by Annie West
‘No one.’ His tone was grave. ‘And you?’
Tori shook her head.
She felt his chest rise beneath her on a sighing breath.
Even so, what had seemed so natural, so easy, moments before, now felt difficult. She felt gauche, unsure how to proceed. Till his mouth curved slowly into a smile that stole her breath and set her heart fluttering up in her throat.
She’d had an impression of Ash as strong, ultra-masculine and handsome in a severe way. But when he bestowed that smile on her Tori discovered he was far, far more. Attractive didn’t cover it. Sexy was closer. Her befuddled brain grappled for a second to find a word that did him justice. Then she gave up and simply felt.
His hand rose to the back of her head, pulling her closer. She went eagerly, sinking into a kiss that was devastating for all its gentle persuasiveness. Fire sizzled and sparked from her toes to her ears. From her lips to her breasts and her womb.
Her mouth softened on his, opening automatically around his tongue. She didn’t even try to prevent the mew of delight as he delved deeper, inviting her to let go on the wave of wellbeing that swept her up.
The kiss went on and on, deliberate and slow, stoking the blaze between them. Till his hand cupped her breast and Tori seized up. Not in rejection, but because the sensation of that hard hand so gentle on her was exquisite.
She pulled her head back, sucking in a dizzying draught of air, meeting eyes that gleamed like obsidian in the shadowy light.
His hand froze. Clearly he’d misinterpreted her withdrawal.
Once more Tori felt a surge of respect for this man who even now let scruples override potent need.
In another place, another time, she’d want to discover everything she could about him. But they had so little time. The thought brought a desperate sob to her throat. She swallowed it and pressed his hand to her breast, revelling in the delicious sensations.
She leaned down so her lips grazed his ear. ‘I want you, Ash. But I’m afraid of hurting you.’ He’d stopped bleeding, but she didn’t want to reopen his wounds.
She felt a rumbling beneath her that, remarkably, she identified as laughter. ‘Let me worry about that.’
While she was still catching her breath he rolled her onto her back, only to freeze mid-movement. It took her a second to realise his arm was stretched out behind him, caught by the chain.
The reminder of their dire circumstances should have splintered the brief comfort of the moment. Except Ash sounded merely rueful as he murmured, ‘Not my smoothest move.’
His humour made this once more about them, not what lay beyond these walls, and Tori bit down a smile as together they shuffled awkwardly across the floor till Ash had the freedom to move both arms.
‘Better,’ he whispered, gathering her close. ‘Much better.’
Broad shoulders blocked out the moonlight as he bent and kissed her hard on the lips. Then, as everything in her clamoured for more, he pulled back, propping himself on his good arm as he fumbled for the zip of her trousers.
‘Let me. It will be quicker.’ Excitement fizzed in her blood.
When he moved back to deal with his own trousers Tori stripped off her boots, trousers and knickers. She’d never had a one-night stand but she felt no embarrassment, just an urgency that grew with every passing moment.
‘Leave your shirt.’ Ash’s hand on her shoulder pushed her gently down onto her back. ‘It will protect you from the floor.’
His own shirt hung open to reveal a wide expanse of muscled chest. Her hungry gaze began to rove him, only to stop at the dark line across a couple of ribs. Her stomach clenched.
Suddenly it wasn’t sex on her mind but the fate that awaited Ash tomorrow. The thought of what they’d do to him and what they might do to her—
‘Changed your mind?’
His voice held no inflection other than curiosity—as if he had no qualms about stopping. Yet even in the gloom there was no mistaking the tension in his tall frame or the sight of his arousal straining towards her.
He wanted this, needed it, as much as she.
The sight of him made her wet between the legs, her muscles tightening in anticipation. Tori drew a shuddery breath, shoving away all thoughts of tomorrow.
Live for the moment had never held such profound meaning.
‘Wouldn’t it be safer if I was on top? With your injuries?’
His chuckle was liquid chocolate, or perhaps a shot of malt whisky, heating her blood. ‘Probably. Call me a traditionalist, but I want to lie between your beautiful thighs and take us both to Paradise.’
His words ratcheted her level of arousal from fierce to ballistic. As did the nimble way he flicked open her shirt buttons, then made short work of her front-opening bra, pulling it wide to survey her in silence.
Tori’s heart battered her ribs as she felt the cold night air drift across her puckering nipples and waited for his next move. Then he smiled. Another of those charismatic smiles that drove a spike of sharp emotion straight through her rib cage and stopped her breath.
When he spoke again it was in a language she didn’t understand. A fluid ripple of sound that wrapped itself around her, caressing her as effectively as those callused hands stroking her breasts, waist and hips. Drawing her into a world of seductive urgency.
Then Ash lowered himself over her and she almost cried out at how right it felt. Strong, hair-roughened thighs between hers. The weight of him heavy against her. The jut of his hipbones. Broad shoulders above her and heat...heat everywhere.
Tori drew her knees up above his hips and heard a grunt of masculine pleasure. Then long fingers slid low, past her abdomen, down to her hot, slick, swollen centre. She jolted as a shock of pleasure raced through her. His fingers moved again, circling and teasing.
