by Sable Hunter
“Listen to me. I’m not finished.” To still her movements, he layered his mouth to hers, kissing her until she quieted once more. “I’ll go through the portal and take care of what I need to do. Then, I’ll return to this time. To you.”
Journey’s eyes burned into his. “Too risky. What if you can’t get back?”
“What if I lose you on the way to the past?”
His immediate response took the wind out of her sails. “So much uncertainty. What are we going to do?”
When he felt her relax in his arms, he grasped her chin in his hand so she couldn’t look away. “Let’s think about it. Let’s talk to Lou. And Kota. When the time comes, we’ll take the option that we all agree holds the least danger.”
“What if you get there and you don’t want to come back?” she asked, the doubts arising faster than she could beat them back.
“What if I come back and you don’t want me anymore?”
His stupid question made her growl. “Impossible.”
“Exactly. I promise you that I will move heaven and earth to come back to you. Understand?”
“Let’s not decide now. Like you said, let’s talk to the others and weigh our options.” She laid her hand on his shoulder, then dug her fingers into his flesh. “Make love to me. And I don’t care how loud we are.”
“God, I love you. I adore you.” He lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her as if this kiss would be their last. Over and over he tasted her lips, his tongue playing with hers. He’d never get tired of her taste if he lived a million years.
When she began tugging at his briefs, Reno knew she needed more. With shaking hands, he began to undress her, coaxing the gown from her perfect body. “You don’t know what a privilege this is, to have you. I spent so many years alone. There were times when I didn’t think I’d ever have anyone to share my life with.”
“Are the women crazy in your time? Who wouldn’t want you?”
“In my time, gracious ladies of class won’t mix with a half-breed.” As he spoke, he urged her to lie down. “They wouldn’t let me do this.” Starting at her feet, Reno began to lick and nibble his way from her toes to her knees.
“They didn’t deserve you.” She gasped when he came near her womanhood. “And I wouldn’t want you to do this for them if they did.” Opening her thighs in welcome, she invited him to make a feast of her.
“You’re my first,” he whispered as he tended to her needs. “My last.”
His words inflamed Journey, she held his head and tried to be still – but she couldn’t. “Feels so good.” Without volition, her hips moved in a slow, luxurious rhythm, riding his face as he pleasured her.
Reno felt his cock grow to bursting. He needed to be inside of her more than he needed his next breath – but he wanted to give her every drop of ecstasy he could. Just in case their days together were drawing to a close.
When she began to tremble and tiny cries of passion escaped her lips, he moved to one side. “I need to be inside you,” he whispered. “I need you.”
“I need you too.” She rolled over and rose to her knees. “Take me this way. Please? I want to know what it’s like with you.”
“You’d better not be finding out what it’s like with anyone else,” he growled as she found a position she liked. Just the thought of her being with someone else made him see red.
“I won’t.” If she couldn’t have him, she didn’t want anyone else. “You’re all I need.” Journey went on all fours, then lay her head on the pillow so her bottom was in the air.
“Lord above,” Reno muttered. He’d thought he preferred taking her face to face. He liked looking into her eyes. But the picture she presented to him now, with her rounded hips, smooth feminine back, and lush breasts hanging down like ripe fruit – well, he changed his mind. “You are a sight, woman.” Coming to cover her, Reno took his cock in hand to find the place it longed to be. He moaned as he worked his way in. “You’re so tight. So hot.”
Journey squeezed her eyes shut, loving how it felt to be taken. He filled her up so good, she couldn’t be still. Bearing back, she encouraged him to fill her to the brim.
Reno’s eyes rolled back in his head. A hunger rose in his breast. All he wanted to do was move – thrust – bury himself deep within her again and again. Holding her hips, he began to move. Hard. Harder. Fast. Faster.
Journey clawed at the bed covers as his thrusts jarred her whole body. A moan escaped her lips. She loved this. She loved him. Pushing back, she encouraged him to give her more.
