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  She heard Alice's voice cut through her misery. Lilli looked up. Her tears slowed as she saw the gleam in Alice's eyes. “No. Why should Alice leave? You certainly had her share everything else up to now.”

  “Alice, this is important—”

  “So is this. Lilli, I think it's time to show Mister Harry here the error of his ways.” Alice smiled, quite wickedly, and bent to the floor. She rose with Harry's discarded belt in her hand.

  Speechless, Lilli nodded.

  “Alice, I've told you—” Harry began. “Lilli!”

  “You don't do the telling this time. Lilli does. But I can help.” Alice smiled. “I can be very instructive on all the ways to punish a naughty lover.”

  She hit the belt with a slap on the floor. Lilli knew her eyes were huge. Harry looked almost as stunned.

  “I don't think I c—” Lilli stopped. He had just shoved her declaration of love back in her face. Love was one thing. Martyrdom was another. “He does deserve to be punished, doesn't he?”

  “Damn it, Alice, this isn't the time for one of your games!” Harry didn't sound quite as cross as he should be, though.

  “Isn't it? Do you think it was easy for Lilli to tell you all this? Do you think you've treated her fair? I heard your story about how she turned you down and I felt bad for you, boyo, I truly did. But now I'm wondering how much of the fault was your own.” Alice fondled the belt, running the length of it gently between her palms. “I'm not a personal advocate of the belt. It's a bit too harsh. But it's here and I think a little correction is in order.”

  Harry eyed her and the belt. Lilli had a sudden urge to giggle. He'd stopped protesting.

  “I'm sure Harry will appreciate the correction, too. Look at his cock.” Lilli pointed and, despite his groan of—of denial?—his cock swelled and then bobbed eagerly at her words.

  “Sit down, Lilli. Harry, lie your ass down in your woman's lap.”

  “I—” Harry looked at Lilli.

  The belt cracked. Lilli could hear him gulp. But despite her words, she was amazed when Harry crawled to her lap, resting his hard cock between her thighs as he stretched out.

  “Are you sorry you treated Lilli so badly?” Alice demanded.

  “Yes. I am. But—”

  This time Alice's open palm made a cracking sound—hard against Harry's butt cheeks. He and Lilli both jumped. His cock drew against Lilli's vagina like a violin bow.

  Ohh, that felt good. The way Harry quivered, Lilli suspected he thought so, too.

  “Not as sorry as you will be, boyo.” Alice smiled. “Spank him, girl. He's damned deserving of a good spanking.”

  Lilli raised her hand. Hesitated. His cock thrust against her again, silently urging her on. She felt a few drops of pre-cum trickle down her leg.

  “You'll both feel better, Lilli. Trust me.”

  Lilli smacked his hard buttocks with a sound blow. He twitched against her legs and sighed. His hands clenched into fists and relaxed. She smacked again.

  “Nicely done, Lilli.” Alice settled herself on the floor next to her and pulled Harry's head up against her lap. Her legs brushed against Lilli's and they exchanged smug grins before Alice said, “Come on, boyo. You deserve to finish me off after interrupting me and telling me to leave.”

  “Alice, damn it, this isn't about you—” Harry began.

  “If this is about me, go right ahead,” Lilli said. “I promise not to mind a bit.”

  “There you are. You have nothing to worry about, Harry. We're all friends here. Keep up the good work, Lilli, girl. He's just getting warmed up.”

  Smack.

  Lilli couldn't decide if she had gone mad or sane. She'd never in a million years believed she would ever do such a thing, but she smacked and Harry groaned and squirmed. Alice moaned as Harry's head began to move between her legs.

  Smack.

  Lilli's hand grew numb but she kept on, watching the imprint of her hand against her lover's flesh. Harry rubbed his stiff cock against her in a fierce, uncontrolled rhythm, while more trickles of wetness ran down her legs—from her and him both. But he didn't come.

  Lilli wanted to laugh. He was holding himself back. They were both enjoying themselves too much to stop.

  “A more formal, legal arrangement!” Lilli smacked him with each word. “You idiot, why didn't you just say you wanted to marry me?”

