“You might not choose forever, but choose this, choose me. Here. Now.” Maya locked her lips to his. Their mouths molded together in perfect union. Her fingers trickled up his chest and over his shoulders. She rocked against him, brushing her body against his, as their kiss grew more heated.
Her motions were fluid, like water in a warm spring flowing through his fingers. He jerked as her hand worked across his stomach and under his waistband. She ran a thumb over the tip of his straining flesh. His body shuddered, and his control crashed into dust when her pleased moans filled his mouth. Now. This was happening now. Her single finger’s caress had him lost in a sea of need.
He twisted and laid her against the blanket.
Desperation poured heavy and strong to complete their connection. The force of his desire was like water crashing against a rocky shore. Relentless and strong, they would break against each other again and again.
“Yes, yes.” She answered and pulled him down for a kiss so steamy, it heated his tongue.
Their fingers tangled in the fight to free his erection until together they shoved down his jeans. He gazed into her eyes, now swimming with lust.
She smiled a siren’s smile. “Terran, I’ve waited so long for you. You may not believe in eternity, but I do, and I’ll remember this moment forever.”
“Are you sure you’re ready for me?” He sank back on his knees.
She wiggled her jeans down her hips.
Impatient to touch her, he pulled back the cotton wrapping covering the gift of her body. He ran his fingers over her slick folds, and sank a single finger deep. His thumb and finger worked in tandem, stoking the fire between them even higher.
Her hips lifted and she gasped, the sound like a beacon calling to his now-seeping cock.
“So wet, you flow right over my fingers.” He centered himself at her core. More than ready to calm the stormy seas raging between them. Her fingers dug deep into his shoulders, ready for his initial thrust into her welcoming, wet cave.
A bug bite burned the back of his neck. His shoulder twitched. Another flaming sting bit his shoulder and another struck his upper thigh. “Ouch.” He flinched. Must be one hell of a mosquito.
“What? What’s wrong?” Maya’s eyes were wide, and then she stiffened, covering her chest with her arms.
“Something bit me.” He rubbed his shoulder and a singed hair smell filled the air. A cool wind battered against him. Terran eyed the sky. Perhaps an early morning storm was brewing.
Maya released a string of curses that lit his eardrums, and she reached for her T-shirt.
“Maya, wait…What are you—”
“How old are you two again?” She sighed loudly.
Terran figured she was flustered because she put on his shirt instead of her own. What had she asked him? How old was he? What was she talking about?
Footsteps crunched against the dried grass. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled.
They were not alone.
Still on his knees above Maya, he twisted to assess the threat.
Two men stood at the end of his tailgate.
Two naked men. What the hell?
Terran rose and rubbed at the bite on his back. The racing of his mind matched the racing of his blood. Unfortunately, the majority of his blood was still pooled south. What kind of scenario was this?
“Maya, finish getting dressed and stay behind me.” Upon recognizing Nodin from the coffee shop, Terran tried grasping rational thought while still clouded in sensations of Maya’s scent on his skin. “What are you doing here?” He threw the blanket toward the tailgate. “Will you please cover yourself?”
Chapter 15
Of course. Flintus Interuptus and Nodin No-fun.
Of course, they’d show up seconds before her decades old dry spell ended and quite gloriously at that. She’d been so close to the downpour. So close to reveling in the pounding storm. A torrent of pleasure would’ve spilled through her body, and she’d planned on experiencing that thundering bliss over and over until Terran couldn’t move. But no, these two jokesters had ruined it all. Ruined. It. All.
Hadn’t they gleaned the waves of hunger writhing off her mind and body? How dare they interfere. Would she never have anything of her own?
“I believe I’m old enough not to need a chaperone, boys. So feel free to move along. Go about your business elsewhere.” She made a shooing motion with her hand. Not that they would heed it.
Flint chuckled. “Oh? I’m sorry. Were you in the middle of something?”
Maya blasted him with a torrent of water.
