Page 40 of Witch Upon a Star
“Take your shoes and jacket off when you go inside. It’ll be hot, so don’t be afraid to strip down.”
I triedreallyhard not to blush, but fuck me, my girlfriend’s mother just encouraged me to strip in front of her daughter.
“Uh, okay,” I mumbled. Jesus. I hadn’t even entered the lodge and I was already sweating.
She reached up to pat me on the cheek. “You’re a good boy, Quinten Miller.”
I felt myself blushing for an entirely different reason. It had been a long time since I’d felt anything like a mother’s love. It was a heady, and I feared, addictive feeling. “Thank you, Solstice.”
She headed back towards her house with my cat. I walked around the dome, realizing that it was soft sided. There was no morning condensation on it, though.
The flap wasn’t tied down, nor did it make a perfect seal. I stepped inside quickly, not wanting to let the intense heat out. Solstice’s warning, while oddly worded, was quite accurate. I quickly had to remove my shoes, jacket, and shirt, or feared suffering from heat stroke. A sheen of sweat immediately appeared on my skin, and the air was heavy to breathe.
A firepit was dug into the ground with glowing coals at the base. They weren’t enough to really see by, which explained the fire-lit lanterns hanging from the ceiling braces. A small bamboo bucket filled overhead. I thought at first it was for aesthetics, until it tipped on its axis and poured its contents onto the embers. Rather than douse them, though, a plume of steam rose up, hissing like a hoard of angry snakes. Empty once more, it flipped upright and the bamboo piping started tofill it again.
Across the firepit from me in nothing more than her bra and panties sat Calliope. She was drenched from head to toe with her legs crossed in front of her and her hands on her knees. Her eyes were closed, yet even in the low light from the lanterns I saw her lids moving. She swayed back and forth in a small, fluid motion.
Speaking softly so as not to startle her, I asked, “Winnie?”
Her eyes fluttered open and it took her a moment for them to land on me. I still wasn’t sure she could see me, though. Was she drunk?
Calliope held her hand out to me with an overly sweet smile. “My love, you came. Join me.”
I smokedweed every once in a while, but never liked the lack-of-control feeling marijuana gave me to use it regularly. I liked beer and the occasional whiskey. Even drunk, though, I had a modicum of control. I’d also never been so blinding drunk that I woke up cuddling a pumpkin instead of a woman.
This was something else entirely. In the deserts of the Middle East, there was a rough, dryness to the air. The feeling that you were inhaling sand with each breath. It made it hard to swallow and even to speak at times. During the summers, the intense heat made me feel like I could never drink enough water.
This was different. The heavy moisture combined with the extreme heat was misleading. I knew from saunas andtraveling to the tropics that people could suffer from heat stroke easier in an environment like this, because they thought the moisture in the air was also hydrating them.
It wasn’t.
In the flicker of the firelight, Calliope’s pupils were wide and unfocused. I worked my way around the pit to her. I wasn’t sure what incense was in the air, though I was positive I smelled something peppermint-y. There was also something woodsy, like maybe cedar. I was sure Paige could have identified the scents in a heartbeat, but I couldn’t. If it wasn’t vanilla, I had no idea what it was.
Before sitting, I unbuckled my belt and took off my pants. My legs were already cooking inside the denim. I was grateful Solstice had taken Joe, because this was no place for my cat. I thought Oolong might be right at home here, being a bearded dragon, and wondered if Calliope usually brought him. Maybe even this heat was too intense for the reptile, though.
In just my black boxer briefs, I took Calliope’s hand and sat beside her. I hadn’t realized she was sitting on a pillow until one touched my ass. I was expecting the hard ground. There must be more accommodations in this place than just a tepee-like structure. They must do something to keep it from flooding during heavy rains or freezing during the winter.
Calliope’s hand trailed up my arm, creating a line of sweat in its wake. I watched as her fingers brushed my shoulder. Why was her touch so hot? Not just arousing, but actualheat. Like she was dragging a match up my arm. I was a bit surprised fire wasn’t licking its way across my skin.
“You need to focus, my love. Your mind is wandering.”
Focus? Focus on what? Her voice sounded like it wasbeing projected all around me, even though she was right in front of me.
She was so beautiful. I had no idea how I’d ever used the word ‘plain’ to describe her. Drenched in sweat, her long, brunette hair hung heavy around her shoulders. I didn’t like that she was wearing a beige bra. It gave the illusion she was naked when she wasn’t. I wanted her naked, I wanted her naked so badly. Would this be how she would look under the spray of a shower?
“Breathe, my love. Watch me. Deep breath in, hold for two seconds, and let it out. That’s it… Breathe…”
I watched her small, covered breasts rise and fall with each of her breaths, making my chest movements match hers. Her hands rubbed up and down my arms distractedly. I wanted to take them, tie them to my bedpost, and lick every bead of sweat off her body.
Would her tits grow when she became pregnant with my child?
I never thought I wanted kids. Watching the others in the club become fathers made me realize just how much I loved being an uncle. It was like a Rent-a-Kid program. You got to take the kid out for all sorts of fun stuff, get the pictures of them laughing and giggling and being free, and then you get to return them to their parents when the cranks and sugar-high crash hit them. I loved that, and never thought I wanted anything more.
A loud beeping came from my right. I turned, but saw nothing. It reminded me of an EKG machine at a hospital. The telltalebeep…beep…beep… of a heartbeat, but it was gone as soon as I heard it.
Last night, when I’d learned of Kora’s plan to fake apregnancy with me, it made me wonder what my reaction would have been if Kora had toldmeshe was pregnant. What if she hadn’t come to her senses and she’d followed through with her plans? Poked a hole in my condoms or slipped me something to make me forget to use one? What if she had gotten pregnant with my child?
That far-off beeping sounded again. Only this time from my left. I turned to look, but nothing was there. Just the dim siding of the dome. Was that antiseptic I smelled over the heavy incense?