  “God, Lilli!” Harry turned his head. “Of course I did. Do.”

  Crack.

  Alice used the belt on his backside then. Lilli watched Harry arch his back up before he slammed himself down against her.

  “Back to your work, Harry, or you'll get more,” Alice crooned sweetly, and then fondled her own breasts.

  Very deliberately, Harry turned again. “Will you marry me after all, Lilli?”

  The belt cracked again and Lilli saw his face contort with pain and lust combined. He turned back to Alice, his head once again bobbing, not waiting for an answer. Bastard. He knew she wasn't going to give him one here and now. She wasn't sure she could say the word. Not even yes. Or no.

  But her sex quivered and heat pumped up inside her. His cock tickled and teased her, especially when she smacked him, but it wasn't quite enough.

  They were all close, so close, to coming. Alice's hand snaked over to fondle Lilli's clit—and hand her the belt. Lilli snapped it down once and then gasped as Alice's hand and Harry's cock together began to push her hard.

  She let the belt fall as she used both her hands to steady herself against the onslaught.

  “Oh Lord, have mercy!” Alice cried and positioned herself, legs apart, for Harry to fully penetrate her with his tongue. The fingers of one hand fisted into Harry's hair. “Harder, damn it! Harder!”

  Alice's fingers on her other hand pinched Lilli's swollen clit tightly, just before her fingers slackened and the woman screamed in delight.

  That left just Harry to pleasure Lilli. A Harry who as Alice came, turned, pushed Lilli hard down on the floor and slipped inside her completely. A Harry, who covered her mouth with his own and rode. Hard.

  She could taste Alice—and Harry's blood when Lilli bit his lip—and the sweat that poured between them. Her legs thrashed under his body, then slipped up, grasping his hips without thinking.

  “Damn it!” Harry swore.

  Lilli froze. She'd rubbed against a welt. She was wrong to do such a thing, she knew she was wrong, but the screaming need inside her leapt even higher at the idea of her smooth legs rubbing against the redness of his ass. Her heels rose, deliberately pushing against him and he stiffened at her touch.

  Her rough touch was what he needed. Harry's come spurted hard and long. She had been waiting for his pleasure because not until then, finally, did she climax. Too far gone to scream, Lilli gasped desperately for air as she orgasmed.

  She was lost, lost in this blinding pleasure. Lost under Harry's touch and smell and weight.

  To her horror, even as waves of pleasure pulsed hard through her, Lilli began to cry.

  * * * * *

  “Lilli!”

  Lilli turned to glare at him. If he wanted to see a middle-aged woman with her face blotched from tears, fine.

  “Why are you crying?” Harry, his pants now pulled on, looked more presentable than she did. He also looked terrified.

  She sniffed and looked for something to wipe her nose. Harry stuck a handkerchief in her hand and she blew. She certainly didn't have to maintain her image any more.

  “What a way to ask me.” She ought to be angrier. But Alice—clever Alice—had come up with a way to let the anger out. What Lilli really wanted to do now was laugh. Laugh and grumble. “Who would marry someone who proposed in such a fashion?”

  “Not formal enough?” Harry grinned. Did he feel the same bubble of joy in him? He dropped to one knee. “All right. I'd like to ask permission to marry you, Mrs. Dayton. My very dear Mrs. Dayton.”

  “You're sick. Perverted and sick. No one gives a formal proposal stark naked…stark nake
d with a red backside, might I add.” Lilli fought back a snicker—and more tears of joy.

  “You ought to know how perverted and sick I am, love. But I'd still like to marry you. No. I need to marry you.”

  “Why?”

  “The usual reasons.”

  The usual reasons? She should have smacked him more.

  “So you can be confused and—and compromised? That's what marriage is about, remember?”

  “Partially. You do confuse me. I hope you'll compromise me. Quite often.” He brushed her hair from her face. “I want to marry you because you're the only woman in the world I have loved or could ever love. I'm perverted and sick, just like you said, but you might be able to change a few things about me. Make me a little better.”

  “I thought you wanted me to feel disgusted, to want to leave.”