Reno bucked his hips. In. Out. In. Out. Being with her was as close to heaven as he might ever get. Needing more contact, he lay forward, bracing himself on one arm as his body made contact with hers. “Like this?”
“Yes. God, yes.” She threw her head back and let out a keening scream.
Reno smiled as he licked a pattern on her back. He hoped her aunt was asleep. “Good girl.”
“Touch my breasts. They need you.”
Her request almost triggered his release. “I like it when you tell me what you need.” Knowing she wanted him, knowing she craved his touch was a powerful aphrodisiac. Still bracing himself so he could move freely, he bought his free hand beneath her to fondle her breasts. “I love your tits,” he confessed as he massaged them. Fondling. Kneading. Pulling at the nipples.
“Reno!”
They’d seemed to just be started. He felt he could do this all night long…until she began to moan and shake, her sweet place tightening around him like a vise. “Oh, baby. My baby.” He wrapped his arms around her like two steel bands and hammered into her like there was no tomorrow. As his lifeforce jetted from his body, words tumbled from his lips. “I love you, Sojourner. I love you more than anything.” His voice dropped to a whisper as his vow changed to a prayer. “I want her with me forever. Please, don’t make me give her up.”
Journey couldn’t tell what he was saying. All she knew was how he made her feel. Loved. “Hold me.”
“Gladly. Just give me a moment.” He left the bed to step into the bathroom. He needed to rid himself of the condom he’d donned to protect her.
“Hurry.” She curled on her side and let out a long, satisfied sigh.
Tap! Tap!
“Journey!”
Journey shot up in bed. “Aunt Myra?”
Before she knew it, the door was open, and Myra was peering into the room. “Did you hear something?”
“No. What?” She held the sheet to her very naked breasts.
“I don’t know. Sounded like caterwauling cats.”
“No. I didn’t hear a thing.”
Myra nodded, looking around the room one more time. “All right. Sleep well.”
She flopped back on the bed. “That was close. I don’t think she suspected anything. Do you?”
Reno came sauntering out to join her, picking up his briefs from the floor right in front of the door. He twirled them on the end of his finger. “Nah. I’m sure she didn’t suspect a thing.”
Journey started giggling. “I don’t care. Come back to bed.”
Reno gladly obliged, gathering her into his arms. “Caterwauling cats? Huh.”
Giggling harder, Journey wiggled until she was lying on top of his big, hard body. “I don’t think I sounded like that, do you?”
“No. I love the sounds you make.” He nipped her neck. “Makes me hard.”
Journey’s mouth dropped open as she smiled with delight. She could feel his arousal as it nestled against her. “Again?”
“If you don’t mind.”
Journey didn’t mind at all.
* * *
Early the next morning Lou found Journey alone in the sunroom. “Where are the others?”
“Reno is exercising Traveler and Myra has a hair appointment in Burnet. She took the dogs with her.”
Lou frowned as she drew close to sit next to Journey as she worked on a batch of healing cream. “Burnet is a long way to go for a hair appointment.”
“Her favorite beautician retired, but she does Aunt Myra in her home. They let their dogs play together and gossip for half a day.”
“What are you working on? Some magical concoction?”
“First aid cream. Works great on burns, cuts, scrapes, whatever ails you.” She lined up the ingredients. “See, a little olive oil, some coconut oil, 10 drops of lavender, 10 drops of calendula, and 20 drops of tea tree.”
Lou could read Journey like a book. “Something’s bothering you and I don’t think your first aid cream is going to help. Want to talk about it?”
Journey pushed away from the table and bent her head to cry. “I just feel like things are spinning out of control. Reno asked me to stay here when he leaves.”
“Oh, honey.” Lou gathered her close for a hug. “I know it’s hard, but he’s right. This is just too big of a risk to take.”
“No, it’s not.” Journey argued. “You don’t understand what he means to me. I don’t want to live if I can’t be with him.”
