D. A. Houdek

Deb Houdek Rule

Web designer - Science Fiction author - Civil War historian - Genealogy researcher

Welcome to my personal website!

Of All the Western Stars

by Deb Houdek Rule

Chapter 34

He was dazzled by the nymph in the water. She was the very vision of his dreams, the very image of his deepest yearnings. She was pure radiance, seeming an insubstantial illusion in the dancing light and glistening water. He loved her. He wanted her. He craved for her, body and soul, as he had no other. When he stood to walk away from her it took a force of will he hadn’t known until that moment he possessed. As much as he wanted her, he found he respected her, and her wishes, every bit as much.

Then… then that treasured word came from between her sweet lips and she said "yes."

Like a man bewitched, he couldn’t take his eyes off of her as he took off his tunic. Her own expression was hungry as he pulled off his boots, then his breeches. Her openly appreciative gaze upon him roused him further. He stepped into the water with her and soon found his arms full of a warm, wet woman.

They didn’t speak, didn’t kiss, only touched, each exploring the other’s body with gently probing hands. He filled her long hair with soap, letting his fingers trail out to the end of each beloved strand. Foamy bubbles surrounded them, rainbow colors shimmering in their surfaces like miniature Nebulas, as they washed each other with the fragrant soap. Ashur massaged her breasts, twin mounds of firm softness capped by taut nipples. He let his hands move between her legs, as she did the same to him, feeling. He breathed hard as her touch brought an urgent swelling to him.

Rinsing away the soap he lifted her in his arms and carried her from the water.

Catching hold of the wool cloak as Ashur carried her from the water, Lisette felt faint and alert, happy and bemused, hot and cold… very alive and very in love.

The fire crackled, spreading its zone of warmth around it. Still in Ashur’s arms, Lisette dropped the cloak onto the springy cushion of grass. Gently, Ashur laid her upon it then paused, kneeling over her, fondling her with his look in a way that inflamed her every bit as much as his touch.

Then he did touch her again, bare flesh to bare flesh, ardent desire meeting ardent desire. Twining her fingers in the dark curls of his hair, she pulled him down onto her, pulling his lips down to hers. His hands continued stroking her breasts, her hips, between her thighs.

With her tongue, Lisette licked his lips, pushed her tongue between them, meeting his there. She opened her legs for him, wrapping her legs around his, urging him downward. One hand entangled in his hair, with the other she sought his thick, hard man’s yard, closing her fingers around it and rubbing back and forth.

Squeezing with her legs, she drew him downwards, guiding him toward her. At her opening, slick with her flowing, hot juices, the tip of his yard probed, toying with her, teasing her. The intensity of her longing grew until she thought she couldn’t breath. She lifted her hips and urged him onward. Then he thrust into her, burying his sword to the hilt in her silken, fiery folds, they merged in passionate abandon.

She gasped and writhed. She wrapped her legs around his waist, trying to draw him ever deeper. He thrust with hard, unhurried strokes, their rhythms matching each other. They moved in exquisite harmony.

Serenaded by the lark and the whisper of the wind in the trees, adorned in sunlight and shadow, Lisette and Ashur consummated the hunger that had burned within each of them since they first met. She remembered that precious moment of empathy she’d felt when she’d told Ashur where he was. Since that moment she’d longed for that same unity, that oneness. Now with each touch, each rhythmic movement, they neared an even more completely wondrous union of mind, body and soul.

Ashur kissed her neck. She ran her hands up and down his back, feeling the muscles as he moved, down to his hips, pulling him ever inward into her. Without breaking their connection, they rolled over. Lisette leaned back, arching her back and swaying back and forth. Ashur moaned and reached up to cup her breasts. Lisette put her hands on the dark hair of his chest, savoring the feel of it. She lifted her knees, crying out in ecstasy at each new sensation that flamed through her body.

