Bitter Oath (New Atlantis)(19)

‘I beg your pardon?’ Liv said, frowning.

Rene glanced over at Julio, who now looked deeply concerned. What long-buried wounds were they inadvertently digging up?

‘Rene has told you that people here change into younger bodies when their current one gets old.’ Jane started to explain with enforced perkiness. ‘Well, I was in a bad accident. That’s why Julio rescued me. I wasn’t supposed to be Retrieved. I didn’t fit the guidelines.

‘I was so badly damaged that they had to give me another body – this one. It wasn’t mine. It belonged to some other girl who had died. I never found out who she was. So, you see, this body isn’t actually me. I was not pretty before. And I worked in a dead-end job supporting my alcoholic mother, and couldn’t believe a handsome guy like Julio would show an interest in me. I was painfully shy. Short, fat and ugly girls usually are.’

‘We are far more than our bodies, Jane. You are wise enough to know that,’ said Liv, using a school marm tone. ‘It is not that body that makes you delightful company. Or wise and sensitive enough to say just what I needed to hear this morning. Maybe getting this body simply freed you up to be who you truly are.’

‘An outrageous, cheeky tom boy,’ put in Rene, with an affectionate grin designed to shift the mood of the gathering.

Jane took the hint and laughed. ‘See, you guys, Liv thinks I’m delightful company. So how about you get off your butts and feed your delightful ladies. It was your idea to have a dinner party.’

With more laughter, the men rose and went into the kitchen section of the room. In less than a minute, they had four meals ready to put on the table. The smell of chili con carne filled the air. Rene put Liv’s plate in front of her, and she smiled her thanks up at him. His heart did a little twostep in his chest. Fast on that thought came the every-present other – soon he would take her home to die.

Something of what he was feeling must have crossed his face, because Jane drew his attention by clearing her throat.

‘Carpe Deum, Rene.’

Liv looked at her oddly, but she didn’t ask for an explanation. And Rene didn’t need one. Seize the Day. She was telling him to enjoy the time he had with Liv, and stop spoiling it with thoughts of tomorrow. It was wise advice, as always, from his Midew.

The wine flowed, and the delicious main course was followed by a fresh fruit salad compote. The conversation stayed light and entertaining as Mozart played in the background, and the last of the stormed blew itself out.

Rene had never heard stories of Jane and Julio’s Retrievals before. Especially not the more amusing aspects – like when Jane tried to use the ticket machines at the Underground in London in 2004. She had swiped her card across the lighted screen, and waited and waited for the barrier to move. The line of people behind had become more and more impatient with the ditzy Australian. In the end, a snappy Pakistani had taken the card from her hand, and slipped it into the slot. When it popped out the other end, she had given a little woop.

Rene could imagine there was more than impatience being experienced by the Asian man. No male with a heartbeat would have been immune to Jane in the role of damsel in distress. But he didn’t mention this, as Julio wouldn’t like it, and with any luck, neither would Liv.

‘What is a train station?’ Liv asked, at the end of the story.

‘A train is a method of transport that will become popular later in your century. A station is a place where people wait for a train, so they can get on or off.’

‘We have those for coaches. They are usually Inns where the horses can be changed.’

Liv was being very careful what questions she asked. He could only guess at how much of what was being said around the table went over her head. But she was polite enough not to slow the momentum of the conversation with too many requests for clarification. Her bright, intelligent eyes told him that she was finding the company entertaining, for all her gaps in knowledge.

A wave of pure sexual need suddenly caught him unprepared. The instant arousal embarrassed him, and he was grateful for the table that covered his body’s reaction. But something of what he was feeling must have been transmitted to his companions, because Julio stood up, and held his hand out to Jane.

‘Come Querida, the storm has passed. Let us walk along the cliff in the moonlight. I will need to return home shortly, and I would like some time alone with you before I go.’

Jane jumped to her feet, and headed for the front door. Julio hurried after her. They waved, and grinned suggestively as they left.

‘That was rather sudden wasn’t it?’ Liv asked, watching them hurry out of the room.

