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A Vision From Next Door

CHAPTER EIGHT

Daniel forced himself to ease up from the accelerator and keep within the speed limit. He wanted to get back to Annika as soon as possible. It didn’t feel right to be separated from her. He was surprised that the depth of his emotions towards Annika didn’t scare him. After only two days he couldn’t imagine his life without her in it. In fact the thought of anything happening to her made his blood run cold. If her clients turned out to be NID, it was his fault that they had intruded into her life. What if they went after her to get to him? He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but he knew he would tell them anything, do anything they asked to keep her safe.

He pulled up at the military post and showed his ID. They let him through and he quickly entered the mountain base, passing the security checkpoints in record time. Exiting the elevator Daniel went in search of Sam, knowing that even in her down time she was more often than not tinkering with a piece of off-world technology. He found her in her lab, her hands buried in some kind of device. "Hi, Sam."

"Hey, Daniel, didn’t expect to see you here until our next briefing." She yanked a wire out. "Something wrong?"

"Possibly." He held out the glasses. "Can we lift the prints from these and run them against the government database, starting with known NID agents?"

"Have a couple of unexpected visitors?" Sam began rummaging around the shelves looking for dusting powder.

"Not me. They stopped by Annika’s."

Sam gave him a sharp glance. "What makes you think these visitors were dodgy?"

Daniel tried to seem nonchalant. "Is ‘gut instinct’ a choice on the paperwork?"

She grinned. "Around here it is." Her smile faded. "It wasn’t your gut instinct, was it?"

Daniel’s eyes widened in surprise. "Not at first, no."

A frown of concern clouded her features. "Annika’s okay, isn’t she?"

Daniel hesitated. "She is now. She had a pretty odd reaction to them right from the word go." He quickly recapped what had happened. He expected the major to comment on Annika’s unusual behavior. Instead Sam simply set about dusting the glasses. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You accepted that very quickly."

The look Sam gave him was pure innocence. "I don’t know what you mean. We’ve all relied on instinct at some point."

"This has something to do with what you two were discussing last night, doesn’t it? Something about whatever it is she’s hiding?"

Sam remained silent.

Daniel changed tactics. "Okay, if you won’t tell me, then answer me this. Based on your ten minute conversation last night, you’re willing to trust Annika and her 'bad feelings'?"

"Yes," she said simply.

He raked his fingers through his hair in frustration. "What exactly was in that background check? I don’t understand any of this."

"Do you really want to know?" Sam asked. "I can pull the file up for you."

For a moment he was tempted. "No, I promised I’d wait for her to tell me."

"Do you want to hang around for the results?" Sam changed the subject.

"No, can you call me on my cell? I don’t know if I’ll be at home or at Annika’s."

She nodded.

"Thanks, Sam." He turned to leave but she stopped him.

"You know, Daniel, if you really think about all that Annika’s said and done, you should be able to work out her secret on your own. The clues are all there."

"Care to give me a hint?"

Sam was tempted to rattle off the names of all the psychic races they’d encountered. She shook her head.

"You’re just as cryptic as she is," Daniel scowled. He heard Sam chuckle as he left. Women! He swore they must have been taken aside in high school and given classes on how to frustrate men. Climbing into his jeep he followed Sam’s advice and reran all of Annika’s little quirks through his mind…and still came up blank. He gave up and started reminiscing about the touch of her hands, the smell of her skin, how he felt inside her… That wonderful pins and needles sensation filtered through his body and he gasped at the immediate burning arousal crammed into his jeans. The desire to be with her again consumed him and he unconsciously planted his foot down. Speed limits be damned! He wanted her now!

A A A

Annika felt when Daniel was on the move again. Based on his trip to the base she estimated he would be another half an hour. She continued with her sketches when a few minutes later she sensed a change in him. He was moving faster, a lot faster. Was something wrong? She concentrated on the bond, trying to get a fix on his emotions rather than his whereabouts. Well, he wasn’t worried or alarmed…but he was anxious…

Her body started to tingle. To say he was aroused was an understatement. The fire that burned within him transferred through her bond and Annika’s nipples hardened. It rippled through her body and she could have sworn she felt him caress her breasts. It was like phone sex but instead of speaking she could feel exactly what Daniel wanted to do to her. The closer he got, the more turned on she became. Her thighs quivered as another fissure of heat struck directly in her inner core. She stripped off her underwear, undoing the buttons on her dress to remove her bra and waited impatiently by the door, not trusting herself to go outside to greet him. What she felt through the bond wasn’t even half the desire that gripped the archaeologist. If she was ready to climax there and then, she knew Daniel wouldn’t be able to make it back inside in his current condition.

