“But won’t you miss flying about in the heavens? Life may become rather routine and even dull for you down here, Earthbound. You’ll be like a great, soaring bird with its wings clipped.”
He chuckled softly. “We won’t be Earthbound, darling. My ship is still up there, stealthed and waiting. Anytime you’d like, we can transport up and take a cruise through the skies.”
“Really?” Emily’s eyes glittered with excitement.
“Yes, really,” he answered, smiling at her delight. “But I think it would be wise to wait until my fellow Starwanderers vacate the immediate heavens. Come now.”
Taking his wife by the hand, he led her to the waiting bed—a feather bed so soft and high that a set of steps sat beside it for them to mount to the mattress. Jonathan helped Emily up, then followed her.
A moment later, they were naked between the soft, old quilts. Their bodies burned with love for each other. The terror of earlier in the evening was forgotten as flesh met flesh—hot and damp and hungry. It seemed to Emily that bright sparks snapped in the darkness around them as her husband, in human form, claimed her.
“Jonathan?” Emily whispered between sighs. “The other kind of blending you spoke of—is it truly possible?”
His answer came not by word, but by action. Lying beside her, Jonathan Webb grew still. A moment later, the room was filled with blinding green light that shifted and flowed in swirls and columns. Suddenly, the bright aura became a shaft of green fire that covered her, then entered her.
The entering could not be accomplished with a quick, deep thrust. It was a very gradual process—inch by inch, hour by hour—her pleasure and her awareness growing with each moment that passed. She felt him move inside her—deeper and deeper—his vaporous heat spreading to caress every part of her until she, too, glowed brightly. He was in her breasts, swelling them with pleasure. He was in her womb, warming it for their child. He was in her heart, making it beat with twice its normal strength. And then, finally, he invaded her mind—reading her most secret desires and transforming them into delicious reality.
Emily could not have explained the feeling even if she had been coherent enough to try. It was as if she finally knew him—really knew him. She knew of his life, his planet, his needs. She realized, too, that he now shared all her secrets, her hopes, her dreams. By entering her, he had made their love for each other everlasting.
That night, Emily’s Starwanderer took her on a journey through the star-strewn heavens, like nothing she had ever imagined. Together they flew, they soared, they glided. Silently, she begged him never to let their wondrous journey end.
“Never, my darling,” he whispered.
Emily caught her breath and turned to stare at Jonathan. He was back.
“Oh, my darling!” she cried. “It was too beautiful for words.”
“As are you,” he whispered.
Then he took her into his arms, and they held each other until dawn—quietly talking, softly kissing, gently touching.
At last, Emily knew that their love for each other would endure forevermore. They would begin their new life together, not simply as husband and wife, but as a unique couple whose minds, hearts, and souls were blended until the end of time.
At that thought, Emily smiled, then she glowed.
Epilogue
January 11, 1919
The sky was brilliant over Washington that night, with a million stars twinkling in the clear, cold heavens. Emily sat beside the bedroom window of the old house in Georgetown, gazing up as she savored the success of their daughter’s twenty-first birthday party that evening.
“Liza loved the necklace, Jonathan. Didn’t she look beautiful tonight?”
“She’s always looked beautiful to me, Emily. I remember the night that she was born like it was yesterday. The moment she first looked up at me, and I stared into those turquoise eyes with their golden stars. She was a wonder—a miracle! Just like her mother.”
“Oh, Jonathan!” Emily trilled a soft laugh. “How you flatter me!”
“I mean every word of it, darling. There’s never been a lovelier woman on Earth.”
After all these years of marriage, Emily felt so comfortable with her husband—so loved by him—that she hardly ever thought of their strange past. Jonathan had done everything he’d vowed to do and more. He had given her a daughter with stars in her eyes, he had turned the old place in Bryantown into a productive farm again, and, best of all, he had stayed with her and would remain with her forever. Her husband, friend, and lover for life and beyond.
Tonight, she felt unusually nostalgic. Perhaps their daughter’s landmark birthday was the cause. Her mind kept drifting back to earlier days—to the terrible night he had saved her life, to their wonderful blending on board his ship in the sky, to their wedding and afterward, when the Starwanderers had tried to reclaim him and take him away. But most of all, she remembered and cherished the unique way they had made love that first night.
For weeks after that, Emily had been gripped with terror every time Jonathan left the house, for fear he might never return. But that was so long ago. She hardly ever thought about the Starwanderers these days. Her life with Jonathan was too full and happy to let anxiety intrude.
“Come to bed, darling,” he said. “It’s late, you know.”
