Ancient Ties (36 page)

He suckled, felt her body shimmy, and heard her moan, louder this time. Her arms shifted ineffectually to embrace him or push him away, he didn’t know. He was enjoying himself much too much to care. When he finally slid into her passion-heated body, Janney opened her eyes on a gasp and immediately tightened her arms around his shoulders and her thighs around his waist.

“I told you I’d find you. And I’m never letting you go,” he rasped into her ear, embedding himself so deeply inside her that he knew they could never be separated again.

Marek sated once again, lay back against the pillows, his hands clasped behind his head. Separate, detached from Janney, he felt the stirrings that he was used to when he was with her.

No amount of time, no distance separating them, could diminish his love for her. He hadn’t begged and negotiated with the Goddess, Venus, to come forward two thousand years in time to find this woman in order to deny his true feelings.

Leonidas, though, had been on his mind almost as much as Janney had been. Was he supposed to choose between the love of his woman and that of his son? His stomach knotted. He wanted both. He intended to have both. The portal must open again, if indeed the door between past and present was still a reality.

Marek had turned as he’d stepped through the portal. Just before it closed, he saw Leonidas’ expression of incredulity, of the fear of abandonment. It haunted Marek now. He, himself, had grown up not knowing his father who had, for years, been

on campaign in Gaul. He’d never understood how much of his father he’d missed until Leonidas came back into his life. This young man, practically old enough to marry, had fascinated him.

The pain of missing all the years that formed his son’s life hurt him now.

The question was whether he could have both his son and his woman. Venus had been his ally. Mars had been uncharacteristically silent since his retirement from the army.

Venus hadn’t deserted him. There wasn’t a moment to waste.

He had to make Janney understand what he intended to do.

Janney yawned and stretched alongside Marek. He rolled his head to the side to watch. She turned toward him, cuddled into his side, and pulled the sheet up over her shoulder. She sighed, a deep growl that ended when her eyes popped open.

Staring at him as if she was seeing a ghost, her startled look amused him.

“Marek!”

He leaned in, removing his arms from behind his head, sliding one under her shoulders, the other around her waist.

“Janney.” He kissed the tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

“Don’t cry.”

“I’m not,” she denied. Pushing at his chest with both hands, she sat up clutching the sheet to her breasts. A tear trickled down her cheek. “I don’t understand this at all. How did you get here? Why did you wait so long to contact me?”

Marek knew he had some explaining to do. He hadn’t counted on Janney being angry. Now he had to explain why he didn’t contact her the minute he arrived in the Twenty-first Century or why he chose such a public location for their reunion.

“How long have you been here?”

“Since about midnight.”

“You know what I mean. How long have you been in Mission River?”

“I’ve watched you. You’ve been avoiding me.”

“I wouldn’t have avoided you if I’d known who you were,”

she retorted. “It’s been awful. I thought I had gone crazy.”

Janney closed her eyes. “You were in my dreams, asleep and awake. I didn’t know for sure if I imagined everything that happened in England?”

Marek drew his fingers down her cheek and nudged her chin back so she was looking at him. When she tried to jerk away, he cupped his palm around her nape and held her still. “I wasn’t sure you were ready to accept me, to accept the truth of what happened.”

“Sometimes it seemed so normal, not unusual at all, to think that I traveled through time, that I met you. But I’m not sure any other ordinary person would agree.”

“Have you told anyone about it? Judy?”

“No,” she exclaimed. “I couldn’t tell her. I wanted to.

We’re as close as sisters. We’ve known each other practically all our lives. I did see a psychologist but I think she believes I’m dreaming you up to give me something in place of my father.”

“What’s a psychologist?”

“A doctor you go to and talk about your problems and how they relate to your past.”

“Janney, I had to go back to my duties.” Gods, he regretted hurting her, though.

“I know, damn it. But why are you here? How did you get here?”

