Stars Across Time (32 page)

Much of that experience, she wouldn’t mind forgetting, but she wished she had some keepsake from Theron. Why hadn’t she thought to ask him for a small gift that she could bring home? A piece of wood whittled from his knife or one of the faded star charts in his study? Something to ensure she would never forget him, his kindness, his esteem, or the way he had made her cry out his name on a rooftop deck under the stars. The memory of
that
could still make her smile, but it was a bittersweet smile, because it reminded her how much she missed him. The rest of that world, she could take or leave, but Theron...

Andie stopped on the walkway in front of the door to her apartment, frowning down at the knob. When she had left, she had been in a hurry, so she hadn’t bothered removing a pizza advertisement hanging there. It was gone now. The wind? A soft rain was falling, but there wasn’t much of a breeze.

She leaned back, eyeing the doors lining the walkway. The advertisements still dangled from the other knobs.

Andie lowered her bag to the gritty floor, setting it beside the door. She didn’t think she had bothered locking up on the way out. Trying to listen for noise above the traffic from the nearby street, she eased the knob open. The living room had not been disturbed, but a light glowed from the kitchen. She
knew
she hadn’t left that on.

For the most part, her walls held framed photographs of family members and friends she had made in the service, but there were a handful of not entirely decorative sais and nunchakus mounted around the room. She pulled her cell phone out, tempted to call the police, but she would feel silly if Min-ji had simply come over and invited herself in. Andie grabbed one of the sais and crept toward the kitchen.

Before she had made it halfway there, a tall, broad figure stepped into view in the doorway. In the dim lighting of the rainy day, she almost didn’t recognize him, but after a second of staring, her mouth fell open, and she let the sai dangle.

Theron. Dressed in brown slacks, a creamy button-down shirt, and a leather jacket, he smiled and held up the pizza advertisement. He was clean-shaven, his hair trimmed, and, damn, he looked good. As puzzled as she was, that smile made her weak-kneed.

“Good afternoon, Andie. I was attempting to use the telephone in your kitchen to order a—” he squinted down at the paper, “—an extreme meat-lover’s deep-dish pie, but I fear Gideon was right and I was wrong. Apparently, ounces of gold and silver can
not
be used as legal tender in your century, and I need to visit a coin shop to make an exchange. Ridiculous, really. Do you know how tiny the window of history was when gold wasn’t considered currency or wasn’t what backed paper currency? Did you know that your entire monetary system is based on smoke and mirrors? It’s a miracle your currency didn’t collapse sooner.” He tilted his head. “Am I talking too quickly? Too much? I’m a little nervous.”

“I... uh...” Andie walked forward, reaching out with a hand to touch him, as if he might be some apparition or figment of her imagination.

“You’re not going to poke me with that, are you?” Theron nodded to the sai. “I intended to wait on your stoop until you returned home, but one of your neighbors was eyeing me suspiciously. It’s only been a couple of hours since I arrived, and I wasn’t sure if my costume was entirely convincing.” He plucked at the leather jacket.

“You look very handsome. And authentic. As long as you don’t try to order fast food with gold bars, you shouldn’t attract suspicion.”

“Er, yes.”

Andie slipped her arms around his waist to reassure herself that he was real. “People in the complex just aren’t used to seeing men lurking at my door.”

“No? Does that mean you haven’t found the father of your future child yet?” Theron smiled, but his eyes held a hint of concern. Did he worry that he had come back too late? Or maybe he wasn’t sure if he should be here at all.

She tightened her hug. “Not yet. I’ve been preoccupied thinking about this endearing man from another century.”

“Oh? Good. He’s been thinking about you too. And realizing there was something he forgot to ask you.”

“What’s that?”

“The tattoos.” His gaze dipped to her chest before lifting to meet her eyes again. “I wondered at their significance, but every time I saw them, I had... other things on my mind.”

“Ah. I’m afraid there’s not any grand significance. I was fifteen, had a fake ID, and was rebelling against the world.” She raised her eyebrows, wondering if he would like a closer look at the tattoos. “I hope that’s not the only reason you decided to come see me.”

“Not the only one, no.” The uncertainty had faded from his eyes, and he raised a hand to her face. He tucked a wayward clump of hair behind her ear and lowered his head, his lips parting.

Andie closed her eyes and lifted her chin, her stomach aflutter as if she were a nervous teenager about to be kissed for the first time. As soon as their lips touched, everything that she had worried was merely a dream came back to her in a blissful rush of memories. The sai clunked to the floor, barely noticed.

The last time they had kissed, she had cried, even though she never cried. Tears threatened again this time, too, if for different reasons. But his hand slid down her back to cup her butt and pull her close. She felt the hard musculature of his body through his clothes, and her emotion transformed into passion. She ran her hands up his back to his shoulders, returning his kisses eagerly and thinking about pulling him into the bedroom. But there was one thing she had to know first. As delighted as she was to see him again, he was wearing one of those bracers on his wrist, so that must mean he intended to return to his time period eventually. How long would she have with him?

She drew back, looking at his face, the question on her lips. His eyes were closed, and he dropped his mouth to her throat, nuzzling her there and kissing her as his hands continued to roam, reminding themselves of her contours, of what she liked... of what
he
liked. She wondered if more or less time had passed for him since their last meeting. She couldn’t bring herself to object to his delicious ministrations, so perhaps questions could wait until after they’d explored the bedroom together.

But he lifted his head and met her eyes, his brows rising slightly.

“How long are you staying?” Andie asked.

“Not long if I can’t figure out how to acquire food in this time period.” He grinned at the joke, but Andie didn’t know how much truth there was in it, and must have stared back with worry rather than amusement.

He lifted a hand to the side of her face, brushing her cheek with his thumb. “After you left, I mentioned the idea of going back in time to Morimoto. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been my confidant, but with few others knowing about the machine, I couldn’t mull it over at the fort pub. The general forbade it. He sent me back out to the field with my men, to get over my malaise—he called it something more blunt. While I was out there, I nearly got myself killed. A couple of times. I was preoccupied, distracted. Morimoto is more perceptive than you’d think for a grumpy army officer. He summoned me home and said someone needed to go back and find the soldiers who went on the first mission, the ones who were supposed to be trying to catch up with the kidnappers from this end. They never came back. So, I’m here to try and find them, which, ah, might take some time, given how populated your world is and the fact that the time machine wasn’t kind enough to simply deposit me on the mountainside two minutes before they originally appeared.”

“Some time,” Andie murmured. Weeks? Months? Years? She wouldn’t ask. She hadn’t expected to ever see him again. Any extra time they had together she intended to appreciate. And enjoy. “We had better get you acclimated then, so you won’t stick out while you’re here.” She clasped his hand. “Come, I’ll show you what we do in the bedroom in this century.”

“Is it much different from what we do on rooftops in my century?” Theron asked, wearing an agreeable smile as he trailed after her.

“You’ll see,” she said, winking over her shoulder at him.

THE END

Afterword Thank you for trying out this new adventure. I plan to return to Mandrake Company and my space-based romances next, but if you would like to see more stories with these characters and this world, please leave a review and let me know there’s an interest. For more information on my other books and what’s next, please
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