Goddess of the Rose (Goddess Summoning #4)(74)

"Would you like to try it?"

"Oh, yes," she breathed.

"Then this time, you must come to me."

With no hesitation, she walked to him.

"Do you trust me?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Then turn your back to me."

Mikki turned around. She felt him close the small distance that separated them. He bent so he could cup one of her hands in each of his. "Open your hands and press them against mine, so my claws become yours."

Mikki spread her fingers wide, fitting them against his much larger hands. Then she pressed her arms to his until she was molded against his skin. Their bodies met, and she felt the sharp intake of his breath and the shudder that moved through him - her own body answered with a heat that made the inside of her thighs tingle.

"Now, move with me."

And she did. Her hands combed through the night air along with his. She felt the tingle of the threads against her palms. When his hands closed on them, so, too, did hers, and suddenly the scenes within the threads were no longer dizzying. They focused in her sight and became clear. It was like she was watching a movie tape unreel as she pulled it from the darkness. She saw a woman whose back was turned to a man, as hers was to Asterius. The woman was naked, and the long, soft line of her back was only broken by her fall of copper-colored hair. Like my hair . . . she has my hair . . . Mikki thought dreamily. Then into the scene came two arms, thickly corded with muscles and covered with skin the color of burnished bronze. The arms cradled the woman, pulling her back so her body rested against his naked chest. The man tilted his head forward to nuzzle the woman's neck, and light glinted off his two ebony horns.

Asterius's growl fragmented the scene the thread was revealing. Mikki stumbled and almost fell as he lurched away from her. When she caught her balance and turned to him, he was standing beside the torch, with his head down, surrounded by piles of gossamer thread. She could see that he was breathing heavily, and as she watched, he wiped the back of his hand across his forehead. His hand was trembling.

"I need to take the threads back to the palace." His voice had retreated to emotionless formality.

"Have I made you angry?" Mikki asked.

"No."

"Then why are you being like this?"

He lifted his head and looked at her. Mikki thought she had never seen such haunted eyes.

"Did you see it, too? The scene in the thread?"

"Yes," she whispered.

Suddenly, with choppy, violent motions, he started gathering the piles of thread. "I do not understand what has happened. These are the threads of reality. They are to be woven into dreams that will come true."

Silently, she unwrapped the palla from around her shoulders and spread it on the ground near him so he could pile the threads on it.

"And?" she prompted when he didn't go on.

"And it is not supposed to show fantasies and falsehoods!"

The force of his voice caused the torchlight to flicker, but Mikki didn't flinch. Instead, she closed the two steps between them. She watched him fall suddenly very still. She reached up and let the tips of her fingers briefly caress the side of his face. He quivered under her hand, but he did not pull away from her.

"Do you dislike it when I touch you?" she asked him.

"No!"

"Do you want to touch me, too?"

"Yes," he snarled through his teeth.

"Then I don't understand why you say the scene we just saw is a fantasy and a falsehood."

"Because I am a beast and you are a mortal woman!"

"Stop it!" She glared at him. "You're the one making this impossible. I don't care about the beast! All of this" - she made two brusque gestures at his horns and hooves - "didn't stop me from wanting you way back in Tulsa when you started coming to me in my dreams - and I didn't even know the man within you then. Why would it stop me from wanting you now?"

"Mikado, you do not understand. There is more here at stake than what may or may not happen between the two of us. You are only - "

"Here for the roses! Damnit, Asterius! I know that. Do you think I'm incapable of doing my job and loving you, too? Jeesh! The people in this realm have said some ugly things about my old world, and some of it is even true, but I'm beginning to wonder about the priestesses who came before me. Were they not able to multitask?"

"Please. I beg you not to say things to me you do not mean."

Mikki thought he sounded as if his heart had been rubbed raw.

"What are you talking about? I'm being completely honest with you."

"A mortal woman cannot love a beast."

"Who told you that?"

He looked quickly away from her.

Mikki walked to his side and let her fingers brush his cheek again. He closed his eyes as if her touch pained him. "Was it the last Empousa, the one who caused Hecate to get angry at you?"

His eyes shot open. "Who spoke of her to you?"

"No one - no one would. But I'm not stupid. You made Hecate angry. The Empousa's gone. The roses are sick. I'm here, and it's you who brought me. Come on - it's just not that tough to figure out that something happened between the two of you."

"I am forbidden to speak of the past."