Daisy looked off into the distance. “Do you see the light?”
Panic swept Sarah. Daisy was going to leave her, but as much as it hurt her to think about Daisy leaving forever, she knew she had to let her go. Daisy’s mission was accomplished. It was time for her to go to her reward. “It’s for you, Daisy. Go and find peace. You deserve it.”
“There’s so much love. Can you feel it?” Daisy’s eyes opened wide in wonder.
Daisy’s ghostly form shimmered and she shifted. Sarah felt the loneliness of Daisy’s imminent departure sweep over her. The black wolf glanced up and Sarah saw infinite love in her dark eyes. “Go on,” Sarah said. “I have House. I’ll be fine.”
With a yelp of happiness, Daisy bounded off into the night. Sarah knew she was gone forever. She would never see her friend again.
More tears flooded her eyes. She was standing there staring at the spot where she last saw Daisy when the back door flew open. It was House.
He saw her crying and slipped an arm around her shoulders. “What is it, Sarah? Tell me. Whatever it is, I’ll understand.”
Sarah had the immense realization that she could confide in House. He understood her as no one else had except Daisy. Together, the three of them had been one. Now they had to go on without her. “Daisy just went into the light. I told her to go. I told her I’d be fine without her.” Her voice broke. “But it’s not true. I’ll never be fine without her.”
House nodded clearly, unable to speak. He pulled Sarah into his arms. “We’ll always have the memories she gave us and her love. Nothing can take that away.”
House’s powerful embrace felt wonderful. The pain and loneliness was gone when she was in his arms.
“As long as we’re together, Daisy will be part of us.”
Sarah nodded.
“You want to go back inside?”
Sarah shook her head. “No way. It’s awful in there. Everyone’s staring at me like I was a calf with three heads.”
“I can find a place for us to be alone.”
“Where?”
“I might have been here before,” he said.
“Really? Where haven’t you been?”
He tucked her hand into his and led her through the alleys of Boosaaso. He ended his circuitous route beside a house right on the water. A balcony protruded over the incoming waves. They went inside through an arched entrance that was at the bottom of three stone steps. House turned the old-fashioned brass handle down and the door opened. It was cool and dark inside. He lit an oil lamp and Sarah gasped. The underground room featured a bathing pool that shimmered in the light.
“What is this place?”
“Before Somalia became a toilet, this was a spa. The baths are spring water. I know you must be as filthy as me.”
He stripped off his borrowed clothes and stood before her naked. He was so magnificent. His broad chest and huge arms tapered to a tiny waist and abs that rippled with muscle. He tugged at her torn burqa. “This bad boy has got to go.”
She laughed as he pulled it over her head. When he reached for her purple-flowered dress, she stopped him. She found the idol in her pocket and pulled it out. It felt warm in her hands, but no amount of squeezing it produced either Daisy or Gopher. “She’s gone.”
“I know, Sarah. I felt her enter the light. I felt her joy.” House pulled off the dress and unsnapped her old-fashioned bra. She allowed him to remove her panties and lead her to the water. It was cool, but not cold, and felt delicious on her hot skin. She held onto the idol hoping against hope that Daisy’s familiar voice would come out of the emptiness around her.
House saw her clutching the gold snake, pried her hands open and took it. “Stop, Sarah, this won’t bring her back.” He threw it into the spring. “She’s gone and she’s at peace. We’ll always miss her but she’s not unhappy. She’s finally home.”
Chapter 21
House tore a scrap off the burqa and scrubbed her entire body clean in the cool water. Water bubbled out of the center of the pool, faintly visible as sparkling bubbles in the light of the flickering lamp. He was incredibly tender with her, his touch light and sure. Suddenly she longed for him to hold her and make love to her. It seemed like the most important thing in the world.
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m clean, House, stop. Kiss me.”
He groaned as he brought her hard against his chest. “I don’t know if I can be gentle. I want you so badly.”
“I don’t care,” she whispered and opened her mouth for the invasion of his tongue.