She heard tires screech around the corner and Daniel pulled into his drive. Annika watched him hurdle the fence and she flung open the door. She threw herself into his arms, kissing him fervidly, almost roughly. Fire pooled between her legs as he desperately returned her kiss, his hands roaming all over her body. He yanked her dress down while she madly began unbuttoning his jeans. His shirt went flying and he picked her up pinning her against the wall.

Both let out a moan when he slid her onto his throbbing shaft. She clung to him, raking her nails across his back as he rammed into her again and again. They climaxed quickly, almost painfully and ended up sliding their trembling bodies down the wall, with Daniel kneeling and Annika wrapped around him still impaled against him.

As their breathing slowed, Daniel gently stroked her hair. "Annika, I’m sorry."

"For what?" She nuzzled his neck.

"I don’t know what came over me. Driving back I had the sudden compulsion to have you. I didn’t even stop to ask if you wanted to…" his throat closed up.

Annika lifted her head and saw guilt reflected in his blue depths. She kissed him tenderly. "In case you didn’t notice, I was waiting by the door already half naked."

She could see him going over his entrance and he smiled slightly. "Come to think of it you were." His face clouded over again. "I have never been so out of control. All I could think about was being inside you. I couldn’t stop myself."

"I felt that way too."

"I didn’t hurt you, did I?" He leant away from her to study her body.

Annika shook her head. "But I may have left a mark or two down your back." She ran her fingers across his back searching for scratch marks.

A soft chuckle escaped his lips and she lifted an eyebrow in question.

"I’m just glad you didn’t have any visitors. The condition I was in I wouldn’t have cared if we had an audience." He rose, lifting her off and swung her into his arms. She rested her head on his shoulder and he sat on the couch with her cradled in his lap.

"Why do you think I stayed inside rather than rushing out to meet you?" She snuggled into his embrace. "I had the feeling that you would be eager to see me."

He lightly ran his fingers over her body. "Is that the same sort of feeling you had with that couple today?"

She nodded. "But this time it was much more pleasant."

They lay together for a few minutes, content to just hold each other.

"So what did you do while I was gone?"

"I decided to make a cake for Jack. I want his first cake to be special, so I started sketching out ideas."

"Are these them?" Daniel reached for the loose sheets of paper scattered over the coffee table.

"Uh huh. I decided on making it a kind of party by a lake. Halloween is coming up so I thought I’d make the characters up in fancy dress." With her head resting on his chest, she felt Daniel’s heart rate speed up as he studied her drawings. "Daniel? What’s wrong?" She pushed herself away from him and saw he was white as a sheet.

Daniel couldn’t speak. His mouth opened but no words came out. He tried to hold the paper steady but his hands were shaking. Slowly he placed the sketch on the table, his eyes never leaving the design.

Yes, she’d penciled in a lake, however it was the characters that had him almost hyperventilating. Jack sat lounging in a camping chair, a fishing rod held casually in one hand, a beer in the other. Teal’c stood awkwardly beside him, his rod held stiffly at his side. The golden crest of Apophis was clearly marked on his forehead. They were dressed in military fatigues and when Daniel looked closer he saw the patches on their sleeves were bottomless triangles beneath a small circle, the Stargate symbol for Earth. Sam similarly dressed, was sitting with the device Daniel had seen her working on not an hour before. His image was dressed in homespun desert robes, sunglasses perched on his nose that were an exact replica of the ones he’d worn throughout his year long stay on Abydos.

If he wasn’t freaked out by the intricate classified details that Annika had drawn on the members of SG-1, the other characters nearly had him passing out in shock. Standing next to Jack was Thor, holding a sundae dish full of blue Jell-O. By his expression it looked like the little grey alien had no idea what he was supposed to do with the blue concoction. Sitting next to Sam was the serene image of Lya of the Nox, in her mauve dress, with sticks and vines growing through her hair. She too was holding onto a dish of Jell-O. The final character was a glowing ball with tentacles holding onto a fishing rod and a bottle of beer. The face in the center had the kind features of Oma.

