Author of romance fiction genres in time travel, paranormal, contemporary, and motivational books.
Deanna Jewel
Excerpt - Never Surrender
(a Native American time travel romance)
Kate’s faint moans radiated a passionate message to every muscle in Taima’s taut body. Just knowing his gentle caress or tender kiss could cause such a reaction within her made his heart swell with a feeling he thought had died years ago. Yet those feelings made themselves known as he moved to lay atop Kate, careful to brace most of his weight on his elbows. He molded her soft curves to the contours of his body.
He kissed the slender column of her neck. Her racing heartbeat fluttered beneath his lips. Desire welled within him, refusing to ebb, and his mouth claimed hers in a passionate kiss. Her eagerness reached his soul.
Kate intertwined her fingers with his, and Taima stretched their arms over her head. Their breathing came in short, ragged puffs as he slipped his knee between hers. He half expected an objection, but none came, only a demanding response as Kate squeezed his fingers, arching her body against him. Her tongue enticingly slipped past his lips.
Taima let go of one of her hands to caress a full breast, a slim waist, and the warmer curves of her body. She arched against the palm of his hand as he continued the caresses until she writhed beneath him.
He broke from the kiss. “You’re sure this is what you want? I’ll not have you accusing me of anything once it’s finished.”
She cupped his face in her small hands, her breathing warm against his cheek. “Know this is what I want, or I wouldn’t still be here.”
Unable to hold back a moment longer, Taima entered her. When her moist lips and tongue touched his, he kissed her, thrusting deeply at the same time. Blood surged through his veins, heating his flesh even more as Kate’s hands caressed his chest, then moved down his sides to his hips, where she pulled him tightly against her.
Withdrawing from the kiss, Taima cradled her head in the palms of his hands to bury his face in her silky, sage-scented hair. Excitement shot through his body like a wavering arrow, begging for a release that had been too long restrained. He wanted to wait for the right moment, but her quivering inner muscles tightened around him as she kept pace with his every move.
The heat of her body made it impossible for him to hold back any longer. He thrust deep and she accepted him. Together, they found the tempo that bound their bodies as one. Then his world exploded like the rush of white-water over rocky rapids. Torrential waves of ecstasy pulsed through him until he lay spent, reveling in the aftermath of what he hadn’t felt in years for any woman. Drawing in a slow, even breath, he waited for his racing heart to slow.
Slight tremors shivered through Kate as he held her tightly. He felt as though he never wanted to be separated from the warmth of her body. Crushing her to him, he pressed his mouth to hers. She responded passionately, nearly making his heart burst.
Taima brushed her hair away from her face, and rose onto his elbows. He had finally made love without thoughts of Witashnah, nor feelings of guilt. Though he may have fulfilled a physical need for Kate, he had allowed her to tear apart his soul, to make him aware of feelings for her he hadn’t wanted to admit yet.
Kate rose up to touch her lips to his. A soft, tender caress. “I’ll not have you accuse me of anything now that we’re finished,” she teased.
“You don’t regret what we’ve just done?”
“How could I regret something so beautiful?”
Taima drew in a ragged breath, worried about her reaction to what he was about to say. “Because...now, you are my true wife.”
A moment of silence passed between them.
“I don’t understand.”
He continued to hold her tight as he lay atop her, lest she decide to squirm from his grasp. “Since the first night you spent in my lean-to with me, you have been considered my wife by our people. It is our custom.”
“You mean all two people have to do is sleep together in one lean-to and they are considered married?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t believe you kept that fact from me, allowing me to think otherwise.”
Kate pounded upon his shoulders and Taima quickly grasped her fists, drawing them above her head. She squirmed beneath him, but he refused to let go. “What difference would it have made?”
“None. And it won’t now. You’ve already said you can’t love me.”
“Kate . . .”
“Don’t! Nothing will change. I’ll not ask a thing from you.” She struggled to release her wrists from his hold, but he didn’t budge, nor did he withdraw from her silken sheath.
Taima closed his eyes in frustration. How could he make her understand the way he felt about Witashnah? His feelings for her were different.
“Kate, perhaps in time . . .”
“Stop it! I don’t want anything from you. You’re an animal, a savage!”
Her squirming stirred his desires. He wanted to continue what they had only just begun. Her anger re-ignited his passion and he gently thrust forward with his hips.
“Don’t . . .”
Taima covered her mouth with his, silencing her objection. His kiss was more brutal than he’d planned; his tongue explored the recesses of her mouth, crushing her to him as he moved within her. She responded in kind, battling with her tongue, and before Taima realized, he was again erect within her silken sheath. Currents of desire swept through him and Kate’s eager movements matched his.
She moved with him in rhythmic motions. Still holding her hands, Taima stretched his arms out to the sides. He kissed her jaw, the throbbing pulse at the hollow of her throat, her shoulder, until his mouth covered the hardened tip of her breast. He longed for a small amount of light to see the ecstasy in her face.
A tormented moan escaped Kate’s lips. Taima rose slightly above her as they continued their rhythm. “Tell me you don’t want this as much as I, woman.”
“I don’t,” she whispered, but desire lingered in her voice, betraying her lies.
Taima stopped moving. He could hold out longer than she. He was trained at self-discipline. He was a warrior.
Taima waited.
Kate pulled on her wrists, to no avail.
Her quivering muscles inside tightened around him, and she moved her hips, but he resisted. Pulling her hands overhead into one of his, he took the weight of a full breast in the palm of his other hand and suckled the tip. Her uneven breathing came warm against his cheek.
“Why are you doing this?” she whimpered, her trembling voice filled with aching need.
“We desire each other. Why do you fight it?”
She raised her knees and her feet caressed the back of his legs. Unable to continue his restraint, Taima moved his hips in time with Kate’s. Their tempo increased to the beat of the distant, thundering drums of the celebration until her body shook with slight tremors of satisfied pleasure.
Taima captured her mouth with his, their tongues moving with the same pace as he released his life-giving seed within her again. Kate’s wild abandonment spoke words Taima knew she would never speak on her own. Though she fought him at every turn, it only heightened their passion.
Tonight was no different.
Perspiration clung to his face and chest...between their naked bodies. He released her hands to rub his face, then rolled onto his side. Before Kate could turn away, he embraced her, drawing her close as he pulled a fur over their bodies. She hid her face in his shoulder and hot tears slipped onto his chest.
With a finger beneath her chin, Taima lifted her teary gaze. “Little one, why do you cry?”
Rather than answer, she only shook her head.
“Open your eyes and look at me. Though it’s dark in here, I know you try to shut me out.”
“We both want different things. How can we ever be happy?”
“Because we are. Does there have to be more? Perhaps in time, I will find it easier to love another. You have come to mean very much to me in the short time you have been here.”
Hearing the small promise in Taima’s voice, Kate silently rejoiced. She would take what he offered, though she didn’t want him to know it. Love would eventually grow between them; she’d see to it. She had won Kelee’s love, she would win Taima’s.
As she lay within the circle of Taima’s arms, the warmth of his body sent away the slight chill that had crept into the lean-to. Kate tugged on the fur covering and snuggled closer to Taima, placing her arm on his waist. His chin rested atop her head, and security surrounded her. She pressed a kiss to his chest, tasting the saltiness of his skin, then allowed sleep to overtake her.