My Wish - Time Guardians Book One (4 page)

Gathering her rather scattered thoughts, she yanked her towel more tightly around her and glared at her guests. "My robe seems to have disappeared. Would either of you gentlemen happen to know where it is?" A raised eyebrow accompanied this question, and Sami and Hari turned equally innocent faces towards her.

"Robe? You would like a robe, Alana?" asked Hari, with his best
butter-won't-melt-in-my-mouth
look.

"Cut out the wide-eyed puppy bit. Yes. My robe. The one you said your eunuch wouldn't clean his windows with or something."

"Actually, there are no windows in the harem, in your sense of the word, therefore our eunuchs would not require rags to clean them," said Sami thoughtfully.

A sound that quite closely approximated the growl of a wolf about to strike at its prey emanated from Alana's throat, surprising even her.

"My robe was not a rag. It was
my
robe. I loved that robe. I have watched TV in that robe, gotten drunk in that robe, been sick in that robe, and spent whole sybaritic days hanging around in that robe. I have a deep sentimental attachment to that robe. Now where is it?"

The men looked at each other, guilt written in very large letters across their handsome faces. Alana was hard pressed not to smile, but bit the inside of her cheeks firmly and continued to glare angrily at them.
Let's see them squirm out of this one
.

Hari rose to pour her some coffee. "Well, Alana, it was like this...cream, sugar? Perhaps a little rosewater as well?"

"Just cream. Don't change the subject."

"I—er—it ended up near our home and I took it with me last night—and I forgot that it was trash pickup day today, and the camel sellers took everything. Including your robe." Hari looked uncomfortably down at his cup.

Alana's lips twitched. She couldn't help herself. Hari looked so apologetic, and obviously hadn't a clue that he was so gorgeous she'd forgive him just about anything.

"So that would be your third century BC version of 'the dog ate my homework'?"

Hari's eyes met hers and a twinkle started deep in their brown depths.

"I would say that is an accurate assessment, yes, Alana."

"What happened to 'Mistress,' by the way?" she added, sitting carefully at the table while trying to hold up the towel. "Not that I mind, you understand, but I was sort of getting into the slave-slash-mistress thing."

The coffee was unusual, dark yet just sweet enough, and Alana sighed with pleasure as she replaced the mug on the table.

"Once we have brought you to your woman's peak a sufficient number of times, we usually dispense with the term, Alana," answered Sami from behind her. "You trust us now, and know we mean you no harm or disrespect."

She turned, realizing in a flash that he was right. She'd known them for only a few short hours, and yet she'd put her life into their hands if necessary. It was an odd moment of awareness, and she welcomed the distraction that Sami was making with a large show of producing something from behind him.

"Your robe, Alana..." he said, bowing and holding out a garment towards her.

She couldn't help it—she gasped.

It was pure white silk, such a soft and slithery silk that she could hear the folds as they brushed against each other. She carefully reached out and took it from Sami's outstretched hands. Holding it up she saw the exquisite red embroidery that circled the neck and the side slits. It was a caftan, but more luxurious and magnificent than she had ever seen.

"Oh guys..." she breathed, holding it against herself. "This is too much."

"And also this..." Sami was holding what looked like a handful of fairy dust.

He moved his hands slightly and the sparkles turned into a finely wrought chain. A small chime came from a little bell suspended at one end.

"What's that?" she asked, fascinated by the soft sound.

"It's your
cushi
bell." Sami moved the chain so that the delicate ringing could be heard more clearly.

"What's a
cushi
bell?"

"Let me show you." He moved to the table and pulled Alana to her feet, incidentally leaving the bath towel on the chair behind her.

"Cushi is a Sanskrit word." Hari picked up the narrative as Sami pulled her arms out to her sides and put the chain around her naked waist. "It means 'ditch' in a literal sense, but has been associated with the Greek
kunnos
and the Latin
cunnus.
So actually, this
cushi
bell is a cunt bell. Now, we are aware that your society frowns on that word, and frankly we agree that it has a harsh and ugly sound to it. It's a shame since it is used for a most beautiful body part. So we prefer to call it the
cushi
bell—same meaning, but more melodious."

