Of Sand and Stone

by Lauren Smith

  “Very well, I’m more than happy to provide a demonstration of my skills,” he wiggled his fingers in the air and she laughed.

  They headed silently upstairs, but he froze as he realized they were missing one crucial thing. He rushed into the kitchen and grabbed the box of condoms from the cupboard. When she saw what he was carrying, she grinned.

  “Race you!” She challenged.

  He darted up the stairs after her, laughing as he caught her by the waist as they reached the bedroom. He set the condoms down and she opened the box, pulling a small flat packet from it and setting it on the bed.

  She turned back to him. “We’ll get to that later, but first…” She curled her arms around his neck and kissed him. He took his time, learning her lips all over again as though he’d never get another chance. The lingering shadow of worry that this could be his one and only chance to make love to Rebecca filled him with a bittersweetness he’d never felt before. He threaded his fingers through her hair, reveling in the silky texture and the floral scent that clung to the strands.

  They stripped out of their clothes, leaving a pile on the floor beside the bed.

  “What time is it?” he asked between their fevered kisses. They lay close together, holding each other, their bodies fully skin to skin for the first time. She looked at the clock by her bed.

  “Still fifteen minutes to go,” she whispered, stroking her hands down his arms and back.

  He felt dizzy with the strength of his desire for her. What would it be like to see her come apart in his arms while he was inside her? Being with a woman had never felt so intense before. Certainly it had always been a delightful pleasure to indulge in, but now it felt like so much more. Everything was magnified a thousand times because he knew this woman, knew her dreams, her hopes, her deepest desires. In more ways than he could imagine, he felt she was an equal, not like the pretty young ladies from his time. None of them compared to this beautiful, complicated, perfect woman.

  “Then I know just how to spend that time.” He pushed her back on the bed, parting her thighs so he could gaze down at her. She blushed a dark red and closed her eyes.

  “Look at me, darling,” he growled softly as he pressed a kiss to her inner thigh. She lifted her head and stared down the length of her body at him. He knelt between her thighs and kissed a slow trail down to her mound. Her belly quivered.

  “I don’t think I could stand it if you did…that…again,” she panted.

  “Oh, you can, my love, you can,” he promised. Then he inserted two fingers into her, stretching her. Lord she was so hot and tight, it made his cock ache, but he pushed down his own feelings and focused only on her. He stroked inside her, and she hissed as he found a hidden spot of pleasure.

  “Oh God!” She arched her back, trying to escape his hold, but he gripped her waist with one hand.

  “Feel that?” he murmured. “Right there?” he stroked the spot with the tips of his two fingers again and again until she cried out and went limp beneath him. Then he withdrew his fingers and licked them. She watched him through hooded eyes, shuddering a little.

  “You’re the devil,” she laughed, shakily, her body still trembling with aftershocks.

  “I do love to indulge in sinful behavior,” he agreed with a knowing smirk and then he lowered his mouth to her folds which glistened with her desire.

  “You’re going to kill me!” she tried to buck her hips but he held her down as he feasted upon her, licking her until she couldn’t breathe.

  Only after she’d come apart again did he finally relent and let her rest for a moment. He sat back on his heels at the foot of the bed, watching her beautiful body bare and waiting for him. She was stretched out like a woman ready to be sacrificed to a lusty god and he wanted to be that god who claimed her body, taking pleasure and more importantly giving pleasure right back to her. He finally understood now what it meant to care about someone else, not just in bed. He’d spent all week thinking of ways to please her, from washing the car, to dishes, to cutting flowers from Mrs. Lesley’s flower beds and forming lovely bouquets. The hard work was worth it to see her smile, and each time he saw that expression on her face it hit him hard right behind his knees.

  Rebecca struggled to sit up, face flushed and hair adorably mussed as she curled her arms around him and slid into his embrace.

  “It’s one minute past midnight.” Rebecca nibbled his ear, and a bolt of fresh arousal shot clear through him.

