this morning. I’m putting together an article for the paper, for sometime this summer, about little-known vacation spots in the good ol’ U.S. of A.” Tom wiggled on his chair and adjusted his hard-on beneath the desk, hoping like hell that Ritchie wouldn’t spot it. “You mean your boss is making you work weekends?” Her blonde ponytail shook when she wagged her head. “Nah. I’ve been working on this article since March. I was up early, so I figured I’d take a swing by here. Hopefully, 6

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there’s a microfiche viewer open for me to use—I’m planning to check out past newspaper articles from some states out west. I think I’ll start with South Dakota.” Tom snorted. “You work way too hard, Shannon. Saturday’s are supposed to be for relaxing—or nursing a hangover.” His gaze flicked across her swollen nipples. He would give anything to see, just once, Shannon’s bare breasts. She noted the quick dart of Tom’s eyes and scooped up the notebook once more to cover her chest. “If you guys got paid what the Chicago Weekly pays me, you wouldn’t mind tossing in a free shift or two. Besides, I enjoy the research part. One never knows what one will find. Well, I guess I’d better get crackin’. I’ll see you both later if you’re still around.” She flashed them a smile, waved, and strolled toward the research room. Ritchie leaned across the counter, placed an elbow on the cool surface, and rested his chin in an upturned palm as he studied the gentle sway of her sexy ass before Shannon disappeared through a set of French doors. “Mmmm, mmmm,” he stated with a shake of his head, immediately following it with a huge sigh. “What I wouldn’t give to get me some of that. That lady gives me a boner every time I set eyes on her. Did you see her nipples? Christ…” Tom chuckled at his friend’s performance. “How could you miss them? As much as I agree with you, however, Shannon Dunne is way out of our league. She’s probably got real men climbing all over her. What would she do with a couple of college nerds like us?” Ritchie continued to stare at the French doors, hoping like hell that Shannon would come bouncing back through. “I’ll tell you what—I’d sure like to give her a few ideas.” “Come on, let’s get this cataloguing done. I want to be out of here by noon.” Tom wasn’t quite sure if Ritchie was serious or not about getting a hard-on when Shannon was around, but one thing was certain, he always did—his own erection still throbbed against his zipper.

***** Shannon leaned back against the padded chair, pinched the bridge of her nose, and squeezed her eyes tightly shut. Three hours had passed since she’d arrived—almost an entire morning of scanning hundreds of newspaper articles from various sites like Rapid City, Deadwood, and even Sioux City. She glanced down at her notebook to view her unimpressive list of little known tourist stops. “Hmmpf. This has been a real productive morning,” she muttered with a wry snort. She scratched her cheek. Maybe I’m not approaching this right… Sighing, she grabbed the microfiche sheet, stood, and returned it to the file drawer. Thinking instead about sitting beside her pool in the hot afternoon sun, she forced her fingers to walk across the top of the many files nestled in the drawer in search of something different. Nothing she came across really grabbed her attention. A second

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later, shoulders slumped, she rested her palms on the top edge of the file drawer. Her fingers drummed against the cool metal. Oh, to hell with this. I’ll just make what I have so far work with the article. I gotta get out of here… As Shannon pushed the drawer closed, her blue gaze caught sight of a folder poking up above the others in the back of the drawer. She pulled the drawer open again and reached in to straighten it. Tilting her head, she read the label aloud, “‘Pine Ridge Indian Agency.’ Hmmm. Someone must have put this in the wrong place.” Deciding to put the file back where it belonged, she pulled it, and shuffled to the next file cabinet. Before yanking the correct door open, she mindlessly paged through the various sheets inside the folder. From what she could tell, they were copies of newspaper articles. “Ah, what the hell. A few more minutes won’t make a difference…” She crossed to the viewer, opened the manila file and took out the first sheet. Once the sheet was in place, her eyes widened slightly when her gaze scanned the screen. “1884? Holy cow,” she breathed. The farthest dates she had searched earlier had only gone back to 1940. The file had definitely been placed in the wrong drawer by someone. The articles she scanned were from many different papers of the era, but all related to Sioux braves of the time, and their individual stories. Another thirty minutes passed in a flash. Shannon didn’t even realize the passage of time as she found herself drawn into the plight of South Dakota’s native Indians, the many promises broken by the United States government, and the beginning of what would someday be known as the assimilation of the American Indian. She cruised through one story after another, totally lost in the heartbreaking tales of a proud people who, at one time, reigned supreme over the prairie frontier. Finished with the first sheet, she pulled it from the microfiche viewer, flipped it right side down, and reached for the next one in line, the earlier wish to be sitting beside her pool totally forgotten. Slipping the sheet into the machine, her eyes rose as her thumb feathered against the wheel, and the past flashed in quick photographs across the screen. A burst of laughter erupted from across the room, suspending her train of thought. Shannon glanced up to see a youthful couple with their shoulders quietly shaking as they tried to contain their intimate hilarity. Smiling at the sight of young love, she dragged her gaze back to the screen—and froze. A photograph of a near naked Sioux warrior standing beside the gallows immediately sent a shiver down her spine. The skin on Shannon’s arms goose bumped as she leaned forward in the chair. The hair stood on the nape of her neck. She stared at the handsome brave, her mouth suddenly dry. His black eyes seemed to gaze into hers. A wave of nausea rolled through her, and her cheeks heated to a red flush. Shannon’s head jerked back as she raised a palm to cup her forehead. Her eyes darted away from the screen, looking anywhere but at the inky-colored eyes that reached out to her—eyes that seemed suddenly familiar. Crazy…absolutely crazy—I’ve never seen this picture before. Her heart pounded against her rib cage. Placing her other hand against her chest, Shannon swallowed—and wondered if she was getting sick. 8

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Taking a deep breath, her hesitant gaze returned to the monitor. She ignored the picture of the barely dressed man and, instead, read the small caption beneath it. The handsome brave’s name was Moon Runner, a Sioux Indian who had been hanged by the neck at the Pine Ridge Indian Agency in 1884 for kidnapping a white woman. Her eyes skimmed a short blurb that stated how the man had been made an example before his peers. That was it—nothing more. Shannon sat back, crossed her arms because of the sudden chill that descended over her, and hesitantly studied the man’s face. Moon Runner didn’t resemble the imaginary picture in her mind of what most Indian men looked like. Strands of black flowing hair lifted in a gust of wind, forever frozen by the click of a camera button. Her eyes followed the line of one broad shoulder, over the massive naked chest, and down one thickly corded arm. She abruptly realized her breath came in small pants. She eyed solid thighs below a ragged loincloth and followed the length of his legs to his moccasin-clad feet. “Magnificent,” she breathed. “Absolutely magnificent.” Shannon’s nipples hardened beneath the stretchy material of her tank and a sensual jolt of heated excitement warmed her belly, replacing the earlier chill. Her eyelids lowered for a moment, but the masculine, angular planes of his face continued to float through her mind. Why does he seem so familiar? A flash of a broad, dark-skinned shoulder washed through her mind and was gone a second later. The scent of sun-warmed hair seemed to linger in the air around her. Shannon could almost feel the heat of tender hands brushing across the sensitive skin of her arms, of hot, coaxing lips tugging at the raised bud of a nipple. She shivered with emotion, thinking about his massive body gliding atop hers and a firm, hairy thigh parting her knees, silently commanding that she spread her legs wide. She imagined his thick cock prodding at the wet opening of her vagina, demanding entrance to her slick heat. Once inside her pussy, she knew without a doubt that his hard, forceful strokes would make her shudder violently with an orgasm. All he would have to do was shift his powerful hips slightly, filling her with his throbbing heat as her pussy lips stretched wide around him and… Her eyelids snapped open. Her breath caught in her throat as the heat of near orgasm trickled away. Shannon slumped against the back of the chair and gasped for air. Her gaze skittered about the room to discover if anyone had witnessed her powerful physical reaction to a mere picture of a man called Moon Runner. Thank goodness that the young couple was too busy touching one another to notice that Shannon had nearly come in the chair. Her trembling fingers swiped at the small bit of perspiration that dotted her forehead. “Jesus…” she mumbled, and then swallowed to help clear her suddenly constricted throat. Her clit throbbed, begging to find release, her breasts ached to be suckled, her body tingled in expectation. She had to get outside and get air.

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She couldn’t leave without his picture in her clutches. Quickly, she pressed the print button, refusing to look at the screen, flipped the microfiche sheet back inside the folder, and returned the file to its proper place. Grabbing the paper out of the copy machine, she raced from the room.

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Chapter Two Shannon cranked the steering wheel and veered into her driveway, bounded from the seat after jamming the vehicle into park, and rushed up the sidewalk to her front door. Once inside, she raced to her second floor bedroom. Crossing to the canopied bed, she balanced on the edge of the mattress. The thought of looking at Moon Runner’s picture had her stomach suddenly rolling with nausea once more. “It’s just a picture…” With shaking hands, she slipped the folded piece of paper from her purse, drew in a deep breath to settle her jangled nerves, and held the copy to her chest. Crawling to a pillow, she lay back in the center of the bed and slowly opened the folded sheet. Moon Runner stared at her—the piercing dark eyes had not changed. Once again, she felt his gaze reach out as if wanting—no, needing—her to stand beside him. This is crazy! She clutched the paper to her chest once more, but the dark, brooding eyes were now permanently burned into her brain. They floated in her mind’s eye— beckoning her heart from the depths of his soul. Don’t be foolish—it’s just a picture of a man who died over a hundred years ago! Think logically—you can do it! You’re a reporter, for chrissakes. No matter. The intense sensations racing through her blood could not be denied. Shannon yearned to experience the feel of the hard, bronzed planes of his chest, to run her fingers through the silky black length of his hair, to have his full, savage mouth coax liquid heat from her body. She could barely move. Her hands wavered and dropped limply to the bedspread—paralyzed by the emotions coursing through her body. The copied picture fluttered from her fingers to the mattress beside her. A breath of wind rustled through the open window and lifted the paper a second later. It hovered on the gentle breeze momentarily, before floating down to finally rest on the flat expanse of her stomach. Shannon lay motionless, her lids so heavy that soon they fluttered shut. The sounds of the outside world drifted through her window…a dog barked…a car horn blared once. But dark eyes continued to tug at Shannon’s heart and soul. Her breathing slowed as the noises echoed from afar until they disappeared inside a soundless, shadowy slumber.

***** Her fingers fluttered across a smooth, firm surface. Shannon’s cheek followed the same sensuous path as her hand. Skin? The sensation surprised her. She rolled languidly to her back 11

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and a solid band of heat followed along. Feathery, wet touches whisked across a raised nipple. Her breath caught in her throat as moist lips tugged at the swollen tip, sucking the bud inward until a swirling tongue sent sparks down through her belly. A callused hand slid teasingly over the soft curve of her hip, down one slender leg to her knee, then up the inner thigh of an opposite leg. With a strangled moan, she arched against the pressure of fingertips that searched between her legs. The mattress dipped beside her. The magical fingers now rustled through the soft pubic hair surrounding her pussy, then traveled a delightful path upward to cup a breast. Demanding lips continued to tug at her nipple. She arched her hips again, using her own hand to draw the errant fingers back to the ache between her legs. She needed… What did she need? She needed to be filled. “Please…” she breathed in a near whisper. A masculine chuckle whispered past her ear. “Not yet…” “I want you,” she whispered to the darkness surrounding her. “I want you to fuck me…” A breathless gasp left her lips when a finger slid through her wet slit. The tip flicked her clit, worked its way back between her labia to be moistened, and then returned to torture her throbbing bud once more. Shannon spread her knees wide. Her body jerked when his teeth nipped at a swollen breast. He flattened his tongue and licked circles around the sensitive skin. Her mind jumped from the sensation of his warm tongue at her nipple, to follow his one wayward finger as it circled her clit, and then swirled through her pubic hair again. The sexual tension in her body heated her blood, built to a crescendo… Her clitoris throbbed beneath the tender ministrations, but release wouldn’t come. Shannon ached to be fucked. She ached to experience the pounding shudders of orgasm at the hands of this masterful lover. The heat of his naked skin warmed her body as he slid between her thighs. Shannon’s legs wrapped around firm, masculine buttocks as she pressed her pubic mound against the rigid line of his erect cock. She surged beneath him, her body searching for his penis, ready to capture the velvety length and suck it inward. Hot breath heated her neck. “Not yet…we must wait…” “No…no…now!” “Not yet, my love…” Shannon’s head lolled on the pillow. “I can’t wait…” she panted behind closed eyes. “Please…” Her fingertips slid with a mind of their own past the elastic band of her shorts and down into the front of her lacy thong. Her hips undulated sensuously as two slender fingers brushed aside moist pubic hair in search of her pulsing hole. She needed release, she needed to be filled, she just…needed. Her free hand slipped beneath the coralcolored tank. A split second later, her fingertips rolled an erect nipple before she squeezed her heavy breast, and a low groan escaped her parted lips.

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Shannon brought her knees up and spread them wide as two fingers thrust inside her pussy. Hot liquid essence dripped from her hole as she squirmed on the mattress, feeling the beginning flickers that radiated from her clit. Her hand slid from her breast and joined the other inside her thong to roll her clit as she surged upward against her prodding fingers. Shannon’s head arched against the pillow. A low moan sounded from her throat as burning waves of an orgasm sparked through her belly. The shards exploded through her body, heating her breasts, bringing her mindless satisfaction and fulfillment. Her jerking hips bucked against her imprisoned hands, and she gasped for air as the intense feeling nearly suffocated her. “Oh…” she softly grunted as her body throbbed with the intense feeling. She lay splayed across the mattress, letting the ripples course through her trembling limbs as she cupped her pubic mound. Her body arched sensuously on the bed when she withdrew her wet fingers as if in search of the fleeting emotion once more. Shannon curled them tightly around the soft pillow beneath her head until her knuckles turned white. As the shudders slowed and perspiration dotted her forehead, her eyes slowly opened. A trembling sigh helped to slow the rapid heartbeat in her chest. Shannon stared blankly at the ceiling before her eyes glazed over with forbidden tears. Turning her head until her cheek rested against a satin pillowcase, she watched her fingers slide the short distance between herself and the piece of paper that lay near the edge of the bed. She dragged it closer and stared into Moon Runner’s eyes. Why? What are you doing to me? Look what just happened. I didn’t see your face in the dream, but I know you were there. I know it was you. Her vaginal muscles clenched just thinking about him. I need to find you… She pressed the paper against her heaving chest until her body calmed and her breathing became normal once more. She would head back to the library. Shannon needed more information. She needed to know why this man’s eyes called out to her heart.

***** The enigmatic man became Shannon’s one true obsession. Three weeks had passed since she’d raced home and dreamed of the Sioux warrior sliding atop her body and, still she searched for more information. She viewed microfiche until her eyes blurred with weariness. She searched the Internet every spare minute during work and afterwards. And she tossed fretfully every night, as she lay alone in the bed, seeing his face—either in the picture frame beside her bed or in her mind’s eye. It didn’t matter. Moon Runner was always there—always calling out to her soul with a soundless plea— always taunting her body to near orgasm. Then he would drift away as she writhed on

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the bed, rolling in a fog of sexual tension that not even her own fingers could purge from her body. It was just such a morning, after another restless night, that an idea came to Shannon as she stared at the cloudless sky through her open bedroom window. Her many hours of research had turned up stories about countless other Sioux warriors who had lived in the same era as the man who haunted her dreams. She had to do something or go insane. Every night when she floated on the edge of troubled slumber, Moon Runner’s hazy apparition would return to coax her body upward. His magic fingers worked her into a sexual frenzy, then he would leave her just as she begged to be filled. Shannon couldn’t take it any longer. She’d exhausted every resource in Chicago. She would go to South Dakota and begin again there. Surely, she’d be able to unearth something about the man—that is if she could talk her boss into letting her leave the city. If her plan worked, she would travel west under the ruse of writing a series of articles about the nation’s great past. She had to end her agitated nights—she had to discover why the dreams wouldn’t stop. She leapt from her bed with more enthusiasm than in the past month. She quickly showered, swallowing back the heavy twinge of guilt that nipped at her mind. Her boss and Editor-in-Chief of the Chicago Weekly, Jay Cooke, for all his surly qualities, had been good to her over the last three years. But if she informed him of the real reason she wanted to go to Pine Ridge, he’d laugh his ass off first, and then tell her to get a life. Because he would never sign off on a couple of weeks of vacation for Shannon to chase a dream, she had no choice but to bend the truth. She dressed in a flash, drove like a maniac all the way downtown, and hurried to Jay’s office before too many of the other reporters showed up for the start of the day. As she entered the editing room, she spied him sitting at his desk behind the glass enclosure that separated him from the others. Shannon stopped long enough to drop her purse beside her computer before she headed into the lion’s den. Jay glanced up over the rim of his bifocals when she knocked once and entered without an invitation. “Make it quick. I’ve got a meeting in ten minutes.” Shannon sank onto a molded office chair, her heart thudding wildly. Be cool, Shannon. You’ve got to make this work… “I’m almost done with my article about out-of the-way vacation spots. I should be able to hand it in by Wednesday.” Jay continued to scratch out notes to himself on a tablet of paper and never even glanced up. “Good. That’s one we can put to bed.” As he read his scrawl, he reached for a mug of coffee. Taking a quick gulp, he eyed Shannon where she continued to sit on the edge of the chair. His eyes narrowed. “What else?” Shannon leaned back and crossed one shapely leg over the other. “I spent the last three Saturdays at the library, looking up stats and info so I could get that article finished early.” “If you’re looking for overtime, you’re barking up the wrong tree.”

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Her thin brows arched as she cocked her head. “I hadn’t thought about that, but now that you’ve mentioned it—” “Forget it. What do you want, Shannon?” His surly gaze glanced up at the clock on the wall behind her. “I gotta get going.” Accustomed to his constant irritability, she continued calmly. “While I was researching this last project, I came across some very old articles about various Sioux braves from South Dakota. The more I read, the more I became convinced that I’d like to do a series of stories on those individuals. We could run them every Sunday in a special one-page edition. I really think the romanticism of the old west would draw in readers. None of the other papers have ever done anything like this. We could do a few splash articles in advance as teasers just to gain attention.” Jay leaned back in his chair. A look of mild interest appeared in his eyes as he continued to stare across the paper-filled desk. “Are there enough resources for the articles to be credible?” Bingo! “Well, that’s the thing. I’d like to request a couple of weeks and head for South Dakota. I’m sure there are family members of the men I’ve read about who are still alive. I could interview those ancestors—” she shrugged nonchalantly, “—and maybe even get my hands on some pictures. Hell, Jay, I’ve got a lot of the research done already—and on my own time. What do you think?” Shannon crossed the fingers that lay hidden in her lap like a little girl. She had to get to South Dakota. “Why two weeks?” he snorted abruptly. “You know the Business Office is going to raise hell about that.” “I’m not saying the trip out there has to last that long, but I want to have enough time set aside just in case. I’m sure it will take some time to track everyone down. I’ve got ten names on my list.” But only one that I care about… Jay continued to stare at his employee as his fingers tapped against the arm of his chair. Finally, he leaned forward and scratched a few words across his legal pad. “I’m not saying this is going to happen, but I like the idea.” Shannon expelled her breath with instant relief. If Jay believed in something, he’d go to bat for her and do everything possible to get the powers-that-be on board. He glanced up. “I’ll see what I can do.” She rose from the chair, surprised that her hands trembled slightly. She had to get to South Dakota and it looked like things were going to go her way. “Thanks, Jay. I’ll wait to hear from you.”

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Chapter Three Shannon sat at a small table situated before the window of her hotel room, staring out at a concrete parking lot. A heavy sigh left her when her blue gaze moved to the now familiar, distant Black Hills on the horizon. Deep in thought, her fingers fiddled with the gold hoop of her earring. Tomorrow, Monday morning, would mark two full weeks since her arrival in Rapid City, South Dakota. And contrary to the excitement she had felt when the plane landed, only the dread of having to return to Chicago burned in her brain now. She had tried everything to gain any information whatsoever on Moon Runner, but had hit a brick wall at every turn. She’d even begun to strike up conversations with complete strangers on the street, asking them if they knew of any family that had a tall Indian brave named Moon Runner in their ancestry. I can’t go back! Not yet! Her eyes closed to the shimmering white pavement outside the window. I can’t go back to the nights again… As strange as it was, Shannon had not had a single dream about Moon Runner since she arrived, even though the handsome warrior was the last thing she thought about before falling into a restless slumber, and his piercing eyes were the first thing that floated through her mind come morning. The only solace received by the man not emerging to haunt her long nights was the absence of the crackling sexual tension that had rested inside her belly in Chicago as she prepared for her trip west. She leaned back in the chair and threaded her fingers through her long, curling tresses. Her eyes darted to the plane ticket tossed onto the table. She had twenty-four hours to discover something. The short time seemed like only minutes. The idea of heading back to the airport loomed like a death sentence before her. With another deep sigh, she rose wearily from the chair. She didn’t have a clue where to start today, but she had to do something. Shannon grabbed a light jacket from a hanger in case she was late returning, and then lifted the keys to her rental car from the top of the television. Her eyes darted about the room in search of her purse just as a knock sounded from the outer corridor. She crossed the room and opened the door to peek around the jamb. A split second later, Shannon stared in surprise. Standing in the quiet hallway was an aged Sioux woman. Her thin, gray hair was braided behind both ears. A faded, cotton dress covered her hunched body, and tiny feet were shoved into a ragged pair of cheap sneakers. A face wrinkled and craggy from years of exposure to the hot, western sun slowly lifted. Squinting eyes that were once black now looked out at the world through a blue, hazy film. Shannon opened the door wider. “Can I help you?” 16

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The old woman’s gnarled fingers reach inside a torn pocket and produced a rusted key. She mumbled something unintelligible, and then reached for the hand of the woman in the doorway and pressed the tarnished key into Shannon’s soft white palm. “Moon Runner…” Shannon hesitated for only a second before she shrugged off her ecstatic surprise and quickly gathered her wits about her. “You know Moon Runner?” The old woman turned away without a word. “Wait! Where are you going?” Shannon slammed the door behind her and hurried alongside the old woman who shuffled down the carpeted corridor. “You just can’t give me the key and leave! Can you tell me anything about him? Please, I’ve been searching for weeks and you’re the first to give me any hope.” The crone waved off the white woman with one trembling hand, slowly shook her head and clamped her withered lips together. Reaching the door that led to the busy street outside, she pushed it open and ambled across the hot pavement, mumbling as she crossed to the sidewalk. Shannon stayed on the old woman’s heels. “Please don’t go! I need to know more. You must have heard I was searching for information about a man named Moon Runner or you would have never come here! I’ve talked to just about everyone. You’re the first one to help me—” The woman refused to acknowledge Shannon beside her as a city transit bus pulled up alongside the curb. The metal doors swung open. She slowly boarded. Shannon stood in the hot sun and watched her flip a bus pass from the same torn pocket as earlier, finding it hard to believe the woman wouldn’t speak to her at all. Determination squared Shannon’s jaw when she hurried up the steps into the bus and eyed the old woman as she shuffled down the aisle and took a seat. The driver swung his gaze upward. “That’ll be one dollar, Miss.” Son of a bitch… She had left her purse in the hotel room. “I don’t have my purse on me. Please, can I pay you later? I work for the Chicago Weekly and I’m on a story.” “Yeah,” he snorted in response. “And when I’m done here, I’m going to chauffeur the President around. Maybe we’ll even have a beer together. You’ll have to get off.” “Please!” her gaze swung back to the huddled old woman who stared out a dusty window. “I…let’s see if I have any change.” She dug through the pockets of her jean shorts and came up empty. “Shit!” Her eyes met those of the patrons who were already on the bus. “Does anyone have a dollar they can loan me?” One man’s chuckle rumbled in his throat before he crossed his arms and looked away. The other few transit customers completely ignored her request. Shannon swung her gaze back to the driver in frustration. “Okay, can you wait one minute? I’ll run and grab my purse. I promise I’ll be right back.” “Sure thing. I’ve got all day.”

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Shannon flashed him a quick, harried smile and hurried back down the metal steps. The door immediately slammed closed behind her. She spun to see the grizzled smile of the driver—just before he pulled the bus back into the line of traffic. Sinking to the surface of a bench, she watched the bus forlornly until it rounded a corner and disappeared from sight, taking her one last chance away with it. Her head lolled back, and she closed her eyes to halt tears of frustration. Shannon clutched the key in her hand, ready to scream. Finally, she heaved herself from the bench and headed for her room. She had to call Jay and get an extension. Cringing inwardly, she mentally went over what she would say to get him to agree.

***** “What the hell do you mean, you need to stay until the end of the week?” Shannon gripped the phone and checked her temper by silently counting to ten. “Shannon? You still there?” “Yes, Jay, I’m here. I told you, the locals can’t remember the name Moon Runner— one of the Indian braves on my list. I’ve pretty well tied up the others, but I can’t find the family name of this last guy anywhere in any of the records at the museums. If someone does know, they’re being pretty closemouthed.” “Well, fuck them then. I want your ass on that plane tomorrow morning. I’ve stretched the budget by giving you two fucking weeks already! I can’t be spending any more money to have you vacationing in Rapid City—not when I’ve got stories breaking out all over Chicago.” “What do you mean, vacationing? Come on, Jay, don’t be unreasonable. I’m out here gathering information for some stories for the paper.” “Yeah, well tell that to the CEO. I’m getting flack about the costs. The original deal was one—maybe two at the most. Well, Babycakes, your time is up. What the hell difference does it make anyway? So you had ten guys on the list. Cross this last one off, do nine weeks on the other guys, and use the tenth to do a summary.” Her heart flipped in her chest. She couldn’t go back. Not when she had the old key in her possession—a first clue that she wasn’t going to share with Jay just yet. She needed to keep looking. She needed to discover why some silent advocate urged her to keep going. The soundless plea would not go away. “Jay, I’m working, not playing. Give me to at least the end of the week. I’m sure I’ll be able to dig up something by then. This last man has an interesting story. I’m going on intuition here, but I think he’s worth pursuing. If I can’t find anything by Friday, then I guess I’ll have to call it quits.” “If those damn redskins haven’t remembered already, they’re damn well not going to have a sudden epiphany over the next few days.”

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Shannon’s mouth pulled into a straight line. Jay was about the biggest bigot she’d ever met, and he didn’t even realize it. Right now, she knew he’d made his derogatory comment just to goad her into an argument—better for him to cry insubordination and order her back to Chicago immediately without further discussion. Well, fuck him! I just can’t leave yet. She breathed deeply to get a handle on her building anger and gripped the phone with white fingers. “Jay, if you’re talking finances, what the hell difference will a few more days make? The paper has already put out the major portion of money for my stay. I’m a goddamned breath away from having one helluva story, and you’re willing to pull me? How many times have you told me I’m a great reporter because of a sixth sense that kicks in when needed? I have a feeling that the information I’m searching for on this last man will be a real coup.” She had to get him to grant her just a few more days. “All right, let’s compromise. I’ll be back Thursday night.” “Christ, Shannon. You do this to me every goddamned time…” She heard his intake of breath crackle over the phone wire. “I don’t know why the fuck I put up with you. All right. Two more days and you’re back in the Windy City if I have to fly out there and get you myself.” Shannon’s smile was wide when she looked heavenward and mouthed a thank you. “Thanks, Jay. I’ll look around a little more and talk to you tomorrow night. You’re probably right.” There, that ought to shut him up and get him off my back. It did—for a second. “I know I’m right. I’ll give you a call back tonight—even if it’s three in the morning, so make sure you answer your phone. You damned well better hope you find something soon. The paper can’t waste this much time on one goddamned Indian. Cross this guy off your list and find someone else if you have to. Thursday and that’s it. I need you in Chicago, not attending powwows and eating fried bread.” “Oops. I have to go now—someone just knocked on my door. Talk to you later.” Using the flimsy excuse, she quickly hung up the phone before he started his usual ranting again. Her hand immediately dipped into the pocket of her shorts. Her fingers closed protectively around the rusted key. For some reason, her journalist instinct had screamed at her to keep the key’s existence a secret, and she needed to discover why.