She turned and smiled at him. He was lying in their bed, the covers pulled up to his waist, his broad chest bare. She felt the breath catch in her throat at the sight of him. He was the most handsome man she had ever seen, even after all these years. And from the glow in his eyes at the moment, she knew what was on his mind. He still had a young man’s hunger for his wife. A hunger that Emily was always happy to satisfy.
She laughed lightly. “If I refuse you, will you cast your wicked beams upon me?”
He chuckled. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Then he threw her a shaft of light that tickled.
“Oh, stop that!” she cried, through gales of giggles. “I give up, I give up!”
He released her, still laughing. “You asked for it.”
She came to him and kissed him. “Yes, I suppose I did. Darling, it’s been such a special night, but now that it’s over, I feel so restless. Why don’t we transport up to your ship for a time?”
At her question, Emily noticed a flicker of tension pass over her husband’s face. It was there for only an instant, but long enough for her to realize that something was wrong.
“Jonathan, what is it?”
“Nothing, love, but I don’t feel like going anywhere tonight.” He caressed her cheek with his fingertips. “Won’t you come to bed? I feel a great need to hold you close tonight.”
Before she climbed into bed, Emily went back to the window to draw the drapes. Something outside caught her eye. Some movement in the heavens? Some flicker in the darkness?
“Emily?” Jonathan said quietly.
In answer, she moved to the bed and quickly into his arms. His body against hers felt hard and hot—almost feverish. And there was a strange urgency to his lovemaking. It was as if he was starved for her, and this might be their last chance to love each other.
His tense passion fired Emily’s desires. As they moved together in practiced rhythm, she felt herself begin the soaring journey that would transport her beyond reality into some realm where only ecstasy reigned. She clung to him, murmuring his name.
But at the very moment when she would have crossed the threshold into that land of bliss, Jonathan suddenly froze. Every muscle in his body tensed. A moan of pure pain escaped him.
Emily’s eyes flew open. And then she saw it—the green, pulsing glow at their window. Her heart plummeted.
“No, Jonathan!” she sobbed, gripping him with all her might. “They can’t have you! I won’t let them take you away from me!”
“Emily, listen to me,” he said in a voice choked with passion and pain. “Whatever happens, I love you. I always have, and I always will. I’ll find a way to come back to you. I promise.”
“I can’t live without you, Jonathan. If they take you, I’m going, too.”
“You can’t,” he said in a dull tone. “It isn’t permitted.”
“I don’t care!”
The beam probed deeper and deeper into their room. Emily held her breath, clinging to Jonathan as if to life itself. She could feel his heart beating erratically against her breasts. She knew he was trying to shield himself. But they had come for him at a most inopportune time, when Jonathan had spent his energy in passion.
“It’s no use,” he murmured, defeated. “There’s nothing I can do.”
Emily suddenly recalled the feeling she’d had that night of the shipwreck, when she was dragged down and down in the cold Atlantic, and she knew she was going to die. It had been a horrible sensation, but child’s play compared to what she was feeling now. Never before had she realized how full and wonderful her life with Jonathan had been—not until this very moment. Without him, only a black void awaited her.
Jonathan lay still and accepting now. His breathing was labored, but he displayed no other signs of panic. His resignation to their fate tore at Emily’s heart.
“No, Jonathan,” she begged. “Fight them, dammit! You can’t leave me. I love you too much to go on without you.”
“I’ll always be here in spirit, Emily. I’ll always love you, you know that.”
It was no use. The Starwanderers had won; Emily had lost.
Then, suddenly, the light disappeared. She gave a cry, sure that Jonathan, too, would vanish in the blink of an eye. But her hands were still touching him, her lips still kissing him. Wonder of wonders, they hadn’t taken him!
She heard his soft chuckle in the welcome darkness.
“Oh, my darling!” she cried. “They’re going to let you stay.”
“I don’t believe they ever intended to take me,” he answered. “They simply blundered into the wrong room.”
Emily stared at Jonathan, trying to puzzle out the meaning of his words.
“Don’t you understand, Emily? Our Liza’s Starwanderer has come at last.”
Down the hall, the green light pulsed into another bedroom. It swirled about, filling every corner with its vibrant glow. Fast asleep, her auburn hair fanned out on her pillow and her starred eyes closed, Liza smiled at her dreams. The green warmth embraced her and filled her until she, too, glowed with an unearthly fire.
The old house in Georgetown lay wrapped in silence except for the quiet groaning of bed ropes from the master suite and the soft moans and sighs from the room down the hall.
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Stars in Her Eyes Page 10