The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance (19 page)

He went further in, noting two closed doors on either side of the hall. One of them flew open, and a man burst out of it, arguing with a half-dressed woman, who also came out.

Half naked was more like it. She wore heavy paint that accentuated her facial features, but Sean’s attention was drawn to her full, swaying breasts.

Fortunately, the two were so caught up in their argument that they did not notice him gaping. He tried not to stare, but it was all too weird. Nothing had prepared him for such a sight, and in spite of her nearly complete nudity, he found the woman surprisingly unappealing. Pure, physical sexuality was not that interesting.

He pushed past them towards the front of the building where the music was loudest, and looked for Erica.

Another shock. He found himself in some sort of theatre, with a circular, elevated stage in its centre, surrounded by cheering spectators. The walls were black, and the audience sat at tables in the dark fringes of the large room. Sean couldn’t see where the music emanated from, but colourful lights were focused on the stage where he saw two women, each one wearing nothing but a tiny strap of cloth between her legs. The barest essentials were covered, but nothing else.

They twisted and turned their bodies to the beat of the drums while the men in the audience cheered and tossed money to them. The entire scene before him was far more lascivious than anything his Deviant brain could have imagined. And suddenly the music changed tempo, the two women danced away, and another one appeared.

Erica.

At least she was wearing clothes. She climbed the steps to the stage and the cheers became louder. Men started whistling, and calling, “Mona! Mona!” Sean looked at the faces of the avid spectators and suddenly realized what was about to happen. He stood frozen in place, and watched as she moved in a sultry, sexual dance to the rhythm of a heavy drumbeat.

She remained expressionless until her eyes lit on him, then she focused on him as she danced, removing one article of clothing at a time and tossing it away. She danced as though he were the only man in the room, as though she was undressing just for him. Sean felt his knees go soft, but the rest of him hardened considerably. His mouth watered and he swallowed hard, watching her undress.

Never would he have believed this if someone in his time had told him about it. Her movements were incredibly erotic, but he suddenly remembered what she’d said in the car. She wasn’t accustomed to this kind of work.
She was being paid to do this.
And probably didn’t like it.

She was down to one thin layer of some soft, shimmering white undergarment. All but the tips of her breasts were visible beneath the filmy white cloth, and they bounced deliciously as she moved.

Her narrow waist flared to beautifully rounded hips, and her long legs were encased by some sheer, white, amazingly enticing stocking, which rose only to the tops of her thighs. He felt an extremely powerful surge of pure, male possessiveness. And when she let one of her straps drop over her shoulder, Sean knew he couldn’t let her go through with it.

He was onstage in one leap, lifting her and carrying her off, quickly taking her to that back hall where he’d come into the building. He carried her into one of the closed rooms, set her on to her feet and looked into her stunned eyes for only a second before taking her mouth in a searing, all-encompassing kiss. She belonged to no one but him.

He breathed in her scent, felt the smooth, soft give of her skin. She pulled him tightly against her, grinding her hips against him. He felt her shudder with pleasure just before she pushed him away.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Sean,” she whispered. “I’ll lose my job!”

“Forget this job,” he replied, his voice a harsh rasp.

“I can’t!”

They heard footsteps, and she grabbed his sleeve. Pulling him through another doorway, she closed the door behind them and locked it. “Mitch will be after you –
us
- in another second. You’ve got to get out of here.”

“I’m not leaving you in there. With all those . . .”

She rose up on tiptoes and kissed him lightly. “I talked to Mitch. I know you’re not the bodyguard he hired.”

“No, but I—”

“I don’t care who you are,” she said, her voice quiet and urgent. “I . . . I’ve never . . .” She bit her lower lip and Sean felt a quantum leap in the intensity of his arousal. She was killing him.

Sean heard a man bellowing somewhere nearby, “Erica!”

“He’ll find us in a second. Go out to the car and wait for me there. I’ll come out after I finish this set.”

“No. I’m taking you with me.”

“Sean, I need the money I can make here tonight. I can’t just leave.”

He cupped her jaw, his emotions in a jumble, every one of them stronger than anything he’d ever felt before. “I have more than enough. Take what I have and leave here with me.”

She looked at him sceptically.

“I . . . This is all very foreign to me,” he said. “I . . .” What could he tell her that would get her out of there? “I didn’t understand when we first got here. I thought you were coming to your lab. To work.”

“Erica!”
Mitch was getting closer.

“Wait here.” She slipped through yet another door and returned with her coat. She pulled it on over her skimpy underclothes while Sean stood quietly, trying to collect himself. He was aroused and protective and alarmed all at once.

“There’s another way out,” she said. “Let’s go.”

Six

They took a side exit out of the building, one that Mitch would never think of, and jumped into her car. She started the motor and pulled away, drove a short distance and then stopped. Geared herself up for what she needed to say.

“Something happened to me when you stepped into my apartment,” she said. “The things I’m feeling . . .” She shook her head, unsure how to continue without sounding like a love-struck idiot. But that was exactly how she felt. “I haven’t felt this way about anyone since Andy was killed. I’ve never
been
with anyone . . .”

He touched her then, on her hand that rested on her thigh, sliding his open hand under hers until their palms touched. The contact was electric.

“It’s not always this way?” he asked. “Between men and women?”

It was obviously a rhetorical question. She leaned towards him as his hand closed around hers, and kissed him softly. Then she drew away and put the car in gear, burning rubber as she started for home.

They drove in silence, and Erica could not remember ever being so aware of a man before. He was tall and imposing, possessing a strong presence, a kind of poise or self-assurance that radiated off him in waves. He made her want to wrap herself up in him for the strength and security he could provide.