***** Shannon raised her arms and lifted the damp heaviness of her blonde mane away from her slender neck in an effort to catch any slight breath of wind that might roll across the prairie. A sigh feathered past her full lips just before she sank back into the soft grass at the river’s edge, hoping to find a bit of coolness from the damp ground

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instead of baking in the heat at the end of the day. Kicking off her sandals, she ran her toes through the lush grass. “No such luck,” she mumbled to the South Dakota sky above her. She had found the secluded spot when she first arrived and tried to visit every evening, hoping that the quiet of the river’s banks would encourage some sort of revelation. Her blue gaze studied a lone billowy cloud that skipped across the turquoise expanse. What am I going to do? Earlier, after Jay had given her permission to stay on a few more days, Shannon had felt as if she’d been given a reprieve. She’d pounded the streets the entire afternoon in search of the old woman. She’d spoken to hotel employees afterwards, and had ended up even more discouraged than she’d been that morning. Shannon lifted her hips slightly, slid her fingers into the tight pocket of her jeans shorts, and pulled out the key. Holding it up, she examined the object as the brilliant sky created a perfect blue pallet behind it. Levering herself to a sitting position, she crossed her legs and stared down into her palm. The parts on the key that weren’t rusted, sparkled in the late evening sun. Two weeks of searching for any information about a man named Moon Runner and this was all she had. Tightening her fingers around the key, she glanced about the serene peacefulness of the river’s edge as a myriad of thoughts churned inside her brain. The initial journey here had begun because of a simple photograph, but now her search had changed to something far more important than discovering why she was so drawn to the man. Closing her eyes to envision Moon Runner once more, Shannon recalled the strange hot liquid that crept through her blood that very first time she had seen his picture—it was a furnace that continued to burn hot every time she thought of him. And at the moment, remembering the sensuous feel of his hard body atop hers, heated Shannon’s insides once more. “It was the look in his eyes…” she breathed out. Something in their dark depths had touched her soul, had beckoned her heart. Her lips parted in wonder. “Holy cripes… I’m in love with a dead man…” It was the first time she’d uttered the words aloud. She had acknowledged them silently in her mind over the last month and let her so-called relationship with a dead man remain a simple fantasy. Now, real pangs of love washed through her. She had never even met the man—and never would. So, how had she come to love a man born so many years in the past? A quiet, derisive snort sounded in Shannon’s throat as she shook her head at the ridiculousness of the situation. Her eyes opened again when the sound echoed across the quiet space around the water. Her round chin lifted again as she stared out across the meandering river and lightly bounced the key around in her palm. That old woman gave me this for a reason. Somehow, I’ve got to find her…she knows…she knows…what? Okay, Shannon, lay out the facts. Something drew you to that file containing his picture. After two weeks in South Dakota and finding nothing, but dropping questions all over the place, an old woman shows up at your hotel door. She had a

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reason—and not just the key. She sighed. And Moon Runner…I want you to come back. I want you to make love to me in the night…I need you… Shannon slammed her fist against the earth in quiet annoyance. Having the key in her possession was almost worse than not knowing anything. Swiping away the beads of perspiration on her forehead, she made a decision as she leapt to her feet and shoved the key back into her pocket. After a quick scan about the surrounding landscape, she hurriedly began to strip the clothes from her body. “Screw this sweltering heat. There’s no one around…I hope.” She couldn’t disrobe fast enough as she eyed the small ripples on the water’s surface. Maybe the stream would help to cool not only her heated skin, but also the intense sexual frustration that raced through her body every time she thought of her mystery man. Her clothes lay in a heap only minutes later as she strolled to the stream’s edge, tested the water with a manicured toe, and waded into the welcoming coolness until the small ripples teased the smooth skin around her navel. Drawing in a calming breath, she raised her arms and dove forward to glide across the top of the water. A sigh of relief accompanied a quick spin to her back. Shannon floated lazily, using her hands to propel herself slowly forward as her mind returned to the key. What is it for? Why did that old woman give it to me? Moon Runner…what have you done to me? I’ve put my job on the line just because I can’t get you out of my head—and you’re not even a living, breathing…anyone. You’re just a picture… Shannon continued to watch the sky above her. Okay, if your picture was taken at some point in the far past by someone who thought it worthy to do so, then why can’t I discover anything about you here in your homeland? And why, when she had observed dozens of photos of other men, did he alone call out to her? Shannon flipped to her stomach, and to rid herself of the horrible frustration of not discovering an answer to her problem, sliced through the waves to the opposite side of the stream. It had been nearly a month since she’d done anything that even resembled exercise, and her quickly tiring muscles forced her to turn and make her way back to where her clothes lay strewn on the grassy banks. Unexpectedly, the calves of both legs stiffened as she reached the center of the river. She righted her body with a pain-filled groan, treaded water, and searched with her feet to find the bottom so she could rest until the cramps disappeared. Her toes simply flailed in the current. Panic threaded its way to her brain as she thrashed about, flexing her legs to ease the burgeoning pain—to no avail. “Stay calm, Shannon,” she sputtered into the waves that suddenly loomed larger, and then she struggled to pull herself forward. The seemingly small distance to the shore now stretched before her. Another round of spasms hit her lower legs as her head bobbed beneath the surface, then broke through the ripples a second later as she flailed to stay afloat.

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“Help!” she coughed out. “Someone help me!” The current dragged her under again, but she managed to break the surface once more, coughing, gasping, and now frightened beyond belief. Her little swim had turned into a looming death sentence. She went under for a third time, the agonizing pain in her legs paralyzing any further effort to reach the far shore.

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Chapter Four The current spun Shannon in the watery jail until she wasn’t quite sure where the murky bottom or the wavy surface was. Fear blazed in her heart. The burning in her lungs panicked her further. She needed air—she needed to find the surface! A dark shape in the shadowy depths loomed above her. A hand reached in her direction. Shannon seized the offered lifeline and held on with a death grip as black spots appeared before her eyes. She was pulled to the broad chest of a very large man. He kicked upward, dragging her near lifeless body along. As her head broke the surface, the last rays of blessed late evening sunlight caressed her face with its warmth. The strong arm of the stranger curled protectively around her bare waist as he swam easily toward the shore. Shannon clung to his muscled forearm, coughing and gasping. She sputtered a heartfelt thank you time after time between grateful sobs. Her sopping hair stuck to her wet cheeks, blocking her sight, but she knew she was safe when her feet finally dragged across the weeds at the river’s edge only seconds before she felt the firm earth beneath them. Strong hands clasped her waist and lifted Shannon to the grass where she sprawled on her stomach, still coughing up water from her lungs. Finally catching her breath, she breathed deeply of sweet, life-giving air and rolled to her side. Whisking heavy, wet tresses away from her face, she looked into the familiar eyes that were now real instead of a simple photograph, and her world went black.

***** Shannon floated in a fog of semi-awareness. Warm rays of the evening sun heated her stomach, soft blades of grass prodded her backside, but her lungs no longer ached. Her lips parted to draw in sweet air. The memory of murky, frightening water disappeared with each gasping breath she inhaled. Did I die? When callused fingers stroked her breasts, however, she remembered a saving hand reaching out to her in the swirling water. Moon Runner! Her eyes snapped open, and she looked straight into smiling, coal-black eyes. It was him. She waited for fear to envelop her, but none was forthcoming. Here she was, lying naked in the grass with the man’s hands gliding across her chest, and all she felt was comical relief that she had finally found him. It didn’t matter that their meeting was an impossibility—too many years spanned their lifetimes. She couldn’t think clearly as his full lips stretched into a smile that matched the gentleness in his eyes. She shivered at 23

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the touch of a real man—not dream fingers—as they gently squeezed her breasts together once more. His photo didn’t do him justice. Even in his crouched position, Shannon could tell he possessed a massive stature. Corded muscle rippled beneath the burnished skin of his upper arms, each of his thighs was the thickness of a tree trunk, his Sioux ancestry etched into his handsome features. Moon Runner’s happy, sharpened gaze skittered over the length of her naked body when he realized she was fully awake. “It is you…” He spoke quietly with reverence as his large hands slid upward over her slim shoulders, and then back over her breasts. Moving lower, his fingers brushed across her rib cage, causing the velvety skin to quiver beneath his soft touch. “You…you know me?” His touch mesmerized her. His dark eyes glowed when he met her questioning gaze. “I have waited many years of my life for you.” He touched the curling strands of her wet hair. “You have finally come to me.” Moon Runner straddled her thighs, letting his body drape across Shannon’s as he rested his weight on bent elbows. Searching fingers continued to push aside the wet tresses that lay against her collarbone. The warmth of his broad chest pressed into her belly as his lips worshipped one taut nipple. “How do you know me?” Shannon waited breathlessly for his answer, amazed that she wasn’t frightened, astounded that she had never felt so safe in all her life. Moon Runner gently slid up the length of Shannon’s body until warm lips traced a path across her cheek. They stopped beside her ear. White teeth nibbled the lobe, igniting the flame that had lain smoldering for the past two months. Sweet-smelling breath warmed her neck. “I know you as part of myself. I dreamed of you when I went to the mountain. I ran to the moon to discover my fate when I was but a youth. And you were there.” Eager tremors raced down her spine at the whispered words. A callused palm settled on her hip and massaged its way to her breast. She grasped his hand firmly to impede the fingers that tweaked at a nipple. She needed to forget the fire licking between her legs—anything to gain time to grapple for sane reasoning. Shannon held her breath as she gazed up at his handsome face. He rose slightly onto his elbow to stare down at her. “When the moon peaks the treetops, we will complete our union. It will be as it should.” “What should ‘be’? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t even know who you really are,” she breathed out. Yet, she did. Unforgettable, intimate details swirled in her mind. His body atop hers was familiar and made the blood sing in her veins. She had experienced the touch of his lips against her breasts weeks earlier. Shannon’s brain spun with unspoken questions, and sudden, hazy apparitions from dreams during past deep slumbers poked at the edges of her mind. “I am Moon Runner…”

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The disappearing sun haloed his broad shoulders as she continued to stare into his dark eyes. Twilight sparked across the South Dakota horizon. His features matched those of the man in the picture. How can it be? She was momentarily speechless and unable to think clearly. “…and you are my Ghost Woman.” His hand left her breast, and he tenderly followed the line of her jaw with one finger, traced a path across one cheek and over slightly parted lips. Gently, he caressed their fullness with the tip of his thumb. “You are more beautiful than my vision.” Shannon struggled to regain her equilibrium. “I am not…Ghost Woman. My…my name is Shannon.” Before she could protest further, Moon Runner lowered his mouth, captured her lips with his, and then ran his tongue across the straight line of her teeth. I’ve kissed this man before…it’s the same as…as the dreams… Another kiss confirmed her silent declaration. “The moon is waking,” he whispered as he moved from her body, rolled to his back, and drew her slight length across his long torso. His brain spun with lightheadedness at the feel of her naked body draped across his after waiting so long for her to appear in his life. He closed his eyes for only a moment, concentrating on how the feel of her spiked nipples scraping against his chest, and her downy pale pubic hair nestling against his balls, elevated his sexual excitement. Finally, he opened his eyes and stared happily into Shannon’s shocked gaze. “Do not be frightened. I will watch over you always.” Shannon felt his stiff erection against her stomach as she lay with flattened breasts against his broad chest. It was ludicrous! She had only seen him in a photograph, had only dreamed about him, but all she could imagine now was how wonderful it would be to have his velvety cock slide inside her quivering vagina. “This is—” “This is as it should be.” Believable, intense, heated love shone in his dark eyes. The warm glow fascinated Shannon. Moon Runner gently rolled her onto her back again. The back of her head rested against a muscular forearm. His hand trailed across her flat stomach, down to the silken hair between her legs, and he inserted a thick finger into her hot core. A knowing smile curved his lips when she gasped. “You are hot and ready for me. Do you understand now what I say is true?” His finger withdrew but, immediately, it brushed tender, moist circles around her clit. “My heart sings with joy that my Ghost Woman has finally come to me.” He applied slight pressure to her throbbing bud before dipping his finger back inside her dripping pussy. Shannon gasped again. She didn’t have a clue what she was doing with this man, but was powerless to stop the heat he slowly built with his warm ministrations and forceful but quiet, loving demeanor. Her questions melted away with the remaining daylight. Her journalistic mind emptied of any questions as he stood and removed his loincloth. She stared, awestruck, as he stood above her, stroking his cock.

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“This is what dreaming of you all these many years has done to me. I am hard and ready for you—only you, Ghost Woman.” His last whisper floated away on the evening breeze. He knelt at her feet and, with a gentle hold, raised her knees, then used his palms to draw her thighs apart. “Spread your legs so I may love you with my tongue. Soon, my Ghost Woman, the time will be right and I will be inside your womanly body.” Shannon obeyed as if in a trance and lay splayed across the grass that now turned a silvery color in the rising light of the moon. If this was a dream—or if she had died in the stream—then the afterworld would be a wonderful place to exist. She was loath to do anything but obey his commands. Moon Runner spread her thighs wider and his face moved between her legs. Her swollen bud throbbed before his eyes. Feminine juices glistened in the moonlight. Shannon’s hips bucked forward with a mind of their own when he drew his finger up her slick length and licked his lips. With the tip of his finger, he dragged her feminine moisture upwards to brush damp circles around her navel. He loved how his Ghost Woman’s stomach muscles clenched tightly beneath the feathery weight and sucked inward as her pubic area mounded forward with a silent plea. Her fingers curled around blades of wispy grass as her slender neck arched with pleasure. He continued to play about her navel until, with a groan, she grabbed at his hand and guided it back to the heat between her thighs. “Please…” A chuckle rumbled from somewhere between her legs when a thick finger was inserted into her pussy once more. Shannon’s lower body surged forward. He opened his mouth, lowered his lips, and licked her swollen clit. Flattening his tongue, he began the dance as he shoved his finger deeper into her quivering pussy. Hot spikes of anticipation shot through her body from wherever his mouth touched her. Shannon was lost to the sumptuous sensations scattering through her blood from her throbbing clit. She squeezed her eyes shut and panted out, “Oh, my God…” The heels of her bare feet dug into the damp earth, allowing her to better control the motion of her hips. She ground her pussy against his face. The muscles of her ass clenched tightly as she began to hump wildly. Moon Runner endlessly whipped his tongue through her wet slit and teased her vaginal opening until he slipped his dampened finger from her heat and went in search of another opening he would claim as his own. His Ghost Woman surged upwards when he slid his moist, seeking digit into her tight rectum and sucked greedily on her engorged clit. Shannon’s scream of instant fulfillment echoed across the prairie as his mouth lapped at the juices flowing from between her pussy lips. The tight tunnel of her ass pulsed about his finger. Moon Runner had dreamed of how this woman’s juice would taste on his tongue when she finally came to him, but nothing had prepared him for the sweetness he now swallowed.

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Shannon gasped mindlessly as each wave rolled, one over the other. She had entered a world of sensation. The feeling of his finger caressing the inner walls of her ass, the velvet feel of his tongue sliding in and out of her pussy, then sucking ferociously on her clit—the sweet stinging bites of his teeth nibbling at her pussy lips, stretching them wide so the night air could cool her heat. There was nothing else in the world but this man. She wanted—no—craved more from him. She had to have him inside her. If this really was a dream and she awoke, she would weep the rest of her days because she had missed this chance to be loved by him fully. She couldn’t walk away now—she refused to leave until he’d fucked her hard. “Fuck me. Please! Now! I want your cock in me.” She wiggled, eyes closed, waiting for the feel of his hard cock stroking the inner walls of her pussy. Opening her heavy lids, she looked down between her raised knees to where he stared back quizzically, his lips glistening with her feminine moisture. It was all she could do to focus on getting him to fulfill her needs when his finger continued to tease the inside of her rectum. “Fuck me!” she implored. He continued to stare. Shannon’s head fell back with a groan as she kneaded her breasts in frustration. The finger continued to plunge into her ass. Her body continued to roll against the blissful pressure. “You have to fuck me!” Shannon clutched at his muscular shoulders, urging his body upwards and over her own. She grunted when his finger slipped from her ass and, immediately, he shifted his weight, using the finger of his other hand to plunge into her wet pussy. A second finger increased her frenzy. He worked her body furiously when she arched against his hand, sliding in and out of her as he tilted his chin to watch the sky above them. The moon was positioned directly above them. “It is time.” The words came to her in a heated fog of sexual pleasure. Her body quaked. Her limbs trembled violently. A masculine thigh parted her legs further as he settled between her raised knees. “Look at me, Ghost Woman. I want to see your eyes on this first time of our love. I have waited to slide into your tunnel—to feel the heat of your body wrap tightly around my staff. I drip for you, Ghost Woman.” Shannon dragged her lids open and focused on his eyes. His dark, smoldering gaze pinned her to the ground as he guided his throbbing cock to the threshold of her dripping pussy. His lips parted as his swollen penis slid slowly inside her pussy, inch by thick inch, until her body stretched around his hardness. He slipped deeper inside her welcoming sheath until she felt the pressure of his smooth tip against her womb. Guiding her feet to his shoulders, Moon Runner watched her shuttered eyes as he began to move inside her, the long, slow strokes sending sparks from deep in his belly up the length of his masculine shaft. The complete joy of finally finding his love blazed in his dark eyes. The tenderness disappeared as she thrust to meet each stroke. The

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savage passion of his lifelong wait overtook him. He began to pound against her, driving her body against the earth. Beads of perspiration dotted his forehead, his ass cheeks clenched with his hard strokes. Each time the tip of his penis surged forward, Shannon groaned with pleasure as she tumbled through a world of skin against skin, the sounds of wet sex, and a sucking pussy trying to draw his cock further into her body. Blonde hair spread out across the prairie grass, inviting the light of the moon to dance across the silky length. His straight, black tresses whipped against her nipples with each savage stroke of his hips. Heat curled inside his belly when she screamed into the night and clutched blindly at his arms, her feminine, orgasmic pulses milking his cock greedily until he impaled her to the wild earth, letting the spirits of his manhood fill her completely.

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Chapter Five Some semblance of sanity finally returned to Shannon when Moon Runner withdrew his penis from her sweat-slicked body. Harsh pants raked across her swollen lips as she scrambled from beneath him to a sitting position. Her body continued to tremble with the exquisite sensations he had created but, at the same time, she became instantly appalled that she had just had fantastic sex with a complete stranger—or was he? The physical sensations he’d aroused only moments earlier could not have been a dream. Shannon ran a shaking hand through her damp locks. “I…I want to know who you really are. My God!” she cried out as she hugged her arms across her breasts. “I don’t just roll over and have sex with any man I come across.” She pierced him with the confusion in her eyes. What was I thinking? I never even said no! Technically, he hadn’t forced her. He’d simply asked her to open her legs. She had and was instantly swept away by his expert lovemaking. He lifted a lock of her thick hair and let it slip sensuously through his fingers. “We were predestined. You will never be able to say no to me. And, in turn, I will always worship your body. You will always love me.” He shook his head in wild fascination when his eyes met Shannon’s. “You finally came to me, Ghost Woman. I have loved you, and waited for you all of my life.” Her slim brow furrowed as she increased the distance from him, protectively curled her arms around her huddled nudity, and tried to ignore the fact that her body ached crazily for his touch once again. “You keep saying that. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I…I don’t…please…please just give me back my clothes.” She held out a trembling hand. Moon Runner’s gaze swept the length of her body. “You came to me naked—as I knew you would.” He cocked his head and narrowed his eyes in bewilderment. “You did not know that you searched for me?” “Well, yeah, I did, but…not the real you. I was searching for information about you. I work for a newspaper and happened across a picture of…well, I guess the guy must have been your grandfather or something. You look just like him and I…I…got swept away with the moment. I thought he was you.” Her gaze darted about so she wouldn’t have to look into his eyes. She couldn’t tell him of the many dreams of lying beneath him—or someone that could have been him. The images were suddenly crystal clear in her mind. Confessing would only fuel his ardor, and Shannon needed to get control of this ridiculous situation. If he touched her again, she would be lost. Her hand lowered to the grass as her eyes darted about the riverbank. “I have to find my clothes. They were right here before I went swimming. Did you hide them?”

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“I know not what clothes you speak of. I watched your naked body enter the water. When I heard your voice calling out for help, I realized it was you. I saw that you were in danger, and I dove in to pull you to safety.” And then you made hot, sexy love to me…my God! She had to do something! She had to get away from him and think about what she had just done. He didn’t frighten her, of that she was quite sure. But, she couldn’t sit here, naked, and have someone happen upon them. She took a deep breath and swallowed the bit of embarrassment she felt. So what if I’m naked? The guy just did things to my body that no other man ever has… She bounded to her feet and spun to charge up the small bluff. Before Shannon took a step, Moon Runner leapt up behind her, stepped forward quickly, and wrapped his arms around her slim waist from behind. “Where are you going?” “Let go of me.” She ignored the excitement of his touch as it laced its way through her chest. She should be screaming for help instead of remembering the sensation of his thick cock sliding up between her legs. His strong arms about her waist seemed…seemed natural and right. Shannon hated to leave the confusing safety of his embrace, but she had to figure this out—and she couldn’t think when his hands explored her body. “You have to let go of me…” “I can never let you go,” he murmured beside her ear. His hand traveled over Shannon’s flat stomach to caress her pubic mound. Her eyes drifted shut, and she swallowed away her shameless reaction to his nearness. “I…I have to go to my car. I have some clothes in the backseat. Please, stop doing that.” The back of her head lolled against his firm chest when Moon Runner nuzzled her neck with hot lips of promise while he caressed her swelling clit. “What is a car?” Shannon fought the urge to spread her stance and bounce against his palm to recapture the magic feeling of another hot orgasm. His fingers drove her wild and had the blood roaring in her ears. It would be wonderful to have them deep inside her pussy again. “You…you know,” she stammered. “It’s that big metal thing with four tires…” Her voice trailed off. “I do not know of such a thing.” One of his hands cupped a breast more firmly as the fingers of the other played at the opening of her wet vagina, spreading her pussy lips wide until she felt the slight breeze cool her heat. He bumped against her ass with his growing erection. “You do not need clothes. The night is warm, my love. I think I will keep you naked until the winter snows find us. I think I will love your body again…” Shannon forced herself to yank his hand from her breast and ignored the hot thrill of his fingers gliding through her slit. She tried to leave his embrace, but Moon Runner’s powerful arms spun her to face him. His mouth lowered to hers in one of the most intimate kisses Shannon had ever shared. He nibbled at her lips and flicked his tongue within the warm intensity of her responding mouth, arousing a rare sexual need

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once more. He sucked her tongue into his mouth and urged her to lick him back. A thick, searching finger spread the lips of her pussy and worked its way inside, stroking, teasing…promising… “I can’t…” she whimpered. “I have to go…” Her hips undulated against the probing touch. “You will always stay with me. We have been apart far too long.” Shannon’s knees buckled when another finger entered her pussy. His powerful embrace kept her from falling to the ground as her body began to sing once more. “You love me, or you would not give in so easily. Do you like this?” he whispered as a wet finger slipped from her pussy, and he flicked her clitoris. Shannon’s head fell back as she clung to his shoulders. She licked her dry lips, the innocent motion sending a jolt of excitement through his groin. “What do you want me to do to you, Ghost Woman? My manhood cries to be inside you once more.” A smile touched his lips when her hips rolled in his clutches. “Fuck me…” “What is this word ‘fuck’?” Moon Runner increased the tempo of his plunging fingers. “Is this ‘fuck’?” “Yes…oh, God, yes, but I want…” “What do you want, woman? Touch me and let me know.” Her eyes fluttered open. His handsome, angular face was so near that she could feel his warm breath fan her cheek. The beating of his heart against her breasts excited her. Shannon wanted him again as she had never wanted any other man. Working her hand between them, her fingers burned when she touched the smooth, velvety skin of his hard cock. Instant satisfaction raced through her body when she heard the sharp intake of his breath. She ran her hand down to the base of his shaft and back up with a tugging motion. “With this…fuck me with this,” she pleaded and tightened her grip. Moon Runner easily lifted her against his broad chest. Shannon found her waist encompassed by his large hands. A moment later, he hiked her body high, and then guided her pussy down over his thick cock as she clung to his shoulders. His hands grasped her buttocks, and he rocked against her with his powerful hips. The orgasm hit her instantly. Moon Runner’s penis continued to knock against her womb even as the waves of her orgasm lessened. The intense ramming, the weight of her own body meeting each stroke, and her quivering pussy dripping with the force of her release made her scream out loud. “Yes! Yes! Fuck me like you are! Don’t stop, please don’t stop!” Without a second’s hesitation, he dropped gracefully to his knees, and then to his back, bringing her along with him. Shannon rode him, taking his hard length time after time. Somehow, she knew she had waited her entire life for this moment, and she couldn’t get enough. Her breasts bounced above his chest until Moon Runner dragged

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her from his body and forced her to her stomach. He yanked her ass into the air, held her hips firmly, and plunged his cock into her pussy from behind. Shannon rose up on all fours and met each stroke, wild with the sounds of night around her and the sparkling constellations above. She was the she-wolf and he her alpha male. Moon Runner’s fingers moved to grasp the ass that slapped against his body. He pounded harder. “Ghost Woman…” he hissed through a clenched jaw, staving off his own release. His penis filled her as he forced her body to remain still. She groaned as her pussy stretched and quivered around his width. Shannon’s upper body sank to the ground…waiting for him to move. She panted hard. Moon Runner reached around her nipped waist and massaged her swollen clit until Shannon’s body answered his short little strokes with the undulation of her accepting hips. “Yes…yes…fuck me!” Sizzling heat radiated from her clit. She rose to brace herself over locked elbows. Her stomach muscles clenched and she rocked with him, their sex as wild again as the world around them. The blaze he had started encompassed her entire body. It heated her stomach. He pumped harder. It burned her breasts as he stroked her moist clit. The fire burst into flames. Pulse after pulse exploded as he rammed into her stretched body. Shannon’s body sank to the ground, weakened by the all-encompassing orgasm. Moon Runner followed her down, his tempo changed now to short, spasming jerks until he howled savagely into the dark and emptied himself once more. He fell beside where she lay on her stomach with her arms stretched out and her legs splayed across the grass. Her panting breaths matched his as they waited for the last vestiges of their combined orgasms to come to a quivering halt. His cum dripped down her inner thighs. Minutes passed as she lay motionless, and listened to the sound of his rapid breathing slow to an even pace. It couldn’t be him. If it was, he was a ghost. But no ghost could feel as hard as he does… She raised her eyes, inhaled deeply, and brushed the tangled tresses from her eyes. “Are you really Moon Runner?” He chuckled and pulled her close with a slight nod of his head. “I am the man that has waited for you.” “But you died over a hundred years ago. How can that be?” “I have not died. I am who I am because it is truth, because you are my destiny.” His hand brushed across the soft skin of her upper arm. To Moon Runner, the reason they were together was as simple as breathing. “We should leave now and go to my home.” Sanity returned. “Oh, no, I don’t think so. I’ve got to get back to my car and find some clothes before we’re discovered.” She struggled to her knees, ignoring her aching bottom, and was surprised how quickly he followed to help her to her feet. Shannon

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placed a flattened palm against his hard chest. “Really, I have to go back to Rapid City. I’ve got to check my messages. My editor has probably tried to get a hold of me a dozen times already.” “Where is Rapid City?” “Oh, come on. You live here, don’t you?” He didn’t answer her, so she continued. “It’s two miles from here. I’m staying at the Best Western.” Moon Runner gave up trying to guess what her strange words meant. Instead, his hand reached out to caress a naked breast. “You will stay with me tonight—and forever. My teepee is not far from here.” A hysterical giggle bubbled in her throat. “A teepee? Why doesn’t that surprise me?” He pulled her close. “Come with me. I want to love you again.” Shannon’s stomach flipped. Moon Runner wasn’t the only one who wanted to have sex again. The man positively turned her inside out with his large, sexy body. “I’ll tell you what. I can’t believe I’m going to propose this, but why don’t you come back to the hotel with me and we can talk for a while. I need to ask you questions, and I don’t have my tape recorder with me.” She took his hand, pulled him along with her up and over the grassy knoll—and was met with a wide, dark expanse of prairie. Even the sky was inky black and empty of the usual lights of Rapid City brightening the horizon. Shannon stopped short and glanced around. “What—” Dropping his hand, she ran a few steps forward, and anxiously searched for the paved road. There was none. And there was no rental car. “My car—it’s gone! What is going on?” Fear burgeoned in her chest as she spun, ran a few yards and stopped. Nothing was familiar—nothing was as it had been a few hours earlier when she’d driven out to this favorite spot of hers. The remembered line of scraggly brush had disappeared. The painted sign naming the North Rapid River was gone. She jumped when Moon Runner’s hand gently clutched her arm. “Come. We will leave now for my home.” Shannon shook off his hold. “What? Are you crazy? I need to find some clothes and then find a cop. Someone’s stolen my rental car!” “Whatever you look for has never been here. I have hunted this area the entire day. There is no town, only the reservation headquarters. If we do not leave, the soldiers will come, and I will be put in their jail because I am with a white woman.” Shannon stamped her bare foot. “What the hell are you talking about? There are no more ‘soldiers’ out here. Only poor Indians trying to make a living off of the tourists!” She stopped dead in her tracks. “What did you just say?” Her ears began to ring. “I will be put in jail if I am caught naked with a white woman.” Even in the moonlight, he could see how her face had paled. “The article…” she breathed out. Shannon clutched his arm. “I read about a man named Moon Runner.” He was hanged by the neck for loving a white woman! “But he lived

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over a hundred years ago…” She stepped closer to him, ignoring the goose bumps on her arms. “What did you say about there being no city?” She had heard him the first time, but needed to hear the words again. The dark sky behind them frightened her beyond belief. Unless there was a power outage, the usually lit sky over the city had definitely disappeared. “There is no…Rapid City. Only the Pine Ridge Agency headquarters—and many armed soldiers.” Shannon’s brain buzzed. Her face dropped into her upturned palms as she tried to gather her rattled thoughts. Unexpectedly, she was lifted into his embrace. “You are upset. We will go to my home. You will rest and we can discover your answers another day.” He strode purposely toward a small outcropping of trees by the riverbank. A quick whistle brought a beautiful pony into the clearing. The animal trotted up to him and Shannon was atop the horse before she knew it. Moon Runner leapt up behind her, and urged the horse forward. Shannon remained quiet as her thoughts tripped over one another. She had no choice but to go home with him, and hope to see things clearer in the light of day. She couldn’t walk naked back to Rapid City. What the hell was going on? It was as if she had gone back in time. She straightened and inhaled a calming breath. No way—it’s not possible…is it? That’s the stuff of movies… All right, Shannon, you’re still trying to recoup from your near drowning…you must have had your oxygen cut off too long. “Are you still upset?” Moon Runner’s words whispered past her ear. He hadn’t even stopped to pick up his loincloth, and Shannon could feel the outline of his cock against her buttocks. Her slender shoulders shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I be? I almost drowned today. My clothes are gone—along with my rental car—and where there used to be a road is just a damned prairie now. I think I’m losing my mind. And, then there’s you.” “No, my sweet. There is us.” “Yeah—something else I need to figure out. This is craziness, Moon Runner. I need to know exactly who you are.” “I am a man who needs to be inside you again.” Shannon held her breath as his hand dropped between her widespread legs that straddled the horse. His fingers played about her opening, not quite able to dip into her pussy because of her position. His other hand gently massaged one breast and then the other. Hot lips nuzzled one creamy shoulder. The animal plodded on, oblivious to the two humans on its back. “Moon Runner…” she whispered. “We can’t keep…I have to—” Oh, my God…I want him again… “You will lie back and not deny me access to your body. I will…fuck…you with my fingers.”

