Page 5 of Captured
Chapter Three
Juliet
The pain shoots through my body into the liquid darkness, reaching all the way to the corner where my soul lies, waiting for the kiss of death. Memories of the crash flash in my mind. Abject fear, bone-shattering screams filling my skull. Pain, piercing and blinding, deep in the vulnerable flesh of my body. Wetness as the blood soiled my uniform. My blood.
Then something else. Something terrible and wonderful. My salvation and my damnation, all rolled into one.
I don’t remember them all, but I can feel the memories, hovering close by, refusing to go away. Things move in the void, crawling underneath my skin, biting and slicing my flesh, tearing away at my sanity.
I try to move. I want to escape, to fly away and back into blessed oblivion, but my body is unresponsive, refusing to obey my orders. If it wasn’t for the gnawing pain, I wouldn’t be sure I was still alive.
Something moves to my side. A warmth spreads, filtering through the emptiness, penetrating the horrible numbness in my flesh, setting it alive.
A voice rips the silence, male and warm. Comforting. I don’t understand the words he speaks, the sounds melting into a meaningless blur, but I hold on to his tone, to the strength and care I sense beyond that darkness.
I float there in the void, cloaked in the stranger’s presence as the pain subsides, the gnawing and the biting morphing into a more intimate embrace. Then I find that I can blink, and a light as blinding as the sun hits my corneas.
I shut my eyes again, but the stranger keeps speaking warm nothings into my ears, coaxing me to consciousness. The pain is gone now, replaced with a familiar warmth that spreads under my skin like a caress. The warmth stretches and reaches out, covering my limbs, wrapping around my torso, leaving tiny sparks of pure bliss behind.
I open my eyes again, but this time, I can’t blink them shut.
An angel looks down on me, his features sharp and masculine, drawn in a smooth, rugged harmony over a skin the color of ripe wheat. It’s a strange color, golden and intense, but I barely register it. His eyes are set on me, yellow and intense, almost glowing. A thick cover of pure black hair falls on his forehead, the strands silky and shining.
He speaks again, his full, hard mouth moving, forming words I don’t understand.
“Who are you?” I frown, some semblance of lucidity coming back to me through the haze of warmth that is turning rapidly into a fire.
The angel smirks, his full set of lips lifting in a sexy-as-hell grin, exposing two sharp fangs. He speaks more nonsense to me, the words melting into one, meaningless. I blink, finally breaking the spell. Almost breaking it.
What is he?He’s no human, that’s for sure. He’s also no other species of sentient being I’ve ever heard of. And the way he looks at me?
The fire spreads deep into my flesh, turning into something deeper. My mouth dries up as my eyes wander to the stranger’s body. Then I blink and blink again.
He’s shirtless, his chest smooth and rippling with muscles. His pants are of a material as black as his hair, clinging to his body like a second skin, molding a very impressive bulge between equally impressive thighs.
The fire in my flesh flows freely, the sensations impossible to mistake. Wetness spreads between my legs and I close my thighs shut in an attempt to hide my arousal. I fail miserably as my clit pulses to life, my core clenching with need.
“What’s happening to me?” I ask as my breathing becomes ragged. “What are you doing?”
The stranger’s lips purse on his teeth and his smirk fades into an expression of male hunger so raw it makes my entire body crawl with the desire to be touched by him. To be possessed and used. Thoughts of naked flesh, hard and pounding, wet with exertion flash into my mind.
His gaze wanders down to my body and mine follows, only I can’t seem to formulate any sane thought. I’m looking down at my own body. My stark-naked, fully exposed body.
My stomach shines under a fine layer of sweat and my nipples peak, fully erect and so dark they’re almost black. My breasts are puckered, the flesh covered in goosebumps. I gasp as the stranger’s hand closes on the quivering flesh of my stomach. His long, strong fingers run on the smooth skin of my side as his hungry eyes rake my flesh. I follow the tracing of his fingers, trying to ignore the sparks of pure lust his touch leaves along the way. He’s touching me with undeniable desire, but his fingers and eyes are set on my side with an inquisitive, serious expression.
I look more closely at my side and notice the large pattern of lighter, tender skin stretching from my waist to my navel. It spreads in a star pattern, irregular and jagged.
A flash of the crash comes back to me, the force of the impact, the blinding pain as the polymeric glass explodes. The shard impaling me, deep and wide. Fatal.
I shoot back to reality with all the power of a woman who has escaped death.
“You saved me, didn’t you?” I ask the stranger. He lifts blazing yellow eyes to me, the corner of his lips curving up for just an instant.
He seems satisfied with whatever he sees on my newly healed skin as his fingers continue their trail on my flesh. The onslaught of sensations clouds my mind and I push my head back on the small cot. The stranger speaks again, the sounds low and guttural, the words holding no meaning, but his tone leaving no question.
It’s like he’s touching me with his words, the feel of his breath traveling all over my skin. I’m so wet now that my juices drip down between my ass cheeks, their smell reaching over to me, overpowering. The stranger’s nostrils flare and his eyes glow.
I know he can smell it. That female perfume, raw and animal. Needy and lustful.
