And with every hungry moan, his own desire grew until the need to climax was an urgent demand low in his body, a hot tightening of erotic pain in his balls that made him desperate for release. Sliding his hand between her thighs, until his fingers found her clit, he pinched hard.
When Antonia screamed into a hard orgasm, he finally released his own climax in a liquid rush down his cock and deep into her body, filling her at last with his heat.
Eyes closed in pure ecstasy, overwhelmed by the erotic hum through every inch of his body, he slid his cock lazily in and out of her, heightening the delicious sensation of her inner muscles caressing his penis. He could continue this slow fucking all night long.
But as his senses returned, he became aware of Antonia’s thighs trembling around him, and pulled out slowly, then eased down to lie next to her on the bed. Her hair was a sweat-soaked tangle down her back when she turned on her side and placed a hand on his chest. Her face was flushed, as damp as her hair, and tear tracks were leaving pale streaks down her cheeks.
“Antonia?” He cursed, thinking he’d hurt her, but she only smiled, her eyes still closed.
“I know,” she murmured. “You warned me.”
“Did I—?”
“Hurt me? You would never do that, my beautiful Nico. No, I feel wooooonderful.”
Nick bit his cheek to keep from laughing in relief.
Cracking one eye open, as she snuggled against him, she looked up and said, “Don’t feel too smug, my love. Your turn is coming.”
“Oh!” Making no attempt to conceal his anticipation, he said, “That sounds promising.”
She made a half-hearted effort to slap his chest, but managed no more than a light pat, before she was sound asleep, her breathing a soft whisper in and out.
The sound, and the sensation of her warm naked body next to his, gave Nico an overwhelming feeling of peace—something he’d never felt before. Not in all the centuries he’d lived. He lay there a while longer, just feeling, then closed his eyes, checked the protective wards already in place, added another one, just to be sure, and with a final scan of the house and surroundings for danger, he fell asleep next to the love of his life.
IT WAS EARLY THE next morning when Nick finally woke. His first act, even before fully opening his eyes, was to check the wards and scan the neighborhood for danger, just as he had before going to sleep. Sotiris had to have felt the release of Antonia’s curse, by now, and if nothing else, he would likely come to Chicago to see for himself what had caused the collapse. The only question was whether Antonia preferred to wait to confront him, or whether she’d agree to fly to Florida with Nico today.
He knew which option he’d rather take, but one way or the other, a decision needed to be made and soon, so that he could gather his warriors for what Nico was determined would be the final battle against their enemy. Because no matter where they ended up fighting, he was going to kill Sotiris this time. He would surrender his own life before he permitted Antonia to spend even one more day under the bastard’s thumb.
“What are you thinking about so seriously,” she whispered, as she scooted under his arm and smoothed a soft hand over his chest.
“I like to review the previous day’s events as soon as I’m awake, to bring myself up to date, and make note of any leftover issues.”
“And what did you decide?”
Smiling, he rolled her beneath him. “That I need to be inside you again.”
She purred in welcome and spread her legs around his hips, pulling him closer into her embrace. “I hoped you’d say that.”
He went slowly anyway, knowing that although her pussy was hot and slick, she’d be tender after what they’d already done. She sighed a soft moan which wrapped around him like a sweet balm, reminding him that she was real, and in his arms, and that he’d never let go of her again. He slid carefully deeper, lingering for a moment to enjoy the flutter of her inner muscles, before withdrawing until only the tip of his cock remained inside her.
Antonia arched beneath him, hips flexing against his in pleasure, as if wanting every inch of her to touch every inch of him. Her eyes were closed, her mouth slightly open, her teeth pressed into her lower lip. She gave a throaty moan, then whispered, “Nico. My Nico.”
He was ashamed to feel tears pressing against the back of his eyes. He was just so happy—so damned happy—after so long, wondering if he’d find her, wondering why he persisted, and then fearing that even if he did find her, she’d have moved on, had a life without him, a husband and children, grandchildren even.
But instead, she was here with him, having waited all this time despite never really knowing who or what she waited for, proving if anything could, that they were meant to be together, and now, always would be.
Antonia cried out as her pussy suddenly clenched around him. Her hips rose again to meet his, her muscles tightening around him as she sank her teeth into his shoulder. Nick had to grin at that. It seemed he wasn’t the only one who felt the need to mark his territory. His grin fled when her abdominal muscles spasmed and her body clamped down so tightly around his cock that he couldn’t move. She was saying his name over and over again, a warm whisper against his skin, her legs linked behind his back, while her heels dug into his ass.
He tried to pull out, wanted to fuck her, but couldn’t move without hurting her, because she was holding him so tightly. Reaching behind his back, he stroked from her thigh to her calf and back again, relaxing her hold just enough that he could lift his hips and withdraw from her sweet, little body. But only long enough to plunge back inside, making her pussy grow ever wetter and more welcoming, until his balls were coated with the creamy proof of her desire.
He had to make love to her, to show her with his body how much he loved her, and to vow that he would never let her go again. But when her pussy grabbed hold of his straining cock and wouldn’t let go, he forgot all about control and they fucked frantically until finally climaxing together.
