by Mia Downing
“Okay.” I couldn’t believe that I had the capability to listen to him with such calm, like a real adult with problem-solving capabilities. But then, this hadn’t happened to me. “So did something happen, then? Because she wouldn’t sever your bond over something minor.”
He closed his eyes. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he opened them, dark blue with turmoil. “When Skye left, I was given a glass of sherry. I remember feeling off. At first, I felt free and relaxed, and Leah led me to a quieter place so we could talk. But she…she kissed me. And I didn’t know how to resist without blowing Skye’s cover.”
Wow. Color me ten kinds of surprised. “So you kissed that woman.”
He nodded, looking a little shell-shocked. “But that’s not the worst part. I woke up in a mussed guestroom bed, alone, hours later with no memory of what I’d done.” He raked a hand through his hair as he glanced up. “I don’t know what happened, but I…Leah’s gentleman friend helped me out of the house, which made it worse. I somehow made it home, and Skye wouldn’t talk to me about that. She wouldn’t listen. She told me it was my right to choose someone other than her. In our time, it’s not wrong like it is here. But I would never do that to her.”
No, he never would. I didn’t know what to do or to say, but I believed him. My chest ached for him and the depth of anguish.
Sighing, he rubbed his forehead like the weight of the world crushed him. “Skye had taken the notes she’d needed from the journal, had amended our plan, and she wanted to get the necklace and go.”
“Wait.” I held up a hand as I thought this through. All of this may have added up in his guilty little mind, but it didn’t add up in mine. “You didn’t remember taking Leah to bed or having sex with her?”
“No.”
“Were you naked?”
“I…no? I don’t think so.” He shrugged. “What does it matter?”
My mind raced at a million miles a second. He’d been given a drink, and he didn’t remember a thing. They didn’t have date rape drugs back then. Cocaine, weed, alcohol…yes. But what if a sly someone had brought them back? “That gravestone in the other cemetery… The date on the infant stone was 1880. Those time travelers could have been there in 1892, right?”
“What? Maybe?”
“Would you know? Like…would you feel their energy or something?”
“No, not necessarily. You know what it’s like now that you’re bonded. It’s not as obvious. The non-gifted notice our presence more than we feel other gifted. She could sense other energy, but she’d have to seek it out.” His brow furrowed. “What does that have to do with my indiscretion?”
I put up my index finger to indicate he needed to let me finish. “And time travelers would have had to stop and layover in another time, too. Right? They couldn’t just go from your time to that time.”
Dazed, he shrugged. “Yes, they’d have to layover.”
I gave him an encouraging smile. “Then the good news is you probably didn’t do anything wrong. I think you were drugged. By a time traveler.”
Chapter sixteen
Marek
I think you were drugged. By a time traveler.
I shifted on the window seat to stare at Skye, my doubt laced with despair. She looked excited that another time traveler had drugged me, her light-blue eyes sparkling, her gestures animated in a way I hadn’t seen as of yet.
None of it mattered. Her original had severed our bond in a suicidal move that had almost ended it all. Rage bubbled up under the despair, and I clenched my fists to keep from breaking something. Smashing something. Anything to refocus the well of pain threatening to suck me in.
“Wouldn’t I have known that she broke the bond?” I asked hoarsely, more to myself than to her.
This Skye shrugged her pretty shoulders. Fuck, except for the coppery hair and the modern clothes, she looked just like the evil one. “The aftereffects of date rape drugs can last hours, especially if you were drinking.”
I had been drinking, which was against the rules if one was going to jump any distance. We had to keep a clear head for the energy to navigate. I’d berated myself for the last year and a half for that, for jumping while she was wounded…for everything wrong I’d done.
And if she hadn’t broken the bond, we could have survived all that.
I closed my eyes as I recalled that night, her pale, tear-streaked face, her cold anger. If she’d talked to me after when I had tried to explain, all of this could have been avoided, and I could be safe at home in my own time.
