Night of Fire

by Vonna Harper

  “What did you want me to do?” he retorted, furious without knowing why. “Walk away?”

  “You wanted to return to your time. You did not want to stay.”

  “So I could get you to a hospital.”

  “I have what I need here. Bel-fire’s magic is healing me. My child will live.”

  “Your child! In case you’ve forgotten, I had something to do with it—if indeed there is a child.”

  “You do not want one?”

  “Don’t do that! Don’t! You knew what you were doing when you seduced me, didn’t you? The thing is, you didn’t clue me in. That was devious.” The moment the words were out, he wanted them back—or did he? Damn it, she needed to know that he felt manipulated. Changed in ways he didn’t understand and that scared him. “Being seen as nothing except a sperm donor isn’t as much of a compliment as you obviously think it is. I believe I deserve to have a say in…”

  She was no longer looking at him, and he had the sneaking suspicion she wasn’t listening to him either, so why the hell should he bother? What he didn’t understand was why he was angry at her when not that long ago he’d been terrified that she was dying.

  “This,” she indicated the dagger, “this sent me to you.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Instead of answering, she rolled over onto her good side and tried to sit up. She might have been able to make it without help, but he didn’t give her the opportunity to find out. She crossed her legs slightly and leaned forward, apparently oblivious to the fact that her pussy was now fully exposed. It took everything in him not to stare at her there, and he wondered when, not if, she’d noticed that once again he had an erection. Given the size of it, it was pretty damn obvious.

  One thing about the lady, she knew how to get him hot and bothered.

  “This.” She indicated the dagger, which she held as lovingly as if it were a child and not the weapon that had nearly killed her. “This is a gift. It comes to those who need it.”

  Maybe he should be used to the way she switched from being a practical and grounded woman to a sprite not at all in touch with reality. But the truth was, he was no longer so sure what constituted reality.

  “It is not for me or anyone to know what magic rules this.” She ran her finger over the side of the blade. “It is enough that I am blessed.”

  “You nearly died because of it.”

  “No,” she whispered, “I did not.”

  Instead of trying to amass arguments against that, he simply watched as she stroked the ruby-like jewel. Even unconscious, her breasts had responded to his touch. What would happen if he ran his hand over her belly and between her legs? Was she healed enough that she’d want sex—one last time?

  “The first time I looked into the jewel,” she said softly. “I saw my journey to you. I saw us together, mating. I knew what my task was.”

  “Did you?”

  “I knew I would find you on the night of Bel-fire, that I would love mating with you, and that you would guide me to becoming a woman.”

  His cock strained against his wrinkled and dirty slacks.

  “I did not know that we would ma—that we would have sex more than that one time.”

  Much more of this trip down memory lane and I’m going to be adding a new chapter. “Ah, did you know about that?” He pointed a less than steady finger at her still-sore-looking side.

  “No.”

  That surprised him enough that a margin of sanity returned—a very small margin. “That’s all you learned from that crystal ball then?” he asked. “That you and I would get it on? Mate,” he amended when she gave him a confused look.

  “Then.” She was still whispering. “Now I know the rest.”

  Just like that, his heated blood cooled. His erection was still undiminished, but it no longer commanded his attention. Instead, he struggled not to be undone by her somber tone.

  He slid closer so their thighs were touching, but although he wanted to take her hand—such a simple thing, taking a woman’s hand—he tried to see what held her attention about the stone.

  “What’s in there?” he asked.

  For the first time since regaining consciousness, she looked down at her crotch. With her free hand, she touched her pussy lips. “I was like a child there,” she said. “My—my cunt was something I barely understood. You changed that.”

  Although—damn it—he’d love to help her expand her knowledge of herself, now wasn’t the time. If he could just get the message to his cock.

  “Maia, I asked you something. What do you see in the stone?”

  She withdrew her hand from her pussy. “You do not want to know.”

  Go with that, all right. Don’t push. There’s nothing wrong with ignorance. Even as he tried to convince himself of that, he knew he couldn’t hide from the truth.

  “You’re probably right,” he said. “But I need to.”

  She didn’t say anything, prompting him to take her wrist and turn it so he could look at the stone. At first all he saw was the flawless if simply finished jewel, but as he continued to stare, the ruby-like interior changed. There was a mist in there, and something he recognized as a figure began walking out of the mist. Even before he saw the long, glossy black hair, he knew it was Maia. How could there be any confusion when he’d already memorized her curves and angles?

  Instead of the gauzy gown, she was naked, and her breasts were larger, harder-looking than now, the nipples darker. For as long as he focused on her breasts, he couldn’t pay attention to anything else, but eventually he forced himself to study the rest of her. Her arms and legs were as long and smoothly muscled as they were now, her neck slender, her features small.

  What had changed the most was her belly. She wasn’t due to deliver yet, but it was definitely distended.

  His child. His financial responsibility. His tax deduction.

