Chapter 4
Twenty four hours later Tasha wondered how much longer she could put up with Teril’s constant attentions. She was going insane with primeval lust and the object of her fixation was happily treating her like his favourite sister.
They were sitting in the same restaurant as yesterday, once again enjoying the simple Polish foods as Teril rattled on about all the sights they’d seen that day. He seemed to be enjoying her pilgrimage more than she was herself.
“And then, when we saw the house that Madame Curie was born in, I was blown away.” Teril wound to a stop and enthusiastically dug into his meal again.
Tasha had to admit that she was impressed by that tour as well. Marie Curie, winner of two Nobel prizes in two different fields, pioneering researcher into radioactivity and the first woman professor at the prestigious Sorbonne University in Paris. Her claims to fame were endless. To have stood in the rooms that she had lived in as a child had been awe inspiring.
The problem was that the dratted man never left her side. He was constantly touching her, holding her hand, stroking her back and calling her “My love” damn him. She needed to know if he was spoken for or were her hopes totally impossible. Trouble was she was frightened to ask in case it spoiled what she did have with him---blast.
“What do you think, Tasha, is that a good plan?” Yikes! What had she missed while she’d been indulging her hormonal hissy fit?
“I’m sorry Teril I was miles away, what were you saying?”
Teril’s face fell, was he failing to hold her attention? He needed help with this courting ritual thing. His next contact with the transporter he was relaying a message to Zabron. He needed to get some pointers on wooing an Earthling.
“Nothing important my love; I just thought that tomorrow we might take a bus ride into the countryside and see more of this area. When we catch the train to Krakow tomorrow it’ll be getting dark, so we’ll miss most of the view.”
“Great idea, I’ll check the internet when we get back to the hostel and work out a route. I’m looking forward to Krakow but, I want to get the most from this area first.” Shaking off her miseries Tasha set herself to enjoying the rest of the evening. Storing up happy memories was a better plan than being a pain in the butt to the man of her dreams.
Later that night Teril wondered if he’d made a mistake by not kissing Tasha goodnight. She had looked like she was waiting for him to say or do something but, somehow a hostel dormitory door didn’t seem the right place to him. He was pinning his hopes on romantic Paris. Surely she would be starting to love him back by then; after all she would have known him for a week. Jenna had fallen for Zabron in just a couple of days.
The following day passed as planned and the two weary travellers walked into the hostel in a Krakow back street, ready for their assault on the famous Wieliczca Salt Mine in the morning. They had managed to get two beds in a mixed dorm of only four beds so, for the first time they were going to be spending all of their time together. Tasha only hoped she didn’t go mad with lust and attack him in his sleep.
Teril wasn’t impressed by the facilities but, the beds were clean and the people friendly so he would cope. He just wished his love was staying in better places, she deserved so much more. However, she made friends everywhere she went and seemed supremely happy carrying her home on her back, so this must be how she liked to travel. He couldn’t wait until she tried out space travel, Teeron style.
Tasha finished her coffee then stood to take the mug back to the kitchen, holding her hand out for Teril’s mug as she offered to take that too. They had enjoyed a reviving coffee in the communal lounge after checking- in. A few hardy stragglers had been lying around reading or talking and they had passed a pleasant hour with them exchanging information. Tasha had interpreted for Teril when necessary, although he coped pretty well. Now it was time for bed and Tasha was feeling unnecessarily edgy. After all there were two other occupants in their room so the proprieties would be maintained.
Teril handed her his mug but followed her into the kitchen to wash them and say goodnight. “I’ll dry them if you wash; they always slip from my fingers with the detergents you use here on earth. We use only steam to wash as detergent was thought to be bad for the environment.”
“Good thinking. I don’t think there’ll be a rush here on Earth to get rid of detergent though, we seem to use it for everything.” Tasha finished wiping down the sink then turned towards their dorm door.
“Tasha, just a minute please. My friend Zabron sent me some advice today.” He tapped his watch or Com-watch as it was correctly named she had found out. “He advised that I make my position clear with you.” He struggled to get the words of love and commitment out but he seemed to have been struck dumb.
Tasha looked into his face reading the turmoil written there. Oh God! He had guessed her growing feelings for him and was embarrassed by it. He was probably married and the father of quads.
