Who the hell does he think he is?
She didn’t know what she wanted to do the most.
Kill him?
Curl up in a little ball and cry?
Destroy something?
There are billions upon billions of humans all around the universe. It shouldn’t be hard to find a new one. A faithful one this time.
She teleported to the nearest space station and took a seat in a bar.
I never go to bars, what am I doing here? Shit, this is where he would have been. Oh well, let’s roll with it.
At first glance there seemed to be many promising specimens in the room, and she muttered, “I’ll show you, you little twit. I never needed you anyway.”
It was a matter of seconds before a man approached her.
“Hey beautiful, can I get you a drink?”
“I’d love a Blue Souvenir.”
He smelled like onions and boloney, but little details like that could be corrected.
See, I’m having fun without you. Twirp.
To be honest, it wasn’t really fun, not like it would have been with Stephan, and the man had too many hands. She could swear he was a normal human and only had two, but it seemed like eight. They were everywhere. None of the people in the room measured up to her standards.
They were all too ugly, too smelly, too small, too alien, too drunk, or too eager to touch her. For some reason she didn’t care to define, anyone’s touch besides Stephan’s repulsed her.
The night ended with her punching a man in the face, which started a general fight, and by the time it was over she had already left.
That wasn’t one of my best ideas. Maybe this is a bad station, I’ll try another one. I can blow up some small moons or something on the way there.
Exploding large objects with her mind was always satisfying, and with any luck, it would keep her from crushing something living.
*****
Stephan, on the other hand, found being back on his ship just as lonely as he suspected it would be. He paced the bridge.
“I can’t believe she just left, just like that. Is that all I meant to her? She could at least have given me a chance to explain. Women.”
He lifted one of the heavy chairs and hurled it against the wall. It didn’t make him feel a bit better. Crushing something with his bare hands might be satisfying.
Good thing I left Beta IV when I did, or I would have ripped Olga’s head off. Little contriving bitch.
Lacking a place to go, he plotted a random course, but didn’t get far before he started to feel ill.
Maybe I picked up a virus on the planet, or from that cursed girl.
It didn’t make any sense. His immune system was perfect and would eradicate any infection before it had a chance to affect him. He simply did not fall sick.
It was difficult to fly with his heart pounding, stomach churning, hands shaking, and beads of cold sweat rolling into his eyes, so he eventually set the autopilot and went to bed.
The room in which they’d shared so many nights and days made him feel even worse, but he needed to lie down.
I feel like I have the hangover of a lifetime, and I haven’t even been drinking.
Eventually, he fell asleep, pretending he wasn’t holding a pillow that still smelled of her hair.
It took a couple of days before he felt better. His physical aches and nausea vanished, but he still experienced a sensation of being lessened. The world seemed flatter, lacking depth and colour. Once his head cleared, he puzzled the pieces together.
It’s her. I thought she might have cursed me, but that’s not it. I get sick every time I’m not with her. Goddess withdrawal?
As it always is, the memory of an ailment fades quickly once it’s over, and he soon roamed around the ship, looking for something to do. There had to be something to fill the lonely void that held him.
While she was there he didn’t realize how many things she spread around her. Now, he couldn’t go anywhere without seeing something of hers. The most unexpected places would hold a hairbrush or a pair of shoes. He couldn’t make himself move a single thing.
He had forgotten about the course he plotted before he fell ill, and was surprised when the computer took the ship out of hyperspace just outside one of the stations he’d visited frequently before meeting Maria. He looked at the screen and lifted an eyebrow.
“Why the hell not.”
Walking through the familiar corridors didn’t make him feel better, but some scotch might. He was soon positioned at the bar, listening to tales about a beautiful woman who’d been there a few days earlier, started a number of fights, and vanished in thin air.
The bartender said, “I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it. I mean, the drunks here imagine all sorts of shit, but she really vanished. Poof, gone.”
In an infinite universe you’d think I’d be able to find one place where she hasn’t been. Just one...
Another drink did nothing to improve his mood, but a bottle might. He also paid for a hotel room and three girls, and sitting on a soft red couch with women flocking around him made him feel okay for a few minutes. Then, he rose to his feet and walked away without a word.
Somewhere along the way he’d left his old life behind and he didn’t want it back.
Back on his ship, he grumbled, “You could at least have brought the bottle. Idiot.”
He was bored, lonely, and had nowhere to go, and as he roamed around looking for some booze, he eventually thought of looking under the bed.
It wasn’t the likeliest of places, but back in the day, he’d spent quite a lot of time drinking in the bedroom, and it wasn’t completely improbable.
There was nothing under there except for dust, a pair of Maria’s panties, and the map.
I forgot all about you, you little bugger.
He pulled the box out and tinkered with it. As he sat there on the floor and entered his current position with the intricate gears, travelling to the coordinates it gave him seemed like a pretty good idea.
