by Donna Raider
Leah nodded, and Mika thought her heart would stop beating. The thought that someone could strike Leah’s gorgeous face in anger filled her with fury.
Leah watched as her sky-blue eyes deepened to the deepest, darkest blue of ocean waters, then to black. She could see Mika was fighting to overcome the blackness of the anger that was filling her mind.
“I can make it go away if you don’t like it.” Leah frowned.
“I love it,” Mika said. “It’s part of who you are. It humanizes you, a small blemish on a gorgeous goddess.”
“I keep it because it reminds me of how cruel people can be,” she said softly, “especially my mother.
“May I ask you something?” Leah lowered her eyes from Mika’s gaze, trying to formulate the question she had wanted to ask from the moment Mika had shown the replay of her life.
“Of course.”
“When you allowed me to see who you are, there was a segment of you with a beautiful blonde woman. You were holding an infant in one arm, and your other arm was encircling her.”
“Helena,” Mika whispered her name in adulation, almost as if it were too exalted to pass through her lips.
Jealousy shot through Leah like a hot, searing pain. “Did you love her?”
Mika leaned her head back against the headboard and closed her eyes. “Yes,” she breathed. She felt her wife stiffen and knew her words had hurt her somehow.
“I loved her,” Mika explained, “but I was never in love with her. I am desperately in love with you.”
Leah stared at her, her expression one of confusion and pain. “Did she love you?” Leah’s voice was almost a whisper.
“I don’t know. We never spoke of love. The baby I was holding was her only son, Constantine, who became Constantine the Great. It was my job to protect the two of them until Constantine came of age to take his place as Emperor of Rome. He ruled Rome for about thirty years in the first part of three hundred AD. Both Helena and Constantine were very important to my Lord’s plans for mankind. I loved them both in the same way.
“Like you, her life was filled with people who wanted to use her for their gain. After Constantine was born, she dedicated her life to him.
“She was the consort of the Roman Emperor Flavius Valerius Constantius. Although he loved her and Constantine, he divorced her to marry another woman for political purposes.”
“Nice guy,” Leah snarled.
“Helena never remarried or engaged in any fraternization with men. She had plenty of suitors.” Mika continued her narrative. “More than once I had to eliminate overly aggressive men who tried to force themselves on her. She buried herself in raising and educating Constantine. She was a Christian. She was a recluse for over thirty years. When Constantius died, his army proclaimed Helena’s son, Constantine, Emperor of the Roman Empire.
“Constantine was as devoted to his mother as she was to him,” the priest added. “He made her a member of the imperial court and lavished great wealth on her.
“Constantine The Great was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. Helena embraced the Christian religion, and I accompanied her on pilgrimages as she established churches in many countries under her son’s rule. Constantine passed laws forbidding the persecution of Christians and legalizing Christianity.
“Constantine gave his mother unlimited access to the imperial treasury to fund her search for Judeo-Christian relics. When Helena was sixty-nine or seventy, I accompanied her to the Holy Lands.”
“There was never anything between you?” Leah asked in disbelief. She now knew from experience how much Mika liked—Mika interrupted her.
“You’re the only woman I have ever been with intimately.” Mika looked deep into her brown eyes, and Leah knew she was truthful.
“Helena went to Jerusalem in search of Jesus’s tomb and the location of Golgotha, the place where Christ was crucified.” Mika continued, “In Jerusalem, the ruler before Constantine had built a pagan temple over the tomb of Jesus. Helena ordered it torn down to make way for a Christian temple. During the excavation, three crosses were unearthed. She assumed that they were the crosses of Jesus and the two thieves crucified with him. Along with the crosses, she found part of the wooden tablet that was nailed to the cross, above Jesus’s head. It wasn’t attached to any of the crosses. It read INRI, which was the Latin acronym for Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.
