CarnalHealing

by Virginia Reede

  “I didn’t think I would ever see you again,” he said. “You didn’t even tell me your name.”

  Leonore suddenly became aware of where they were standing. Lucy might already be awake and might call to her or point her out. She took a few steps toward the nurses’ station, relieved when he followed.

  “No,” she said. “No, I didn’t. I’m sorry. I didn’t think it mattered.”

  “It mattered,” he said. “It does matter. I—” He lowered his voice. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about last night.”

  “Neither have I,” she said, then gulped. Did I really just say that?

  “So what is it? Tell me your name.”

  Leonore had a sudden sensation of falling—of letting go. “Leonore,” she said. “My name is Leonore.”

  “Leonore,” he repeated. He put out a hand. “Pleased to meet you. My name’s Jeff. Doctor Jeff Carson.”

  Dazed, Leonore took the hand, which was warm and dry.

  “Dr. Carson?” The woman, presumably Lucy’s mother, had come into the hall. “I’m sorry to interrupt you, but you said there would be more tests this afternoon?”

  Jeff seemed to have a hard time pulling his eyes from Leonore’s. “Don’t go anywhere. Promise?”

  She nodded wordlessly. Moments ago she had only been able to think of escape. Now…what? What was she feeling? Something unfamiliar.

  Jeff had turned his focus to the other woman. “Yes, and we probably won’t have results until the morning. Shall we meet again then, and go over them?”

  As Jeff made arrangements for a meeting with Lucy’s parents, Leonore tried to figure out what was going on. How long had it been since she had told a lover her name? Or had anything at all to do with one, once she’d gotten what she needed? She could almost hear Ludmilla laughing.

  As Jeff turned back to her, his conversation concluded, she swallowed nervously. He took her arm and turned her toward the elevator. “I want to talk to you,” he said. “Do you have a few minutes?”

  “Yes,” Leonore surprised herself by saying. It would have been easy to claim she was late for an appointment or something. So why hadn’t she?

  “I have an office on another floor,” he said. “Or, sort of. I’m a resident, so I share one.“

  “Oh.” Leonore didn’t know what to say. She mentally kicked herself for her inability to articulate. She was always confident with men, completely in charge. Just what the hell was going on here?

  The elevator was crowded, which gave her a few moments to compose herself. When the doors opened on a lower floor, Jeff again took her arm and lightly steered her in the right direction. “It’s just down this way,” he said.

  Run! said Leonore’s head. But the rest of her body disagreed. And so did something else. She was startled to realize it was her magic. It was stirring and coiling in her body, drawn to the spot where Jeff touched her arm like a bolt to a lightning rod. She pulled her arm away before power could flow into him as it had the night before. What in hell is going on here?

  He gave her a questioning look, but he had been holding her so lightly that she hadn’t had to jerk her arm free, and she was still walking with him.

  “No one else should be in here right now,” he said, opening a door. It was dark, so he turned on a light. Leonore went in first and looked around the room without really seeing it. She realized her arms were crossed over her chest, such a clichéd stance of nervousness that it annoyed her. She forced herself into a more relaxed position. She wished Jeff would sit down, because it would mean she could.

  He closed the door then, making sure she was looking, clicked the lock. “First,” he said, “I’m going to kiss you.” Before Leonore could protest, she was in his arms.

  Her magic, which had not gone completely dormant with the loss of his touch, surged up with a vengeance. She knew she should stop it, should exert her will and take control of it. But that would require thinking.

  And how could she think when he was making her feel this way? As his lips closed over hers, the heat of desire combined with the rushing flow of Leonorean power and the two ignited like embers that had been hit by a fresh breeze. Startled, Leonore broke from the kiss before the power could surge into him like water from a fire hose.

  She was almost in time.

  “That’s not normal,” he said. He was still holding her, and power still tingled wherever they touched, and although it was not the flood that had almost poured through the kiss, she knew he could sense something. She should break completely away, but she didn’t want to. Yet she needed to know how much he had felt.

