Monday evening: Ft. Peck Indian Reservation

Lindsay thought she was asleep for only a minute, but when she woke, she was laying in Ska’s bed. Even though the curtains were drawn, she could see it was dark outside. The moonlight filtered through the window, casting a grayish light on a small portion of the bed. Otherwise the room was dark.

She heard a noise, a creaking sound—the door.

“Matty? Red?” she called out. “Is anyone here?”

She heard the bedroom door creaking open. A dark, silhouetted figure appeared. The man was tall and broad with long silky black hair. She could not make out his face, but at that moment she realized she was dreaming again.

“Where am I?” Lindsay asked.

“You’re with me,” the deep voice responded.

“I knew you’d come tonight.”

“When I saw you last, I felt you wanted to make love,” the figure said, drifting toward the bed.

“I did,” she responded. “I do.”

“It’s time,” he said, now standing beside her. When he moved in closer to her, the moon cast a sliver of light on the bottom half of his torso. He was naked and erect. She slid out of the covers, realizing for the first time she, herself, was also naked. Facing him, she placed her feet on the floor, in front of him in a sitting position.  He moved in and she reached out with both her hands sliding them around his buttocks, feeling the rock hard, hot flesh. 

He moaned and his manhood grew larger and stiffer.  She reached around him, stroked his tight buttocks with her fingertips.

“Oh god, I’ve wanted this for so long,” she said, kissing his stomach. She wrapped her arms around his hips and pulled him into her. 

“Me too,” he said.

“Be gentle with me,” she pleaded, closing her eyes.

“I will,” he replied.

“Do you promise?”

“Do I promise what?” Yellow Wolf said.  

“Huh?”

Lindsay sat up, startled and disoriented. She pulled the bedcovers to her neck.  

She had been dreaming again.

He was sitting on the side of her bed. The room was dark, his figure was in silhouette, but she was awake now, and it was Yellow Wolf who was in the room with her.

“Matty! What are you doing in here?”

“I’m sorry to barge into your bedroom, Lindsay,” Yellow Wolf said, “but I heard you moaning. It was loud. I got worried.”

Lindsay, still disoriented, pulled the covers far enough to peek under them. She had on the same long night shirt she remembered putting on before she went to bed.

“I was having a... a bad dream, that’s all,” she said. “I’m fine.”

“Can I get you anything?” he asked. “A glass of water, perhaps?”

“No, no, I’m fine,” she insisted.

“Ok then, sleep tight,” he said. “I’ll be in the other room if you need me.”

He stood to leave. The filtered light from the moon revealed he was wearing tight skivvy briefs and nothing else.  Her eyes roamed to the bulge in his briefs.

“Wait,” she said. “Don’t go.”

“Did you need something?” he asked.

You have no idea, she thought to herself.

“I can’t sleep. Will you sit and talk with me?” she asked.

“Of course,” he replied, sitting beside her.

Lindsay switched on the nightstand lamp. It cast a low amber glow into the room. She marveled at the sculpted body of the Cheyenne, who seemed very at ease wearing only skivvies.

“So, I take it there is no Mrs. Yellow Wolf?”

“Oh, no, hell no,” he said. “Who the hell would have me?”

She imagined a group of people wrapped around Ska’s property, all women between the ages of sixteen to sixty, all lined up hoping for the opportunity. It made her snicker.

“What’s so funny?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she replied. “Why would you say something like that?  You are flat out gorgeous.”

He smiled, “Do you think so?”

“You have to know that. Any heterosexual woman would love to have you—probably some of the gay ones, too.”

His smile broadened, displaying his perfect white teeth, “Maybe for a night or two, but not to stay with,” he said. “I have nothing to speak of. I’m just another dirt-poor Indian on the res, with no future.”

“Didn’t you get training while you were in the service?” Lindsay asked.

“Not a lot of call for Navy SEALS-type skills here on the res,” he replied. “The res is depressed and has been for a while. Not much work and what little work there is has hundreds of people competing for it.”

“Did you ever think of moving off the res?”

“The reservation is my home,” Yellow Wolf said. “My people are there. My life is there.”

“I understand,” Lindsay said.

“How about you?” he said. “Is there a Mr. Lindsay Vanderbilt?”

She smiled and shook her head, “No.”

“Boyfriend?”

“Nope.”

“Now how can that be?” he said. “You are stunning, and brilliant.”

“Thank you. I don’t know about all that. I’m pretty screwed up in the head,” she said.

“How so?”

“I grew up in an emotionally detached family with absentee parents,” she said. “Nannies raised me. When I got older, they shipped me off to boarding schools.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I was kidnapped a few years ago, you know.”

“I heard,” Yellow Wolf said. “That must have been horrible.”

“It was,” she confirmed.

“That’s how you met Rainhorse?” he asked.

Lindsay nodded, “I understand you know him.”

“You could say that,” he offered. “It was when Red and I were young. He didn't like me—I was a... troubled child.”

“I can't imagine that.”

“My dad was dead,” he added. “My mom was a meth addict and a prostitute. I raised myself. My mother’s boyfriends beat me, made me feel worthless. I was always in trouble—stealing, fighting, selling marijuana.  That’s the person Rainhorse remembers. He hates me.”

“It does explain a lot,” she said, placing her hand over Yellow Wolf’s. “He doesn’t know you now, the man you’ve become. I feel bad. Here I am complaining of my silver spoon childhood and you were living in a nightmare.”

Yellow Wolf squeezed her hand, “It wasn’t all bad. I met Red. He became my best friend.  Convinced me to go into the service with him. Had it not been for Red Feather, I’d be a two-bit meth dealer on the res, part of the problem, not the solution.”

“Well, I for one, am glad you’re here,” she said, smiling.

She made eye contact with Yellow Wolf and the smile disappeared from his face.  She leaned forward. He kissed her.  Their lips seemed to melt into each other. His mouth felt so warm.

“I... want you,” she said. She said it in a whisper; her tone was nervous; cautious. “I want you tonight.”

“I don't think it's a good idea...”

“Don't you want me?” she asked.

“I do,” he replied. “More than anything in the world. It's just that... this is fast.”

“Neha told me when I met the right person, I'd know,” she said. “Matty, I know.”

“Still, maybe we should...”

She touched his mouth with her hand.

“No more talking.”

She broke away and leaned back, pulling her nightshirt off, exposing her naked breasts to a man for the first time.

Yellow Wolf leaned in and she wrapped her arms around him, kissing him with a passion unlike anything she’d experienced before.

“I have protection,” she said.

He smiled, “Really?” 

She blushed, “It's not what you think. Rainhorse left them at Neha’s place long ago and I brought them in case...”

“You don't have to explain,” he interrupted. He stood walking to the bathroom. He returned in less than a minute, leaning over to kiss her again.

“I’m a virgin,” she told him. “Be gentle with me.”

“I promise,” he said.

She reached over and turned off the lamp on the nightstand.