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“No. The government finally saw the dance as what it was and is, an important sacred rite for the tribes of the Plains.”

Her hand was over his heart.

“And did dancing take you into the light?”

Her tone was soft and sweet. He rolled towards her and slid his hand into her hair.

“I’d been a lost kid, sweetheart. The dance, my commitment to what I experienced during it… My life changed.”

Her lips curved in a gentle smile.

“What you mean, Lieutenant, is that you changed. You changed your life.”

“Yeah,” he said, in a way she’d learned meant he was embarrassed and didn’t want to talk anymore.

That was fine with her.

She didn’t want to talk anymore, either.

She wanted to kiss him. Make love with him and to him. Tell him with her hands and mouth and body what

she couldn’t tell him with words.

She loved him.

This strong, gentle, amazing man. She loved him.

I love you, she thought, and she brought her mouth to his.

To his throat.

To the scar on his shoulder and the ones on his chest.

To his flat belly.

“Alessandra,” he said, “wait…”

Why wait, when kissing him everywhere, as he had kissed her everywhere, was what she longed to do?

His penis hardened. Rose against his belly. It was as beautiful, as powerful as the rest of him, and she lowered her head and kissed the tip.

He whispered her name

She licked the silken length. Licked it again. Then she closed her lips around the head and her mouth took him deep just as her body had done.

His hands fisted in her hair. He gave himself up to her and then, when he could take no more, he withdrew from her mouth, cupped her shoulders, rolled her on her back and knelt between her thighs.

“I want to come inside you,” he said in a raw voice, and she arched towards him and he plunged into her and seconds later she cried out. He felt her muscles contract around him and then he stopped thinking and the world shattered.

* * *

The storm was merciless.

The rain beat down on the house. The wind tried to tear it apart.

But whoever built the place had anticipated tropical storms. The house stood fast against whatever the elements hurled at it.

The afternoon passed slowly.