by Shawn Keys
Angelica blushed in flattered appreciation for her concern. “I’m fine , really!”
Kaylee let out a sultry laugh. “That’s an understatement.” Her fingers played around the hem of Angelica’s dress, pulling it up far enough to tease along the top of her thigh-high stockings made from dark-chocolate silk. “I mean, these are sexy as hell. What a waste to wear these without anyone around to see them!” Her smile grew enchantingly sensual. “Or touch them.”
A further flush rose up to Angelica’s cheeks as Kaylee hinted at someone else being there. Zahn had only known Angelica for a few days, but he felt certain that Angelica wouldn’t lie to this woman. Not when there was this sort of intimacy between them.
That didn’t make the subject an easy one. Stumbling through her jumbled thoughts and emotions, Angelica managed to say, “I’m glad you guessed where I would be. You were so sweet to worry. The last few days have been nothing short of a whirlwind. I got swept up in it all. The hours just melted away. Then whole days.” Angelica searched for words. “I forgot to send you any word. I’m terrible and I know it. But so much has happened. I have no idea where I could possibly start to explain it all!”
Zahn was not an expert on matters of the heart, but this was going to be a little awkward. He had no context to their relationship, but they were clearly more than friends.
Then again, he thought, the signs were all there. I was just blind to them. Angelica had provided all the hints he should have needed: saying only one other person existed who let her be herself, and mentioning only one other person called her Angie.
He did have an option here. He could leave. Vanish. Slip his relics into a bag and walk away.
As soon as he considered it, he rejected it. Leaving would hurt Angelica. She would feel betrayed. Almost as bad, he would be leaving her in real danger from those hunting him. Once they realized she had a relic of her own, there would be some truly terrible people after her. She could look after herself, but only once she was prepared for the mystical world lurking under the mundane one.
Not to mention, ducking out now was equal to him dodging a difficult moment to make it easy on himself. He wasn’t that slimy .
Which left the other option.
Swallowing hard, he gathered his courage and stepped forward into the bedroom. “Perhaps, the best place to start should be with introductions?”
Kaylee whirled in place, caught off-guard. Only the calming influence of Angelica’s arms folded around her kept her from screaming. Zahn’s gentle tone helped. Holding a bottle of Angelica’s favorite wine with a couple glasses suggested he wasn’t an intruder. Kaylee’s eyes dipped down to his battle-scarred chest. Zahn swore he saw her eyes linger on the defined ‘v’ shape between his hip flexors and abs. But this wasn’t the right moment for open desire. Because while he was certainly not a dangerous, violent intruder, having a half-naked man in her lover’s bedroom was a whole other kind of tension.
Angelica was trying to keep her cool, hoping against hope this wouldn’t end in disaster. “Zahn, this is Kaylee Valemount, the most cherished person in the whole world to me.”
Kaylee probably knew how Angelica felt, but she still grew a flattered smile as her lover confirmed it. Perhaps especially with Zahn intruding on Angelica’s private cottage.
Their cottage, he was beginning to realize.
Extending a hand in his direction, Angelica offered, “Kaylee, this is Zahn. He’s –”
“– your new lover.” There was no guessing in Kaylee’s voice. Even if the wine and their intimate attire weren’t enough, she couldn’t miss the warm connection flowing between them, even from across the room.
Angelica clutched the woman’s hands and turned her in to stand face to face. Sincerity filled her gaze and added earnestly, “…the man who saved my life.”
Kaylee inhaled sharply. “The news stories were real?”
Another time, Angelica might have laughed. But not now, when emotions were so fragile. “They don’t know the half of it. I stared down the barrel of that gun and knew I was going to die. I saw her squeezing the trigger, Leea. I had lost you. I had lost everything.” She turned her eyes to Zahn. “Then he was there.”
Kaylee’s eyes were soft with tears. “I should have been here for you.”
Angelica’s leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “You were doing exactly what you should have been doing. Being amazing where people needed you.” She sighed. “I was the one who got so impulsive. He didn’t know.”