  “No. I mean, yes. I meant to do exactly what you thought. To win…or at least to make you lose. But we don't need to keep score. We aren't playing a game. You care as much as I do.”

  “You don't deserve to have me care.” Lilli sniffed again.

  “True enough. I admit you're better than me and I don't deserve you, but I want you anyhow.” There was no more amusement in him. Harry's mouth tightened. “I can understand if you don't trust me. I didn't understand before. You showed me because you're braver than me. Brave enough to admit you love me. So I can admit it, too. I do love you.”

  “Do you?”

  “Can't you believe me? Can't you try?”

  “I shouldn't.” Her heart twisted. This was serious. Could she trust him? For a moment she longed to look into her mirror. She could tell the truth in there.

  “True enough,” he said again. “There's no real reason for you to. I should have treated you much better than this long before now. You just showed me—rather forcefully—how angry I made you.”

  Lilli took a deep breath. “We'll have to work on that trust thing a bit more, the both of us.”

  Maybe she'd tell Harry who she really was eventually. He might believe her. After all, she was finally starting to believe what happened herself. She'd been hurtled through time to meet him.

  “Good. I don't want to be left alone anymore, Lilli, just like you said. Let me join you. I don't want to be without you.”

  For a moment his intensity shook her. Then the joy came back. “Very well. You'll be kept on a trial basis, of course, Mr. Nelson. We'll see if things work out. Do you suppose Alice would give you references?”

  He slid his hand against her back, pulled her toward him. She moved into his arms and heard his heart thudding hard against her ear, as if he'd been frightened. As frightened as she'd been. They'd almost said good-bye. That would have been wrong. Somehow the inn and the mirror and her own desires had sent her to Harry. And somehow she and he together had learned to accept her arrival.

  “I'll do my best to perform to your satisfaction, ma'am.” His cock pressed against her, waiting to slip back into her.

  “Then fuck me.”

  “One other thing first.”

  “You monster! What other thing?”

  “I've said good-bye to Alice. I told her how much I love you. She understands. You'll never see her again. You'll never see me be such a fool again.”

  “Oh well, I don't know. I rather enjoyed Alice. I know you did, too.” Lilli looked up at him through her lashes. “I didn't say I disliked your perversions, after all. I simply want to be the focus of them.”

  He bit her shoulder as she squirmed against him, enjoying the feel of his cock pushing hard against her while trapped inside his pants. He unfastened his clothing hurriedly.

  “You are. You always will be. “

  “I better be.”

  “Ahh, Lilli, that feels good. Let me in just a little more.”

  Lilli grinned, letting the tip of his penis brush against her pubic curls. “What about Alice?”

  “Very well, we won't rule out Alice, but I don't think I'll let you meet her again for a while. You two seemed a bit too harmonious for my peace of mind.”

  Lilli slid her hand down and rested it on the root of his hard cock. Peace of mind? The man didn't want peace of mind. A piece of her maybe. She scratched his balls and felt them tighten.

  “For a while, then, I'll enjoy just you, though I'll admit I'm curious as to what the two of you could do to me.”

  “Anything you want, love.”

  “By the way, make sure she's a brunette or redhead when we meet next.” He slid inside her and they both sighed.

  “God, Lilli. I do love you.” He said the words thickly, even as he thickened inside her.

  “I love you, too, Harry.” She almost whispered her response.

  “Love?”

  “Yes?”

  “You did notice, I hope, that I didn't use a condom last time. I was a bit distracted.”

  “Ohh.”

  “No matter what happens, I won't regret a minute. Truth.”

  Lilli let her head rest against his chest. “Me, either. Truth.”

  She stared into the mirror, wondering what it would reveal this time.

  “I'm so happy. Aren't you happy?” His newest bride hugged Mason and giggled.

  “Ecstatic, darling. Our wedding went off perfectly. Champagne?” He began to pour.

  “No, I don't think so. Mason, I think this is the right time for me to give you my wedding present.”

  “Darling, you didn't have to—”

  “Oh, I absolutely should. Mason, I'm pregnant.”

