Chapter 2

ChapterTwo

Blaste

I haveno earthly idea what just happened.

One second, I was inside the tree, searching for the source of the most incredible voice I’d ever heard in my life, the next I was lying in the grass and night had fallen. I’ve passed out drunk in a few fields in my time—all in good fun—but this felt different. I’m fitting to figure all of it out later, though, because right now the only thing that matters is the girl. She’s my only focus. And hell, she’d be any man’s focus.

Sweet Jesus, she’s pretty.

Based on the way she’s dressed and the deep stain on her lips, she must be one of the brothel workers from town. My brother, Jim, doesn’t usually bring women home with him, though. Did she follow him here? Or maybe they didn’t have any available rooms to complete their transaction, so he decided to tumble her in the barn? Whatever the explanation, he’s not laying a finger on this one for the rest of the night. Or ever. In fact, some part of me is praying like hell he hasn’t touched her yet.

Why?

In that short, black dress and lip stain, she could only be a prostitute.

Not to mention, this is a small town. If she was a local family girl, I’d know her from church or school—even if I tended to avoid class whenever possible before I graduated. After all, I don’t need to know algebra to raise horses, now do I?

The girl is on her knees now, looking bewildered.

And hold on now. The tree is behind her. Last thing I remember, I was inside that tree.

What the hell?

“Um…” She wipes her palms on that indecent dress and my mouth turns dry. “Who are you? How…how did you get here?”

“That’s the voice,” I say, my heart lurching, and I take a step toward her involuntarily, like I’m being pulled. “I heard your voice.”

“Where?” she whispers.

“In the tree.” I squint past her shoulder. “That one right there.”

She breathes in and out deeply and I find myself deeply invested in that breath. The in and out of it. How much I enjoy her breathing.

“I heard your voice in there, too,” she says.

Our gazes snap together hard. A frisson of alarm runs down my shoulder blades, but again, I’m fixated on her. I can’t see anything but her. I’m wholly and completely absorbed by the dark tumble of her hair, the shape of her mouth, her scent—I can smell it from here and it is pure sweet tea and sunshine. I don’t know how I got here, but my body informs me of its mission. To lay her down on her back and take the relief offered by her profession.

I’ve done it a few times. Enjoyed it, sure. Every man needs release occasionally.

But something tells me I’ll be visiting this girl until I’m a pauper.

Matter of fact, she’s not going back to the brothel. I’ll burn it down first.

“Are you okay?” she asks, coming a little closer in the moonlight, knitting up my stomach so tight, pain shoots downward to my balls. Oh my God, she’s almost unbearably gorgeous. My whole body hurts, inside and out, just looking at her. “What’s your name?”

“Name’s Blaste, honey.” I toss my hat into the grass, itching to pull down my zipper and get this going. “And no, I’m not okay. Yet.”

“Okay…” Head tilting right, she comes closer. “How can I help?”

There it is. The proposition. I can’t do anything but hungrily accept. My dick has never gotten so hard so fast in my twenty-two years. “Why don’t we start by you telling me how much?” I rasp, shoving a hand into the back pocket of my jeans in search of my bill fold. Doesn’t matter the price, I’ll hand her the whole thing right now. Just get me between those legs.

She stops, brow quirked. “How much what? What do you mean?”

I take a quick tour of her body, the clinging black dress that barely hits her mid-thigh. Bare feet. The way she’s boosted her tits up so I can see that tantalizing hint of roundness in the neckline of her dress. Girls from town don’t put on lipstick that dark. Not that I’ve seen. This girl is selling her body. It’s obvious, right? Jim must have brought her home from town and been too drunk to complete the transaction. Thank God.

“I mean…” I reach out and tip up her chin, ignoring the wave of affection that rolls through my chest. Surely, it’s misplaced. How could I feel something so potent so fast? “I mean, sugar, how much is it going to cost me to fuck you in the grass?”

The second she turns pale, I know I’ve gone and screwed up. Big time.

My next clue that I’ve misread the situation comes in the form of her hand, which whips out and slaps me clean across the face. And I take it like a man. It’s not the first time I’ve been slapped or punched. Hell, it’s not even the first time this week, because I’ve got a big ol’ mouth that has been known to get me into a lot of trouble. Not to mention, if I just mistook this girl for a whore, then I deserve a lot worse than a slap across the face.

“I don’t know where you came from, Blaste,” she says, her eyes like bottled lightning. “But I would like you to kindly return there.”

“First of all, I didn’t come from anywhere. I came from…here,” I say, shooting a glance at the tree that has been a landmark in my life since childhood. “Second, if I misunderstood the invitation, I apologize. It wasn’t my intention to offend you. Only to get your dress off.”

Her beautiful mouth falls open. “Wow. You are unbelievable.”

I tip my hat, even though it’s on the ground. “Thank you, ma’am.”

“Get off my property or I’m calling the police.”

She’s off like a shot, but I’m faster, and I wrap my fingers around her elbow, drawing her to a stop before she can get too far—and the touch of her skin almost drops me to the ground. My knees weaken and I lurch awkwardly, before finding my balance again. What in the hell is going on here? My pulse is fucking haywire and…and she’s affected, too. When I turn her around to face me, her eyelashes are fluttering and she’s sucking in a shaky breath.