Flint laughed and shook the water from his body like a wet dog. “Thanks, I was feeling a bit dry. Too bad, that’s the only geyser erupting tonight.”
“Excuse me?” Terran stepped toward the edge of the truck bed.
Upon hearing Terran’s voice and gleaning his confusion and dissatisfaction, her anger shot past the boiling point.
Again, she doused Flint.
“Enough, you got me wet that time.” Nodin interrupted her play. “Maya, you need to come.”
“I had planned to do just that, but then you two showed up.” She wiggled into her jeans then shoved her bra in her pocket. “Real covert, by the way, you handle all your operations like this?”
Flint smirked, “Maya, are you feeling a little tense? We can wait here while you finish. I’d be happy to offer Terran advice.”
Maya narrowed her eyes. Poor Terran was so confused. They were talking in circles around him again, and all he wanted was to protect her from the two naked freaks standing at the back of his truck. This moonlight drive had been a mistake, especially now that she understood his thoughts on living a peri-mortal life. If he were given a choice, he would not walk beside her along destiny’s path.
Fates intertwined. Ha! Mother had played her for a fool. Hope remained a dangerous emotion for a lonely water-girl.
Terran buttoned his jeans then moved her behind him. “She isn’t going anywhere. She’s staying with me.” He kept one hand behind him, pressed against her thigh.
Flint stepped forward and pounded his fist against the tailgate. “What is it you think to do, Earthman?”
Terran maintained his stance. “Have we met?”
Flint laughed. “What? You don’t remember?”
This male chest beating was heading in a dangerous direction. Terran was disturbed, tense, and unfulfilled. Ready to fight Flint. Maya preferred to do that herself.
One thing she did not prefer doing was changing Terran’s memories. An unrealistic wish, since her doubts about his willingness to join their team had been vocalized clearly and without question. Nodin wouldn’t allow Terran to retain his memories of the latter part of the evening.
She wrapped her arms around him from behind and rested her forehead against his back. Anger and helplessness overwhelmed at the thought of altering his mind. His thoughts were such complex, wondrous things, but she’d have to erase them. Mask them with a brush of sapphire blue across fertile greens and browns—artistic melancholy across the canvas of Terran’s mind.
Maya took a deep breath, released her hold, and began the lie. “Is Mother ill? Is that why you and Flint felt it necessary to come all the way out here?”
Nodin gleaned her distress and the direction of her thoughts. “Yes, we need your help with a problem she’s discovered.”
“Hold on a minute.” Terran pointed a finger at Nodin. “First of all, how did you get here? I see no vehicles. Second, you all have the same mother? Third, why in the hell are you naked? How did you even know we were out here? This is a thoroughly incomprehensible situation you realize that, right?” He sat on the edge of the truck bed, shoved on his shoes then pointed a finger at Nodin. “Let me be clear. Again. Maya is staying with me. I will take her home, and I agree it would be best if you both just went on your way.”
Maya took Terran’s hand in hers and appealed to Nodin, “Couldn’t you have waited until I got back to town.”
�
�No.” Nodin wrapped himself in the blanket Terran had thrown on the tailgate.
“What am I supposed to do now? I’m not dealing with this. I won’t be the one to change him. You do it.” Her heart ached at the thought of their special night being erased from Terran’s memory. She released Terran’s hand and leapt to the ground.
The scoreboard of her life had Team Normal blown out by the cheating Team Elemental. Elemental’s field of play went on and on into the abyss of plasma-filled stars. Team Normal would never win.
Nodin’s will drifted around and through Terran’s mind. “Terran, step out of the truck.”
Terran shot her a sideways glance before he jumped down.
After that, she blocked his conversation with Nodin from her mind. She waited by the stream’s edge for Nodin and Flint. A simmer of heat along her back alerted her to Terran’s presence.
“Nodin says he’ll take you to your mother. I have to go. Next time, we’ll finish what we started here.”
She struggled to keep the surprise off her face. What had Nodin said? “Yes, go. I’ll see you soon.” She wrapped her arms around Terran and held tight. The thread running between them was like a wick on dynamite, but the resultant explosion would have to wait.