I opened my eyes as this Skye’s hand gripped my thigh a little tighter, her light-blue eyes exactly like her original’s.
As badly as I’d once wanted her to be the other Skye, she wasn’t. She’d restored the bond and saved me. If I hadn’t come here, I wouldn’t have her.
“…these drugs are a thing in this era.” She’d been speaking, but I found it hard to focus on a stupid drug when my world had just shattered. “There are a lot of different kinds, too. Some enhance the experience while some erase your memory of it. But being a guy, you probably were useless as far as sex goes. Meaning those drugs would make you unable to perform.”
“Wait.” I’d never been unable to perform. Ever. Maybe this drug stuff was more important than I’d thought. “So I couldn’t have had sex with anyone.”
“No, probably not.” She patted my thigh excitedly, and I stared at her slender fingers, devoid of my ring. “If they had spent their layover in the 1990s or later, they’d have access to a bunch of drugs they could put in your drink, but some were available in the 1950s and some earlier.” Her hand patted again, her black nail polish perfect and shiny. “Marek.”
Startled, I glanced up.
She smiled encouragingly. “This is good. See?”
“Good?” I snorted and turned to the window, the darkness creeping from the shadows as the moon disappeared behind a cloud. “How is any of this good? I can’t go back and tell her that I didn’t break my vows.”
“No, you can’t, but you can forgive yourself. You’re a great guy, Marek. You were loyal, and she was a bitch to sever the bond.”
The angry part of me agreed and wanted vengeance. I set my jaw as I blindly stared out the window again. “I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself. Too much went wrong.”
“Hey.” She snapped her fingers in front of my face.
I turned back to her with a tired but angry sigh. “What?”
Her dark brows furrowed, her pert nose wrinkling in that pissy way of hers. “Yes, a lot went wrong. And you can sit here and blame yourself, or you can move on. So. I just told you a bunch of stuff that exonerated you from any blame. What are you going to do with that?”
“I don’t know. There’s no one here to care.” I blew out a breath and raked a hand through my hair.
“I care,” she insisted. “Don’t be a callous ass. You made me dinner. There had to be a reason you’d go to such lengths.”
She wanted me to care back when I had nothing in me but hate. I barked out a laugh. “Yeah. I wanted to butter you up, because you’d be pissed about the book.”
Her brows furrowed in confusion. “I’m proud about the book. You’re a brilliant man. I’m sorry if you don’t realize I feel that about you. I know I’m bitchy, but you worked hard to produce and sell a book in this turbulent market.”
I blinked as my jaw clenched. She was proud? “You won’t be so proud when you realize what it’s about.”
Her chin lifted at the challenge. “Try me.”
The bravery I’d felt a moment ago fled. “It’s just…my story. I couldn’t publish M.S. Storm’s journal without someone wanting to see it. I couldn’t put out anything about the Rai necklace when I’m taking it back. So…it’s fiction.”
“Fiction,” she echoed.
“Yeah. It’s called Diary of a Time Traveler. I changed the names, but anyone from the Association will know it’s the truth.” I would put notes in the back of a print book in Uptari so they’d
know. Then I was going to put it in the vault and pray the timeline didn’t change.
She yanked her hand from my thigh and closed her eyes, the tension radiating off her in waves of energy I could almost feel. I waited in near silence, the ticking of the grandfather clock keeping track of the seconds. This could go many ways, and at this point, I hoped she’d leave me. I didn’t want to fight anymore.
Drawing in a breath, she opened her troubled blue eyes and leveled them on me. “Okay.”
“Okay? That’s…it?”
She gave me a slight nod. “She reacted poorly and look where that got you. I made a promise a few weeks ago to be patient and learn about time travel. That includes the book. I’m still proud, even if I’m not thrilled it’s a story about her. I’ll get over it.”
“Okay.” The anger dimmed, and a glimmer of hope surfaced. Maybe this could work.
She tilted her head as her gaze dipped from mine to my mouth and back again. “But I have to ask…are you still hoping I’m her? Down deep inside? Because you still get something good out of this if you want it.” Her hand crept up my thigh, and despite the churning of emotions I couldn’t name, my dick stirred to life. “You get me.”