“Hold on, now. Just hold on,” I say, sounding winded.

Something about those words makes her gaze zip to mine. Hold on.

That’s what I was shouting at the voice in the tree. Her. Is this a weird dream?

I don’t think so. I can feel her elbow in my hand. I can feel her pulse when I swipe my thumb through the crook and watch her shiver, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip.

“Name, please. I need to know your name.”

“Shiloh,” she breathes.

That’s it. A single word, her name, and I feel like I’ve been anointed. Renewed.

Like I’ve been waiting to hear that combination of letters my entire life.

I pull her a little closer, just needing to feel her breath somewhere, anywhere, on my skin. “Just what in the hell is happening here, Shiloh?”

“Well.” She shifts right to left, her soft exhalation warming my throat. “It all happened so fast, but basically you appeared out of nowhere and offered me money for sex.”

Sex.I need sex from her so bad, I could die. Have I ruined my chance completely? It doesn’t seem possible. She might be mad, but there’s a desperate pull between us. She feels it. I can see she feels it. “In my defense, Shiloh, you’re dressed kind of…”

“Today was my grandmother’s funeral and I only had one black dress,” she mumbles.

“You wore that to your grandmother’s funeral?” I rear back. “Were you hoping the outrage would bring her back to life?”

“It’s just a normal dress!”

“If it’s so normal,” I say, slowly hauling her closer until finally, her tits mash up against my chest and we both moan. “Why do I want to tear it right off?”

“I don’t know, but I think I should go inside,” she whispers against my mouth.

“I’ll be coming with you, sugar.”

“Oh, I don’t think so.”

“Because I offended you?”

“Yes.” She’s still trying to look pissed, but she doesn’t stop me when I grip the outside of her bare thigh and begin skimming my palm up toward her hip, lifting the side of her dress in the process. “And anyway, I don’t know you.”

I’m rocked by a vision of me sucking her pouty titties while she bounces on my dick and I no longer have an ounce of blood in the northern regions of my body. “Let me inside and we’ll get to know each other real well, I promise.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

“Why?” My hand reaches her hip and I squeeze, before circling around to her ass and kneading it in a tight grip, my cock standing straight up and throbbing in my jeans. Son of a bitch, that’s a one nice ass. “Wait. Don’t tell me I mistook a virgin for a whore.”

She gasps, beginning to struggle a little against me. “I can’t believe you just said that word.”

I raise a confused eyebrow. “Which one, sugar?”

“Stop calling me sugar,” she seethes, the feisty little thing.

“When I’ve got a feeling you’re extra sweet? Nah, the nickname stays.” I take two handfuls of that sweet ass and lift her up, grinning when her legs wrap around my hips automatically. And I drop to a kneel with my lips suctioning to the side of her neck. “Now let me get you down in the grass so we can work out this…thing happening between us. All right?”

Her eyes are half mast, her pussy warm on my lap. “W-what th-thing?”

I lay her down flat on her back and unzip my jeans, not caring who she is. Virgin, whore, angel, Martian from outer space. I’m just aching to get my cock in her to consummate something that feels preordained. A destination I’ve been heading toward without a map and now that I’m here, I need to put down roots. This is home.

She’s…home.

“You know what thing I need to work out, Shiloh,” I growl, pushing up her skirt to her hips, hooking a thumb in the waistband of her panties and dragging them down. “I don’t understand it, but…I can’t even look at you without shaking,” I croak against her lips, dropping my lower body to the welcoming V of her thighs and rocking forward, listening to her whine echo across the pasture. “It’s the same for you. Tell me I make you shake just by breathing. Tell me I’m not alone.”

“I…” She shivers when I lick the curve of her throat. “Oh God, you’re not alone.”

“Tell me. How old are you, sugar?”

“Eighteen.”

“Thank Christ. Just let me fuck you,” I groan in her ear, reaching down to position my cock. “Let me get one good bang so I can think straight—”

That’s when I hear it.

A sound I’ve never heard in my life. Not like this.

My eyes are drawn to the sky and I freeze, my heart climbing into my mouth. It’s an airplane. I’ve seen an airplane before—but no, not this size. Not this…modern? It’s huge. A flying city. How is it staying in the air? Is that a blue light on the nose? How is it blue?

Alarm bells begin to peal in the forefront of my mind and I can’t ignore them now. The plane has disoriented me, forced me to look around and realize nothing about my home looks the same. There’s a giant green tractor that makes no sense. It’s something from the future, but no future I could have imagined myself. There are lights attached to the house where none existed before.

There is a barn standing on the edge of the property that wasn’t there ten minutes ago.

Is that a truck? The exterior is so shiny. It looks like a fucking spaceship.

“Shiloh, where am I?” I say thickly. “What year is this?”

Her eyes lock with mine and something like disbelief flickers in hers. “It’s…twenty twenty-three.” In a whisper, she adds, “Obviously. Right?”

Dizziness bleeds into my head like spilled ink and now there are two of my dream girls, their faces swimming and circling in front of me. Surely this isn’t real.

“What year d-did you think it was?” she asks, almost as if she’s afraid to hear my answer.

I can barely choke the words out. “Nineteen forty-nine.”