Their wet bodies slipped together and heat filled her sex and her chest. Heat and love for him. He scooped her into his arms, laid her on top of the burqa and knelt over her. “I love you,” he said to her.
“I know,” she said.
“Can you love me? I know what I am. Can you accept that?”
She reached up and lovingly stroked his square jaw. She’d seen him kill, seen him shift; it was a lot to absorb. That side of him was wild and primal. “I don’t know,” she said. “But I need you now.”
She reached between them and rubbed her hand along the length of his erection. “Once again, we find ourselves with no protection.”
“If you want me to stop, I will.”
“No,” she whispered. “Make love to me.”
He kissed her breasts, her belly and finally buried his head between her legs. It seemed perfectly normal for her to open them so he could invade her sex with his tongue. His breath was hot on her flesh and his tongue strong. He had her moaning with excitement in seconds as he sucked and nibbled on her engorged flesh. When he inserted two fingers in her opening and moved them in and out, she arched her back and gushed with a powerful orgasm.
House growled and moved up. She opened to him and he penetrated her with his huge dick. It was so big he had to push to get it fully inside her. The sensation of being filled, stretched and maximally penetrated melted her. She whimpered with the strength of her passion.
In response, House growled again and grabbed her ass with his large hands, squeezing her butt as he lifted her, moving her down for better access. His desire for her was obvious in the glint of his silver eyes and his expanded nostrils. Sarah was carried away on the tide of their passion as he pounded into her with strong, sure strokes.
When he was near finishing she knew, because he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her as close as possible. His face was buried in her wet hair and he chanted, “I love you, you’re mine,” into her ear.
She chose to ignore his possessive statements and concentrate on the rising tide of her second orgasm. It was so powerful, she screamed at the moment her climax washed over her and over her in what seemed to be endless waves of pleasure.
House held her tightly as he froze with his cock all the way inside her. She felt it pulse and jump and the flooding warmth of his semen. They lay locked in the close embrace for several moments, not speaking, just breathing deeply as they enjoyed this small instant of peace after so much turmoil, death and sadness.
They fell asleep in each other’s arms, there on the tile floor of the bathing room. With House holding her against his chest, she slept a dreamless sleep listening to the powerful beat of his heart. When she woke, one leg was between his. He lay on his back and she was draped over his chest with her face in the hollow of his throat.
The sun streamed in through windows that opened to the sea. Sarah hadn’t even known the windows were there. She disengaged herself without disturbing House and waded into the pool. The water was warm and soft on her skin. It smelled faintly of minerals. She went to the deepest part where the water entered the pool and dove under the water searching for the idol. House had tossed it in there and she couldn’t bear to part with it. It represented her only link to Daisy and she wanted to keep it.
She finally found it lodged between two rocks. She knew when she touched it because it warmed to her touch. House sat up when she left the pool and rubbed his eyes. “We gotta go,” he s
aid. “I called for a pickup. The bird will be here any minute.”
He stopped and stared at her naked body. “You’re coming with me,” he said. “When I get debriefed, you better be there to back me up.”
Sarah had to think for a moment. What did she want to do? She thought of going back to her U.N. job and shuddered. She didn’t think she could face all the questions she would be peppered with. What could she tell them? A giant werewolf had saved her and fallen in love with her? She’d fallen in love with a woman, who died saving her and who also just happened to be a werewolf? “I’ll go,” she said. “I don’t want to stay here.”
House grinned. “What? Don’t want to go back to normal life?” He scooped her into his arms and kissed her. “Do you love me even a little?”
She pulled away. “I think I need some time to sort out how I feel. I do love you. I just don’t know what it means.”
He nodded. “I can understand that.” House found his pants and pulled the phone out of one pocket, the phone he’d taken from the al Qaida leader. He checked the time and leaped to his feet. “I can’t believe we slept so long.”