Alana watched as Sami adjusted the chain. He took his time with the teeny links, and when he was finally satisfied he stood back, motioning to Alana to walk across the room.

She took a step and froze. As she walked, the surprisingly heavy small bell swung right against her clit. Each step was an exercise in arousal.

"Dear God. I can't stand this. I'll be completely insane by the end of the day." She looked helplessly at Hari and Sami, who were smiling at her.

Hari reached over to the counter for something.

"This is all part of your beginner's classes, Alana. The function of this bell is not to bring you to orgasm every time you walk across a room, but to remind you of your own sexuality. You will see that if you walk a little more slowly and sway your hips slightly, the bell will not fall directly on your lovely clit, but just swing from side to side. The sound is also to remind you that you are a woman—bells are closely associated with everything female in our culture."

Alana tried a few more steps, following Sami's instructions. To her amazement, it worked. She turned with a smile and was suddenly blinded as Hari snapped a quick cell phone shot of her standing there in her
cushi
bell, a big smile and absolutely nothing else. Not even mascara. She was horrified.

But Sami forestalled her before she could begin the rant she felt building up inside. "Forgive us, Alana," he said apologetically. "We take a picture of all our students—and we add the pertinent details to the file as well. You see—" He paused and glanced at Hari. "When we go, we will leave more than our teachings behind, we will leave our memories too. As soon as we both re-enter the vessel and seal the top, it will be for us as if we were never here. We will not remember you at all.

Chapter 4

Alana cradled her coffee mug in her hand as she sat at the table, looking at the two handsome faces across the expanse of white tile. It had taken her a few moments to grasp the significance of what Sami had told her and place it into context. She felt a wave of sadness for them sweeping over her.

"I think it's time we talked, you two," she said. "I have a lot of questions."

Hari and Sami exchanged brief glances.

"Alana, not many of our students wish to talk very much. Are you sure you would not rather work some more on your lessons?" asked Hari, a look of puzzlement on his handsome face.

"Well, this is me, and I want to talk. I need to understand some things here, and if I'm to accept that you are going to hold the future of my sex life in your hands, I think it's only fair that I get to check out your references, so to speak. Look at this as an on-the-job interview."

"Very well, Alana," agreed Hari. "What do you want to know?"

Alana narrowed her eyes slightly and fixed both of them with an unyielding stare. "How did you end up in that bottle?"

There was silence for a moment, then Sami looked at Hari. "Perhaps I will leave this story to you, my brother," he said.

Hari shrugged slightly and leaned back, the expanse of his chest a definite distraction. "Sami and I met while campaigning in Gaul," he began.

"So you're not really brothers?"

"No. I am from a small town in what used to be Persia, while Sami is Thracian."

"Well that explains the coloring, I suppose."

"Alana, are you going to keep interrupting or do you want to hear the story?"

"Sorry. Go on."

"Sami and I attained a somewhat dubious reputation within our phalanx. There were few women who could resist us, and we certainly took advantage of it. I make no apologies, Alana. It was a different time and we did not expect to survive the campaign. In fact, few soldiers made it home in one piece, and Sami and I were unfettered by family or loved ones. We knew that we could fight and die as free men."

Alana swallowed, struck by the stupidity of the things men could do to each other.

"We did not know at that time, but our actions were observed and reported to a kind of Supervisor—one who watches for those people who possess an unusual amount of sexual skill. This man, our guide, visited us in our tent one evening and proposed that we leave our lives as soldiers and join his organization instead."

"Of course, once he told us what it was, we were convinced that we had been killed in that afternoon's fighting, and he was a messenger of the gods come to take us to the other side," added Sami, a wry twist to his lips.

"Sure enough, within moments he had us traveling with him through strange places until we ended up in Anyela—the place where we were to be trained."