“Helena was not a woman easily fooled. She had the three crosses placed side by side and had a dying woman brought to the site. She had the woman touch each of the crosses. The first two produced no reaction at all, but when the woman touched the third cross, she was immediately healed.
“Helena declared the third cross the true cross of Jesus, and Constantine ordered the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on the site where we unearthed the cross.
“Both Constantine and I were at her side when she died at age eighty.” The priest bowed her head, grieving.
Mika cleared her throat. “The church canonized her, and she became St. Helena, patron saint of archeologists, converts, difficult marriages, divorced people, and empresses.”
Mika looked at her and grinned. “I qualify for none of those, but you do, Your Majesty.”
Leah studied Mika’s face for a long time. She was so much more than she appeared to be on the surface. Leah knew she would never become bored with her. Mika had more knowledge than any one person should ever possess. She had seen things Leah didn’t even know existed. She had stories of three thousand years and beyond to share with her. She made Leah believe in her God. She prayed to her God—now Leah’s God—every day. She never asked God for anything, only thanked him for her wife and son and promised she would do everything in her power to make them happy.
Leah touched her, gently running fingertips down Mika’s smooth, lovely face. “You are so much more than my lover.” Leah smiled sweetly. “You’re my best friend, my confidante, and my enthralling storyteller. You make me be a better person.”
Mika kissed the tips of her fingers. “You are why I’m on this Earth,” she said honestly.
Mika slid down into the bed, pulling Leah into her arms. She kissed her, a slow, searching kiss. “How do you feel about just making out?” Mika said hoarsely.
“Mmm… I thought you’d never ask,” Leah whispered. “You know I can do things to you…”
Mika moaned as Leah’s hands began to roam over her body.
##
They slid into their booth at the diner, having foregone breakfast at home for an hour of restrained lovemaking. Ruth raised a knowing eyebrow. Next week was their three-month anniversary, and they seemed to be getting worse instead of better about wanting to be together. They were always discreetly touching or surveying each other with blatant desire. The eye sex between them was steamy and exciting to watch.
Their staffs had learned not to waste their time looking for them at lunch. They disappeared every day around noon and took the Gone To Lunch signs off their doors an hour or two later. Neither of them could be found in their workplace after five. They hurried home or dined in the diner so Mika could help Richie and Leah could shop or have a few hours to herself. After band practice, Mika dropped Richie off to Emily, then the rest of the night was theirs. Ruth knew they utilized their alone time in a truly wonderful way.
“Coffee, Ruth.” All the booths were full, so the sheriff sat at the counter. “Oh, I see our two love birds are at it again this morning.”
“I think they are inspiring.” Ruth smiled. “I hope I find someone to love me that way.”
“Yeah, well, word around town is they need to end the honeymoon and get back to work,” Emily huffed.
“The town seems to be doing great.” Ruth glared at the sheriff. “I know the church is growing, and Mika has made many improvements in our community. Who’s grumbling and about what?”
“I’ve been trying to catch Madame Mayor in her office for a month and still haven’t been able to talk with her,” the
blonde mumbled.
“Have you tried making an appointment?” Ruth asked.
“Appointment,” Emily almost spit out the word. “Mother Superior says she can never find Mika at the church.”
“Yeah, well, you know Mother Superior has the hots for the priest,” Ruth whispered. “Mika’s probably just avoiding her.”
“You know as well as I do that they are sneaking off and having sex during office hours,” the sheriff growled. “Jeez, they’re married; they need to act like it.”
“I do believe they only disappear during their lunch hour,” Ruth defended the couple.
“As sheriff, I think I should talk to them.”
“As Leah’s ex, I think you should mind your own business.” Ruth glared at the blonde. “This is just something you’ve made up anyway. I’ve heard no complaints, and God knows I get complaints, but not about them.”
##
Mika’s phone rang. “It’s Richie. He’s calling about practice tonight. Hold on, Son. I need to step outside. I can’t hear you.” She nodded to her wife and headed for the door.
