by Donna Raider
They placed their order then immediately dove into planning for the band competition. “Emily let me get on the Internet today and we looked up the top records of the fifties,” Richie exclaimed. “I didn’t find anything I was crazy about.”
“Did you listen to any of the songs by Elvis Presley?” Mika asked.
Richie thought for a minute then answered, “I don’t think so.”
“I don’t think I have listened to his songs, but I have heard his name.” Leah frowned. “Didn’t they call him the King?”
“Yes.” Mika smiled, recalling the young man that had taken the recording industry by storm in the fifties only to die at age forty-two of a drug overdose.
“He was extremely talented,” the priest continued. “He had several songs that still make me want to dance. I can think of two that would be a perfect fit for your band. Let’s see what you think, Son.”
##
Leah went upstairs to change into something more comfortable while Mika and Richie headed for the laptop in Mika’s office. As Leah rejoined them in the office, she found herself greeted by the toe-tapping rhythms of Elvis Presley’s “Treat Me Nice.”
Her wife swept Leah into her arms and danced her around the room as Richie clapped with glee.
“It’s a very catchy tune.” Leah smiled up at Mika.
“Asher can do this perfectly.” Mika laughed out loud. “He’ll make a great Elvis impersonator. He’s over thirty.”
“Yeah, if he doesn’t fall into a box of Fruit Loops,” Richie joined the laughter of his parents. “You know how nervous he gets on stage.”
“He’s just crazy enough to pull it off,” Leah giggled. “If we can get him past his stage fright. I’ll order some Elvis DVDs and CDs so you can decide which songs you like best and give you a good idea of how Elvis was as a performer.”
“You’re great, Mom.” Richie gave her a quick hug. “I’m going to call Isaac and the rest of the band and have them come over and watch him on YouTube.”
“Tonight?” Leah cleared her throat. “Don’t you think it’s a little late tonight? Mika and I have to be at work early in the morning.”
“How about I gather everyone at Isaac’s house if it’s okay with his dad?” Richie raised an eyebrow.
He looks so much like her when he does that. Mika smiled to herself, pleased that her son was almost a smaller replica of her wife. It had always surprised her that Richie resembled Leah much more than he did his blonde birth mother.
Leah nodded hesitantly, torn between wanting to keep her son with her, and spending the rest of the night indulging herself with her wife. Wife won out. “You will have to walk to Emily’s in the morning,” she added. “I’ll let her know you are spending the night with Isaac.”
“She won’t wake until two or three anyway.” Richie frowned. “She’s working the night shift this week.”
Richie quickly arranged to meet the band at Isaac’s house and got permission from Isaac’s dad to spend the night.
Mika dropped their son at his friend’s house, her mind already focused on Richie’s mother. Lunch today had only been a tantalizing appetizer. Mika was ready for the full-course meal. With Richie out of the house, they had all night. She hoped Magic Leah would come out and play tonight. She hadn’t appeared since their last night on the boat.
Mika felt it as soon as she entered the mansion. The air was crackling with it. The house hummed with it. She took the stairs two at a time. Leah was in the shower. Mika quickly joined her. Mika kissed her slowly. She nibbled at her lips then slid her tongue through them, seeking hers. Hot, rampant desire shot through Mika’s lips and into every cell in her body. She was surprised the water hitting them wasn’t hissing from the heat of their bodies. Mika shut off the shower, picked up Leah and carried her—still wet—to their bed.
Leah moaned deep in her throat as she said her name slowly. “Mika, Mika, please, Mika.” It sounded like the most beautiful word Mika had ever heard. It wasn’t just Mika. It was love and longing. It was desire and urgency. It was a pure raw necessity. Her whispered pleadings drew Mika into the vortex of desire that pulled them both into each other’s arms. Leah’s screams and moans pleased Mika immensely. It thrilled her to know she could make Leah feel the same way she felt.
As their bodies made the final connection, Leah’s magic ran unchecked through them, grabbing them by the throat and choking the air from their bodies. It carried them higher and higher until breathing became impossible and their hearts ceased to beat, then suddenly released its hold on them, flooding their bodies with the pure essence of the love they had for one another.