She turned to face Zahn again, though she kept clinging tightly to Kaylee. “You didn’t know. And when you said you wanted me more than anything else I could offer, I couldn’t say no. I wanted that. There were items in that room worth thousands if not millions of dollars. But you chose me.”
Zahn smiled back. “And I would do it again, a million times over.”
“I know.” She shifted back to Kaylee. “I’m trying to explain, but words don’t seem like enough. I was in a dream for days, and I’m not sure I’m awake even now. There’s so much more to say about what has happened!”
A single tear escaped Kaylee’s eye and streamed down her cheek. Her answer was barely a whimper. “We never spoke any promises to each other, Angie. We weren’t in that place yet. I wanted to be. Maybe even soon –”
“– I did, too!”
Kaylee interwove her fingers with Angelica’s. “I know. Oh, Angie, I know.” Her eyes closed, and she shook her head as if to banish anger that would poison their relationship. Her eyelids fluttered open, and a loving smile crept onto her lips. “Maybe I should be furious. But all I can think about is how blessed I am that you survived. That you are still in my life.” She bent down to kiss Angelica’s fingers woven through her own, and gushed, “I would be so lost without you.”
Zahn’s heart pounded in his chest. Regret filled him. His time with Angelica would be impossible to forget, but he couldn’t be the reason these two women split apart.
He exhaled slowly, steeling himself for what he had to do.
Angelica must have sensed it. Her gaze turned to him, loss already showing on her face. Her mouth opened, but her words were frozen inside. Trapped between two lovers, neither of which she wanted to live without.
Zahn took the burden away from her. “You two should celebrate. Let me get my things, and I’ll go.” He stepped to the mirror vanity and settled the wine and glasses on the edge. “Take these. This is a perfect night for sharing. Share it together.” Quenching the sorrow in his heart, he turned to go. It was the hardest thing he had ever done.
“Please, don’t leave. ”
Zahn froze. That wasn’t Angelica. It was Kaylee. He looked back over his shoulder, but he didn’t dare speak. He wasn’t sure he could manage it past the hopeful lump in his throat.
Kaylee had followed a half-step after him. She reached out and placed a warm hand on his back. Helpless to explain what prompted her, she stammered out, “Please, stay. I know, it doesn’t make sense. Maybe it’s even a little weird. But seeing you go is wrong.” She let genuine pleasure show in her smile. “You aren’t some fling for her. I haven’t seen her looking so beautifully radiant since…” She searched for the right comparison.
Angelica folded her arms around Kaylee from behind, hugging her into her chest. “Since you came into my life.” Her red lips kissed into the dark skin exposed above Kaylee’s dress.
Charmed by her lover, Kaylee’s smile shifted into a seductive one. Her head turned and found Angelica’s mouth with her own.
Zahn drifted back around. His breezy trousers swished against his hardening phallus as he watched the two gorgeous Hollywood stars embrace. His mouth went dry as he drank in every detail of their kiss. He watched their tongues slide sensually along each other. Their hands brushed along each other’s bodies to accent the kiss even more.
The kiss ended only when it was right that it should. Neither of them rushed it. Zahn found it strangely intimate. He wasn’t involved, but he felt invite
d to linger as they expressed their love in so honest a fashion.
Kaylee turned her eyes back to him and said, “Don’t leave. Angie might forgive me. But I could never forgive myself for chasing you away. You kept her alive. I… I owe you everything.”
Zahn summoned all the sincerity in his heart. “I had to. She was too special to lose.”
Kaylee took hold of his right hand. She raised it to her lips and pressed a warm kiss on his knuckles. Then, she drew his hand down and placed his palm right between the ample swell of her breasts. “Thank you, with all my heart.”
Zahn could feel her pulse right through her dress. It was beating so hard! His eyes were drawn down to the point of connection. He devoured the curve of her full breasts beneath the designer outfit. Her breasts were larger than Angelica’s, pressed up by whatever bra she wore. They threatened to spill out with each excitement-charged breath she took.
He responded in kind. His left hand drew hers in to his chest, and pressed it to his well-muscled chest. “Because of what you mean to Angelica, without even knowing you, I would do the same for you.”