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Her body swayed against the solid heat of his chest with a will of its own. She was powerless against the onslaught of his promise and immediately forgot her problems as she adjusted her body further to accommodate his request. She was instantly rewarded with his finger swirling around inside her pussy as another flicked her swelling clitoris. No man had ever filled her with such ecstasy with a simple touch. Clutching his naked upper thighs to stop the spinning in her head, Shannon lifted her knees wide and rested her feet on his legs. Moon Runner dropped the reins and cupped Shannon’s pubic area with both hands to support her as he teased her vagina mercilessly. He finger-fucked her and played along her wet slit until she began to thrust her hips forward with the rhythm he set. The gentle kisses against her shoulder turned to small nips. Withdrawing his finger, he smiled when she mumbled the word “no”, and then he lifted her slightly to work his hand beneath her ass and back up between her legs. He held her close against his chest. His finger began the dance inside of her hot pussy once more. Her pussy shuddered around his finger. She urged him deeper and moaned in delight when he inserted a second finger as another orgasm stole the breath from her lungs. Moon Runner drugged her senses with his masterful touch and biting teeth. Her brain whirled with the intense desire he had sparked. Shannon moaned and grabbed at his hand when her legs dropped limply to the sides of the animal. She nearly wept when he withdrew his fingers from her body but, an instant later, he lifted her effortlessly into the air, turned her to face him, and then settled her onto his lap, nestling his engorged penis against her stomach. “I love you, woman.” She wrapped her arms around his naked shoulders just to get closer and dropped small kisses across his chest. Leaning back, Shannon tentatively touched the angle of his strong jaw. Their gazes locked, and she knew without doubt that what he said was the truth. “You have not told me the same.” Moon Runner waited breathlessly to hear the words from her mouth. Shannon’s head nodded slightly. How they had found one another seemed unimportant. Suddenly, she realized she’d been looking for him her entire life, not just over the past two months. She was no longer in love with a dead man—the handsome warrior in her arms lived and breathed. “I don’t know where you came from—I don’t know how we managed to find one another, but I do believe you are who you say. The way you look at me is the same as the photograph. You called out to my heart then, and I could do nothing but follow the silent voice until I found you.” It was true, and Shannon could no longer deny it. “I don’t understand how it happened, but I know that right now, right this very minute, I belong here with you. It’s as if my whole life was created for this moment.” Her fingers trailed over his cheek. “I do love you, Moon Runner. I think I always have.” Her heart swelled in acceptance. Following her instincts had led her to Moon Runner’s waiting arms.

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He lowered his mouth to her waiting lips to seal the vow in a tender kiss. “I know you have many questions, but the future will take care of our love. My vision as a young boy has shown that to me. Come…let me love you again.” He clasped her waist, lifted her slightly, and adjusted her hips until he pierced her body once more. Still wet from the last gush of orgasmic juice and semen, she slid easily down his shaft. With a sly smile curving his mouth, Moon Runner’s knees nudged the pony into a trot. Shannon’s mouth gaped open in surprise as her body bounced on his erection. She watched his eyes close with delight and knew he enjoyed the sensation as deeply as she did. They embraced one another, felt the heat of satisfaction build, and cried out in unison only minutes later as the horse trotted across the prairie through the startling darkness, lit only by the light of the moon.

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Chapter Six Shannon rolled to her back beneath the soft deerskin cover, opened her eyes to the new dawn, and fought a momentary pang of fright until she realized where she was. Bolting upright, her eyes scanned the unfamiliar interior. The night before, she had fallen asleep after the hot, sizzling sex atop the horse and hadn’t wakened until Moon Runner placed her in his bed. Now, her worried gaze darted about his home in the light of morning, frightened that he had left her alone. “Moon Runner?” She tried to keep the panic from her voice. Was last night a beautiful dream? It couldn’t have been. Being in his teepee was like visiting a museum of Indian artifacts—except for one difference. His possessions lying about were not articles that looked a hundred years old. Her panicked heart settled a second later when the flap was thrown open, and Moon Runner’s comforting presence filled the doorway. “Is anything wrong?” He rose to his full height once inside, and dropped the deer hide door cover to block out the morning sun. The warrior was still as naked as the day he was born. Shannon was amazed at how comfortable he was with his masculine body. He stood proudly, his broad chest proclaiming his strength. Moon Runner’s black hair was slick with water from his morning bath. His penis hung flaccid but, even so, Shannon’s eyes widened at the width and length, wondering how her body had taken him completely inside when he was aroused. He was a magnificent specimen of a man. She forced her eyes from the dark patch of hair between his legs, and the penis that became rigid before her eyes. Moon Runner felt himself grow hard. Having Shannon eye his male genitals from the confines of their bed aroused his senses like none other. It had been all he could do not to cover her sleeping, naked body with his own at the light of day and find solace in her hot, slick depths once more. She was awake now, however, and she stared at him with longing in her eyes. He stepped close and stroked his cock—long, easy pulls that hardened him even further. His eyes narrowed when he imagined her mouth enveloping him like the water of the stream. He needed her heat around him. “Ghost Woman, I desire you.” “Moon Runner…” she forced her gaze away from his thick penis and looked up to meet his smoldering dark eyes. “We need to talk first. I need to figure out what happened last night. Everything was…changed…somehow. When I went under the surface of the water, my clothes and my car were there. When you saved me, they disappeared. Even the road was gone. The land around the river was suddenly different.” He stepped closer, remained silent, and continued to tug at his cock. He reached out and gently pulled Shannon to her knees.

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She swallowed when her eyes leveled with his hard cock. Glancing up at him, she tried again. “I love the feeling of you inside me, but I need your help to figure out some answers today.” Moon Runner held his cock with one hand and reached for her head with the other. His long fingers wrapped the silky softness of her curling tresses in a gentle hold as he tugged her face closer to his body. “As I said last night, the future will find itself and become the past. Now? It is this day, Ghost Woman. It is this minute, and I yearn for your lips around my manhood.” He urged her mouth forward. “Open for me and bring me joy that I have not experienced yet.” The tip of his penis nudged her closed lips until she opened her mouth wide, unable to deny him his request. Moon Runner slid the tip of his cock across her tongue with a small groan of delight. “Suck me, Ghost Woman.” Shannon instantly forgot her problems once more when the tangy dew on the head of his penis infiltrated her mouth. His huge body mesmerized her, beckoned her to the joy only she could give him. She reached up to grasp his cock with one hand while the other teased his testicles. Opening her jaw wide, she slid her lips down his velvety hardness, nibbling as she went. Moon Runner instantly pumped against the back of her throat, grabbing her head with both of his large hands and guiding her mouth to the tempo he set. His head fell back and his eyes closed. The thick muscles of his thighs tensed. Shannon groped his tight ass cheeks, and grabbed each firmly to help balance herself, as she sucked and licked for all she was worth while kneeling before him. She loved him and showed him it was true by the way she cherished his cock with her tongue and lips. Moon Runner’s head tipped forward as the streaks of heat built in his groin. He watched her head move up and down through shuttered eyes. How had he lived so long without his Ghost Woman in his life? She glanced up and watched him lick his lips as he continued to thrust into her mouth. Shannon’s hand drifted from his ass cheek to grasp his penis in a tight hold. She darted her tongue against the slit of its swollen head and jerked his cock with unforgiving fingers. Moon Runner’s growl rasped through open lips. His breath came in heavy pants. Suddenly, he needed more. He withdrew from her clutches, grabbed her shoulders, and forced her to her stomach. He knelt beside her, wrapped a muscular arm beneath her waist, and hauled her rounded ass upward. The fingers of his other hand trembled down the length of her ass crack, searching, seeking the small brown hole. Moistening his fingers inside of her dripping pussy, he then gently worked one finger into her anus to prepare her. Shannon gasped against the deer hide and arched her body in response when the tip slipped past her anal ring.

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“Oh…God…Moon Runner…” She was speechless after that, as he worked his finger deeper. She was powerless to do anything but groan with pleasure as he took control of her body. Moon Runner settled Shannon on her knees, using his thighs to spread them wider. Taking his cock into his hand, he rubbed it through her wet slit first, moistened it completely at the opening of her pussy, and then gently worked the tip into the puckered hole of her rectum, watching her body spread around his thickness. Shannon lay with her head against the fur, amazed at the sensations that coursed through her body. His penis in her ass didn’t hurt as she had expected. She felt his cock twitch inside her. “Ghost Woman…I do not want to hurt you.” “You’re not,” she whispered against the fur. “Please don’t stop. I want you to keep going.” Tenderly, he began to move—each time pressing further inside her rectum. “Oh—” Shannon moaned quietly, and then spread her knees wider. Nothing had prepared her for the total sexual enjoyment of being fucked in the ass. Her hips undulated slightly, urging him to pump faster by the motion of her body. Moon Runner drew his cock back, stopping just before he slipped from her ass. He began to thrust into her with short strokes. The heated friction of her tight walls wrapped around the head of his penis and his woman’s total acceptance combined to build the fire within his groin. Shannon groaned again and grasped at the deer hide beneath her hands, completely lost in the pleasure of the tight, forced pressure. “Faster…” The one word spurred him on. Grasping her hips tightly, Moon Runner increased his tempo. Shannon’s body followed him. Her breath caught in her throat as hot spears of sexual frustration shot through her lower body. She immediately pulsed around his hard shaft, groaning and grasping tighter at the deer hide, completely lost in the orgasmic bliss he brought to her once more. His heart hammered in his chest when he felt her ass pulse around his hard shaft. He slipped forward with one long jerk that spewed cum from his cock. His nipples hardened as his orgasm racked his body. Only Ghost Woman could do this to him— only she could make him feel as if he had stepped from his ordinary world into another life. Panting for air as the pulses of semen slowed, he withdrew from her taut tunnel, and rolled her limp body until she lay sprawled on her back. Shannon stared up at him with glazed eyes until she realized he was done with her body. Moon Runner dropped gently on top of her and kissed her softly, tasting himself on her tongue. A gentle smile touched his lips as his fingers kneaded a swollen breast. “Now we can talk of your problem and settle your worried mind.”

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She blinked in confusion before her mind cleared. Touching his cheek, she smiled and inhaled one last, deep breath to regain her senses. “You make me forget my problems, but problems they are.” “When I am inside your body, I cannot think of problems—I can only think of you.” She sighed deeply and kissed his lips once more because she couldn’t help herself. “Something is going on here that I need to discover.” She nestled her head into the crook of his shoulder when he settled beside her. “You have to help me with something, Moon Runner. I want to go back to the river.” His brow furrowed as he stared upward. “Why would you want to do this?” “Because I need to look for my car in the light of day. I need to see if I can find the road I spoke of. I just can’t understand what happened yesterday. There is only one explanation, and I have to prove it false.” He rolled to his side, propped his head in the palm of his hand, and searched her face. “You confuse me with your strange words. You speak of things I know nothing about.” Clasping his hand to kiss his fingertips, Shannon mentally shook her head. “You have never seen a car?” He simply shrugged. “Have you ever seen a road by the river?” “There is nothing but a path for the ponies to follow. It is a short walk from the spot where I found you.” “Okay, then answer me this. You told me about having some sort of vision. I’ve read that Sioux men and others like you have some sort of life-altering experience. Tell me again about yours.” His fingers lovingly brushed her heated cheek. “I was but fourteen summers when I went to the mountain. I fasted for three days before the moon becomes full in the night sky. As it tipped the horizon, I saw you standing before me. Your body was pale in the light…” he paused to touch her hair, “…the wind played with your white hair and you smiled and touched your heart over your naked breast. I named you Ghost Woman and you told me to wait for you. You said we would find great love in the future. And now you are here.” Shannon bolted to a sitting position and clasped her arms around her naked body to keep the shivers at bay. “That’s crazy! I don’t remember that happening.” She rubbed her forehead with the fingers of both hands and sighed deeply. “I don’t even know if I want the answer to this, but…you speak with an accent—as if English is a second language to you. Is it?” “To survive in this world where not all white men can be trusted, all my people have learned to communicate with the white traders. They bring many useful things to our camp. They make life for our women easier, and make the warriors more powerful

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with the iron guns they trade.” His eyes narrowed slightly. “They tell us of the soldiers and their movements in the hills that surround us.” She turned her watery gaze to his loving one as she ran her hand through the rumpled length of her hair. “I feel safe with you, but your words frighten me.” Moon Runner quickly sat up and touched her trembling shoulder. “Why do my words frighten you? It has happened like the Great Spirit declared. We are one now.” Shannon fiercely shook her head. “No! You don’t understand. Things like that don’t happen in my world. This whole experience…” She fought to find the right words. “It’s like I was dropped back in time, but that’s impossible.” She clutched his arm. “We have to go back to the river.” Even as she said it, Shannon wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do. “If it will send your fears away then, yes, we will go back. But for now, let us bathe in the stream.” He rose and pulled her to her feet. As he took her hand to lead her outside, she yanked him to a stop. “I need some clothes. I can’t be riding around the countryside bare as a baby.” “But I like you as you are.” He cupped her breast and gently squeezed the soft mound. Shannon’s blood instantly warmed, but she fought to stay on track. She had to figure out the last twenty-four hours. “Please. I don’t want to go out naked.” He sighed. “Stay,” he said. “I will find you something to cover yourself.” “Wait! Aren’t you going to put something on?” “I am comfortable,” he shrugged. “Well, I’m not so sure I am. Wait right there.” Shannon grabbed a loincloth that hung from a peg, and tossed it at him. “Put that on. I need to stay focused, and I can’t do it when you’re naked.”

***** Shannon paced the confines of the teepee until Moon Runner entered his home once more. Draped across his forearm was a beaded buckskin dress. He carried a pair of moccasins in his other hand. The sight of the native clothes made her hands tremble as she accepted his offering and held them close to her chest. “No jeans and T-shirt?” she asked hopefully. Moon Runner lifted a quizzical eyebrow. “Never mind—just wishful thinking.” “This is what the women of my tribe wear.” Shannon leapt forward. “There are other people here? Where are they? I need to see them!” In a flash, she pulled the dress over her head and shoved her feet into the

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moccasins. Without a word, she rounded his large body and exited the teepee for the first time. She froze at the sight. The pristine valley stretched out before her was dotted with rawhide tents. Small fires burned sporadically in fire pits placed close to the teepees. Wispy bits of gray smoke curled into the air and disappeared into the bright light of morning. Indian children and yapping dogs played in the warm sun. Women who were clothed like Shannon went about their morning chores, laughing and joking among themselves as they worked over tanned hides stretched across the grass by wooden pegs. It was a confusing and devastating scene from the past. A Sioux girl skipped around the edge of Moon Runner’s tent and stopped so quickly that dust wafted up from her small bare feet. Shannon stared at her, judging the girl to be in her early teens. Slowly, she approached Shannon and reached out with a tentative, wondering hand to touch the white skin of her arm. The girl’s dark gaze swung to the entrance of the tent when Moon Runner exited through the flap. Her face creased into an instant smile and words tumbled from her mouth—words that Shannon didn’t understand. The big man rattled off a response before the girl’s brown cheeks split into an even wider grin. She stepped forward and reverently took Shannon’s hand. “Moon Runner said you would come to him. I am glad you have finally arrived.” Shannon’s bewildered gaze jumped from the teenager to Moon Runner’s proud face. She was speechless to think the child had expected her. The Indian girl’s brown gaze settled on Shannon’s blonde hair. She reached up and let silky strands slip across her fingers. “You look just as Moon Runner said you would. The Woman-With-White-Hair. This is a great day. I will tell all our people, Moon Runner.” Tossing a happy smile in the white woman’s direction, she raced happily across the camp. Shannon watched the girl, her mind still baffled at the sight of the small village as the child stopped to speak to a group of women while pointing in the direction of Moon Runner’s tent. Her trembling fingers scraped across her scalp and clutched at her head in order to halt the instant pounding as the Indian women leapt up and scattered throughout the camp, chattering excitedly. Shannon’s body flinched when Moon Runner placed his hand on her shoulder, and then she whirled to stare up at him with fear blazing in her eyes. “Is this where you live all the time? Please!” She grabbed at the light buckskin shirt he had quickly donned when she’d raced from the teepee. “Please, Moon Runner, tell me this is a joke!” “A joke?” Confusion darkened his eyes. “I do not understand what you mean. This is my home, Ghost Woman. The young girl is Little Fawn, my sister.” Shannon stumbled back, lifted her hands to stifle the scream behind her drawn lips, and then grasped the sides of her head again to stop the spinning in her brain. The incomprehensible predicament rushed in at her from all sides. It can’t be! This is

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impossible! She drew in a deep breath, exhaled, and breathed deeply once more. Her shaking hand fluttered to rest against her chest as her eyes closed for a moment. All right…stay calm. There’s got to be an explanation… Raising her chin, she swallowed and looked up at the bronzed man. “Do you have any idea what year this is? I’ve got to know.” “I know not what you speak of.” He reached out and pulled her to his side, slightly upset at the instinctive shudder that ran through him when he touched her. The sensation forewarned him that all was not right in his world yet—something that had prodded at his brain in the dark of the night. She had come to him…but would she stay? “Come back with me into the tent.” “No!” she shoved herself away. “We’ve got to go back to the river—now!” “Let us wait, my love. Morning is not a good time to be away from the others. The soldiers will be riding out to look for prisoners. As long as we are here and minding our lives, they will leave us alone. It is not safe to let them see you. Ghost Woman, you are a white woman with a Sioux man. They will not take that well.” Shannon’s body began to sway as she fought the urge to faint. Moon Runner collected her into his arms and turned on a bare heel to return to the security of his tent and the safety of a world where he was still in control.

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Chapter Seven “You need to eat.” He held out a carved bowl filled with fried meat. Shannon rolled to her back and stared blankly at the space above her. “I can’t. If I do, I’ll throw up. I have to find out what’s going on…don’t you understand that? When I went into the water, everything was fine. I was in the future.” She tipped her head and looked at him now. “I’ve got to find someone who can tell me what year it is. Christ…” The oath was a soft whisper as she ran a hand through her tangled tresses. “This is like a horrible dream…” Pain flashed across Moon Runner’s face before his eyes darkened with instant, repressed anger. “Is it a bad dream to be here with me? I have told you, our lives were destined. I have waited for you most of my life.” Seeing his pain, Shannon rose quickly, moved to him, and wrapped her arms around his broad naked shoulders. She clung to Moon Runner. “I don’t mean to hurt you. I do love you. I didn’t tell you this before, but I remember dreaming about you now. That’s why your photograph must have struck a chord with me when I looked through old newspapers. I never want to leave your side, Moon Runner, but I’m stuck in some kind of time warp and, no matter what, I have to find the reason why.” “I am your reason. Do you not understand that?” He pulled her close, afraid to let go of her now—afraid that the Great Spirit would snatch her from his life. “Let us pack our belongings and travel north to disappear in the safety of the big mountains. It will be you and I forever.” Her forehead rolled against his chest. “No…we have to go back to the river tonight. I know I’ll find my answer there.” She sank onto the deerskin bed and huddled on the edge. Moon Runner hunkered down before her and clasped Shannon’s trembling hand in his. His thumb brushed across the soft, white skin as he stared at the ground. A heavy sigh whispered across his lips before he glanced up to take in the blue of her eyes, the color always reminding him of a cloudless day. A strong hand tenderly cupped her cheek. His voice lowered. “I feel fear in my heart, a feeling I did not possess yesterday when I first held you in my arms. Something here,” he placed a clenched fist against the skin of his broad chest, “tells me to take you far from this place or we might lose one another.” Shannon’s trembling hand reached out to caress his square jaw. “Listen to me, Moon Runner. You will never lose me. Now that I’ve found you, I can’t let you go. But, don’t you understand? I need to have my questions answered. Nothing is familiar except you.” “Is that not enough?” 44

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Her head shook slowly. “If only it was.” Insidious fear curled in his belly like a snake waiting to strike. His earlier prodding intuition burgeoned now into tangible panic. Some strange force was lurking just outside his reach, ready to whisk his Ghost Woman from his life. Moon Runner let go of her fingers when she rose from the bed. He watched her rub away the shiver that raised the hair on her arms. He yanked his knife from the sheath at his side. With a quick flick, he carved a line along his wrist. Dark, red blood bubbled to the surface of his skin. A look of horror contorted Shannon’s face when he rose, snatched her hand in a firm hold, and turned her palm upwards. “What are you doing?” She tugged, but he only tightened his grip. The knife’s blade shimmered before her. “I ask you to seal our vow of love. The strange sensation that sits in my heart will not fly away, even though I try to struggle against it. Sharing our blood will make our spirits become one for all eternity. I fear losing you, Ghost Woman.” A shiver of impending doom trickled down her spine. Shannon suddenly understood Moon Runner’s need. She felt his fear, but she shook it off. The strange emotion, however, had urged her to cherish her day with this man whom she had just met, but who had lived within her heart her entire life. She relaxed her hand in his grip and squared her slender shoulders. “Do it.” He sank to his knees before her. A small gasp of pain escaped from her throat when he ran the blade tip across the inside of her wrist. Gently, he placed Shannon’s wrist over his and removed the beaded necklace he wore. With solemn eyes, he wrapped the jewelry around both their hands to bind them together. He gazed into her glistening eyes. “I love you, Ghost Woman. Only you. Our blood mingles as one now. Because of this, I consider you my wife for all time. If we should be parted, remember that I will find you. I will cross the heavens to search for you, begging my Gods for help.” He looked up and waited. Shannon sank slowly to her knees before him and stared into his dark, serious eyes, overwhelmed by his devout declaration. “I love you, too,” she whispered and blinked the tears that burned in her eyes. “I am honored to be your wife. I will consider you my husband for all time. If something happens, I’ll wait for you. That is my promise.” The warrior twisted his hand in the binding until he was able to link his fingers with hers. Pushing Shannon gently back to the soft bed, his body covered her feminine length. His tongue ran across the seam of her lips, his heart pounded when she opened her mouth wider and gently sucked his tongue. Moon Runner relished the sweet scent of her breath. Resting on his elbow, he dragged her dress up over her hips. Shoving the flap of the loincloth to the side, Moon Runner entered her without another word, working his penis into her warm folds until her body became wet with acceptance. They locked gazes as he moved slowly within her hot sheath, his strokes a silent plea to never leave him. Shannon curled her fingers more firmly around his, spread her legs wider, and arched her lower body to meet each of Moon Runner’s tender thrusts.

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His eyes narrowed when the first tremors of her orgasm clenched tightly around his cock. Heat filled his belly—a second later, the love he held in his heart for the woman beneath him carried both to the edges of the earth and back.

***** Later that afternoon, Moon Runner left Shannon to privately prepare herself to meet his family. Nervously, she used her fingers to rake her blonde curls into some semblance of neatness, her eyes darting constantly to the buckskin flap covering the doorway. He had told her that surely his little sister had informed his parents about the woman whom he had spoken of over the past years and they waited to be introduced. She paced the confines of the tent now, her mind racing with the situation she found herself in. Shannon carried no doubt that she loved the man who continually made such sensuous and hot love to her—who declared his love steadily—but the possibility that she had traveled back in time to find him was unfathomable. Now she was about to meet Moon Runner’s parents—people who understood that she was part of their son’s vision many years earlier. “How can it be? There’s got to be an explanation…but what? I’ve got to get back to the river…” A slight rustle forewarned her that Moon Runner had returned. Shannon took a deep breath and brushed her hands nervously over the soft deer hide of her dress. She waited. His big body dipped through the doorway. Following him was a beautiful Sioux woman and a man as large in stature as Shannon’s new husband. They both straightened as Little Fawn squirreled her way through the opening and met her new sister’s gaze with a happy smile. Moon Runner proudly took Shannon’s hand in his and glanced at the elderly couple. “Parents of my heart…this is Ghost Woman. She has come to me as declared by my vision.” The slender woman stepped forward and reached out her arms. Tears glistened in her dark eyes, a smile of welcome curved her lips upward. “My daughter…we have waited many years for you to come to us.” Her lilting voice immediately soothed Shannon’s jangled nerves. “My son’s life is now complete with you by his side. No more will he be lonely.” She leaned forward and kissed Shannon’s pale cheek. “Welcome.” “Thank you…” As strange as it was, Shannon immediately felt more at ease. “I don’t even know your name.” “I am Singing Woman.” Her smile widened as she motioned for the man beside her to step up. “This is Moon Runner’s father, Spotted Elk.”

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The handsome, tall man whose features Moon Runner carried, nodded his head. “Welcome, Ghost Woman. It is a joyous day that you are here with us. We have waited long, but none so impatiently as my son.” They stood before her with no questions or concerns. She was a white woman who had shown up out of nowhere, yet that did not seem to be the least bit of a problem. The idea that she could have leapt back in time nearly caused Shannon to swoon. She clutched Moon Runner’s offered hand to gain strength, however, and pushed the insane thought from her mind. Little Fawn approached the younger couple and glanced up. Her brown eyes shone brightly with excitement. “I am glad you have come. We will be sisters. There are many things we can share now.” Despite the bizarre situation, Shannon found the courage to smile. “I have never had a sister. It will be an honor to have you as mine. Thank you for your welcome.” Singing Woman clasped her young daughter’s hand and met Shannon’s gaze. “We will leave you now and begin to prepare for a celebration.” The smile died on Shannon’s face. “A celebration?” Moon Runner squeezed her fingers. “My mother and father want to formally introduce you to the people of our tribe. It is a happy event they have waited for. It is customary and will be a grand evening for us to enjoy.” She silently watched his parents leave with Little Fawn, her blue eyes troubled. As the flap closed behind them, Moon Runner pulled Shannon into his embrace. “Is something wrong?” She laid her head against his chest. “I’m just having a hard time with all of this. Am I the only one concerned that I’m here?” “My parents have always understood that someday you would be in our midst. If they can accept it so easily, why are you struggling?” “Because I need answers, Moon Runner. Please take me back to the spot you found me.”

***** At Shannon’s insistence that they return to the river, Moon Runner finally gave in and lifted her onto his mount’s back that same night. The moon was bright as they slowly followed the path back to where Shannon had nearly drowned. As they sat quietly atop the horse and moved with the gentle rhythm, neither spoke. Shannon remained silent because she prayed her rented car would be parked on the side of a dusty road, exactly where she had left it. Moon Runner was mute because of his fear. To him, it was not right to test the spirits that had brought his love to rest in his embrace.

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The sound of crickets echoed around them and frogs croaked loudly when they reached the river. Moon Runner sighed heavily, then slid from the horse’s back. He reached up with a somber look in his black eyes. “Nothing has changed, Ghost Woman. All remains the same from what I can see.” Shannon did not respond to his declaration. Instead, she reached out and felt the comforting strength of his arms as he lifted her from the horse. An instant later, she hurried up the slope to stand on the bluff. Her eyes darted about in the ghostly light of the rising moon. Moon Runner stepped up beside her, watching as Shannon’s fingers trembled against her lips. He barely heard her slight whisper as she continued to stare out. “It’s really gone. I can’t believe there isn’t a road here.” They stood in the twilight with the prairie grass gently tickling the bare calves of their legs. Shannon turned to gaze out at the western horizon once more, praying that the bright lights from Rapid City would suddenly appear to illuminate the sky. Her eyes, instead, followed the filmy outline of the Black Hills against the night. There was no sign of a modern city. “I…I just can’t believe it.” Moon Runner pulled her body against his hip and lovingly rubbed her quaking shoulders. “I tried to tell you, love.” Shannon shook her head. “You don’t understand. Something happened to me yesterday. I came from another time. Somehow, the river has something to do with it.” She turned her head, and her gaze took in the expanse of rippling water that shimmered in the moonlight. Her body shuddered as her arms clasped his waist tightly. “I’m frightened, Moon Runner.” “Do not be.” Even as he said the words, his heart began to splinter. If his Ghost Woman was really from another time and a force stronger than their love decided to return for her, there would be nothing that he could do to keep her safely by his side. “You have to take me to the Pine Ridge Headquarters.” His jaw clenched as he held her slightly away from him and stared down at the tense set of her jaw. The fear of losing the woman he had loved for most of his life blazed brightly in his eyes. “I will not,” he declared stubbornly. “Yes, you will. I have to see it for myself.” “No!” His muscled arm sliced the air when he stepped away. “Do not ask me to do this, Ghost Woman. It is not up to us to decide our fate.” Shannon rushed forward and laid her palm against his chest. The frantic beat of his heart pounded beneath it. Her chin tipped up. “Don’t you know why I have to see it for myself? I have to understand what happened. We won’t call any attention to ourselves…” The memory of him standing beside the gallows roiled inside her stomach, almost changing her mind, but she couldn’t stop searching for the answer until she knew the truth. “We’ll be careful. Please, Moon Runner, please come with me. If you

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won’t, I’ll go myself. I can’t accept my travel through time as easily as you—if that’s what has happened. I need to have the final proof.” A wolf howled in the distance. Shannon watched his eyes flutter closed. His chest expanded as he took a deep breath. She waited, respecting his struggle. Finally, a nod of his head preceded his mumbled reply. “All right. I will do this thing for you.”