  Disgusted with himself, he shook off the materialistic thoughts and continued to study the jewel. He couldn’t see enough of what was around the small Maia figure to know where she was, but there didn’t seem to be anyone near her. She walked slowly as if her thoughts were elsewhere. Her shoulders were slightly slumped, and she wasn’t smiling.

  Maia—the real Maia—sighed.

  “What is it? Are you in pain?”

  She shook her head. “I knew it would be like this.”

  That I would be alone. Numb, he couldn’t do anything except watch as the Maia figure plodded along what had now revealed itself as a narrow path. The land around the path came into focus, and he could tell that wherever she was, it was summer. The bushes on either side of the path were alive with bright leaves and flowers that covered the full spectrum of colors. He swore he could smell grass.

  “Where are you going?” he asked. “Do you know?”

  “To be with my people.”

  Your people, not with me. “Is it safe to be there? What about the soldiers?”

  “I do not know,” she said after a moment. “That part of the future has not revealed itself.”

  But your being alone has.

  “What about the child?” he managed. “Is it all right?”

  “Taurus, my child belongs to my people. Look.”

  Although that might be the last thing he wanted to do, he had no choice. The Maia figure had reached a collection of huts, and a number of people were coming out of them and enthusiastically greeting her. An older woman who he didn’t think was The Lady placed a cape around Maia’s shoulders and then dropped to her knees, widened Maia’s stance, and began what he had no doubt was a gynecological examination, although Maia continued to stand.

  “Who is she?”

  “My grandmother. She will guide me during birth, and when my child is born, she will wrap it in furs and take it to our spirit-leaders to be blessed.”

  Your child? What about me? Shit, that’s right. I have a business to try to save. “What then, Maia?” he challenged. He tried to focus on his company and the pride, effo
rt and determination behind it, but he couldn’t. “Just because I caught that priest’s robe on fire doesn’t mean the threat to your way of life is going to go away. Your people don’t know how to fight for their rights. You can’t guarantee that our child will be safe.”

  “The child is my people’s hope, our future. He will carry the clan’s soul and spirit, and yet he will be more. His blood will be that of Taurus the bull. He will have great courage and that courage will protect our way of life.”

  Taron had never seen himself as a parent. To his way of thinking, a child needed a fulltime father, and his company claimed so much of him that he wouldn’t be able to give his children the love and attention he’d never gotten. His son—son!—was nothing more than a collection of cells right now and yet…

  His hand was less than steady as he focused on the dagger. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to have happen, the last thing he expected was to have her image fade and be replaced by one of him.

  He was standing in a massive, expensively decorated living room, something that would grace the pages of an upscale architectural magazine. The ceiling was ridiculously high, the white leather couch so large he wondered how they’d gotten it through the door. A large-screen TV and entertainment center dominated one wall. The carpet felt lush under his feet. No doubt about it, the place belonged to someone who’d made it.

  “Where are you?” Maia asked.

  In the home I promised myself I’d buy if I defeated the take-over attempt, he nearly told her but couldn’t spit out the words. “That’s what houses—huts—look like where I come from,” he said instead. “At least some do.”

  “Where are the others?”

  “Others?”

  “Who lives there with you? Surely it is too big for one person.”

  Surely.

  He didn’t think he was capable of manipulating an image, but by concentrating, he propelled himself through opulent rooms until he opened a pair of double doors and found himself in a bedroom nearly large enough to play football in. The king-sized bed was masculine with a dark, wood headboard and a royal blue bedspread.

  “What is that?” Maia asked.

  “Where I’ll sleep.”

  “Who—who sleeps there with you?”

  “I’m not sure.” Maybe no one.

  “It is so big. Perhaps many people—?”

  “No.” He rested his hand on her thigh. “That’s not the way it’s done in my time. The only one who’d share that with me would be a woman.”

  She didn’t say anything, but he could hear her quickened breathing.

  “What?” he asked. He started working his fingers toward her cunt. “How do you feel about that?”

  “About—what you are doing to me?”

  “That too. I was talking about my bringing a woman to my bed.”

  Not looking at him, Maia drew the dagger out of his grasp and laid it on the ground, stone down. So much had happened since she’d first approached Taurus, but this morning none of that mattered. Without checking it, she knew that her wound had nearly healed, just as her body told her she was carrying Taurus’ son. When The Lady had chosen her to mate with the bull from the future, she’d willingly accepted her role, but that’s all it had been back when she was still a virgin—her responsibility.

  Since then everything had changed.

  “When will you leave and go live in your house?” she made herself ask.

  “I don’t know.”

  “It must be soon. Your time waits for you. You said you had important things to do.”

  “I guess.”

  She couldn’t think of anything else to say. Just the thought of his walking out of her world brought her to the brink of tears. She should stand, pick up the dagger and return to her people so The Lady and elders could tell her what she must do next—and learn what the priests and soldiers were doing. But how could she with Taurus’ hand on her?

  Barely believing what she was doing, she took hold of his wrist and guided him closer to her baby-place, her pussy.