They must have slept after that, because the next thing Nick knew, he was waking up all over again, but feeling so lazy and contented that he could have remained in bed all day, dozing and making love.
“That was nice,” Antonia said, both arms raised over her head in a full body stretch.
“Nice,” he repeated dryly.
She laughed and smiled up at him. “I like nice sometimes. Don’t you?”
“Yes, but only with you. Forevermore, my love.”
“Oh,” she tsked. “You’re so charming.”
He grinned back at her, then sighed. “We have to decide what happens next.”
Her sigh echoed his. “I know. But that will require energy, so first we’d better eat.”
“No.”
She gave him a surprised look. “No?”
“First, we shower, babe. Then we eat.”
ANTONIA SMILED IN amusement while she poured more coffee into Nico’s cup. He’d already eaten three fried eggs and a stack of bacon, and was now plowing his way through the cinnamon rolls she’d popped out of a can and baked, mostly for herself. Americans loved bacon, but somehow, she’d never developed the taste for it. She liked coffee, but sometimes preferred hot tea and a pastry for breakfast, hence the cinnamon rolls which Nico was making short work of, though he had been polite enough to first ask if she was finished.
“How can you eat all of that and still look so good?” she asked
He looked up with a grin. “You think I look good?”
“Sure, for a guy who’s a few hundred years old.”
“Ouch. You used to be sweeter.”
“You used to be younger,” she teased. She figured he knew very well how good he looked. Humility had never been a problem for Nico.
“I work my ass off every damn day. In the gym, with weapons, on the track. I told you how my people and I
spend our time. Any artifacts that we can’t buy, we steal. And if they’re too dangerous, we don’t bother negotiating. We just take them. Not everyone agrees with our methods, so sometimes they fight back. And as you well know, using magic requires energy, especially when you’re in a battle with someone who has magic of their own.”
She studied him seriously. Once he’d said he worked with the FBI, she’d envisioned men in suits and sunglasses, tracking down magical miscreants. Sure, Nico would have identified the evil doers for them, but it hadn’t occurred to her that he and his people would be directly involved. “Do the people who work for you have magic of their own?”
“Most of them are drawn from the FBI Academy. All the cadets there are given so many tests over the course of their training, that it was simple to add a short series of tests for magical aptitude. If they score above a certain level, they’re offered the opportunity to work on my projects. And if their talent proves useful in the field, they’re offered a job with me.”
“Do you find many candidates with useable skills? There’s so very little magic in this world.”
“True. And most have nothing more than a strong sensitivity for it. But when combined with the martial skills they acquire at the academy, that’s enough for most of what we search for. There are a few, however, who have a very strong, specific talent. Damian’s wife, Casey, was working for me when she discovered his statue on a rooftop and set him free. Her magical sensitivity is extremely strong, and she’s a total badass in the field. In fact, it was Casey who figured out that Sotiris had taken the Talisman—”
“He talked about a device he simply called the Talisman, as if there was only one in the world. But that was back in our world, long before I ended up here.”
Nico gave her a thoughtful look. “I went after it when I was very young. The sorcerer who created it had no idea what he’d built, and to be honest, neither did I. I only knew it had the potential to generate a great amount of power, and he didn’t have sufficient strength to control it. Unfortunately, we were subsequently involved in a war and the device disappeared.”
“Maybe Sotiris took it.”
“Did he ever show it to you? It looks—or looked—like a big emerald.”
“Not that I remember.”
He nodded. “I suspect it tumbled through the ages in the hands of the ignorant, until Sotiris saw it for sale, recognized it, and bought it for his own use. Fortunately, Casey figured out enough about how it worked to nullify its power before Sotiris could use it. It was powerful in our world, but in this world . . . it disabled electronics. All of them. And Sotiris planned to take down a major air traffic control hub, as a demonstration to ratchet up the sale price.”
Horrified, she could only stare. “Goddess bless, Nico, I knew he was ruthless and cared only for himself, but that’s . . . evil. Is that what he’s become?”
“It’s what he’s always been,” he said bitterly. “It’s only the greater technology of this world that’s permitted him to grow into his true nature. Why do you think I want him dead?”
“For what he did to your warriors, to you, and to me. He destroyed our lives to win a war that he didn’t even stay to fight. He fled before it was over.”
“Not quite,” he corrected. “He’d already taken my warriors, but I defeated him in that final battle anyway. When he ran, he was running from me.”
“Ah. I was told a very different story, one in which he acted to save me. Although I stopped believing that a long time ago, when the block on my memories first began to weaken.”
He sipped his coffee, watching her over the rim of his mug, as if he wanted to ask something, but wasn’t sure he should. “You’ve said that before, that the block he put on your memories had begun to weaken. But it wasn’t until I showed up that all of them returned. Is that right?”
