Garden of Desire: 1 (16 page)

“You know, she’s in love with you.” She didn’t have to say her name. The instant softening of his features told her he knew she meant “Violet”.

“I was her first kiss.” His hips lifted, spearing her. “She’ll grow up—find someone else.”

“You also gave her an orgasm.” She brought her hands to her breasts and caressed them, pushing them together. “She’s a woman.” I’m your woman, she wanted to scream.

He snorted. “I know. She’s had her menses since she was ten. Play with your tits for me, baby.”

Martha smiled and plucked her nipples, tugging them until they rose like hard, round buttons from the center of her areolas. “I don’t get it. I don’t get you.”

“I can’t be gotten. I’m not staying.”

“Why?” She moved faster, bouncing on his cock.

“Because I’m dying here.” His thighs strained to raise his groin higher. “I want to go back to pirating.”

“Take us with you,” she said, her breath catching as she ground down, rubbing her clit on the crisp hairs at the base of his cock.

“No. Not safe.”

“Safe isn’t what I’m looking for. I love you.” Despite the chill in the air, his body, hot as furnace, caused hers to perspire. She kept moving, grinding and circling her hips to increase the heat between her cunt and his cock.

“Don’t. This is all there is,” he warned, one hand slipping down her belly to finger her clit. “All I have to give.”

“You’re wrong. You have everything to give.” Martha abandoned the conversation, concentrating instead on showing him, gifting him with her love and passion.

The next morning Cantor woke well before dawn. Martha had fallen asleep on top of him and was shivering, the covers having fallen away. He touched her bottom and discovered her skin was icy cold.

He pulled the blanket up and turned her to let her take the heat he’d left on the blanket beneath him.  Martha murmured and drove a leg between his and snuggled her chest against him. But she didn’t wake.

Neither of them had slept much—they had both sensed a farewell in the offing. He was surprised how much the thought pained him.

Had Martha finally managed to inch into his heart with her relentless pursuit—much like the spaniel of his childhood?

He looked up at the dark canopy of leaves above him, listened to the sounds of creatures stirring in the early morning and felt a rebirth, or rather a reawakening of his spirit.

How could the recycled air of a space cruiser compare to the fresh scent of a forest or a woman’s musk? How could confinement in a metal-hull offer more freedom than blazing a trail through a virgin forest?

And speaking of virgins, how could anything be more gratifying than leading a young woman through her journey of self-discovery?

The two women, the one in his arms and the other waiting in his cabin, offered him two diverse voyages. Enough of an adventure to sate any pirate’s need for exploration.

Martha stirred and her hair brushed his chin.

It always came back to Martha. Her wide, honest stare stripped away his barriers and pretensions, leaving him feeling naked and sometimes cruel. Martha made him feel guilty he wasn’t a better man.

He leaned back to look into her face. Martha was beautiful. She was sunshine and laughter—and sex. Dark, carnal sex. He remembered her sweet ass lifting to meet his hand, as she lay draped over his thighs. Her moist response to his lesson. She’d surprised him. Just like the day she picked his lock and snuck beneath the covers to blow his cock and mind.

The woman was adventure with a capital “A”.

Cantor wanted to wake her and tell her, but the feeling was too new. And he had a lot to think about. He kissed her forehead and hugged her close to his body.

Martha giggled, her eyes still closed. “You woke up in a good mood,” she said, brushing her thigh against his arousal.

“We haven’t time for that. Besides, the men have heard quite enough of your excitement,” he said grumpily. “They’re probably ready to hump a tree this morning. How’s your ass?”

“Don’t remind me. I’m a little stiff today.”

“I’m a lot.”

Her eyes opened and she looked a little unsure. “You’re teasing me.”

“Is that against the rules?”

“Don’t go changing on me now. I don’t want to like you too much.”

Cantor kissed her mouth, trying to tell her with his tenderness everything would be all right. When he lifted his head he smiled at her bemused expression. “Now, find your pants. The men have already seen as much of you as I’m willing to share.”

“What do you care? Soon, you’ll leave me, and I’ll have to show some other man a whole lot more than my flabby ass,” she grumbled.

He grabbed both cheeks in his hands, making her squeal. “For now, it’s mine.”

“Your hands are cold!” she said, reaching behind her to push him away.

He held firm. “Then warm them.”

Martha leaned back and looked into his face. “You seem different today.”

“Today, I face a dragon.”

Her smile warmed his heart. “Before I put my pants on, I’d like to wash. Can I borrow your canteen?”

“Sure, but wrap the blanket around you, when you leave.”

She pulled the blanket with her as she stood and uncovered the breeches she’d worn the previous day. Flipping them over her shoulder she held out her hand for the canteen he pulled from his pack.

“Here’s a cloth, too.” He handed it to her, laying back on his sleeping bag to watch her walk away.

“About time you gave that woman some peace,” Darak said.

Cantor looked over his shoulder to watch his friend approach.

His friend wore a crooked grin on his face. “I’m surprised she can still walk.”

With the sun breaking through the leaves overhead, Cantor felt too relaxed to rise to Darak’s teasing. “She’s a strong woman.”

“So we noticed—among other things. She has a fine, strong body. Broad hips that will bear children easily, and breasts to feed an entire crew of little pirates.”

Cantor smiled at the thought.