  One minute passed. He was safe, he could give his woman what she wanted and find his own pleasure with her at last.

  “Thank God!” They reached for the shiny packet at the same time, and she tore it open with her teeth. Then she removed the condom and pushed him onto his back. He watched as she showed him how to roll it over his hardened shaft. Far better than a sheep’s intestine, to be sure. She was skillful and seductive, batting her dark lashes as she stroked him.

  “You’re killing me!” he gasped. Before he could stop to think, he switched their bodies so she lay beneath him, her legs parted, and he settled into the cradle of her thighs.

  “Are you ready?” he asked, nuzzling her throat.

  “I’ve been ready for six days.” Her giggle turned into a moan as he thrust into her. He made sure she didn’t have breath for anything more than soft, languid sighs and hushed moans of encouragement as he rode her. He clasped her hands in his and pressed their joined hands into the mattress on either side of her head as he showed her just how good a lover he really was.

  As she came apart a minute later, he groaned and felt himself explode apart. It was too intense, too glorious—

  Then a violent pain struck him, and he rolled off Rebecca, coughing as he fell off the side of the bed. Thunder crashed outside, and an angry voice filled the room.

  “You had your chance, Devon Blake, and you had but a few minutes more before I would set you free. Now you face eternity in stone.”

  White light blinded his eyes as he struggled to get up on one knee. Everything went dark and cold…stone cold.

  For a long moment Rebecca couldn’t move. She stared at the statue of Devon on one knee, one hand raised above his eyes as though to shield himself from a bright light no one else could see.

  “But we waited! Aphrodite, we waited until after midnight!” she shouted at the ceiling, her heart breaking as she tried to understand what was happening.

  “No. It has only just now turned midnight.” A woman appeared in the corner of the room, dressed in a black cocktail dress with killer red heels. It looked as though Aphrodite had just popped in from some fancy party.

  Rebecca pointed at her nightstand. “Look! It’s ten minutes past.”

  The goddess shook her head, the honey-colored ringlets of her hair bouncing around her shoulders.

  “You humans have always believed you could bend the universe to your will. Do you think that when you travel through a time zone a whole hour magically jumps by? Or that these zones conform to the shape of your states and countries? As far as this planet is concerned, your clock is fast by ten minutes.”

  Rebecca’s head spun. “But I made him—it was my fault. We thought it was midnight.” She got out of the bed, clutching the sheet around her like a toga.

  “That is not my concern. My terms were very specific.”

  “But you’re a goddess. Can’t you change your mind? Please?”

  Aphrodite raised one eyebrow, coolly watching her. “And why should I do that? What is so special about Devon that he deserves my mercy a second time?”

  Rebecca stared at Devon’s stone body, and her eyes filled with tears. “I thought you were the goddess of love. How does this serve love? I have been looking for love, for the perfect man, the perfect relationship. I’d given up, but then you sent him to me.”

  She tried to still her racing heart as she sought the right words. “I didn’t want to give him a chance until you told me his story was true. But he showed me what was in his heart. He showed me that there i
s a man out there who is perfect for me. And I don’t mean he did everything right all the time. I mean that he treated me the way I wanted to be treated, as a woman worthy of love and respect. As an equal. He gave me my sense of value back. He gave me love. That was my greatest desire. My only desire. Surely you out of everyone should know how much that matters?” She kept her gaze fixed on the goddess.

  Aphrodite considered this, though she seemed far from convinced. “The gods all have rules. Rules which must be followed. The conditions of his release were broken, but the fault was not Devon Blake’s. It was yours. Therefore, if I show mercy, it will be to send him back to his time, not to stay here with you. Is that what you want?”

  Rebecca swallowed and stared at the statue of Devon. She’d lose him forever regardless, but only one choice would give him a chance at life again.

  “Yes. Please. Give him his life back.”

