A Promise of Thunder

maintain an erection. Just thinking about her and how loving her made his body burst into flame made him painfully aware that his legal wife was just a touch away.
    Just when Grady began to feel the fuzzy edges of sleep overtake him, Storm turned in her sleep, molding her softness against his back and buttocks. His body reacted instantly, his member becoming fully distended and throbbing. It was more than a human could bear. Even a Lakota warrior had his breaking point, and Grady had reached his.
    Storm sighed in her sleep, instinctively seeking the warmth of Grady’s body. Curling herself around him and squirming into a comfortable position, she began dreaming. As it so often happened these past weeks of enforced abstinence, her dreams became erotic in nature. The logic behind her dreams escaped her the next day when she recalled them, but she supposed it had something to do with the dormant passion Grady had discovered and unleashed in her. A passion that filled her with shame. But since her dreams had no bearing on reality, Storm usually succumbed fully to her dream lover.
    Grady turned to face Storm, bringing her fullyagainst him. When she made no protest his hands slowly hiked up her nightgown, raising it above her hips. When his member prodded her boldly, she arched her back and opened her thighs so that his hardness could slip between her legs. He lay still for a breathless moment, savoring the warmth, hardly daring to breathe as he waited for Storm to awaken and voice her usual protests. Nothing left her lips but a soft burst of air and a sound that could only be described as mewling.
    His hands slid down her back to her buttocks, gently squeezing the soft mounds as he brought one of her legs over his hips. But still he didn’t enter her, waiting—hoping for the words of acceptance that would end his misery. One hand slid down her taut stomach to the moist crevice between her legs. He found her wet and ready for him. Still he hesitated, recalling his vow not to make love to her until she invited him. When his fingers grew bold, exploring the tender petals of her womanhood, Storm began whimpering words that made little sense. Assuming she was awake and that her whimpers were her way of granting permission, Grady flexed his hips and thrust into her.
    Storm’s body burned with desire and she whimpered in her sleep. Her dream lover was making love to her and she welcomed it, aware that she would awaken in the morning and find it all a fantasy. But, God, it felt so wonderful, so right—so good! She hoped she wouldn’t awakenthis time until it was all over. Usually her dreams only went so far, then stopped before that final burst of ecstasy she knew herself capable of. She felt him prodding between her legs, felt his hands kneading her buttocks and stroking her nipples. Felt him thrust into her.
    “Oh, God!” She jerked violently awake. It wasn’t a dream after all. They were lying on their sides facing one another, and she felt herself stretch and fill as he thrust into her. “What are you doing? You promised.”
    Grady went still, forcing his body into a calmness that nearly killed him. “What are you talking about? It’s too late now. You should have stopped me before.”
    “I was sleeping. I thought it was all a dream. I didn’t want this to happen.”
    “Oh, lady, it’s happening,” Grady groaned, probing ruthlessly as he held her hips in place. “It’s too late to stop now.”
    “What about your honor? Does it mean nothing to you?”
    “My honor means everything to me and I know I’ll regret this in the morning, but as God is my witness, I can’t stop now.”
    Then he was thrusting wildly, making Storm forgot her reason for denying him in the first place, driving everything from her mind but the urgent need he was creating inside her. Waves of ecstasy throbbed through her, and she cried out for release. It exploded upon her in a downpour of fiery sensations.
    “Grady!”
    “Oh, lady, that’s what I want to hear. I want you to know who’s making love to you. It’s
my
name I want to hear on your lips when you cry out in ecstasy. I want to hear it again, sweet, do you think it’s possible?”
    It wasn’t only possible. By the time Grady had finally allowed his own climax, he had taken Storm a second time to that lofty place where only lovers dwell.
    When Grady floated back to reality Storm had deliberately turned her back on him. Her shoulders were rigid, her spine stiff, and Grady