Time to Control (5 page)

“Do you have a sweatshirt--” I
broke off as I left the bathroom, catching Eddie after he had changed into
jeans, but before he put a shirt on.
 
“Wow,” I whispered, taking in the sight.
 
He was as built as I had felt underneath
his shirts, and longed to run my fingers through the dark chest hair.
 
He grinned at me and finished putting
his shirt on, tossing me a navy blue sweatshirt.

“MIT grad?” I asked, noticing the
decal on the well worn piece of clothing.
 
It was as soft against my skin as I had thought.

He nodded, and moved to the
bar.
 
“Undergrad and masters.
 
Whiskey?”

“Bring the bottle,” I told him,
sitting on the couch.
 
He brought
over two glasses, handing one to me.
   
I slugged back the first
shot, and held the glass out for more.

“So, it definitely happened again,”
Eddie said, and I agreed.
 
“You're
admitting it now?”

I glared at him.
 
“Yes, alright?
 
I admit that something weird is going
on.
 
We're entering a joined
hallucination.”

“Or a portal to another world.”

“You read too much sci-fi,” I told
him, pointing to the full bookshelves.
 
“Or time travel.”

He drank his glass, and poured
another.

“What do you think is causing it to
happen?”
 
I took the ring off, and
slid it back on.
 
Nothing.
 
He reached out and did the same; still
nothing.

“Maybe it's predicated by lecherous
thoughts,” Eddie tossed out, and put his glass down.
 
He pulled me onto his lap, and waggled
his eyebrows before kissing me soundly.

“Mmmm, try the ring?”
 
I said when he let me up for air,
holding my left hand out.

“I'm not feeling lecherous enough,”
he responded, and nuzzled my neck.
 
He ran his fingers along my side, then tugged the right side of the
sweatpants down.
 
Funny how a
sensual touch doesn't activate my ticklish nature.
 
Although honestly I was squirming, but
for different reasons.

“Hey!”

“Here's freckle number one,” Eddie
observed, and leaned down to kiss it.
 
I groaned and leaned back against the arm of the couch, giving him
better access to find the next one.

Eddie paused though, and removed
his hand, causing me to arch my back and wiggle closer to him.
 
He clamped an arm around my hips and
pressed me to his growing erection.
 
“You keep that up and we're looking for number three next,” he
threatened.
 

I ran my nails lightly across his
arm, and felt him stiffen more underneath me.
 
I smiled, and removed the ring and held
it out for him.
 
He slid it back
onto my ring finger with one hand and cupped his other hand around my heat.

“Ahhh!” I squirmed to get his
fingers moving where my body wanted them.

“Lecherous thoughts don't work,”
Eddie said disappointedly, removing his hand.

“Oh yeah they do,” I informed him,
grabbing his shirt and pulling him down on top of me.
 
He grinned, shifting me off of him, and
slid down the sweats.
 

“Oh look, number two,” he claimed
it with his mouth, leaving me panting.
 
He moved from beneath me to be between my legs.
 
He lifted his head and looked at me, his
eyes serious.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, husband—ohhh!” I broke
off with a shriek as he brought his tongue into play on the third freckle.
 
He moved up to kiss me on the mouth, and
I wove my hands through his dark wavy hair.
 
Eddie pushed the MIT sweatshirt up,
revealing my breasts to the cool air.

“You are so beautiful,” Eddie
breathed, and lowered his mouth onto one pert nipple.
 
I arched my back, and he moved to the
other nipple which was feeling rather left out.

“Eddie,” I whimpered, and reached
my hands down to unbutton his jeans and get access to him.
 
I pushed the jeans and his boxers down
enough to free him, and spread my legs more to give him access.
 
He entered me in one deep thrust like
last time, and I dug my nails into his firm buttocks as he began moving in and
out.
 
I remembered I could move my
hips too, and did so to match a thrust, and Eddie let out a low groan as he
orgasmed.

He rested on an elbow, and I
removed my nails from his bum and hugged him instead.
 
Eddie pulled out with a little gasp from
me, and I turned on my side and scooted back against the couch to give him
room.
 
The rough texture of the
fabric rubbed against my bare butt, and I pulled my shirts down so they
wouldn't be bunched up around my neck anymore.

Eddie let out a sigh of
disappointment at the hiding of the breasts, but the twinkle in his eyes told
me it was okay.
 
He danced his
fingertips along my thigh, and over the curve of my rear end.
 
I closed my eyes at the sensations, but
they flew back open when he started kissing me on the lips.

“Again?” I asked, excited at the
prospect.
 
This time I was on top.

I lay on top of Eddie when we were
done, tired but happy.
 
His hands
were up under my shirt, making lazy circles on my bare back, sometimes moving
down to caress my still exposed buttocks.
 

“My butt is getting cold,” I
finally said ruefully, pulling myself off of him and the pants back up.

“I can warm it up for you.”
 
His eyes gleamed, and he slid a hand
under the waistband and gave me a love tap.
 
I giggled, and he removed his hand and
put his own clothing back to rights.
 
“Maybe later,” he promised.

“So, I think you were on to
something with the lecherous thoughts,” I told him, settling back in next to
him to cuddle.

“Oh, babe, I need a few minutes
first,” he admitted.

“Not that,” I thwapped his
chest.
 
“The thoughts.
 
What were you thinking before we went
the first time?”

“Um,” he tried to focus his
thoughts and remember.
 
It was cute
to see his forehead wrinkle while he contemplated. “I was thinking about who
the ring was made for originally, and the silversmith who made it.
 
You?”

