Page 19 (1/2)

"Never" That uneain

She looked over at hi the mask firmly in place

"Are you ready for breakfast yet?"

Amanda eased up in the bed, aware of sore ht, riding her with a desperation and a skill that had nearly destroyed them both on several occasions

"Kiowa," she said softly "This is why I ran fro thing is never going to have a chance"

He grunted at that "Last I heard fro it a chance anyway" He e of clothes "I’et a shower I’ll fix breakfast while you take yours"

A her lip nervously

"I’ll keep running, Kiowa"

He stopped She raised her head, watching the play of muscles beneath his dark skin

"You run again and I’ll htening, his eyes, when he turned to look at her, were so dead, so dull of eer she knew ain, Amanda For both our sakes"

"The worandfather pointed to the web, dripping with crystals and feathers that hung fro room wall "She made me promise I’d keep it here with you Anirily "It takes a soul to drea down at his hands He had drea lullabies, her voice whispering around hiood boy, Kiowa Find your soul…"

His soul "What was a soul?" the child he had been had questioned daily It seemed to him that if one had a soul, they wouldn’t leave a child alone They wouldn’t leave a child cold, shivering in a shack alone, uncaring of the fears that kept it from sleep

Did mothers have a soul? he had wondered How could they have and give their child into the care of such a randfather had snarled "Created and forced on a helpless woman Evil created you and the evil they put in you will destroy you I should have drowned you like an unwanted pup when you were born"

Kiowa stood beneath the pounding spray of the shower and sighed wearily The memories were brutal and ones he wished he could banish forever He should have known better than to leave the life he had created for hiive hientle things he had once drea thehis grandfather had made certain he had done without Instead, Kiowa had learned that the dreaic lives he had seen on the television, were all an illusion And through the years, he hadn’t let hientle Ahter had stolen his heart before he had ever touched her The entleness of her voice had soothed a part of him that he hadn’t known still ached She had made him dream and damn if that didn’t hurt

His lips quirked in wryfrom the small rack he had placed it on and soaped it quickly

The ical, hormonal reaction It wasn’t emotional It wouldn’t miraculously make a woman love what she couldn’t accept Just as motherhood didn’t

"They told her the aboed at hiest he was a child, not an animal "They showed her the creatures they had whelped so far,little animals that looked like a babe and sounded like an animal You’re no more than they were Forced on her She birthed you because her conscience wouldn’t allow her to do otherwise But you sickened her from the day you were born…"

Kiowa flinched at thatIt was over, but it still had the power to make him bleed A heat, too hard, too rough for the dreaive her, and at the end of the day, Kioays prided hi else There was very little he could give her

He had enough itimate work he had done over the years, so she wouldn’t s she was used to, because he could provide thehter Raised to marry an acceptable, elite s of hus of humanity Hell, some days, he wondered if there was even any hu minutes later, freshly showered and dressed in jeans and black t-shirt, he left the bathroom and stared at Amanda as she sat silently in the middle of the bed She stared back at him with chilly silence, her hazel eyes resentful

"I’ll fix breakfast You have half an hour," he inforer deep into the place he had created for theo

"You have half an hour to think then" She rose frohty distain

"You can discuss this, and co plans on how best to lockto continue"

"I hope hao down to the storehouse later"