"What the hell is going on?" Daniel rasped. "Why…How do…Who are you?" He sprang to his feet. Was she some sort of spy? No! he refused to believe that. He studied the drawing again. She had details that were not written in any report. True she could have been told some things like the patches, Teal’c’s emblem and Jack’s love of fishing and Jell-O…but the rest…There were no photos of Thor, Lya or Oma anywhere in existence and yet Annika had drawn exact likenesses as though they had posed for a portrait. "Annika, you’ve got to tell me where you came up with this!"

As soon as Annika saw the recognition in Daniel’s eyes, she mentally cursed her stupidity. She’d been so involved in trying to keep her thoughts away from Daniel, that she’d drawn whatever had popped into her head. Dammit! How could I have been so stupid? She knew she’d been in overdrive since meeting Daniel, why didn’t she realize that the characters that formed so clearly in her mind would have some relationship to him? "I don’t really know where to begin."

"Try, Annika!" he pleaded desperately, his eyes panicked. Oma, Oma. Oma. The higher being’s name kept repeating in his head. How does she know what Oma looks like? She’s only ever appeared with that face to me!

"Well," she started softly, "I guess you could say that from the time I hit puberty I’ve been able to sense things."

"Sense things?" He waved a frantic hand at the picture. "This goes way beyond sensing things!"

"Yes, it does, that’s just how it started out." Annika took a deep breath. "I’d know when something good or bad was going to happen, could find items that had been lost for months, that sort of thing. As I got older and my…gift…developed, it became more specific. I get flashes of people’s lives, usually from direct contact with objects or people."

"Wait a minute. Are you trying to tell me that you’re a psychic?" His voice was incredulous, but the missing piece of the puzzle clicked together in his head.

She nodded and bowed her head, not wanting to see his reaction. She’d seen it on the face of every person she’d told. First there was disbelief, then providing they decided to believe her, horror as they began to worry about exactly what she’d seen about them, then there was fear. It was the fear that got to her the most. She couldn’t bear to see Daniel’s blue eyes looking at her with fear.

The silence stretched between them.

Eventually Daniel spoke. "That’s why you don’t like to be touched."

Her head shot up at his tone. He didn’t sound disbelieving and more importantly he didn’t sound scared. He was staring up at the ceiling, eyes unfocused, and Annika realized that he was recounting all her strange little episodes.

"And why you’re sure the couple this morning were phony."

"Yes," she confirmed, "and how I knew you liked your coffee black with two sugars. Normally I don’t slip up like that, but you have me thrown off kilter. My gift has been changing, becoming stronger since I met you."

"What about the puppies?" he asked thoughtfully.

"The puppies?"

"Yes," he mused. "Their names. Had you ever heard of Hathor or Thor before?"

Now it was her turn to reflect. "No, now that you mention it. At the time I’d thought I was remembering some long forgotten scrap of information I learned in school," she paused. "You’re taking this very calmly."

He snapped out of his reverie. "Am I? I don’t feel particularly calm." His mind was still screaming alarm bells while his heart pounded in relief.

"But you don’t seem scared." Her voice was small.

Daniel was startled by her comment. "Scared? When I saw that picture I was scared to death that you were some sort of spy. But you being psychic doesn’t frighten me. Why would it?"

She lowered her eyes once more, trying to hide the tears that threatened to spill over.

Comprehension dawned and Daniel moved to sit beside her. He tilted her head up. "Because everyone else you told reacted in fear?"

She nodded, unable to speak.

He pulled her into his arms hugging her tightly and her tears began to fall. "My Angel, please don’t cry." He rocked her gently. "I know I’ve acted like an ass the last few minutes, but you startled me that’s all." It all made sense now and Daniel admitted the truth of the old adage the most basic explanation, no matter how unlikely, was often correct. God knew it could almost be the SGC creed. How many times had they racked their brains trying to solve some intergalactic mystery only to discover the solution was so simple it had been overlooked?

