Tender savage by Phoebe Conn Read Free Book Online Page B

safely."
    "I've seen no one lurking about the river but you, and if you go one way and I another then I will surely reach home without coming to any harm." Yet when she took another quick step, he came right along with her, exasperating her all the more.
    The Indian had never apologized to a woman, but for a reason he could not even begin to understand, he did not want them to part enemies. "I have never talked with a white woman. If I said the wrong thing, I am sorry."
    When Erica turned to look at him, she was shocked to find the Indian actually looked contrite. His woebegone expression made her feel so guilty, she slowed down to a sedate pace. "I'm sorry, too. Perhaps we are simply too different to be friends."
    "I did not think it was a friend you wanted," the Indian admitted slyly.
    Erica couldn't help but laugh, since what he had obviously thought was so plain, and in her mind completely wrong. "You were mistaken."
    "Yes, I see that." Still, he could not ignore the nagging suspicion that if he were attracted to her, then she must feel some of that same sweet excitement when she looked at him. 'You need not worry, I will not wadk you to your door. I will go only to the edge of the woods before saying good-bye."
    The man did raise his voice rather often, but it had not been the anger that had frightened Erica. Now that he was again speaking and behaving politely, she tried to erase from her mind the erotic images of him cavorting in the river, but unlike Mark's elusive memory, the Indian's stubbornly j^ersisted to taunt her.
    "You are a very handsome man," she announced suddenly. "You must have plenty of pretty Indian women waiting for you to come home."
    "Indian women are very shy. None has ever told me I am handsome."
    "Would they say such a thing to their husband?" Erica mused aloud, thinking it no wonder he thought her

    forward if their customs were so different. She had been raised from the cradle to flatter men, and apparently Indian women weren't.
    "I don't know. I will have to wait and see." The Indian thought his joke amusing, but when Erica did not laugh he offered a fact he thought p>erhaps she did not know. "There are some braves with white wives."
    "Oh, really?" Erica mumbled nervously, certain she had again led their conversation in completely the wrong direction. She had not realized she had gone so far from town until they had started back. Perhaps it had been a good idea for the Indian to escort her most of the way. When they were within sight of the steamboat landing she stopped when he did. "Thank you again for finding the letter. It really is an important one I must answer."
    "The man who wrote it did not say that he loved you."
    Since she would never see the Indian again. Erica thought there would be no harm in telling him the truth now. "He does love me, though. We had an awful argument before I left to come here, and that's why he sounded so cool. You should not have read the letter, by the way, but I will forgive you since you returned it to me."
    The Indian was tempted to ask if she loved the man who had sent the letter, but fearing what her answer might be, he posed another question instead. "May I have a reward, then?"
    "But I told you I'd forgotten to bring any money."
    "I don't want money."
    The man was forever stepping too close to her, but this time Erica was too curious about what it was he did want to move back. "What did you have in mind?" she asked softly.
    "You have kissed the man who wrote the letter?"
    Erica looked away, thinking the afternoon one of the loveliest she had seen since coming to New Ulm. But it had also proven to be one of the most uncomfortable. "Yes, I've kissed him," she finally admitted, but didn't add that she had lost count of how many times.
    "Then kiss me." The Indian did not wait for the slender blonde to argue, he merely slipped his arms around her tiny waist, and pulling her close, lowered his mouth to hers.

    Taken by surprise, Erica couldn't decide what to