I leaned back against the side wall of the reading nook, my head giving a soft thud as it hit. Did I want that? I needed a pros/cons list of my own. Cons. She looked just like her original and was just as bitchy. Pros. Her bitchy was different, and she always felt bad after. She’d opened my eyes to a new way of life. Most importantly, she’d fixed the bond and saved my life.
I glanced at her, and I hated that she looked like she was holding her breath as she waited for me to answer. Who wouldn’t want her?
“You don’t want a boyfriend,” I said softly.
“Maybe I do if he’s invested in me instead of someone else.” Her fingertips brushed the growing bulge in my jeans.
I sucked in a breath, wanting her to stop yet needing her to continue. “I’ve always been invested in you. That’s why I jumped ahead after we landed here.”
“You jumped ahead because you were devoted to her. You were invested in me remembering and becoming someone I’m not. In March, you’re going back in time to save her. And she’s not even here.” She dragged a fingernail down my button fly.
“No, she’s not.” My skin heated as lust edged into despair’s territory.
“Don’t forget, she broke your bond.” With nimble fingers, she popped the top button on my jeans. “I restored it.”
“Yes.” I swallowed and shifted uncomfortably as the remaining buttons dug into my growing erection.
“And when you publish your book, she won’t be here. But I will be.” The second button released. “And I’ll be supportive.”
“Yes, you will.” As her fingers traced the patch of bare skin above my pubic bone, my breathing hitched, making me glad I’d foregone the drawers today.
“So let me ask you again.” The fourth button popped, and her hand eased inside, cupping my length. “Wouldn’t you rather be invested in me?”
“Yes.” I groaned and surrendered to her touch, closing my eyes as my breath grew ragged. This Skye had her hand on my cock, pulling it free to stroke and fondle. Wet heat surrounded the head, and I shuddered at how damned good that felt.
But the other Skye had been the love of my life…or so I’d thought.
Her teeth grazed the head, and I yelped, my eyes popping open.
“Hey.” She smacked my thigh a few times, her other hand still stroking me from base to top in languid strokes. “Stop thinking your ‘woe is me’ thoughts for losing the love of your life and enjoy this.”
“I’m not—”
She snorted. “I’m going to blow you, and you’re thinking about her. Maybe I should stop.”
“No!” I’d said it before I realized it, the word shoved out of my mouth by a frenzy of lust. But my upbringing lurked in the background, reminding me this was wrong. “But I don’t want a blow job.”
“Of course, you do. You’re a guy.” She paused mid-stroke to contemplate me with her head tilted. “Once, you’d remarked about how you wouldn’t get an after if I made you come this way, so is this something she wouldn’t do for you?”
I clenched my jaw for a moment as I bit back the bitterness. “It’s a selfish action. Sex is for procreation or for rejuvenating energy levels.”
I’d asked her original to break the rules once during a layover. I’d wanted to experience what other guys in that time had joked about getting. She’d said no and fucked my brains out instead. But that had always stood out to me, her saying no to my pleasure when we’d broken so many rules already.
“So, she never finished you.” Her gaze never left mine as she bent to give me a long, satisfying lick up the backside that ended with her rimming the head.
I gulped as her wet heat surrounded my dick, sucking me to mid-shaft. “No.”
Withdrawing with a satisfying pop, she leaned to tug at the waistband of my pants. I lifted my hips so she could draw them down to free my aching dick. “You give me orgasms all the time, and you don’t get one.”
“Energy,” I managed between rasps of breath as her hand lazily stroked.
“But what else do you get out of it?”
“Lots.” I shuddered as she took me in, drawing me deeper than before. “I feel…powerful. Skillful. Important.”
She hummed in agreement around my cock.
My trembling hands sank in her hair, caressing her scalp. I closed my eyes, and the mix of emotions jumbled around the energy with nowhere to go. It felt…lonely, like I’d been before I’d contacted this Skye.
