Dream Warriors 1_Gareth

by Cyndi Friberg

  Hermes shrank. Subtly, but noticeably, his size decreased. “Well, here’s the thing, Gareth. The embolism already ruptured. When Morpheus transported you for the second time, it was more than Justin’s body could tolerate. Unfortunately, you hadn’t…fulfilled your mission yet.”

  Meagan’s hand flew to her mouth and a disgusted shudder shook her. “Dear God.” She lowered her hand to her chest. “I made love with a dead --”

  “Not at all. Knowing what was at stake, Zeus removed the embolism.” Hermes, who was now roughly the size of a child, gently flapped his wings, brought himself back to eyelevel with Gareth. “Morpheus hadn’t intended for you to use Justin’s body for an extended period of time, but that is an option now.”

  A curtain fell over Gareth’s expression. Meagan could no longer tell what he was thinking. Even his expressive eyes were shuttered, guarded.

  “How would it work? How long would I be allowed to stay?”

  Heaving an audible sigh, Hermes began to shrink again. “You’re not going to like it.”

  “I gathered that from your -- shriveling.”

  Meagan’s heart thundered within her breast. Her chest felt tight; each breath had become an effort. What did this mean? Could Gareth stay here with her? Would he want to? But he was an immortal being, a mythological being.

  Hermes flew toward her and she gasped, stumbling back several steps. “Easy now.” About the size of an action figure, despite her cringing, the god managed to land on her shoulder. “If you want to stay together, Morpheus is willing to release Gareth, but it’s an all or nothing deal. You’re no good as The Lover now that you’re in love.”

  “What does that mean?” Meagan tried to look at the miniature god without dislodging him from her shoulder. “Gareth wouldn’t be able to make love to me?”

  “Dream Warriors all have specific roles. I’m The Lover. Ryder’s The Charmer. Kane’s The Soldier. But if I understand Hermes, this body will remain fully functional.” He smiled and then his gaze shifted to the being on her shoulder. “What about my mind? My memories? My personality? Would they remain unchanged or would we be prolonging Justin’s life?”

  “Justin’s life ended last night. You are Gareth, that wouldn’t change. And because you’ve served the Dream Warriors so well, Morpheus will allow you to access Meagan’s dreams. You’ll be able to create illusions for the two of you to enjoy. You’ll be able to communicate with the other Dream Warriors, but only if they come to you. However, you’ll no longer have access to the rest of the dream realm.”

  “What if the Fates are wrong? What if the incubus returns?”

  Hermes flew off her shoulder, hovering in the air between them. “Then you’re in the perfect position to protect her. You have twenty-four hours to return to the Great Hall of Morpheus. After that, you’ll have made your choice.”

  “Can I father children?”

  “All these questions. Do I look like an Oracle? That body is as it was. Removing the embolism was the only adjustment.”

  “Will I ever see you again, my friend?”

  “I don’t know, Gareth. I’m just the messenger.” After delivering his favorite parting shot, Hermes blinked out of sight.

  Silence hung in the room long after Hermes disappeared. Meagan stared at Gareth, but he was deep in thought.

  Finally, she couldn’t stand the tension any longer. “It’s really unfair that they’re making you decide in twenty-four hours. If the embolism is repaired, then why --”

  His beautiful gaze shot to hers. “Does this mean you want me to stay?”

  Slowly wetting her lips with the tip of her tongue, she searched for just the right words. “I never believed in love at first sight.” She paused, letting the phrase sink in for a moment. “I never believed in a lot of things. My being came alive the first time I saw you. I knew you were the only one for me. But you weren’t real, or you weren’t real in a way that made sense in my life.”

  He took her in his arms, their mouths pressed together. Parting her lips, she eagerly met the bold thrust of his tongue. His warmth surrounded her, comforted her. She absorbed his taste, his faintly spicy scent, the way his strong arms felt wrapped around her.

  “I’m real now.” His breath stirred across her damp lips. “I can hold you, protect you. We can walk in the sunshine and --”

  “Make love in the moonlight?”