  “What isn’t normal?” she asked.

  “When I kiss you.” His eyes seemed as blue as the arc from a welding torch, so intense was his gaze. “It’s…different.”

  His head dipped, and he would have kissed her again, but she put her hands on his chest, holding him back. She needed a few moments to collect herself.

  “You said you wanted to talk to me.” She took a tentative step backward. Her thighs hit the desk, giving her no room to retreat.

  To Leonore’s relief, Jeff released her and moved back a few inches. “So I did.” He seemed to give himself a mental shake. He glanced at a clock mounted on the wall. “It’s the middle of my shift, and I don’t really get a lunch break. So…” He moved toward her again, smiling. “We should go on a date.”

  “A date?” she repeated stupidly. Leonore did not go on dates.

  “Yeah, you know. Two single people meet at a previously agreed upon location, maybe share a meal, have a little conversation. It’s done all the time.” His brow furrowed as if with a new thought. “You are single, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes, you’re single? Or yes, you’ll go on a date with me?” He lifted an eyebrow. Had he gotten closer? Her greedy magic seemed to sense his proximity and her skin prickled. Gooseflesh rose on her arms.

  “I’m single,” she said.

  “And? What about the date?” He was definitely closer. Leonore could feel his breath on her face. It made her want to put her mouth over his and inhale.

  “Yes,” she said before she could change her mind. “Yes, I’ll go out with you.”

  “Tomorrow night?”

  Leonore actually gulped. “Tomorrow night.”

  “Good.” He opened a desk draw and searched through it, then handed her a business card. “Now you have all my numbers. Do you have a card?”

  “Yes. I mean, no, not on me.”

  “Then write them down here.” Jeff lifted a pad from the desk, and handed it to her, along with a pen. Wordlessly, Leonore wrote her home number. Why did I just do that?

  “Excellent,” Jeff said, tearing the top sheet off the pad, then folding it and slipping it into his pocket. “You can come to my place—I’ll call you with directions—and I’ll cook for you. Now, before I go back to work…” He closed the last few inches between them and their lips met in a rush of heat and power. It poured from her center to her limbs, and she didn’t even try to keep it from rushing into him. He groaned.

  Take him, whispered the power. You need to replace what you gave to the child.

  Oh, why not? She already knew how good he felt inside her. She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her body against the hardness of his chest.

  Jeff reached around and pulled her up so that she sat on the desk, then reached down and lifted the edge of her skirt, slipping his hands underneath.

  “Ah,” he lifted his mouth from hers just long enough to breathe, “I see you don’t always go around without underwear.”

  As his fingers slipped under the edge of her panties, she lifted herself from the desk so he could pull them down. Breaking contact, he stepped back and dragged them all the way off, leaving her pumps in place. He spread her legs and stepped between them.

  “You didn’t give me a chance to do anything last night,” he said, running one hand along the inside of her leg while the other reached around to pull her toward the e
dge of the desk. Then he sank lower until he was smiling up from between her thighs. “I never got a chance to try…this.”

  Spreading the curls of her pubic hair with his thumbs, he leaned in and slipped his tongue along the slick opening of her pussy. “Mmmm.” The tongue traveled up in a long stroke, subtly catching on the bud of her clit. He used the pressure of his tongue to push it lightly against his upper teeth.

  Every muscle in Leonore’s ass tensed, lifting her higher on the desk. She gave a little moan of pleasure, and Jeff drew back.

  “Like that, do you?” Not waiting for an answer, he plunged back in with another long, excruciating stroke.

  Pleasure and magic warred in Leonore. Her cunt spasmed and she felt a warm surge as her own fluids filled her. Despite her many lovers, she had become so perfunctory about sex that she seldom took time for real foreplay. And this man was a master. His tongue and teeth and lips darted and dipped like a hummingbird pulling nectar from a flower. She shuddered and writhed, but did not pull away. Magic hummed through her body, buzzing in her ears and making her scalp tingle.