There’d been no one in her heart since Andrew, but she knew to the depths of her being that Sean Dugan had the potential to move in alongside her first love. Her rational mind told her that it wasn’t possible, that she’d only known Sean for a few hours. She’d done extensive coursework and research in neuro physiology and biology, and knew that her endocrine system was telling her brain how to react to this man.

But her heart and soul told her it wasn’t just hormones.

He rested his hand on her thigh as she drove, and she pushed her coat aside so that the skin of his palm touched her thigh above the silk of her white stocking. She wanted him to slide his hand up, to make her body sing with pleasure. The change in his breathing pattern indicated that he wanted it too, but he kept his hand where it was and caressed her gently.

It was fortunate that at least one of them was in control or they were liable to crash. Shivering with the most incredible sensations flowing through her veins, she drove the last block to her apartment with a building impatience.

She found a parking space and pulled into it, then put her hand on his where it rested on her thigh, and moved it where she wanted it. His fingers touched her silk panties and he made a strangled sound that mirrored her own hard, hot arousal. “I want you,” she whispered. “Come upstairs with me.”

She quickly unsnapped her seat belt as she threw open her car door and stepped out. Assuming Sean was right behind her, Erica made a dash towards her apartment building, but was startled by someone who darted out from behind a large SUV. He grabbed her, closing a filthy hand across her mouth, and started to drag her towards the vehicle.

“Come with me, Mona,” he rasped, using her stage name, and she knew it was Sandino.

Her heart pounding in her throat, Erica tried to scream, but it wasn’t necessary when her attacker dropped her suddenly.

Sean had grabbed the stalker by his jacket and then spun him around. Erica pushed herself up to her feet and looked for some way to help Sean, but she didn’t even own a cell phone to dial 911. She felt paralysed. Part of her knew she should run up to the apartment and call the police, but her legs would not move. She could only watch helplessly, as Sandino beat Sean to a pulp.

But Sandino wasn’t winning. Erica couldn’t see Sean’s exact moves, but his technique wasn’t like anything she’d ever seen in action films. He moved like a big, wild cat – smooth, quick and deadly, and without regard to gravity. Sandino must have wondered what hit him before he slid to the ground, unconscious. Sean tossed the brute into his vehicle, then came to her, pulling her into his arms.

He bent for a kiss and Erica pulled him to her, feeling his shudder deepening their kiss. She wanted him desperately, in a way she’d never wanted anyone, and sensed his need to touch her, too.

He broke the kiss and touched his forehead to hers, pausing for a moment, breathing heavily, yet never letting go. “Are you all right?”

She was still shaking with all the adrenalin rushing through her body, but somehow managed to nod. “I don’t have a cell phone. We should go up and call the police.”

Sean didn’t reply, but just slipped his arm around her waist and jogged to the apartment building beside her. Impatience roaring inside them, they hurried up the stairs, and, when they finally entered her apartment, she closed the door behind them and fell into his arms.

His mouth was on hers immediately, his hands sliding across her back and down to her hips, pulling her against him. Erica’s lungs felt as though they would burst if she didn’t get her clothes off and feel his skin against hers. She yanked at his sweater and pulled it over his head, then started on the buttons of his jeans as they fumbled their way to her bedroom.

The light from the street lamps was faint, but she could see, could admire, the thick bunching of the muscles in his arms and shoulders, the densely sculpted surface of his abs. He pushed her coat from her shoulders and it fell to the floor, just as he sat down on her bed and pulled her to him.

Seven

Sean set his tempis-disc on the floor, thinking he would explode before he even got his jeans off. Erica was absolute temptation, wearing the slip of a garment that barely covered her. She peeled the straps from her shoulders and let the thing fall to her waist.

He groaned when he saw her full breasts free of the shimmering white cloth. Touching a finger to her nipple, he pressed his lips to it, circling it with his tongue. She made a low sound and then he felt her hand at his head, bringing him closer.

“Take these off,” she whispered, reaching down to his jeans. She stepped back as he stood and divested himself of the rest of his clothes.

He had mated before, in a completely clinical fashion, with women who wanted his DNA in their offspring. This was something entirely different. Each of his cells burned with awareness of her, and his olfactory and tactile senses were overloaded. His eyes could barely take in her spectacular features, from her gorgeous eyes to her soft breasts and enticing legs.

“Touch me, Sean.”

He felt like a primitive beast, wanting to devour and worship her all at once. He kissed her hungrily, dragging his hands down her back, rubbing against her smooth belly.

She slid her hands up his shoulders and to the nape of his neck, making him cry out with desire. He could not imagine living without this, without
her
, in some distant, sterile future.

He came down over her, bracing himself on his hands, lowering his head to her breasts, giving attention to each one in turn. Moving lower, he swirled his tongue in her navel, then followed his instinct and slid farther down.

She sighed when he kissed her there, and whimpered as he licked her. Then he shifted position and entered her in one quick thrust.

The thought of leaving her, of leaving the bounty of sensation in this world, was impossible. From the moment her attacker had grabbed her, Sean had known he would do anything to keep her safe. Keep her happy.

He moved then, sliding with her in the rhythm that had been created at the beginning of time, and lost with the advent of Fusion XJ. He would correct that aberration, but not by doing anything to hurt Erica’s son, even though he knew GreenPiece expected it.

He heard her rapid breaths and she wrapped her legs around his waist. Her orgasm drove him to his own peak and he held the backs of her thighs as he plunged deeply one last time and exploded inside her.

He couldn’t move when it was over.