  He chuckled. “Or make love in the sunshine and walk in the moonlight.”

  She tugged her tee shirt out from inside her jeans, provocatively showing her bare tummy while she unfastened the metal button. “Hermes said we have the rest of our lives to explore.”

  “I fought my feelings for you. I didn’t see any possibility of us building a life together. So, I convinced myself --”

  “That I was only an assignment?”

  “Yes.”

  Lowering the zipper, she wiggled out of her jeans. His gaze followed the subtle shimmy of her hips. “I have an assignment for you, Gareth.”

  “Do you now?”

  “You’ve only really made love to me in the dream realm. I want to experience everything while I’m wide awake.”

  He groaned. “I want that too. More than you can imagine, but one of the main reasons I didn’t really make love to you last night hasn’t changed. We don’t have --”

  A flash of light blinded Meagan and an exotic, sensual aroma filled the air. When her eyes focused again, she saw a pile of gold foil packets resting on the coffee table beside them. She picked up one and laughed. It was obviously a condom and an elaborately inscribed A marked each side.

  She glanced at Gareth questioningly. “Aphrodite?”

  “Undoubtedly.”

  “Thank you,” she said to the unseen goddess.

  “This means she may be watching.”

  “Does that bother you?” She pulled her tee shirt off over her head, then skimmed the sides of her breasts with her hands.

  “You can’t say I didn’t warn you.” He wrestled out of his shirt and shed his pants, kicking off his shoes in the process. “I take my assignments very seriously.”

  Snatching the foil packet from her hand, he tackled her to the leather sofa. She shrieked and giggled, writhing beneath him. “It’s cold!”

  “Not for long.”

  They clung to each other, her long legs cradling his hips. He stroked her face while he kissed her. Deep, leisurely kisses that communicated so much more than passion. She explored his back and his sides, squeezed his butt, pulling him closer. His mouth moved over and against hers, his tongue delving.

  He found her breast with his hands, teasing the nipple, while he gently suckled her earlobe. Meagan turned her head and arched her neck, offering herself more fully to his wandering mouth. He nibbled his way downward, drawing upon her skin, making her tingle.

  Her nipples ached; her inner muscles pulsed, demanding to be filled. She tossed restlessly, arching, digging her fingers into his shoulders.

  “Gareth, come inside me. I need you -- now!”

  He released his hold on her neck with a muffled chuckle and looked into her eyes. “We have to work on your impatience.”

  Retrieving the foil packet from the floor, he knelt between her thighs and tore it open with his teeth. She watched him closely. “Why do you know how to use those?”

  “I don’t, but apparently Justin was a responsible lover.” He rolled the thin barrier down the length of his shaft and paused. “Would you like a closer look?”

  “Yes, but I’d like to feel you inside me more.”

  His smile was wicked with promise. “We’ve got the rest of our lives to explore.”

  He touched her tenderly, parting her folds and easing inside with his fingers to test her readiness. She opened her legs wider, shameless, abandoned. His thumb fluttered over her clit and Meagan gasped.

  Slipping his hands beneath her, he slowly pushed inside. Meagan closed her eyes. Her body opened, stretched, surrendered with a tingling spasm.

  “The
re you go,” he whispered. “I’m inside you.”

  But he didn’t move. He stayed on his knees and arched over her. Holding himself up, he teased her with his fingertips. He plucked her pebble hard nipples and sneaked down to where their bodies joined. With a circular motion, he tormented her, creating a burning need, painfully amplified by the fullness of his shaft deep inside her body.

  He pulled back and thrust forward. She eagerly raised her legs against his sides. Thrusting deeper, stronger, he filled her, completed her. The tingles intensified.

  She cried out.

  They moved together, searching for the perfect rhythm.

  Arching and panting, she concentrated on the glorious slide of his body in and out of hers and his warm weight moving over and against her. They would be together. Gareth wouldn’t leave her. They had years to live and love together, both here and in her dreams.