***** Moon Runner held Shannon’s fingers as they crept stealthily to the top of a bluff. Resting his hand lightly on her shoulder, he urged her to the hard ground. Lying on their stomachs, he nodded at the compound below them. “That is Pine Ridge.” Shannon inched closer to the edge, unmindful of the rocks and dried grasses that pricked the tender skin of her shins and arms. The sight of the U.S. Calvary sitting around open fires and the log cabins built to house reservation Indians was like a knife piercing her heart. Her ears buzzed as the blood roared through her brain. She gathered her wits though, as her eyes searched for any object that might belong to the twentieth century. They traveled past a pasture of horses, rested on the many wagons belonging to the barracks, and then moved to a row of cannons lined against an old wooden building. There was absolutely nothing that she could spot in the fire’s light that could be considered even remotely modern. Her limbs began to shake, her stomach heaved. It’s not possible! Her hopeful eyes darted about in search of power lines, cars—anything—she had to find something. Dammit—please! But, only the scene from the past continued to waver as she blinked back her frightened tears. The realization that her body had actually defied physics and traveled back in time was her final undoing. Shannon clamped a trembling hand over her mouth to hold back a panicked scream. Fear clogged her throat a moment later. “Ghost Woman…” Moon Runner laid his hand on her shoulder and felt her flinch beneath its weight. The floodgates of shocking fear opened wide and heavy tears coursed down her ashen cheeks. Shannon was helpless against the terror that invaded her heart. Her shoulders quaked uncontrollably. Moon Runner lifted her limp body into his arms and hurried to his horse as he cradled her lovingly. Even his gentle touch and words spoken to ease her pain did not stop the torrent of tears.

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Chapter Eight Shannon collapsed onto the fur-lined bed once the couple returned to Moon Runner’s village. She stared blankly, still in a state of half shock, dry-eyed and exhausted from the earlier outburst. Her world had really disappeared. In its place was an alien and terrifying future. Moon Runner watched her closely as she rolled to her side and curled her body into a fetal position. Her outburst had frightened him beyond belief. Never had he felt so powerless to make a situation better. The only thing he could do was hold her protectively as they traveled through the night until they reached his home once more. His broad shoulders rose and fell with a silent sigh of worried frustration. She had refused to listen to his words during her tirade. Maybe now, when she lay with dry, red-rimmed eyes, her body finally still from the tremors of fear that had racked her, she would listen to the love in his voice. He approached the bed and sat beside her. Tentatively, he reached out a hand and rested his palm on her hip. “Shannon…” She rolled to her back with astonishment leaping from her gaze. He brushed silky, blonde strands away from her forehead with his free hand. “Do not be surprised that I call you by your other name. If it will bring the smile back to your beautiful lips, then I will not call you my Ghost Woman any longer.” “You know my name.” Her response was more of a statement than a question. He nodded. “Yes. The first time I saw you, I called you my Ghost Woman. Do you not remember that you said your name was Shannon?” She drew in a deep, cleansing breath, and her hand moved to his where it rested against her hip. She lifted his palm to her brooding lips, dropped her lids to cover her sad eyes, and kissed the roughened skin. When her lids fluttered open once more, her gaze moved over his face, taking in the line of his jaw, the curve of his regal nose, and the dark eyes that shone with unconditional love. She loved Moon Runner beyond belief. A mere twenty-four hours had passed and yet she knew, without a doubt, that she had always searched for him. Little had she known, however, that to find him meant to travel back in time. Shannon let Moon Runner gently coax her upward, and she wilted into his warm embrace. Laying her head against the smooth skin of his chest, she listened to the comforting, steady beat of his heart. It’s true… I’ve always loved this man… Somehow, their love had spanned the many years that separated them—fate had finally led her to him. No matter what, she needed to remember that the destiny he continually spoke of would have brought them together somewhere in time. The real man and not just a

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picture lived in her heart now. Overwhelmed by her intense emotions, she lifted a hand and swiped at a lone tear trickling down her cheek. “Please, my love, do not weep again,” he stated quickly. “My heart breaks with your unhappiness.” A weary smile curved her lips at his impassioned plea. She leaned back in his embrace and glanced up. How could she feel so lost and yet so secure at the same time? “I’m not crying anymore because I’m sad. I am your Ghost Woman. I will always be your Ghost Woman. I cry because your unconditional love makes me so happy that it moves me to tears.” The puzzled look on his face actually caused a slight giggle to bubble in her throat. “I’m confusing you, aren’t I? Let me try to explain.” She drew in a deep breath, brushed away the tangled strands from her face, and tipped her chin to meet his puzzled gaze. “Seeing the agency headquarters tonight made me face what has happened. I’m not from your time, Moon Runner. I come from a place in the future—so far in the future that you probably can’t even imagine it. But, somehow, your love called me here through all the years that separated us. I was able to travel back through those years to be with you.” “I am trying to understand, Ghost Woman. How can you be from so many lifetimes away? I cannot see how that is possible.” “Believe me, I’m having a hard time coping with it myself. But, it’s true.” He pulled her close again, loving the smell of her hair and the feel of her small body in his arms. “But I did not call you. I have simply waited as you asked when we met for the first time on the mountain. I fell in love with you as a young boy. I knew then that you would come to me when you were ready. I thought you were surely given to me by the Great Spirit.” “Your vision boggles my mind. But then, so do the dreams I had about you. Until I remembered those, I thought I had only seen you in a photograph I once found.” “What is a photograph? You have mentioned this thing before and I don’t understand what it is.” She struggled to rid her mind of the gallows and hangman’s noose that she had seen. Shannon refused to speak of it and forced the image back into the dark recesses of her mind. “A photograph is like a…a picture. It’s like looking at your reflection in the water’s surface.” He concentrated on her words. “But how can you look into the water, but see my face?” She sighed. “Just believe me when I say it’s true. I don’t know how else to explain it.” She glanced up again. “I know this is confusing, but I’m not so confused that I can’t ask the question what are we to do now?” “We will live our lives and…” he cupped a large hand around her breast and smiled to lighten the moment, “…make love all our days.” “It’s not that easy.”

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“It’s very easy. Would you like me to show you how simple it can be?” She swatted him with a playful pat on the arm. “I see that the male species hasn’t changed over a period of more than one hundred years. You all have one thing on your mind.” Moon Runner’s face split with a smile, but not because he thought he was being humorous. His heart was happy again that Ghost Woman had lost a bit of the fear in her beautiful blue eyes. “When a vision such as you has finally come true, how can it be otherwise?” She arched an eyebrow and continued. “Like I said, it’s not that easy. Where I come from, people will be looking for me. They will think I drowned in the stream when my clothes and the abandoned car are discovered—” She saw the instant question in his eyes. “And I’m not going to explain what that is again. Just know that there is such a thing as a car.” Moon Runner bent and scooped up a singed twig from the cold ashes of the fire. He handed the branch to Shannon. “Show me. I want to understand about your ‘car’. Draw a…photograph…in the dirt.” She grabbed his hand and urged him to sit on the ground beside her. She used her palm to smooth the dirt as Moon Runner sank beside her. “All right, now watch closely.” She traced an outline of a car. “People in the future ride in cars to go places like you would ride a horse.” He leaned forward, acutely interested as she added tires to her drawing. “Where are the legs?” Shannon smiled and bit her tongue. “There are no legs. See these? They’re tires that turn like a wagon wheel.” Moon Runner rubbed his chin, deep in thought. “And it moves without a horse to pull it?” “Yup. A car also goes very fast—so fast that a running horse could not keep up with it. Here, watch this. It’s called a truck. It’s bigger than a car, but is more like a wagon because you can put things in the back of it.” She quickly scratched out a truck. “What do you think of that?” His quizzical eyes moved from the truck to the car and back again. “If I lived with you in the future, I would give you the car and ride in the truck. It must be more powerful.” Shannon giggled and tossed the stick to the ground. “Men…you’re all alike. My father is the same way. He drives this big truck around even though he doesn’t have anything to put in the back of it. My mom drives her little sedan and couldn’t be happier.” Suddenly, the thought of her parents pining for information about their daughter’s whereabouts made her sad once more. She lifted one of Moon Runner’s big hands, cuddled it in hers, and paused for a moment. “My parents must be grieving, thinking that I have died. I have a job at the newspaper, my own home, and friends that will wonder what happened to me.” 52

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“Is there a man that worries about you also?” Moon Runner nearly choked on the words. Shannon recognized the instant concern in his eyes and lifted his hand to rest over her heart. She covered his palm with her own and pressed it close as a gentle smile appeared on her face. “My heart belongs only to you. There is no other man.” She tilted her head and studied his masculine features. “You know what? It just occurred to me that I have never had a serious relationship with anyone. My mother frets about that. I’m twenty-six years old, I’m her only daughter, and she’s always worried that I would never marry and have someone to take care of me.” “I will care for you always.” “I know you will, but it’s not the same. She’ll never know that, because I can’t tell her.” Shannon glanced around the inside of the teepee, noting the familiarity of Moon Runner’s belongings. “If I can’t get back, this will be my home.” He pulled her body against his. “Do not say such a thing. My biggest fear is that you will leave me. You will not do that, will you, Ghost Woman? Will you stay with me always?” Shannon didn’t answer him. She only ran her nose across the front of his chest, breathing in the smell of horses and the musky scent of his skin that she had so easily come to love. If the chance arose, would she leave him to go back to her other life? She couldn’t imagine a time of not being wrapped within his caring arms, but would she be able to live this primitive life with Moon Runner? The idea was something she shouldn’t even concern herself with. Fate had somehow brought her to her one true love and she would have to become accustomed to all the past had to offer. What were the chances that she could defy providence twice? She pressed a kiss against the warm skin that stretched across his shoulder, suddenly yearning for the reassurance that the man beside her would be in her life forever. “I need you to love me, Moon Runner… Show me why I love you…show me that I don’t have to be frightened…” His eyes instantly darkened with smoldering heat as he lowered his mouth. His lips whispered across her moist ones and traveled to the side of her neck. Shannon’s lids drooped and she wondered if he could hear the pounding of her heart. “You are more beautiful than the night I first saw you on the mountain…” He nuzzled her ear and slowly pulled her against him as he breathed the scent of her clean hair. “Your cheeks are flushed, and when your beautiful eyes sparkle with love, they turn to a soft blue that reminds me of a piece of the sky…” Instant tears welled in her eyes. As big and powerful as Moon Runner was, he was a gentle, tender man who would do or say anything to bring a smile to her face. He pulled back slightly, cupped his hands on either side of her face, and used his thumbs to brush away her tears. “I look at you, and I see the woman I love more than life itself. I want you in my life always, because you are already in my heart.” 53

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Shannon’s fingers lifted to wrap around the hands that cupped her face. Her tears flowed harder with his heartfelt declaration. “I need to hear that you feel the same, Ghost Woman. My life will be nothing if you are not here to share it with me.” “Moon Runner…” she breathed. “I do…I do love you—with all my heart. I can’t believe that fate led me to your arms…” He rose to his feet, clasped her hand, and pulled Shannon up beside him. Once she was tucked close in his arms, he lowered his lips to hers. Shannon’s palms slid up his naked chest and around his neck. His comforting embrace, coupled with the lips that pressed soft kisses against her temple, became a silent vow to always love her and to forever keep her safe from the world—a warm promise that, no matter what the future would bring, she would never have to fear anything. A muffled groan left her throat as his mouth moved to devour hers. His hands urged her body firmly against his chest before he slid them down the slim line of her back. He massaged the firm, round spheres of her ass. The thick line of his hardened cock pressed against her belly. “I need you, Ghost Woman,” he rasped against her seeking lips. “I have needed you my entire life, but I could never find you…stay with me—now…” Her fingers slid tentatively down over his flat stomach to grasp his cock through the deer hide of his loincloth, signaling Moon Runner that she needed to feel his throbbing heat inside her. She needed his strong body shielding her. She needed him. His hands left her body for only as long as it took to shrug off his loincloth. The primitive garment fell to the ground as he dropped to one knee, lifted her slender foot, and removed a moccasin. Shannon’s exploring fingers delighted in the feel of his thick, flowing hair as his hand brushed down the opposite slim ankle until she stood barefoot on the cool dirt floor. Moon Runner stood before her again, his chest expanding with each quick breath as his fingers moved to untie the laces at the shoulders of her dress. He growled softly when his mouth discovered the hollow beneath her ear, and Shannon’s head lolled to allow him easier access to the soft skin. Eager hands found the edges of the gaping neckline of her dress. He slid the buckskin material over her shoulders, following the same path with light, worshipful kisses. The dress slipped down her body to the ground as his mouth moved onto the crest of a naked breast. Moon Runner’s heart thudded wildly against his rib cage as he rolled an erect nipple across his tongue. He wanted her, and rejoiced in the fact that she felt the same burning desire. He cherished his Ghost Woman with his whole being, with his entire heart. And, he knew he would never forget the feeling for as long as he lived. Ghost Woman set him on fire. He swept her into his arms, kissed her long and hard and, in three long strides, placed her gently onto the bed of furs. His hands moved to massage her swollen breasts as Shannon stared up through shuttered, passion-filled eyes. His gaze locked with hers

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as a single finger trailed across the velvety softness of her belly, and then swirled through the golden pubic hair curling above the apex of her legs. Shannon felt that she peered into his soul as she raised her knees and spread her thighs. She waited breathlessly for his magical touch, knowing it wouldn’t be long before her body sizzled with sexual tension. Moon Runner’s middle finger moved to her throbbing clit and feathered light circles around the swollen bud. Her head fell back against the fur. Her lids drifted closed as her hips arched upward. He continued to tease her clit, his dark eyes watching how her body swayed sensuously with the motion of his finger. “You are so beautiful…” “Please…put your finger in me…” Shannon spread her legs wider. A tender smile touched his lips as he moved to lie between her splayed feet. “I will do better than that, my love.” Slowly, he brushed a tender trail from the back of her knees to the soft skin of her inner thighs. Shannon’s body surged forward, her glistening folds begging for the touch of his lips. Moon Runner’s fingers skimmed across the outer lips of her pussy. Gently, he used his thumbs to spread her soft folds wide. Shannon groaned and flailed to grasp his head. She pulled his mouth forward as her hips thrust time and time again, waiting…waiting for his tongue to lap the wetness from her pussy. He licked her once. Shannon gasped and rolled her hips forward. Moon Runner smiled. He licked her again, this time nipping her clit gently with his teeth. Shannon felt the first sparks begin to heat inside her womb. Another groan of ecstasy slipped from her mouth when his tongue flicked over her clit. “Moon Runner…please…” He could barely control the urge to pound inside her tight pussy, but he would make her weak with pleasure first. His fingers tightened around her thighs as he opened her wider. Shannon’s fingers curled around her swollen breasts. Her head rolled from side to side. The cool air inside the teepee wafted over her clit and was replaced a second later by her lover’s heated breath. Moon Runner opened his mouth and licked the moisture that dripped from her hole. His lips trembled against her clit. Shannon moaned when he gently slipped two thick fingers inside her pussy as he wrapped his lips around her clit and began to suck the bud across his tongue. He reached inside her, feeling the slick walls of her vagina. Then…he began to pump his fingers. He sucked harder. Shannon screamed. She came hard. The all-consuming burning sensation reached her breasts as she squeezed the heavy mounds and rocked against his mouth. The 55

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breath clogged in her throat as Moon Runner shoved his fingers inward as deeply as they would go. He let her body shudder around them. Pre-cum dripped from the swollen head of his penis. He yearned to fuck her hard, but…not yet. Shannon’s rocking motion finally slowed. Her breath came in harsh pants as her lids fluttered open. She lay weakly on the furs and waited for her head to quit spinning. Her body jerked when he licked through her wet slit once more. “I…oh, God, Moon Runner, I want to do the same to you.” “But I am not through with the many things I want to do to your body. I want to show you the many ways as you have asked me to.” Shannon raised herself to her elbows. A smile touched her lips. “You have your entire life to love me. I’m going nowhere…” She sat up, noting how quickly he rolled from his belly, his eyes dark with passion as he waited on all fours to see what she would do next. Shannon licked her lips. “I want you to lie back. I want to suck your cock and pleasure you the way you have pleasured me.” He crawled further onto the bed, and then rolled to his back, his eyes filled with anticipation. Shannon eyed Moon Runner’s stiff erection standing proudly before her. She crawled between his legs, forcing his knees wide. His cock quivered as she slowly wrapped her fingers around the velvety smoothness. Meeting his gaze, she lowered her mouth and swirled her tongue around his dripping tip, lapping at his male essence. His belly muscles flinched. “Do you like that?” His breathing changed as his fingers curled into tight fists. “I am yours to do with what you like.” She ran her tongue down to the base of his shaft. Carefully, she sucked a testicle into her mouth and gently rolled the soft sac with her tongue. She watched Moon Runner’s lids lower as the air rushed from his lungs. Goose bumps covered the skin of his arms. Shannon smiled to herself. Slowly, she nibbled her way back to the tip of his penis. She squeezed her fingers firmly around him when she darted her tongue into the slit. His entire body jerked again. “Ghost Woman…” “I’m here, my love.” Shannon opened her lips wide and let her tongue swirl down the length of his penis until she couldn’t take any more of the thick shaft into her mouth. Moon Runner’s hips lifted in a silent plea as she kissed her way back to the tip. Using her fingers to stroke him, she steadily began the rhythm up and down his shaft. Each time she worked her sucking lips up his throbbing cock, she would suckle the tip and lick the moisture that seeped from his penis. Moon Runner finally growled and urged her atop his body before he came. Shannon went willingly. She captured his waiting lips, relishing the feel of his hands brushing across the skin of her back. 56

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“I love you, Moon Runner…only you…” “Ghost Woman…” He gently tucked her body beneath his in one easy roll. A tremulous smile played about Shannon’s parted lips as she ran her fingers through his thick hair once more, her heart bursting with the complete freedom to love him fully without any fear of the future. The realization that she had finally found the love of her life after so many lonely years clogged her throat once more. Moon Runner straddled her thighs. “I love you, my woman. I have always loved you.” His hands slid over her body with an exquisite slowness, down across her rib cage to her soft belly and back again to her breasts. Wherever his palms touched, a tender trail of heat scorched her skin. Soon, her entire body smoldered beneath his fingertips. Shannon yearned to feel his heat once more—the same passionate heat that had licked her soul during the many weeks she’d searched for him. “Now, Moon Runner…” she breathed quietly. “Make me feel safe. Make me understand why I love you as I do…” His palms left her breast and traveled lower between their bodies, over the flat silkiness of her stomach, then slipped between wet, velvety thighs. He whisked a finger across her clit as he bent to suckle one nipple. Shannon urged him on when she pulled his mouth to hers and, because of her eager lips and clutching hands, Moon Runner could no longer stave off his own surging emotions. He also needed the comfort of her body wrapped tightly around his cock. His soul cried for his Ghost Woman. Moon Runner poised his bronzed body on strong arms and stared into the fiery blue eyes beneath him. His lips searched for Shannon’s and, as his tongue delved into her mouth, she surged against him and clasped his shoulders tightly. He entered her with slow, rhythmic movements and was rewarded by the tightening of her vaginal muscles around him and the sensual rise and fall of her body. Shannon held her breath as Moon Runner took her upwards. His tender, loving whispers of desire and need echoed inside her body. A flicker of heat filled her with love and security as it intensified into a spiritual flame, robbing the breath from her lungs. Only this wonderful, caring man had the ability to carry her away as no other ever had. Moon Runner heard her groans, and then her cries of fulfillment somewhere in the recesses of his mind. A feeling of completeness overwhelmed him as he pulled Shannon even tighter against him. It was the turning point for him. He stroked harder. His cock pounded into the softness of her body, seeking his own release. He came hard, spilling his cum into her depths. His own rapturous groans of fulfillment echoed across the tent. Shannon’s breath came in cleansing gasps as she floated back to reality—gasps that mingled with the heat of his kiss and whispered words of love. Moon Runner rolled onto his side, gathered a fur over their naked, entwined limbs, and tucked his Ghost Woman’s head against his shoulder. Tightly corded arms held her body with a gentle protectiveness that belied the strength he possessed. No words were

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needed. They drifted into a contented slumber as the coyotes’ howls echoed across the plains.

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Chapter Nine Little Fawn giggled beside Shannon as she glanced up at her new sister. “You are more beautiful than my brother could tell us.” Shannon’s cheeks turned a rosy hue as she smoothed the soft, white buckskin of her celebration dress. Moon Runner’s mother had brought the decorated garment to her new daughter-in-law only that morning. Intricate colored beads were sewn onto strips of white rawhide that dangled from the shoulders, around the short cuffs, and flowed in heavy rows from the hemline to her ankles. “It’s the dress that makes me so beautiful, Little Fawn. I don’t think I’ve ever worn anything that felt so soft against my skin.” She looked up at the young girl who also wore a beaded sheath. “Did you help Singing Woman make this?” Little Fawn’s dark head bobbed enthusiastically. “My mother and I have prepared the dress over many years.” Her chin tilted as she studied the woman beside her. “My sister, you could wear an old blanket and still be beautiful. I am proud and happy for Moon Runner. Beauty lies in the heart, Ghost Woman. You are simply fortunate to have your splendor also shine on the outside.” Shannon’s features turned soft as she stared at the girl. One moment, Little Fawn was an adolescent of fourteen and, the next? She could transform herself into a wise woman beyond her years. Shannon was amazed at the level of maturity Moon Runner’s sister possessed at times. She hugged the girl whom she had easily come to love. “I am fortunate because I have not only Moon Runner in my life, but you and your mother and father.” Little Fawn squeezed her back—just before her head swung toward the opening of the tent. Moon Runner entered the teepee. Shannon gaped longingly at him, never even realizing when Little Fawn slipped through the flap and disappeared. Her heady gaze traveled over the beaded headband stretched across his brow. Eagle feathers, intertwined within the band, hung to the broad span of his naked shoulders. Her heart hammered in her chest as she took in his sleek, big body covered only by a soft, white loincloth that matched her dress. The hemline of the skimpy garment barely covered his bulging cock. His thighs, lined with hard muscles, caused instant wetness between her legs. Shannon knew she would never tire of simply gazing at his long, powerful body—one that could make her insides turn to mush and leave her quivering with excitement. “Your beauty makes me weak, Ghost Woman. I fear the day will be overly long until I can take you in my arms and find solace within your heat.” His chest expanded with the air he breathed to halt the hammering of his heart. He stepped forward.

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Shannon wished nothing more than to be lying beneath him with his cock pulsing inside her. The reaction to his nearness no longer surprised her. She lived in a constant state of arousal as far as he was concerned. “I agree with you.” She reached out a fingertip and drew it across one dark nipple, licking her lips unconsciously as she thought of his big body making love to her. “If only the celebration was over…” Moon Runner’s eyes narrowed for a moment before he sank to his knees. Shannon’s breath caught in her throat when he slid the bottom of her dress upward. He worked the length of material up and over her hips and ran his finger through her already wet slit. Nuzzling his mouth against the soft pubic hair, his thumb caressed her clit as Shannon spread her stance. “Should we be…doing this?” Her head fell back and her lids closed when Moon Runner slid his finger into her pussy. Shannon’s hips pitched forward. Drums began to beat somewhere outside the tent. Moon Runner licked at her clit, slipped his finger from her pussy, spread her pussy lips wide, then licked gently at her hole. Shannon shuddered with delight at the sensation. He looked up with desire burning in his eyes. “I want the taste of you in my mouth. It will be a constant reminder of what is to come tonight.” Shannon grabbed his shoulders to keep from buckling beneath the onslaught as Moon Runner’s tongue and fingers darted through her dripping slit. Knowing she was close to coming, he slipped one arm around her waist and used two fingers of the other to stroke her pussy, drawing hot circles around the bud. Shannon worked her body against the pressure of his hand, groaning as the fire sparked from her clit. “Now!” Moon Runner jammed his fingers up her hot hole and let her shake around them, licking steadily at the moisture that dripped from her body. Shannon collapsed against his chest when he quickly stood, but continued to finger her pussy until she simply jerked sporadically against his hand. Finally, her eyes opened, the desire for him even stronger than before. Her breath came in shallow pants through open lips. “Thank you…that was…that was…” He kissed her open mouth. Shannon tasted the musky juice of her own body on his lips. He pulled back, and a smile slowly creased his face as he finished her sentence. “That was wonderful.” “Yes…” she breathed. Moon Runner draped the dress back down over her slender legs. “But it is only enough to keep me satisfied until we are through with the evening.” His tongue swirled over his lips. “Every time I look at you tonight, I will run my tongue across my lips and taste you and yearn for you even more.”

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Shannon’s stomach flipped. She took his hand and forced him to follow her outside. If she was alone with him for one more second, they would miss their own celebration because she would have him on his back and his cock in her mouth.

***** Shannon sat cross-legged in the luminescent light of the fire that roared inside the central pit. Bright flames swirled high, sending sparks floating toward the starlit sky. Moon Runner sat to her right, holding her hand while he laughed at a silly story his father told. Little Fawn resided to Shannon’s left, happily munching fried bread and watching the Sioux dancers skip to the steady beat of the drums. The people of Moon Runner’s band had earlier approached the celebrated couple with many gifts. Shannon found herself overwhelmed by their generosity and total acceptance of a white woman in their midst. Now they laughed with one another, enjoying the warmth of the fire and the fellowship of their families. She had watched them throughout the long evening, recognizing the love they held for one another. The Sioux were committed to their lives—lives that had remained unchanged until the white man usurped their lands and tainted their very existence. As the evening progressed, she found herself engrossed in stories of Indian ancestry, deep-seated religious beliefs, and the strength of the tribal unit. The warriors were brave men who fought for their rights, for their families, and for their familiar world that Shannon knew would disappear all too quickly. The women had all extended the hand of friendship, constantly urging her to join in. Shannon’s journalist instinct cried out to pen their stories and let the world know that a lot of what was to be written in the future was only half-truths and misconceptions. Hearing a deep chuckle from the man beside her, Shannon’s attention was drawn to the antics of the many braves as they hopped about with their festive costumes, their women shrieking with joy as the dance turned sensual. It was something they had waited for the entire evening. Men stood before their wives, rolling their hips suggestively and sending lurid gazes of promise. Little Fawn elbowed her sister with a knowing smile. “There will be many who will experience the joys of loving tonight.” “Little Fawn! I think there’s a side to you that not many people know about.” She giggled and popped the last piece of fried bread into her mouth. Licking each delicate finger separately, she finally swung her gaze from the dancers and eyed Shannon with a bounce of a slim eyebrow. “What is there not to know about a man and a woman loving each other? I wait for the time when the celebration will be for me and my future husband. It is a woman’s job to keep her warrior happy with food in his belly and a warm body to rest in.”

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Shannon’s jaw sagged at the girl’s knowledge of sexual interaction between a man and a woman. Before she had time to further digest that information, Moon Runner was pulled from his comfortable position as a spectator and urged by his many friends to become the entertainer. Little Fawn squealed in delight, clapped her hands together, and swiveled on her butt until she faced Shannon. “The men want Moon Runner to dance for you,” she declared breathlessly. “For me? What kind of dance?” The girl winked. “The Dance of Love.” Shannon’s mind went blank as her gaze swung to rest on her husband. He stood in the fire’s light, his sleek muscles shining with strength as he stared at her. The sound of drums lowered. The haunting trill of a flute hovered on the air. His bronze body glowed against the backdrop of the Black Hills and the twilight sky. Moon Runner’s dark eyes encompassed her soul as he began to sway. His arms rose above his head, his fingers taking on a dance of their own. A shiver ran down Shannon’s spine. Her lips parted, her breathing turned shallow. He moved with the grace of a sleek cat across the flattened grass, beckoning her with his eyes—writhing, spinning. His smoldering gaze never left Shannon’s. She was instinctively aware when Spotted Elk took Little Fawn’s hand and they moved away to sit with a group of friends. Suddenly, she was alone on the ground with only Moon Runner’s dancing body gliding in her direction with the grace of a magnificent animal. The light of the fire flickered over his glistening skin. His gaze alone exuded enough sexual promise to cause moisture to drip between her legs, but soon his body swayed directly before her, his hands fleetingly touching her breasts as he danced away to gyrate behind her. Shannon spun on the ground, her heart pounding rapidly. The blazing fire was not the cause of the building warmth that heated her blood. Her heavy gaze followed Moon Runner’s hands when he slowly…sensuously…brushed his palms up and over his knees to the front of the loincloth covering his bulging cock. He massaged his erection, swaying in her direction and then out of her reach. Shannon forgot that family members and friends surrounded her and her husband as she watched the outline of his thick penis grow harder beneath the buckskin. Moon Runner swayed closer, his feet spread wide and his muscled thighs bunched tightly as he began a rhythmic pitch of his hips as if he were fucking her. Shannon’s breasts tingled. She wanted him. She yearned to have his cock pounding into her until she throbbed with all-consuming pleasure. Her nipples ached against the soft buckskin of her dress. A shiver racked through her clit and into her belly as she looked forward to the time when his cock would pierce her open pussy. He could draw the life from her and she wouldn’t care. As long as she experienced one throbbing orgasm after another, she would die happy.