She struggled into her filthy undergarments wishing she’d thought to grab some clean clothes from her room. The dress went on and she dropped the idol into its pocket. House took her hand and they ran out into the bright light of day.
The sound of a helicopter in the distance reached them just as they entered the U.N. building. Coop met them and a dark shadow passed across his face. Sarah blushed. He knew where they’d been and what they’d done.
“I need to change,” she said to House and bolted for her room before Coop or anyone could say anything.
Anna rose on one elbow. “Where did you go?” she asked in a sleepy voice.
“I’m going with House,” Sarah said without answering. She stripped off her grungy clothes in front of Anna’s startled eyes. Shy Sarah was gone forever. With new, clean underwear on, she yanked trousers, a t-shirt and boots on. Fully clothed in suitable garments for the first time in days, Sarah ran out of the room. She’d tucked her idol into the cargo pockets of her khaki pants.
House had changed, too. One of the U.N. soldiers close to his size had provided him with desert-camo pants and a black T-shirt that bulged around his massive arms. She had to stop when she saw him. He was so beautiful. His silver eyes stared into her soul and he smiled a crooked grin that lifted one corner of his perfect, manly mouth. “Now you look ready for anything.”
When the bird arrived, Coop and the U.N. medic helped carry Berry on a stretcher to the helicopter. He was loaded into the cargo area and House leaped aboard. He reached for her hand and pulled her into the bird with him.
She kept her hand resting on the idol in her pocket as they flew over the dry land to the airfield at Mogadishu. Her heart was heavy. She missed Daisy so much. When the bird landed, House jumped out and helped her down. They walked hand in hand across the tarmac toward a row of metal buildings.
Suddenly, a familiar figure ran out of one of the buildings. Sarah would know him anywhere by his cocky walk and his aloha shirt.
“Gopher!” House yelled. “Gopher!”
Laughing they ran toward him. He had something fuzzy and small in his arms. When he reached them, he stopped and looked into Sarah’s eyes. There was a long moment of strange recognition. “You were in my dreams.”
She smiled. “I thought you were a ghost. We thought you’d died.”
He shook his head. “Nah, I was in a coma. Man, I had some weird-ass dreams.”
The bundle of fur in his arms whimpered. He held it out to Sarah. “One of the guys found this little girl wandering outside the office. I couldn’t let her starve.”
Sarah took the puppy. It was all black except for a reddish stripe running from her eye over the top of her head. The little animal looked like a wolf…looked like Daisy. She hugged it close to her chest and remembered Daisy’s promise to watch over her.
“What have you got, Sarah?” House asked.
“It’s a wolf puppy that looks just like…”
“It’s not a wolf. There are no wolves in Somalia.” House tried to take the puppy. When he saw the strip of red fur, he pulled his hand away. “Daisy,” he whispered.
“What? Where is Daisy?” Coop asked as they slowly walked toward the buildings.
“She didn’t make it,” House said. “She’s home.”
“Did you recover her body?”
“No, we’ll have to go get her. We left her with the Rizeigat.”
“The who?”
“Don’t worry,” Sarah said as she hugged the soft furry bundle in her arms. “Daisy will always be with us. She’s in our hearts forever. I’m going to name this little girl Daisy.”
House pulled Sarah close. “Do you think?” he whispered.
Sarah just smiled.
About the Author
Melanie Thompson
I grew up the oldest of a large family. After years of torturing my younger brothers and sister, I left home to make it on my own. Now I’m a mom with three kids working nights as a bartender. I love the nightlife baby.
I read a lot and I love people. As a bartender, I use my photographic memory to remember people and their names. I never forget a drink.
For fun, I like to hike, read and shoot automatic weapons. I’m deadly accurate with a bow.
I wanted to get into writing so I partnered with my mother, a published author, and together we came up with Erotic Flights of Fantasy I and II and the Saga of the Steampunk Witches. All are available from www.amazon.com and www.torridbooks.com
For your reading pleasure, we invite you to visit our web bookstore
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Pushing Up Daisies Page 16