Lou didn’t know what to say. “I guess you two will just have to work it out. I can only give you my advice.”
Journey nodded. “I know. Reno has another idea anyway. One that’s just as dangerous.”
“What would that be?”
“He said he’d come back to me. After he completes what he needs to do, expose Kinsella’s gang, and make sure Cole walks free – he said he’d come back through the portal one last time.”
Lou acted like she didn’t know what to say. “He loves you.”
“What aren’t you saying, Lou?”
“I’m not saying anything. I just don’t want you to get your hopes up. We’ve witnessed one miracle and we’re hoping for another one. Expecting three is pushing the envelope. This portal business isn’t a reliable mode of transportation, Journey. We haven’t harnessed this ability. I don’t think you should put much hope in such a dream.”
Journey wanted to argue. “Why did you have to tell me that?” She wanted to throw things. Instead, she took her friend by the hand to implore her for help. “You can do something. You can research. Talk to other scientists. Talk to Kota. Come up with a plan to keep Reno and I together.” When her friend didn’t answer right away, she appealed to her with a question. “What would you do, Lou? If you were me. Would you let Reno go or would you fight to keep him?”
Lou shook her head slowly. “I’ve never been lucky enough to be loved the way you are. I’m envious, frankly. You should see how he looks at you. It’s disgusting.” They both giggled a bit, a hint of tears in their voices. “In times past, when you’d talk about him and lust after him. I thought you were nuts.” More laughter. “But you two were connected, somehow. Like there was a lifeline flowing through time for you both to hold onto.”
“Would you be willing to give that up, even at risk of your own life?”
Lou stood up to gaze out the window. “Just look at those flowers. Golden lantanas, purple sage, flame vines. Your aunt has one green thumb.”
“Lou.”
At Journey’s imploring tone, Lou whirled around. “I don’t know. I just don’t know. I haven’t felt what you’ve felt. My work is my lover. You dreamed about Reno and I dreamed of string theory.” She reached up to pull her own hair. “Look, Journey, you’re my friend. I can’t give my blessing for you to go back in time. Hell, I couldn’t live with your death on my conscience. I also can’t imagine you waiting the rest of your life for him to come back to you. Because that’s what you’d do. As crazy as it seems now, you waited for him for years.”
“And he came to me, Lou. He came once and he’ll do it again.”
“Maybe. You can’t be sure.” She took Journey’s hands in her own. “I can’t tell you what to do, but I can advise you.”
“I want your advice, of course.”
“All right. Let me tell you a little more about the people who vanished. The ones I’m thinking about today disappeared into thin air like the others. Their stories were very similar. Mysterious. Most were last seen in a boulder field or a mountainous area. The dogs wouldn’t track their scent and hundreds of first responders and volunteers would search the area meticulously and find nothing. Sometimes there was a shoe, for God knows what reason. But there was never any blood, no scent, no tracks, and no remains. Searchers would give up after a few weeks, they couldn’t continue searching forever. The cost is prohibitive. In these particular cases, however, their bodies were eventually found weeks or months later in a way that the authorities could not explain.”
Journey felt a chill run down her spine. “Why not?”
“Because someone would come across the body in a spot that had been searched time and time again. As far as anyone could tell, the body was found in the exact location where it had gone missing in the first place.”
“Someone put it back?”
“Possibly.”
“Or they didn’t make it through the portal.”
Lou knelt in front of her. “No one can say for sure.”
“How did they die?” Her question was asked in a soft, small voice.
“Sometimes the coroner will say hypothermia, many times they’ll say that the cause can’t be determined.”
Journey didn’t respond, but Lou had one more thing to say. “I just don’t want this to be you.”
Suddenly, they heard the sound of the kitchen door opening and closing.
“Journey?”
Reno.
She grabbed Lou’s hand. “Don’t say anything. I don’t want him to know what we talked about. I don’t want him to know I told you. Not yet.”
Lou nodded.
“Journey?”
