Cloud Dancing's Dilemma
By Linda Ellen
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman (but those people aren't using them anyway!)
April 2010 Forum Picture Challenge
Sully gazed at his brother and smiled. This was so unusual, Cloud Dancing asking HIM for advice – and about LOVE at that!
As his friend talked while putting the finishing touches on a flute he was making, Sully's mind went back to the night before.
Michaela had come to bed with many things on her mind, not the least of which was frustration at something he'd done and he smiled as he remembered how just a few kisses steered her thoughts in another direction.
"Oh Sully," she had breathed into his mouth as his lips brushed hers with feather light caresses. "How is it that just one touch from you can take away all my anxiety...can take me to another realm where nothing exists but the two of us?" she whispered before raising her hand to the back of his neck and pulling him closer, taking his luscious lips with hers as she abandoned herself to her lover, her husband of five years.
With the fire crackling in the hearth, their soft breathing and occasional sighs of pleasure the only sounds in the room, the two once again succumbed to the pull of their attraction as Sully slid his hand to the back of her neck and slanted her head to the side, masterfully assuming the lead in their encounter.
"God how I love this woman!" he thought for the millionth time as he proceeded to show her how much he loved her, gently helping her remove her nightgown and joining his body with hers in sweet mutual marital joy.
Now though, Cloud Dancing spoke again and brought Sully back from his reverie.
"The ways of the white man are so different from ours," he was saying. ""We have been married a year. I had thought that by now things would smooth out." The Indian shook his head in resigned frustration as he thought of his lovely red-haired wife. "When Snowbird was angry with me, I left her alone until she calmed down. This does not seem to be working with Dorothy."
Sully smiled again as realization dawned. "There's your problem, Cloud Dancin'. If I leave Michaela alone when she's angry, it just gets worse. She wants me to ask what's wrong, to help her sort it out. If she's angry at ME...this might sound bad, but if I go to her, take her in my arms and kiss her – really lay one on her, it usually fixes the problem. Kinda...melts the anger away," he added with a grin and a wiggle of his eyebrows.
Cloud Dancing raised an eyebrow at him. "You are serious? I should KISS Dorothy's anger away?" The Indian shook his head in amazement. "Will I ever understand the ways of your people?"
Sully grinned knowingly and leaned over to give his brother a friendly pat on the shoulder. "You'll get the hang of it, my brother. You'll see."
**********
Later that evening in the log cabin Sully had helped him build, Cloud Dancing sat at their table whittling, little shavings of wood falling from the table to the floor as he moved.
Dorothy sat across the room from him in the rocking chair reading a copy of the Denver newspaper. She sighed as she saw the shavings fall. She never dreamed before she married him that he would leave messes around, almost like it was just for her to clean up. She ground her teeth together in anger, becoming angrier still as she imagined him ignoring her obvious distress like usual.
Cloud Dancing thought about what his brother had said as he felt the waves of anger emanating from the other side of the room. For a moment he considered retreating out to his teepee, but decided against it. Though he couldn't see how it would help, he cleared his throat and asked, "Is something wrong, Mé'oo'o?" [sweetheart]
A little surprised, Dorothy flashed him a look. Encouraged, he tried again, "Do you want to talk about it?"
Dorothy took a breath and plunged in, not sure how her Cheyenne husband would respond. "Cloud Dancin'...must you let those wood shavin's fall to the floor like that? It's so time consumin' to sweep 'em up every day."
Her husband raised one eyebrow in curiosity. "Snowbird never complained about such things..." he began, only to be cut off.
"Well that's just it! I ain't Snowbird, Cloud Dancin'! She was what we call a 'housewife'. I'm NOT, I'm a workin' woman with responsibilities! I gotta go around findin' stories to print in the Gazette, write 'em, set the type, print 'em, handle the money, and a dozen other things, includin' losin' my two biggest advertisers today, and it all starts over again every week!" she fumed, her face turning pink from frustration. "Then I gotta come home and make supper and clean everythin' up, and there you are makin' more work for me!" she ended, knowing she was being unreasonable, but unable to stop herself.