  He slipped a finger between the folds of her pussy, moving it in and out in counterpoint rhythm with his tongue. Yes, said the magic. This is what we need.

  Her orgasm started like a point of flame where he again had her clit caught between his tongue and his teeth, and then spread to where his finger probed and danced. She moaned aloud and her pussy clenched.

  He responded to her body’s signals by simultaneously sucking and lightly biting the throbbing bud, and increasing the rhythm of his fingers to a frenzied pace. Leonore panted, trying not to scream, mindful of their surroundings.

  “Oh…oh!” She managed to keep her voice to a hoarse whisper as the point of flame licked and spread outward. She shuddered, digging her fingers into his shoulders. She climaxed like an explosion, struggling to stay quiet. Jeff released her clit from his teeth and kissed it, then the inside of each thigh. When he withdrew his fingers, she opened her eyes and saw him smiling up at her.

  “You’re delicious,” he said, rising to his feet. “Taste.” He kissed her, and Leonore tasted her own juices on his lips. It was more pleasant than she thought it would be, and sexy as hell to think how he’d come to have that flavor on his mouth.

  She felt his cock pressing against her, hard enough to cut diamonds. God, he’d given her all that pleasure and she hadn’t even touched him yet. She reached out to caress it, then pulled on the drawstring at the waist of his scrubs. In a moment her hand was inside, stroking him through his underwear.

  Something on the desk buzzed, making Leonore jump. A tinny voice said, “Dr. Carson, you’re needed in exam six.”

  Jeff groaned and put a hand on Leonore’s, removing it gently from his pants. With his other hand, he held down a button on the intercom. “Be right there,” he said, a little hoarsely.

  Disappointment stabbed Leonore. “But we weren’t finished. You didn’t get to…you know.” She was surprised that she cared, but she did.

  “As much as I’d like to have a turn,” he said, “I wasn’t kidding when I said I was in the middle of my shift. It’s a miracle I’ve gone this long without being paged, and one of the other residents could come back to the office any minute.”

  “But you didn’t get to…” Leonore trailed off. Since when did she care about a man’s orgasm? Her magic purred contentedly inside her, fully recharged and needing no further replenishment.

  And yet she was disappointed she wasn’t going to get more of that glorious cock.

  “I’ll take a rain check. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get lucky after our date.”

  Chapter Four

  As Leonore made her way to the parking garage, she had the ridiculous sensation that everyone was watching her, and they were all smirking because they knew exactly what she’d been doing. God, am I actually blushing? She slipped into the driver’s seat and adjusted the rearview mirror and took a look at her face.

  Mascara was not streaking down her face and lipstick was not smeared everywhere. Her hair was in no more disarray than usual. So why did she look like she’d just had sex?

  Because she was practically glowing.

  It’s the magic, she told herself. It’s because I’ve renewed twice in less than twenty-four hours. And the healing had been especially wonderful today. She’d felt so connected with that little girl, so satisfied at feeling the last of the cancer wiped out. No one is looking at you. Just drive on home.

  But someone was staring at her, she realized. A dark-haired man was walking by the car, toward the elevator from which she’d just come. He broke eye contact when she noticed him, but glanced back after punching the down button. Again, he looked away, then stood with his back partially to Leonore.

  Something about the man made her uncomfortable. She wanted to study him, but she also didn’t want him to see her doing it. She put the key in the ignition and turned it, then looked over her shoulder before backing out of her space. As she put the transmission into drive, she glanced back at the man, who was still waiting for his elevator to arrive.

  He was staring at her again, and his expression gave her a sensation so unpleasant that it almost dampened the glow of her sexual contentment. Like the man Millie was talking about. Leonore put her foot on the gas and pulled around the ramp and out of his line of sight. This time the gooseflesh on her arms had nothing to do with pleasure.

  * * * * *

  “I don’t even have to ask if you got laid, girl,” said Tish. “You look fabulous. I think your hair even got curlier.”

  Letisha often stopped by Leonore’s south side row house on her way home from a shift, if the lights were on. It wasn’t very far out of her way.