She lifted her face for a kiss and scanned through his mind. Nodin hadn’t erased Terran’s memories of the earlier portion of their evening. Terran no longer questioned the reasons for Nodin and Flint’s presence, nor would he remember they were naked. Nodin was very skilled at how much of a memory swipe or alteration was necessary. A gush of gratitude toward her airy friend filled her.
Terran’s kiss softened and fed fanciful fantasies she’d long since forgotten. When he released her, he said, “I’ll see you soon. If you need me, you know where to find me.”
Will I see him soon? Should I?
She blinked away tears as the back wheels of his truck stirred dust and he drove home alone. In enough physical discomfort from an interrupted sex-capade, she didn’t appreciate this added rush of emotional distress.
Nodin wrapped her in his arms. Her cloud of sadness stirred then drifted away as a cool breeze swept her worries from her mind. She hated and yet wanted the brotherly comfort found in his arms. He and Flint were her only friends, the only two creatures on earth who understood this lonely existence. She forgave Nodin for the interruption, but maintained her anger toward Flint. Someone had to be on the receiving end of her frustrations.
Flaming fire-breathing ass.
She lifted her middle finger at Flint behind Nodin’s back.
Flint laughed. “I know you secretly love me, my little sea serpent.”
“Maya,” Nodin scolded, and then patted her back.
Peering into Nodin’s wise blue eyes, she said, “I don’t like altering Terran’s mind. It isn’t right.”
“We do it all the time.” Nodin tweaked a strand of her hair. “And as you saw, it was only a slight nudge to ease his worry over leaving you with us.”
“It’s just not right shifting the mind our own teammate, or whatever he’s supposed to be.” She brushed her hair away from her face, wishing she had a hairclip. Her hair was driving her crazy, Flint was driving her crazy, and her stomach ached, which wasn’t possible, but was the only explanation for this disturbance churning her gut. “Why did you bring Flint, anyway?”
Flint yawned and stretched. His semi-flaccid matchstick twitched in her direction.
She rolled her eyes, and huffed out a laugh. “Flint, please. That smoked jerky bit is not even close to what I held in both my hands moments ago. Speaking of that…” with her index finger, she drew a circle in the air around his crotchal-region. “Next time, do not interrupt. It’s been a hell of a lot longer for me, and now that I have someone I am interested in—do not interfere. I’m a woman on the edge of a sexual feast, and if I don’t get to slake my hunger from the banquet soon, someone will get stabbed with a fork. A very sharp silver serving fork, although for you, Flint, I’m sure I’d get by with a tiny crab fork.”
Chapter 16
“I’m not doing it.” Flint crossed both arms against his chest, like a defiant two-year old.
Maya knocked her fists against her forehead, shook them at Flint, and pleaded, “Can you please do as he asks? We’re running short on night. I don’t particularly want to do it either but … just cooperate. Please.”
Nodin had suggested they join hands and pool their abilities to detect the nearby diseased animals. Their combined power to glean “off” mental patterns would be more efficient and effective.
Flint shook his head and slashed his hands through the air. “This is ridiculous. Let’s just do an aerial search. This standing around chanting camp songs won’t get us anywhere.”
Maya ground out a sigh, took Flint’s hand, and pulled him closer to Nodin.
Nodin took Maya’s hand. “Hazrat Inayat Kahan says, ‘A soul who is not close to nature is far away from what is called spirituality. In order to be spiritual one must communicate, and especially one must communicate with nature; one must feel nature.’ We must communicate with nature together, Flint. Our combined spirits will convene and show us the way forward.”
Flint jerked away his hand and jabbed a finger against Nodin’s chest. “We don’t all live in that philosophical world you do, Nodin. You let that mask who you really are. You hide behind platitudes to explain your existence. We just are. Someday, you’ll have to accept there are no answers. You’ll never find reason in this unreasonable existence.”
“Flint, leave him be,” Maya scolded.
