Night of Fire (3 page)

Whatever that meant
. “In other words, I’m not going
to get busted if we get it on?”
What did he mean, if?

“Busted? Get it on?”

Unable to take any more of her enthusiastic and yet
analytical groping, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her off him. “Sorry, lady.
Much more of that and we’d have a spontaneous eruption right here and now.”

“Spontaneous? I do not—”

“Why did I know you were going to say that? Look…” He
gathered himself to go on yelling then decided not to risk a lacerated vocal
cord after all. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

Here
turned out to be the back side of Calton Hill.
He could still hear the drums, still feel them vibrating in the night, but at
least they were away from most of the crowd. Between the moon and firelight and
occasional flashlights, he was able to spot a fair number of couples doing what
came naturally in and about the volcanic rock base and low shrubs. No doubt
about it, Paul had been right about Beltane being
the
night to get laid.

The girl-woman hadn’t objected to coming here, and with her
hip brushing against his with every step—he’d kept his arm around her so they
wouldn’t get separated—he was close to not giving a damn how old she was, where
she came from or whether she’d escaped from some mental ward. What had she told
him, that she was
of age
? Hers was indeed a woman’s body. Ripe. Ready. And
with the wind blowing her not-quite-a-dress against her breasts and hips, he
easily placed her in the top one percent of her sex in the bod department. Sure
as hell he’d never had his hand on someone like her, half sprite, half human.

“Well, here we are,” he not-too-brilliantly announced when
he’d found a relatively smooth spot behind a boulder.

“This is a good place.” She ran her bare toes over some
low-growing flowers. “The earth is fertile.”

What’s that got to do with anything?
“Speaking of
fertile, I hope you’re on the Pill.”

“Pill?”

Shit. Here we go again.
“Protection. I don’t need a
paternity suit.”

She was looking up at him, obviously content with their
close proximity. He noted her long, slender neck, lips just begging to be
crushed under his, slender arms and flaring hips. He also noted that she didn’t
wear a speck of makeup. What modern woman on the prowl didn’t slather on war
paint? But then who said she was modern? The thought made him a little uneasy.

“Taurus, I have been sent to your time to find you, only
you,” she said. “To take your seed into my body.”

You’re not going to get any objections from me.
“I’m—I’m
glad to hear that. But I’m serious. I don’t want you getting pregnant.”

He could swear her features became darker, older even, but
that was probably just because it was night. For a moment she was absolutely
still as if listening to someone he couldn’t see. Then she relaxed.

“What happens tonight, I take full responsibility for. All I
want from you is this.”

He’d known she was going to take hold of his cock again. He
could have backpeddled, but he didn’t. Instead, he simply stood there as still
as she’d been earlier while she trailed her fingers over, around and under his
bulge. The weird thing was, there was nothing crude about what she was doing.
Rather, she handled his cock as if he were a prime piece of horseflesh she’d
just bid on.

“Lady, I don’t know what game you’re playing,” was the only
damn thing in the world he could think to say.

“I do not play games.” She’d taken hold of the tab on his
zipper but didn’t seem to know what to do with it. “This night is destiny. You
and I, we must mate.”

Who could he tell about this? No one would believe him, and
yet he couldn’t keep it to himself. “You aren’t part of this play or whatever
it is, are you? Am I on
Candid Camera?”

“What is this?” She ran her nails over the zipper. He felt
the vibration throughout his groin.

“You don’t know—? Who the hell are you?”

“Maia. Your mate,” she said. Then she rose up on tiptoe,
pressed her mouth, her body against his, and he forgot how to talk. Needing
more of her, he cupped his hands over her buttocks and pulled her hard and
tight against him. Having his cock mashed inside his slacks was driving him
crazy, and yet she felt so damn good. Ripe and lush and—oh hell, like something
out of an adolescent fantasy.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and gently slid her
body up and down his, rubbing her hard, young breasts against his chest. With
every move, his chest and belly and groin became more heated. He grabbed a
handful of whatever it was she wore, fascinated by the way it glided like water
over her butt. She’d tipped her pelvis toward him.

