A Promise of Thunder

She had waited so long.
    “I think you do, lady,” Grady admitted in a rare moment of confidence. He dropped to the bed beside her, his voice harsh with emotion. “I know I can never take the place of Buddy, but dammit, Storm, I love you. I know your first husband was special to you, just as Summer Sky was special to me. But since I met you I’ve come to realize that Summer Sky was the love of my youth. You’re the love of my life.”
    Storm was so shocked by Grady’s admission, her voice froze in her throat. Grady loved her! Truly loved her.
    “You don’t know how sorry I am that I had a hand in Buddy’s death. If I could bring him back I would.”
    “Stop!” Getting to her knees, Storm threw herself at Grady. He opened his arms and brought her against his heart. “What’s done is done. Of course I loved Buddy. He was the only man I ever really knew, the friend and companion of my childhood. But we had such a short time together as man and wife that I never really had a chance to know him as a lover.”
    “I want to be everything to you, lady. Husband, friend, lover.”
    “Are you sure, Grady, absolutely certain it’s me you want and not the baby I carry?”
    “I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life.”
    “What about the violence? Can you give up the violence you’ve lived with these past years? I couldn’t bear to lose you, Grady. I love you too much.”
    Grady’s heart nearly burst with happiness. It was the first time Storm had admitted she loved him. “If I wanted a life filled with violence, I wouldn’t have made the run for land in Guthrie. I can’t help what other men do, but I promise I’ll not instigate another violent act. Just tell me you’re happy about the baby.”
    Looping her arms around his neck, she kissed his nose, his chin, his mouth, anyplace her lips could reach. “I love the babe you put inside me, almost as much as I love his father—or her father.” Storm giggled. “I hope you’re planning on a daughter or two.”
    Grady grinned in genuine pleasure. “At least. And I want to get you home before travel becomes difficult for you. But don’t think I’m letting you off the hook. From now on there will be only truth between us. I’m still unhappy about finding out about your pregnancy from someone other than my own wife.” He tried to sound stern, but it was extremely difficult with Storm sitting on his lap naked as the day she was born.
    “Grady, about Laughing Brook—”
    “I don’t want to talk about Laughing Brook. I’m taking her back to the reservation where she can’t interfere in our lives again. But most of all, lady, I want to make love to you. I’ve been living in hell these past few days.”
    “The door to my room wasn’t locked,” Storm argued. “You could have come in any time you pleased.”
    “I had some decisions to make that weren’t easy. After Summer Sky’s death I was afraid of loving again. Losing someone you love is too painful; it was easier to harden my heart against every emotion except rage and revenge. After searching my soul I discovered I
could
love again, if the woman was you. For the first time in years my soul is truly at peace. Wakantanka was right. You are my peace.”
    Storm’s eyes grew misty and the lump in her throat prevented her from coherent speech. Instead, she burrowed deeper into his arms and sighed in utter contentment.
    Grady groaned deeply as the tension of passion swept through him. Storm’s body was warm and flushed and so damn tempting that the need to make love to her was like a fire in his blood. His mouth ground against hers as he pressed her onto her back. His tongue trust deeply, tasting her, demanding that she return his hunger in kind. His lips brushed her closed lids, the curve of her cheekbones, the tender arch of her neck. He lowered his head and suckled her breasts, lashing the dusky nippleswith the rough, wet edge of his tongue until he wrung a cry of pleasure from her lips.
    She moved against him in sinuous response as she tugged his shirt from his pants, urging him out of his clothes. He complied instantly, tossing them aside while she watched through heavy lids. When he was naked she pulled him down and ran her hands across the hard planes of his back, tracing the knobby ridges of his spine, then up again to smooth the taut cords of his neck.
    “Oh, lady, I love it when you touch me. God, your hands …” The heel of her hand came down to rest against his stomach,