Kaylee smile grew wider. “So charming. No wonder she’s fallen under your spell.”
The moment was intense. Nothing so intense could last forever.
Kaylee was the one who found a way to end it smoothly. “Perhaps a third glass would be appropriate? Allow me.” She placed a quick kiss on Angelica’s cheek, then slipped out of the room.
Angelica stepped quickly over to his side and whispered, “I am so sorry. I never –”
Zahn tried to cut her off gently. “– no apologies, Angie. Really, none are necessary. You tried to tell me your life was complicated. I told you I would take you for as long as it could last.” He gestured toward Kaylee in the other room. “She seems wonderful.”
Warm appreciation spread across Angelica’s face as he understood. “She is. I don’t deserve either of you.”
Zahn didn’t hesitate to say, “You do.”
Then, Kaylee returned armed with a third tall glass. She nestled back into Angelica’s arms. It wasn’t meant to slice Zahn away from her. Rather, she simply needed to be near her lover after so long away. She passed the new glass to Zahn. “Care to do the honors?”
Zahn agreed, needing a break from their joint sexiness anyway. He arranged the glasses on the vanity, popped the cork on the wine, and poured out three generous helpings.
As he worked, Kaylee asked Angelica, “You said the last few days were more than just the one woman trying to kill you. Hard to believe how anything could be more memorable than that.” Light dawned on her face. “Oh! Does it have anything to do with the muddy clothes in the hallway laundry? They look like they’ve been sitting there abandoned for the last couple days. Did you two go crawling through a muddy field somewhere?”
Angelica’s gaze flickered nervously to Zahn, a silent question as to what he was willing to reveal. She hadn’t forgotten her promise.
But this was totally different than spreading public rumors. Zahn made that clear out loud, avoiding any attempt at subtle, hidden messages. “Tell her whatever you feel she is ready to hear, Angie. She’s been superhuman with how well she’s taken this whole situation. Add to that how much she means to you, and…well,” He looked to Kaylee, “You have my trust. I’d never ask her to keep you in the dark about anything.”
Angelica glowed her approval and appreciation back at him. Then, she tried to explain to Kaylee, “Even a near-death experience can’t compare to finding out the whole world is a stranger and more wonderful place than I ever imagined.”
Kaylee actually giggled. “You are a movie star living in the lap of luxury like only a few people could even imagine. Our world is a fairly wondrous place, wouldn’t you say?” She gestured around at the palatial cottage as a compelling argument.
The blonde star smiled, but answered, “How about a world where magic is real?”
Kaylee blinked in surprise. “Excuse me?”
The door had been opened. Zahn prompted her to go further, “Show her, Angelica. Use the amulet-relic.”
Angelica admitted, “Not sure I can. I need to keep my mind calm and clear.”
Zahn encouraged her, “You can do it.”
Kaylee looked amused, as if waiting for the punchline to drop. “This isn’t making any sense.”
Angelica caressed her hand and replied, “Just watch that window.”
“For what?”
“You’ll see.” Angelica’s eyes fluttered closed. There were signs of movement behind her eyelids, as if she was searching beyond the confines of the room with her mind.
In the dim light of the sunset, the diamond eye of her falcon symbol shimmered with an inner magical radiance that had nothing to do with how it caught the light. A few seconds later, a black-winged and white-faced nightingale alighted on the window sill. The normally shy bird was apparently unconcerned by the three large, bipedal predators watching it.
An enchanted smile touched Kaylee’s lips. “Oh, how lovely! ”
The bird’s sweet tones trilled through the room - hitting the exact notes for the haunting theme song of the television show Impossible Mysteries , which was the latest and most popular in the long line of shows glorifying unexplained phenomena and conspiracy theories.
Now, Kaylee gawked openly. “Well, ahh, I admit you don’t hear that every day.”
Zahn prompted her, “Look at Angelica’s necklace. See the dance of light within the eye? The flicker is in time to the music. This is Angelica’s willpower using the power of that necklace.”
