White Owl by Veronica Blake Read Free Book Online

Owl’s fingertips gently traipsed along the outline of her kiss-swollen lips. “It is what a man and woman do,” he said softly.
    “But it’s not right for us to be doing this,” Rose responded in a raspy voice. The way he was touching her mouth was almost as sensuous as his kiss, and it was making her entire body grow weak with desires that she had never known before.
    “If you want it, Wild Rose, it is right,” he said as his fingers slid up the side of her face and into herhair, pulling out the two hairpins that held the bun at the back of her head. The long red tresses tumbled down her back in reckless abandon.
    Rose gasped. His touch was so gentle. Everything she’d ever heard about Utes told her she should run. Yet it was impossible to pull away. “Even if I did want this,” Rose said in a shaky voice, “it is not possible for us to be together, not now, not ever.”
    “Why? Because I am an Indian?”
    Rose heard the cold edge of his voice, and the gentleness of his touch hardened as he gripped the long hair that hung down her back. “Because you, a white woman, are too good to be with an Indian?” he spat gruffly.
    “No, no! That has nothing to do with it,” Rose gasped. “I do not care that you are an Indian, but my father—”
    “Him again,” White Owl said through gritted teeth. He started to say more, but instead, he released his tight hold on Rose’s hair and stepped away.
    His unexpected retreat left Rose more confused than relieved. She watched him mutely when he turned away from her. Presented with his back—and his silence—Rose knew that she should be worried that her words would make his threats to kill her father even more of a reality.
    “Please don’t hate my father. He doesn’t understand that we are all the same, Indians and whites alike.”
    A cynical chuckle was White Owl’s reply as he continued to stare off in the distance. Even as Rose stepped closer to him, he did not turn around to look at her again.
    “I will make him understand,” Rose added as she put her hand up on his shoulder. Even as she said the words, her mind was in turmoil over how she could ever hope to achieve this impossible task. Paddy Adair was not going to understand any of this . . . Rose didn’t even understand any of it herself. She should be scared out of her wits to be here alone with this dangerous man, but all she really wanted to do was feel his gentle touch again.
    White Owl turned slowly around to face her again. “I do not know this man—your father, but I have known enough white men to know that he will never understand why we are together.”
    “Together?” Rose asked. “Are we—together?”
    He took one of her hands—it seemed so small and fragile in his own large, rough hand. Her porcelain skin looked even paler against his. “Ever since I first laid eyes on you, I knew that I had to make you my woman. It was a feeling that was stronger than anything I have ever known before, and I am a man who goes after what he wants.” He pulled her close to him and let his gaze meet hers, as he added, “And, my Wild Rose, I want you.”

Chapter Six
    Rose’s thoughts were spinning nearly as frantically as her heart was pounding in her breast. This was happening so fast. She still had to come to terms with all that it would mean to her and to her entire family if she and White Owl were truly going to be together. And what did “being together” even mean? She leaned back before he had a chance to kiss her again. “We need to talk more about this. My father, he—”
    “That man again!” White Owl interrupted with clenched teeth. His anger glistened in his raven eyes. He pulled his arms from around her waist and dropped them down at his sides.
    “Please try to understand why we have to take this slow,” Rose pleaded. “You’re saying things like ‘the rest of our lives’ and that you are going to make me your woman, but—”
    White Owl turned away from her. “I understand