Page 13 of From the Darkness

As before he didn’t speak.

She had been feeling calm and protected. Suddenly, a flare of anger overtook her.

“Are you Troy? Answer me, damn you! What kind of games are you playing with me?” As she spoke, she angled her head up, trying to see him in the blackness. But she was just as frustrated as she had been in the bedroom. Without the flashlight, the tunnel was like the inside of a whale’s belly.

He took advantage of her upturned face and open lips. Instead of speaking, he brought his mouth down on hers in a kiss that took her by surprise.

His solution to conflict!

There was a charged moment when she tried to tell him what she thought of his evasive maneuvers. He didn’t give her the opportunity. Instead, he took her by storm, his lips demanding, insisting, commanding as his hands clamped over her shoulders, holding her to him.

She might have tried to pull away. Except that below the surface of his assault, she sensed a need that tugged at her with a desperation that made her heart turn over.

Without giving herself time to consider the wisdom of her actions, she allowed her lips to soften against his. It was only the barest signal of surrender, but he reacted immediately.

The kiss changed from a ravishment to a meeting of two equal forces. On a sigh, she gave herself over to it, experimenting with the sensations he was generating within her, rubbing her mouth back and forth against his, then taking his lower lip between her teeth the way he’d done in the bedroom, staking a claim on his flesh.

It was then that she heard a deep, throaty sound well in him. The sound was the first he had made since he’d come to her in the bedroom, one part of her mind realized. That thought fled as he took back dominance of the kiss, angling his head, moving his lips against hers, sipping from her, inciting her, then soothing with masterful control.

She heard wind roaring in her ears, a cyclone brewing. And he was the only safe refuge. She felt fire sweep her up, fire that came from him and kindled a roar of heat in her belly.

The kiss tasted of dark needs and the wild heather clinging to the cliffs.

When he silently asked her to open her lips, she did his bidding, then shivered as his tongue swept along the sensitive tissue of her inner lips.

She felt his hunger, felt her own hunger leap up to match his. He pressed her back so that she was trapped between the rock wall and the solid barrier of his body.

The cold stone might have chilled her if the heat of his body hadn’t seeped into her flesh and bone. It was like being caught in the blast from an open furnace.

And she might burn to a cinder if she wasn’t careful. That thought brought back a measure of sanity.

It took a tremendous act of will, but she managed to raise her hands, pushing gently against his chest. “Don’t. We have to talk. You were in my room. Then you came here—and saved me from that pit.”

In the dark, the air stirred, and she thought he had nodded again. But he didn’t volunteer any words of agreement.

The silence made her boil with frustration, and she grabbed his shoulders, shook him. “Dammit, I don’t even know if you’re Troy! I think you must be Troy. But it’s been so long.” The wistful sound of her own voice made her stop and drag in a calming breath. Slowly, deliberately, she let it ease out again. “Every time I try to have a conversation with you, you kiss me. What’s wrong with you? Have you lost the ability to talk?”

Her heart thumped in her chest as she waited for an answer, half afraid that it was true—that somehow he’d been struck mute.

“I can speak to you,” he said, sounding surprised and relieved, as though he’d just discovered that he possessed the ability.

“Thank God!” she breathed. “Helen is worried about you. She said she got e-mails from you that sounded strange.”

“She got e-mails from me?”

“Yes!” Her hands tightened on her arms. “Troy, what happened to you? What’s wrong?”

He didn’t answer the question. Instead, he said very clearly and distinctly, “I didn’t send her any e-mails. She’s lying.”

Chapter Four

“Helen is lying? About what?” she demanded, her fingers digging into the tense muscles of Troy’s arms. If it was Troy. She didn’t even know the answer to that question yet. Not for sure.

He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, as though the topic made him uncomfortable.

“Please. You can’t just come out with a statement like that. You have to tell me what you mean.” It took a tremendous effort to keep from addingwhat the hell you mean. But she managed to keep the expletive to herself.

Still, when he remained silent, she struggled to contain her frustration. And she heard the strident note in her own voice when she said, “Helen sent me to find out what’s wrong at Ravencrest. What’s wrong with you!”

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