  With a soft gasp, she tightened around him, climaxing in rhythmic waves. She clung to him, breathless and tingling.

  He shuddered and groaned, and finally relaxed against her.

  Clutching her tightly to his chest, he rolled them to their sides, carefully keeping their bodies entwined.

  Meagan had never felt so safe, so sated.

  “Everything that went before only prepared me for this moment, only led me to you.” His words so perfectly echoed her feelings that she looked up at him and smiled. “No matter what it takes, Meagan, I will win your love.”

  She laughed, her spirit soaring beyond the scars, beyond the pain. “You don’t have to win my love. I’m already yours. You are literally the man of my dreams.”

  Epilogue

  Ryder knelt beside the unconscious woman and sighed. Gareth had been in trouble and he’d offered the most expedient means of support.

  Sheridan Vellmos. He’d learned her name from Morpheus. She looked fragile and helpless sprawled on the carpeting, her torso in the bedroom, her legs in the hall. Her semi-twisted position couldn’t be comfortable, but he’d been unable to soften her fall.

  In the waking realm, Ryder was little more than an observer. Intangible. Wraithlike. Only in dreams did he have any real power. So, over the millennia he’d learned how to compel humans to sleep, to send them to the realm where he was nearly a god. Ryder grinned. He’d learned a lot of things over his long life. Some even Morpheus didn’t realize he knew. A good magician never revealed his secrets.

  He’d been dispatched to supervise this woman. He was to cleanse her memory of anything having to do with the Dream Warriors and make sure she didn’t interfere in their war with the incubus.

  He slipped effortlessly into her subconscious, finding the fiber-thin path connecting him directly to her mind.

  Relaxing into the familiar rhythm of the melding, he let his energy flow.

  How he loved his life…

  Cyndi Friberg

  Cyndi has been a member of Romance Writers of America since 1999 and also belongs to two local chapters of RWA. She is the winner of multiple national contests including The Molly and The Merritt. In 2003, she was chosen as a finalist in the prestigious Golden Heart, as well as winning the Jasmine with Born of the Shadows. After dabbling in freelance journalism and songwriting, she returned to her true passion: paranormal romance.

  You can find Cyndi on the Web at http://www.cyndifriberg.com/ or email her at cyndi@cyndifriberg.com.

  * * * * *

  Read on for a tantalizing glimpse of

  Across Time

  by Rayne Forrest

  Available at Loose Id

  Across Time

  “We need to mark out our path,” she said to him. He snorted and handed her a hand full of small faceted disks.

  “Just stick them up on the right wall every few feet.”

  “Smart.”

  “Ain’t it, though? Another Starkey innovation,” he told her.

  “Who’d he steal it from?” she asked conversationally.

  “Tsk, tsk. Be nice, Dunn. What would your mother say?”

  “She’d say shoot the bastard while you have him in a cave where no one is likely to find the body,” Corri replied without missing a beat. She slapped a marker onto the stone and it stuck. Their lights danced off it.

  She had no warning. Devin grabbed her and spun her around. He glowered down at her. “What do you want, Dunn? You still want to see me fall on my sword?”

  “Let go of me,” she said coolly. Her heart fluttered wildly at his nearness.

  “No. Not until you talk to me.”

  “We’ve been talking. And you can take your sword and do whatever you like with it.”

  Corri yanked her arm out of his grasp. He lunged and pressed her against the cold stone of the cavern wall.

  “I cared for you, Corri. Did you like seeing me bleed?” His voice was raspy, strangely resonant in the still air.

  Corri looked up at his face, bare inches away from hers. His body pressed hers to the wall.

  Awareness of him flared hot and bright in her. Her body remembered his touch and longed for it again. Nipples tingled and hardened. Her innermost flesh contracted, throbbed and flooded wet, all in remembrance of him. She struggled to remain motionless.

  “Did you, Corri?” he whispered, his angry gaze bored into hers in search of an answer.

  Corri shook her head in denial. She had not meant to hurt him. She had not believed anything could hurt him, had not believed he gave enough of himself to anyone to be hurt by them. Except maybe by Carlton Starkey.

