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Rated: PG
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by Sailor Phoenix

Part Ten

    Endymion transported her, taking her to new levels of pleasures with every conquering, swallowing her cries of ecstasy so the whole household wouldn't hear what was going on. Between bouts of passion, he kissed and caressed Serenity back to a state of such fevered wanting that she murmured in frantic distraction until he satisfied her.

    When Selenity cried, Endymion got up... lit a lamp... and changed the infant... then brought her to bed and watched, propped up on one elbow, while Serenity nursed their daughter. Never, in this life or the other, had she treasured the miracle secrets of womanhood as she had now.

    She put Selenity back into her cradle when she was full and back asleep, and stood watching her in awe for a long time. Her body naked, her wild silvery blond hair tumbling down her back.

    "Serenity."

    She turned and watched as Endymion tossed back the tangled sheets on her side of the bed. Incredibly he wanted her again.

    She went to her husband without hesitation.
 

    She was different. The stubborn thought tugged at Endy as he stood at the railing of the boat as it chugged across the waters back to San Fransciso. Before the great change, which seemed to have come with Selenity's birth, Sere had avoided his lovemaking. She had said he was too big... too fierce... too insatiable.

    Yet the night before, she'd bucked beneath him, flinging her head back so that the muscles in her throat corded when she climaxed. He'd kissed her to stifle the cries that vibrated from the depths of her belly and burst from her throat to batter his own. Once, while taking her in the way back to earliest man, he's muzzled her with his hand. She'd taken one of his fingers into her mouth, and Endy closed his eyes and delved deep, and there had been no one to muffle his moan of complete surrender.

    Endy sighed. According to Mrs. Stevens, Serenity made regular visits to the chapel in the woods, another mystery to him. The Sere he knew recognized no other deity other than herself.

    The way Raye told it, Serenity would spend hours on the sun porch with Luna, laboriously recording "stories". That was another thing that astonished Endy; the woman he had married wouldn't draw up a laundry list, much less pen reams of prose.

    He shoved a hand through his hair. Serenity wanted him to believe she had changed, he concluded. It was all just a scheme to regain his trust and remain in the lifestyle she had loved so much.

    How ironic it was, he reflected. Just when he stopped caring, Serenity had become everything she had been before their marriage. Endy now thought of that era as a time of foolish bliss, he had been ensnared by his own illusions and he was not about to make that mistake again.
 

    The passenger ferry came into port, and the crew members shouted to one another as they tied the vessel to the pilings and let down the plank. It was a bright, noisy, blue-skied day, and instead of going of going ahead of him, to the hospital and the patients who waited for him, Endymion's mind strayed to the island and the young woman. She had watched him go with red, teary eyes, her chin at a proud, obstinate angle, and he knew that the image would forever haunt him till he saw her again.

    The door of an elegant carriage popped open as he passed, intent on finding a cab, and Beryl Scott peeked out, beaming. "Endy!"

    He wasn't wearing a hat--he hated them because they made his head sweat--but he touched a non-existant brim anyway. Beryl, the niece of the very outspoken, fellow colleague of Endymion's, was a beauty with reddish auburn hair and flirtatious topaze brown eyes. She had offered herself to Endymion on more than one occasion, as though her favors were of no consequence than a platter of exotic foods.

    He had always meant to help himself--some other time. Now, just returned from a fresh baptism in the fires of pleasure, Endymion was too aware of his vulnerability to Serenity, and he knew he had better do something about it.

    Fast.

    Dr Endymion Alessandros had come to the decision of taking a mistress--not because he wanted to or needed anything more than the cataclysmic passion Serenity gave him in bed. No, what he needed was a defense against his beautiful wife's wiles.

    "Hello, Beryl," he said, returning the smile.

    "On your way to the hospital?" Beryl's voice was like chiming cowbells, and Endymion wondered why he'd never taken notice of that singular annoying fact.

    He nodded, and she offered him a ride, just as he knew she would. Seated across from her in the elegant carriage, he studied her slender curves.

    Serenity was plumper, especially since she had the baby, he thought, but he liked feeling her softness beneath him, like a scented featherbed.

    "Endy?" Beryl sounded petulant, and Endymion steered his wandering attention back to the matter between them.

    "I don't think I have seen you this beautiful," he said.

    "I'm going back to the city," Serenity announced, two weeks after Endymion left the island. In that time, she had not heard from Endy let alone a visit and her mind was filled with dreadful visions.

    "Endymion hasn't sent for us," Raye pointed out as if those words had settled the issue. It had been raining that afternoon and the two women were seated on the sun porch, Raye was stitching a sampler and Serenity was writing. She had been recording memories of her other life as fast as she could before it would be taken from her.

    "Of course he hasn't," Serenity muttered fiercely. "He's too busy entertaining his mistress!" The social column in the day's issue of the New Times had linked Endymion to Beryl Scott, sending Serenity to nearly go mad.

    Raye didn't look up from her sewing. "All men have mistresses, Serenity," she said. "It’s a fact of life."

    "It isn't going to be in mine," Serenity countered. Then she marched upstairs prepared Selenity to travel... packed her own things... and sent the caretaker to fetch the carriage.

    When the ferry left that afternoon, Serenity was aboard it with Selenity and Luna at her side. This was a time for action; Serenity loved her man, and she was going to fight for him.

    She arrived at the mansion overlooking the harbor only to find that preparations were being made for an elaborate party. Colorful Chinese lanterns hung from wires, and ribbon streamers decorated the rose arbors and the garden benches. Tables had been set up, and extra servants moved back and forth, carrying chairs and trays of food.

