Page 22 of Synodic

I desperately searched around me, hoping to find some sort of fresh water source. I no longer cared about getting home. I needed to wet my parched throat.Now.

My very wish was answered as the sound of water trickled to my ears from beyond, carried along by the craggy cliff-front to my left. My throat burned and ached, and I placed a trailing hand on the rock surface, following the water beckoning me in the distance.

Rounding the bluff, I was greeted with a clear, wide waterfall that flowed into a pool of iridescent blue. The water pulled me as naturally as the moon compels the tides, and I had no objections whatsoever. I wanted nothing more in my life than to taste the crystal liquid of the lakelet.

Each step closer drew in the focal point of the pond, blurring and warping everything else out of focus.

I was almost there. My mission singular.

I knelt at the edge of the spring and ran my fingers along the mirrored cerulean surface. It was cold and biting, but surprisingly I didn’t mind. I normally hated anything below room temperature, but I was too fascinated by the spectrum of light trailing within my tiny currents to care. Diamond bursts of light refracted and glistened off the ripples I created with my lazy strokes, and I laughed as the water begged to be tasted.

My heartbeat was in my throat now, and I smacked my dry lips together.

I lowered my cupped hands into the pond and watched as the sparkling water filled my makeshift chalice. I brought my wrists to my mouth and took one glorious gulp, then another and another. It was delicious and filled me with an overflowing sense of euphoria.

I replenished my chaliced hands, greedy for more.

I was about halfway through my second helping, when out of the corner of my eye, two tall humanoid figures emerged from the thick of the trees. Still some distance away, they hadn’t noticed me yet.

I ignored them and returned to my drink when a force pummeled into me and knocked me off my feet.

My entire body was thrown to the side by a large, dark battering ram that came out of nowhere. The water fell from my hands, and I was more furious about losing the precious liquid than I was by getting tackled to the ground.

I toppled sideways as something wrapped tightly around my waist, pulling me in until my cheek was firmly pressed against a rock-hard chest.

A man?

An arm scooped up to cradle and protect my head as we rolled together down a slope of shrubs. Up and down lost all meaning as the sky and forest floor tumbled around me.

Suddenly I was jerked around, our spinning at an end, but the impossible weight of the man still pressed down upon me.

Crouched with one knee out from under him, he sat me between his massive thighs and pushed me smaller and smaller as he hunched his head and torso over me, completely cocooning me within his body.

His arm wrapped further around my waist, and his fingers dug into my hip. The hand that was once cradling my head was now firmly clasped over my mouth and nose. I tried to squirm away, but the locked embrace tightened around me.

I couldn’t move or breathe with his iron bar of an arm crushing into my stomach and his hand covering my airways. Whoever this was, they were going to suffocate me right here in the silence of the red forest. I thought nothing could die here, but I was wrong.Iwould die here, and for some reason, I didn’t seem to care. I was swept with such a sense of lightheadedness that I was perfectly content to die here at the hands of this unknown man.

Despite not being able to breathe, I had never felt this light, this free. And a million tiny electro-bursts erupted all over my skin, setting me off like a chain of firecrackers.

Was it due to the lack of oxygen? If so, it didn’t seem like the worst way to go. I welcomed the spots that closed in around my vision, wishing I could have taken one more sip of that clear spring water.

Floating in my euphoria, I jerked involuntarily from the loss of oxygen. My captor, or savior, I couldn’t tell which, must have realized I couldn’t breathe because he shifted his hand, allowing for the slightest trickle of air to seep into my lungs.

I thought dying had felt wonderful, but it was nothing compared to breathing. Had I ever felt this high?

The man pressed me even tighter and deeper into his body and I slackened into him, welcoming the hard rigidity of his marble stature. He bowed over me, his cheek resting on the side of my head, and his broad chest expanded with an inhale behind me.

The breath he carefully loosened skirted along the curve of my ear and swept down the nape of my neck, gently blowing the wayward strands of my hair across my exposed skin. My entire body ignited into shivering goosebumps, tightening every inch of me to the point of painful sensitivity. A shiver radiated down every one of my vertebrae until it landed at the base of my spine, and I arched my back involuntarily.

I hadn’t meant for it to, but my reaction had me pressing the slope of my ass even closer to the body that held me. The intimate proximity let loose a mindless need that grew more unbearable by the second. I needed more of this man’s body and breath on me. I needed it as badly as I’d needed the water minutes ago, only now I craved something else entirely. The broad hands that restrained me dug into my skin, and an unbidden moan escaped my lips, captured in the palm of my stranger.

What was wrong with me? My body had completely turned against me. She was calling all the shots and I was merely along for the ride.

The growing ache between my legs overrode all sense, and I bowed into him even further, rolling against him in eager waves. I was waiting for him to slide into me and fill this desperate need consuming me by the second, but to my irritation, he didn’t move at all, didn’t even seem aware that I was enticing him.

Was he an idiot?

It agitated me immensely that my desires weren’t being met. How obvious did I need to be? I began rolling my body more fervently beneath him like a depraved feline, and against his stronghold, I twisted my face towards him, searching for his mouth to claim.

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