Marek started the long, convoluted story of what he found when he returned from campaign. His son. He told her about his reunion with Leonidas. The boy had turned into an amazing young man. Intelligent and sensitive, Leonidas had no intention of following his father into the army. He was a scholar and wished for travel and adventure. When he related a description of his trip to Britannia to his father, Augusta, and Gaius, Marek realized that his son had a talent for story telling. Epic story telling.

“But how did you get here? The same portal? What makes it open?” Janney fired questions at him. “Why are you and I the only ones who can go through?”

“I’m not sure but I think Venus is in control of the process.”

Janney’s expression reflected her skepticism.

“I don’t know any more about what caused all this.”

Marek had worked his hand under the sheet clutched to her breasts, sliding it up her leg to the crease between thigh and hip.

He was going to go back in time in the hopes of retrieving Leonidas. If what he had planned didn’t work out, this might be all he had of her. He intended to come back to her, but if he didn’t return, he would make use of every minute they had together.

“Janney,” he purred. “Come here.” He pulled her over to lie on top of him. Her lips were soft and warm; he could taste the salty residue of her tears. “Mmm,” he murmured deep in his throat as he swept his tongue into her mouth. Instantly, Janney responded, melting onto him, her arms sliding over his shoulders and up into his hair. Now that his army days were over and his hair had grown out, he appreciated its length. Her fingers palpating his scalp aroused him. He’d had no idea how sensual it could be until Janney appeared in his life.

With the early morning, weak winter sun lighting up the bedroom, Marek explored and tasted Janney’s body. In the months they’d been separated, he had not forgotten what pleasured her, nor how she loved the soft nibbling or his sharp teeth on her nipples. He hadn’t forgotten how she loved the slow fullness of his fingers thrusting and toying with her clitoris.

To watch her, through his own aroused eyes, writhing and arching her hips into his hand, filled him with wonder and love.

He knew if his plan didn’t work, he’d probably never see her again. He had to make this precious time last. For both of them.

Marek made love to her, his fingers sliding out slowly, thrusting in as if in rehearsal for the real thing. Janney caressed him, stroked his phallus, tightened her fist around him. He knew her moans were as much for her pleasuring of him as for her

own. She sobbed when he removed his fingers and loomed up over her. With her ministrations, her moans, he had hardened and ached even more than he thought possible. With a sensual, deep-throated growl, he nestled himself at her opening and thrust. One long, full plunge.

They both caught fire. She hooked her heels at his waist, he braced his elbows beside her shoulders, and drove into her as if it were the first time. And the last.

“What are you telling me, Judy?” Janney failed to keep her voice calm. She couldn’t believe that Marek had told Judy the whole story. She herself had not told everything to Judy. Only to Dora.

“I thought you should know where he’s going.”

Janney could hear, in her friend’s voice, the hurt that Janney hadn’t seen fit to tell her everything. “He told you the whole thing? And now he’s gone?”

“He wanted someone to know.”

“Why didn’t he tell me? I’m the one who should know.”

“I don’t know, Janney. Maybe he didn’t want you to go with him in case his plan didn’t work.”

“Well, I’m going anyway.” She couldn’t do anything about her father so many years ago. Ed had gone because she hadn’t cared enough. She wouldn’t lose Marek even if she had to go back to the ancient past to be with him.

He’d talked about his son. She knew it killed him to leave Leonidas behind after just reuniting with him. Janney’s stomach ached thinking about the chances of all this working out right. It hurt but she knew he was doing the right thing. Leonidas was his son. He came first.

Janney’s bad side, though, asked, when do I come first? She had never been first. As fast as the thought came into her head she chased it out with reasoning. Leonidas was Marek’s son. His child. Children came first.

There was no time to waste. Marek was ahead of her.

Could she catch him in time? It would cost a fortune to get a flight but she had to go. That’s what credit cards were for.

At the villa walls, Bath

December

The December night, dark, bitter, dreary cold, there was no snow but the ground was coated with white frost. Janney shivered in her down jacket, even the scarf at her neck wouldn’t keep out the damp. She was a day behind Marek. Had he gone through?

Another automobile, silent and alone, was parked under some low-hanging branches in a stand of oak trees. Her heart lurched joyously at the proof that he was here somewhere.

