Wild Splendor by Cassie Edwards

Leonida glared at Sage. When he dived into the river, she made a quick turn and began swimming in the opposite direction. Her petticoat kept getting tangled around her legs, making it impossible to pick up speed, and then her breath caught in her throat when something else became even more of a threat. She began battling the motion of a whirlpool that was sucking her beneath the great splash of the waterfall.
    Floundering, fighting to keep her head above the water, Leonida screamed between swallowing great gulps of water. “Help me!” she cried as her head went under. Then she bobbed back up to the surface, which took all the effort she could muster. “Sage, help . . . me . . . !”
    She saw a great blur of black as another vicious spin of the whirlpool pulled her under. Leonida stared with wide eyes through the hazy water at the fish swimming past, and then . . . and then . . .
    She breathed in a great gust of air as Sage grabbed her by the waist and tugged her upward. Surfacing beside her, he drew her into his embrace and held her there until she was breathing more easily, then swam her to safety on a ledge hidden behind the falls.
    Shivering and coughing, her eyes and throat burning from the water, Leonida welcomed his comforting arms around her as he held her close. She lay her head on his chest, still heaving from exhaustion. “ Uke-he, thank you,” she murmured, twining an arm around his neck. “For a moment I thought . . . I thought that I was going to drown.”
    â€œNot with Sage so close,” he said thickly, leaning her partially away from him, weaving his fingers through her thick golden hair, spreading it away from her entrancing face. “Never would I let anything happen to you. Surely you know that.”
    â€œYet you take me captive so easily?” Leonida murmured, searching his eyes, melting inside from his closeness.
    â€œDo you think I knew you were aboard that stagecoach?” he said, tracing her chin with a fingertip. “Do you think I would have ambushed it had I known I was placing you in danger?”
    â€œYou should not have placed anyone’s life in danger,” Leonida fussed, now knowing for certain that he had not planned just to steal her away. She was torn in her feelings about that. She had felt honored, in a way, that he might have cared enough for her to go to any lengths to stop her flight from Fort Defiance, and him .
    â€œThe white leaders should not have placed the Navahos’ lives in danger,” Sage said, slowly drawing her into his embrace again. “Then not everyone’s life would have been altered. Yet weren’t our lives altered the moment we spoke that first word to one another? Did you not feel the magic being spun between us? Did you not feel the energy flowing between us, as though we were one heartbeat—one soul? Let us explore those feelings. Let me show you the extent of mine for you. Show me the extent of yours for Sage.”
    Leonida drew in a ragged breath as he gently framed her face between his hands and lifted her lips to his. Her whole world seemed to begin spinning as his mouth bore down upon hers, so hungry, so demanding, awakening her to an ecstasy she had never experienced before. The first kiss they had shared had been filled with wonder and rapture, but it had been too short-lived.
    This time she could not pull away. She had dreamed of this moment, of the thrill of being held and kissed by him again. She would not deny herself the pleasure anymore than she would stop herself from breathing.
    Sweet currents of warmth spread through her, and she twined her arms around his neck and clung to him as he lowered her to the shelf of rock beneath the falls, ignoring the occasional sprays of water and the coldness of the rock pressing on her back.
    Sage leaned over her, his mouth never leaving her lips, and she shivered with passion when she felt his hand cup one of her breasts through the clinging