Apache Flame Read Free

thick.
    With an oath, he drew away from her.
    “What’s wrong?” she asked, disappointed that he had ended it
so quickly.
    “Damn, you sure don’t kiss like a little girl!”
    She glared at him, and he laughed out loud.
    ‘I know, I know,” he said, still laughing, “you’re not a
little girl.” He looked at her as if seeing her for the first time, making her
feel self-conscious of her budding breasts. “You’re not a little girl at all.”
    She stuck her tongue out at him, angry because he had ruined
the most magical moment of her whole life.
    “Don’t stick that tongue out at me unless you mean to use
it.”
    She frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
    He didn’t answer. Instead, he grabbed her and pulled her up
against him. And then he kissed her again, showing her just what he meant.
    She gasped as his tongue slid over her lower lip, licking,
sucking gently, then slid into her mouth. Her gasp of surprise soon turned into
a muted sound of pleasure. She melted against him, her body pressed intimately
against his, her breasts crushed against his chest. Heat flooded through her.
Her eyelids fluttered down. Her heart began to pound.
    It was, she thought, a kiss she would never forget…
    * * * * *
    And she never had. Alisha lifted her head from her desk and
looked out the window. That kiss was burned into her memory like a brand.
    And now he was back.
    With a sigh, Alisha graded the last paper, then stood up,
stretching the kinks out of her back and shoulders. Extinguishing the lamp on
her desk, she put on her coat and hat, pulled on her gloves, picked up her
umbrella.
    Leaving the schoolhouse, she closed and locked the door,
then stood on the stoop for a moment, staring at the rain. She frowned as she
faced the prospect of slogging through the mud and then, with a faint grin, she
remembered another rainy day…
    She stood at the window, watching the lightning streak
through the clouds. She hated rainy days, hated them because they kept her from
the river. From Mitch. She wondered what he was doing, if he was missing her,
too.
    She had been turning away from the window when something
pinged against the glass. Looking down, she saw Mitch standing outside, looking
up. He grinned when he saw her, waved for her to come out.
    Laughing, she opened the window and leaned out over the
sill. “Mitchy, what are you doing here?” she called in a loud whisper.
    “Waiting for you,” he called back. “Come on out, ‘Lisha.
Let’s go for a walk.”
    “A walk? Are you crazy? It’s raining.”
    He shrugged. “So what. A little water won’t hurt you.
Besides, you can only get so wet.”
    She grinned. What was a little rain when Mitchy was there,
waiting for her? Happiness bubbled up inside her, as it always did when he was
near. “Be right down.”
    Bundled up in coat, boots, hat, scarf and gloves, she
tiptoed down the stairs and out the back door. He was waiting for her behind
the ancient cottonwood tree where they always met. Alisha shook her head. As
usual, he was wearing only a shirt and his clout. She had never seen him wear a
coat, and wondered now if he even owned one.
    “Don’t you ever get cold?” she asked.
    Mitch shook his head. “Warriors don’t get cold,” he said
with a touch of arrogance.
    “I suppose they don’t get wet, either,” she muttered.
    But he only laughed. “Come on,” he said, and reaching for
her hand, he started to run.
    Feeling happy and lighthearted, she followed him. Mitch
loved to run. Once, she had told him that proper young ladies did not run, it
was unseemly. But he had just laughed at her. “You’re not a lady yet, proper or
otherwise, Miss Alisha Faraday,” he had retorted. “Besides, ladies never have
any fun.”
    She had thought about that a minute, and decided he was
right. None of the ladies in town ever seemed to have time to have a good time.
They were always complaining about something…the price of sugar, the new
saloon, the speed with which their children