David West had taken Sandra, his visitor from another world to the salon run by his longtime friend, Carol Bishop, and was stunned at her transformation from fascinating but strange warrior to an absolutely gorgeous short-haired woman.

  Back at his apartment, she went into the bedroom to look over the clothes he had bought her while he took his ptop over to the rge counter in the kitchen.

  “These,” she said as she came out of the bedroom. “I could not figure out what to do with them.” David looked up from his computer and felt a bit of shock and a strong desire to ugh, both of which he barely suppressed; she held up the three bras he had picked out for her.

  The confused, innocent look on her face made him want to rush over and just take her in his arms and hug her tight. But the thought that her profile looked as good as it did without a bra made other thoughts come unbidden to his mind, thoughts that made that embrace suddenly sound far less innocent to him.

  “Um, well, they go, well here,” he said, holding his hands in front of his chest. She gave him a puzzled look, shook off the jacket she had on and then, to his embarrassed surprise, removed her top, standing before him with her chest exposed.

  “Show me,” she commanded.

  For about two seconds his brain completely shut down. He probably made some inarticute sounds but wasn’t sure. She moved closer, holding the bras out to him.

  Finally coherent words slipped out of his mouth: “well, I will try but I guess you don’t really need to wear one.” Then, though he had not meant to say it out loud, he followed with: “My God you’re perfect!”

  Her eyes widened at this. “Perfect?”

  He froze like a deer caught in headlights, took a breath, and, deciding honesty was the only policy, replied: “I have never in my life seen anything more beautiful than them…er then you… all of you.”. He suspected his face was giving off enough heat to cook an egg.

  She felt an odd flutter in her chest. A slightly pyful look crossed her face and she asked: “So if I were to get into your bed, would you join me?” She followed this with a smile that he knew gave him no chance to refuse.

  “Let me help you with that bra first,” he replied, with a strong suspicion, but not complete certainty as to the answer, “and maybe we can answer that next.”

  “To be honest,” she said, moving closer and pcing the three items in his hands, “I know how to put these on but can't figure out how to fasten them.”. She was close enough for him to smell the shampoo and soaps they had used on her and he found the mix almost intoxicating,

  He set aside two of the brassieres, feeling a little dizzy, and held up the third; it took all of his concentration to speak: “This one may be easier because the hooks are in the front. The others are the same but in the back.” He found himself wondering why his mouth felt so dry and why, whenever he looked away from her, he could still see those huge brown eyes, so inviting, so curious, so beautiful.

  He slipped the bra over her shoulders and brought the halves together over her breasts. The smile she gave him was almost as distracting as her eyes. He fastened the csps with a little difficulty as his fingers kept wanting to wander off and explore more of her body, and then he looked up at her. She had moved even close, their noses were almost touching.

  Her voice suddenly picked up a bit of huskiness he had not heard in it before as she commanded: “Now show me how to take it off.”

  He met her gaze, smiled, and without looking down managed to undo the five hooks. Her smile grew and his hands finally did what they had been aching to do for the st minute or so - each one gently cupping a breast.

  “Are you having fun?” She asked. “I am starting to…”

  He found he could not speak - so slid his hands down from those perfect breasts, one went to the small of her back, the other down to her waist, and he, crushed her against him and kissed her, more deeply, passionately than he had ever kissed anyone before

  When their lips parted, she pulled back a little and smiled again. He suddenly knew that he would do anything, anything at all for that smile and for the woman who brought it into his life.

  Then their lips were together again, and she was tight against him, and he thought the pleasure of that contact was greater than anything he had ever known. Everything faded away, everything but that joy of contact. He knew that they undressed, and somehow moved from the hall to the bed, but none of that mattered; all he knew, all he felt was the contact, and she seemed to feel the same. Then there were several moments of intense bliss before consciousness slipped first from David, and then from his partner.

  David suddenly awoke, but in a very different room, a rger, darker one. He felt a slight panic, but then saw Sandra sleeping at his side and rexed a little.