  Aphrodite sighed. “Very well. In the name of love, I shall return him.” She snapped her fingers, and both the statue and the goddess vanished. The final beating pieces of Rebecca’s heart turned to dust.

  9

  London—September 1816

  Devon stumbled through the gardens, his heart pounding as he struggled to catch his breath. The muted sounds of laughter and fireworks that blossomed in the sky overhead were all too familiar.

  “I’m…home…” The words escaped his lips in a ragged whisper. He was home, but he wasn’t with Rebecca.

  “Aphrodite?” He didn’t shout her name, but rather it came out as a soft plea.

  A woman in a dark-red evening gown appeared. He fell to his knees, clutching at her skirts.

  “Take me back, please. Take me back to her.” His eyes stung with tears. He would beg. He would grovel. He would do anything to be back with the woman he loved.

  Aphrodite gave him a cold smile. “You have been granted all the mercy I am willing to give. I returned you to your time, at her request.”

  She asked that he be returned to his time and not to her? His heart seized. It couldn’t be true. Surely she felt the same for him as he did for her.

  “You have your life back—that is all that matters. You’re free to return to your former life.” Aphrodite waved her hand around the gardens and smiled. “We were in the midst of a celebration when this all began, don’t you remember? And I feel you’ve learned your lesson, perhaps even enough to please me now as you should have before. Care to try again?” She stroked her fingertips down his cheek, an affectionate, lust-filled gaze in her eyes.

  Devon lowered his head. His heart sank toward the ground, as if to bury itself in the soil, never to beat again. He let go of her fine silk skirts and touched the ground, palms flat on the earth.

  “I’m sorry, my goddess. But I cannot.”

  She reached down to lift his head to face hers again. “Such an offer is not lightly made. You dare risk angering me a second time?”

  “I beg your forgiveness, but I cannot give you what you want, because my heart belongs to another. I will love no one but her. If you cannot send me back, then I beg of you one final request.”

  The goddess said nothing, but she waited for him to continue.

  “Please find it in your heart to send her a man who will care for her in all the ways I wish I could.” His voice was hoarse, but he got the words out past the icy grief stealing through his soul.

  Aphrodite’s blue eyes widened. “Why?”

  “She has lived a life without proper love, and I cannot bear to think of her going on without it. I want her to be happy, to be loved. It is my only wish.” And he meant it from the depths of his soul and beyond.

  Aphrodite leaned down and cupped his face in her hands. She kissed him softly, not as a lover but as a queen to her subject. “Then you truly have learned to put someone before yourself. In three days, I shall meet you here and ask you if you wish to return. Be certain of your decision, for I will never offer it again.”

  Three days…he could see his family, say his farewells, and go home to Rebecca.

  “Yes, I accept.”

  “Very well.” A small smile curved her lips.

  He had but a moment to see a constellation of stars winking in her eyes before everything went dark.

  It had been three weeks since Rebecca had lost Devon. Three long weeks without dancing, without laughter, without love. But she’d rallied and forced herself to get out of bed each morning and go to work. She had to. She didn’t know what else to do.

  It seemed Aphrodite didn’t like to leave loose ends. A replacement statue had magically appeared the night before the big exhibit launch with her boss none the wiser. She’d gone into the gallery several times to see it, hoping against hope she’d find it missing again and instead have her living, breathing lover before her once more. But it never happened. The statue remained there on its pedestal, stoic and sightless…merely sand and stone.

  She reminded herself that somewhere in the distant past Devon was living his life. Had lived his life. He was long gone, and all that remained were faint echoes of their time together. Evan sat on the couch, sighing heavily each night when she went to bed as though he missed the man who’d become a part of his life just the way Devon had become a part of hers.

  After the first day of him being gone, she’d checked the ancestry site, and when she hadn’t seen him appear on his tree, she’d been worried. Perhaps he’d never married and didn’t show up as a possible connection to later descendants. She’d found his death date as September 1816, but she hadn’t been able to stomach the thought that he really had died then. Surely Aphrodite wouldn’t have let that happen. If she had…Rebecca’s stomach churned again. Would she ever know Devon’s fate?

