A Promise of Thunder

passion. His fingers stroked and molded the soft mounds of her buttocks as he slid her up and down the engorged pillar of velvet and steel. Her climax came abruptly, shattering her into a million pieces then flinging her to the stars. She was barely aware of Grady’s shout of raw pleasure as he attained man’s highest reward.
    “How do I compare with your dead husband now?” Grady panted into her ear.
    “There’s no comparison. You can’t hold a candle to Buddy.”
    Red dots of rage exploded in Grady’s brain. “You’re a sorry excuse for a woman, Storm Kennedy!” The lie nearly strangled him, but it was too late to take it back now. “You are nothing like my sweet, gentle Summer Sky. At least she knew how to make me feel like a man.There’s much you need to learn about pleasing a man.”
    “Oh!”
    Flinging himself out of bed, Grady stalked to the door, forgetting that he was stark naked, forgetting everything but the need to remove himself from the presence of a woman who wasn’t honest enough to admit she felt passion with him. He flung open the partially ruined door with a bang and a curse, nearly breaking it off the remaining hinge. The raw bite of the wind stole his breath away. But he was too proud to ask for a blanket to cover his nakedness, too incensed to return for the scant protection of his discarded breechclout. He stalked out the door, pure savage and every bit as ferocious as the fearless Lakota warrior who out of bitterness and hate had vowed vengeance against the white race. He turned once to send Storm a look of utter contempt before slamming the door behind him.
    Storm stared at the door long after Grady left. Long after she heard the thunder of hooves on the hard-packed earth. Sweet Lord, what had she done? What kind of woman was she to forget all she and Buddy had shared through the years? One moment of exquisite passion had made Buddy a dim memory from her past. Obviously the half-breed had cast a spell on her that turned her into a wanton hussy with the morals of an alley cat. How could Grady have found a place inside her that Buddy, her dearest friend, had never discovered?
    What made Grady different from any other man?
she asked herself.
    The simplicity of the answer stunned her.
No other man had the power to move her as Grady did.
    She hated the way he manipulated her. She despised the way her body responded to the touch of his hands and mouth. And she definitely didn’t appreciate the knowledge that he was the first man to reach some magical place in her that no other man had ever touched.
    Even if it was true.

Chapter Seven
     
    “You bungling idiots!” Nat Turner raved as he fixed Fork and Purdy with a malevolent glare. “Can’t you do anything right?”
    Purdy shifted in restless agitation while Fork, wearing a bandage where Grady’s knife had gauged a nasty groove, grimaced in painful recollection. He preferred not being reminded of their disastrous encounter with the half-breed. But Turner was relentless in his fury.
    “What in the hell are you being paid for? You were supposed to convince the Kennedy woman that she isn’t capable of homesteading or defending her property. You were ordered to scare the living hell out of her so she’d accept my offer to buy her land. But no, manhandling one frail woman was too much for you. My client in Texas is badgering me for land.”
    “How were we supposed to know that blasted renegade would barge in just when we had the woman where we wanted her?” Purdy complained bitterly. “Look what he did to Fork. An inch lower and the renegade’s knife woulda put a quick end to him.”
    “Stop sniveling. I can’t stand whiners,” Turner returned crossly. “What you’re telling me is that the two of you are no match for the breed.”
    “Now see here, Turner,” Purdy protested, “you got no call talkin’ to me and Fork like that. Soon as I heal we’ll try again, only this time we’ll know what to expect. Maybe we’ll even hire another man to act as lookout while we rough up the woman. That damn renegade’s got eyes in the back of his head. How in the hell did he know what we were up to?”
    “Seeing as how I can’t trust you two to do the job for me, I reckon I’ll have to do it myself,” Turner said. “If my methods don’t work by the time Purdy is healed, I’ll let you have another go at her.”
    “I didn’t think you liked dirtyin’ your hands with rough stuff,” Fork said with sly innuendo. “The