Only In My Dreams: A Time Travel Anthology

by Sahara Kelly

  Shooting at whatever Huron she could fix in her sights, Gandewitha moved toward the battle, stopping only when her quiver was empty.

  She reached for her knife, knowing that she now stood beside Nohnohsot. He was grappling with a large brave, teeth bared in a grimace of anger and bloodlust. A quick thrust of his knife finished the fight and he turned with a wild grin only to stop dead as he saw her.

  “Gandewitha…”

  Her disguise had not fooled him for a moment, but right now there was no time to explain. “Not now, my love. Look to your left…”

  She spun and slashed at a bare chest, ripping it open and making the man fall back onto the ground with a harsh cry.

  “Get behind me.” His words were angry and sharp.

  “No. I fight beside you.” Her retort was equally sharp, although more breathless as she kicked and struggled against a Huron who seemed impervious to her blade. His balls were still vulnerable, however. With unerring accuracy, Gandewitha brought her knee up between his legs and doubled him over.

  From that point, it was a matter of a quick downward thrust to end his mortal life.

  She glanced at Nohnohsot. He was finishing off another warrior, yet there were still so many Huron.

  Gandewitha’s eyes sought another target, then stilled as she saw a Huron deep in the forest raise his bow.

  He aimed directly at Nohnohsot.

  Struggling with his foe, Nohnohsot’s back was turned—a sheer and gleaming expanse of flesh that a skilled Huron brave could not miss.

  “Nooooo…”

  The scream tore from Gandewitha’s throat as she ran to Nohnohsot, knocking him aside and free of his opponent. He fell, tumbling with knife upraised, sinking the final blow in the Huron as they both toppled to the ground.

  Gandewitha’s heart leapt for joy as she realized Nohnohsot was unharmed.

  Then an odd sensation began to creep over her limbs, slowing her down, draining her strength and her vitality.

  “Gandewitha…oh Gandewitha…what have you done?”

  Nohnohsot’s voice seemed to come from a long way away and she turned stiffly to look at his face beneath her on the ground. As her head lowered, she noticed something strange.

  The end of a Huron arrow was sticking from her body, just beneath her breast.

  “Oh Gods…”

  She dropped to her knees and the world darkened around her. Strong arms enfolded her, but she could no longer see faces or much of anything.

  Raindrops pattered down and she thought she heard the rumble of thunder. Or perhaps it was Nohnohsot’s heart as he held her close.

  “Gandewitha, my love, my only…don’t leave me. Gandewitha, please…why did you…somebody help me…”

  Nohnohsot’s voice trembled in her ear and she reached blindly out to touch his body once more. “You are safe. It’s all that matters.”

  “I do not wish to be safe without you. I cannot live without you.” He sobbed the words even as the thunder broke free, a savage ripping peal that whipped around them, drowning the sounds of the battle.

  “I love you. My soul will be with you forever…”

  With difficulty, Gandewitha opened her eyes and focused on the only thing that mattered to her, the only thing that had ever mattered to her in her entire life—Nohnohsot.

  Tears were falling freely down his cheeks and she let herself drown in the love she saw within the moist brown depths of his gaze.

  She parted her lips on a smile…then his face faded from her sight…all became dark and turbulent…

  And Gaia jerked to wakefulness, a sob of pain and agony choking her throat.

  *~~*~~*

  Ned stirred at the sound of Gaia crying, pulling his head back from the dream with difficulty, almost amazed to find himself sitting on his own apartment floor and with a full head of hair instead of a punk-rocker’s crest.

  “Holy fucking shit.” He breathed the words as he moved, uncramping his legs and reaching for Gaia, picking her up bodily and sitting back down in the chair with her on his lap. “Gaia. You okay? Gaia?”

  He pushed her hair away from her face and stroked her cheek, hating the whimpers and sobs that tore at her body. “Baby, come on. Come back to me, honey…it’s okay…”

  He muttered words that made no sense, babbling, trying to comfort her even as his own grief ripped chunks from his heart and the adrenaline rush of a Seneca warrior in battle seeped from his muscles.