Annika cried even harder. How could she explain how much it meant to her that he was touching her again? Everyone else had recoiled away from her like she had a deadly disease. Yet here he was not two minutes after he’d learnt she could find out his darkest secrets by the merest touch, comforting her, holding her and of all things apologizing. All she could manage to choke out was, "You’re touching me."

He immediately dropped his hands. "I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking."

Gazing up at him she saw that the concern in his eyes was for her, not himself. "No, you don’t understand," she sniffed. "Everyone else I told, their first reaction was to stop any physical contact with me. Even my mother. It took years for her to be able to hug me without flinching first. But you…you’re reaching for me like nothing is wrong."

"But nothing is wrong." He gestured her to him and she hesitantly resumed her place against his chest. Immediately his arms wrapped around her again.

Another tear trickled down her cheek and Daniel gently wiped it away.

"Sam said you’d understand."

"She knows, doesn’t she?"

Annika nodded. "I didn’t tell her but I’m pretty sure she guessed."

Daniel was absently running his fingers up and down her arm. "You being psychic, that is what you were keeping from me, right? I mean I’m not going to find out down the track that you’re secretly married with four kids or that you were once a man or something?" He felt her smile.

"No, that’s my big secret."

"Thank God for that." He tightened his embrace. After a few minutes of deliberation his natural curiosity rose to the surface. "How do these visions of yours work? What do you see? Do you see them with everyone and everything?"

Annika lifted her head in astonishment. "You’re unbelievable, you know that?"

The curiousness left Daniel’s eyes to be replaced with confusion. "I am?"

"I just told you that I’m psychic, you only have my word for it and you accept it like I’d said my hair is red." Annika was dumbfounded. "And then you rattle off questions like you have no doubts. Are you always so…trusting?"

Daniel thought about his answer. "As much as Jack grumbles about it, I do try to always give people the benefit of the doubt. Through my work I’ve kind of developed my own sixth sense about reading people. You’ve given me no reason not to trust you. As for you being psychic, let’s just say that I’ve met some pretty strange people with pretty strange abilities." He gestured to the drawing. "Besides I do have hard evidence right here. It’s true that some of what you’ve drawn could have been leaked to you if you were some kind of spy, but there is one detail in here that no one except for me has witnessed. I know I didn’t tell you this detail, so logically you being psychic is the only reasonable answer. It also explains your reactions over the last couple of days."

"And the questions?"

He gave a self-conscious shrug. "Well, I am a researcher, it’s in my nature to find out all the details."

"Okay, I’ll try to explain as much as I can." Annika described some of her visions. Daniel had no trouble understanding the seeing part, but when it came to the emotions that came through she began to lose him.

"How can you feel, what an image, feels? And at the same time, read the emotions of whoever you’re receiving the image from, what they felt at the time the event took place? How can you separate them?"

Annika sighed in frustration when a possible solution came to her. "It’s difficult to explain to you when you haven’t experienced it. I just know the difference between the two. I can show you what I’ve seen from you."

"You can?" he asked eagerly. "How?"

"When I first started having visions, I didn’t know if what I was seeing was real or if I was going nuts. I went to another psychic and she helped me sort through them. She had the ability to transfer what I saw into her own mind and together we worked out what the visions meant. She showed me how she did it. I can transfer my visions to your mind."

He sensed the hesitation in her voice. "I hear a but coming."

"Well, the reason I went to her in the first place was because she was known in the psychic community for helping ‘new’ psychics develop their skills. She’d helped hundreds of people using her ‘transferring gift’ before I came to her…" Annika paused taking a deep breath. "There was an unexpected side effect after our first session."

"Which was?"

"We kind of developed a permanent link to each other. We couldn’t read each other’s minds or anything like that, only strong emotions. I guess you could equate it to something like the bond twins share. Once she broke her leg and I knew the moment that it happened. I also felt her joy when she learned that she was pregnant. The thing is, that bond came from me. It never happened with any of her other students. We were both lucky that we became very close friends, because like it or not it was a life long connection."

Daniel picked up on her use of past tense. "Was?"

Annika nodded. "She died four years ago. Her death shattered the bond." A tear streaked down her cheek at the memory.

"And you felt her death too, didn’t you?" She nodded again and Daniel saw the pain reflected on her face.

