Page 16 of Rough Hands on the Prairie
Even if I am not sure there is anything waiting for me on the other side.
I close my eyes, and dive beneath the water, letting the rush of cold fill my senses. It invades every part of me, almost stinging with how freezing it is, but I hold my breath and force myself deeper, deeper, back to the pool that drew me here in the first place. I wait to feel that same tingle that I did before, the sense that something has changed around me, but nothing comes.
I clench my fists and squeeze my eyes, kicking against the flow of the water under my feet, trying to keep myself afloat, but I can already feel the pressure getting the better of me. I go to claw my way upward, trying to catch a breath, but the current keeps me down. Panic pulses through me, and I reach for the surface again, my hands groping uselessly towards the sun that beams through the water above.
Oh, God.I am stuck.
Why did I do this?
No matter what kind of mystical properties this place might hold, it’s still a river after a storm, the water flowing furiously as it bulges against the banks. My feet grope for the bottom so I can push myself up and catch a breath, but nothing happens, nothing changes. The darkness nags at the corner of my vision, the last of the air in my lungs bubbling out before me, and I realize that I don’t want to go. I can’t.
Not now I have found Elias, this man who makes me feel things that I have never felt before – this man who, though he’s from another time, seems to understand me better than anyone else I’ve ever met...
Just as the blackness threatens to close in entirely, something breaks through the surface of the water. It takes me a moment to recognize what it is, but then, it hits me – a hand.
His hand.
I’d recognize it anywhere, just the same way I had recognize his touch on me even in the darkest night. I force my hand upwards, and, at last, our fingers come together, his hand locking around mine as he pulls me out of the water.
I draw in a helpless gasp of air, and he loops his arms around me, pulling me on to him as the two of us fall backwards on to the bank. All I can hear for a moment is the blood rushing in my head, and then, at last, the sound of his voice cuts through it.
"What the hell were you doing?” he demands, as he pushes my sodden hair back from my face to look me in the eyes. "Why did you...?"
I feel tears prick my eyes, mixing with the droplets of water still clinging to my cheeks. My nails dig in to his strong arms, making sure he is really there, making sure I am not going to lose him.
"I’m sorry," I breathe. "I – I had to know if the river...if it would take me away..."
I can’t imagine what he makes of such a statement, but he doesn’t show his confusion on his face as he cups my head in his hands and gazes into my eyes.
"June," he growls, voice laced with a sincerity that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. "You think I want this river to take you? You think I want you to leave?”
He grabs me by the back of the neck and pulls me into a kiss so intense that it knocks what little air there was left in my lungs from my body. And I grasp for him, for dear life, for anything I can get, this man who pulled me from the river and saved my life.
In more ways than one.
And, as he pushes me down on to the bank, my naked body against the cool earth, I know that he will claim me again. To prove to me, once and for all, that I belong to him – that I belong here, no matter how hard it might be for me to believe.
Our mouths crash together again, the passion between us more intense than the rush of the river beneath us. And, as he fills me, I know that nothing will take me away from him again.
Nothing could. Whatever spell brought me here, it won’t take me back.
Because this is where I belong. In his arms.
CHAPTER 8
Elias
Her body shivers beneath mine, and I pull her even closer to me, determined to keep her warm, determined to prove to her that I want her right here at my side.
When I noticed she was gone from the house, my instincts warned me that I should go looking for her. She doesn’t know this land well, she doesn’t understand how dangerous it can be. Or perhaps, just perhaps, she wants to be caught up in that danger.
Perhaps she doesn’t believe she deserves to feel safe here.
Our tongues come together again as I lay her down on her abandoned dress, her naked body prickled with goosebumps as I tuck my hands into her hair again. Her fingers travel over my back, along the tops of my arms, her nails digging into me lightly like she wants to leave her mark.
My manhood is already beginning to swell against her hip, and she moans against my mouth, lifting herself to press into me like she can’t get enough. I pull back for a moment, a sudden passion burning within me, a need consuming me that I cannot ignore.
"What is it...?” she breathes, as she trails her fingers over my mouth, staring at me like she can’t bear to be apart from me, even for a moment.
