Page 36 of The Spirit of the Wolf

She stepped back, but not soon enough. Cold water splashed her, wetting her from head to foot. She shivered.

“Brrrr, it is cold.”

“A-a, feels good.”

Using the tips of his fingers, he sprinkled her yet again.

“Oh, don’t do that.”

There was a devil of a smile on his face. “Don’t do what? This?” He repeated the action.

“You know very well what I asked.”

“Me? What?” He did it once more.

“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”

“Sece, perhaps. But how am I to scrub your back if you do not come into the water?”

“Could you not scrub my back as I sit here on the shore?”

He shook his head. “You merely delay the inevitable. Come now, the water is not so very bad.” Diving below the surface, he swam toward her, emerging before her at the shoreline.

He stood up, in all his naked glory, letting the water rush down his body, as though it, too, adored him. A hard, muscular chest and broad shoulders, tapering to a narrow waist, met her hungry glance. Tight abdominal muscles and stomach, muscular legs, which were curiously devoid of hair. In truth, except for the top of his head and the sprinkling of hair cushioning his sex, Grey Coyote’s body sported little hair. This included his chest, arms, legs, even his face.

He held a hand out to her, and she stepped toward him feeling like she had been summoned.

“Are you not going to remove your underclothes?” he asked.

Immediately she felt her face flood with color. It was one matter to lie nude with this man upon a bed of buffalo robes. Factually, within the heat of passion, it was, indeed, most pleasant.

It was quite another, however, to disrobe with Grey Coyote’s watchful gaze upon her, here in the bright light of day.

He tilted his head, his look at her short of a leer. “It is a little late for modesty.”

“I beg to differ. It is never too late for modesty.”

“But I have seen all of you.”

“Last night,” she said. “This is different.”

He simply grinned. “Then come. Perhaps you may wash your clothes as well.”

She smiled. “Yes, this is my thought also.” She took hold of his hand and executed a cautious step toward the water.

But he didn’t pull her into its depths, as she had feared he might. Rather he bore with her as she let herself become gradually used to its coolness, seeming to her as if he had all the time in the world to spend with her.

She asked, “Are we safe here? I know you have spoken of the problem of our going into enemy territory. Are we there yet?”

“It is a good question. It shows your awareness of the environment, and this is good.”

“Well, thank you.”

He nodded. “We border the territory of my enemies, although once I passed down from the Minnetaree village, I have been treading more and more into enemy territory, thus the need to hurry to our shelter.”

“Then you have camped here before?”

“Hau, hau.”