"She died in a car accident. A drunk driver ran her off the road while going up a mountain. The paramedics couldn’t get to her in time. It took forty-six minutes for her to bleed out from massive internal injuries."

"You felt every second of her pain."

Annika wiped away her tears trying to banish the memories. "Yes, but that’s not what’s important. What I’m trying to say is that if we do this, there is a very high chance that you will be attached to me until either you or I die."

"Oh."

Annika’s heart constricted as hands that had been soothingly stroking her arms, stilled. She fought back another rush of tears. "I…uh…understand if you don’t want to," she stammered. "After all we have only known each other a few days. Things may not work out between us…"

"Annika, stop." Daniel gently pressed a finger to her lips. "Do you know what my initial reaction was when you said we’d be bonded together?"

She wouldn’t meet his eyes. "Probably absolute horror."

A low chuckle reverberated through his chest. "You know, for a psychic you’re not very perceptive."

Annika allowed herself a scrap of hope.

"I felt such a rush of joy at the thought of being connected to you even when we’re apart…"

"But then the realization hit that it would be for life…"

"No!" he cut her off. "That’s what made me happy."

She frowned. "I don’t understand."

"That wasn’t just pillow talk last night. I already feel like I’ve known you for years. I can’t imagine my future without you by my side. But then you said you’d sensed when your friend was hurt and her death. My job is dangerous. Every time I leave on a mission I run the very high risk of being injured or worse not coming back at all. How can I ask you to go through that again? Especially when it’s just to satisfy my curiosity?"

"You like the idea of the bond?" Annika asked incredulously.

"Like definitely isn’t the word. More like overjoyed, ecstatic, honored." She could read the sincerity in his eyes. "But not if it’s going to hurt you."

"You don’t have to worry about that," Annika said hesitantly.

Daniel frowned. "Of course I do."

Time for one last true confession, she thought taking a calming breath. "What I should have said is that it’s a little late to be worrying about that, at least from my end of the stick."

"What do you mean?" His tone was unreadable.

"I am already connected to you," she hurried on. "I didn’t mean for it to happen. In fact I don’t know how it happened, but when you left for the base I knew what direction you went in. Coming back I…er…knew when you started moving faster. I…ah…sensed your urgency. Part of your desire transferred itself to me…"

"So that’s why you were so aroused when I arrived," Daniel finished softly.

"It has never happened like that before," Annika’s eyes pleaded with him to believe her. "My gift has been so out of whack lately, grown in ways I never imagined possible. Like when I saw you and your teammates together I started seeing visions above each of your heads and I wasn’t even touching any of you. And then there’s this." She waved a hand at her sketch. "And the puppies’ names. I didn’t even realize I was channeling from you. I haven’t had the chance to work out how to control all this extra energy."

She held her breath waiting for his response.

Time ticked by and still Daniel remained silent.

"Say something! Anything! Scream and shout at me, walk out if you want, but please don’t stay silent."

Slowly Daniel ran the back of his fingers across her cheek. Despite his earlier concerns a small smile played on his lips. "So, we’re already linked."

"Well, I’m linked to you." She leant into his caress. "I’m pretty sure it’s only one way at the moment."

Disappointment crossed his face.

"You’re not angry with me for what I did?"

"Angry? How can I be angry over something you had no control over?" He understood about lack of control. How many times had Sha’re tried to kill him when she was host to the Goa’uld symbiote? Hell, he himself had been unable to control his actions many times over the past few years. It was true that for most of those times he’d been under the influence of some alien parasite or technology, but the principle was the same. "However now that it’s happened, I do think it’s unfair that you can feel me, but I can’t feel you."

Bubbles of joy began bouncing around inside her stomach. "You still want to share my visions?"

He kissed her tenderly. "Seems only fair. Any other side effects I should know about?"

With a happy heart she considered the recent changes her gift had undergone and shrugged. "Last week I would have said no. But now I have no idea."

"I’m willing to take the risk."

"I do know we won’t be able to plan any surprise parties for each other." She was suddenly very nervous.

"They’re overrated anyway."

"What I mean is, you couldn’t keep secrets from me. I won’t be able to sense what the secret is, but I’d know you were hiding something."

"I don’t want to keep anything from you."