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  She wasn’t sure of anything, least of all herself. Right now the only thing that mattered was finding escape from the image of each of them walking alone. And only one thing would bring that escape.

  “There—there was no one in your bed,” she managed. His fingertips brushed the hair around her pussy, but already she was losing touch with her surroundings.

  “No, there wasn’t.”

  “If—if you could bring a woman there,” she managed, “a woman who has come for sex, what would you have her do?”

  “That’s a hell of a question.”

  “You have not thought of such a thing?”

  “I’m a red-blooded man. Of course I have, practically fulltime, back when I was a teenager.”

  He started rolling some of her pubic hair back and forth. Because he was doing so gently, it didn’t hurt, but it wouldn’t take much to turn pleasure into pain. Despite that, she trusted him.

  Trust this man who the stone said would live alone in a great house?

  “What about you?” he asked. “Back when you were a virgin, didn’t you have thoughts—needs? Don’t tell me you never touched yourself here?”

  He began a slow circuit of her pussy, not touching her hungry labial lips but their outsides. Just like that, she felt as if he’d touched her with a burning branch. She braced her arms behind her and leaned back so he could have easier access.

  “You’re incredible, Maia. Your pussy’s a playground to you, isn’t it? No hang-ups.”

  He’d said that word before. She wasn’t sure what it meant except that to have a hang-up meant she wouldn’t want him to touch her pussy, her cunt.

  “No,” she told him, and slid closer to him.

  “Whew. You’ve got that right.”

  He’d completed one journey and had started another. This time his fingers tiptoed closer to her cunt lips. The blaze he’d started burned hotter. She wanted him to put his fingers deep inside her so she could close her muscles down around him and keep him there. If she didn’t, when this last mating was over, he’d go back to his world and the things that were important to him, and she’d…

  With a start, she realized he’d completed his second journey around her sex-place. Her breasts felt hot and heavy as she waited for him to start again. He didn’t.

  “I don’t want this to be fast, Maia,” he said. “I want it to last.”

  “So—do I.”

  He sighed, the sound long and slow. “Shit, I don’t want to think. That’s the hell of it, I don’t want to think.”

  They could do that, couldn’t they? Just be?

  Chapter Twelve

  Taurus hadn’t told her what he wanted her to do, but when he took hold of her blood-stained gown, she lifted her arms so he could pull it off. Then she said she wanted him naked and he complied. Maybe he’d wanted her to disrobe him, but she didn’t trust her strength. Besides, she loved watching him unfasten his strange clothes and push what he called his slacks down his well-muscled legs. Even before he removed his briefs, she saw enough of his cock to know it was large and hard enough to completely fill her.

  And not just her pussy.

  “There is a thing husbands and wives sometimes do,” she said when he stood naked over her. “Not always does a man put his cock in a woman’s pussy.”

  “Is that a fact?” He was looking at the space between her legs. “And how do you know about that?”

  “You know my people do not sleep each to their own house. That way, together, we can share what we have.”

  “Maybe it’s better that way,” he muttered. “So you’ve watched more than just your parents going at each other? Having sex, I mean.”

  “Yes.” She bent her legs a little to make it easier for him to see her pussy. Although he was no longer touching her, the fire he’d started hadn’t gone out, and she felt warm fluid building inside her. “Sometimes the women take their husband’s cocks into t
heir mouths. Do you like that?”

  “You’re assuming I’ve, ah, had the pleasure of that experience?”

  “Have you not?”

  “Guilty as charged, but don’t ask for details because you’re not getting them.” He lowered himself to his knees and was so close that she could easily stretch out her toes and rub them against him. She’d have to change positions to reach his cock however.

  “You might have been a virgin,” he said. “But you’re pretty earthy. I think—maybe that’s what I sensed when you walked up to me that first time.”

  She wondered if he had any idea how nervous she’d been. More than that, she wanted to ask if he too had to guard against thoughts of what would happen when this mating was over.

  Determined to put that off, she slid closer and spread her legs so he was now between them. He wasn’t smiling, and his eyes seemed to have sunk deep in his skull. “What are you thinking?” she made herself ask.

  “Nothing.”

  “Nothing?”

  “That’s right, Maia. My thoughts don’t go beyond this moment. I won’t let them.”

  She reached out and grazed a fingertip over the underside of his cock. As she did, the sacs where his seed was stored tightened. Curious about what else she could make them do, she cradled them in her palm and then folded her fingers over them.

  “I think—” He kept his eye on what she was doing. “That might be what they mean by having a man right where you want him, or maybe it’s having my balls in the palm of your hand.”

  “This.” She lightly jiggled his balls. “This is an amazing thing. So soft.”

  “So vulnerable.”

  So am I, she nearly told him. Because she didn’t dare, she released his balls and slid her fingers over his cock. Although his skin here was just as soft as the flesh over his balls, beneath that he was all hardness, all strength. “How were you injured?” she asked.

  “Injured?”

  She indicated the knob at the top. “The flesh which covers a man’s cock is missing. You cannot have been born like this. Who hurt you?”