A Promise of Thunder

forever.
    “We will marry,” Grady said with quiet authority. “I miss my son a great deal and he is at an age where he needs a father. You will have a home, our land holdings will double, and my son will have someone to care for him.”
    Intense astonishment touched Storm’s pale face. Grady Stryker was an ever-changing mystery. She knew he had been married before, but this new revelation stunned her.
    “You have a son?”

Chapter Nine
     
    Grady’s eyes wore a shuttered expression as he gazed at some distant specter above Storm’s head. “His name is Little Buffalo. He is nearly six years old.”
    “Why didn’t you mention him before? Where is he now?”
    “Little Buffalo is living on the Sioux reservation with Summer Sky’s parents. Summer Sky’s younger sister, Laughing Brook, is caring for him. He is very fond of her.”
    “Do you think it’s wise to bring your son here to live with you? Won’t he miss Laughing Brook and his grandparents?”
    “He is my son,” Grady said. His voice was uncompromising yet oddly gentle. “I want him with me now that I have land of my own and a home.”
    “Let me get this straight. You expect me to marry you and raise your son,” Storm said in a voice she hardly recognized. Was there no end to the man’s audacity?
    “It’s the perfect solution,” Grady said matter-of-factly. His response was only a buzz in Storm’s ears as slow anger began to build inside her head. “You need a home, my son needs a woman’s touch, and you won’t have to sell your homestead.”
    Tossing her head, Storm eyed him with cold fury. “Go to hell! I’m not marrying you and I’m definitely not raising another woman’s child.” Had Grady mentioned love or commitment Storm might have considered his proposal. But her heart told her Grady Stryker was incapable of the kind of love she wanted.
    Grady’s blue eyes grew stormy as his own volatile temper threatened to explode. “What choice do you have? You know damn well you’ll have to build another cabin in order to fulfill homesteading rules. If we combine our homesteads one cabin will suffice. Besides, for some confounding reason I feel responsible for you.”
    “I couldn’t live with the kind of violence that comes looking for you. The fact that you are a renegade half-breed makes marriage between us impossible. Besides, you don’t love me and—”
    “What in the hell does love have to do with anything?” Grady asked harshly. “I married Summer Sky because I loved her and she wastaken from me in a single act of violence. Loving someone and losing them hurts too damn much to do it more than once in a lifetime. I want you, and if you are honest with yourself you’ll admit that I made you feel like a woman for the first time.”
    Storm flushed, recalling all those wonderful, arousing things Grady did to her and how wantonly she responded. The profound depths of passion Grady had plumbed within her body had stunned her. But all it really proved, her mind argued, was that she was capable of experiencing passion. Besides, she wanted more than pity from the man she married—if she ever decided to marry again.
    “We’ve both been married before, we’ve both experienced love,” Storm began slowly. “Even you can see this won’t work. We come from different backgrounds. You’re Indian. I’ve not heard you say one kind thing about the white race since I’ve known you. Why do you hold all whites in contempt? Wouldn’t you be happier living on the reservation with your son?”
    Grady glowered at her and turned away. “You know nothing about me. My father is a half-breed Lakota Sioux. His mother was the daughter of a chief. My mother is the daughter of a southern planter. That makes me only one-quarter Indian. I’m proud of my Indian heritage and the fact that I so closely resemble my father. As for the white race, except for my mother and her family, I know few of them who are worth onehair on Summer Sky’s head, yet they killed her.”
    His words left her confused. Exactly how had Summer Sky died? “I’m white,” Storm reminded him.
    “I’m fully aware of that,” Grady commented dryly. Suddenly he was on his feet, dragging her from her chair and pulling her against the hard wall of his chest. “But it doesn’t make the inexplicable pleasure I feel when you’re in my arms any less. I never wanted it to be like this between us, but it is. At least something can be gained from this marriage if you agree to