Her hand on his wrist stopped him. ‘No. Don’t. I just want you.’
She was strung so tight, on an unbearable edge of arousal, that she feared one more touch might fling her into rapture. But she needed something more profound than the touch of his hand. She craved the ultimate connection, the intimacy of their two bodies linked as one.
Tori sighed her relief when he nodded. Even so Ash took his time, surveying her face as if memorising it. Tori felt his gaze cross her cheeks, lips and forehead. And when his hand brushed the hair back from her face it was a gesture that spoke of tenderness and restraint, for she felt the tiniest tremor in those long fingers.
‘Your hair is like silk,’ he murmured.
Tori wanted to say something profound, to offer this strong, gentle man something to match the gift of his tenderness. But there were no easy words.
Instead she lifted her own hand, cupping the stubble-roughened jaw, hard and warm. She felt his slow pounding pulse, then skimmed her hand higher into dark hair that felt thick yet soft. His eyes closed as she massaged the uninjured side of his scalp.
He positioned himself against her. Instinctively she lifted her pelvis, feeling that velvet weight nudge her. Tori held her breath as he pushed, long and slow and further, surely, than any previous possession. Her eyes widened and his grew more heavy-lidded as they held their breaths at the perfection of their joining. The moment went on and on till finally Ash was lodged deep within, vital and impossibly, lavishly male.
A quiver ran through Tori, starting at the muscles surrounding him and spreading till she trembled all over. A matching shiver rippled across his wide shoulders and muscled arms.
Then he withdrew, and the movement was so exquisitely arousing that Tori had to bite her lip to stop from crying out. Ash’s lips pulled back in a grimace that looked like pain, but she knew it was a sign of pleasure and his battle for control.
The sight of him fighting for restraint and the generous pleasure of his returning thrust sent Tori spiralling over the edge.
‘Please.’ Her hands dug into his shoulders as she s
truggled to keep her voice to a whisper. ‘I need you now.’
Ash’s mouth covered hers, blotting out the scream rising within. Strong arms held her close as he abandoned restraint and pounded fast, hard and satisfying, filling her so that it seemed there was no longer Tori and Ash but only one being, straining after pleasure. Rapture exploded in a shuddering conflagration so powerful that the very air vibrated with it.
Together they rocked and shuddered. She was overwhelmed by sensations so intense they defied description. Except that at their heart was a delight so profound Tori half expected to die from it.
The world shook. Senses swam. Blood roared in her ears loud as a helicopter coming in to land. And through it all they stayed locked together, mouths and bodies fused.
Finally, when sanity began to creep back in, Ash rolled onto his side and then his back, taking Tori with him. Aftershocks ripped through her as overloaded pleasure receptors reacted again and again.
A rough gasp of pain reminded her of Ash’s wounds. Instantly she tried to shift from his grasp. He didn’t need her weight on his injuries.
‘Stay.’ His voice was hoarse, a rough wisp of sound that Tori found it impossible to resist.
She kissed him open-mouthed in the hot, male-scented curve where his shoulder met his neck. He shivered, hauling her closer.
Never had Tori felt this profound oneness. It was shared physical pleasure but surely something more. Something inexplicable that had swept them up and cradled them together.
Tori gave in to the protective urge to spread her arms as wide as she could around his brawny shoulders. She rested her head on his chest, absorbing the reassuring heavy thud of his heartbeat. She’d wait till she caught her breath. Then she’d try to define the change she sensed with every cell yet couldn’t name.
It was her last cogent thought for hours.
* * *
‘Tori.’
The luscious deep voice was warm and seductive in her ear. Ash’s hands moved over her body and she stretched sinuously, arching to meet them.
She frowned, for he wasn’t caressing her, he was—
‘It’s time to wake up.’ His hands were deftly doing up her shirt buttons, right to the collar.
‘Ash?’ She opened her eyes to discover pale light filtering through the small windows.
He was dressed, she realised, his torn shirt buttoned and tucked into dusty trousers. Then she recalled him insisting in the night that they dress again. For warmth, he’d said.
Now she felt a chill that was only partly due to the temperature. Grey dawn light revealed a clearer view of Ash than she’d had so far. His features were starkly sculpted and compelling. His face would turn any woman’s head. But now she saw clearly the blood caked in his hair. His torn clothes were liberally marked with dark stains and the chain securing him looked brutally heavy.
Tori’s stomach turned as dread reality hit her full-force. Nausea rose. Her pulse accelerated to a panicky rhythm. Impossibly, in Ash’s arms the peril they were in had been pushed to the back of her mind. Now realisation slammed into her.
She clutched his hands and he paused. His eyes met hers and something passed between them. Then Ash took hold of her hands. In this light she still couldn’t make out the colour of his eyes, yet the warmth she read in them counteracted the chill crackling across her bones.
Slowly, as if he had all the time in the world, he raised her left hand and kissed her palm, his warm lips soft on her flesh. He repeated the gesture with her other hand, sending a squiggle of heat from her palms to her breasts and lower, arrowing to her core.
He murmured something against her palm that she couldn’t catch. But his eyes as they met hers glowed with a message that made her chest clamp.