Now—hell, now she was massaging his arms, sides, hips. She
was everywhere on him, her fingers both cool and warm, pressing into the small
of his back before riding low on his hips, under his buttocks.

Unable to take any more of that torture, he shoved her away
just long enough to unfasten his slacks and free his cock. As soon as he
exposed himself, she was all over him again. This time she came at his side.
First she pulled down on his slacks until they were bunched around his ankles.
Then she reached between his legs both fore and aft. Without so much as a
by
your leave,
which of course he would have granted because he was no longer
thinking, she probed until her fingers came together in his crotch. His snug
briefs were in the way. He felt her fingers through the single layer, teasing
his balls, moving them first one way and then the other. Over and over again
she massaged and manipulated while he stood dumb and straddle-legged with one
hand half around her neck.

Shit! He was going to go off just like that.

“Maia—that’s it, right? Maia? Do you know what the hell
you’re doing?”

“Y-es.”

What did it matter? A heartbeat later he’d answered his own
question. It mattered a lot.

“Wait.” He sounded every bit as confident as he had the
first time he’d stood at the top of a steep ski slope. “Wait. Not like this.”

She took his testicles in one hand. The other was spread
over the length of his cock. “You do not want…?”

“I’d have to be six feet under not to want. But haven’t you
heard of letting the man be the aggressor?”

“You think I am aggressive? No, I am a maiden.”

What you are is a nut case.
“Look.” Despite the cost
to his electrified nervous system, he hauled her off him and held her at arm’s
length. God, but she was incredible! Nowhere close to civilized. “We’ve got all
night. We don’t have to go at this as if we’re in rut.”

She stared at her captured wrists but didn’t try to break free.
“Rut is sheep, cattle.”

“And sometimes, humans. At least that’s the way we’re going
at it. Tell me something. Are you from this planet?”

“From this place, yes. But not of this time.”

The man who The Lady said would call himself Taron stared at
her for so long that Maia was afraid she’d said the wrong thing, but The Lady
had told her to be honest when she approached Taurus. The Lady had also warned
her that this man, her spirit-chosen mate, wouldn’t understand his role at
first and might need guidance.

But I have never been with a man,
she had said.
I
cannot guide if I have never been there before.

Trust,
The Lady had said.
Trust your body.

She wanted to do that, she needed to. But all she knew was
that when animals were ready to mate, they did so. She’d seen and heard her
parents having sex but didn’t know what they did or said before her father
shoved his seed-bearer into her mother’s baby-making place. They’d promised to
tell her those things once she’d been spoken for, but then the priests and
their armed soldiers had taken over the village and nothing else had mattered.

With a mental shake of the head, Maia brought herself back
to the here and now. The earth seemed to be rumbling. She knew what
djembes,
surdus, dharbukas,
and
shakers
sounded like when they were played,
but this soul-touching rhythm was different.

Maybe Taurus was responsible.

When she relaxed her fingers, he released her wrists but
didn’t stop staring at her. His eyes heated her in a way that reminded her of
the heat she’d felt between her legs when The Lady first told her about him.
She hadn’t felt more than a twinge of shyness when The Lady had told her to
disrobe and then put on this filmy gown, but Taurus was looking, not at but
through it. Seeing her body.

“What do you want?” she asked when his stare began to harden
her nipples.

“Maybe a keeper for you. No, not really. One last time. You
really want to do this?”

Of course she did, fertilizing the earth with their sex
fluids was why she’d been sent here. And yet she couldn’t quite silence the
part of her that wanted to remain a child. “You do not?”

“If you have to ask that, you don’t understand men. Honey,
we’ll take it any time, any way we can get it.”

Not quite sure what he meant, she nevertheless smiled at
him. She didn’t feel comfortable taking off her belt and dagger, but most times
people didn’t have sex with clothes on. The shadows didn’t completely hide the
other couples, but none of them would care what she and Taurus did.

He watched, still and alert, as she untied the gold-dyed
hemp belt and lowered it and the sacred dagger to the ground. Then she lifted
the gown over her head, folded it and placed it beside the dagger.

“I am ready,” she said.