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Moon Runner’s hips surged closer as he continued to rub his cock. If Shannon chose to do so, she could easily whisk the covering away and lick the tip of his penis. The drumbeat pounded in her head as she once again imagined his thick penis sliding past her wet opening. In her mind, her pussy expanded around his shaft as she sucked it inside her sheath. Slim fingers clenched into fists as perspiration beaded her forehead. She struggled for air. His hand reached for hers. The touch of his fingers sent shockwaves up her arm. He drew Shannon upward until she stood before him, shivering and mesmerized by the sexual tension in his gleaming body. Moon Runner’s lips whispered past her ear as his penis surged against her pubic mound. “Dance for me…only me, Ghost Woman…” He dropped her fingers and sidled away on silent feet. Shannon swayed toward him, wanting to feel the heat of his body surround her. He dipped back and hesitated. His eyes held a feral gleam of promise. “Dance for me…make me yearn to fuck you.” He rubbed his cock and danced away. The drums beat louder. Shannon leapt forward, her body mere inches from his. She gazed into his dark eyes, seeing the reflection of the fire dancing in their depths. Her hips began to swing. Her fingers threaded their way through her flowing, thick tresses, lifting the strands high above her head before the curls floated slowly around her shoulders once more. Moon Runner licked his lips. A slow smile curved upward. “I can still taste you on my tongue, Ghost Woman.” The shock of his declaration burned in her blood. Her body instantly discovered the tempo of the drums that buzzed through her brain. She would dance for him—she would dance until Moon Runner lost all control. She would be the victor tonight. Shannon’s feet moved beneath her as her hands brushed across his flat stomach. As he turned his head, her fingers dropped to whisk by his throbbing cock. Nothing mattered but the man who would control her body forever. He had created the steaming emotions of passion in her loins. She would repay the favor, but be the winner in the end. Shannon dipped behind him. Her breasts jutted forward to press against the long line of his spine. Her fingers danced teasingly across the naked skin of his barely clad hips before she jumped to the side and spun in a circle with her hands raised toward the heavens. Her eyes drifted shut as she stopped before him once again and swayed sensuously with the drums. A coyote howled eerily, making her feel one with Moon Runner’s Mother Earth. She was the wind. She was the warm earth. She became the sun that would heat her husband’s body and caress the skin of his velvety cock. The drums beat louder, but Shannon heard each rasping breath Moon Runner sucked into his lungs as her hands traveled over her swollen breasts, lower across slender hips, and she cupped her throbbing pussy knowing that soon, he would fill her welcoming sheath. 63

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Shannon whipped her hair from side to side with the drumbeat, thrusting her pubic mound forward and back, accepting his earlier promise to fuck her wildly. She didn’t know if he continued to stand before her, but Shannon understood instinctively that he would take her when he was ready. The heat burgeoned in her belly and spread to her vagina. The wildness of her dance surged through her blood. Liquid seeped down the inside of her thigh. She groaned as her hands raced over the dips and valleys of her body. She teased him mercilessly. She taunted him by lifting the hem of her dress past her knees until only the beaded strips of buckskin covered her flexing thighs. The fingers of one hand squeezed a swollen breast, the other cupped her pussy once again through the thin strips of buckskin. Shannon raised her chin, stared into his heated gaze, and silently dared him to fuck her. She pulled her hand from between her legs and held it up so Moon Runner could see that her fingers glistened with moisture. The drums beat louder. Large hands roughly clamped around her waist, lifting her high into the air. Shannon wilted against Moon Runner’s chest when the final blow against the stretched skin of the drum echoed across the silent gathering. He spun in the dirt, clutched her body tightly, and headed for the darkness of the open prairie. Her shoulders heaved as she gasped for air to calm her pounding heart. Soon, the glowing light of the moon replaced the flickering brightness of the fire. The only noise was the soft padding of Moon Runner’s moccasins as the prairie grass flattened beneath his feet. Shannon clung to his shoulders as the heat of his body surrounded her own. She pressed kiss after loving kiss against his mouth. She sucked on his neck. She begged to be fucked. She moaned for release. Moon Runner finally sank to his knees with his Ghost Woman still cradled in his arms. In one smooth motion, he pulled the celebration dress over her head and flung the garment away. Moon Runner stretched out on his side as he lowered her to the ground. A strong, but gentle hand began a slow, torturous exploration of her supple body, increasing the fire in Shannon’s blood as it began an erotic dance across her white skin. He worked his way downward from her shoulders, kneading his way across firm breasts, a flat stomach and smooth, silky hips until he reached the wet crease between her thighs. Shannon’s body jerked when he thrust a finger past her silken pussy lips. Moon Runner flipped around onto his side, lifted one of her shapely legs upward and spread her thighs open to his seeking mouth. Shannon raised her head and watched, dreamlike, as Moon Runner’s dark head lowered to suck her clit into his mouth. His flowing black hair tickled the inside of her thigh as his tongue circled the throbbing bud. Her head fell to the carpet of russetcolored grass beneath her as heated spikes of sexual tension burgeoned in her womb when he dragged his tongue through her slit. This moment was destined to be.

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It was predetermined on the day Moon Runner went to the mountain and the day she had first seen his picture. Moon Runner—he was an intricate part of her past and her future even then. How could she not have known that? Shannon embraced the passion of his love and drew it deeper into her heart—her soul mate, whose arms made her feel safe in an unfamiliar world. When the orgasm hit her, Shannon’s scream reverberated across the silent prairie. Moon Runner quickly plunged his fingers into her gyrating body and let her pussy shudder around them. He pounded mercilessly against her womb. Shannon gasped for air and clawed at his arm to force his fingers deeper. She rocked against their strength, knowing she would never love another man like the magnificent Sioux warrior who controlled her heart and soul. Moon Runner’s mouth again traveled the molten path to her swollen pussy lips and, shifting his weight ever so slightly, he nudged his hips closer to her face. He physically ached with the need to drive his cock into her body, but pushed his own fierce urges aside. He needed her mouth around his thickness. Her heavy-lidded eyes fluttered open, and she reached up to touch his pulsing cock, lying so close to her mouth. With a trailing finger, she traced a path the length of his shaft before opening her mouth and sucking his hard length across her tongue— fierce, tortuous sucks meant to drive him as wild as an animal. She worshipped his warrior body. Moon Runner watched her tongue lick at the tip of his penis, then swirl down to the base of his shaft. His ass cheeks clenched tightly as he jutted his cock forward, relishing the feel of her stretched lips around his width. Turning his head, he returned to lick her pussy in long swipes that set her hips thrusting forward. She whimpered when he jerked his cock from her mouth. “I want to suck you, Moon Runner…please.” Shannon tried to scoot forward, but Moon Runner jabbed a finger into her pussy to keep her still until he won the battle against the instant orgasm threatening to erupt in his loins. She fell back to the grass, spreading her legs wide. Finally gaining control, he crawled over her naked body and settled between her splayed knees. He poised himself above her writhing body. “I love you, Ghost Woman. Only you…” His head lowered as he savagely kissed her lips, sucking the breath from her lungs. Shannon panted out a gasp when he drew away from her mouth. She gazed into his expectant eyes. In their depths, she saw a man who loved her deeply—one who would stand by her side and bring her happiness for the rest of her days. She reached up, brushed a finger across his swollen lips, and then cupped a smooth cheek. “And I love you. You bring me happiness, Moon Runner. And you make a fire burn inside me with just your touch.” Shannon’s fingers brushed past his mouth once more and trailed their way through thick hair to where the heavy strands lay against the back of his neck. The pressure of her hand brought his warm lips to her own once more. Moon Runner groaned against the slant of her mouth as he slipped into the wet sheath that awaited 65

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him. The slow stroking rhythm and the pressure of his cock filling her, carried Shannon to the precipice of orgasm. Lithe white limbs entangled themselves within strong muscular thighs as she pulled him closer and urged him to a faster tempo by tightening the muscles of her pussy and surging against his strokes. Moon Runner responded by following her lead and, encouraged by her constant murmurs of love, he increased the depth and speed of his thrusts, pounding into her heat. He drew from the well of devotion within her heart and gave from the depths of love in his own until their passion became as wild as the earth upon which they laid. The tempest of emotions continued to build until the fever of orgasm cracked like thunder. Shannon’s scream dwindled to heated moans as she rocked with him. Moon Runner thrust one last time and his cum sprayed inside her body. Perspiration rolled down between his shoulder blades as he shuddered with the hot, liquid spikes that crawled through his groin and into his belly. Minutes later, as racing heartbeats slowed and Moon Runner gathered Shannon close, they settled into the silent calm found only in one another’s arms. Neither thought of the uncertain future surrounding them, but only of the place they had just been. Moon Runner pushed himself up onto an elbow, and his hand gently moved the thick strands of curling hair away from her damp cheek. Shannon tilted her head to press a kiss against the callused fingertips that, only moments earlier, had burned her skin wherever they touched. Smoldering, velvet-black eyes stared into shining blue ones as a trembling, slim finger examined the small crease in his chin, the slant of his eyebrows, and the curve of his high cheekbones. Small beads of perspiration gathered where his forehead met the line of thick, tousled hair. Tears gathered in the corners of Shannon’s eyes. She blinked and they trickled down her cheek. Moon Runner brushed them away. “Tell me love,” he whispered, “that you cry because my love overwhelms you.” A gentle smile touched her lips as she remembered telling him of her happy tears when she had first arrived in his world. “This is so, warrior of my heart. I love you. I never want to leave your arms.” Moon Runner kissed her soft lips.

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Chapter Ten The following morning found the two lovers cuddling beneath the furs just as the day began to dawn. Shannon tightened her arm across Moon Runner’s chest, rubbed her cheek against the warm skin of his shoulder, and let out a contented sigh. Moon Runner smiled to himself and tucked her closer within the crook of his arm, thanking the Great Spirit for every morning he woke with her reassuring presence beside him. He glanced sidelong to take in the soft contour of her cheek. “Good morning, Ghost Woman.” Another happy sigh escaped her lips. “Good morning, love. And a beautiful morning it is.” Moon Runner slid his arm from beneath his wife’s head, and he glided atop her body. His fingers gently brushed stray tresses from her face as he lowered his mouth to her lips. “And why is this particular morning so beautiful?” Shannon hugged his shoulders. “Because I love you. Because we’re married, and because nothing is better in my world than waking up in your arms.” She hesitated a moment as she quietly studied his noble face. “Last night was wonderful. Your friends gave us so many beautiful gifts. I had so much fun watching the dancers and celebrating our union. The only thing that could top the evening would be a honeymoon.” He dipped his head and kissed her again. “And what is a honeymoon?” Moon Runner nuzzled her shoulder as he waited for her answer. Shannon tipped her head to the side to better feel his teasing lips and closed her eyes. “A honeymoon is a trip that people, who are first married, go on to be by themselves. It can be a few days or weeks long. People in the future almost always go on a honeymoon after they’ve been wed.” She tried to stay focused on her answer as his tongue licked across her collarbone. “What’s so nice about it is that no one else is around. The couple is alone and can do whatever they want, whenever they want.” “I think I like that idea. The thought of having you to myself to do what I want with your body makes me hard. All right, Ghost Woman, if that is what you want, then we will go on a honeymoon.” Shannon laughed, opened her eyes, and stared into his loving gaze. “And where would we go? Really, Moon Runner, it’s not necessary. I was thinking out loud.” He rolled from her body, grabbed her hand, and pulled Shannon from the bed. “Up, woman! Get yourself ready. I will let my parents know that we are going away for a few days. I will explain to them that our absence is because of our honeymoon.” “This is crazy! I’m perfectly happy to stay here.”

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He dropped a quick peck against her lips. “I want you to be even happier—and I want you to myself.” He grabbed his loincloth and quickly covered his half-hard erection. “We will leave when I return.” His gaze raked her naked body, and he couldn’t help himself when he reached out to fondle a pink-tipped breast. “Do not worry much about clothes. It is my plan to keep you naked.” He turned with a smile of promise and exited through the doorway. Shannon stared around the tent in happy surprise as a slow smile spread across her face. “Okay, then…looks like I better start packing.”

***** They rode the entire day into the higher elevation of the Black Hills. The cloudless sky and the soft glow of the sun as it sank on the western horizon promised a warm night on the mountaintop. Excitement glowed in Shannon’s eyes. The entire trip, Moon Runner had teased her that he had something special planned once they reached their campsite. Every time he taunted her about it, his eyes became heavy-lidded with lust. Shannon wiggled atop her horse just thinking about the coming night. With Moon Runner in the lead, they turned off the main trail and moved slowly down a brush-covered slope. The hard-to-detect path was steep, but not impossible for confident riders and surefooted animals. The trip down was worth the effort. Shannon gasped when she saw the clearing that stretched before them. “Oh, Moon Runner, it’s beautiful!” Her blue eyes scanned the shallow pond that lay before them—and the steady stream of water that fed the pool from a crevice in a massive rock wall, which rose twenty feet above them. The rock formation extended past them a good fifteen feet on either side of the small lake. Huge pine trees sheltered the open area, forming the remaining sides of the clearing. Moon Runner dismounted, then moved to lift Shannon from the back of her horse. “I thought you might like this place. My parents would bring me here when I was a young boy.” Their gazes met for one heart stopping moment as she slid down the hard length of his body. He kissed her before stepping away. “Tonight, something very special will happen here.” Before she could beg him for more details, he clasped her hand and led her across the clearing. The earth surrounding the pond was firm and level, and Shannon tugged on her husband’s hand until he stopped. She quickly kicked off her moccasins and wiggled her toes in the lush grass beneath her feet. Hearing his chuckle, she glanced up, but paused when she noticed numerous drawings that were etched on one portion of the rock wall. “Oh, my gosh. Look at the rock!” She let go of his fingers and hurried across the grass. Shannon quickly recognized stick-drawn images of horses and various other 68

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animals. She ran a finger over the outline of one of the figures, then turned to Moon Runner with a questioning look. “What is this place—and where did these drawings come from?” Moon Runner smiled, crossed behind her to the rock, and reached out to point to one of the drawings. He glanced down with a proud smile. “These pictures were drawn by my father. See here?” His finger traced a pattern around the outline of one of the drawings. “This one signifies the hunt. My father is on horseback with a quiver of arrows on his back. Here’s the buffalo he’s chasing.” He moved his hand to the left. “Over here is a picture of him and my mother and the teepee they live in. Look here, you can see the outline of a child.” His dark eyes softened. “This is me as a young boy. If you look close, you can also see an etching of the sun. It’s a little faded now from weathering, but the sun is shining down on the couple. It means that Mother Earth has been good to them.” Moon Runner watched Shannon with concealed interest. “Look closely at the teepee. There’s a picture of a moon on it.” Shannon leaned closer, in search of the object he spoke of. She was able to make out a faint circle. “What does it mean?” “The spirit of the moon guards their home and guides all of us through our lives.” Shannon reached out and slowly brushed the circle with her fingertips. She turned to smile up into his eyes, knowing how important the significance of the moon was to her husband. “It’s an honorable spirit,” she murmured. Moon Runner returned her smile, and their eyes locked for a moment with the shared memory of how they had found one another. Her face literally glowed in the late afternoon sun, and he had all he could do to not take her into his arms and make wild, passionate love to her. No, he would wait…because this night would be special. “Can we put something on the wall? I want us to have our own picture.” Trying to put aside the vision of her naked, writhing body beneath him, Moon Runner blinked until what she had just asked sank into his brain. “Yes. I will help you.” He searched the shore for a jagged rock and, soon, returned to her side. “Here. You may etch what you like.” Shannon felt like she was fifteen years old when she approached a spot on the wall that was protected from the elements, hoping that years of erosion wouldn’t erase her drawing. With a quick glance over her shoulder, she started the outline of a heart, amazed how easily it carved into the limestone. A full twenty minutes passed before she stepped back to observe her handiwork. Moon Runner stepped closer, totally at a loss as he stared at the wall. “What is it?” “Where I come from, people put their initials down and draw a heart around them. See here?” She pointed to the letters. “These two letters are a ‘G’ and a ‘W’ for Ghost Woman. These here are an ‘M’ and an ‘R’ for Moon Runner.” She moved into his welcoming embrace as he continued to study the wall. “It means Ghost Woman and Moon Runner—true love forever.” 69

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A slow smile tipped up the corners of his mouth. His hands slid down her spine until he cupped her ass and pressed her belly against his cock. “It is a good picture, Ghost Woman, one that tells the truth. I will love you forever.” Shannon refused to think of the future as she pulled his mouth to hers.

***** She waited and watched, trying to figure out why Moon Runner hadn’t made love to her yet. He had busily collected wood for a fire as Shannon prepared a bed of furs in the soft grass. Now, the flames licked at the dry wood, the sun had disappeared, and they had finished their supper. He returned from taking care of the horses for the night, as if sex wasn’t even on his mind—yet, Shannon knew that was the farthest thing from the truth. As hot-blooded as her husband was, it would only be a matter of time… Her mind flitted over the day and his veiled comments about the night being special. A shiver ran down her spine, wondering what he was up to. She glanced up when he approached. Moon Runner’s gaze never left hers when he untied the leather thongs at his hips and let his loincloth drop to the ground beside her. His heavy cock was fully erect. Shannon swallowed. It was time. He reached out a hand and helped her to her feet before stepping away. “Take off your clothes.” Goose bumps formed on Shannon’s arms as she silently, with trembling fingers, freed the strings at her shoulders. The buckskin tunic swished over her full breasts and slender hips, then bunched around her ankles. She stepped from the dress and her eyes closed for a second as she acknowledged the hot thrill that raced through her blood. Moon Runner slowly circled Shannon to stop behind her. She waited to feel his hands slip around her body and caress her throbbing clit, but he continued the circle until he stood before her once more, this time with a handful of grass. He reached out to take her hand. “Come, we will bathe in the stream.” Shannon followed him to the edge of the pond. Moon Runner led her through the ripples until water covered his penis and teased her ribs below her breasts. They continued to wade until he stepped beneath the stream of rushing water overhead. The water was cool, but Shannon’s skin felt on fire as she waited to see what he would do next. His fingers threaded through her wet hair. Moon Runner handed her the wadded blades of grass, urged her to follow him to a shallower spot away from the rush of the waterfall, and rested his hands on his hips. “Wash me,” he commanded quietly. She slowly dipped the grass beneath the surface, and never took her eyes from his face as she began to gently rub his massive chest. She would do whatever he asked.

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From his chest, she moved to one broad shoulder, down the rippling length of his biceps, and then moved to the opposite arm, performing the same task. Shannon knew the slow, sensuous arcs across his skin were beginning to affect him. Mesmerized by the lust blazing in his dark eyes, she moved her palm to his taut stomach and brushed circles downward until her hand disappeared beneath the water. Moon Runner grasped her wrist before she found his cock. His chest expanded with his deep breaths. “Wash yourself. Caress your breasts with the grass from Mother Earth.” He took one step back and waited. Her hand trembled now as she stroked across one erect nipple. Surprisingly, her own touch hardened the bud further. Shannon continued with her bath until she had scrubbed her entire body except the area between her thighs. She held out the wad of grass. “I want you to wash my pussy. I want you to touch me.” His tongue flicked across his lips. “I will touch you, my sweet. I will touch you with my words. Be patient and you will see what I mean. Wash yourself, then you will wash my cock.” Shannon reached between her legs and gently swished the grass against her pussy lips, feeling weak with anticipation. This was a new game—one she looked forward to with eagerness. Once she had completed her bath, she stepped closer to Moon Runner and took his penis in her hand. Even in the cool water, she could feel his heat. Slowly, she worked the grass against the velvety skin until his cock throbbed beneath her fingers. She sank lower into the water, ready to lap at the tip’s moisture. Moon Runner stepped away as she reached for him. “Go to our bed that you have prepared.” Surprised, Shannon obeyed. Normally, all he would need was a quick stroke of his cock and he would be ready to fuck. Not this time, however. The water sloughed off her body as she climbed the bank. She could hear him wading through the water behind her. Shannon crossed the small meadow, passed the fire, and moved to stand beside the edge of a fur blanket. “Stop!” His voice echoed around her. Shannon remained motionless as she waited for her next command. “Turn around and look at me.” She swiveled slowly, her gaze puzzled, yet her heart began to beat a little quicker when she met his eyes. His heated gaze skittered over her naked body before he looked up. “Ghost Woman. I have never loved anyone as much as I love you. Tonight, it will be the sound of my voice that first makes you shudder with pleasure. Not my lips, not my fingers or my cock, but my words.” Her lips parted. “I don’t understand.”

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With one step, he stood before her. “Do not touch me. Just feel my heat against your skin.” He lifted his hands and spread his fingers. They wavered a breath away from her hardened nipples. “Do you feel the heat?” Shannon’s lids fluttered shut. She swayed toward him, her body seeking his touch. She thought about his hands against her breast. Yes! She could feel his warmth. “Open your eyes and spread your legs.” She obeyed and watched as he sank to his knees, his hands following the curve of her hips without touching her skin. They moved down the slender length of her thighs on a cushion of air, rounded her knees, and traveled up to the soft mound of pubic hair. “Spread further.” Finding it difficult to breathe, she obeyed him once again. His fingers moved with the motion of fingering her hole, but he never touched her. “My hand craves to cup you here. I will only run my finger through the air that caresses your womanly slit.” His mouth moved close to her pussy. A soft, warm breath fluttered her downy pubic hairs when he blew against her clit. Shannon nearly collapsed. “Do you know how much I wish to lick you here?” He blew softly once more. “God, Moon Runner. Don’t do this to me…” He smiled up and pointed at the blanket. “Lie down on your back.” Shannon obeyed as if in a trance, her body drifting to the fur until she lay flat on her back. Moon Runner moved to sit on the ground by her feet, careful to stay far enough away so no part of her body could touch him. “Spread your legs for me.” A hot spear of excitement shot through her belly. Shannon dragged her thighs apart and waited. “Lift your knees high and spread your feet wider. I want to see your pussy shine in the fire’s light when it begins to drip.” Shannon’s heart rattled in her chest. Cool air wafted between her legs as she opened for him. Just thinking about his dark eyes studying her splayed body caused her nipples to peak into hard darts. The remembered warmth of his breath against her clit increased the sexual tension in her belly. “I want you to close your eyes, Ghost Woman, and listen to the sound of my voice as it makes love to you. I want to see your body quake with desire. Do not touch yourself…remember…just my voice. I want you to experience the fire of fulfillment without my fingers or my manhood piercing you. Just listen, Ghost Woman. Only then will I come to you.” Shannon’s eyes fluttered shut as she spread her arms over the fur, signaling him to begin. Already, her mind swam with the idea of coming and never being touched.

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His voice was quiet—soothing—as he began to talk. “You are so beautiful, Ghost Woman. Your womanly body was made to be loved…made to be fucked. I look at your white breasts and wish my tongue licked across your nipples. The sweet taste of them is something I think about when you are not by my side. Can you feel the wetness of my tongue?” Shannon imagined the feel of it swirling around the raised buds. Moon Runner would flatten his tongue to apply pressure against her nipples before his lips clamped firmly around them. He would suck gently, drawing them into the shelter of his mouth. She loved when he nibbled at the hard darts of her nipples, rolling them between his teeth, teasing her because he knew what she really wanted was his mouth between her legs. Her fingers curled slightly. Her chest expanded as if searching for his lips. A trembling sigh escaped. “I love to kiss the soft spot below your ear. Can you feel my mouth as it brushes over your skin? I love the smell of your sweet skin…” Shannon’s lips parted, and she tipped her head to the side as imaginary lips suckled the soft skin before moving to the sensitive hollow of her neck. A shiver raced through her body. So many times…so many times over the summer she awoke to feel his warm breath against her ear. “Your womanly breasts fit inside my palms so perfectly. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to hold them tightly when I fuck between them in slow, promising strokes until your mouth opens and your tongue flicks the dew from the tip of my cock. Think, Ghost Woman. Imagine me fucking your breasts…slow, steady strokes…through their softness…to your lips…and back…” Her spine arched and her shoulders moved to the rhythm of his voice. Her fingers curled tighter against the fur. Her tongue scraped across the edge of her teeth, thinking about the taste of his cum in her mouth. Her breath came quicker as streaks of excitement laced through her belly. In her mind’s eyes, she could see his dark eyes above her, filled with lust and love, as the path he stroked between her breasts dampened. The walls of her vagina clenched with the motion of his imagined thrusts. His voice swirled about her, mesmerizing. “Fucking your breasts is not enough.” His voice floated past once more. She waited. “I need something else, Ghost Woman. I need your woman scent in my nose. I need to feel the softness of your thighs wrapped around my shoulders as I drink from your body.” Moon Runner smiled when her ass surged over the blanket. Shannon’s knees widened further. His gaze moved to her pussy. He struggled against the urge to leap between her spread thighs and lick the glistening moisture that formed pearly drops between her pussy lips. But he wouldn’t. He would wait until she had completed the total joy a woman experiences when she is being fucked.

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“My throat groans with pleasure as I lay my cheek against the flatness of your belly. You are warm…so warm…so soft…” Shannon’s stomach muscles quivered as she imagined Moon Runner’s big hands encompassing her waist as he lay between her legs, and his tongue darted inside her navel. Fucking him always thrilled her beyond belief. Her pussy muscles clenched tightly when she thought about his lips so close to the opening between her legs. Please… The sparks intensified with her silent plea. “My fingers are searching for you, Ghost Woman. They need your heat…they need to feel the slick woman muscles of your body. They brush down past the curling hair, stroking…seeking a home within you.” Moon Runner’s gaze locked on her feminine slit. His jaw clenched as his cock throbbed when her hips began to surge upward. Shannon’s head rolled from side to side. His cock was ready to explode. Pre-cum leaked down his flat stomach. He took a deep breath to clear his whirling thoughts. He wanted her. He wanted to fuck Ghost Woman until she whimpered for mercy. “My mouth is between your legs. I can smell you. When I lick through your folds, the sweet taste stings my tongue. Can you feel me licking, can you feel my tongue against you, Ghost Woman? It seeks to be inside you…” Shannon began to rock upwards…searching for something to fill her. She needed more than his imagined tongue. Her blood sang…her swollen clit throbbed. She pictured his head between her legs. She imagined the sensation of his finger sliding into her hot cavity, probing…his thumb would caress her clit, making it swell with pleasure. Her hips bounced. “Can you feel my fingers within you?” Fingers? Shannon had experienced that many times as Moon Runner filled her pussy until she was spread wide and begging for his cock to replace them. “They are fucking you, Ghost Woman. They fill you with joy…” She actually felt as though she stretched around the width of more than one finger as her hips thrust to suck them inward. Someone groaned…it was her. The heat built inside. “It’s not enough, Ghost Woman! Fingering you is not enough. I’m going to suck your clit. Can you feel the pressure of my tongue as it wraps around your bud? Sucking…pulling…trying to wrap my tongue around it. I want to fuck you, Ghost Woman. I want to stick my cock into you until you scream with pleasure.” Shannon moaned quietly as her back arched to meet him. Her shallow pants paralleled the motion of her rocking hips. “Fuck me…please…I need…” “I can no longer take it, Ghost Woman. I must be inside you. Your legs are spread wide, but I use my fingers to open your wet folds. I can see the womanly juice leaking from your pussy. You want me. You want me to fuck you. My cock is at your opening. Your body aches for me to slide into your heat. I’m on my knees, Ghost Woman. Can you feel my cock probe at your slit? Your clit is swollen with the ache to release.”

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Shannon hung on the precipice of orgasm as she clamped her fingers around her knees and rocked against the night air. Her head thrashed from side to side, waiting to feel the phantom cock glide past her opening. She needed to be filled. Her breasts burned, her vagina spasmed with the need. “I am going to fuck you, Ghost Woman. Can you feel my cock slide past your opening? You’re hot…you’re so hot and wet. Come with me, shudder around my hard cock. I can’t control my thrusts. I am wild to feel you—” Shannon screamed into the night. Her ass arched away from the fur. Her hands squeezed her breasts as one spasm after another ignited her soul. Her body jerked in response, her vagina clenching and unclenching with the powerful orgasm. Moon Runner leapt from where he sat, dropped between her knees, and jabbed his cock into her hole with an abandoned ferociousness. Grabbing her hips, he pounded against her cervix. Shannon shook against the ground, arched into his thrusts, and met each stroke with a savageness all her own. Her screams of pleasure were silenced when he slanted his mouth against hers, thrust one final time, and buried his cock until his balls slapped against her body as she pulsed around his shaft.

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Chapter Eleven The September morning dawned bright, promising another sun-filled day as the small band of Sioux, once again, busily prepared for the coming winter. Leaves of gold, orange, and red began to appear in patches that were once green. In the space of time since she had first arrived, Shannon had became a readily accepted member of the tribe. In fact, because of her presence, Moon Runner’s status elevated quickly. The people remembered his declaration years earlier when he had come from the mountain—and now his vision was an intricate part of their lives. Shannon became very close with the village women and was amazed at the contented lives they led. The Sioux were not savages to be frightened of in the dead of night. They loved, laughed, and went about their days in an unassuming acceptance and happiness at being one with nature. It continually amazed her how the people of the plains were not at all like the stories she had read in her former life. She had come to love dearly Moon Runner’s immediate family. His mother and father treated her as a cherished daughter. She was included in their morning prayers as they gave thanks for the health and happiness of their family. Their quiet presence also helped to alleviate her loneliness when she thought about her own parents and how much she missed them. Now, she sat with Little Fawn as the young girl strung beads on thin strips of rawhide for a new dress and Shannon ground corn into powder. A wry smile curved her lips as she thought about her new companions and compared them to those she had, at one time, considered friends. Wouldn’t the socialites at the country club she once belonged to be amazed that Shannon would rather spend her days preparing for the coming winter than sipping champagne cocktails before a round of golf? Little Fawn glanced up and spied the curl of her sister’s mouth. She leaned across the small blanket they sat upon and tapped Shannon’s shoulder. “Why are you smiling? Are you thinking about my brother?” Little Fawn made a kissing motion with her lips and waited for Shannon to come clean with the truth. Shannon reached for her sister-in-law and yanked lovingly on one of the girl’s braids. Little Fawn’s innate ability to bring humor into any situation brought an even wider smile to her face. But how would her husband’s sister react if Shannon tried to explain her real thoughts and her passage through time from the future? Both she and Moon Runner had decided months ago that the less said about Shannon’s strange flight through time, the better it would be for everyone concerned. Little Fawn giggled at her sister-in-law’s continued silence. “Oooo, I was right. You do have thoughts of your big husband.”

