Hidden Obsession
Page 19
But Graham had suggested she check out the university and that had proven as exciting as any WalMart offering. She wanted to study—nay, major—in women’s studies even though Graham said she would ace medieval history.
“You worked hard for your check,” Graham assured her, wrapping his strong arms about her waist as he kissed her neck. “You deserve to spend it all.”
She swished aside her shoulder-length hair, so light and freeing after years of caring for her waist-length mane.
“Hard work? I have a hot bath to start every day. No laundry to wash. No food to cook. My life is entirely too easy.” Too wonderful. She still feared she would awake to discover it was all a dream, but Graham had assured her he’d often felt that way in her time, too.
Never could she return to the Middle Ages after discovering microwaves. Lights to brighten the bedchamber even at midnight in case you wanted to get a really good look at something. Or someone.
She loved every facet of her new life and appreciated Graham’s patient, loving hand guiding her through this amazing new world. He’d offered to move out into the country to ease what he called “culture shock,” but she’d flatly refused—for now, at least—since she savored the chance to see him in the realm that had made him such a wonderful man.
“I want to see everything you bought, but I have some news first.” Graham sidled around her to face her, his silvery eyes serious. “We found the last of the Guardians today.”
He’d worked so long and hard on his case since they’d returned. He’d quickly freed the women who’d been held by Kendrick’s modern-day knaves after he’d returned to L.A. Apparently the device carved on Linnet’s Initiator and sewn on Kendrick’s banners had been a map of a local labyrinth imprisoned within the Guardians’ stronghold and the women had been hidden within its depths. But after those triumphs, the investigation had halted when he’d failed to find a handful of key gang members named in the scrolls Graham had discovered.
“All three of them?” She’d listened to his anguish at not being able to locate those men, so she knew what a relief this had to be.
At his nod, she hugged him. Kissed his cheek.
They stood together in the middle of his kitchen in a house now decorated with tapestries he’d purchased to remind her of home and she let the love for him flow over her, the rightness of their union soothing the fears of her past.
“I knew you would.” She liked to imagine her brothers had done the same thing in England after she’d left them; relentlessly rounding up Kendrick’s followers to protect the women they sought to harm.
And, she prayed, without Kendrick’s greed for gold gained with the Sight, perhaps his followers were not as driven without him to encourage them.
“These last few guys had some interesting insights on how Kendrick might have traveled through time. Not that they knew he could do that, but they gave up the information not knowing what it meant.”
“I think he inherited the gift from his mother.” Linnet stood stubbornly by her theory as Lady Kendrick had been whispered to be a sorceress in her time.
“Perhaps, but it seems he didn’t necessarily vanish into thin air. His cohorts say he was the David Copperfield of tricks like that.” Catching himself, he explained. “That’s a big-league magician in our time. Like a wizard, but the magic is just for show.”
“But it couldn’t have been just for show since we know he really traveled between times.”
“Yeah, but him fading into nothingness was a little too Star Trek for my peace of mind. I think that was all a hoax to get himself out of a sticky situation and then he used a picture in his wallet to travel the same way we did.” He pulled out a piece of paper that she now knew was a photocopy of another piece of paper.
Graham had photocopied her hand at his precinct and nearly scared ten years off her life.
“What is it?” She unfolded the paper and peered at a picture of a sleek, contemporary building.
“It’s the J. Paul Getty Museum, the same place where I fell into the picture that led to you.” Graham attached the paper to his icebox with a piece of plastic, and Linnet remembered him telling her that the Sex Through the Ages exhibit had moved from the Los Angeles museum to some far off city named Atlanta. “The guys we picked up today said Kendrick always carried pictures like this in his wallet. One of them claimed he had to make copies of pictures from all around the world—including a lot of historical sites—for Kendrick to keep in his billfold.”
“And you think he pulled them out at whim and rode into them just like we did?” She wondered idly if the curator of the Sex Through the Ages exhibit was pushing unsuspecting visitors into any pictures and long ago time periods during the show’s visit to Atlanta.
“It’s the best I can come up with.” He shook his head even as he traced the line of her jaw with his thumb. “And now I find myself looking at people and wondering how many others are walking around having that kind of ability.”
“We must celebrate.” Linnet knew this was a landmark for Graham, who would always take his work seriously, no matter how much she encouraged him to play. And she loved that about him. Loved knowing he was out saving other people the way he’d saved her. Well, not exactly the way he’d saved her. “No microwave dinner tonight. I will cook for us myself.”