Mika gazed in wonder at the woman beneath her. She tried desperately to ground herself in reality and failed. “You are all that matters,” Mika gasped. “My world is you. My life is you. I’m yours. I belong to you and your magic.”
As she always did, Leah breathed air into Mika’s lungs, causing them to inflate and then gasp for release. Mika cried out, her screams harmonizing with Leah’s as their minds and bodies exploded with the love they gave so freely.
Later they lay in each other’s arms and talked. Leah spoke briefly of her mother and the brutality she had suffered at her hands. Mika pulled her closer, kissing her gently. She stroked her hair, kissed the top of her head, and promised her she would never know anything but love for eternity. Knowing what Leah had been through, all that they had been through to reach each other, Mika’s resolve to make her happy only deepened and multiplied a thousand-fold.
##
Leah sat on the chair at the foot of their bed, her feet pulled underneath her, sipping her coffee. She smiled as she watched her wife sleeping. She knew that virile was not a word commonly used to describe a woman, but she knew no other words for Mika’s energetic beauty. She was breathtaking. Leah knew that most of Mika’s parishioners filled her church every service to fantasize about her in person. Leah could tell it when she looked at the dazed eyes of the men and some of the women. She understood. While she tried hard to listen to the sermon Mika was delivering to them, most of the time she found herself imagining scenarios that ended with the priest in her bed.
Mika was very charismatic, kind, and endearingly innocent. Leah knew she had been through centuries of war and death, yet when it came to close, personal intimacy with a woman, Mika was a true innocent. Her little-girl smile, accentuated by her dimples, flashed across Leah’s mind, and she shivered with anticipation. She smiled as she envisioned the way Mika slightly ducked her head and looked up at her through long lashes when she was trying to get her way about something. Leah knew what she was doing, and it always worked. She hoped Richie didn’t see how helpless others were against the priest’s little-girl smile.
Richie had perfected the puppy dog eyes, but they didn’t quite turn others into a quivering mass of compliance like Mika’s tentative girlish smile. She knew that if Richie ever discovered the power of that little-boy smile, the girls wouldn’t stand a chance.
Of course, Leah knew that she possessed the look that always made her wife putty in her hands. It trumped all the looks the priest had in her repertoire. Leah never failed to get her way when she turned that look on Mika.
Leah held her breath as Mika turned, reaching for her side of the bed. Not finding her, she frowned in her sleep. Leah didn’t want to wake her. She knew Mika was exhausted. Immortals had the same physical needs as mortals. They experienced exhaustion, hunger, pain, thirst, cold, and heat. Cravings—their cravings were heightened more than mortals. Their desire for a good cup of coffee. Their love of food. Their need for physical exercise. Their insatiable desire for their mates.
Leah licked her lips. Mika had slept long enough. Letting her robe slide to the floor, she slipped into bed beside her wife.
“I wondered when you would tire of devouring me with your eyes and start devouring me with your mouth.” Mika pulled Leah close and kissed her. Leah slowly slid her tongue between Mika’s lips. She could still taste herself in Mika’s mouth.
&n
bsp; “Let me brush my teeth,” Mika whispered.
“No,” Leah murmured, “I like the way I taste on your tongue.”
Mika smiled. “Let me just freshen that for you.”
##
They showered, dressed, and made it to the diner in time for lunch. The minute they opened the door, Ruth knew what they had been doing for the past twelve hours. Her wolf senses always recognized sex, especially good sex. They were all over each other, laughing, touching covertly, and emitting the strongest sexual aggression Ruth had ever encountered. She was certain they had just crawled out of bed.
She set two cups of coffee on their table. They both grinned and nodded their appreciation. Ruth was thankful they had seated themselves across from one another. At least this way they could only hold hands. She shuddered to think what would happen if they were sitting side by side, thighs touching, Leah’s hand reaching across her, dragging her ample…
“Ruth,” Leah said for the fourth time, “are you okay?”