“The men are wondering when you’re going to cut her loose. Several of them are thinking of courting her.”

Cantor’s good mood evaporated. “She’s not available.”

“Not yet, hmm? Don’t blame you.” The corners of Darak’s mouth turned up. “Cold, is it?”

Cantor followed his gaze down and realized his cock still rested outside his trousers and quickly tucked it into his pants.

Darak’s laughter rang loudly in the stillness, bringing curses from the rest of the men stirring in their blankets.

“I’d better see what’s keeping Martha,” he muttered, stuffing his feet into his boots.

Darak laughed harder. “I thought we were hunting dragons not pussycats.”

Cantor threw his pack at Darak and stalked off in the direction he’d seen Martha leave. Once he entered the forest, he realized she’d taken a long time. He picked up his pace, worried now that Martha might be in trouble or had lost her way.

“Martha!” he called out. He heard water burbling nearby and followed the sound to a pool with steam rising off its surface. Black rocks rimmed the pool and the water smelled of sulfur. There beside the water, he found the blanket with Martha’s clothing piled on top, but no sign of her. “Martha!”

“Cantor!” she shouted back, the sound strangely muffled.

He tore off his clothes and waded into the water, then swam in the direction of her shout past an outcropping. He rounded the corner and saw Martha, naked, kneeling on a ledge at the mouth of a large cave. As he drew near, he noticed a foul odor that came from within the cave.

“Sweetheart,” he said, keeping his voice low, “get off that ledge, now.”

Martha looked back at him. “There’s something inside, I heard a scratching sound.”

“Get off the ledge,” he repeated, his heart in his throat. “Swim back to me.”

Martha’s gaze said she didn’t understand, but she backed off the ledge and sank into the water. Cantor waited until she was near, then whispered, “Get back to the camp and tell the men to bring their weapons.”

Reading the urgency in his voice, her eyes rounded. She swam back with him shadowing his movements. At the edge of the pool, they dressed quickly.

“Do you think it’s one of the creatures?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but I smelled a rotting carcass. Now get back to camp.”

“Aren’t you coming?”

“I’ll wait for the others here. You and Kirsten stay behind.”

Martha nodded and hurried away.

Cantor knelt behind a tree to keep watch. They must be nearer to the foot of the mountain than he’d thought. And the dragons must be able to move in the forest with greater ease than he’d hoped.

The men gathered at the edge of the pool. The sunlight, filtering through the leaves above, reflected on its dark, burbling surface. The pool looked like a giant, heated cauldron.

“Ivan, do you think the creature can be immobilized with an electro-stun?” Cantor asked, turning back to the men.

“I’d set the charge to level two to be on the safe side,” he replied.

“Immobilized?” Akron asked. “Why not kill it?”

“We don’t understand what the creature is yet, or how it interacts with this environment,” Cantor said. “Let’s take a little time to study it before we act rashly.”

“Cantor’s right,” Ivan said. “If we can immobilize it, I can take tissue samples back for analysis. We should go into the cave so we can also look around its home for clues to its behavior.”

“We’re goin’ in the cave?” Akron’s face twisted with disgust. “Did ya not get a whiff?”

“Look, this isn’t a democracy. The Captain left Cantor in charge,” Darak said. “We don’t have to kill it, today.”

Akron grimaced. “So what’s the plan? And who’s goin’ in the cave?”

“Since you haven’t the stomach, I will,” Cantor said. “I’ll crawl up near the mouth and draw it out. Akron, you and Darak will hit it with the electro-stuns as soon as it clears the cave.”

“And if it doesn’t come out?” Akron asked.

“We play it by ear.”

“Take these,” Ivan said, handing him several phospher-flashes.

Cantor clipped the small explosives to his belt. The grenades produced more light than explosion, but they might give him an advantage in a tight spot. “Let’s move in. And keep the noise down. We don’t want it waking up before we’re in place.”

The men split into two groups, circling the pond from opposite directions. Cantor’s heart raced, a familiar adrenaline rush buzzing in his head. When they neared the mouth of the cave, he signaled to the men behind him and the ones assembled on the opposite side of the gaping black hole.

“Jesus!” Akron gagged and reached for the bandana he’d tied around his neck for this mission. He slipped the edge of it over his nose and mouth, but his eyes still watered.

Cantor shared a grin with Darak. The smell would gag a maggot, but Cantor pushed aside the discomfort. He couldn’t afford to mask any one of his senses where he was going.

He donned a pair of infrared glasses and crept quietly into the cave. Through the lenses, the things lurking in the shadows were revealed in shades of gray and black. Water glistened on the walls, dripping into a hollow near the entrance, forming a shallow pool within the cave. Forest debris was piled at the edge of the pool, looking crushed, as if something very large had lain atop a bed of leaves. But there was no sign of any animal, alive or rotting.

The cave was deeper than he had first supposed, and although every hair lifting on the back of his neck told him not to venture deeper, he resisted the urge to back away. He’d never backed away from a challenge in his life.

Footsteps behind him told him his men weren’t letting him go in alone. He was glad they covered his back. As he neared what he’d first thought was the back of the cave, he found a narrow tunnel, large enough for two men to walk through, shoulder to shoulder. Wind whistled through the tunnel, carrying a stronger stench with it.