  He’d been there. He’d seen it all, fought as savagely as any brave, knowing all the things that Seneca fighters knew. The feel of his bow, his knife—all familiar to him now. Ned trembled as the realization washed over him like a wave of memories. Up to now his dreams had been erotic, but vague in the details other than Gandewitha.

  As of this moment, Ned knew better. In however long they’d been asleep, a different life had unfolded within his mind, a life he’d lived—or one of his ancestors had lived—rich with sensations, smells, experiences and the curse of battle.

  He was shaken to his core and could only hold Gaia tightly against him, wondering if her dreams had been like this all along.

  “Gaia, sweetheart. It’s okay. We’re back. We’re here, together.” He kissed her head, her nose, hugged her close—tried to ease her shivering with the heat of his chest. The fire had died down, but damned if he was going to let go of her to put another log on it. Not until she was recovered.

  She moved a little, burying even closer to him, gripping his shirt with her hands. “Ned?”

  “Yes, baby. I’m here. Holding you tight. It’s over. We’re awake now.” His hand reached out for his favorite blanket and he wrapped it around them both, tucking them into a rapidly warming cocoon of comfort. “It’s okay.”

  He wondered at his words. Was it okay? Would it ever be okay again?

  “Oh God…” She clutched at him and burst into tears, weeping as if her heart would break. Her grief tore at Ned and his own tears overflowed.

  Together they held each other and cried, sharing the overwhelming emotions of a time long ago—of lovers long since departed from the face of the earth.

  Eventually the storm eased, leaving them both limp and sniffly. “I need a tissue.” Gaia wiped a hand across her face.

  “Me too.” Ned struggled awkwardly with the confining blanket and a lapful of teary woman as he extended one arm and grabbed a convenient box, pulling it back up and passing it to Gaia.

  “I like that you have tissues handy.” She took two and blew her nose. “Organized.”

  “Allergies. Buddy of mine has a cat. Whenever he comes to visit, I sneeze for two days straight afterward.” Ned wiped the tears off her cheeks. “How ya doing, sweetheart?”

  She sucked in a shuddering breath, reminding Ned of a child recovering from a bout of weeping. He hugged her close.

  “I’ll make it. I think.” She rested her head against him. “That was rough, Ned.”

  “Jesus, tell me about it. You try taking on a herd of Huron or whatever they’re called.”

  His words surprised a choke of laughter from her. “You’re alive. That’s all that matters.” Her hand crept up to cradle his cheek. “You’re alive. You’re real. You’re here.” She brushed away the last of his tears.

  Ned leaned into her palm. “Yes. We’re both alive. We’re both here.” He touched her face, turning it toward him. “We’re both very real, Gaia.”

  Slowly, he lowered his lips to hers, desperate to taste her, to reassure them both that they were, in fact, alive—sitting in a quiet Cambridge apartment, not creeping through a forest full of danger.

  “Ned—” She breathed his name against his mouth before opening hers and welcoming him inside.

  He moaned, a definite sound of need and desire, a full-throated moan that surprised him. He couldn’t ever recall moaning quite like that before.

  But, then again, he had just watched the woman he loved fade to nothing in his arms while standing practically naked in a rainstorm amongst a bunch of Nati
ve American warriors carving each other into filets.

  The past was all well and good, but right now, Ned was happy to keep it where it was. In the past.

  He had Gaia in the here-and-now. And he wanted her, more than words or dreams could ever describe.

  She kissed him hungrily, her hands freeing themselves from his embrace and reaching around his neck to pull him close. Their tongues clashed and caressed, then clashed once more, dueling with each other as their bodies shifted and moved in a struggle to close whatever little distance still lay between them.

  “Gaia…” He couldn’t seem to stop saying her name, breathing it into her mouth, whispering it against her skin, drinking in her shivers as his hands wandered all over her body, touching her heat, reassuring himself she was there—alive.

  “Yes.” She gripped his shirt and fumbled with his buttons, slipping her hands inside to his chest and running them over his skin, strumming his nipples with her thumbs. “Oh, yes.”