He didn’t have anything better to do, and this might give him a purpose, at least for a few days.
*****
Be it fate, divine intervention, or just luck, Stephan was already heading in the right direction and it only took him a couple of days to complete the journey.
It was good to have solid ground under his feet again, and the planet had a pleasant smell. It had a green and fresh scent rare in a time when air pollution had taken over most of the inhabited worlds.
I like this place. Maybe I’ll stay here for a while.
He walked through the forest with long strides, confident he was going in the right direction. The path widened to a clearing, and as soon as he stepped into the open area, Maria teleported there.
Oh sweetheart, I miss you so much.
He smiled when he saw her, delighted to see her face, but then he remembered he was furious with her, and did his best to look bored and unimpressed.
Crossing his arms over his chest, he struggled to sound stern.
“You did this on purpose, didn’t you?”
She probably picked this very moment to appear just to torment me a little extra.
“No. It is an interesting coincidence, but nothing more.”
He stared at a point beside her, trying to forget he was dying to hold her.
Maria pointed over her shoulder and turned to leave.
“Well, I’m going this way.”
“Of course you are. It’s the right direction and there’s nowhere else to go.”
She had already taken a couple of steps and now she called back over her shoulder,
“Fine. You can either come with me, or count backwards from 100 before you go, to make sure you never have to see me again.”
He couldn’t keep his eyes away from her butt and he cursed through his teeth as he walked after her.
“Fine.”
It wasn’t a long trek through the forest, but neither of them made any efforts to mak
e it easier on the other. Every twig Maria bent to clear her path whacked Stephan in the face.
She does it on purpose, but I won’t give her the pleasure of hearing me complain. Damn she smells good.
Eventually, they stood side by side outside a dark cavern. The opening was almost completely covered with bushes, and he made a sardonic gesture of after you.
She fluffed her hair and walked through the vines, so he still had to fight with them to follow.
I should have seen that coming.
In contrast to the bright sunshine outside the cave seemed completely dark, and Maria made a gesture in the air with her right hand, causing a million or so tiny specks of light to come alive in the ceiling. It reminded him of a bright, starry sky.
“Show-off.”
She rolled her eyes and turned her back to him.
There were some ancient carvings in the rock wall, but they didn’t look anything like the ones on Beta IV.
“What does it say?”
“One might wonder how you expect to get inside if you can’t read the language.”
He clenched his jaw and fought down the anger that bubbled up in him. He wanted to shake some sense into her, or maybe hit the wall to vent some frustration. It didn’t become any easier from her wriggling that perfect little ass of hers from side to side.
She’s doing it on purpose.
He forced his eyes away from her body and looked at the wall, trying to make sense of the carvings through sheer willpower.
Who am I kidding?
He took a couple of steps forward, until he stood right behind her.
“You know it wasn’t my fault, right? I didn’t do it on purpose.”
Maybe I should have seen it coming, and maybe I should have acted differently, but I didn’t mean for it to happen. I wouldn’t have risked losing you for a stupid fling.
Maria answered in a short voice, without even glancing back at him.
“Yes. Yes, I know.”
Now he wanted to do more than shake her; he wanted to hit her, just to get her attention.
How can a woman be so stubborn?
He didn’t move. He exhaled and forced himself to speak in a calm voice.
“If you know, why are you still so angry?”
She still didn’t turn around, didn’t even lift her eyes from the carvings; she just snapped, “It’s difficult to read this when you’re talking. Do you want to know what it says or not?”
Enough.
He grabbed her shoulders and forced her to turn around. He wouldn’t have been able to if she hadn’t let him.
Maybe she still cared a little after all.
“I don’t give a damn about the text, to hell with it. We need to talk this over.”
It was easy for her to shake his hands off; they just fell down as if she wasn’t even there, and her eyes flashed.
“There’s nothing to talk about. What do you want me to say? That seeing you kiss her really hurt? It did. That you disappointed me? You did. I told you something was going to happen. I told you several times, but you just never listen!”
He opened his mouth to object, but no sound came out.
“If it had been me, if you really care about me like you say you do, if you had walked in on me holding and kissing someone else, that wouldn’t have felt so good, now would it?”
The words made him snap his mouth shut. He didn’t have an answer, his mind was blank, and she already stared at those damned carvings again.
A number of feelings flowed through him; he was angry, defensive, and wrongfully accused.
Everything she says is true, in a way, but I didn’t do anything wrong. I went to get something for her, and I can’t help if another woman throws herself over me.
The thought of someone else kissing her slowly penetrated his mind.
The very idea of those lips being near someone else’s face made his blood boil.
If she had been with someone else, he would kill them.
He grabbed her again and spun her around, unable to contain the jealousy that welled up in him.
“What? Do you have someone else? Was that what you were doing in the bar?”