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“And what if I were thinking of your handsome brother? I love Moon Runner with all my heart.” “Ho! Do we not all know that!” The little girl grinned smugly. “He is like an old woman following you around throughout your days.” “What?” Shannon giggled at the image Little Fawn’s words brought to mind. The girl’s face lit up with her smile. “No! Wait! He is more like a puppy looking for his mother’s teat to suckle!” “Little Fawn! Where on earth did you hear something like that?” “Oh, my. The women talk. They all wish they had such a handsome man as you possess. They all see your love for one another and it makes them weak in the knees.” She raised her chin and studied Shannon for a quick moment. “And I see how he holds your woman’s breasts in his hands and plays with you…” her dancing eyes lowered to Shannon’s lap, “…down there. Soon, I will be a wife and enjoy the physical love of my husband, also.” “Little Fawn! You shouldn’t be talking that way.” The girl was only fourteen years old, but spoke with wisdom far above her age. Shannon’s sun-browned cheeks took on a rosy hue when she sifted the girl’s words around in her brain. Are we that obvious? She’d always thought that she’d been able to hide Moon Runner’s wandering hands and sensual promises of what was to come when they were out and about in public. The entire summer had passed and except for the second night in his world, they had made love daily. And, each time Moon Runner claimed her body as his, only left Shannon yearning for the next time. The man had her join him in constant foreplay whenever he was in her presence, and the continuous attention gave little time for her to think about her life before he had saved her from the river’s murky waters. And, Shannon had to admit, when those thoughts of the future threatened to grab her attention, she would throw away the frightening uncertainties by searching out the comfort of her husband’s strong arms. Little Fawn rested her elbows against her bent knees, plopped her chin into upturned palms, and studied Shannon’s red face. “My sister…it is a wonderful thing to be loved by him, is it not? He spoke of you for so many years with sadness and anticipation in his voice. Now, there is nothing but joy in his eyes and happiness in his heart. We are all grateful that you finally came to us to ease his lonely days. Some day, I will do the same with my husband. I hope he loves me as much as my brother loves you.” The girl straightened, picked through a bowl of colored beads, and began to string them onto the strips once more. As Shannon listened to Little Fawn chatter on about the subject of preparing various food stores for the coming winter and watched her agile fingers string the beads, her mind separated from her body. Will I be here to see the day when Little Fawn becomes a bride? No! Don’t think about it, screamed her brain. How could traveling through time happen again? It was at such times as this that a gloom would descend upon her

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shoulders. She loved Moon Runner with a passion, but she missed her parents terribly. She missed the company of a few special friends she’d left behind. The days had melted into one another over the South Dakota summer. She had never been so happy as now, being loved by Moon Runner, but Shannon was continually aware of how he made certain she would never encounter other white people. On three separate occasions, he had invited her on an unplanned overnight hunting trip, promising hours filled with sexual pleasures. She instantly flushed with heat just thinking about the things he had done to her body. But, once they’d returned to the village, Shannon had discovered that while they were away, white traders had visited their group to trade beads, blankets, and sundry items for the animal furs the Sioux men trapped, and their women prepared. Each time, she confronted Moon Runner to ask if she’d been taken away purposely to avoid the traders. Her husband always skirted the real issue, and then would make wild love to her until Shannon disregarded his small lapse from honesty. She knew Moon Runner’s biggest fear was that she would be taken from him and there would be nothing he could do to keep their love safe. Shannon tried to concentrate on the corn kernels she ground to powder, but thoughts of the future continued to prod at her brain. How do you think you will live through a winter, sleeping in a tent—even if you have his body to keep you warm? How do the soldiers manage it? And what of my parents? They must be beside themselves wondering what has happened to me… Shannon didn’t even try to force the thoughts from her mind this time—and she didn’t know if she really wanted to. At some point, she needed to face the reality that she could be dragged forward in time. If not, she had better become prepared for this life she lived at the moment—even though she continually told Moon Runner that she was as happy as she could be. Shannon suddenly rose from the dusty ground, brushed the back of her buckskin dress, and lifted a water container that sat beside the teepee. Little Fawn glanced up in surprise at what looked to be her sister’s imminent departure. “Are you going somewhere?” “Um…yes. I have to replenish the water supply in the tent.” She had to escape the proud, friendly faces of Moon Runner’s people and think about the future privately. Gathering water was the quick excuse she needed to find some solitude without hurting Little Fawn’s feelings. “I want to make sure that I have completed all my morning duties before Moon Runner comes back from hunting. I might even look for a berry patch. Your brother has a great fondness for sweets.” A giggle burst from the girl’s throat. “Then why don’t you simply lie in his bed and wait for him?” Shannon couldn’t even reply. The children of Moon Runner’s people were far wiser and more mature than the fourteen-year-olds she had known in her world. Silently, she ignored Little Fawn’s teasing words and hurried to the stream.

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***** Moon Runner found Shannon sitting at the edge of the water. His heart sank when he spied her slumped shoulders. As he strode in her direction, Shannon lifted her chin, her sixth sense telling her that he was near. A sad smile curved her lips in welcome when he finally reached the riverbank and sank to the ground beside her. “Little Fawn said you left quite a while ago to retrieve water. I was worried about your safety when you did not return.” Shannon grasped Moon Runner’s fingers that gently rubbed her upper thigh and lifted them to her lips. She loved her proud warrior more than life itself, but in the small space of time she had sat thinking about the future, she’d become even more confused about that life with him. “I’ve been sitting here thinking about us—about how we came to find one another.” An invisible, icy hand touched Moon Runner’s heart. He had often worried when this particular conversation would come about once more. He gathered her slight body to his chest and breathed in the fresh scent of her hair, knowing he could never get through his days if she was no longer in his world. “And what made you think these thoughts?” She shrugged in his embrace. “Something brought me to you…” He smiled against her hair and struggled to remain calm. “It was my love calling out to you. It is strong and powerful.” “But if I was able to…leap through time…what if something calls me back—or forces me back? What will we do then?” His heart rattled out a wild beat with just the mere thought. “I will never let it happen. Since you came to my arms, I have been happy and complete. I would never let anything take you from me. I would fight until I conquered the enemy to keep you safe in my arms. We are soul mates, Ghost Woman.” He held her face from him, cupped her cheeks with his hands, and unwaveringly met her eyes. “You do not question my love, do you?” Her head shook as she batted back the tears that threatened to escape onto her tanned cheeks. “No, I don’t. But it’s not that simple, Moon Runner. I’ve been a fool to think that it was.” “Why are you speaking this way? I thought we were done talking about it. Say no more. I have bravely faced wild animals during a hunt. I have never been frightened of anything—not even the soldiers. Only the thought of you disappearing from my life makes my heart quake like a small boy.” Shannon believed him. She spied the fear in the depths of his dark eyes. Moon Runner, she had come to realize, was the most honest and trustworthy man she had ever met. What he said was truth. But, his candid demeanor still didn’t change things. “I just think that we should be ready for any possibility. Maybe something will happen and I’ll be pulled back to my other life.”

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Moon Runner gently clasped her hand and turned it palm up. His finger traced the tiny scar on the inside of her wrist. “We made a vow, Ghost Woman. We have tied our souls together by joining our blood.” “But…there’s something very strong out there that brought me to you in the first place. We just can’t disregard that power.” His jaw clenched as he stared out across the water. Finally, with a deep sigh, his chin dropped to his chest. “I do think about the power you speak of, Ghost Woman. It forever strikes fear in my heart. I know it is childish to pretend it is not there, but I cannot help myself. Life would not be worth living if I could not see your beautiful face or feel the warmth of your body beside me.” To ease his apprehension, Shannon decided to drop the subject for the time being. Her problem would always be there, ready for her to pick up at another time. She leaned forward, rested her hand upon his knee, and let it glide slowly up beneath his loincloth, knowing her touch was what he needed. His penis immediately hardened as his lips captured hers. “Ghost Woman…love for you fills my heart,” he whispered when her hands slid the length of his burgeoning cock. “And I love you. Let me show you how much.” She stroked him sensuously until his hips rotated with pleasure. His thick cock throbbed against her hold. Shannon slid her hand back out from beneath the loincloth, listening to Moon Runner’s growl of disapproval. She untied the leather thongs at his waist and tossed the small bit of clothing to the side. Her gaze took in the long, muscular sight of his taut body stretched across the grass in the bright light of the sun. His erection stood proud in the bright sunlight as he waited for what only she could give him. Her hands skimmed his flat stomach. She wondered if she would ever tire of the feel of his powerful muscles beneath her fingers. “You are a beautiful man.” “It is because of you, my love,” he rasped quietly. “You make me shine as never before.” Shannon leaned forward and pressed a kiss against his lips. As her eyes glowed with passion, she pulled the hem of her dress upwards and worked the garment over her head until it lay beside his forgotten loincloth. Lifting her chin, she kneaded her naked breasts for his enjoyment, pressing the full mounds together, knowing that the small gesture immediately affected him by the quick rise and fall of his chest. Her body slid atop his long torso. She halted his intended embrace by clasping his hands in hers and pressing his arms wide across the prairie grass. Her breasts hung above his mouth, tantalizing his senses until he licked the hard dart of one nipple. Shannon pulled slightly away. “No…close your eyes and let me love you.” Moon Runner’s lids fluttered shut. His tongue moistened his lips in anticipation as he tipped his head to better enjoy the feel of her mouth against his collarbone. Shannon’s tongue ran a dampened, hot path across his shoulder to the warm spot beneath his ear. Her excited mind acknowledged the feel of his rigid penis surging 80

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against the flat of her stomach. Juice flooded from her pussy and wet the inside of her thighs. Always…always, the reaction to fucking him was the same. Only he could do this to her—only he could coax this sizzling hot response where she disregarded all that was around her. Moist lips followed the feathery touch of fingers over the smooth expanse of his chest, stopping to swirl around one dark areola. The bud of his nipple hardened beneath her mouth and a groan rumbled in his chest. Small flicks of her tongue against his skin drew another moan as her lips traveled down to his flat stomach, dropping kisses of promise as she moved lower. Shannon slid from his body as she continued to tease the warm skin of his abdomen with her lips while her fingers lightly stroked his engorged penis with yet another pledge. Moon Runner’s lower body surged upward with each soft caress, silently begging her to end his torment. His thighs dropped wide in invitation. The tip of his penis glistened in the sunlight with the pearly drops of pre-cum. Shannon grasped his erection firmly with one hand and gently massaged his velvety balls with the other. Taking the bulbous head of his penis into her mouth, she alternately nibbled the smooth tip, and then flicked her tongue into the salty tasting slit. Opening her jaw wider, she glided downward toward the base of his shaft, and then drew her mouth back to greedily suck at his rigid cock. A shiver raced down her spine. She would never have enough of him—never tire of pleasuring him. Moon Runner clutched at her slender thigh to drag her lower body closer as he rolled to his side and spread her legs. Shannon continued to suck and work his cock with her hand when he adjusted her body further by settling her smooth thigh across one of his shoulders. Wet, hot pussy lips stretched wider to allow his seeking tongue to lick her folds. His lips clamped over the swollen bud as he slipped a thick finger into her pussy. Moon Runner sucked on her clit, drawing continual groans from Shannon’s throat. Her hips moved against his mouth in small jerks as she lifted one knee upward, not even needing his shoulder to rest her leg against as she plummeted toward her orgasm. Molten lines of heat radiated through her belly until spasms racked her lower body. The slick walls of her pussy pulsed around his finger. His mouth filled with her juices as he lapped at her slit, discovering again the immense joy that filled him when her body reacted as it did. Pushing her gently to her back to break the contact of her wildly sucking mouth over his erection, Moon Runner straddled her chest, reached for her breasts, and pumped his cock between the swollen mounds. Shannon’s hand covered his fingers, helping to set the rhythm of the slow, cushioned strokes of his hips. Silky wetness dampened her cleavage. Shannon breathed in the scent of his cum, relishing the burn that scorched her breasts and made her vagina ache with the need to be fucked. Moon Runner slipped his hands from beneath Shannon’s, and he let his Ghost Woman control the pressure of her breasts against his sliding cock. Reaching back, his fingers inched past wet pubic hair in search of her slick pussy. 81

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The touch of his hand filtered into Shannon’s brain. She lifted her knees high and spread her thighs wide while her tongue flicked across the head of his cock. Moon Runner’s finger found her quivering pussy a moment later. Her body jerked as he ground his palm against her clit and slipped another finger inside her wet tunnel. Shannon went wild when Moon Runner hooked his fingers against the inside of her pubic mound. He ground his palm hard and jerked his cock between her breasts, battling against the friction of his twitching cock and the urge to come hotly. Shannon screamed as she shuddered around his fingers. Moon Runner pressed her body flat beneath his large hand and refused to let her ass squirm with the desire that shook her. The lower part of her body lay pinned and throbbing against the pleasure of his magical fingers stroking the walls of her pussy. Her head rolled from side to side as the blistering heat swept from her pussy, through her stomach, and burned beneath his still surging cock between her breasts. Shannon’s arms fell to the ground. Her breasts heaved with exertion as the shudders of orgasm ravaged her body. Her pussy pulsed around his fingers, surrendering to the all-encompassing essence of her husband’s mastery. Moon Runner finally withdrew his fingers and lowered his lips to hers. He slithered forward and fitted his hips between her raised knees. Shannon draped her arms around his broad shoulders and worked her tongue into his mouth when his cock prodded against her hot slit to find entry. The velvety tip slid over her throbbing clitoris. Slender hips pitched forward to capture his penis and suck it into her dripping heat. The two lovers groaned against one another’s mouth when Moon Runner slid the length of Shannon’s vagina, filling her completely as her body stretched around his thick erection. They lay motionless, relishing the sensation of being one with their bodies and their hearts. Tears wet Shannon’s cheeks as she opened her eyes. For the rest of her days, she would always remember this one moment of him filling her womanly body with all that he had to offer, of the masculine planes of his noble face outlined by the sun’s rays; of his heart beating in unison with hers. “I love you so much.” The strangled vow escaped from her throat as she pulled Moon Runner’s lips to hers once more. “I will never have enough of you.” His tongue slid across the seam of her mouth. “Then come with me—be one with me, Ghost Woman. You are my soul. You are the reason my heart beats…” The strokes of his penis began as slow, tortuous slides meant to touch every fiber of her love. Shannon answered him with her hips as her muscles squeezed tightly around his shaft. Moon Runner coveted the warm security of being wrapped within her welcoming body as the tip of his penis touched her womb. This was life. Shannon, his Ghost Woman, was the air that he breathed. He wrapped his arms protectively around her

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tiny body and took her upwards with him until she screamed once again with pleasure as his body pounded into hers. It was when he spilled his seed into her hot cavity and she sobbed against his mouth, that a shiver of dread caused by an unknown future raced through his blood and clamped an icy hold on his heart. He could not chase it away.

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Chapter Twelve Shannon languished beneath the warm cover of fur. The mornings were cooler now and the mountainsides had turned to bright colors of auburn and gold as Mother Nature heralded the advanced month of October. Already, the higher elevations had received snow, her warning to all that the blustery days of winter were not far off. Shannon’s eyes opened, and she took in the now familiar and comforting surroundings of her and Moon Runner’s home. She was infinitely happy that earlier, he had left their bed to build a small fire in the pit before leaving the tent to join his father and chant together their morning prayers to Mother Earth. Sometime during the change of the South Dakota seasons, she had given up the idea of trying to find her way back to the future or even thinking that it was a possibility. She could never leave the sheltering arms of the man who provided for her every need now, who watched her protectively during the shortening days, and worshipped her body throughout the lengthening nights. Since the day by the river, neither had mentioned the idea again that she could be snatched from his arms by a force stronger than their love for one another. Shannon shoved the cover from her naked body and reached for her tunic just as the flap of the teepee was ripped open. Moon Runner ducked through the entry with wide eyes, his handsome face tight with fear. Her heart skipped a beat. “What’s wrong?” He grabbed Shannon by the arm and hauled her to her feet. “Hurry! Get dressed!” He didn’t even wait for her response. Instead, he snatched the buckskin tunic from her hands and slid it easily over her head. “We must leave.” “Leave? What are you talking about?” He was already grabbing their possessions and tossing them onto the bedcover. “You’re scaring me. Moon Runner, what has happened?” “We have to leave. Help me pack. The soldiers are coming. You’ll need warm clothes against the mountain air.” “Soldiers?” Shannon stood dumbfounded in the center of the tent. The only soldiers she had seen up to this point were from a far vantage point atop a hill, as she and Moon Runner crouched behind the cover of large boulders. They had never seemed threatening in the least, and now she found it difficult to understand what spurred his frantic urgency to leave. “They’ve never bothered us before, Moon Runner. Why should that change now?” Her husband was on his knees, his broad shoulders rigid with anxiety as his shaking hands rolled their belongings inside the fur. He expertly tied the ends with

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strips of rawhide, stopped to take a deep breath, and then glanced up. “It will change because if they enter our camp…and find a white woman…many will suffer—some will die. They will take you from me.” Shannon’s complexion turned a pasty shade of white. My friends will die? “Well…” she half-heartedly threw back her head with a bit of false bravado before she moved to help him, “I just won’t go with them. I’ll insist on staying with you.” Moon Runner clutched her upper arm, stared at her for a moment, and then yanked Shannon against his chest. A trembling hand smoothed the curling hair that tumbled down her back. “Do you really think it will be that easy? You are a white woman. You will have no say in the decision. They will take you from me, and then they will kill me. I am but one man and cannot fight an entire troop of soldiers. And I will not jeopardize our people by making them fight for us. We must leave soon or many will die.” His arms slipped from around her. Trembling fingers replaced his touch and smoothed the soft contours of Shannon’s jaw. “I love you, Ghost Woman. And I fear for both our safety and our family’s. I fear for our future. We have to leave.” The absolute panic that blazed in his eyes spurred her stunned senses. Without another word, she began to grab personal items she had collected over the summer. An image of Moon Runner standing beside the gallows turned her blood to ice.

***** “We will be back,” Shannon stated as she hugged Little Fawn close. The young woman clutched her sister-in-law’s waist. She nodded her head as she stifled her tears of sadness. Most of the village was also in attendance to say farewell. Earlier, it was decided that for the entire tribe to leave would raise too many questions with the white soldiers. It was best for all concerned to continue as if it were a normal fall day. Shannon turned from Little Fawn’s sad eyes and was immediately pulled into Singing Woman’s arms. “I will miss you,” the woman whispered. “Ride safely daughter. I will pray for you both until we meet again.” A sob caught in Shannon’s throat. As she and Moon Runner quickly packed, it finally dawned in her mind the precarious position they were all a part of. “I love you, Singing Woman. I’m so sorry my presence has put you all in danger.” Moon Runner’s mother tightened her arms around the other woman’s shoulders. “Hush, child. I am just thankful that my son found you. You must hurry away.” She stepped back and let Spotted Elk say his quick goodbye. The man folded Shannon into his embrace. “We will see you when the snows melt. Until then, know that our hearts are with you. Goodbye for now. May the spirits ride with you, child of my heart.” Moon Runner had already said his farewell to his family. With one deft motion, he lifted a weeping Shannon to the back of a spotted pony. One quick leap and he was atop 85

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his mount. Spotted Elk handed him the reins of their packhorse, his proud chin trembling as he stepped away. Moon Runner waited impatiently for his woman to say a few words to her closest friends as the squaws surrounded her horse. His dark gaze continually scanned the horizon. Nudging his pony forward, the women fell back as he spoke. “Ghost Woman, we must leave now.” Shannon nodded. “I know. I am ready.” She kicked her mount’s sides and fell in behind the packhorse as it trotted behind Moon Runner to the edge of the camp. As they skirted the last of the teepees, she swiveled on her pony’s back to look longingly one last time at the many people she had come to love. You will see them again! In the spring, life will return to what it was. She continued to stare behind her as the horses trotted across the prairie, taking her away from everything she had come to love. Her blue eyes glazed with tears when she saw Little Fawn’s slender body race to the perimeter of the encampment. The young woman’s arm rose in the air as she waved a final goodbye. Shannon swung her blurred vision forward and settled her gaze on the straight line of her husband’s back. Leaving was the right thing to do. Moon Runner’s family and all their friends would be safe as long as she wasn’t discovered. The hair stood on the back of her neck when the warbled warning of one brave echoed across the village. The screams of the women rent the air a second later and bounced across the sandy expanse of prairie. Shannon whirled on the horse’s back. An entire contingent of soldiers galloped headlong over the rise of the western bluff, swords rattling ominously in the morning air. The hooves of their mounts kicked up a cloud of dust in their wake. Moon Runner hauled back on the reins. His horse danced beneath him when his knife flashed in the sun’s rays. He sliced through the packhorse’s lead rein. “Move!” he shouted to Shannon and waited for her horse to gallop by. His heels dug into the sides of his mount as he lurched sideways to slap the backside of Shannon’s pony. The horse shot forward and Shannon clung to the flying mane for dear life. Blonde hair whipped about her face as she leaned low over the pony’s thick neck. Dread turned her blood cold. It was inconceivable that she raced across the prairie with the United States Calvary on their heels. But the pounding of hooves behind her and Moon Runner’s shouts to ride faster as they raced to escape, was a threat she couldn’t erase from her mind. The image of Moon Runner hanging by his neck loomed large once more. She dug her heels into the animal’s heaving sides and urged the horse on. Moon Runner’s pony came up alongside of her as they raced away at breakneck speed. Lifting her chin to let the wind lift the strands of hair from her face, Shannon shot him a frightened glance. He also urged his pony ever forward. Swinging her terrified gaze back to the eastern horizon before them, her heart sank when another line of soldiers infiltrated the bluff and raced their horses forward to cut off the fleeing pair. “Which way?” she screamed out.

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Moon Runner yanked the reins to the left and headed for the northern foothills. Shannon followed suit, wondering if they would be able to lose themselves in the great pines. A line of soldiers banked from the left now. They were surrounded on three sides. The trees were their only hope. Moon Runner slowed his horse until Shannon caught up with him and raced beside her. The labored breaths of the animal she rode matched her own terrified gasps. From the corner of her eye, she could tell her husband battled his animal to keep pace with hers. “Go, Moon Runner! I’ll find you in the trees! Don’t let them take you!” “I will not leave you!” he shouted back. He leaned precariously across his mount and slapped harshly at the rump of Shannon’s mount. “Head for the trees! Run!” She lowered her head against the pony’s neck and urged him to run faster with continual kicks against his ribs. The horse began to pull in front of Moon Runner’s mount. Shannon wanted to scream with frustration that her husband refused to ride in front of her. She shrieked into the wind when the report of a gun reverberated across the prairie. A mere second later, a bullet whistled past her ears. My God! They’re shooting! But nothing prepared her for the emotions that burned in her heart as she tipped her chin to check the distance between herself and Moon Runner at the same time a second blast was heard. Moon Runner slumped forward over the neck of his pony an instant later with blood oozing from his shoulder. The animal slowed without the driving force of its rider. Shannon hauled back on the long reins in her hand until his horse galloped abreast of her own. The pain in her husband’s eyes was evident as he grappled to stay atop his mount. “Hang on, Moon Runner. Don’t let go! I’ll get us to the trees. Hiyah!” she screamed and smacked the other horse’s rump with her reins. The animal shot forward again. Horrified, Shannon glanced over her shoulder. The distance between her and the army contingent had quickly been eaten away. Her body cringed when another shot was fired. She had to do something to stop the madness. Moon Runner needed to reach the safety of the trees. Her pony skidded to a halt when she hauled back on the reins, and then spun the animal around. “Stop!” She waved her arms wildly. “Don’t shoot!” The horse reared and she clamored to keep her seat as her gaze frantically searched behind her. Moon Runner’s horse cantered to a stop and shuddered with the injured man draped across its back. “Goddamn you stupid horse!” she cried out with frustration. Shannon fought the sobs of terror that welled in her throat. As if in slow motion, she watched in shock when her husband’s body tumbled to the ground. “Moon Runner!” She kicked her pony forward, sliding from the its back as she reached her husband, racing to his side before the soldiers could get to him. She would never give him up. Falling to her knees, Shannon sobbed as she gathered his

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unconscious body into her embrace. “Please! Please don’t die! Oh, my God! Don’t leave me, Moon Runner. I love you!” Blood oozed from the hole in his back. Cradling his head to her breast, Shannon’s fear paralyzed her as the blue-suited soldiers surrounded them with rifles raised to their shoulders. A man with white stripes on the shoulder of his crisp uniform dismounted beside Shannon where she huddled in the dirt with Moon Runner in her arms. He took a step forward, taking in the white woman’s panic-filled eyes. “Ma’am? You’ll be fine now. My name is Sergeant Miller. We didn’t know that this particular group of Sioux was hiding a white hostage, but we’re here now.” Shannon shook her head with a wild look in her eyes and clasped Moon Runner tighter. His blood stained the front of her dress. “Please…you don’t understand. It’s not like that. This…this is my husband. Please help me—he’s dying!” Another uniformed man stepped closer and addressed the first soldier quietly. “Sarge? I think she’s gone native. What should we do? Finish off the brave and get her back to the agency?” “No!” Shannon screamed. “Don’t you touch him! Don’t you dare touch him! I’ll kill you myself!” Frantic tears streamed down her face as she lowered her chin and wept against his dark head. Moon Runner still breathed, but she could feel his shallow, rapid heartbeat when she placed her palm over his chest. “Oh, my God, my God, Moon Runner…” The Sergeant stepped forward. “If you come with me, ma’am, I’ll make sure he’s brought back to headquarters.” Shannon shook her head quickly. “No, I’m staying with him. He needs me. If you take him, he’ll be…” The words died in her throat. A shudder ran through her when she remembered the hangman’s noose once again. The past began to play out… The Calvary Sergeant stepped close enough to clasp his fingers around the soft skin of Shannon’s upper arm, but she shook him off. He grabbed at her again, got a better hold of her arm the second time, and dragged her away from Moon Runner’s inert body. “No!” She screamed and struggled violently against his strong hold. “You have to come with me, ma’am.” His teeth clenched as he tried to maintain a hold on his building anger. “There are white missionaries at the agency who will help you talk through your ordeal.” “No!” Shannon swung out her fist, missed her intended mark, and fought the uniformed man in earnest now. “He didn’t kidnap me! You don’t understand. Please, don’t take me from him…please…” Sergeant Miller muscled her away from the bloody spot where Moon Runner lay unconscious on the ground. “I do understand, ma’am. I’ve seen this too many times.” The woman in his clutches kicked out at him with a moccasin-clad toe. “Calm down, now. This whole nightmare will be over soon. You’ll be back with your own kind and

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this entire horrible experience will be nothing but a bad memory. This Indian buck will get his due.” Shannon slapped Miller’s face with her free hand as anger and fear roared in her brain—and instantly found herself held tightly in the irritated man’s embrace. Suddenly, her struggles ceased when she heard a shout behind her. She stared unbelievably as four soldiers dragged Moon Runner’s limp body to a waiting wagon. Grunts accompanied their effort to lift the large warrior into the back, and then they dumped him onto his stomach. She turned to the sergeant, tried to shake off his hold to no avail, and began to plead in earnest. “Please. At least bind his wound. Please don’t let him die. I was riding with him of my own free will. I’m sorry I slapped you. I promise to behave if you’ll just tend to his wound.” The man stared down at her, taking in the torrent of tears and trembling chin of the frantic white woman. He made a quick decision. Doing her bidding might be the one avenue to take the fight out of her so the trip back to Pine Ridge would go smoothly. “All right. If I do this thing, will you ride quietly back to the agency?” Shannon swiped at her wet cheeks when his hold loosened. “Yes! Anything—just help him, please! Don’t let him die.” “Jones!” The sergeant yelled over his shoulder, never taking his eyes from Shannon’s as he continued to keep a firm grip on her arms. “Ride back and get Doc Jones. He’s probably at the camp.”