  “Are you sure?” He held her wrists for a second, stilling her, staring deeply into her shadowed eyes.

  She looked back at him, need and desire lighting the dark brown pupils. Then she smiled. “Doctor’s orders.”

  It was all Ned needed to break the leash on his hunger for her. He ripped off his own shirt, then tugged at hers, pulling it away rapidly and tossing her bra onto the floor after it.

  “Yes.” He cupped one breast, weighing it, teasing her nipple now, making it harden with each stroke of his thumb. “Yes. Here. And now. Right this minute.”

  “I can’t wait, Ned…” Gaia lifted herself and pushed down her skirt and panties, stripping herself eagerly, sitting astride him as her busy hands threw clothing everywhere and began undressing him too.

  He sucked in air as she tore his zipper downward, barely avoiding snagging his cock. “Easy, babe. I need that…”

  “Then hurry up, goddammit…”

  Ned raised his hips and struggled from his jeans and briefs, Gaia holding herself above him, watching him, reaching for his hard length seconds after it sprang free of his clothing.

  He groaned as she stroked him. “Shit, that’s so good.” His feet kicked the clothes away, leaving them exactly where they both wanted to be. Naked and wrapped around each other.

  Gaia leaned in, rubbing herself over his skin, sighing as their bodies touched so intimately. Her pussy pressed down onto his cock and she gently stroked him, a slow waltz of her hips along his sensitive arousal, moistening him as her juices began to flow in response to his caresses.

  He suckled one breast, teasing the nipple, biting gently down on it and smiling around the soft swell as she gasped. “Mmm.” He hummed, feeling the vibrations of the sound travel through Gaia.

  “Fuck me, Ned. I want you inside me so bad right now…I can’t begin to find the words…”

  Her hips ground against him as he positioned himself beneath her pussy and reached for his cock. “Take me, then, I’m here. I want to be inside you, fucking you, I don’t want it ever to end…” He lifted the head to her swollen flesh, wet and heated and parting as he arched his back a little and pushed his hips upward.

  She sank slowly down, embracing his cock with little whimpers of need, enveloping all of him in a boiling slick of silken fire, not stopping until her body was nested snugly against his.

  He held her there, hands on her hips, just savoring this brief instant of bliss. “There you are. Around me. Holding me inside you. Alive…” His voice trembled as a flash of her dying blinked through his brain.

  “Yes. Here we are, Ned. Together. Joined by more than just this…” She clenched her inner muscles and he grunted. “Like that, huh?”

  “Honey, you have no idea…”

  “Oh, I do. I really do.”

  She began to move, gently at first and Ned let her, releasing his grip on her hips as he encouraged her to ride him. She was all passion and lust and woman, her scent rich and fragrant, her body parting and melding with his in a rhythm that seemed so natural, so perfect, it took Ned’s breath away.

  He touched her, finding her clit with one hand as he steadied her with the other. He strummed her slick skin, keeping her moving while he played, listening to her gurgles of pleasure and choking mutters of arousal. They were counterpoints to the sounds their bodies made as they met, parted and met once more.

  It was a fucking made even more intense by their earlier experiences. A mating of two souls who had been cruelly torn apart, only to find each other once more—to love once more, to claim each other’s bodies in the way that only they could know.

  Ned’s soul soared as his balls tightened. He was alive—Gaia was alive—his legs may have been close to cramping and his spine was getting bruised by the spring in the back of his old recliner, but they were alive.

  He was getting to love this woman once more, fuck her once more, again and again maybe, as many times as he could persuade her to let him claim her.

  Her breath was quickening, her head falling back as her body tensed around his cock and beneath his hands. “Ned, please…”

  He was right there with her. He knew exactly what those two little words meant. He thrust upward urgently, pulling her down to meet him and catching her clit with his thumb as they crashed into each other.

  She screamed, a shuddering howl of passion unleashed, at the exact moment he exploded into her, his balls thudding painfully as they emptied themselves down his cock and into Gaia’s heat. He thrust again, needing to bury himself in so much more than just her sex. He wanted his mark on her heart—on her soul.