“I probably should have said ‘magic’ rather than ‘memories.’ When I first . . . woke up here, I didn’t have any of my magic or even my skills with spells work. Or if I did, I wasn’t aware of it, and so made no attempt to use it. About fifty years in, just before he moved me to this house, I began to have dreams of what I now know was my old life, my true life. My progress was painfully slow, but I began to remember, and with the return of memory came the return of my magic. My skills followed more slowly. Obviously,” she said, gesturing out through the big kitchen window to where her greenhouse was located, and where her yard was thriving despite the still-facing winter, “my earth talent emerged first, and it’s still the strongest. But as my suspicions grew about Sotiris, and the history he’d shoved into my memories, I began to experiment with other uses of that energy.”
She took a sip of tea to wet her throat, before continuing. “The last three or so years, my magical strength has accelerated. Now that I know about the release of your warriors, I suspect there was a connection between the collapse of their curses and the gradual return of all my magic. The five of us—your warriors, Sotiris, and I—were cast into the maelstrom at roughly the same time and using the same curse. And although that curse was adapted to fit each of us, we were taken so closely that the variations must have used the same stream of Sotiris’s magic. You said the collapse of Damian’s curse seemed to have accelerated the others. It only makes sense that my curse would have been similarly affected.”
He seemed to think about that for a moment. “You’re probably right. Are you telling me that your magic is fully returned then?”
“Not fully until yesterday, when my own curse fell completely. But these last few years, I’ve regained enough that I believe I can help you locate and fight Sotiris.”
“Okay. But first, we have to get out of this place before Sotiris shows up on your doorstep.”
“He’s already on his way here.”
“You know where he is to that degree?”
“No, it’s more a pressure inside me that grows heavier the closer he gets.”
“Right. How do you feel about flying?”
Antonia had to think about that. She knew what planes were, of course, but realized she’d never flown. Actually, she’d never even tried to leave this area of Chicago, much less go any farther. “I don’t know,” she said slowly. “I’ve never done it.”
“Well, then, darling, you’re in for . . . an experience. Is there anyone you need to advise that you’re leaving? Any details that need taking care of, since you’re going to be gone . . . . Well ultimately, you’re probably going to be gone forever, but we can return to handle whatever needs handling. Even so, it might be a while.”
“My gardens, then,” she said, thinking with regret of the magic she’d invested in her yard, of the days spent digging in the warm, fertile soil, and the joy she’d taken not only from the work, which was no hardship, but of the magic that grew with the plants and surrounded her home with a special peace. “I have a gardener I trust,” she said slowly. “He can maintain it while I’m gone, but—”
“I could sense the magic when I stepped onto the porch,” he said, coming around the island to take her in his arms. “You don’t have to leave if—”
“I do have to leave. This is my battle, as much as yours. And I know him better than you, differently than you. You won’t win without me.”
“Won’t I?” he asked dryly. “And what about your gardens?”
“They’ll thrive while I’m gone. When it’s over, I’ll come back and take what I need to grow them again wherever I end up. And after I’m gone, this home, these gardens, will retain some of that magic forever, and be a blessing to whoever lives here next.”
He sighed. “God, I’ve missed you. I’m like one of your plants, I think. Your magic brings me peace, and helps me thrive.”
She laughed, blushing with pleasure because she knew he meant every word. “Maybe I should give you a new name, then. Something appropriately plantlike and Latin, I think.”<
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“Uh, yeah. I know more than a little about plant nomenclature. That’s a hard pass for me, but we can discuss it later. What about your mail? Do you get it here?”
“No, I have a forwarding service. My mail goes there, they forward the good stuff, and recycle the rest. If I call, they’ll hold all of it.”
“Good. Then you need to pack.”
“Oh, right. I was about to rotate my clothes for spring, so if we’re going to Florida—”
“We are. At least for now.”
“Then I’ll just leave the warm stuff here. It’s hot there all the time, isn’t it?”
“Degrees of hot, but yeah, always warm at least. And humid. I’m on the water, and I have air-conditioning, so you’ll want to bring sweaters, just in case. And maybe a light jacket or two for going out in the evening, and maybe some of those warm clothes, since we don’t know where—”
“Nico, that’s a lot of suitcases. Probably more than I own, and definitely more than the airlines allow. And we’ll need reservations. This time of year, everyone in the northeast is flying to Florida. Unless you’re planning to drive.”
“Hell, no. I already told you I fly private.”
“I heard you, but what does it mean?”
“It means, my darling Antonia, I’m loaded. I have my own plane. Well, a jet actually, but it’s a small jet. Relatively.”
Antonia shook her head, not even surprised. “I should have known. You always were smarter and more clever than the next guy. If anyone could be thrown into the maelstrom of time and space, and somehow thrive, it would be you, Nicodemus Katsaros.” She laughed. “I guess I’d better start packing.”
NICK STRETCHED back in the soft leather seat, taking irrational pleasure from Antonia’s reaction to the comfort and amenities of his jet. The aircraft was larger than it appeared from inside the passenger cabin, since he’d had it modified to provide enough cargo space to bring his Ferrari with him when he traveled. Not everywhere—he wasn’t a total ass. But he despised rental cars and avoided them at all costs. And besides, he loved high-performance vehicles, and those were hard to find in a rental.
The Stone Warriors: Nicodemus Page 33