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Chapter Thirteen The reins of Shannon’s pony were tied to the sergeant’s saddle. She rode quietly, as promised, and never took her eyes from the man who still lay unconscious in the back of the wagon. Moon Runner’s wounds were shoddily cared for by the company’s physician as they traveled west. The supposed doctor, who possessed dirty fingernails and continually coughed into his hands, sickened her. If the bullet didn’t take the life of her love, infection probably would. Sergeant Miller watched her continually. The woman didn’t seem the type to have actually fallen in love with one of the Sioux savages as she claimed to be. He shook his head. It’s always the same with these women prisoners. There’s something that ties them to these damned Indians… More than once, he tried to draw the rescued woman into conversation, but she just sat slumped in her saddle, her eyes never leaving the wagon they followed. She steadfastly refused to answer any of his questions. Shannon swallowed the bile in her throat and kept her head turned away from the arrogant sergeant who had finally given up his pestering. All she could think about was the newspaper article she’d read when she lived in another time. She wasn’t Moon Runner’s prisoner, but the uniformed men she rode with thought she was. They refused to listen to her earlier words as she begged for them to understand the situation. Would the United States government hang Moon Runner by the neck simply because he rode with a white woman? Her chin quivered, but she struggled against the urge to burst into tears. Crying would not help her husband now. What she needed to do was concentrate on how she was going to change the future…or the past. Shannon was so confused, she couldn’t separate one from the other. All she could identify with was that no matter what, she needed to come up with a plan to free Moon Runner or he would be put to death. She cared not that if fate proved reliable, she would live alone in a foreign world the rest of her days, pining for the one man who held her heart in his hand. Her only concern now was that she needed to discover some sort of escape to save his life. “Ma’am?” She couldn’t help herself when her gaze swiveled in the direction of the sergeant, and then quickly turned away to stare at Moon Runner’s inert body again. “Ma’am, I know that your time with the Sioux must have been difficult. If you would just tell me your name, I can contact relatives…or if you’re married, your husband. I can get someone familiar out here as soon as we get back to Pine Ridge.” For the first time since the journey back to the reservation headquarters, Shannon finally responded to something the man said. “I don’t have any relatives. As far as my

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husband goes, he’s the man one of your sharpshooters tried to kill. This is all a huge mistake. I was with him by my own free will.” He ignored her last statement. “Then maybe you could tell me where you’re from?” If the situation weren’t so grave, Shannon would have burst out laughing. What would the nineteenth century soldier think if she told him she was from the future? “Where I come from is none of your business.” “I’m just trying to help you.” “Then let him go. Just leave us here, and I’ll see that we get back to our home. Please, he’s done nothing wrong.” “According to the United States government, he has.” “What?” Shannon screamed at him. She wanted to beat the man silly. “Tell me what he’s done to merit shooting him off his horse!” She couldn’t have cared less when the other soldiers, riding close, looked at her with surprise on their faces. Sergeant Miller stared at Shannon after the quick outburst. He sighed wearily. It was always like this. There were only a handful of women who seemed joyful at being rescued from the hands of the Sioux. Most fought them tooth and nail to get back to the savages. “What is it about these Indians? Why would you want to leave civilization to be manhandled by such savage men?” Shannon breathed deeply. Screaming would never help her get Moon Runner away from the dire straights they found themselves in. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I wasn’t manhandled. I told you—I was with Moon Runner because that’s where I wanted to be.” “That’s his name? Moon Runner?” Shannon slammed her lips shut, berating herself for having given the man even that much information. And when the sergeant continued to press her for answers, she simply turned her head and followed the outline of the Black Hills in the far off distance. She wouldn’t say another word until she had a plan of escape at least outlined in her head.

***** “Come in, child.” The Reverend and Mrs. Johan Luxbourg ushered Shannon into their unadorned home. “Sergeant Miller informed my husband that you would be staying with us until your family is found and contacted.” Shannon trudged wearily into the house belonging to Pine Ridge’s missionaries. The vacant and uninterested scan of her surroundings was something Mrs. Luxbourg had seen before. Little did she know that Shannon still reeled from the sight of Moon Runner’s limp body being hauled across the compound in the direction of the fort’s prison. She had fought Sergeant Miller’s unyielding embrace when they took her

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husband away, but to no avail. Instead, they had dragged her to a small house at the end of the lane. Hearing the staff private speak in a low voice about how she had been kidnapped was the one thing that snapped Shannon from her trance. “I wasn’t kidnapped! How many times do I have to tell you that?” The young man’s gaze darted to her before it swung back to the Reverend who entered the house in his wake. “Sergeant Miller says to keep an eye on her. It might take a little longer than usual to get her to understand that she’s safe now.” He nodded his head goodnight and left quickly. As the Reverend closed the door behind him, his wife approached Shannon with a gentle smile curving her lips. She held her hand out in the direction of the kitchen table. “Hello, Miss. I’m Sadie Luxbourg. My husband and I are very happy that you’ve come to stay with us. Come, I’ll pour you a cup of coffee. If you’d like, we can talk about your ordeal.” Shannon gritted her teeth and stomped to one of the wooden chairs in the kitchen. She watched Sadie hustle about the small room, gathering chipped cups. A moment later, the elderly woman approached the table and placed the mugs and a tin pot on the surface. Hesitantly, because Shannon remained silent, she sank onto a chair after darting a quick gaze at her husband. “Would you like sugar and cream?” Shannon glared at her. “Well, dear, it’s right here if you should need it.” Sadie poured the hot coffee into three cups and set one before her guest. “I know you’ve been through a horrible ordeal. Would you be more comfortable talking if Mr. Luxbourg left the room?” She waited patiently for the other woman to speak. At times, the Reverend’s wife had heard horrible stories of suspected rape and slavery forced upon white female prisoners. Once the woman across from her realized she was safe, Mrs. Luxbourg was sure her story would pour forth. “If you’re talking about the ordeal of watching my husband shot from the back of a horse, then yes, it was horrible.” Sadie eyed her husband, sending him a silent message. The man quietly left the room. When the door closed behind him, she swung her gaze back to Shannon’s. “My dear, you have to understand that even though you were forced to become that Indian’s bride, no one here will condemn you for it.” Shannon’s fist came down hard on the table’s surface. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she enjoyed the startled look on the other woman’s face. “What is wrong with you people? I wasn’t forced to do anything. I love my husband. I wanted to be with him. It was my choice! Can’t any of you get that through your thick skulls?” Shannon’s eyes darted about in frustration. “Why don’t you just let me go to the jail? He’s injured. I’m sick with worry that he’ll die if he’s not taken care of properly.”

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Sadie smiled and ignored Shannon’s outburst. “Do you have any family we could wire about your safe return?” Shannon lowered her face to her upturned palms. She shook her head in exasperation. These people would never comprehend or believe that she had been dropped into their lives by a force so powerful that even she didn’t understand it. She had to discover a way to Moon Runner’s side. Mrs. Luxbourg cleared her throat and continued. “Could you at least let me know what your name is?” Shannon raised her chin and gritted her teeth. The woman refused to stop plying her with ridiculous questions. Well, two can play that game. “My name is Ghost Woman.” “Ghost Woman…that’s the name the Indian people gave to you. Why don’t you give me your last name?” Shannon picked up the mug and took a sip of coffee instead. Her unresponsive attitude did not bother Sadie in the least. She had seen too many women come through the gates of the fort that, for some odd reason, all acted the same. They seemed to love their Indian bucks and fought to remain with them. Well, eventually, you’ll see things different after being in the white world once more… “I think you’ll probably be more comfortable in the morning. When I received the message that you would be visiting us, I heated water for a nice bath for you. Why don’t you let me show you to the tub? After cleaning up and getting a good night’s rest, we can talk some more tomorrow.” Shannon wanted to inform the woman she could kiss her ass, but she bit her tongue. What she needed to do was to get the woman off-guard in order to make her escape from the house. Her eyes rounded. That’s it…play the game, Shannon. She pretended to wilt against the back of the hard chair. “I…I’m sorry. The day has been too much for me. Please, could I clean up now? It’s been so long since I’ve bathed in a real tub.” Her fingers rubbed a creased brow. “I’m so very tired. I just want to sleep and try to forget everything that happened today.” Sadie leapt from her chair and rounded the table. She took Shannon’s trembling hand in hers and led the woman to a bedroom off the kitchen. “Everything will be all right, dear. Your experience with the Sioux will someday begin to fade. I know that’s hard to believe, but I know what I’m talking about.” She settled Shannon on the edge of the bed and crossed to a large wooden cupboard standing against the wall. It wasn’t too long before she had a folded cotton nightdress in her hands. As she placed the garment on a chair, she turned with a smile. “Here’s something clean to wear to bed. In the morning, feel free to try on any clothes you think might fit you. If you wait a second, I’ll get Mr. Luxbourg to help me haul in water for your bath.” Shannon simply nodded her head before the woman disappeared back into the kitchen. Instantly, her panicked eyes scanned the room. There were no windows. I’ve got to get out of here. Tonight! When they’ve fallen asleep, I’ll sneak out…

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It wasn’t long before her bath was filled and both the Reverend and his wife bade her goodnight. Shannon quietly thanked them for their hospitality and breathed a deep sigh of relief when they left her to herself. As she stripped the buckskin dress soiled with Moon Runner’s dried blood, her stomach heaved. She clutched the bedpost and waited for the nausea to disappear. Tears trickled down her cheeks. Would the nightmare ever end? She yearned for his warmth beside her. She needed to know that she could change the course of history—that the hangman’s noose would never touch her beloved’s neck. “Moon Runner…” she sobbed quietly. “I’m coming—if I can’t change things, I won’t let you die alone…”

***** A pain-filled groan left Moon Runner’s throat when he moved on the musty cot, finally waking from the darkness that had surrounded him. Warm blood still oozed from the hole in his shoulder—a contrast to the chill that had settled over him. The injury throbbed, but he struggled weakly against the ache. “Ghost Woman…” A rat scurried across the damp floor at the sound of a human voice. Moon Runner’s eyes fluttered open. His baffled gaze took in the stone walls and the iron prison bars. His heart cried out when he remembered the sight of Shannon racing with him across the prairie for the safety of the trees. The soldiers… Where is she…I promised to keep her safe always… A cold fist of doom clamped about his heart. Would he ever see the love in her eyes again? He struggled to sit up, but when a burning pain shot through his shoulder, his vision dimmed to pinholes. Moon Runner clawed at the damp wall to remain upright, but the darkness descended again. His body slumped to the musty cot in a state of unconsciousness.

***** Shannon fought her weariness and depression as she waited until the muffled soft snores and deep rhythmic breath of slumber came from the room beside hers. Shoving back the quilt that covered her, she wiggled silently to the edge of the mattress and slid her legs over the side. Turning up the wick of the lit lantern on the small bedside table, she tiptoed across the room and carefully opened the large door to the clothes cabinet. Inside were various stored clothes belonging to her hosts. Shannon pulled out a longsleeve dress that looked to be her size and quickly rid herself of the cotton nightgown she wore. Dressed only seconds later, she slipped on her moccasins, quietly opened her bedroom door and slithered across the darkened kitchen. She stopped once when somewhere in the house, a cough filtered out into the shadows. Her heart slammed in

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her chest until she was sure no one had heard her crossing the room. Quickly, she lifted the iron peg from its hasp, opened the door, and slipped into the darkness. Muted voices floated on the night breeze—most likely soldiers making rounds as they guarded the fort against intruders. She pressed herself into the shadows created by gas lamps along the street, and hurried in the direction of the jail. Twice, she was almost discovered by guards making their rounds. Finally, she made it across the dusty lane, quietly hurried up the steps leading to the jailhouse, and peeked through the window. A young, uniformed man sat behind a desk, reading various papers spread across the surface. The door squeaked loudly as Shannon stepped into the prison office. The young man glanced up in surprise when she closed the door behind her. She smiled and swallowed her fear of the unknown. “Hello.” “Good evening, ma’am.” His brow furrowed when he shot to his feet. “Can I help you at this late hour?” “Ah…yes. I’d like to see the Sioux man that was brought in today.” His green eyes bulged at her request. No white woman in her right mind would make such an appeal. She must be the lady who was held prisoner and brought to the fort earlier. Here’s another one finding it hard to assimilate back into the white culture after suffering at the hands of the Sioux. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t let you back there.” Shannon swallowed again. “Is the Indian prisoner still alive?” The young private nodded. Instant relief flooded through her heart. “Then I must see him. Please, can’t you let me back there for just a few minutes?” “It’s the middle of the night, ma’am. Why don’t you come back in the morning? You can visit him before he’s hung.” Shannon’s head reeled. She grasped the edge of the desk to steady herself until the black spots before her eyes disappeared. It was happening—and there was nothing she could do. Moon Runner had spoken to her many times about destiny. His former words only reinforced the emotions that tumbled inside her now. Shannon’s heart began to splinter as a lone tear traced a path down her cheek. The man took a quick step and rounded the desk, thinking that Shannon might faint before his eyes. “Ma’am? Are you all right? Why don’t you sit down?” He took her arm to guide her to a chair. She lifted her head to stare into his eyes, trying to focus on the man’s face. A small shake of her head preceded her next request as she breathed deeply to clear away the terror in her heart. “Please. I don’t want to sit. I…I have to speak with him. What will it hurt? Especially if when…when…morning comes, he is to be hung.” His gaze was hesitant for only a second. “We have strict rules here when it comes to our prisoners.”

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She clutched at his arm. “I know, but this is different. I have to spend some time with him before he—before morning comes. Please, no one will know that you granted such a request. If you won’t let me see him, I don’t know what I’ll do…” The agony that contorted her face was enough to finally change the man’s mind. What will it hurt? The Indian is a goner, anyway. Shannon stared hopefully after the man when he walked back behind the desk. He silently studied her face, and then with a heavy sigh, pulled open a drawer, withdrew a ring of keys, and rounded the edge of the desk once again. “I’m not supposed to be doing this, but come with me. You can’t stay long.” “Thank you! You don’t know how much this means to me.” Shannon’s hand fluttered against her chest as she hurried to follow the soldier to an iron door. With a quick flick of his wrist, the lock clicked. He yanked the heavy door open and entered inside a dark passageway leading to the back of the building. Gas lanterns flickered dimly against cold, dank walls. Small shadows scurried away from the bright light the open door provided. The private stopped and pointed to the last cell. “He’s there. I’ll be back in a little bit to escort you out.” Shannon blinked back her tears. “Thank you…thank you so much.” The soldier shrugged and shook his head. A moment later, the door latch clicked, and she was left standing alone in the muted light of the passageway. Approaching the barred door of her husband’s cell, Shannon battled the waves of fear and nausea when she spied Moon Runner’s long body draped across a bare cot. She grasped the iron bars of his cell door with trembling fingers. Drawing in a deep, shaky breath, she whispered out his name. “Moon Runner?”

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Chapter Fourteen His dark head turned slowly in the direction of Shannon’s voice. “Ghost Woman? Am I dreaming?” His voice held an edge of weakness. “Is that you, Ghost Woman?” “Yes!” her voice cracked. She swallowed back her emotions and tried again. “Yes, it’s me.” A slender hand clamped over her mouth as the horror of their situation overwhelmed her. He rose slowly, pain darkening his eyes, and cradled a swollen arm. A dirty bandage stained with blood wrapped around his shoulder and upper torso. Moon Runner winced as he struggled across the floor to the woman whose arms now stretched past the iron barrier of his prison. Grasping one of her hands, he slumped weakly against the bars. His eyes closed when her shaking fingers tenderly caressed his bruised jaw. He gave silent thanks at being able to see her one last time. “What did they do to you?” she asked in a strangled voice. He shook his head, eyes closed against the building physical and emotional pain. “It is no matter. You are here and joy fills my heart.” His voice was breathless and raspy, striking even more dread inside her heart. A lump of terror clogged her throat, rendering her speechless for a moment. Reaching through the bars with both arms now, she pulled his face nearer until she was able to press her lips against his cold ones. She struggled to keep the fear from her voice. “What are we to do, my love?” she whispered. “We have to find a way to get you out of here.” Moon Runner’s forehead lolled against the softness of her brow. “You must listen to me… When…when a Sioux brave is near the end of his existence, he reviews his life.” Shannon gasped quietly as the floodgates opened. Tears coursed down her cheeks as she squeezed his hand. “No! Don’t talk that way—” she choked out. “Shhh, Ghost Woman. Do not cry. Your tears rip at my soul.” A trembling thumb weakly wiped the tears from Shannon’s soft cheek. “The questions I asked myself? Did I live an honest life? Did I follow my destiny?” His breath whistled across his lips in pain when he moved his bandaged shoulder and reached through the bars to hold her as close as he could. He struggled with his words. “I was given the name Moon Runner when I went in search of my life’s journey. I ran to the moon, Shannon…my Ghost Woman. I discovered you. I was true to my vision and waited for the time when you would be in my arms. I have thanked the spirits every morning when I felt your warm body beside me. You have made this last summer of my life one to cherish.” He panted hard, ignoring the chill in his blood. “It was always destiny to love you, just as it is destiny now…”

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A strangled sob escaped her, and her lips moved soundlessly as Shannon fought to find her voice. He was right. She couldn’t change fate. She had seen the past from the future and could do nothing to forestall his impending death. Her fingers stroked the hair at his temple, memorizing the feel of its silky length. “What…how…how will I live without you?” The tears poured down her face. “Tell me again…tell me how you love me.” His mouth pinched in a straight line of palpable pain when he whispered the question. Moon Runner’s head lolled against her hand. His head swam in a fog of weariness, pain, and utter sadness. “Yes! I love you more than life! You know I do. You have given me so much…you have made me so happy.” She reached out her other hand and clung to his arm, knowing now there was nothing she could do. The soldiers would take him away. She ached. Her soul wept with grief. Moon Runner’s breath came in shallow pants. “Then you must go. Everything will be as it should. I have thought much while sitting here. I…I always felt in my heart that you would be taken from me. You cannot stay in my world if I will not be here to protect you. Go to the river, Ghost Woman. Rely on simple faith to get you back to your home.” She stared up, horrorstruck at what he had just asked her to do. She would stay. She would stay until the horrible soldiers led him to his death. She would be by his side when he entered a better world. The fingers of one hand threaded their way through the strands of flowing, black hair that rested across his chest. She touched his shoulder lightly. Sticky, warm blood stained her fingers. “What are you saying? I’m not going anywhere.” Her voice crackled with pain, despite her effort to remain strong for his benefit. “I will be here with you until our last minutes together.” Moon Runner tilted his head and softly kissed her mouth through the iron bars, savoring the sweet smell of her breath in his nostrils. “No, woman of my heart…I do not want you to watch me die. Do this last thing for me. I have prayed that the water will carry you safely back to your other life. It is your only hope to return.” Moon Runner swayed precariously against her hold. “Go now. I must continue to pray. Those who have passed judgment will be here soon to lead me to the gallows. There is nothing we can do.” “No!” she pleaded. Her tears increased as she clutched at his arm, then lifted her other hand to tighten the hold around his shoulders. “Don’t make me go. Please don’t make me go. I can’t…I can’t…” Her words were finally lost as she sobbed and grappled to keep his body within her embrace. Moon Runner drew on the little strength he had left and broke the strong hold she had on his neck. He stumbled away from the flailing arms that reached through the bars to pull him back. “Don’t do this!” she screamed at him. He refused to accept the warmth she offered him, and she was frantic for his touch. “I love you, Moon Runner—only you! Come back to me!”

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He stumbled backward until his legs touched the sides of the cot. Moon Runner sank weakly to the surface and stared at Shannon across the cell lit dimly by the moonlight that streamed through the window. “Have faith, Ghost Woman. Remember always how much I loved you.” Shannon choked on her tears. “Please, please come back to me. Let me hold you.” Moon Runner remained silent in the darkened corner. He struggled against the biggest battle of his life. To hold her once more would only cause more pain. If he listened to her plea, he would never be able to let go of her again. “Please…” Her body sagged against the bars as she slid slowly to the dank floor with tears streaming down her face. Her hands beckoned him once more. Her heart cried silently for him. “Please, don’t do this to me, Moon Runner. I need you. I love you…” Moon Runner swallowed, squeezed his lids to stop the flow of his own tears, and battled with his heart not to rush to her pleading arms. Shannon’s only chance to find her way back to her other world was to leave immediately before the soldiers came. She needed to get to the stream before she lost her chance—even if she didn’t understand it herself. He listened as she sobbed against the bars, calling his name over and over as if in a chant. Battling his intense love, he stayed rooted to the cot. Minutes passed before her heartrending sobs began to quiet. Moon Runner’s eyes rose at the silence—he prayed for himself and he prayed for Ghost Woman. Shannon finally staggered to her feet, her hoarse sobs now turned to small hiccups. Her arms hung at her sides and her shoulders slumped with dejection as she met his sad eyes one final time. The tender smile of devoted love that curved his lips when he lifted a hand in farewell emblazoned into her brain for all time. He turned away from her then, and leaned his uninjured shoulder against the damp, stone wall. Clamping a hand over her mouth, Shannon spun and raced down the corridor, past the surprised young man sitting at the front desk, and into the night. She slid to a stop in the middle of the dusty street to get her bearings. Her stomach roiled, her heart ached with pain of the final goodbye, and then she raced eastward across the prairie and into the dark of the night.

***** Shannon’s lungs burned as she skidded to a halt at the top of the bluff overlooking the river. Small ripples cascaded across the surface from the light breeze that rustled the silvery water. Unending tears streamed down her cheeks as she tore at the cotton dress, popping ivory buttons in her haste to rid herself of the garment. She raised her arms to the heavens and screamed his name. “Moon Runner…Moon Runner!” Listening to the echo of his name bounding across the landscape was her final undoing. 99

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She collapsed naked to the brown grass and sobbed into her upturned palms. She wanted to die with the helplessness she felt. She wanted to kill every soldier at Pine Ridge. She wanted…she wanted Moon Runner. Shannon sank forward to the cool earth, rolled to her back, and stared at the fading stars until the sun tipped the eastern horizon, envisioning every moment she had spent with her beautiful warrior over the long summer days and into the beautiful colored weeks of autumn. “Moon Runner…” she choked out quietly. “How will I live without you?” She rose wearily as the light increased, wondering somewhere in her pain-filled brain if the United States government, in all their ignorance, had already ended the life of a beautiful, proud, and loving man. Her red-rimmed eyes scanned the riverbank. She would either drown in the murky water or that strong—something—that had propelled her into another world, would send her forward to her life in the year 2001. Not caring one way or the other because she would never feel the warmth of Moon Runner’s body again, she stumbled down the bank and plunged into the water. As her unresisting body sank beneath the river’s surface, the hangman’s noose tightened around Moon Runner’s neck.

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Chapter Fifteen South Dakota June, 2003

Shannon sat in her rented car and stared at the red-bricked building that housed the Sioux Museum of Indian History. Today would be the beginning of the end. She bit her bottom lip to stop the heavy sigh. Two painful years had passed since she’d spun through the churning liquid and back to the future—back to a life without the man she loved and a world that seemed more foreign than the one she had existed in for such a short time. In six more days, the second anniversary of her return from the nineteenth century would be upon her. Shannon found it hard to believe that so much time had really passed, and that she had actually survived without Moon Runner’s commanding presence, his fierce lovemaking, and his achingly sweet words of devotion. He had been right. She had jumped that last early morning of his life, not caring if she lived or died. The strong hand of fate had brought her back to the present. She barely recalled her time beneath the surface of the river that day of his death. What was committed to memory, however, was the second her head broke the surface after she’d plunged in. Gasping for breath, the instinct to survive had forced her to struggle to the shore. She had crawled up the mucky slope to collapse onto the grass. Finally opening her eyes, she had stared in wonder at her jeans shorts and shirt lying where she had dropped them. Shannon closed her eyes and ran a trembling hand through her curly hair. The memories piled one atop the other. She remembered clearly how she had leapt up to see the sky lit brightly by the lights of Rapid City and the outline of her rented car—exactly in the spot where she had left it parked. Shannon shook her head now at the madness. It was as if the long summer with Moon Runner had never happened. She had dropped back into nearly the exact moment when the first cramping pains had tightened the muscles of her legs. Moon Runner had sworn that day to find her again if they were ever parted. She had promised to wait for him. Her love for the man had been real, true, but the constant lonely nights in her bed over the last two years had finally exacted their toll. It had taken nearly the entire spring for Shannon to find the courage to return and finally say goodbye. She needed to put the past to rest. She could not continue to mourn Moon Runner. By returning to South Dakota and the serene landscape surrounding her, she hoped to discover some semblance of peace at last. But first, she needed to discover any information that might have been written about him after his death. Although the 101

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picture of his handsome, proud face was imprinted forever on her mind, she wanted to take the time to find any other photos of him that might have been taken before she said her final goodbye. She had to have absolute closure. Not knowing if putting herself through this one last heartache was the right thing to do, Shannon finally dragged herself from the car and headed for the tinted glass doors. The Sioux Museum of Indian History had opened only weeks prior to her arrival in Rapid City. Once out of the hot South Dakota sun and through the foyer, Shannon’s heartbeat quickened. Patrons moved about quietly in the reverent spiritualism of Sioux artifacts and, for the first time since her return to the future, she became aware of a reconnection with Moon Runner’s people. Shannon’s gaze scanned the marquee set up in the middle of the lobby, looking for a place to begin her search. Finally, she found what she was looking for. Photography display…please, let me find something! She hurried up the stairs to the second floor, noting various handmade tools of the Sioux culture lining the stairwell, and stifled the urge to laugh hysterically as she eavesdropped on the conversation of the couple ahead of her. The woman had turned to the man at her side, stating how horrible it would have been to have no modern conveniences at her disposal, how she could have never survived during the frontier years. But, it’s not horrible! I had everything I needed in my life with Moon Runner… My God, she cried silently. These tools could be some of the wedding gifts we received… Shannon clutched at the wooden railing, clamped a hand against her forehead until her head quit spinning, and finally forced one foot in front of the other as she continued up the staircase. The historical photo room encompassed most of the second floor. The four outer walls resembled an art gallery. Again, the extreme serenity and spiritualism surrounded Shannon as her eyes moved to the enlarged black and white photos that graced the marble walls. In the center of the room, private study areas with computers lined in rows like marching soldiers. Shelves held still more familiar artifacts. Shannon started at the doorway, slowly working her way around the room, studying each picture in depth as she searched for a familiar face. Time passed, and she was drawn back to warm summer days, the scent of morning dew on the prairie grass, and the memories of her time with a proud, loving man. She reached the end of the room and continued to walk past a display devoted entirely to photos from the aftermath of the Massacre at Wounded Knee. A single tear trickled down her cheek as she reached out trembling fingers to touch the image of a fallen woman with her child by her side. So horrible…please let it be true that Moon Runner’s family was spared this terrible death… She ducked her head, mouthed a silent prayer for them all, and moved on with a saddened heart. Crossing her arms over her chest to ward off a sudden chill, she strolled past pictures of beautiful valleys where the everyday life of the Sioux was captured by the

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click of a camera. Barefoot children posed beside fire pits in front of teepees. Painted horses grazed on the outskirts of the tribal communities. Proud warriors wearing headdresses stared angrily at the white man’s cameras as slowly, their lives encroached upon by a society that never understood what it was like to be one with nature. A picture of the Pine Ridge headquarters caused Shannon to skid to a halt. It was all there. The remembered cannons, the same buildings she had passed by in person, and the official jailhouse. Her knees shook so violently that she sank to a wooden bench before toppling over. Shannon stared at the image of the building that had been burned into her memory. Moon Runner… Memories…it was the last place she had ever seen his handsome face. It was the last time she had heard his whispered words of love. Once she was able to control her frazzled emotions, Shannon rose from the bench, reached out to press her fingers over the prison’s door, and then turned away. She never wanted to see the building again. Her eyes flitted over the next picture where a group of young Indian women with somber expressions, stood in a line outside the headquarters’ commissary, holding pails in their hands. Shannon gasped and covered her mouth with trembling fingers as she leaned forward. A beautiful young woman stared directly into the camera, her doe-like eyes filled with sadness. “Little Fawn… Oh, my God, Little Fawn. Is that what happened to you?” Shannon’s throat tightened as she stared at the picture. Moon Runner’s sister. Her sister… How she missed her laughing eyes and gentle wit. She finally tore her gaze from the girl, took one step further and stared into Moon Runner’s eyes. Shannon nearly fainted. He no longer stood beside the gallows. He stood on the surface of the wooden platform with the hangman’s noose around his neck. The picture of his impending death was taken only minutes after the old copied photo that was tucked inside her purse. She sagged against the wall and reached out a trembling hand to caress his likeness. “Moon Runner,” she whispered hoarsely. “I wanted to be with you to the end. But, I did what you asked.” A sob sounded in her throat. “You were right. I did get back. But it’s horrible. It’s so horrible living without you. I’m sorry, love. I came back to say goodbye. Missing you is robbing me of my life. I have to go on. Please, wherever you are, you have to forgive me.” “Miss?” Shannon’s body jerked. “Miss, please don’t touch the photo murals. I’ll have to ask you to leave if you continue to do so.” Her head swung in the direction of the museum curator. Shannon simply stared dumbstruck at the man in the fringed jacket and glasses perched on the end of his nose. “What?” She swiped at the unseen tears that burned behind her lids. What did he want? 103

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“You’ll have to leave if you can’t follow the museum’s rules. No touching is allowed.” Fury and self-pity, so powerful that it made Shannon’s body shake, forced her to silently flee from the second level. She raced to the staircase and stumbled down the steps. Once at the bottom, she ran past the staring crowd to the front doors, and out into the bright sunlight. Sinking to a bench placed beneath a tree, she gasped for air as she screamed silently. Anger at her God and at Moon Runner’s Great Spirit for forcing her back to a life of unhappiness and loneliness, overwhelmed Shannon’s heavy emotions. Her slender arms wrapped around her body as she leaned forward and panted to gain control. This had to stop. Shannon couldn’t live this way any longer. She couldn’t spend the rest of her days pining for something that could never be. She had to find the strength to say goodbye. Slowly, reason returned as she rocked. Too much time had passed—too many hours of the horrible state of limbo she had waded through since climbing back up the riverbank after being tossed forward in time. She opened her eyes and glanced around, noticing for the first time how people suspiciously eyed her as they walked by the bench. Shannon’s gaze swept away from them all as she rose, lifted her chin, and headed down the sidewalk with determination squaring her jaw. She would be back in Chicago before the dawning of the second anniversary of her return. She just couldn’t take the sadness any longer. Staying until the end of the week would only prolong the misery. Her fingers tightened around her purse strap as she marched toward the parking lot. Passing a small billboard, her eyes scanned the many flyers so she wouldn’t have to meet the eyes of the strangers that flowed in the direction of the museum. Seeing the cover of one that advertised horseback rides to a small cove containing the etched wall art of long ago Indians, and the small waterfall that fed a quiet pond, was her final undoing. Shannon’s world went black as she collapsed to the concrete.