  She clamped around him, her orgasm ripping through her and into his cock, matching his own intense responses with taut ripples of her own. Whimpering, Gaia clutched at his shoulders to hold herself up, fingers digging into him as she rode the crest of her release into calmer waters.

  He watched her face as his own orgasm began to ease, amazed at how the tension in her expression relaxed into the soft aftermath of their loving. Her body sagged and, within a moment or two, Ned found himself once more cradling the warm and willing body of his Seneca lover, Gandewitha.

  His Gaia. His woman.

  His heart.

  “Hello.” She lifted her head and gazed sleepily at him.

  “Hello yourself.” He grinned. “You okay?”

  She sighed. “Bit of a cramp in one knee, but overall, I’d say this was the best prescription for anything that’s ever ailed me.” She yawned. “Remind me to send a thank you note to the Doctor.”

  He chuckled, tucking the fluffy throw around them once more. “I will.” A thought occurred to him, freezing his hands in their tracks. “Um, honey? Poor time to bring this up, but I didn’t use protection.”

  Gaia barely stirred. “I know. I loved feeling you—all of you—inside me like that. Skin to skin.”

  Ned gulped, a bolt of lust shooting through him and doing its best to wake up his cock once more. It had been amazing, no doubt about it.

  “But…” He paused, unwilling to destroy what was obviously a “moment” she was enjoying.

  A tiny giggle shook her shoulders. “I’m not worried. I’m protected against pregnancy, Ned. But thank you for your concern, even though it is a bit late.”

  They sat together quietly then, sharing soft touches and the occasional brush of lips, the aftermath of so much more than their loving washing over them in all its ripe and rich colors like the blanket that covered them.

  “Gaia.” Ned broke the silence.

  “Mmm?”

  “You loved me enough to die for me long ago.” He swallowed. “Can you love me enough to live with me now?”

  She turned, her eyes wide as she watched him speak.

  “Can you get past what I do and understand what I feel for you? Is it too much to ask?” He touched her cheek, her hair, gentle caresses he hoped would tell her more than his words. “Can you accept me as I am and be with me? Not just for this moment—but for as long as we have?”

  Her expression was sombe
r as she touched him back. “Can you accept me? Understand my life, my way of thinking?”

  He smiled then, a weight lifting from his soul. “Sweetheart, your passion for life and living things makes you what you are. Makes you the woman I loved long ago and the woman I love now. I wouldn’t want to change you, just understand you better.”

  “Me too.” She eased against his shoulder, looking at him thoughtfully. “And I guess we’re really not that far apart on our viewpoints when it comes down to the fundamentals, are we?”

  “No, we aren’t.” Ned nodded his agreement.

  “How are we going to manage?”

  He grinned. “Who’s being practical now?”

  “Well, there’s a lot to think about here if we’re going to make this work—”

  “Do you love me?”

  “Yes. I love you.”

  Ned lifted a finger and laid it gently across Gaia’s lips. “Then we will make this work. We’ll find a way. Love always does.”

  Gaia Jackson lifted her face and accepted the promise of their future, delivered by means of a kiss from her lover, Dr. Ned Harper.

  Somewhere back in the mists of time, knots unkinked themselves and a little bit of the Universe heaved a sigh of relief.

  Love would indeed find a way.

  It always does.

  Epilogue

  And that’s really the end of the story for Ned and Gaia…

  …but there are always a few loose ends that need to be tied up.

  Yes, Ned and Gaia made it work. For the first year, they commuted regularly up and down from Boston to Washington, racking up frequent flyer miles that they used for long weekends and holidays in warm places when they both could get away. The Logan-Reagan shuttle managed to land on schedule at least twice during that period, shocking them both into stunned silence for at least five minutes.

  They talked for hours on the phone and saw each other a lot more frequently than they’d anticipated when going into the relationship. The sex was, as always in these stories, magnificent. After all, they’d had a couple of lifetimes to learn about each other’s preferences and get it right.