Then came the moment of climax, that which she’d known only a hint of before when she’d known Ashur’s touch. A bursting, flooding release swept over her, leaving her dizzy and fulfilled. At once Ashur groaned, filling her with his seed in a series of movements that left her gasping in delight and pleasure. She squeezed his yard as hard as she could and was rewarded with a moan and grin from Ashur.

They tried to stay joined, not wanting to lose the wonder of their merging, but eventually they slipped apart and Lisette lay exhausted at Ashur’s side, cradled in his arm with her head on his shoulder. Small shivers of pleased fruition coursed through her body.

Ashur reached out, stroking her hair, her cheek, then down to her hips. Lisette sighed and nuzzled closer. Warmed by the sun and the heat of Ashur next to her, her body contented from their lovemaking, Lisette thought she might purr like the black cat.

"Thank you, my love," she whispered, nibbling lightly on his ear.

He leaned over and kissed her hair. "Thank you."

Sitting upright together, Ashur opened a cup and offered it, steaming hot, to her. She sipped cautiously of the frothy brown liquid, then gasped in delight.

"Hot chocolate," he said with a grin. "I thought you might like it."

Still naked together, pressed close by each other’s side, Lisette and Ashur ate and drank of his twenty-sixth century delicacies. Some of the foods were alien to her, others familiar. Her hunger made them all taste exquisite, with the wonder of the hot chocolate to wash it down.

She looked around at the idyllic little glade in the forest, at the glistening pool and emerald grass. How often she had dreamed of dancing in this place while a strange, dark-haired man worshipped her with his eyes. Lisette paused to catch Ashur’s hand and kiss each finger one by one with a feather touch of her lips. Would that this moment could last forever.

But time was their enemy. It had been since the first. Though all she wanted was to take Ashur again into her arms, into her body, she released his hand and slid away from him. She stood, suddenly self-conscious at her nakedness. Blushing she studied her toes and wished the demands of reality need not intrude on their fantasy paradise here.

"Are you all right, Lisette? You’re flushed. Are you feeling ill again?" he asked, scrambling to his feet. He took her by the shoulders and his nearness and concern were almost more than she could bear.

"I am still well, sir. Thank you. But I must ask a great boon of you… Could you but part with a bit more of your wondrous medicines. You see, Geraint is ill unto death and I must save him." She couldn’t look into Ashur’s face as she spoke. She felt him tense. His hands dropped from her shoulders.

Tightly, Ashur said. "Get dressed. I think there are things you must tell me."

Returning from behind the bushes by the pool, Lisette reappeared dressed again as a woman. Shimmering silk of forest green clung to the curves of her breasts and waist. The flowing skirt swayed as she came toward him, tiny flashes of gold as she moved through the sunlight reminding him of the image she’d worked into the sleeve of the shirt she’d made for him. He had put on that shirt again, while she was getting dressed.

Lisette looked now as she had the first moment he saw her, the emerald-clad nymph with her extraordinary cloak of hair hanging nearly to the ground. Except now her cheeks were flushed with the glow of their lovemaking, making her even more beautiful and radiant.

Sitting discretely across the fire from him, Lisette had poured out her tale of the time since they’d parted. Deep anger rose in him when she told of the mob from the village come to harm her, and of the highwayman’s tramp Jen shrieking out accusations. Ashur regretted having given Lisette the A. I. unit, regretted having let her keep that dangerous device despite his better judgment. It had put her in danger, not the danger he’d thought, but another equally lethal kind. Flames licked at the edges of his memory again. Ashur shuddered, trying to banish the memories.

He’d thought… He didn’t really know what he’d thought when she’d come to him, when she’d said "yes" and made love to him. Now that android she was married to had risen up like an ugly plasteen wall between them. There was something else, something Lisette hadn’t told him… Ashur didn’t even like to think of it, but he was a man who was not without… experience. Lisette had not come to him as a virgin. From the things he’d learned of the rules of this era, that meant her sham marriage must have become a real one.

She’d come to him then not because the Capellans had found her, but to save the life of the man that stood between them. A sick feeling filled Ashur. Lisette hadn’t come to him out of love and desire for him alone, but to seek his help to save Geraint.

