Page 21 of Desired for Her Blood
“Of course.”
I look into his eyes and he seems sincere. It’s been years since I’ve had someone I’d call a friend. Someone I trust at face value, but my gut says that if I were ever to want a friend, I’d be happy if Axe applied for the position.
“Truth is,” I shrug. “I don’t love any situation where I feel trapped.”
“I get that.” He nods. “I’m used to caves—”
“The whole bear thing.”
He chuckles. “Yeah. I’ve got no issues with caves, but believe me—I understand how it feels to be trapped.”
Chapter Seven
Ember
I can’t believethat Axe left me—even if it was partly my fault. It breaks my heart knowing it goes against his culture to take another lover—ever—and I pushed him too hard.
I can own up to that, but I didn’t deserve to be left like this, helpless and alone in the dark.
The faint light cast from the sun high above the cave, is making the waterfall shimmer now, just enough for me to recognize that it’s there, but I can’t see anything else around me.
My hips are still pulsing, trying to satisfy the urge that’s raging even more fiercely inside me now. Axe’s foreplay, instead of satisfying my need, brought it to new heights. Even touching myself would be better than nothing, but my hands are still trapped.
Drawing my feet together, I press up on my toes and try to release myself from whatever is holding the t-shirt above my head, but it must be some kind of hook, or maybe a spike driven in at an angle. I can raise the cloth up from the base, but not high enough to actually release the loop of cloth from whatever’s holding it.
Closing my eyes, I shiver, and it’s not just from the cold. Being alone in the dark like this reminds me of the day my mother disappeared. So alone and afraid, not knowing what was happening up above me.
Another memory flashes into my mind, knocking me back against the stone wall. A memory of another time I hid in the dark.
I wasn’t cold then, I was bundled up in warm quilts, but I was in the dark and alone. Alone except for a stuffed animal. An owl.
Suddenly, I can see the owl’s amber eyes sewn tightly into its soft face, and feel the smooth texture under my little finger as I rubbed one eye and squeezed the toy into my chest.
Back there now, I hear sounds. Scary sounds. Smashing and breaking glass, shouts and screams. I hear them through the tight headphones someone, must have been Mom, put over my ears, warning me not to take them off until she came to get me.
But… My chest tightens.
The space fills with smoke, and then flames. The flames take my owl friend away from me, and my blankets, my clothes, my protection. But the flames don’t burn me.
It must be a dream.
I must be remembering a nightmare, but it’s so vivid. I remember someone finding me, pulling me out of my burned hiding place and comforting me as I cried. My mother. She found me. But it wasn’t her I was calling out for…
Did someone else hide me? My mind is playing tricks on me. I’m going mad from the isolation and fear and confusion. Tears fall down my cheeks in tiny rivers I can’t wipe away.
A splash distracts me, and I blink against the darkness, not sure whether or not to trust my vision as it makes out the shape of a man landing on the stone on this side of the waterfall.
It’s Zuben. Even in silhouette, a black shape against the faint glow of the waterfall, his physique is unmistakable, even now that he’s not wearing his suit.
“Zuben.” My voice quivers.
He’s in front of me in a heartbeat, his hands wiping tears from my face. “The bear man should not have left you alone.” He presses light kisses where he wiped away tears. “Do not cry. You are not alone anymore.”
I turn my head to catch his lips as they come close to mine, and his hands thread into my hair. Our kiss turns passionate, his tongue driving against mine, and his hands tighten their hold against my scalp and push aside all my uncertainty about my nightmare that felt like a memory.
Who cares about that right now?
My body is desperate for attention, writhing and arching forward, trying to make more contact with his.
