He kissed her hair. “Was that your first orgasm—or your first with a man?”
Heat rushed into her face when she realized what he was asking. “We… we were never allowed to touch ourselves. Ruth would have beaten us, humiliated us in front of the entire family. She did that with one of my older sisters—beat her bare bottom with a belt. She even threatened to cut off any part of our bodies down there that we touched outside of taking a bath. I just never tried.”
“So that was your first orgasm ever.”
“Yes.” She told him how the first time she’d had sex had been incredibly painful and how the man who’d taken her virginity, a man she’d stupidly thought she might marry, had disappeared from her life not long after. She told him about Kenan, too, and what he’d said before stomping out of her apartment. “I thought it was me, that I was defective somehow, broken or not womanly enough.”
Chaska rolled her onto her back, looked down at her, anger glinting in those dark eyes. “There is nothing wrong with you, angel. The problem lies with the people who raised you to fear your body—and the men who didn’t respect you.”
Could that be true?
“What you said tonight—I really liked it. I would love to hear more about what your people believe.”
Then she remembered what Winona had told her. “Or maybe there are things you wouldn’t want to tell an outsider.”
“You’re not an outsider—not to Win and me.” He reached down between her breasts and took hold of her little medicine wheel. “This is Lakota. I’m certain of it. Despite the terrible wrong she did you, your mother must have wanted you to have it. She must have believed that someone would find you. She must have wanted you to know where you come from, who your people are.”
“I used to believe that.” That’s why she’d taken the medicine wheel from Peter, who’d shown it to his church during a sermon on heathenism, telling them all where he’d gotten it. That’s why she’d endured a beating to keep it hidden. That’s why she’d taken it with her when she’d run, why she’d researched what it was and how it was made.
“And now?”
“There must be a dozen ways it could have ended up in my blanket. Maybe she stole it. Maybe she got it from a tourist shop. Maybe she—”
Chaska pressed a finger to her lips. “Maybe she was a poor Lakota girl from Pine Ridge or Rosebud who left you with the only thing she owned.”
Chaska left the conference room, headed straight for the break room and his next cup of coffee. He’d stayed with Naomi until almost two in the morning, holding her, talking with her. He hadn’t wanted to leave her side, but it didn’t seem right to sleep with her until they’d truly become lovers. Trouble was, he hadn’t slept at all, his head filled with her, his body wanting more.
He poured coffee into a mug, took a sip, an image of her face as she’d come flashing through his mind once more.
She was so damned beautiful.
No, it didn’t hurt his pride to be the first man to make her come. Still, he wished for her sake that her life had been different. Peter and his wife had done their best to beat their twisted beliefs about sexuality into her, filling her with shame and fear, depriving her of the knowledge she needed to enjoy her own body. And the men she’d been with…
Chaska wanted to kick their asses. No woman deserved to be treated like that, to be made to doubt herself and her femininity because her partner was too lazy and disrespectful to please her.
He topped off his coffee mug, walked to the scanner, and drew her medicine wheel out of his jeans pocket. He’d asked her if he could borrow it for the day, and she’d let him. He scanned it, saved the image to the network in his own encrypted folder, then walked down the hallway to his office.
He logged into his computer, downloaded the scan of the medicine wheel from the folder to his desktop, then pulled out his cellphone and called Tina at Oglala Oyate College. She was both surprised and happy to hear from him. They talked for a while—the latest news from the college, what he and Win had been doing lately, what Tina’s grandkids were up to these days.
“Can you do me a favor, Tina?”
“Sure thing.”
“I’d like to email you an image of a medicine wheel. I was wondering if you could print it or load it onto a laptop and take it out to my grandfather.” Old Man didn’t have Internet or a computer or a smartphone. “It was left with a newborn baby girl who was abandoned by her mother in an alley twenty-seven years ago. I want to find out if Grandfather recognizes the work or has any ideas about who might have made it or owned it.”
“Sure thing. I need to head out there anyway, see how he’s doing.” Tina was part of theirtiospaye, their extended family, being his grandfather’s second cousin once removed or some such. “Do you have any other information about this young woman?”
“She looks Native except for her eyes. They’re blue. She has no idea who her parents might have been. She was found, close to dying, in Martin next to a dumpster.”
“That’s a rough way to start life.”
It sure as hell was.
“This medicine wheel was tucked inside her blanket.”
“I’ll watch for your email, load it onto my iPad, and drive out there on Saturday.”
“Pilamayayelo.”Thank you.“It means a lot to me.”