Unless Venus magically transported him here, he had to have arrived around this time the night before.

“Marek, where are you?” Janney murmured as she trod around the walls of the ruined villa. She supposed it was too much to expect the portal to be open waiting for her. Had it been open for Marek?

“Venus, oh great goddess,” Janney began what she hoped sounded like a sincere prayer to the goddess of love. Marek had said that Venus helped him come out of the past. Janney prayed that she would help again.

Janney wasn’t going to lose another man because she had no control in the matter, and she certainly wasn’t going to lose him by inaction. Her God or Marek’s Roman gods, whichever was in charge of time travel, hadn’t sent her back two thousand years for no reason. Janney circled the wall and found her way through several doorways into the inner courtyard, the peristyle. She groaned, “It’s all gone.” The beautiful flowering bushes and plants, the shade trees, the flowing, refreshing fountain, all overgrown with weeds, the stone columns crumbling. She gratefully sank down on a stone bench, not sure her legs would hold her up any longer. Her heart in her throat, thumped

thickly. “Marek,” she whispered. “Are you here? Were you here?”

Despair hit her. She’d hoped to find confirmation that what she thought as the most important thing that had ever happened to her, really happened. She’d hoped to feel recognition in this place but all she felt was cold and alone.

“Venus,” she tried again. “Please hear me, and bring Marek back to me. There was no response, at least that Janney could recognize. The wind did seem to kick up, though. Dead leaves, twigs and dust swirled around in circles like little whirlwinds.

Was that a message from the goddess?

After a minute of indecision, Janney pulled her feet up and, hugging her knees to her chest, she buried her face and rocked slightly forward and backward. She concentrated on memories of her weeks with Marek.

Blinking through her tears, she muttered, “You said you’d find me. Now it’s my turn. I came after you.”

A sound. A sound like scuffling, sandals scuffling through dry leaves. She stilled, closed her eyes, let her ears do the work.

Then she felt it. A gentle, much warmer breeze ruffled the hair at her bent neck. Her heart beat faster. She was leery of looking up, she didn’t know what she would find.

“Janney.” A murmur, almost so soft she wasn’t sure she heard anything. Warm air washed over her. Behind her closed eyes, she imagined that the peristyle became lush and green and beautiful again. She raised her head, opened her eyes, and was surprised to see the sun when she knew that it was night. She rose to her feet and turned. The fountain burbled. Birds twittered. It was all so odd, but then, her whole life had been odd ever since she first stepped foot in this villa.

“Marek?” Janney turned again and surveyed the garden, her heart thundering in her breast. The most beautiful woman materialized, and Janney shaded her eyes against the brightness of the form. Her gown, a golden tunic over a deep purple stola and trimmed in silver threads, glowed around her. Precious gems clustered in her dark hair and a jeweled girdle hung low

around her hips. Tall, voluptuous, her face perfection personified, the woman inspected Janney.

“Marek is yours, I proclaim it so. If he wishes to go with you to
your century, I, Venus, will make it happen.”

The voice, dulcet and rich, sounded in Janney’s head. It had to have come from the lovely woman yet her lips weren’t moving. The words, spoken so delicately and whispery in Janney’s ears, nevertheless, held the strength of steel. Janney heard a rumble of thunder but couldn’t look away from the woman.

The rumbling magnified to pound through her body, and Janney had to cover her ears with her hands. A violent wind whirled through the peristyle. Her hair swirled hectically across her eyes, tickling across her lips. She had to brace her feet wide to keep her balance.

A frown marred the beautiful features of the goddess.

The words, “No one shall interfere,” pulsed through the air.

A cloud, black and fiercely roiling, churned down through the garden and formed into a giant, broad male figure. Janney shaded her eyes from the blinding silver of his metal breastplate.

In his fist, he grasped a jewel-hilted, golden sword. As beautiful as the goddess was, the man—Janney knew he must be the god Mars—bore the most perfectly masculine face she knew she would ever see. The couple was almost too dazzling to look at.