My eyes snapped open, and I stared at the top of her copper curls with longing. “You have to unshield.”
Her lips left my cock with a pop. “No. It’s what she—”
“I need that. I need to feel your energy.” When she shook her head, I tightened my grip on her hair to gently stop her. “You don’t want to be her, and I can’t be anything but me. I’m gifted. The bond is my life. And sex without feeling your joy would be empty and meaningless.”
Doubt filled her blue eyes along with every line and furrow in her beautiful face as she struggled internally with my words.
I bent awkwardly to kiss her pouting lips. “I want you to give me this. But I need to feel you do it—inside and out.”
“Inside and out,” she repeated as her fingertip dipped in the droplet of pre-cum at the tip, swirling it along the crown.
“Yes.” I swallowed the lump in my throat as I mentally said goodbye to a woman I now hated. “Please.”
She gulped and nodded, the barrier lowering to bathe me in her energy—bright blue with flecks of…teal.
I frowned as I cocked my head, assessing this strange, foreign energy that felt so familiar. “What’s—”
A slender finger silenced me. “I’m not her.”
Her mouth sucked me in again, sinking me home in a single swallow. I closed my eyes and leaned back, letting her brilliant blue radiance soothe my grayed and dejected yellow. I needed this. I deserved this. I didn’t almost kill us. She had.
Rasping in a breath, I stopped thinking and just…selfishly accepted. Her hot mouth delivered perfection, each bob of her head bringing me closer…closer…
My toes curled as I came, my thighs stiffening with each orgasmic pulse. I cried out, trembling as I emptied the frustration, anger, and regret, leaving sadness and blame behind. I shoved it aside before it crossed the bond, letting her only feel the joy and satisfaction. Maybe two could play at shielding.
She moaned, the sound vibrating around my shaft as she lifted her head and gave me a satisfied smile. “Well?”
“That was amazing.” I tugged her into my arms and kissed her, not caring that my essence tasted salty on her tongue. “That was a first.”
“Isn’t it nice to focus on yourself for a change?” She hugged me tight, and her energy changed, the teal growing, expanding around the edges.
“Yes.” I bru
shed the hair from her face. “But what did you feel?”
“For once, I was important to you.” That teal intensified, mixing with the other blues in a blaze of happy energy.
“I’ll try to keep making you feel that.” That was my new vow. I’d make her happy. I could make her happy.
“Good.” Her hand lazily cupped me again. “Then don’t leave in March.”
Fates, I wanted more than anything to promise her, to give her that. And I couldn’t. Something told me I had to go, be it the curse, or my gift. I kissed the top of her head, savoring her new light and energy. I’d helped her achieve that, and it meant the world to me.
Instead of answering, I reminded her, “I made rolls, you know.”
“Yeah, that’s right.” Hand on my chest, she angled to kiss me, deep and possessive. She’d never done that before, and I marveled in the feel of it. “Let’s go.”
Skye
December
The bell over the door of the bookstore announced Marek’s arrival for his book signing, the wind swirling in with a bit of snow. His gaze found mine immediately as he brushed flakes from his coat.
“Hey,” I said as I smoothed black dress I wore under a bookstore apron and went to take his coat. “I’ll put this in the back.”
“Wait, okay?”
I nodded as I held his damp coat. I hesitated a quick second, glanced to see that the coast was clear, and planted a quick kiss on his cold lips.
He smiled nervously and glanced around. “The place looks good.”
“Thank you.”
We’d moved a lot of displays around, making an open area in the front for the guests. In the fiction area, we’d set up refreshments from the bakery across the street. All sorts of time-related things hung from strings or were propped in display areas—gears and clocks and emerald gems. Of course, Marek’s book was on full display everywhere along with some posters and pictures of him. Damn, he looked good in a fitted suit jacket that accentuated his broad shoulders and a crisp, white dress shirt. No tie. I bet half the female population in town would come out to meet him based on his picture alone.