Lisette waited in silence while he thought. She wasn’t his, he realized, though the idea left a bitter taste. He knew she loved him, knew she wanted him. That she’d given herself to him was but a moment in time that they both knew could not survive against the pressures of their separate worlds. Time was their enemy, and time was inviolable. Ashur’s shoulders slumped in defeat.

"What illness does your husband," he bit the word off sharply, "have? I need to know to know what medicine to give."

Lisette seemed relieved that he was going to help her, but he couldn’t help but notice the edge of tension that reenveloped her. That tension had been absent these past few hours.

"He has…" she cocked her head and looked puzzled. "I find it hard to remember, I was feeling unwell myself. Baby told me it was…" She stopped. "I shall get Baby. She’ll tell us, and the medicine she said to give."

Ashur stood as she did. "You do have Baby with you?" He glanced quickly around the clearing, sudden fear clutching him. If the Capellans followed Baby’s power signature…

"Yes," Lisette went to the man’s clothing she’d been wearing. "Of course I took her." She dug through the clothing and pulled out the pouch. It was empty. Frowning she rummaged through all the other clothing, then dashed to the saddlebags. She looked up at Ashur, pale. "It’s gone."

"Think. Where did you see her last?"

Lisette’s face grew distant. "I was so tired, and my head hurt so badly. I thought if she talked to me, kept me awake…" She looked up. "I must have dropped her somewhere in the night," she said miserably. "Oh, I’m so sorry."

"And she was powered on?"

"Aye. Oh, the poor thing, all alone out there, talking on with no one to listen."

A slight smile twitched Ashur’s mouth. "It’s not a living thing, Lisette. Baby won’t mind." Then he explained to her about how the ‘wizards’ who had destroyed Agnes’ home had really been following Baby and how he’d been coming to her, worried that they’d found her.

"So what do we do?"

They sat down again at the fire. Ashur studied Lisette’s face, noticed the way she rubbed her temple. "Are you starting to feel ill again?"

Quickly, she dropped her hand. "Oh no. I’m well enough, thank you. That medicine you gave me made me feel ever so much better."

Ashur shook his head. "That wasn’t a cure. Do you remember at all what Baby said was wrong with Geraint? It’s probably the same thing you have."

She looked down. "It’s the same as what killed my dear little Alyce," she said and a horrible tug of fear yanked at Ashur’s heart. "Baby said it was… typhus. That’s it. And to cure it one should ‘inject,’ and I didn’t know what that meant, a… a… SR-9, that was it."

Ashur didn’t answer but dashed toward the ship. Using his pocket light to illuminate the dark interior, he rummaged through the emergency supplies. Sensing Lisette’s presence behind him, he glanced up at her.

"I don’t have that," he said.

In the glow of the lamp from the future he saw Lisette tremble. Beads of sweat broke out on her forehead. She slipped down to sit on the slanted deckplates. From the medkit he quickly handed her another general immune tab and ripped open a container of water. She swallowed obediently and her color began to improve.

"Will not this wondrous potion work as well?" she asked hopefully.

"No. You saw how short a time it helped you. There may be something in here that would work as well, but without some instructions, something to tell me which, there’s no way to know. Just giving drugs at random — like your mother-in-law, the good Lady Cicely — could kill him, and you, as quickly as cure him."

"We have to find Baby," she said flatly.

"But how?"

She looked up at him steadily. "The men who were following you will find her. It is they we must find."

The tall one wiped his bloody hands on the filthy skirt of the dead woman. The other grimaced and looked away.

"You didn’t need to kill her like that. You could have burned her down clean."

With a toe the tall one shoved Jen’s corpse down the slope into a ravine. "I wanted her to see the power of real demons," he said. "She saw Ashur not more than five kilometers from here. And he managed to find himself a female."

"How nice," the other spat. "I have the new triangulation figures." He held up the tracking instrument. "It’s not far. No more chasing shadows through the dark ages."

"We’ll have him. We’ll have him and he’ll pay."