Howdy!

Welcome!  I have so much to tell you.  Oh, my goodness!

First, my newest release, SHE STEALS MY BREATH, is on sale — should be on sale today for $.99.  But, it’s only going to be at this price for about 4 or 5 days.  So if you don’t have a copy of my latest book, now would be good time to get it.

 

Okay, the book should be on sale at these outlets:

AMAZON: tinyurl.com/54cxfhac

B & N: tinyurl.com/4anbp4az

ITUNES: tinyurl.com/2w6f7epv

Google: tinyurl.com/mr2byszp

KOBO: tinyurl.com/pwa88n3v

 

OKay.  Then for the next order of business.  Do you follow me on Bookbub?

If not now is your chance to possibly win a bunch of e-books and follow me and some other authors.  Or even if you do follow me, now is still your chance to possibly win some e-books.  BOOKSWEEPS is having a “follow me” event.  Here is what it says:

 

“I believe we need to call a break.”

Laylah glanced up at him, smiled, and, in reaction to her, he felt his heart take wing even while he strove to appear serious and intent.  And, he must appear so.  After all, she—a woman—was challenging him.

“Certainly we can have a break,” she said and signed the words as she spoke.  “But, don’t forget that your knife, all your robes and your two horses are now mine.”

“I do not forget.”

She grinned at him again, and Eagle Heart thought he had never seen a more beautiful woman.  Indeed, her hair was a mess, being tossed and tangled, and she wore nothing more than an unflattering robe of his own making.  Yet, when she smiled, it was as though Sun shone through her eyes.  However, there was a drawback to her lure: he had never played the game with anyone who was not only as good as he was, but was, perhaps, a little better.

She had taken to the game as though she had been born to play it.  Quickly—and sometimes even before him—she knew the exact amount of the points in a throw with little more than a simple look.  Often, she memorized the points.  She kept excellent totals, even without the required sticks to keep track of it all, and she laughed while she played as though she were a carefree child.  And, with every smile, every giggle, every delightful glance she gave him, he was falling much too deeply in love with her.

And yet, if she won as he wished her to do, he would have to let her leave him, for he did not fool himself into believing she would choose his lifestyle over the one she had been born to.  Yes, if she won, it might possibly be the hardest task he would ever have to do to take her back to the fort.

Yet, as the afternoon wore on, and, as they reclined within their small enclosure, they laughed and joked about one thing or another as though they were fast acquaintances and well known to each other.  But—and this was hard for him to believe—she was winning most every time she took her turn.  It was getting to the point where he had little left to put up against her for betting.

Of course, she often accused him of cheating and trying to throw the game in her favor, but the fact was, he wasn’t.  He was playing with as much knowledge and cleverness as he possessed.

Perhaps it was male pride as she had suggested, but the idea of being completely bested by a woman was not a moment of pleasure for him.  When he threw a game to give her favor, he still knew he was throwing the game.

In this, he was not.

Perhaps he should never have confided to her how he managed to win these games of chance, for she seemed to have perfected the method without any further assistance from him.

“I think you’re right,” she said in English as well as sign.  “It is much darker outside now, and I believe it will soon be time to have our supper.”

“Áa,” he signed, “and I also have several chores to do, the care of our horses being one of those.  I must also ensure this little hut is built well enough to withstand more of the storm, for I believe there are yet many days of the blizzard ahead of us.  I would like to see to these tasks before we begin the game again.”

“Very well,” she said.  “I will try to rest while you are gone, especially if we are to be up through the night.”

“Do you need to visit and use the outside before I leave?”

She looked away from him and sighed, “I do.”  But she’d said it without signing the words.  He, however, understood what she said anyway.

“Then, let us do this before I leave,” he signed and spoke his words in Blackfeet.  “But, I have a gift for you.  It is one I think you might like very much.”

“Really?  You have a gift for me?”

“I do,” he signed.  “Stay where you are,” he commanded, as though it had skipped his notice she could not get up and leave.  But, he hoped she would like his gift and that it would help her attend to private matters with a little more ease.

Scooting toward the entrance of their shelter, he reached a hand outside and brought in the gift.  As he brushed the snow off of it, he realized its purpose would soon alert her to a possibility of more freedom.  It was truly a gift from him, for he had whittled this for her the last time he had gone outside.

“Is it a weapon?” she asked with sign.  But then, as he watched her glance more carefully at it, he heard her exclaim, “It’s a cane!  Oh, let me see it and let me try to walk with it!”

Scooting toward her, for the shelter was not tall enough to stand upright, he presented her with the handcrafted object.

“Can I try it?” she asked in sign.

“Áa, please do,” he answered.

“I can’t stand up, but let me attempt to crawl to the entrance and then see if I can.”  She tried, but wasn’t able to scoot all the way to the shelter’s opening, since she was handicapped by an injured leg and a broken arm.

Seeing she had given up, he asked, “Shall I pick you up and bring you outside where you might see if this helps you to walk?”

She nodded.

He scooped her up in his arms then and, ducking through the small entrance, set her on her feet in the snow, allowing her to use the cane to hobble and hop toward the place set aside for the purpose so necessary to every living being.

Snow was falling around them silently as she admonished, “Don’t you look!”

She didn’t translate her words, but he didn’t need the gestures of sign to understand her, and he turned his back to give her a little privacy.  Luckily, she was finished quickly.

“I’m done,” she said.  “Shall I try to walk on my own back to the shelter?”

He turned around and nodded at her, following along behind her.  He was happy to see she was, indeed, able to walk, even though her movements were slow and she hobbled on her left foot.  But, before she began the ordeal of kneeling down in order to enter the shelter, she turned around and threw herself against him.  His arms came around her instinctively.  Snow was still falling, the wind whirling the flakes around them, and he closed his eyes, pulling her in closely toward him.  And, for a moment, he imagined she was truly his by her own will and that he had the right to hold her.

When she said “Thank you, thank you, Eagle Heart.  What am I to do?  For I am falling too much in love with you, and I dare not do it,” he didn’t confess to her how quickly he was learning English and that he was beginning to be able to piece together what she said.

But, when she reached up toward his face and placed a kiss upon his cheek, he couldn’t resist turning his head such a small, little distance to turn what was meant as a “thank-you-peck-on-the-cheek” into a kiss, lips to lips.

He was surprised when she kissed him back, placing her good arm around his neck and opening her mouth to his demand.  And, he kissed her hungrily, as one lover might do with his sweetheart, as though he had every right to take her gift.  However, his body was responding with all the fervor of a man in love.  And worse, he could do nothing about it.

Yet, the kiss went on and on until he gathered enough of his wits about him to end the caress.  But, he didn’t let her go.  Instead, he drew her closer into his arms, and, placing his chin on the top of her head, tried in vain to smother the passion he could little control.

At last, with the snow sticking to and wetting her hair, her robe and also his, he said, “Kitsii ká komimmo, I love you,” secure in the knowledge that she had not yet mastered his language.

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Well, that’s all for today.  Hope you’re able to sort through all of these things I’ve left for you today.  Do come in and leave a comment.  I do look forward to them.