‘I might be wrong, but I think they realised I wanted to be alone with you.’

‘Oh. Being left unchaperoned this way is quite disconcerting for me.’

‘Would you prefer it if I called them back?’

‘No. No. Let them enjoy their walk in the moonlight. I cannot believe that storm has passed so completely, and left the night sky so clear. Look at that moon rising over the ocean. It looks huge.’

Rene came around to her side of the table, and pulled back her chair so she could stand. Then he took her arm in his, and led her toward the sliding glass door that led onto the patio. The cool sea breeze instantly cleared his alcohol befuddled mind. But instead of calming his arousal, it only focused it.

Liv wrapped her arms around her body, as she looked out in awe at the watery road of shining moonlight that led them directly to the luminous globe on the horizon. The light cast her tranquil features into high relief.

‘Are you cold?’ he asked huskily.

She smiled up at him. ‘A little.’

He reached around her shoulders, and drew her in against his side. With no unyielding fabric between them, he could feel the way her soft contours moulded to his own. When she laid her head on his chest, he felt as if his heart would explode. How had he gone nearly eight hundred years without knowing this feeling? It was so painfully sweet it stole his breath away. All he wanted to do was hold her like this forever. Pause time here, and remain like this forever.

In Love. This was what it felt like to be in love.

‘I can hear your heartbeat.’ Her voice was low and drugged with passion she would not understand. His body recognised it though, and he tightened his hold on her, drawing her even closer.

‘I didn’t know it would feel like this,’ he confessed. His voice was gravelled with pent emotion.

‘Love?’ He liked that she didn’t play at misunderstanding him.

‘Yes. I stood on my little balcony one night, and watched the moon, just as we are doing now. And I imagined what you would look like by moonlight. My imagination was nowhere near the truth. Would you mind if I kissed you again? I want to see if my imaginary kiss was also inaccurate.’

She turned into him then, almost as if she had been waiting for the word. Her head lifted up, and for one blinding moment, Rene felt as if nothing would ever be as perfect again as this time. In slow motion he lowered his head, as she stood on tip-toe to reach him.

When their lips touched, it was like an explosion had gone off inside him. He gasped against her mouth, and held onto her while the reverberations shook him. Her wide mouth opened under his, innocently inviting him to enter, and he did so, sending his tongue into the moist heat that reminded him of another place his body craved to enter.

At the first invasion of his tongue, Liv drew back, and let out a little moan of surprise. Then she relaxed back into his arms, and allowed him entry. She let him taste and explore her, as his hands buried themselves deeply in her shining hair. When he thought he was going insane with desire, he tore his lips from hers, and began to kiss his way down her long neck.

She smelled like lavender and musk. And her skin tasted like heaven. He drew the heavy hair back from her neck so he could have better access, and he groaned as he felt her legs give way under her. Holding her against his straining arousal, he let his tongue lightly trace the line of her collar bone. The little gasp she made excited him even more.

He drew the shoulder of her gown down her arm so he could get to every inch of fevered skin. It amazed him how responsive she had become, all shy, virginal modesty stripped away by passionate need. Taking advantage of that need, he brought his hand up to cup one breast in his palm. It fitted there perfectly. And when he used his thumb and forefinger to tweak the erect nipple, the fevered moan she gave him was ambrosia to his senses.

Drawing the fabric away from her breast, he replaced his fingers with his mouth, and suckled deeply. His own legs threatened to give way under him then. With urgent haste he picked her up in his arms, strode back into the living room, and sat down on the well cushioned sofa with her across his lap. He laid her head on the arm rest so he could gain better access to her breast. Her arms came round his shoulders, and her short nails sunk deep into his flesh with each draw he took from her breast.

Then, as the delicious ache between his legs intensified, and he felt his control begin to give way completely, he tore his mouth from her body, and with shaking hands moved her off his lap to a safe distance. His body screamed at him in desperate need, but he clung to honour like a drowning man to flotsam. He focused on drawing each deep breath into his labouring lungs.