The waitress shook her head, pulling herself out of the fantasy she was visualizing of the two of them. You are a pervert, Ruth, she thought to herself. It was just that, to her keen wolf sense of smell, they reeked of raw sex.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Ruth said, blushing, “I was lost in thought for a moment. Fresh chicken salad today.”
“Sounds good.” The priest smiled at her wife as if she were taking her order. “May I have potato chips, also?”
The mayor nodded. “Same for me.”
When Ruth reached the counter, she turned to study the two. No wonder Mika was grinning like a fool. Leah had the toe of her high heels hooked behind Mika’s calf and was slowly rubbing it up and down her leg. Ruth had to hand it to the queen. She was driving the priest crazy while at the same time smiling and talking as if they were discussing the weather. The waitress hoped Mika made it through lunch.
The priest leaned across the table and whispered in her wife’s ear, “Please have mercy on me, Your Majesty!”
“Until tonight,” she laughed, sliding her toe down Mika’s leg one last time.
As Ruth placed their food on the table, Richie and his band members burst through the diner door. “Mom! Mika!” The boy ran to his parents with his friends in tow. “We have settled on three songs to work on for the contest.”
“My dad said he would help.” Grace clapped her hands. “This is very exciting.”
The diner filled with the usual lunch crowd. “Hey, don’t tell me you fellows have come up with an entry for Maine’s Got Talent,” Ruth howled with glee.
“We have.” Richie beamed. “We are going to do Elvis Presley’s top hits. Asher is going to be our lead singer.”
“Hot damn… uh… uh… darn.” The waitress fist-bumped the air as she glanced sheepishly at the priest. She had discovered the young rock singer almost as soon as she discovered the Internet, and she loved everything he had done.
##
Although the couple tried to concentrate on catching up on their work, they never seemed to be able to make it through the day without a tryst at lunch. Neither ever worked after hours. They were too anxious to get home to one another.
Their routine settled into being home or at the diner by five fifteen. After dinner, Mika and Richie would go to Asher’s, where the boys practiced. They made it home by eight every night so Richie could shower and get to bed. Leah used the time to work on city business or to relax with a book, anything to pass the time until they were back with her.
“I never knew you could play so many different instruments.” Richie laughed as he and Mika entered the mansion.
“Just something I picked up here and there.” The priest grinned at her son.
“You play?” Leah tilted her head at Mika questioningly.
“She’s awesome on the piano,” Richie exclaimed. “And, Mom, she can make a guitar talk. Can you teach me that last chord run you did tonight?” The boy turned to the priest with open adoration.
“Of course, Son.” Mika grinned, pleased to be the source of the boy’s joy.
“Play for Mom.” Richie grabbed Mika’s hand and led her toward a part of the house Mika had never explored. Throwing open double white doors, Richie made a grand gesture, welcoming the priest to their music room.
Mika was speechless. How could I have missed this room? The room was white with accents of gold. Leah’s excellent taste was evident in every detail of the room. In the center of the room was a grand piano. I need the grand tour of our home, she thought, recalling that she had only been in Richie’s new bedroom in the west wing.
“Show her, Mika.” Richie danced around the room, playing an air guitar.
Mika approached the piano much as she approached her wife, with wonder and awe. She ran her hands over the smooth, shiny finish, reveling in the feel of the magnificent instrument. She raised an eyebrow, asking her wife’s permission to play the exquisite concert grand.
Leah nodded, and Mika slid onto the piano bench and opened the keyboard. She sat very still for a long time, paying homage to the beautiful piece of furniture. She began to move her fingers lightly over the keys, and Ludwig Van Beethoven’s famous “Moonlight Sonata” filled the room. The acoustics of the room gently magnified the beauty of the sound. The tone and resonance of the piano seemed to make the world stand still with the peaceful grace of her music.
Leah was mesmerized. She realized how little she knew about the woman she had married. Every discovery only made her love Mika more.
Even Richie was silenced by the beauty of the song Mika had played, but not for long. “Play something rocking,” he cried. “What did Asher call it? You know, a boogie-woogie.”