Cloud Dancing took a deep breath and relying on the veracity of his brother's advice, he stood up and crossed the room to his wife. Stopping at her chair he waited until she leaned her head back and looked up at him. Smiling, he reached down and took her hand, pulling her to her feet as the newspaper scattered to the floor. "Cloud Dancin'! What are you..." she began, only to be effectively silenced by one very sensuous kiss from her very sensuous husband.
When he finally pulled back several minutes later, gazing into the passion filled blue eyes of his wife, the thought crossed his mind that Sully did indeed know how to handle an angry white woman.
"Don't stop now, husband...unless that was just a tease..." Dorothy murmured, flashing him a "come hither" look. His chuckle rumbled deep in his chest and his mouth closed in on hers again as he swooped her up into his arms and carried her to their bed against the far wall.
For the next few hours, Cloud Dancing effectively held his wife's attention fixed on HIM, successfully keeping all thoughts of newspapers, stories, money and missing advertisers far from her mind.
***********
That night in a beautiful homestead several miles away, a handsome couple lay entwined in each other's arms having just come up to bed after a very trying day.
Thinking of his conversation with his best friend earlier in the day, Sully emitted a soft chuckle.
"What is it?" Michaela murmured, snuggling closer in his arms.
"I was just thinkin' 'bout some advice I gave Cloud Dancin' today."
"What kind of advice?"
"Oh, how to handle Dorothy when she gets mad at 'im."
Michaela smiled tiredly. "Is that so?" she asked, trying to stifle a yawn. "And just what did you tell him?"
Not thinking it through, Sully admitted, "I told him how I get you calmed down when you get mad at me...that I just kiss ya till all the anger melts away." He laughed. "He didn't believe me. He said..."
"You told him WHAT???" Michaela squeaked, incensed at the audacity of the man at her side.
Too late, Sully realized his faux pas, and grimaced as he felt the woman at his side come fully awake and raise up on one elbow as she puffed herself up to her full size, her boiler quickly gaining steam.
"I can't BELIEVE you would tell him such a thing, Byron Sully!" his wife hissed at him. He could have sworn he saw claws emerging from his Boston bred feline. "And for your information, if I'm angry at something, especially at YOU, a simple KISS would not fix the problem!"
Sully's eyes grew large at this and he cocked an eyebrow at his now flustered wife.
"Is that right?"
"That's right!"
"Care to make a wager on that?" he asked, masculine confidence exuding from every pore.
"Yes I would!" Michaela carelessly flung at him. The nerve of him to think she could be so easily placated. A kiss to melt the anger away. Ha!
"Alright, you're on. What's the stakes, my beautiful wife?"
"And don't try to flatter your way out of this, Byron Sully. The stakes are...three weeks of dishes to the loser."
"Fine."
"Fine!"
She flopped back down at his side and he lay there a moment praying it would work. "Are ya good and mad?"
"Oh, if you only knew..." she stopped as she was instantly interrupted by her favorite pair of warm, smooth lips taking hers rather insistently. He wrapped his arms around her. She pushed against him in resistance. He held on tighter. She clamped her teeth closed as his tongue tried to pry its way into her mouth. She tried to turn her head and determinedly willed herself not to respond, but she was already beginning to feel the effects. He continued to pour it on, holding her tight without hurting her at all.
After a minute, he felt a change. She started to relax, just a bit. Then slowly, her hand came up to his warm bare chest, then further to his neck, threading her hand in his soft hair. Then suddenly she completely surrendered to her husband's ministrations as his hand cupped her neck and guided her head where he wanted it. The kiss then turned into one that ignited the passion of both the giver and the receiver.
Finally pulling back, Sully smiled hazily into the beautiful sage green and russet orbs peeking out under the long black lashes of the enchanting woman in his arms.
"Don't worry, Mé'oo'o, I'll help ya with those dishes," he whispered with a soft chuckle.
Beginning to gather steam again, Michaela ground, "Oh you..." but was stopped by those same luscious lips as he drove his point home, much to both their delights.
THE END... or should I say, the beginning – Oooo lala!