"But what about your work? Haven’t you signed a confidentiality agreement? You could go to prison."

"Technically I haven’t told you anything that violates that agreement."

"But it’s such a big commitment."

"Don’t you want me to go through with this?" He tried to mask the hurt from his voice.

"Yes, I do, but are you sure?"

"Never been more certain in my life." He kissed her again and Annika felt her anxiety drain away.

"Okay. Just give me a minute."

He watched patiently as she closed her eyes and took a few deep, controlling breaths, concentrating on all the visions she’d had since their first touch. When she opened them again he asked, "Is there anything I need to do?"

She shook her head. "No. Just remember to breathe. It can be a bit disorientating."

"Okay."

"Close your eyes it’ll make the visions clearer. Ready?"

He nodded and slowly she raised her palm to his forehead. The moment they made contact, Daniel’s mind was bombarded with the first images Annika had seen from their accidental arm brush…His parent’s death…the first time he’d witnessed the activation of the Stargate…the pyramid on Abydos…Sha’re happy as his wife, then as the Goa’uld Amaunet…Sarah at the Professor’s funeral, then as Osiris…himself dying from radiation exposure and Ascending to a higher plane of existence…himself when he’d first Descended without his memory…His body tensed at the next image…Anubis sitting menacingly on his throne…then Osiris/Sarah raping his dreams with the Goa’uld memory device…

Daniel involuntarily jerked away from Annika’s touch and the last vision. He drew in a ragged breath and his body broke out in a cold sweat. God, the images were so clear, the emotions of each episode so real! No wonder she’d freaked out that night. He’d lived through it all, but it was like he’d relived them all over again in a few seconds. How did Annika cope? He could put them all in context, but she had no foundation on which to base the nightmarish images. Now he fully understood that look of fear in her eyes. His life must seem like a mix of ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ and ‘The Twilight Zone’.

"Daniel, are you okay?" Annika asked anxiously. She dared not reach for him again until the wildness left his eyes.

"How can you bear to touch me after seeing that?" His voice was hoarse. "I would have run for the hills."

She smiled slightly. "Because of this." Once again she raised her hand, this time showing him the first time she saw him. He was climbing out of his jeep, carrying one of the boxes of artifacts he’d brought home weeks ago to catalogue. A bright blue light encased his body.

"What is that?"

"That’s your aura. I see them around everyone. Blue, for lack of a better description, is pure goodness. There isn’t a shred of evil in you. I knew that regardless of what I saw that night, you would never hurt me. The couple today looked like this."

The image changed in Daniel’s mind to show the deceptive couple walking up Annika’s front path. A red and black cloud drifted around them and a cold chill ran down his spine.

"You say you see these auras around everyone?" His eyes widened.

She nodded. "I use them as a failsafe warning device."

"Wow."

"Wait till I show you what you and your friends look like when you’re together."

She focused on that first meeting and Daniel squinted at the blue light burning so brightly it was almost white. Not moving away from her this time he asked, "That’s not normal, is it?"

"No. All four of you have good, strong souls individually, but together you have a power unlike anything I’ve ever seen. You four are special. I don’t know what it is that you do, but you have to keep doing it as a team. Don’t let them break you up no matter what."

Daniel was silent as he watched the visions start to dance over each of their heads. It was like watching four different TVs simultaneously and to his astonishment he had no trouble keeping them separated. "This is amazing. You are amazing."

He pulled her into his embrace and she snuggled into him. His mind ran the visions through his head again and he couldn’t help thinking how useful a psychic with Annika’s abilities could be at the SGC. One look, one touch and she’d be an instant spy detector. He thought about all the first contact situations that had started off well and ended in disaster because no one had realized they were being deceived. If Annika had been with them, how many lives of SGC personnel could have been saved? Immediately he felt ashamed of himself. She was obviously uneasy about revealing her gift. She’d trusted him with that knowledge and here he was already working out ways in which to use her. He felt like a heel.

"What’s the matter?" She lifted her head, resting her chin on his chest. "Why are you feeling shame?"

His blue eyes were startled. He’d forgotten all about the bond. "That’s going to take a bit of time to get used to." A smile took the bite out of his words. "I was thinking how useful you could be at work."