“Please, you don’t have to say anymore, I’ll stay out of your way until Paris and then we can go our separate ways.” Tasha felt tears gathering behind her eyes. Oh damn, not tears, the female six shooter of the relationship world.
Teril was now so horrified by her glistening eyes and his inability to say a simple sentence that he wanted to punch himself. Teril, owner of multiple academic awards, and world renowned for his eloquence when delivering a lecture on genetics. Dumb.
In desperation he did the only thing he could think of. Lacking all finesse, he wrapped his arms tightly around her back and dragged her into his hard embrace, then, proceeded to kiss the life out of her.
Tasha went from hell to heaven in the time it took for his arms to find their way around her waist and his lips to descend on hers. She couldn’t breathe--didn’t want to, couldn’t think—didn’t need to. All she needed was to stay in this special world of pleasure and happiness.
Teril’s hands went on a journey of discovery; warming her silken flesh everywhere they touched. Firm lips nibbled across her face to her ear lobe, steamy breath tingling nerve endings and setting them humming with lust. Tasha felt Teril’s hard body crowding her into the cupboards behind her, and couldn’t have cared less if she wore the imprint of a couple of door knobs on her behind for a week. As long as she wore the imprint of Teril’s hard body on her breasts and thighs for just as long, she would be content.
Slowly, carefully Teril allowed a few millimetres of space to grow between their bodies. Hail Hera, he didn’t want to let her go but, he couldn’t take much more temptation. He thought it might be time to try his voice again, Hail Hera it worked this time.
“Tasha, my love,” he groaned. “You will have the courting you are due just as soon as it’s possible. You’re my life-mate; I knew it as soon as I saw you in St. Petersburg, there can never be another woman for me. Please grow to love me quickly because I don’t want to live without you.”
He growled in frustration as he gazed into her beautiful green eyes. Emeralds were dull compared to those eyes he thought. “Hail Hera, I want you badly, I can’t wait for this mission to be over so that I can concentrate on you.”
Tasha straightened away from him reluctantly, her body vibrating and tingling in unsatisfied desire, her core a molten hot quivering mass of desire. The problem was, a hostel was no place to get personal and she also rather liked that he had said “We” when he spoke of their mission. They were a pair.
“I take it that this show of affection means that your quads are going to be fatherless now?”
“Quads, what quads? Who told you that?” He looked outraged by her words. Tasha choked on her laughter, doubling over with mirth, as she struggled to tell him what she had been thinking. Smiling in relief he wrapped a warm, strong arm around her shoulders and led her to the dorm. “If there are to be quads then, you my love will be their mother.”
That stopped Tasha’s laughter, Quads! What if she’d had a vision when she thought about Teril’s children?
They caught the bu
s out to the Wieliczka Salt Mine early the following morning. The mine had been in constant production since the “Middle Ages” and had a chapel carved out of glistening salt, as well as several statues, icons and underground lakes. They walked for two kilometres through tunnel after tunnel of the amazing UNESCO listed site and had lunch in the underground restaurant.
Teril kept Tasha close, holding her hand whenever possible and embracing her whenever they got a private moment, his blue eyes laughing happily into hers every time he let her go. Looking, for all the world, like a naughty boy getting away with stealing cookies.
They wandered the Old City for the rest of the afternoon, planning their onward journey. Tasha had shortened her trip as much as possible to help Teril get to Paris quickly. However, she had to cross borders and show that she was touring and not up to anything illegal. Attracting attention from the authorities wasn’t part of the plan. Many backpackers used this route and only stayed two days in each city to save money so, that was the best she could do. They just had to keep going.
A visit to the Castle in the Old City was on the agenda for tomorrow before Tasha caught the ten o’clock night train to Prague. Teril had paid for a sleeper, insisting that she needed to be able to lock her door and rest on the nearly eleven hour journey to Czechoslovakia. He couldn’t travel with her however he could still take care of her comfort. Teril would beam up into the transporter after she left on the train and catch-up with her in Prague. Already he was worrying about her safety and she was hard pressed to convince him she would be fine.
“Honestly Teril, I’ve travelled in more dangerous places than this by myself.”
“But I didn’t know what you were doing then, and now I’m going to go grey with worry before I meet up with you in Prague.”
Tasha laughed at his dilemma; the man was a first class worrier. She figured life was going to be full of rules she would have to break when they finally got together.