***** “Ma’am? Just lay still. The paramedics are on the way.” A moan filtered from Shannon’s mouth. Her head ached behind her closed lids, but she struggled to open her eyes. The bright sun glared behind the shadowed face of a man kneeling beside her. She blinked, wet her lips, and suddenly realized that a crowd surrounded her where she lay on the hard sidewalk. Someone had placed something soft behind her head. “What happened?”

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An elderly man clasped her hand, gave it a pat, and smiled down. “I think the heat was too much for you, young lady. One minute you were standing and, the next, you crumpled to the ground. One of the museum curators has called an ambulance.” An ambulance? It took a second, but suddenly she remembered the moment her world became fuzzy and dark. She had looked into the past. She had seen the secluded cove where she and Moon Runner had honeymooned. The carving! Our initials! Why didn’t I remember it? She had to get there. She had to see if time had erased her written vow of love. Then she would leave. Then she would try to put her life back together. Struggling to sit, she batted away the hand of the elderly man. Once upright, she tried to rise to her feet, but she swayed precariously and ended up back on her butt. The sound of a siren was heard. Before she knew it, two paramedics were at her side, hooking up a blood pressure cuff and demanding that she stay down. “I’m fine. Really. I think it’s just the heat.” She had to get out of here. She had to make plans to travel up the mountain. “What’s your name?” She felt the cuff tighten around her arm as a uniformed man pumped up the bulb. “Shannon Dunne. Really, I feel much better. I don’t know what happened.” “Well, Shannon, let’s just make sure you’re okay now. You were out for quite awhile. Just relax.” Soon after, the hiss of air was heard and the cuff loosened. Shannon stared at him, wondering why he wouldn’t let her leave. His head nodded. “One twenty-four over seventy. Did you get that, Mike?” The other man scribbled on a pad of paper. Mike leaned over and shined a light into her eyes. Shannon blinked. “Her pupils aren’t dilated. Ms. Dunne, do you hurt anywhere?” As he asked, his fingers gently felt the back of her head and around to her ears. “Please, I really need to get back to my hotel. My car is right over there. I’m fine. I don’t feel bad at all. Really, I just think it was the heat.” Her response was a lie, but they didn’t need to know that. Mike met her questioning gaze as his hands performed an automatic skeleton check, searching for any bruises or broken bones from her fall. “We really can’t let you drive even though your vitals are fine. Is there anyone you can call to come and get you?” Her mother waited at the hotel. Shannon had the rented vehicle. “My mother is in town with me, but I can take a cab. We’re staying at a local hotel.” Her eyes darted about again. Shannon didn’t want her mother to worry and she had to get away from the crowd that had quickly amassed. Mike reached for her arm. “Why don’t you stand up and see how you feel. We’ll sit with you for a little bit, and if everything goes well, I’ll call you a cab. You’ll just have to come back with your mother and pick up the car later.”

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Shannon couldn’t get off the sidewalk fast enough. She needed to get to the hotel. She needed to make reservations to ride up the mountain.

***** Shannon had to wait three days before she was able to find a spot with a group heading up to the cove. If the secluded spot hadn’t been owned by a private entity, she would have rented a horse and tried to find it on her own. As it was, she was forced to wait. Her body rolled gently with her mount’s gait as the group made their way up the mountainside. Shannon’s eyes rested on the backs of the ten riders she followed. They have no clue…they’ll never understand what it’s like to have traveled over this path in another time. Her eyes closed for a quick second. Moon Runner’s face flashed across her mind. Those intimate days beside the pond were the best of my life…six days…secluded almost an entire week within his hot embrace. He had kept her in constant sexual arousal, possessing her body time after time in different ways, sucking, massaging, and pounding into her, his masterful techniques always unique. Shannon’s body trembled atop the horse. She would never feel his touch again. It was impossible that it could ever happen. The soldiers had killed him and taken part of her heart in the process. A quiet sob clogged her throat. Moon Runner…no matter what, I will always love you. When the trail master reined his horse down a winding path, Shannon straightened in the saddle. She was the last rider to make the turn. Where years into the past, the trail had been nearly concealed with heavy underbrush, now smooth gravel covered a cleared, gentler slope. Nothing was familiar. Modern man had changed the upper landscape. When the group reached the quiet cove, however, Shannon felt as if she’d stepped back in time. Her eyes darted about excitedly to take in the stream of rushing water from the same crevice above her, the lush grass where she had laid out a bed of fur, and then skittered across to Moon Runner’s family who were etched into the rock wall. She dismounted quickly to join the others. Please let it still be there! She waited impatiently for the others to turn their attention to the scribes. As the group listened intently to the trail master’s droning voice, Shannon backed up slowly to the far edge of the wall. She pretended to be interested in the height of the rock expanse. Pine trees that were probably not even seedlings the last time she had visited, now had grown heavy branches that hung across the surface of the limestone. Shannon reached up with a shaking hand, grasped a limb, brushed it away from the wall, and froze.

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It was there. The initials engraved over a hundred years earlier were still encircled within a ragged heart. She winced against a quick stab of lonely pain, and squeezed her eyes tightly to hold back the threatening flow of tears. Her soul instantly ached for his touch. It called to his heart… She listened…waiting…hoping to conjure up the gentle sound of the words of love he’d spoken when she had explained the drawing. Her head tilted slightly. She waited breathlessly, focusing on the emotions of that long ago day. Soon, the voices in the clearing faded away. Memories… Cascading water against her heated skin, the feel of the lush grass beneath her bare feet, Moon Runner’s gentle sigh against her ear. Her lips parted. Distant drums floated on the warm breeze. It is a good picture, Ghost Woman, one that tells the truth. I will love you forever. Shannon let go of the branch and sank to the surface of a rotting log. Her lids fluttered shut. It took some time, but she finally won the battle against the heartwrenching tears threatening to flow down her cheeks. She would not cry. Instead, she would rejoice in the fact that she had even had the chance to be loved by an honorable man like Moon Runner. Their time together was short if measured by days, but the intensity of her emotions would stay with her always.

***** Shannon stepped hesitantly from the rented car and drew in a deep breath of courage. Her sad, blue gaze scanned the quiet peacefulness of the South Dakota afternoon, then settled on the small strip of water surrounded by dry mud that was once the boundary where land met water. The summer-long drought had done its damage. The magical river from her past was almost nonexistent. After her visit to the mountain, she had returned to the hotel. When the door opened to her room, her mother was there with comforting arms. Shannon had cried out her misery against the familiar shoulder until she was weak with exhaustion. They had talked until the early hours of morning. Shannon knew that even though her mother understood her loneliness, she still found it hard to believe that her daughter had been transported in time. Nonetheless, she was the guiding force for her child, always ready to stand by Shannon’s side. And, after watching that child experience two years of utter sadness, it was the older woman who had insisted that Shannon stay in South Dakota until the day of the anniversary and visit the river to say her final goodbye. Shannon’s fingers curled around the top edge of the car door as she continued to stare at the trickling water. A heavy sigh lifted her slim shoulders before she gritted her teeth, closed the door gently, and forced herself to walk down a worn path. Her eyes scrutinized the site in search of familiar landmarks that had been, in a past life, burned

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into her brain. The slope of the land was different than she remembered, but her pain remained the same. Finally reaching what was once a muddy bank, she settled atop a fallen tree, placed her hands on the rough bark, and stared forlornly at the murky water again. Being here where Moon Runner first found her was the hardest thing she had ever done. Another deep breath helped to rebuild her flailing resolve. Shannon had made a pact with herself after crying in her mother’s arms. She would rise above the suffocating sadness and get on with her life. She rose from the log, ambled a few steps closer to the river, and sank into the long grass. Lying back with her hands crossed behind her head, she gazed at the endlessly blue sky above as her fingers unconsciously rubbed the thin white scar at her wrist. As she lay in the grass, unaware of the fact that she stalled this final goodbye, it hit her that most women spent an entire life not even coming close to sharing the extraordinary kind of love that she had shared with her magnificent warrior. Most would never experience the magic touch of a man that sent a hot bed of liquid fire racing through their veins, or something as simple as having a lover’s glance make them weak in the knees. They would never know the beauty of finding that one special person who knew your every thought and loved you enough to wait his entire life for you to appear. Shannon blinked, surprised that the daily flow of tears hadn’t appeared along with her musings even though she swallowed back a familiar lump of sadness. “Maybe you’re finally accepting that life will have to go on without him…” she muttered forlornly to the expansive quietness. Poignant sorrow would always be her constant companion, but she realized that the journey to South Dakota had accomplished what it was supposed to have. Shannon would finally be able to say goodbye and honor Moon Runner by finding happiness as the sun rose each morning. Hopefully, coming to terms with the past would lead to her finding the inner peace she desperately sought for the future. She pushed herself up to a sitting position and took one last glance about the nearly dried up stream, half wondering if the drought hadn’t turned the once vibrant river into a stagnant puddle, would she have given any credence to the thought of jumping back into the murky depths to revisit the past. Would it even happen again? No, Shannon…you came back to say goodbye… She placed her hand over her heart, closed her eyes, and silently mouthed a prayer of thanksgiving to Mother Earth—one that she had repeated with Moon Runner every morning of her magical summer. She took a deep breath and bravely forced a smile to her lips. Yes, she had experienced a wonderful love and Moon Runner would always reside in her heart, but she would keep his memory tucked tightly away and learn to be happy again. She was ready to leave.

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A deep sigh expanded her chest until the white cotton T-shirt stretched tightly across her breasts. Someone special waited for her back at the hotel, and she was finally ready to move forward with him. She couldn’t live a life of maybes or what ifs. She forced herself to stand, turned to the grassy knoll, and her step was lighter than it had been when she had risen from her hotel room bed that morning. She would survive without Moon Runner because she had no other choice. Reaching the car, Shannon didn’t hesitate to fling open the door, excited for the first time now to return to Rapid City and the life that awaited her. The engine purred to a start when she turned the key. Glancing into the rearview mirror, her foot hesitated on the brake as she observed a rusted pickup crest the hill. She automatically flicked on the blinker and pressed the gas pedal, glad that she was inside the safe confines of her vehicle. One could never be sure nowadays and the river was a secluded spot. As she drove slowly around the many potholes to reach the main road, Shannon’s gaze continually returned to the mirror. The rusted vehicle had pulled to a stop in the very spot where she had parked. A large man with black flowing hair stepped from behind the open door. Faded jeans hugged his muscled thighs. The tails of his worn cotton shirt flapped in the breeze. Shannon’s lungs constricted as her eyes widened, but she forced her gaze from the reflection in the mirror and concentrated on the road. It’s only wishful thinking… Gripping the steering wheel with purpose, she continued to drive west. “It’s not possible,” she stated aloud and pressed the gas pedal to accelerate onto the main road. But what if it is? She didn’t get a good look at his face. Keep driving! You’ve said goodbye… Would she wonder the rest of her days? Shannon slammed her foot against the brake, quickly turned the car around to go back to the river, and drove as fast as the potholes would allow. She pulled the vehicle to the side of the dirt lane a good distance from the pickup and observed the enigmatic stranger as he headed for the riverbank. The broad-shouldered man stopped at the edge and stood with his back to her as he stared at the trickle of water that once rushed through the gorge. The set of his shoulders was the same… No! Don’t be ridiculous… She refused to listen to the silent voice. “What will it hurt to get a better look,” she muttered. Shannon ignored her heart slamming against her ribs as she jerked the car into park and popped the door open. As she slowly stood, she shielded her eyes with one hand and never took her gaze from the masculine form standing in the grass. The man’s long hair lifted on the breeze. Shannon remembered the feel of long, black flowing strands beneath her fingers.

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The breeze died and the hot, stagnant air was suddenly hard to breathe. It caught in her throat. She gasped to clear her spinning brain. Common sense told her it was ridiculous to even hope. Her gaze skittered the length of the stranger—head to toe. The memory of muscular thighs pinning her splayed body to the ground flitted through her brain. Her throat seemed to close as her heart beat faster. He turned as if knowing she was there. His dark eyes took in the slender blonde woman who called to his heart. “Moon Runner!” she choked out his name through instant tears as she stumbled over rocks and jutting roots to reach him. Tears of absolute joy blurred her sight as she continued in a full run through the long grass with her hands spread wide. “Moon Runner! Oh, my God, Moon Runner…” His name repeatedly left her lips as she stumbled across the path to the river with a hand now clamped over her mouth. “Moon Runner!” She didn’t care that his presence was an impossibility. If the man struggling up the bank to reach Shannon was only a figment of her yearning imagination, then she would have this one last time to hold him in her embrace. Shannon flung herself into his waiting arms as screams of joy left her lips. Moon Runner lifted her against his chest and spun her feet above the ground as he clutched her body. Her fingers raced across the familiar features of his face, touching his eyes, his shiny hair, and his laughing mouth, assuring that it was really her love returned to her arms. His mouth lowered to hers in a fierce, demanding kiss that sucked the air from her lungs. They sank to their knees in a heated, blistering embrace. Trembling hands raced across the familiar planes of the other’s body, touching, rejoicing, truly believing that some strong force had brought them together once again. Fate had not tricked Shannon or Moon Runner. Warm, silky skin and heated breaths, as their tongues mingled, was the proof they needed. The questions would wait. Shannon ripped at Moon Runner’s shirt to experience again the taut, smooth skin of his chest. His fingers clutched the hem of her T-shirt and, in one swift motion, he yanked the garment over her head. One muscular arm supported her as he bent her back, and his mouth lowered to suckle an erect nipple. “Ghost Woman…Shannon…” he groaned against her hot skin. Shannon’s joyful moan matched the man’s whose lips tortured the swollen bud. Her fingers scrambled to unzip his jeans and free his throbbing penis. Grasping the hard length of his cock, she squeezed her hand tightly, elation ripping through her mind at the sound of his familiar growl. They kissed wildly until both their lips were bruised and swollen, and then the touches turned tender…seeking…remembering. Shannon sobbed beneath the pressure of his achingly sweet mouth. “Moon Runner…you’re here! You’re here! You’ve come back to me. I want to feel you inside

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me…please…I love you so much—I’ve missed you so terribly…I wanted to die.” She pulled him down beside her as she fell back to the golden prairie grass. Moon Runner already had her jeans undone. A moment later, he shucked them down her legs and tossed them aside, then quickly kicked away his own. His eyes turned to an ebony color as his gaze skittered across Shannon’s white, naked skin. Her watery gaze watched him closely when he unabashedly swiped the wetness from his cheeks. “I love you, Ghost Woman… I have always kept you in my heart… I have searched for you…” He pulled her body against his length, savoring the feel of her breasts as they scraped deliciously across his heaving chest. Their stinging tears of joy intermingled as the hot sun warmed their naked bodies, rapidly beating hearts became one once again. Moon Runner stole her breath away when his hand lowered to caress softly curled pubic hair. “I have missed loving you here.” He pierced Shannon’s pussy with a thick finger, tenderly massaged her clit with his thumb, and then gently covered her trembling body. She continued to run her hands over and over his face as she frantically kissed his mouth, astounded that he had come back to her, thanking the Great Spirit for his life, rejoicing in the feel of the familiar weight pressing against her breasts. His face was only inches away from her smiling mouth when the head of his cock prodded her wet opening. “Moon Runner,” she whispered, “take me now.” He slipped easily into her welcoming, joyous sheath. Moon Runner’s eyes fluttered shut as he felt her pussy tighten around him. His breathing turned harsh, but he remained motionless as their souls reunited in a world that contained nothing but the love they felt for one another. Shannon surged forward, sucking his cock deeper until he filled her pussy completely. Two years she had dreamed of him. Two long, lonesome years of imagining the feel of his hard length within her, and the love that always shone in his eyes. Her arms tightened around his neck. She tilted her head and lightly bit his bottom lip. “Come to me, my warrior…come to me…” Shannon gasped with joy against his seeking lips, wrapped her slender legs around his thrusting hips, and met each savage stroke with one of her own. The driving force of his lovemaking lifted her from the ground each time he plunged his cock against the slick walls of her vagina. Moon Runner’s heart thundered in his chest. Complete, utter ecstasy raced in his veins as he throbbed inside her wet heat. His heart sang with joy. “My Ghost Woman…” Another gasp replaced Shannon’s sobbing smile as the firestorm of his love built in her womb. Her tongue danced with his when he surged forward and buried himself inside her slick heat. Instant sweet, pulsing, orgasmic waves shook her body. “Come with me! Oh, my God, come with me, Moon Runner!”

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He answered with one last, swift, piercing stroke that buried his cock within her body, and Moon Runner felt the heat of his semen spew forth. As he continued to spasm, he drank in the familiar scent of the woman he loved more than life. The shudders of love receded slowly. Each orgasmic pulse lessened until they lay silently in the aftermath, kissing, touching…wondering at the powerful force that had blessed them. Shannon’s leg wrapped around one muscular thigh to keep Moon Runner from withdrawing his penis. She wanted his cock buried in her forever. She wanted his beautiful masculine body close beside her always. The sun slowly dried their sweat-slicked bodies as they kissed and continued to touch the warm skin of the other, daring to believe that it wasn’t a dream, but a reality of worshipful love. “How?” Shannon asked as she tenderly kissed the jagged scar at his shoulder. “How did you get here?” Moon Runner rose to an elbow, clasped her hand and dragged it across the grass. He turned her palm to the sun. A tender moment later, he pressed the scar at his wrist to the matching mark she possessed. His mouth dipped to steal a tender kiss. “I have come to this place every day. Two years have passed, Shannon. I have dreamed of the day I could do this. I have prayed for the feel of your body wrapped around my manhood, of the taste of your breast in my mouth, of the scent of your womanly body inside my nostrils…” Shannon’s tears flowed down her face again. Her heart skipped a beat when his lips lowered and he drew her throbbing nipple into his mouth. She closed her eyes and felt instant arousal once more. Only Moon Runner could make her body weep with happiness at his touch. “But…but you died on the gallows…and now you’re here in my arms. I don’t understand how it could happen twice in a lifetime…” Moon Runner couldn’t help himself when he kissed her trembling lips, then lingered against her mouth to breathe in the remembered scent of love. He had prayed for such a long time to hold her as he was at that very moment, that he was almost frightened to let her go. “I prayed to the Great Spirit to have mercy on me. I prayed for the safe return of my Ghost Woman to a life she once knew. My body died for a time. My soul lived on. I remember the hinged door dropping open and the strangling noose around my neck.” He ran his tongue across her parted lips. “And then there was nothing until a small child found me lying beside a road. I have learned what the future is because I have lived it now and never once did I doubt that I would find you.” His fingertips brushed across her cheek, wiping her tears away. “Do not cry any longer, Ghost Woman. You are in my arms where you belong.” She hugged him tightly, swearing to herself that she would never let him leave her sight again. “I love you, Moon Runner. My God, I almost didn’t turn back. I had come here to say goodbye because I thought you would never find me. I’m sorry I didn’t believe, Moon Runner. I’m sorry…” “Hush…you did come back. You did find me.”

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“No…I found me,” she smiled up at him. “Do you hear me? When I saw you, I finally found me. I was going to move on, Moon Runner. I was going to find the peace I’ve been searching for since the morning I returned, because up to now, my life has been horrible without you. But now?” Her smile widened. “I’ve finally discovered who I really am. I am the woman who belongs with you forever.” “Let us not give the river another chance to separate us,” he whispered. “Let us go before we are discovered.” She was instantly lonely when he withdrew his cock from her body and helped her to her feet. The loneliness was replaced, however, when he drew her against his chest, lifted her from her feet, and kissed her deeply when she wrapped her legs around his waist. He grasped her buttocks to hold her in place. The embrace finally ended, and she smiled against his mouth as she hooked her arms around his neck. “We have nothing to fear if we are discovered. There are no more soldiers that will take you from me.” His brow furrowed momentarily before a chuckle erupted in his throat. “What?” she questioned. Not that she really cared what his answer was—Moon Runner had found her again, and that is all that mattered. “I do not fear soldiers any longer, my love. I have lived in your world for two years now. I fear the idea of some…punk…is that the word? Yes. I fear some punk seeing you naked and possibly trying to steal you away from me.” Shannon burst out laughing and kissed him again before he let her slide down the front of his body. “You have learned a lot about the future, haven’t you?” They helped each other to dress, laughing and giggling as they touched one another constantly to assure that neither was in the middle of a dream. Moon Runner bent and balled his shirt in a firm grip, preferring to feel the warm sun on his naked shoulders. He reached out, clasped Shannon’s hand tightly, and they strolled up the hill toward the vehicles. Shannon looked up and it hit her how well he had adjusted to her world. Her gaze turned serious when it rested on the scar at his shoulder—one that was many years old and given to him by white soldiers. Her brain still whirled as she tried to put the pieces of his time travel together in her mind. “Moon Runner? If you’ve learned so much about my world, why didn’t you contact me two years ago?” “I didn’t know your name or where you came from.” Her brow furrowed. “What do you mean? You knew my real name was Shannon.” “That is all I know. In your world, people have two names. I do not know your other name. I also did not know what year you came from. We never spoke of it—we only discussed your world as the future. I had to rely on simple faith that you would return to the river. I have come here every day to wait for you. It was the right thing to do. My love called for you daily. I could not leave the reservation to search. By doing that, I would take the chance of missing you when you finally came.” Shannon mentally shook her head, amazed at Moon Runner’s great faith in simple fate. “Where have you been staying all this time?” 113

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Moon Runner dropped her hand, placed an arm securely around her shoulders, and drew her closer as they walked. His dark eyes squinted against the sun. “My family members have always lived here. Do you remember Little Fawn?” “Of course I do. I came to love your sister very much…but she can’t still be alive.” “No, she has been passed to another, greater life for many years now. When I was found, I was taken to the reservation hospital. I was very ill from the gunshot wound. I told the people who worked there that I was Moon Runner. I asked them if they knew a beautiful woman with white hair named Ghost Woman. No one believed that I loved a woman from the future, but they said they would try to find a relative instead. One day, an old woman appeared at my bedside. I was still sick and the doctors told her that my mind was crazy. I spoke to her about you.” “And she believed everything you said? I’ve never told a soul except my mother— what happened is too difficult to explain. I still don’t think she accepts fully what really transpired.” A soft smile touched his lips. “Yes, the old woman believed. Her name is Sky Woman and she is Little Fawn’s granddaughter. The story of our love was given first to Little Fawn’s daughter, and then passed on to Sky Woman. She told me that Little Fawn always believed we would find one another again.” Shannon laid her head against his chest as they walked up the knoll. “Little Fawn…I’ve thought about her and often wondered what her life was like after you weren’t there to protect her any longer. And then, last week when I was searching for a picture of you at a museum, I saw her in a photo. She was with a group of women standing with a bucket in her hands. Little Fawn looked so sad.” Shannon shook her head against his chest. “She was a person wise beyond her years. She was the sister I always wanted. I’ll take you to the museum so you can see her.” Quiet pain flashed in Moon Runner’s dark eyes, but he quickly blinked it away. “Little Fawn lived out her life at Pine Ridge reservation, forced to comply with the white man’s way of life. My parents also died under the rule of the white man.” His hold tightened protectively. “Little Fawn prayed for both of us. This is what Sky Woman has said. My…I suppose you would call her my great-niece…is not very lucid anymore with her many years, but occasionally her mind comes back. She tells me stories of my sister that I lived, and know to be true.” By this time, they reached Moon Runner’s truck. He opened the door with a smile. “As you see, I have learned many things already about your world.” Shannon wrapped her arms around his waist. “Do you remember the time I drew pictures in the sand of a car and a truck?” His chuckle rumbled against her cheek. “Of course I do. Do you remember that I said I would drive a truck instead of a car if I had the chance?” Shannon giggled uproariously at his flippant remark. It was craziness, but wonderful craziness.

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His demeanor turned serious as he leaned back and gazed into her eyes. “Ride with me, Ghost Woman. Do not ever leave my sight again.” He lowered his mouth, knowing he would never tire of the soft feel of Shannon’s lips beneath his. When he finally raised his head, the happy smile on her face suddenly disappeared. “Shannon?” “I will ride with you, we’ll leave my car here, but we have to go into Rapid City. We…we have to go back to the hotel. Someone is waiting there for me.” “Can you not call them?” How will he handle another man in my life now that we’ve found one another again? “No…” She shook her blonde head. “No. You have to come with me. I have to go back. I’ll explain later.” He opened the door and stepped aside so she could enter the truck. Shannon slid across the vinyl until her hip bumped a small, faded wooden box sitting on the seat. Unexpectedly, heat blazed in her veins, and her fingers tingled when she lifted the weathered object into her hands. Her face paled as she blinked away her blurred vision and breathed deeply to clear her clogged throat. Finally, catching her breath, she never took her eyes from the box as her mouth opened. “What…what is this?” She was completely baffled by the odd feeling that trickled down her spine. Moon Runner slid in beside her and closed the door of the truck. “Sky Woman gave that to me. It is something passed down through the generations. Little Fawn gave it to her daughter when she related our story, stating that it must always remain in our family. It was then given to Sky Woman and she has kept it since she was a young woman.” “What’s in it?” Dots of perspiration suddenly and strangely appeared on her forehead. Moon Runner shrugged his shoulders with a deep sigh. “No one knows. Sky Woman is an old woman and forgets often now.” “And you’ve never tried to pry it open?” “It is from the past, Shannon. If it were meant to be opened, then it would be. I will not upset any of my Gods by forcing it to reveal its contents. Sky Woman no longer has the key.” Shannon’s fingers trembled as she placed the box on the dusty dashboard. She reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out the rusted key that she always carried with her. Holding it up, she swallowed and cleared her throat. “Sky Woman doesn’t have the key, because I do. She gave it to me two years ago when I first came to South Dakota to find information about you. The old woman that showed up at my hotel that day had to have been her.” She tossed her curly mane with a shake of her head and continued to stare at the key resting in her palm. “I can’t believe this. The first time I came to South Dakota, I asked all over town about a man named Moon Runner. She showed up one day, gave me the key, and said

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your name. I couldn’t get any other information from her. I lost track of her when she got on a bus and rode away.” The key shone in her fingers as she offered it to the man beside her while staring at the old box. “We have to open it.” Moon Runner took the key from her shaking hand and reached for the box. Both sat breathless as he inserted the metal into the lock. He glanced at Shannon first, turned the key, and the click of the rusty lock echoed in the car. “Open the lid,” she said as she swallowed again and took a deep breath. The blood continued to pound in her ears. The hinges creaked with years of dryness as Moon Runner lifted the top. Shannon’s eyes filled with instant tears when he pulled out his beaded necklace—the same necklace he had used to bind their wrists together to seal their vow of love. Flecks of dried blood still stained the edges. “Oh, my God.” Shannon’s fingertips trembled against her lips. “Little Fawn must have taken the necklace from your teepee after the soldiers took us prisoner, and then placed it inside this box.” She shook her head as she remembered the look of love in Moon Runner’s eyes when he vowed to love her always. “It’s so hard to fathom, but you were right. No matter what, we were destined to be together.” She straightened in the seat with her smile suddenly back in place. “We have to go to the hotel. Now.” Shannon took the box from his hands, placed the necklace back inside, and closed the lid. Tucking the object safely into her lap, she glanced up. “Hurry!”

***** Shannon pulled Moon Runner by the hand through the front doors of the Best Western, across the tiled lobby, and pounded on the elevator button only seconds later. Her insistent gaze watched the lighted arrow pointing up. “Come on…open up, dammit!” She tightened her grip on his hand. “Let’s take the steps.” “What is your hurry, Shannon?” Moon Runner refused to let go of her hand and ignored the sidelong glances of patrons who observed the couple rushing to the stairwell. Shannon’s blonde hair and blue eyes stood out beside his dark skin as she hustled him up the staircase, holding his hand tightly. But Moon Runner was frightened no longer. Things had changed now. The world had changed. No one would even think of whisking Shannon away from Moon Runner’s life now that he had found her again. She hurried down the hall, still pulling him along while she fumbled inside a pocket for her room card. Popping it into the slot, she waited for the green light to flash, and then shoved the door open in a flurry of motion. “Mom? I found him! Moon Runner was at the stream!” Moon Runner looked over Shannon’s shoulder as they entered the room to see an older version of the woman he had loved forever, sitting in a chair with a toddler on her

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lap. The child’s bright blue eyes widened when he spotted his mother, and his chubby, dark-skinned arms flailed with excitement. Black, wavy hair curled around his ears. The only other man in Shannon’s life was about to meet his father.

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About the author: Ruby Storm was born and raised in Minnesota and has lived there her entire life. Spending time in the outdoors is something she still enjoys immensely, whether it be camping or working in her garden. Being an avid reader and relishing her state’s history is what prompted her to begin writing seven years ago. She has published the first two novels of a trilogy for another publishing company and is finishing up the third installment. Ruby and her husband of twenty-eight years (also her high school sweetheart) have three children and many friends and family who have supported her desire to write. Being captivated with it, she doesn’t plan to stop any time soon. She also plans to have a long and sizzling relationship with Ellora's Cave. Ruby welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at P.O. Box 787, Hudson, Ohio 44236-0787.

Also by Ruby Storm: Lucy’s Double Diamonds Payton’s Passion Virgin Queen

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