‘Thank you, habibti.’ He inclined his head, sketching a quick, graceful movement with his hand that spoke of respect and admiration. ‘You did me great honour last night. Your gift is one I’ll carry with me.’
Tori was about to respond when Ash’s expression changed. His head whipped towards the door, his features intent, as if he heard something she couldn’t.
‘Quickly.’ He grabbed her boots and shoved her feet into them.
‘What is it?’
But she guessed the cause of his urgency. Someone was coming.
The thought of their captors made her fingers shake, and she watched Ash push her hands aside to do up the laces with swift efficiency.
‘Remember what I said.’ His voice was urgent and low. ‘Don’t fight back till you’re alone with one of them. You’ll stand a better chance.’
Tori looked into that stern, handsome face and nodded. She swallowed hard. ‘You—?’
‘I’ll be fine. Now the sun’s rising the search party will find it easier to locate the camp.’
Neither admitted that the search party might be too late for him.
His hands tightened on hers as they heard voices outside. Leaning in, he whispered, ‘When you escape—’ when, not if... Tori’s heart leapt with hope ‘—keep low and—’
His words were cut off by the door banging open to rattle against the wall. Tori blinked against the light, realising belatedly that Ash no longer held her hands but was on his feet, facing the three men who had entered.
What came next was the stuff of nightmares. Brutal, pawing hands and leering faces. A slap that made her head ring as she struggled to free herself. But far worse was the sight of Ash, pulling one of the men off her and then being set upon by two of them. Hampered by the chain, he was eventually overwhelmed by vicious blows to his injured head and ribs.
The last she saw of him he’d crumpled to his knees and then pitched sideways, a scarlet bloom spilling from his wounds across the dirt floor.
The rusty tang of fresh blood was sharp in Tori’s nostrils as she was shoved, stumbling, into the chill morning.
CHAPTER THREE
TORI STARED AT the data before her, wishing she could blame her lack of concentration on a post-lunch slump. Stretching, she leaned back in her chair and took in the view of Perth’s Swan River, sparkling in the sunlight.
It had been tough, moving from Sydney to Western Australia. She’d had to find a new home, start a new job, create a new life, all on top of the trauma that still haunted her.
If her father had been at all supportive she’d have settled in Sydney. Family was supposed to be there for you during difficult times, after all.
Tori shuddered, remembering the last time she and her father had spoken. It was pointless wishing for the impossible—like a caring father—but his icy disapproval on top of recent events had made Tori miss her mother more than ever. She’d been warm, practical and supportive. Tori could have done with the unconditional love that had died years before, with her mother.
Yet it wasn’t any of those things distracting her now. Or even last night’s broken sleep. She was used now to perennial tiredness.
It was the date. Fifteen months to the day since she’d been kidnapped in Za’daq.
She’d been about to leave Assara, her geological survey complete and her companions already gone. She’d spent her final afternoon investigating an outcrop that hadn’t been in her survey zone but had looked promising.
Until she’d found herself surrounded by armed men.
Fifteen months since she’d last seen Ash.
Fifteen months since the sharp rattle of gunfire had echoed across the arid landscape, raising the hairs on her arms and neck and devastating her.
She’d never forget that sound.
Or the gloating chuckle of the leader of the small party that had left the bandit camp to make its way across the foothills.
He was the one Ash had knocked aside after the man had grabbed her, his hands insinuating themselves under her shirt. When gunfire had sounded from the camp the man had leered, slicing his hand across his throat in a violent gest
ure. He’d spat out words she hadn’t understood but his meaning had been clear. Ash was dead.
Even now the nightmare reality was almost too much to take in.
The fruit smoothie she’d had for lunch curdled in Tori’s stomach and she swallowed hard, trying to keep it down.
Traumatic memories were normal, her counsellor said. And, what with having been up half the night, it was no surprise that Tori was susceptible today to distressing flashes of memory.
They’d pass. They always did.
Meanwhile she had a report to sort out.
Breathing deep, she turned back to her computer.
She was frowning over an anomaly when a waft of pungent aftershave reached her.
‘Head down, Victoria? Good to see you making the most of the time you’re actually in the office.’
Tori repressed a sigh. It would be Steve Bates—leader of the other team on this floor. He always carped about her part-time hours, implying that she took advantage of the company instead of actually working harder than some of her full-time colleagues. And that never stopped him staring at her as if he could see through her clothes.
She needed to tackle him about his attitude. But not today, when she felt so low. Besides, she’d survived far worse than Steve could dish out.
The thought steadied her.
Tori swung around in her chair to meet his stare. Naturally it wasn’t her face he was looking at. She sat straighter and his eyes lifted.
‘This new survey data is intriguing. Is that why you’re here? I’ll have the report ready by—’
He stopped her with a dismissive wave. ‘I’m not here for that.’ He paused, his X-ray stare focused on her face, his gaze sharply assessing. ‘You’re full of surprises, aren’t you?’
Tori frowned. ‘Sorry?’
Steve smiled, but instead of putting her at ease his calculating expression made disquiet flicker.
‘I had no idea you had such...connections. No wonder the bosses were eager to snap you up. But then it’s always who you know, isn’t it? Not how good your work is.’