The sheriff sauntered over to the mayor. “Madam Mayor,” she said sarcastically, “I wanted to speak with you about a problem we seem to have in our town.”
“What is it, Sheriff Carver?” Leah looked up at her, a faint smirk on her lips. Lips the sheriff wanted to kiss more than anything in the world.
“There is talk of how much time you and your…the priest are out of your offices.” Emily plunged ahead, already knowing she had jumped into water over her head, “Uh, I know you are trying to make up for the two years you were abstaining—”
“Oh, no, dear.” Leah rose from the booth, fixing the sheriff with one of her most dazzling smiles. “We did that the first month we were married.”
A moan escaped the sheriff’s lips as the mayor whirled on her heel and exited the diner. “There goes my tip,” Ruth grumbled. “Thanks, Emily.”
“I’ll just get coffee to go.” Mika met her wife as she exited the diner. She knew something was wrong. “You go to your office. I’ll bring your coffee there and share Richie’s news with you.”
A frowning Mika approached the counter. “Two coffees to go, please, Ruth, and I need to pay our check.”
Mika looked around the diner and saw that the sheriff was sitting in the booth she and Leah had vacated. Emily was resting her forehead in her hands. “Did someone say something to upset my wife?” Mika asked the waitress.
Ruth related the interaction between Emily and Leah. The priest chuckled. “Emily knows better than to back Leah into a corner. She always comes out swinging.”
“Um, serves Emily right.” Ruth shook her head. “She has no one to blame but herself for where she is now.”
##
“Coffee for my wife.” Mika held up the cup to Odette as if to prove she had a legitimate reason for seeing the mayor.
“She’s expecting you.” The secretary smiled. Damn, she is gorgeous, she thought. She totally understood why they disappeared every day at lunchtime. She also noticed the priest had a box of chocolates tucked under her arm.
Mika had searched the internet for ways to make Cranky Leah happier. It seemed chocolates were practically guaranteed to soothe the savage beast.
Leah was looking out her window that overlooked Main Street. “You know, I totally designed this town.” She turned to her wife. “It was my idea of perfection. It still is. I have come to love it and all the people in it. I feel responsible for them.”
“Much like a queen feels about her subjects.” Mika raised an eyebrow.
Leah nodded. “I feel bad for our sheriff. I wish she could find someone to love her as you love me.”
“Maybe what she needs is a change of scenery.” The priest grinned. “Richie just told me they have moved the Maine’s Got Talent contest to Augusta. They need a larger venue. Ticket sales have gone through the roof for some reason.”
The mayor raised her eyebrows as if she had no idea what her wife was saying.
“Augusta, Maine,” Mika continued. “The capitol of Maine. You really should know that, Madame Mayor.”
“Of course I know it,” Leah snapped. She had forgotten it. It wasn’t important to her. “When I conjured this town, I spent months getting our records in order and materializing records in the state capitol so we would look like we’ve been here for a hundred years. It was a living nightmare.”
“That is good to know.” Her wife grinned, slipping the box of chocolates onto her desk. “It seems the State Economic Development Department of our fair state has moved in and taken over the Maine’s Got Talent program and is putting promotion dollars behind it.”
“They just took it away from Brighton?” Leah scowled.
“I don’t think Brighton cared. The entire concept seemed to take on a life of its own. Father Dalton told me the mayor was in a fit over the amount of work and overtime his staff was doing.”
“The Augusta Civic Center can seat just over thirty-six hundred people, which will triple the seats Brighton has available for sale. The profits will still be divided among the first-, second-, and third-place winners. It seems there are multiple entries from all sixteen counties and supporters eager to cheer for their performers. Thanks to your foresight, we are the only city in our county. You invented your own county, too. Right?”
“It was easier than producing records for another county proving we have existed a hundred years.” Leah shrugged. “We are the county seat.”