Flint’s fiery will and impatience often had him leaving scorch marks with his flaming tongue. His words burned a little too close to home for her, as well. She didn’t want echoes of her own discontent mixed with her ability to locate the sick animals.
Nodin shot back, “I don’t need lectures from you who flickers around the world never stopping, never taking the time to appreciate your surroundings. You are the one always moving on, so you never have to show anyone even a glimmer of who you really are. I may not have lived as long as you, but unlike you, I’ll never give up questioning the whys of this existence. Enough though, we need to focus. We must destroy this unbalanced vein running through the forest. We’ll debate our natures another time. For now, take my hand, brother.”
Maya slumped to the ground and waited.
Flint took Nodin’s hand and yanked him down.
Such children.
Nodin turned to Flint. “Close your eyes and concentrate. The sooner we do this, the sooner you can torch things.”
Sitting Indian-style in the dew-covered grass, they joined hands. The elemental force of their linked minds rippled in waves of energy and flowed over the forest floor. Together, they traveled, across sage-covered hills, and mule deer pulling at grass, farther and farther as rustic greens and browns of the pine forest meshed and blurred. A river trickled and bubbled as they sailed over it in a swell of consciousness. The earthy smell of moss-covered trees and the grassy shore reminded her of Terran. A dead spruce whose bark had been rubbed raw by moose antlers revealed a smooth tan trunk similar to the hue of Terran’s skin. She squirmed as a memory blazed through her mind of her hand as it glided across the tight planes of his body. The rasp of his tongue as it dueled with hers.
“Maya,” Nodin snapped. He shook free from her hand.
“Come now, Nodin,” Flint smirked. “Let her finish. The play-by-play was getting good.”
“Shut. Up.” She squeezed her hand then once again reached for Nodin’s. Jaw clenched, mind blank, she pushed ahead to where they had left off in the forest.
Yellow eyes glowed against the dark. Snarls and growls rose from deep in the wolves’ throats. Their fang-baring mouths dripped saliva from their black lips. These visions re-focused her mind on their mission.
A group of four wolves stood removed from their pack. Their bodies convulsively twitching and their wobbly legs made standing and walking difficult. They growled at each other an
d scratched their sharp-clawed paws against their heads. Their pack mates avoided them with their natural ability to sense sickness.
After returning from their mind travels, Maya said, “Did you sense the cattle, as well when we first connected? They are closer and will be easier to obtain. Nodin, I suggest you start there. I only picked up around five sick in Crowder’s pasture. Let’s get this bonfire started.”
“I agree. I’ll bring them back.” Nodin spun into a funnel. He would use that spiral force to lift and transport the diseased cattle to this remote location.
Maya turned to Flint. “See, you shouldn’t have given him such a hard time. Joining together worked well.”
Flint shrugged. “He lost his mind about fifty years ago.”
“Really? As if you’ve ever found yours.”
Mooing beasts interrupted their verbal sparring as cows dropped one by one. A strong wind had Maya and Flint backing away.
Flint stood with his arms crossed as Nodin reappeared in his human form. “I hope you’re not expecting us to do a cow dance now.”
“Actually, we do have a dance. It goes like this—” Nodin punched Flint in the jaw, knocking him off balance, but not down.
“Thanks for the spark, brother.” Flint laughed then turned into fire. He burned the cattle and the smell of charred meat filled the air.
Ash drifted—specs of black and white dancing against dawn’s early morning gray.
Nodin tensed.
Maya looked through the smoke rising above the charred grass to determine what affected him.
Pillar stood in a sagebrush field, high on a hill. Her white-blonde hair whipped wildly in a breeze affecting only her. Nodin’s touch. Pillar observed them a moment longer then disappeared in a white whirl.
Nodin turned back, brows drawn. Regret flowed from his mind.
Flint slapped Nodin on the back. “Let’s move. No time to worry about white foxes when wolves are in need of peaceful rest.”
Nodin lifted Maya into the air, and they traveled to stand before the diseased wolves.
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