"Anyela? I've never heard of it. Was it around the Mediterranean?"

Two smiles answered her question.

"Yes and no," continued Hari. "It
is
around the Mediterranean, but it's also around several other planets in different parallel universes of this local cluster."

"Hoo boy, you're getting beyond me now. Is there a
Dimensional Travel For Dummies
version to this bit?" Alana frowned and tried to remember all those public television specials she'd dozed through.

"Just imagine that time is a bunch of ribbons, all streaming pretty much in one direction," said Sami.

"Okay. I can do that."

"There are places where the ribbons become tangled and lines cross and knot, almost like a station; the ribbons come into this knot and go out again the other side, but not always on the same track."

"So you're saying that Anyela is one of these knots?"

"Anyela is actually within one of these knots—a place where time holds still, and many wise beings gather to assess the progress of the universe."

"Oh my."

"And the people are very beautiful, the flowers bloom eternally, and there is no want or pain or disease," added Sami.

"It sounds like heaven," breathed Alana, trying to imagine such a place in her mind.

"It may well be what your religion describes as heaven," agreed Hari. "To us, it is simply home."

"Do you have a family? Wives, kids?"

Sami looked down at the table. "Because of what we do, Alana, such things are forbidden to us. We must remain unfettered in order to love our students."

"Love your students? What does that mean?"

"It means, Alana, that each student is carefully selected for us. She must be someone whom we can love. That love is what enables us to give her the pleasure and the self-awareness she needs."

"You mean you're both going to fall in love with
me
?" squeaked Alana.

The full lips curved into identical smiles.

"We already have. Our minutes are filled with your thoughts, your scents, the feel of your skin next to our bodies...we are eagerly awaiting the moment when you are finished with this talking and we can get back to our lessons," murmured Hari, stroking her wrist with butterfly touches of his thumb.

Ignoring the chills running up and down her spine, Alana doggedly continued. "Back up the truck there, buster. I have plenty more questions yet."

Hari sighed. Sami rolled his eyes.

"Cut that out, both of you. A few more minutes won't hurt." Alana couldn't help but wonder if any of their "students" had taken the time to get to know them before now.

"Don't you ever wish you could settle down? Have a family? Age normally?"

Silence fell for a moment as both men considered her words.

Sami was the first to answer. "I suppose if we were given the choice, we might elect to stay in one place with—with one woman—but because we never remember our last student, it would be pretty much impossible for us."

Alana was beginning to get a picture, and wasn't too sure if she liked what she saw.

"So—let me get this straight. You two have been traveling through time, being assigned to women with whom you can't help falling in love. How is that calculated, by the way?"

"Something to do with pheromones and their DNA constituents, I believe," answered Sami.

Hari raised an eyebrow and looked at him. "Did the Guardian tell you that?"

Sami colored slightly. "Nope. Saw a special on The Learning Channel."

"Hah."

"Excuse me. Save the squabbles, I'm pursuing a train of thought here. After fulfilling your mission of awakening her sexual identity, you two blast off into the ether and have no memories of her—just arriving back at home with a suitcase full of dirty laundry and a photograph? No recollection of the love you've shared or anything she's said and done?"

"As long as our mission has been successfully completed, that is correct. And we've not had an unsuccessful mission yet, have we Sami?"

"No, never. We are, in fact, the best at what we do." Sami said this with pride, not boastfulness, and Alana couldn't help but smile.

"I can certainly vouch for that," she answered.

Two pairs of eyes lit up and the sexual tension in the room ratcheted up ten notches.

Alana's head swam for a moment or two as the wave of testosterone swamped her. "Wait..." she held up a hand, palm outward. "I'm not quite finished."

Two groans answered her.

"First, I'd like to know who does what in this arrangement. So far it's been mostly Sami—not that I'm complaining, but I'd like to know the curriculum, so to speak, and secondly..." She cleared her throat and swallowed, trying to find the words for her next question. "Why haven't either of you come yet? And inside me? Is that not allowed? Or can't you..."