“Okay.” Mika smiled, crossing the room to take Leah in her arms. “I have been in your presence for ten minutes without kissing your incredible lips. That’s a record for me, I’m sure.”
“Is the contest still set for this weekend?” Leah said softly, nibbling at Mika’s lips.
“Uh-huh.” She kissed her slowly, as if she had never felt her soft, responsive lips before. Leah parted her lips and teeth, issuing Mika an open invitation.
Mika’s hands slid down her sides, coming to rest on her perfect hips. She pulled Leah tight against her. They both moaned softly as their bodies melded into one another. Leah pushed Mika back to sit on her desk, spread her legs apart, then stepped between them, never breaking their kiss. She unbuttoned Leah’s blouse and began teasing her breast through the bra. Leah clenched Mika’s hair and pulled her mouth further against her breast, moaning softly. “Suck harder, Mika,” she whispered.
“Madam Mayor, your next appointment is here.” Odette threw open the door before she realized her boss and the priest were practically making love on the mayor’s desk.
Mika immediately turned to face the door, shielding her wife from any eyes. She thanked the heavens that Leah hadn’t begun to undress her. A soft touch on Mika’s back told her Leah was presentable, and she moved across the room.
“Send Mr. Legion in,” Leah said in her most stilted voice.
Mika knew her wife detested the man but wasn’t sure why.
“Ah, Priest Mika, good day to you,” the smarmy little man greeted her.
“Mr. Legion” Mika held out her hand to shake the man’s hand. Like all Maine folks, Legion simply looked at her hand as if it were a serpent poised to strike.
“I understand we will be taking our show on the road to Augusta,” Legion addressed the mayor, dismissing the priest.
“Mika knows more about that than I do.” Leah smiled thinly. “She and the boys have been working to perfect their performance.”
“Well, that’s not really why I’m here.” Legion raised his lip in a half snarl. “You and I have other things to discuss, Madame Mayor. Congratulations on your marriage, by the way. How soon do you think we can expect the pitter-patter of little feet?”
A look of absolute terror flashed across Leah’s face. Mika had never seen her look as distraught. She staggered as she grasped her chair to sit down. Mika didn’t know what Legion was up to, but she decided to put an end to such a personal line of questioning.
“Never,” Mika exclaimed. �
�Not that it is any of your business, but we are both women.”
It was Legion’s turn to look disturbed. “Oh, dear,” he said slowly, “that’s not good. May I speak with the mayor alone?”
Mika casually walked between her wife and Legion and kissed her slowly, enjoying herself. “See you at lunch, darling.” She took her time leaving the room, knowing she was annoying Legion.
“Mika, darling,” Leah called after her, “thank you for the chocolates. You’re an angel.”
##
Leah was already in their booth when Mika arrived. “I ordered for us.” She smiled. “I hope that’s okay.”
“Anything you do is okay with me.” Mika took her hand across the table. “Legion, what business does he have with you?”
“Oh, not me personally,” Leah refused to meet her gaze, “just city business; permits and such.”
Mika looked at her for a long time. “When you’re ready to discuss it, just know whatever it is I’ll be okay with it.”
She nodded. “Strangely, we never discussed having children before we married,” Leah said softly. “Don’t you want children?”
“Oh, I was just jerking Legion’s chain,” Mika laughed. “It’s no one’s business when we plan to start our family. That is entirely your decision, but just so we are clear, I am all in favor of it. For right now, I just want to be with you.”
“That’s good.” Leah smiled hesitantly.
“Hey,” Mika squeezed her hands, “if you don’t want to have a child, that’s okay, too.”
“It’s good to see you two back with us for lunch,” Ruth laughed as she placed their order on the table. “I have missed seeing you.”
“We… um… really…” Leah stammered
Ruth tapped her nose. “Couldn’t do anything else, right?”
As Leah glared at Ruth, Mika moved the conversation toward a less personal topic, “What do you think about the boys getting to perform in Augusta?” she asked.