"Why would that cause you to feel shame?" She was confused.

"Because you revealed your ability to me as a lover and a friend to stop me from wigging out, and one of the first things I do is work out how to use you." From deep within his solar plexus came a slight tickling sensation. It took a moment for him to realize what he, or rather what Annika was feeling. "This makes you happy? I’m stressing over being such a low life and you’re happy about it?"

A gurgle of laughter burst from her lips at his frown. "No, I’m happy because you think my gift might be useful. More often than not it’s been a millstone around my neck. I try to help people but they tend to think I’m nuts. The one’s who do believe me…well, lets just say they’re ‘nutters’ themselves."

Daniel grinned, "So you think I’m a ‘nutter’ do you?" He began to tickle her mercilessly.

She gave a shriek of laughter and jumped out of his reach. Daniel chased her around the room. Her absolute joy pulsed through his body mixing with his own and he doubled over with laughter. "Is it always like this?" he gasped clutching his sides.

"Well, we are both in good moods," she gave a wicked chuckle. "You may regret it when I’m PMS-ing."

"Hey, at least I’ll have some warning of when to stay clear." He pulled her to him and laughing they collapsed back on the couch. Their heart rates slowed and Daniel felt a change in Annika’s mood. He suddenly became aware that they were still naked. His heart began thumping again as her ardor engulfed him from the inside out and his own body tingled in response.

From the way her violet eyes darkened and her breathing became shallow Daniel knew she was also feeling his desire within her.

"Oh, Wow!" He experimentally ran his fingers across her breast and felt not only her physical shiver but the bond quivered inside him. He lowered his head to take one supple nipple in his mouth and the dual response had him letting out a low moan.

"Oh, I think I really like this bond thing." Daniel’s voice was husky. He let his fingers trace their way over her ribcage, down her stomach and lower to the apex of her legs. His fingers parted her already moist folds and she moaned when he teasingly ran his thumb over her hard little nub. "Yes, I really do."

Annika was on a mission of her own. She reached between their bodies tracing her nails up the sensitive underside of his rapidly growing member. She spiraled her way up to the engorged head and her fingers became sticky with the first flow of his life force to escape. His body jerked at her touch and the insatiable craving that rippled through their bond intensified. Eagerly she wrapped her hand around the hot shaft feeling it throb as she rubbed up and down its length.

Her own passion was almost driving her wild as Daniel’s magical fingers delved deeply into her. He laid his palm flat against her moving his whole hand while two fingers entered her wet opening. The friction of his palm against her tight curls almost had her screaming out in pleasure. She felt her muscles begin to contract and she desperately sought his mouth, needing his kiss. When their lips met the fire that erupted between them was more than her body could stand. She cried out letting wave after wave of ecstasy engulf her.

The power of her climax burst through Daniel and he could barely stop himself from exploding in her hands. While she was still crying out he wrapped his arms around her thighs and lifted her across his lap so she was straddling him. He let out a low guttural moan as he slowly buried himself as deeply as he could in her still quivering well.

Using his hands on her hips to set their rhythm he rocked her back and forth while thrusting into her. From deep inside he could feel a second orgasm building within her. She clung to him, and her breasts rubbed against his smooth chest, increasing the heated energy between them. When he came he exploded into her with such force it sent her over the edge at the same time. He fell back against the couch, tingling all over. She weakly laid on top of him, gasping for breath, her own body trembling in the aftermath.

"That is a brilliant side affect," Daniel said raggedly kissing the top of her head. He lazily caressed the small of her back.

"Yes, I can definitely live with that." She tenderly kissed the hollow of his neck, watching his pulse slowly calm down.

They sat happily exhausted in each other’s arms. When Daniel’s hand eventually stilled, Annika snuck a peek at his face and saw that he had dozed off. Carefully, so as not to wake him she started to lift herself off him.

His arms tightened around her.

"Where are you going?" He opened one eye.

"Not far. I don’t want to squash you." She tried again to remove herself from his lap but he wouldn’t let her go.

"You’re not heavy." He pushed her head to his shoulder and pulled the throw rug over them, covering her back. "There nice and cozy." His lips brushed her temple. "Sleep, My Angel."

Needing no further encouragement she snuggled into him and drifted off to sleep.

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