  Rebecca came home from work, her feet aching from wearing heels again, but she’d stood up to her boss today and told him that his dress code requirements were not only uncomfortable, but unfair—this was the twenty-first century, dammit. She’d also said in no uncertain terms that his OCD issues were counterproductive to the smooth operation of the museum and that if he kept it up, she was going to quit.

  He’d actually backed off. She couldn’t believe it. She’d figured out how to handle him and had finally been given more freedom with the exhibits and her responsibilities—not to mention free drinks for life from her female coworkers.

  She unlocked her front door and kicked off her shoes, happy to see Evan prancing excitedly by the front door. He clearly needed to be let out.

  “Hey, big guy.” She ruffled his fur and kissed his head. She buried her nose in his coat, inhaling the scent, surprised that he smelled like the outdoors. A Wheaton Terrier’s fur often carried the aromas of whatever they’d been nearest. She breathed in the scent of trees and fresh mown grass, puzzled. He hadn’t been outside in hours. Mystified, she released Evan and he nuzzled his mouth against her hands and face before he sat back on his haunches and barked at her twice.

  His tongue lolled from the side of his mouth, and he started bouncing toward the living room. That was when she smelled the most divine aroma. Had she left something in the oven when she’d come home for lunch? Worried, she rushed into the kitchen and froze when she saw a man bending down over the oven, lifting out a glass dish with baked chicken.

  “Just in time.” That familiar, wonderful accent was like the strains of a favorite melody she hadn’t listened in ages.

  “Devon…” She choked down a sob as he turned to face her, removing his oven mitts.

  He opened his arms, and she flung herself into his embrace. “Rebecca.”

  This is a dream; maybe I died driving my car home from the museum. It can’t be him, it can’t be…

  “Don’t cry. I promised I would never let you cry again because of me. I would hate to be caught in a lie.” His lips brushed her ear, and she blinked away the rush of tears and sniffled. She nuzzled against his chest, as though she’d been missing a piece of herself for so long and now she was…whole. She kissed him hard even as she tried to convince herself this
was real, that she wasn’t dreaming.

  “She… Aphrodite said she wouldn’t let you come back to me,” Rebecca confessed between sniffles and kisses. “It was either the stone or sending you to back to your life in the past. I begged her to send you back home so you could live.”

  “I begged her to send you a man who would love you as I wished to. She said I had learned my lesson and sent me back to you.”

  “But why did she wait three weeks?”

  He hesitated. “She gave me three days to say my farewells to my family and sort out my affairs, and I spent the last two and a half weeks seeking employment and settling in here. I’ve been living in Mrs. Lesley’s spare bedroom.”

  Rebecca stared at him. This whole time when she’d been picking up the pieces of her heart and trying to get her life back together, he’d been next door?

  She smacked him across the cheek and then immediately started to cry. He held her tight, whispering in her ear.

  “I’m sorry. I wanted to come to you more than anything. But I felt I had to find employment and a decent wage before I could come back. You deserve a man who can provide for you and your home.” When he said the word home, it rocked her to her core because it was true. This was his home.

  And he’s my home.

  “I’m sorry, I just… Three weeks, Devon. My heart… I can’t take that again.”

  “You’ll never have to be without me again, I promise.”

  He lowered his head to hers, and their lips brushed in a melting fire of passion. The glowing pulse of love that sparked between them could never be extinguished. The will of an angry goddess had brought them together. Rebecca was never going to let Devon go. And by the way he looked at her with a twinkle in his eyes, he wasn’t going to let go of her either.

  He chuckled. “Who knew it would be such a blessing to be cursed?”

  “Who indeed?” Rebecca laughed, but they both shivered when they heard that bell-like sound of a goddess’s laughter ringing in the air all around them.