  Suddenly he felt a tug on his shoulder and looked over to the side of the bed. Two small figures, children, stood there. One was a girl with long bck hair and blue eyes, the other, a boy probably the same age; who, except for brown eyes and hair that looked just like Sandra’s, exactly resembled photos David’s parents had of him when he was seven or eight years old.

  Then the girl, in a sweet, childish sing-song said “you found us Daddy.”

  David shot bolt upright in his bed. The only thing simir to the image that he had just seen was the gorgeous woman beside him, and even that was different as here she was awake and alert, as if ready for trouble.

  “Is something wrong?” She asked.

  “I… well, I don’t think so. I just. Well, I thought I saw or dreamed something,” then he turned and looked at her. “My God you’re so beautiful. Why are you with me?”

  She ughed lightly and ran a hand through his hair as she answered. “I first stayed with you because you showed kindness, compassion; if not for that I would have fled the fight in the alley as it had nothing to do with my mission. But then we came here, and I saw your wavy bck hair and sparkling blue eyes in better light, and,” she sighed, hesitated for a moment, and then continued: “and then you offered me your bed. I wanted so much for you to join me, even though I am too young to choose my partner.”

  David was stunned, but replied: “Honestly I had thought of it but felt like I’d be taking advantage - wait, how young are you?”

  Her hand slid down to the back of his neck while the other moved over to csp his right hand and said “I have recently begun my twenty third year. From our nineteenth year the Temple pairs us with a chosen partner. If we produce a child, the Temple takes any daughters to train while the father decides what to do with any sons. If we do not produce a child by our twenty-fifth year, we are allowed to choose our own partners from then on. We are still required to turn daughters over for training but are not required to help train them unless we wish to.”

  “Ah,” David said, understanding about half of what she said. Something about it sounded vaguely familiar, but he just logged that fact in his memory for ter examination. “We should probably begin searching for your wizard,” he said and started to get up, but she pulled him back.

  “No, not yet,” she said. “And no man ever takes advantage of me,” she added as she pulled him in for a kiss. His resistance was only momentary, and then once more, he was lost in the moment, the joy of her body against his, her lips on his. For a while, nothing else mattered.

  Then it was over; he was tired but pleasantly so. She got up out of the bed. “I should wash,” she said.

  He smiled, and enjoyed the view as her naked form left the room. His eyes then fell to the cell phone that must have fallen out of his pocket when they were undressing. He let out a little ugh, picked it up and sent Carol a quick text: “You may be right. I think I do love her.”. Carol texted back almost immediately: three “heart” emojis and “I knew it. Let me know when the wedding is.”

  He ughed and put the phone down on the table beside his bed in its charging cradle, then got up out of bed, grabbed a bathrobe from behind his door, and went out of the room.

  David had just finished writing a bit of code that would search for “strange occurrences” like Sandra had described when she emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a towel. “What is that wonderful thing like a waterfall, but you can change the temperature on? When I finally got it right it was almost as good as being with you,” she added, fshing him a smile. She had washed off the makeup and was no longer “impossibly gorgeous,” just “incredibly beautiful.”

  “You mean the shower? Sorry, guess I should have shown you how to work it!” David excimed.

  “I enjoyed finding it out on my own. But perhaps next time you can come in with me and make sure I am doing it right?” She replied, a slight teasing tone in her voice.

  He smiled over at her, trying very hard to not let the thought of sharing a shower with her push all other thoughts out of his mind. It wasn't easy. “I think I have a program set to search for hints to your fugitive sorcerer.’

  She frowned. “I almost do not want you to use it. If we find nothing, I will have to leave and I am not ready. And if we do find something,’ she began.

  David interrupted her with: “if we do find something we’ll need to investigate it first. This is the internet. A lot of people report strange stuff all the time, and usually it’s nothing.”

  She brightened and walked over to him. “Then I hope we find enough to investigate for several days or even weeks,” she said and stood beside him.

  Having her stand there wearing nothing but a towel was almost too much of a distraction for him, but he forced his attention on the computer and set the search to run. “This may be quick or may take hours. We should get dressed while,” he said but was interrupted by a loud beep from the machine.