“Why? Do you care? You’re the one who cheated on me, and for all I know you still have Olga, or a ton of other girls, tucked away in the ship.”
She narrowed her eyes, “And what about the bar? Have you been spying on me?”
Fuck. I should have known she’d find a way to turn this back to me.
He wasn’t proud of the fact he’d paid for not just one but three women. Walking away from them hardly made up for it.
When he acted, it was more on instinct than a conscious decision. He pulled her close and pressed his lips firmly against hers before she had time to object.
He expected her to struggle.
He thought she would at least bite him, or maybe turn him into an armadillo, or why not into a new hat. Then, he realized she kissed him back and he stopped thinking completely. Her warm body was all that existed, and her little moan of pleasure into the kiss urged him on.
It had only been a few days, but it felt like an eternity.
His hands were already tugging at her clothes, tearing unwanted fabric off her body, and he nibbled at her neck as he felt her working on his belt. She hoisted herself up, wrapped her legs around his waist and assumed he’d be strong enough and willing to hold her. He was. Oh, how he was.
His hands found a will of their own as they wandered over her body, down to that perfect, firm little butt.
Nothing else mattered anymore.
He lowered her down and pushed himself up, and it was even sweeter than he remembered. He wasn’t gentle at all, not this time. Too many dammed up emotions needed release.
A part of him wondered what he had become when he pushed her against the rock wall, pinned her there between the cold granite and his body, but another part of him that could still reason knew it wasn’t about sex. It was about power, revenge, and reconciliation.
When he finished, his legs were weak and unreliable. He took a step backwards and let himself fall down to his knees, still holding the precious woman in his arms. She leaned her head against his shoulder, relaxing. Her hair flowed freely over her back, reaching all the way down to her waist, and it felt like silk to his touch when he caressed it.
“I’m so sorry.”
“I know. I forgive you. I’m sorry too; I shouldn’t have left.”
They sat there in silence for a long time, enjoying being together again, and just like that, the gulf between them had mended.
The lingering fever that stayed with him after leaving Beta IV was gone without a trace. He felt strong, awake, and alert.
He lifted a lock of her hair and smelled it, and the little stars above became brighter and even more beautiful.
I guess I’m on a Goddess high again. I wonder if she knows.
He pried a finger in under her cheek and made her lift her head so he could look into her eyes.
“Will you come home with me? Please. It’s just not... it’s not right without you.”
“I’d like that. But we have something to do first.”
~ 27 ~
Maria looked at the pieces of her dress.
“It’s not the first one you’ve ripped to pieces, but you sure did a good job of it.”
“Sorry. I was in a hurry.”
She blinked and was suddenly fully dressed with her hair piled up high. When she glanced around, Stephan was buttoning his shirt, looking at her, and she flashed him a smile.
Oh you are sexy. If you only knew how you make every other man appear a complete loser.
Once he had his clothes back on, he stepped closer to her and rubbed her shoulders.
“Now will you tell me what the runes say?”
“Well, sure, but they have nothing to do with why we’re here. They’re telling a story about a hunt that took place a couple of thousand or so years ago. I think we’re meant to go through that door.”
I guess he loves me.
“You look so innocent and you are so vicious.”
“Who, me?” She tried put up an innocent face, but it didn’t work too well.
He still kept his eyes on her and she stepped closer, resting her palms against his chest. “We’re okay, right?”
“Yes… But if you ever want to leave me again, do me a favour and just shoot me first.”
Is he serious?
She didn’t answer and he put his hands on top of hers.
“Let’s go check your door.”
It was made from the same rock as the cave wall, flat and without a handle, and it fit so snugly it would have been impossible to spot except for a copper plaque on the middle.
“That guy looks like he’s skiing.”
Maria touched his shoulder, lending him the ability to read the foreign language. She mumbled, “I hope all the trials were in actually getting to the map and that this will be easy.”
“Keepers of the map, please identify yourselves. How?”
He reached out for the door.
“I wonder if it’s really stone.”
His hand reached the surface and continued inside, as if the barrier wasn’t even there. “Whoa!”
The hand seemed to be cut off where it crossed the surface, and he pulled it back. It came out intact and he examined both sides of it, wriggling his fingers.
Maria grabbed him.
“Oh my goodness you scared me, are you okay? I thought it would pull you in.”
“I’m fine. It was cold, that’s it.”
She reached out her hand to try too, but he grabbed her wrist.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“No, but you did it, so I want to try too.”
“Babe…”
He’s afraid to lose me again. That’s so sweet.
“Stephan, have faith. It will be alright.”
“Faith?”
“Yes, faith. If you don’t believe in anything else, believe in me.”
He looked like he wanted to roll his eyes, but released the grip on her arm.
Goddess's Saga 1: Touch of the Goddess Page 18