The priest laughed and directed her comment to her wife. “Let me apologize to you and this wonderful piano for what I am about to play,” she said as she ran her hands up the keyboard and played a foot-stomping song that made Leah want to dance.
“That’s it! That’s it!” Richie shouted as he grabbed his mother’s hands and began hopping around the room as if his feet were on fire.
For the next hour, the priest played songs requested by her captive audience. Then she got “the look” from her wife and everything vanished from her thoughts except Leah.
“Okay, Son, time for bed. We have stayed up way past your bedtime.” Mika closed the keyboard and reverently put the piano bench back in its place. “I’ll grab a shower, and you do the same, then your mother and I will tuck you in.”
Richie scampered up the stairs and was in the shower before his parents even left the music room. Leah raked her eyes up and down her wife’s lean, muscular body. Mika pulled her into her arms and kissed her soft, eager lips. “I love you,” she whispered.
##
Mika slid into their bed and was surprised to find Leah in both her pajama top and bottom. They had been married twenty-five days, and this was the first time she’d encountered pajama bottoms. She pulled her eyes away from the offending clothing and caught Leah studying her, a slight smile playing on her lips.
“Are we okay?” Mika asked hesitantly, glancing at her pajama bottoms as if they were a monster in her bed.
“Yes, dear.” Leah touched Mika’s face gently. “You do know about women and cycles, don’t you?”
Her thoughts wrinkled Mika’s brow, then she blushed as she realized what Leah was telling her. “Yes, of course. Not personally… I mean I don’t have them, and I’ve never been intimately involved with anyone so, um…”
“It is one of the few drawbacks of being eternally thirty-four.” Leah smiled. “Just a few days every month, but still a bother.”
“Is there anything I can do for you?” Mika asked anxiously. “Can I get you anything?”
“I am just fine, darling,” she laughed. “It’s not a disease.”
Mika laughed and pulled Leah into her arms. “I’m happy just to lie by your side.” She kissed her softly, enjoying the feel of Leah’s full lips moving leisurely against hers.
Mika tried to
suppress the desire that was building in the pit of her stomach. “Maybe we should just talk,” she whispered against her lips. Leah nodded in agreement.
“I should probably warn you that I can be extremely bitchy the last few days of each month.” Leah wrinkled her nose.
“Of course, my first preference would be to have Happy Leah,” Mika said as she grinned, “but my second choice would be Cranky Leah.”
“I love you.” Leah laughed at the way Mika had cleaned up her language.
“I liked that you had on your pajama bottoms,” she mused thoughtfully. “It immediately made me stop and question what was going on. I think that should be a simple signal between us.”
“What do you mean?” Leah wasn’t sure what she was suggesting.
“I am sure that on occasion, you won’t feel like making love, and, although I can’t imagine it, there will probably be times when I’m too tired or don’t feel like it,” the priest explained. “On those occasions, we’ll simply wear our pajama bottoms to bed.”
“Good idea.” Leah beamed. “Since your normal nightwear is au naturale and I always start off with just my pajama top on, the appearance of pajama bottoms will send the signal we are unavailable for the night.”
Mika nodded, hoping that didn’t happen very often. She was dying, and they had made love that morning.
“I had no idea you were a musician.” Leah’s voice was deep with desire, and Mika knew she was having as much difficulty with the hiatus in their lovemaking as she. She appreciated Leah moving the subject to something more comfortable.
“When one roams the earth for three thousand years, one becomes proficient at many things,” Mika laughed.
“Richie tells me you are an exceptional pianist.” Mika pulled up her knees so Leah could lean against them, facing her. She wanted to admire her beauty.
“One of the few good things my mother did for me.” Leah grimaced. “You know, queens must be able to entertain the court. I loved the music and spent hours playing. It soothed me.”
Mika pushed an errant strand of hair behind Leah’s ear then gently caressed her beautiful face, tracing the curve of her cheeks, down her jaw line, coming to rest lightly on her full, red lips. She touched the small scar that started just above her upper lip and disappeared into it. “Did Mommy Dearest do this?” Mika asked.
