Free Ellora's Cavemen: Tales from the Temple II by Tales From The Temple 02 Page A

were right. In five minutes I’m en route to the destination you recommended,’ doesn’t necessarily tell me everything.”
    As he kissed a path from her collarbone to the sensitive spot behind her ear Erin answered him in a breathless voice, “You just have to hear how right you were, don’t you?”
    “No.” He stopped his seduction of her body and turned her face until she looked at him. Brilliant green eyes locked with hers. “I think it’ll ease your fear if you talk about it.”
    A shudder passed through her that he seemed to know her so well yet had only just met her. She turned away, confused but oddly comforted that someone else understood just how scared she was. Over the past several days, she’d had to hide her fear behind a mask of professional academic acceptance as her ‘scientific discovery’ came crashing down around her.
    Kian wrapped his arms around her, surrounding her with his warmth. He whispered in her ear, “Tell me.”
    She sighed and tried to suppress the shiver of apprehension that started in her body as soon as she thought about the recent past. “A few days ago I sent off an email to my superior at the University to tell him I had finally succeeded in my research.”
    “Creating the ability to time-travel,” he interjected.
    She nodded. “I thought time-travel would be a wonderful tool for mankind. The future holds many discoveries, hopefully including medical advances. A cure would be found for every illness eventually. So why not benefit our race today and make those discoveries sooner…er, with a little help.”
    Her voice turned bitter and her entire body tensed as she thought of the domino effect her breakthrough had wrought. “But little did I know just how politically active the head of the Physics department was. I later learned Daniel Haughten had been involved with a secret military defense organization for years. When he read my email about the successful outcome of my research, he immediately realized the potential time-travel could have for giving our military an advantage and pounced on it.”
    Kian splayed his hand over her ribcage and rubbed his thumb under the curve of her breast in a rhythmic motion as if his touch alone could soothe her frazzled nerves.
    48

    Dream Walker
    “Wouldn’t the military personnel’s memories be lost, too, when they came back to the past—all they’d learned for naught?”
    “That’s the theory, yes. Why do you think I’m running? Not only did I not give them the entire process it takes to create a rift in time in my initial documents—I retained the code key to turn on the energy source—but my boss insisted I also create a
    ‘vacuum’ that wouldn’t be affected by the change in the time continuum. He was right.
    That was something I had initially overlooked in my haste to successfully establish the ability to time travel.”
    “A vacuum? You mean like a room?”
    “No, they just wanted a vial, something small that would fit in a person’s hand—a place where a digital chip could be hidden. That way when they came back from the future, the information they’d collected couldn’t be erased in the trip back in time.”
    She turned to face him, her gaze searching his. “Think about it, Kian. If Daniel’s group were able to retrieve advanced weapons from the future, entire nations could fall.
    The balance of world power could so easily be shifted in their favor until there would be only one dominant country.”
    Kian nodded as he ran his hands down her arms and across her belly. She turned away once more, tremors of anxiety making her voice quiver. “All because one nation would have the ability to bend time.”
    Leaning her head back against his neck, she continued in a sad tone, “Daniel was so blinded by the potential military aspects that could benefit from time-travel, he didn’t even consider the whole point of my discovery…a world without disease.”
    Kian had begun to massage her neck while she spoke, but