  Lilli stared at the slack-jawed astonishment that turned into wrathful suspicion on Mason's face. When the image finally dissolved, she began to laugh. Soon her sides ached from giggles. When she'd finally wiped the tears of amusement from her eyes, she blew the mirror a kiss.

  “Thank you. That was perfect,” she whispered. She picked up the mirror and began to walk downstairs.

  Lilli didn't have far to go. Franny was cleaning the front hall stairs. Lilli sat down next to her.

  “I have a favor to ask.”

  “Yeah? I don't have much time to talk. I'm busy.” Franny paused in her sweeping to look suspicious.

  “Then I won't talk long. Would you like this mirror? I don't want it any longer and I thought you might.”

  “What would I do with a fancy mirror like this? I don't have nothing like this.” Franny held her fingers out, hesitantly, stroking the filigree.

  “Use it, sell it, give it as a gift. Here. The mirror is yours.”

  Lilli saw Franny raptly stare at her reflection. Lilli hid a smile as she stood up. Her mirror would be taken care of the way it deserved.

  She'd already receded into the mist for the people who knew her in the mirrored world. Lilli didn't care. She didn't need the mirror or her old life anymore. “Lilli! Where the devil are you, woman?”

  Lilli walked away from Franny and her new toy, toward the sound of Harry's voice.

  StarQuest: Synergy

  Kate Douglas

  Prologue

  The waiter pocketed a handful of credits left by a slightly inebriated group of soldiers heading out the door. He ran a damp rag across the scarred table, seething with anger and resentment.

  Talents, all of them, and so damned cocky with their power. Who the hell did they think they were? Treated him like shit, that's what they did, using kinetics to snatch the drinks off his tray, sailing them across the room, mocking him. Always mocking him.

  He'd show them. Would he ever! He glanced up as another group of customers wandered into the rec center, laughing, teasing one another. He turned his back on them and stalked away. When he turned around, he saw them take seats at the long table he'd just cleaned. One young man raised a finger, beckoning him, like he was some sort of servant.

  Just then another man entered the building. Dressed in dark, nondescript clothing, he looked as if he'd journeyed long and hard. He nodded briefly toward the waiter, then sat at a table off by himself.

  The waiter stared at the man for a long m
oment before he responded. The muscles in his gut tightened, an odd combination of elation and fear. Ignoring the boisterous crowd at the first table, the waiter headed toward the man in black.

  Chapter 1

  Carly Harris handed a hefty tip to the sexy young cabby with a final, lingering glance, and grabbed the suitcase he handed to her. Too bad she couldn't take him with her on this mini-vacation. She'd fantasized about him all the way from the airport…thank goodness he didn't have a clue what she'd been thinking, sitting oh, so primly in the back seat of the cab with her thighs pressed tightly together and her eyes half-closed.

  Especially when they'd crossed over on the ferry. From her position in the back seat, she'd watched him through narrowed eyes, so horny she'd practically come without touching herself. He'd stood on the deck, leaning against the polished railing. The wind whipped that gorgeous long hair around. His broad shoulders bunched and flexed beneath his white cotton tee shirt as he held his balance against the surging waves…damn, he'd looked good enough to eat.

  She bit back a giggle and wondered what he'd say if she just asked for a tiny little taste? A second, surreptitious glance told her there'd be no such thing as a little taste. His denim jeans couldn't disguise what lay neatly packaged beneath the worn fabric.

  Carly flashed him a very proper smile. The young man tipped his cap, swept his long black ponytail over his shoulder and folded his lanky frame into the yellow cab. He gunned the engine. Tires screeching, he roared round the driveway on his way out. Carly sighed as the cab left.

  Definitely inspirational. Grinning at her reaction to eye candy most likely half her age, she readjusted the weight of the suitcase, raised the handle and popped the little wheels free so she could haul it behind her.

  She held her face up to the sun's brilliance. Thank goodness the odd storm had ended when it did, or she'd be drenched before she got up the front steps. The inn appeared to hover just beyond the drive, surrounded in a shifting layer of silvery fog, all that remained of the near-monsoon rains of only moments ago.