“Shit.” Shaking his head in time with the drumming, he
kicked off his shoes and stepped out of the garment she hadn’t known how to
unfasten. His top was held together with small stones that effortlessly gave
way under his experienced fingers. She thought about asking him why he dressed
that way. Then she looked down at his seed-maker and forgot the question.

Male horse and cow sex organs were much bigger than humans,
but she’d never quite gotten used to the difference between how a man looked
when he was going about his work and when his seed was ready to be spilled.
Taurus’ organ looked larger than any man’s she’d seen, maybe because he was
part bull. She didn’t see how it could possibly fit inside her.

And yet the thought of feeling him in there caused her
breath to catch and the place between her legs to swell slightly.

He was naked. Seeing him standing there, his hands extending
toward her, waiting for her, flooded her body with heat. Her lips, breasts,
belly, and baby-place buzzed. She couldn’t move.

“What is it?” he asked.

He is your destiny.

“I—nothing.”

“I don’t think so,” he said. Then he fastened his hands
around her elbows and drew her to him. Light from the fire she could no longer
see painted the sky. Her bones, skin, muscles felt the everything-music, but
maybe he was responsible for her strange new and wonderful reaction.

He bent his head toward her, and she found the courage to
meet her mate. At first all she could think about was how soft his lips were.
Then he parted them, and she opened hers in response, his tongue entered her
mouth. She hadn’t known that would happen, her initial impulse was to bite him.

His seed-maker ground into her belly, hard and huge and
demanding. She felt her legs weaken. Something was growing up inside her, some
part of her she’d never suspected existed making itself known. Sensitive. As
demanding as his organ.

She wouldn’t bite his tongue after all. Instead, she’d let
him do what he wanted with her mouth. And because they wanted to, she wrapped
her arms around him and held him close.

His tongue probed and challenged, filling her and lighting
even more of a blaze between her legs. Her parents had grunted and groaned,
sometimes even screamed when they were having sex, but she didn’t think they’d
been in pain or they wouldn’t have done it so often. Now she began to
understand.

By forcing her thoughts, at least a little, off what was
happening inside her mouth, she concentrated on her fingers. A bull was all
muscle and hair, but the man Taurus’ skin was nearly as soft as a child’s—at
least the flesh over his buttocks was. Starting with the lightest of touches,
she grew increasingly bolder, exploring everything she could reach.

He must be ticklish because he kept shivering. When she
sucked her belly and hips away from him so she could explore what of him
existed between his pelvic bones, he withdrew his tongue and stood, still
shivering, as if thinking of nothing except what she was doing.

She’d touched his seed-maker before, it should be easy to do
so again. But the first time she hadn’t felt so alive and hungry up inside
herself. Still, because he’d soon place it in her, she needed to be certain
about its length and breadth. At least that’s what she told herself.

It was amazing that something capable of growing so large
could feel like silk and stone at the same time. It was ribbed with what surely
must be blood-filled veins. On top, she found nothing except an intriguing knob
and warm moisture.

Moisture? Had he already spilled himself? No, that couldn’t
be, she concluded as she continued her exploration because—because it made her
feel soft and full and alive inside to do so. There was so little fluid, surely
much more was needed to hold the precious things that would become a new life.
How would she get him to release more? Was there something she should be doing
that she wasn’t?

“You’re making me crazy.”

His voice was a growl and came from deep inside him. His
skin was becoming sweat-soaked, and he kept rocking from side to side. When her
father was inside her mother, his buttocks pumped back and forth, back and
forth almost like a drummer’s hand.

“I do not mean to make you do that thing—crazy,” she said.
“What do you want me to do?”

“You have to ask? Ah, how important is foreplay to you?”

She’d never heard the word. “It does not matter.”

“Get right to the main course. Is that what you mean?”

Not at all sure, she tried to think what he wanted. Her
father always seemed pleased and tired after he’d had sex. Surely Taurus wanted
to feel the same way. Besides, she wanted to get the first time over so she
wouldn’t feel so uncertain.

“The main course, yes,” she told him. She hoped she’d said
the right thing.