“We’re in here!” she called out, maintaining eye contact with her friend.
“Oh, there you are.” He came into the room to take her in his arms, looking between them. “What’s going on?”
“Not a thing.” Lou clapped her hands together. “I’m about to head back to Austin to buy those stones for Kota. There’s also some work I need to take care of there.”
“But you are coming back. Right?” Reno turned a chair around and straddled it.
“I will. Yes. I’ll be back a few days before the…deadline. Or sooner if you need me.”
Reno glanced at Journey. “Okay…I guess there’s nothing you can do here.”
“I’ll keep researching and I’ll talk to Dr. Sculler again. I’ll give everything we talked about a lot of thought.”
Journey rose to walk with her friend. “I know you’ll do what you can. Please call if you think of anything or find out something you think we should know. We may take a little trip. I’m not sure.”
This was news to Reno, but he didn’t question or contradict Journey in front of Lou. He got the strange sense she was glad to see her friend go. While the women prepared for Lou’s departure, Reno sat down at the laptop. “Females, I’ll never understand them, no matter which century I’m in.”
While he’d been out on Traveler, a thought had occurred to him. When he returned to the past, he intended to expose Kinsella and his gang. He figured it would help if he knew as much about them as possible. Having seen how accessible information could be, Reno decided to see if he could find any reference to the man in history.
After logging into the browser, he followed Journey’s example and just started typing in words he thought might apply. One-fingered, of course. He wondered why in the world whoever invented these machines hadn’t put the keys in alphabetical order.
Texas. History. Raiders disguised as Indians.
He hit enter and his eyes widened. “What in the heck does New Delhi have to do with anything?”
And then he remembered and tried again.
Raiders disguised as Native Americans. Central Texas. History.
“And voila!”
Reno found a review of a book authored by a man named Harry Andrews detailing a culture of violence that prevailed in the state from 1820 to 1875. He scanned the article and found some interesting informat
ion. “The hunger for land inspired a conflict veiled in the rhetoric of race and the presumption that the land inhabited by Indians was free to be won and tamed by civilized European descendants, resulting in a deliberate ethnic cleansing of an array of people, most particularly people of color.”
He kept reading. “Wow.” Maybe he was onto something here. “To show just cause for this cleansing, the white settlers adhered to a code proclaiming violence against anyone of ethnic diversity as noble and heroic.” His eyes moved quickly. “Oh, yes. This sounds all too familiar.” He read more, feeling strange to see these words in print. “Bands of whites disguised as Native Americans attacked, pillaged, raped, and killed innocent people all across the state.” He felt a surge of excitement. “This is it.” He read on further but there was no mention of names. “I need this book.”
Jotting down the title and the author’s name, he tried to find it the way Journey located Tom Sawyer. “No luck. Damn.”
“What are you working on?”
Reno jerked a bit. “Sorry, I was so deep into my research I’d forgotten where I was for a moment.”
“You’re in 2019. Enchanted Rock. Sojourner Stanton. Any of that ring a bell?”
He loved it when she teased him. Pretending to think about it, he shook his head. “No. Sorry.” Growing serious, he tapped the monitor. “I found a review of a book that comes right out and says white men disguised themselves as Indians to attack the local settlers.”
“Really? Let me see.” She came over to look at his findings. “Order it.”
“I can’t seem to find it.”
“Okay.” She moved in closer and laughed when he settled her on his knee. “Oh, I like this work position.”
“Speaking of positions, remind me about trying a new one tonight.”
“Uh, what would that be?” She couldn’t help but grin as she searched for the book he’d found online.
“Something called the hot seat. You sit in my lap but facing away from me.”
“Where in the world did you learn about that? Is the hot seat a thing in 1869?”
“If it is, they don’t call it such. I found it in a magazine called GQ that I…”
“Found on my Kindle HD.” She finished for him. “You are one resourceful cowboy.” She made a disgruntled noise. “I’m not finding this book. When was it published?”