Kaylee let out a nervous laugh, shifting her gaze back and forth between the two of them. She looked like she expected them to laugh and proclaim the whole thing an elaborate prank. Neither of them did, and her eyes went wide. “Are you being serious?”
Zahn answered with a patient expression, waiting for her to reach the next stage of this process. First, there was always disbelief.
When he didn’t crack, Kaylee advanced quickly into denial. “I’m not sure why you two are doing this, but I’ve seen magic tricks like this before. You’re not going to fool me!” She wasn’t mad. The actress didn’t know Zahn at all, but she trusted Angelica implicitly. But she couldn’t understand why they were playing jokes at a time like this.
Zahn cocked an eyebrow, “Have you? Think about what Angelica did, Kaylee. It happened so smoothly. The bird came so neatly. There was no pageantry to cloak what she was doing. No distractions or games with sleight of hand. She called, and the nightingale came to sing the song she chose.”
Kaylee paused again, sorting through what she had seen, searching for an explanation. Unable to figure it out, she protested, “Just because I don’t know how the magician did it doesn’t make it any less a trick! Some magicians can even fool other magicians!”
Angelica released the bird, and the critter flew off into the night. She threw up her hands in gentle exasperation with her lover, “Oh, Kaylee, why would I try to trick you, hmm? That was me!”
Zahn tried to soothe the friction. “To be fair, we’ve just told Kaylee that the blue sky is actually pink. Remember what I said when I first told you about all this? You need to experience it in a way that crushes any doubt. You humored me when you went to the studio. I know that, and it meant a lot to me. But you didn’t believe until later. When did it strike you as undeniably real?”
Angelica answered without hesitation, “The bears.”
Kaylee cocked her head inquisitively. “Bears?”
Angelica shuddered in remembered horror. “Albert Klein’s zombie bears.”
Another nervous laugh trembled off Kaylee’s lips. “That’s… not a real thing, right?”
Zhan grunted at the painful reminder of the creatures and the bruises they had given him. “Not anymore.” He challenged Angelica to be honest with herself, “That was the second time you nearly died in two days. After that, you were ready to rethink how you saw the world.”
Kaylee made one thing cle
ar, “I’m not supporting any near-death experiences for myself.”
That charmed a wink from Zahn, which drew a smile from Kaylee in return.
It was Angelica who suddenly asked, “But if a death experience can wake me up, then a powerful life experience could have done the same, right?”
Zahn considered the idea. “If its undeniable and powerful, I don’t see why not.”
“It just has to be intensely personal, right?”
“Yes. Intensely personal. Something downright visceral. Something where Kaylee’s own senses would have to be lying to her for it to be a lie.”
Angelica’s breathing sped up a little. Whatever her idea, it was beginning to stir her blood. “You said the Fountain’s gift was inside me now because of you. Right?”
Zahn affirmed, “Yes. The Fountain is mine, and only I can use it directly. But through me, its energy has coupled with your body. I will explain how it will manifest and how you can use the Fountain indirectly once we find it a permanent home. It involves banishing fatigue or a cloudy mind. For now, it’s enough to know that it is a part of you.”
Angelica replied with total satisfaction. “Good.” She swirled into Kaylee’s arms. Drawing gently on her wrists, Angelica walked backward until her knees connected with the side of the bed. She melted against Kaylee and started a kiss that was anything but innocent. It was lingering and wet. Zahn was riveted in place, arousal making his phallus struggle painfully against his underwear confining it .
The sensual kiss ended, leaving behind a storm of lust in both women’s eyes.
Angelica purred, “Now you’re going to lick me ‘til I cum.”
Despite Kaylee’s darker complexion, Zahn had the impression of a dark flush of embarrassment wash over her skin. She gasped, “In front of him ?”
Zahn stayed silent, his own mouth hanging open a little. The whole idea was pretty much torn right from his best dreams. He was also beginning to understand what Angelica was trying to do. It might be crazy enough to work , he thought. Life instead of death. Of course!
Angelica’s gaze never left Kaylee. “Do you love me?”