“I was thinking about what might
have been going on in England when the ring was made.
 
And during
Romeo
, I was thinking
about what Italy back in the day would have been like.
 
I can be a bit of a history geek,” I
told him.

“And I was thinking of, ah, well,
the attactiveness of the dresses.
 
You may be on to something here.
 
We were both thinking of a similar time period and location to where
– when -- we went.
 
That's
easy enough to test, I guess.
 
Where
would you like to visit?”

I bit my lip.
 
“The town where we got married.
 
Specifically, the barn.”
 
Eddie's eyes gleamed, in opposition to
his earlier statement.
 
“Not
that!
 
Um, I couldn't find my shorts
when I was getting dressed, and when we came back...”

Realization hit my new
husband.
 
“We left them.
 
In the past.”

“Yeah.
 
We need to get them, before someone
finds them.”

Eddie reached his hands toward the
ring, but I pulled away.
 
“One more
thing.”
 
I did a fake-curtsy in the
borrowed sweats.
 
“While totally
comfy, these are totally not period appropriate attire.
 
Considering we're going back to right
leaving future clothing in the past, do we really want to go like this?”

He held up a finger, and I paused
in my rant.
 
He disappeared into his
closet, and came back out with a shopping bag that he handed to me.
 
I opened it to find simple peasant's
clothing, like what others in the town had been wearing.

“This afternoon I went to a costume
store.”

“It's spring.
 
I thought they were just open before
Halloween?”

He gave me a look.
 
“This is New York.
 
There's a store for everything.
 
Doesn't matter the season.
 
Anyway, these are basic commoner
outfits.
 
They aren't exactly period
authentic, but could probably pass first glance a lot better than what we
normally wear.”

The simple brown wool trousers and
white linen shirt for Eddie were similar to what we had seen the other men
wearing in the town we got married.
 
My outfit had more pieces, but was still ordinary in appearance –
knee length socks that matched Eddie's, red skirt, off-white shirt, and a lace
up corset for over the shirt.
 

“I don't know whether to be
flattered or upset at the sizes you chose,” I admitted.

He had the good grace to be
embarrassed.
 
“I figure the working
poor wore what clothes were available, regardless of fit, so the odds were in
my favor that it'd work, at least for short term.”

I took a deep breath.
 
“We're really going to do this?
 
Intentionally try to time travel?”

“Why not?”

I had no good reason why not, and
tons of reasons to give it a try.

Married though we may be, I
couldn't bring myself to change in front of Eddie yet.
 
I hightailed it into the bathroom to
slip into the purchased clothes, which fit better than I expected.

Eddie looked mighty fine in his
costume.
 
Fine enough to give me
pause.
 
This man married me?
 
And wants to stay with me?

“Ready to go?”

With a nod of my head, he took the
ring I handed him, and slid it onto my finger.

* * *

The world spun, and next we knew,
we were back in the barn where Eddie and I consummated our marriage.
 
A quick glance around didn't turn up the
missing bike shorts, so we proceeded to dig down deep into the hay.

While bigger than a needle, the
shorts were not found in the haystack.
 
Nor up in the loft, in case Eddie's throw was better than he
thought.
 
I flopped down onto the
stiff straw.

“Now what?”

“It's likely it disappeared when we
came through to our time.
 
It's as
good of a reason as any other,” he shrugged.
 
“For now, we could take advantage of the
hay again,” Eddie said with a smile, leaning up against a horse stall.
 
“Seriously, though, why don't we take a
walk through town?
 
I'd say it's a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but it's the third of hopefully many trips we
can make through time.
 
Shall
we?”
 
He pushed off of the wood, and
reached a hand down to help me up.

“Let's shall,” I responded,
allowing him to pull me up, and accepting his assistance in dusting off hay
from my costume. He might have spent a little longer on various parts of my
anatomy than needed, but I didn't mind.

The village was bigger than I had
originally thought – probably more like a small town.
 
Of course, it looked small in comparison
to modern towns, but these folk didn't travel.
 
It'd probably be a major event if any of
them went to a city like London.
 
Visitors like us...

“Um, Eddie?”
 
I whispered, slipping my left hand in
his right, and leaning in to speak softly in his ear.
 
“Even with the clothes, we're standing
out like sore thumbs.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, “this isn't
working out like I thought.”
 
He
ducked into a small shop, and since we were still holding hands, I followed.

Eddie stepped inside a bakers shop,
ducking slightly through the smaller door frame. “Pardon me,” he said to the
baker as he pulled loaves of bread out of the simple oven. “I'm looking for
someone to craft some jewelry for me. Whom in town can help me with that?”

The baker pointed, in a
“that-a-way” direction. “Charles. He's the smith. Closest you'll get.” Not
wordy, but the man communicated enough to get the point across.

“Thank you kindly!” I said,
dragging Eddie out of the shop with me. Give me a Renaissance Festival any day
– rushes under foot smelled. Badly. And I wasn't sure what was slimy
under my right foot, and didn't want to look too closely to see.

We found the smith, which was
coincidentally (or maybe not) right next to the barn that we had just left. The
smith was in a covered outdoor area, kind of like a lean-to on the side of his
shop. The worker kept pounding at red-hot metal as we approached.

“You do the talking, since I have
no idea what we're doing here,” I whispered to my husband. Seriously, I was
starting to get nervous. I thought we were just going to take in the sights of
this town, and see what life was really like “back in the day”.

“I want to thank the man that gave
me my wife,” he whispered back. Awww. How sweet. I was glad knowing that I
could take off the ring in case I got too worried about interacting with the
locals.