    At first Serenity was thrilled, but them she realized she hadn't been invited to this party and wasn't suppose to know of it either. Her temper rose like the surface of mercury.

    "Take Selenity upstairs, please," she said to a wide-eyed Luna, who obeyed without question. After tossing her gloves onto the marble-topped table in the entryway, Serenity headed straight for the kitchen.

    Serenity was not at all surprised to see Beryl Scott there, consulting with the cook, and yet her emotions were volatile was an atomic bomb. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.

    The cook backed away and fled from the kitchen as the two women faced off.

    "I might ask you the same thing," Beryl countered coolly. "It was to my understanding that Endy consigned you to the island, where you couldn't get into anymore trouble." She smiled with acid sweetness. "You know like you did before."

    "Get out," Serenity hissed menacingly.

    Beryl sensed Serenity's determination to get rid of her and take her rightful place at Endymion's side... sending the color to drain from her face. "But the party---"

    "There isn't going to be one," Serenity cut her off. "And you can take this any way you see it."

    "Endy will have something to say about this!" Beryl threatened, snatching up her beaded handbag and headed for the door.

    "He certainly will," Serenity answered. She was thinking of the eighteenth-century dueling pistols that hung on the wall of his study, and wondered where one could buy musket balls. Or whatever the blasted things fired.

    When Serenity managed to get her wits together, she noticed the big cake on the counter, and everything fell into place. Of course, it was Endy's birthday, and as his wife, she should of known such a thing. She should of been the one handling this matter.

    Endymion returned to his study half an hour later and was surprised to find Serenity seated at his desk, silently pondering the dueling pistol she had taken down.

    "Happy Birthday," she said pleasantly, still simmering. Then she frowned at the gun in her hand. "Does this thing still work? For I'd like nothing more than to change your gender."

    Endymion didn't answer. He simply approached the desk and lifted one of the pages belonging to her journal that she had laid down, the one describing the movie theatre. "What's this?"

    "Proof that I'm not the Serenity you know," Serenity answered, hoping her voice didn't sound shakey. "Look at the handwriting, Endy. Did she write like I do?"

    He lowered the page to look at her, and she realized she had managed to get through to him of who she really was. "No," he said, and the word came out soft and hoarse. This was something Endymion could not explain using scientific babble, and Serenity could see he was troubled. "Serenity...."

    She laid the pistol down on the desk and stood to face her husband. "Did you sleep with Beryl, Endy? Is she your mistress?"

    He was still staring at her as though he had seen a ghost. He seemed to be speechless, and Serenity wondered why she hadn't thought to show him her handwriting against the other Serenity. Maybe she hadn't wanted to until she knew she was ready to commit herself to this time... place... and man, she reasoned.

    "Endy?" she prompted.

    "No," he said. "I had planned to but couldn't."

    Serenity laid her hands on his lapels. "Good, because I love you with all my heart and soul, Endymion Alessandros, and I plan to keep you satisfied that you won't even look at another woman. Ever. And by the Gods, you can trust me because I won't hurt you as the other Serenity did."

    She felt his powerful shoulders move underneath her hands in an involuntary shudder. His jawline clenched as he struggled to control his emotions, and once more Serenity was filled with tenderness, thinking how he'd suffered.

    "Tell me who you are... where you came from... how this happened..."

    She touched his lips with an index finger in order to quiet him. "Not now, Dr Alessandros. At this moment, you have a birthday present to unwrap."

    A smile lit his eyes as he took her hand. "That's scandalous, Mrs. Alessandros. After all, the servants are around and there is to be a party soon."

    "The servants are paid to be deaf and blind to the things we do," Serenity reminded him with a teasing smile, "and if there is a party, all the more reason to celebrate."

    They climbed the staircase hand in hand, enthralled in each other. Endymion lifted her into his arms and proceeded to carry her over the threshold of the master bedroom... his lips descended upon hers, tasting the forbidden nectar.

    This encounter was different from earlier liaisons, however, there was no leisurely pleasuring... no tempting and teasing. The hunger for each other had been too great, because of their long separation and newfound accord, and there could be no waiting.

    Somehow between the fumbling... laughter under their breaths... and playful kissed, they had managed to undress each other. Endymion placed Serenity on the side of the bed, positioned himself between her thighs, and glided into her.

    For Serenity, the sensations were profound than mere pleasure; this was spiritual as well, something that had been preordained since conception of the universe. She gave a primitive, gutteral cry as Endy lunged... withdrew... and lunged again, and when her body began its dance of release, her mind soared freely.

    She found herself standing on the crystal bridge once again and a deep, abiding fear rose inside her, realizing that she could be taken away from Endy forever. Behind her was 1895, Endymion... Selenity... Raye... Luna. Ahead was darkness and Serenity knew her old body had died.

    "The other Serenity," she asked the beautiful light that floated at the end of the bridge, "what happened to her?"

    She is at peace, came the wordless answer.

    Serenity felt relieved. "Let me go back to 1895," she pleaded. "Please. That's where I have always belonged."

    You have made your choice, the light replied.

    Serenity found herself in Endymion's bed again, her face wet with tears, her body still trembling from the release. Endymion was breathing hard... his muscular back moist under her hands... and she rejoiced because now she had a
lifetime to make love to him and plenty of time to tell him of who she really was and where she had come from. Perhaps even time to teach him to speak Japanese.

    "I Love you," he said.

    Serenity kissed the top of her husband's forehead. It may have been his birthday but it was she who got to make the wish.

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