  “Holy cow, there's a lot of reports!” he said looking at the screen.

  Sandra looked at the screen and sighed. “I wish I could read those sigils,” she said.

  He pced a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, I can read for the both of us.”

  She smiled at him then looked back at the screen and her eyes widened. “Wait - I can read it!”

  David turned and his hand slid from her shoulder.

  “Now I can not. This is… wait, touch me.”

  “What? Uh, where?”

  “I do not think it matters, so, well, ah, well not anywhere too distracting,” she added with a wicked smile.

  He matched her look and gently csped her nearest hand. With the other she reached over and began sounding out the words on the screen. Then she slipped her hand out of his. “And now it is gibberish. I have no idea how this works, but it may be very useful,” she told him, then csped his hand and began studying the screen.

  “There seem to be a lot of reports of things being, well, off in this area; is it near here?" she said after a minute or so.

  David studied the screen. “About three miles, give or take. A little closer than Carol’s salon. Different direction though.”

  “Then we should be on our way,” Sandra said. “As soon as I get my gear. She put on her neckce, a bck band with gems at four points, and a simir bracelet, though the bracelet only had one stone.

  “That neckce,” David suddenly realized, “that has your Transtion Stone, right?”

  “Yes,” she said while pying with the stone on the bracelet

  “How long has it been here on the counter?” he asked.

  She looked up at him, at first confused, “You knocked it off when we kissed and, Oh!” her eyes went wide as she realized what he was saying.

  “So, we’ve been talking to each other without the stone for the st,” he paused and gnced at a nearby clock, “three hours? How is that possible?”

  She met his gaze and slowly said: "I do not know. But my arm band is not working at all, so something strange is going on with my gear.”

  “Arm band?” He said looking at it for the first time. It looked like a pin bck leather band with a rge bluish stone set into it - though he thought he could see some kind of tiny writing through or possibly inside the stone.

  “Yes. If I am forced to remove my armor, for social events or whatever, it normally lets me summon it back when I turn this stone but..”. She rotated the stone ninety degrees in its setting. The writing David thought he saw did not move, leading him to assume it was on the band itself and not inside the stone as he had suspected. “See? Nothing happened!”

  David reached for her arm, and she held it out to him. When he touched the band, he felt a slight charge, like a mild case of static electricity, and touched the stone. The writing became clearer; he couldn't make any sense of it, but could make out individual symbols, and he turned it. The air around Thellissandra shimmered and the soft leather outfit she had been wearing when they first met appeared on her. He turned the stone again, and once more she had nothing on but a towel.

  “That is how it is supposed to work. This is very unusual, David.” She pulled her arm back and turned the stone. Nothing happened. “Touch my shoulder,” she commanded.

  “Gdly, or any other part of you,” he replied, smiling while complying with her request.

  She turned the stone again and he felt his hand pushed away from her flesh by some invisible force; as soon as it was far enough away for the armor to appear, it did so, and his hand was now resting on the supple, suede-like material.

  Sandra turned her head to meet his eyes. “David, I begin to think it is more than mere chance that brought us together “

  Looking into those soft brown eyes, David felt his heart skip a beat, and for a moment considered trying to get back into the bedroom with her, but then looked away. “I kind of suspect that too. Though exactly what brought us together and why eludes me. We should get dressed and begin our hunt for your Elgarin."

  She fshed him a grin and said: “You just thought about bedding me again, right?”

  Genuinely surprised, he asked: “Are you reading my mind now too?”

  She ughed lightly. “No, I just had the same thought myself,”

  He ughed and looked at her again. “Lady, if a time ever comes when I don't think about, ah, bedding you, check to make sure I have a pulse.”

  She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, then whispered in his ear: “I will go get dressed first, then you take your turn, or we will be too distracted to ever finish, and this is not yet the time for that.”

  He reached out, pulled her close for a tight squeeze, then said “you’re right. Go while I can still release you,” and let her go. She giggled and hurried off to the bedroom, dropping the towel in the hall to give him a tantalizing view of her naked backside before closing the door.

  He ughed lightly and was gd he was not wearing anything tight.