Still not all that hard considering the freezer was bulging with food.
“You’re incredible, you know that? You don’t have to cook. You already shopped.” A smile twitched at his lips before he pressed a kiss to the diamond engagement ring he’d placed on her hand a week ago. The claddagh design showed a heart within hands, an image that worked both ways for them.
“I have kept busy, haven’t I?” She grinned in return, thinking the cooking could wait a few more minutes. “I don’t know what’s more fun, walking around a marketplace any day of the week I choose or discovering the endless wonders of Lycra. You’ll never guess what I bought today.”
She dug in the Victoria’s Secret bag and came up with the prize she sought. It was black and lace and naughty and Graham was going to love it.
“It’s a merry widow.” His eyes were already crossing as he looked from the see-through fabric to her breasts, her hips.
He was truly too easy to please. And she would never grow tired of pleasing him. Or being pleased by him.
Her heart thudded harder at the thought.
“That’s what the peddler said.” She had so much to learn about Graham’s time. Her time, now. But every day was an adventure she savored. “Don’t you wonder why a widow should be so merry? What a peculiar name. Although I suppose I could Google it.”
She adored her computer—Graham’s computer that he’d all but given up to her after her endless questions about his world. Now she used Ask Jeeves and Google to find whatever she wanted to know. Of course, there were some things she still preferred Graham show her….
“I don’t have a clue, but I can assure you, I’ll make you damn well merry any time you care to wear this.” He fingered the lace for a moment before casting it aside and pulling her into his arms. “God, I missed you today.”
“I missed you, too.” She stepped into his embrace, wondering how she’d gotten so lucky to have this noble, generous, sexy man in her life. “I thought I would grow more accustomed to sex any time we wanted it, but I fear I stopped by the Eckerd right after I left the marketplace.”
“More condoms?” He smiled through his kiss.
“Aye. Many, many condoms. The man behind the counter could not disguise his laughter.” But there had been so many kinds, how could she have chosen only one? Didn’t she deserve flavored? Colored? Ribbed? And the ones that promised “tickles”…She could scarcely wait.
“Poor bastard is wishing he could be in my shoes.”
Graham molded her hips to his and unfastened the buttons on her braies. Jeans, actually. She loved that twenty-first-century women wore men’s clothes with feminine verve, openly displaying their hips and sometimes much more. She
would never be so bold to reveal as much as other women with their undergarments peeking out of their braies, but then again, she had the comfort of knowing how much Graham preferred her without any undergarments at all….
He discovered her nakedness now and it was all Linnet could do to pull away.
“But what about your celebration dinner?”
“It might have to wait. I think I might like a merry-widow celebration first.”
“Wicked man.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet.” His fingers dipped lower, urging a moan from her lips. “Remember I told you how twenty-first-century women sometimes keep toys like the Initiator around just for fun?”
“Aye.” She unzipped his fly right in the middle of the kitchen, thinking microwaves left more time in life for sex and—saints preserve her—that was a very good thing.
“It occurred to me today you might get a kick out of seeing what kinds of toys are out there for your personal pleasure.”
“I thought you were my personal pleasure aid?” She would never forget the way he’d made her take charge of her own pleasure—in bed and out.
“You’re damn right I am. But what about the nights I work late?”
Anticipation hummed through her. “Perhaps you have a point.”
Wrapping her arms around him, she indulged herself and the deep happiness she’d found.
“Who would have thought I’d fall in love with the man who once hid in my wardrobe to watch me undress?” She wriggled out of her clothes, and reached inside another bag for one of the ten boxes of different style condoms she’d purchased.
She’d wait until later to tell Graham about her high expectations.
“Who’d have thought I’d have to travel back in time nine hundred years to find the right woman?” He planted a kiss on her breast as he whipped her shirt off. “And who would have guessed she’d be so delightfully kinky?”
Linnet smiled, knowing her sexual vocabulary was coming along much quicker than other areas of knowledge.
“It is a secret all our own. You can be my hidden obsession and I’ll be your personal sex goddess.”
“Is that right?” He maneuvered her out of her jeans with frightening agility as he backed her against the refrigerator. “Then I’m going to start praying to the goddess for some mind-blowing sex right now.”
Linnet could scarcely speak, her last conscious thought one of absolute love for Graham and the lifetime of magic ahead of them.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4750-9
HIDDEN OBSESSION
Copyright © 2006 by Joanne Rock.
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