  “I told you I was going to,” Leonore said, handing her friend a beer. “Don’t act surprised.”

  “It’s not that you had sex that surprises me. I’m not kidding, Leonore, you really look different. You’re…” She seemed to search for a word. “Luminous. Like they say about pregnant women sometimes, that they’re glowing.” She grinned, her teeth very white in her dark face. “You aren’t, are you?

  “Aren’t what?” Leonore took a sip of her own beer.

  “Pregnant.”

  Leonore laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous, Tish. You know perfectly well Leonoreans can’t get pregnant by anyone but their one true partner.”

  “Yeah, I know the rules. But you do look good.” Tish stretched “Man, it was a long day. And I had to climb a fence to catch this stupid kid. Damn crackheads, think they can outrun me.”

  “You love every minute of it,” said Leonore. “Don’t even try to convince me otherwise.”

  “I truly do,” acknowledged Tish. “By the way, I spoke to Lupita.”

  “I didn’t know Petey was back from Mexico.”

  “She just got back last night. She’s all fired up about the equinox. Brought crystals back from some mine down there, claims the Mayans used them to keep malicious elements from disrupting ceremonies. Some kind of protection thing.”

  Leonore frowned. “I don’t want to deviate from the established rituals, at least not at the equinox. We can try them some other time if she really wants to.”

  “What I can’t figure out is why she’s worried about ‘malicious elements’ anyway. No one’s ever tried to mess with our magic. At least not that we know of.”

  “No.” Leonore thought about what Millie had said, about the customer who had made her so uncomfortable.

  “Something wrong?” asked Tish.

  “No, not really.”

  “Yes there is,” said Tish. “You’re forgetting who you’re talking to.”

  Leonore sighed. Letisha’s special power was the ability to know when people were lying, and to compel them to be truthful. It came in pretty handy when questioning suspects, a talent that had not hurt her career.

  “It’s not anything concrete,” she said. “Millie had a customer who spooked her. He didn’t say or do anything that threatened her, but I c
ould tell she was shook up and a little scared. She’ll have to describe it to you herself.”

  “Is that all?”

  “Yes,” said Leonore, then, when Tish raised an eyebrow, she went on. “Well, there was a man watching me today. He gave me the creeps. Probably nothing.”

  Tish’s gaze sharpened. “Where was this?”

  “At Mass General Children’s,” Leonore admitted. No point trying to hide anything from Tish, once she got on the scent. “In the parking garage.”

  “You did a healing today?” Tish’s tone showed surprise. “But that usually takes a lot out of you. And your power is obviously not depleted.”

  Lenore felt her face flush. If she was with any of her other Leonorean sisters, she could have kept part of the story to herself. But Letisha-the-human-lie-detector would get every detail out of her, one way or the other. She may as well come clean.

  “I had sex again, right after the healing.”

  “At the hospital?” Tish practically shrieked.

  “With one of the doctors,” Leonore said, her cheeks now burning. “The same guy as last night.”

  “Oo-whee! I can’t wait to tell the sisters you actually had sex with the same guy twice. Who are you, and what have you done with Leonore?” Tish’s grin practically split her face in half.

  “There’s more,” added Leonore stoically. She may as well get this over with—Tish would find out anyway. “I’m having dinner with him tomorrow. He’s cooking for me at his place.”

  Letisha choked on her beer.

  * * * * *

  “What kind of things do you write?” asked Jeff, stirring something in a big pot. Leonore was seated on a barstool with a glass of wine, able to watch but not close enough to get in the way. Jeff had firmly refused to allow her to help him prepare dinner, which was just as well. Leonore was admittedly a terrible cook.

  “Stories for magazines, mostly.” She sipped the wine, which was excellent. “I’ve written a novel, but haven’t sold it yet.”

  “So, you’re a journalist.” He covered the pan he was concentrating on, then lifted the lid from another. A savory aroma filled the kitchen, causing Leonore to salivate.