  And it was her concerns over his relationship with Starkey that had made her leave him. Her advisor at TSEA had called her to his office and had all but said that her relationship with Devin Tremaine, and his relationship with Starkey, would prevent her from ever achieving her own command.

  She’d been seven months from graduating at the top of her class. She’d tried to explain to Devin. She didn’t want to break it off with him, but she had her future to consider. She’d suggested that after she graduated and was posted, perhaps they could reevaluate their situation.

  All he’d been able to see and hear was her abandonment of him. The door had closed between them. He’d never called her. Never tried to see her.

  Corri had tried to find him after her graduation. She’d not been able to obtain any information about him. Then she’d realized he’d blocked her–and only her–from any personal information on him. That computer block had been lifted about two years ago. She’d not been aware of it being rescinded until she’d heard he was coming to Adhara VII and scanned for current information.

  “I never wanted to hurt you, Devin.” She hated the way her voice quivered. “You didn’t hear what I was trying to say.”

  “I heard you,” he said tightly. “Your career meant more than we did. More than I did.” His jaw muscles worked, clenched and unclenched. He swallowed. “I heard that loud and clear, Captain Dunn.”

  “Damn you, Devin,” she said and pulled his mouth down to hers.

  He jerked away at the first touch of their lips and stared at her with eyes gone black in the strange lighting of the cave. His hands slid from her shoulders to her wrists, grasping them tightly and raising her arms over her head. He pressed his body to hers and she felt the hard ridge of his arousal pressing into her belly. Her body rained down an aching welcome for him.

  “Damn me all you want,” he whispered, his voice husky. He slowly lowered his mouth back down to hers.

  Need exploded in Corri. She opened her lips to his onslaught and gasped in his mouth. He thrust his hips hard against her. Their tongues danced and mated, sending a scorching bolt of fire through her loins. He yanked her away from the wall and tumbled her beneath him.

  He settled his weight onto her and she arched up to him, almost sobbing into his mouth from her long years of need for him. His hands were on her breasts and his hips pumped against hers. She pulled his shirt out of his pants and felt his heated skin.

  He rose up from her and tugged her jacket off, then yanked at her un
iform. Closures popped open, baring her body to him. He knelt above her, straddling her. His hands deftly opened his pants and his erection sprang free.

  Corri reached to touch him but he grabbed her hands and pinned them above her head. He lowered his weight fully onto her. Never taking his eyes from hers, he spread her knees with his. She couldn’t stop from arching up to him as his cock slipped across her slickness.

  The teasing of his body was at odds with the bruising vise of his fingers around her wrists. She tried to pull away and his grip tightened.

  “Please,” she whispered. His gaze lowered to her mouth, and then flickered back up, once more locking with hers. He slowly released her wrists and slid one hand beneath her head, cradling it from the hard ground.

  He was so close to her heat, touching her so intimately, that she couldn’t keep still. Her hips moved in small jerking movements to tempt him to her.

  “Please,” she whispered again. Only this time it was not a plea for gentleness. It was a plea for whatever he was willing to give her.

  * * * * *

  What people are saying about

  Across Time

  This story of futurisic space travel is vivid and full of great detail. The passion and sexual tension between Corri and Devin is unmistakable, and the sex scenes are heated and steamy. Rayne is not afraid to allow her hero to express his emotions first, which is a rarity.

  Greed, power, lust, and love know no boundaries, and Ms. Forrest has presented readers with a great story that covers them all. I'm impressed with the attention to detail and the wonderful imagination of this superb story-teller.

  -- Miranda Moore, reviewer for Coffee Time Romance

  Across Time is a fast paced story with strong characters. The intensity of Corri and Devin’s passion is palpable and only adds to the suspenseful tension Rayne Forrest has laced throughout the book. The new worlds and civilizations that authors create always amaze me, and Across Time is one of the best. Ms. Forrest’s stellar imagination has given us another science fiction romance to be in awe of. Across Time will certainly be worth your time.