In control now, she moved her hips in a sinful tempo as the waves of ecstasy throbbed through her. Every muscle in her body tightened as his hands squeezed the softness of her breasts. The pure explosive pleasure nearly shredded her soul, careening her world from its axis.
Gasping in sweet agony, her body felt as though it was half ice, half flame. A fire burst inside her only to be immediately followed by a floodtide of passion as she peaked. His own pleasure followed moments later, his seed imbedding deep within her womb.
Still throbbing, her body melted into his, her world full of only him as she tried to catch her breath. Her head on his shoulder, she watched the quick rise and fall of his chest sprinkled with dark hair. She rested her hand there, feeling the curve of his skin beneath. Her forefinger traced the line of his jagged scar while his hands trailed lazily up and down her arm, sending shivers of delight through her.
Dane was her undoing.
* * *
It was sometime later when Skye awoke to find she was still intertwined with Dane. He had actually spooned her, her head pillowed on his arm.
I should still be comatose. They hadn’t slept much. In fact, they did everything but sleep. Her body ached from being in every position imaginable. Dane gave Kama Sutra a run for its money.
Not that she minded much. She couldn’t stop staring at the perfect dark hair on his arm, or the way his forearm tapered into a thick wrist and beautiful hands with long slender fingers and perfectly trimmed nails. Hands that were all over her just hours before.
She quite liked his soft snoring in her ear and the way his chest rose and fell against her back—which, by some miracle medicine of Tia’s, felt fine.
She could hear the first twitter of early morning birds through the open balcony doors. And beyond the Citadel walls, the dark sky began to turn pink with dawn.
Skye had been resigned to living a life here in the Amazon of the past. She had lost her father’s invention, her most prized possession and the only thing that remained of him. But she still had Dane and she had forgiven him finally. She understood him now, probably more than he would ever know. Killing Conner had been her turning point. And even if she couldn’t bring herself to fully love Dane, she knew he would always be there. Like her rock…sure and steady.
He stirred then, waking and rolling to his back, releasing her from her warm cocoon. She wanted to object but didn’t. His arm slid out from under her head as he stretched and yawned.
“You awake?”
“Yes.”
“Get any sleep?”
She bit back a laugh. “Not with you in my bed.”
“I think I should be offended but I’m not.” She could hear the hint of humor in his voice. “We should get moving.” The mattress gave way as he rose to a sitting position.
“Why?” She rolled to her side, watching the sinew of muscle in his back as he stretched. “I really don’t see why going through the tunnel is going to be helpful.”
He looked at her over his shoulder. “Because we should put all this behind us. Start fresh.”
It sounded like a good plan, but she had reservations. She didn’t know why they couldn’t stay at the Citadel and live there. After all, there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell they were getting out of there.
He leaned across the bed, his face inches from hers. “Trust me.” He kissed her soundly on the mouth. “Now, hurry up. Tia will be here soon.”
“You mean I don’t even get morning sex?” She wasn’t exactly sure what made her say it, but there it was and she couldn’t take it back. She pursed her lips when she saw his smirk.
“Haven’t you had enough?” he asked. “I would have thought that last round completely satisfied you.”
How the hell was she supposed to answer that one? Instead she avoided it altogether and picked up her discarded tunic dress from the floor. She was completely satisfied, she just…wanted more.
“That’s what I thought,” he said.
“Oh shut up, will you?”
When she spun to face him, she was surprised to see he was already dressed and carrying his shoes toward the door.
“I’ll meet you outside in the hallway, Skye.”
“Fine.”
He shut the door behind him and she sank to the edge of the bed, feeling a tad light headed. Her stomach growled loudly, warning her feeding time was long overdue. She had been so exhausted and zapped after yesterday, food was the last thing on her mind.
Rallying herself, she located the clothes Tia had given her the night before. Pants and tunic much like Dane’s. She only wished she still had her hiking boots. They were long gone. She couldn’t even remember where she had left them behind.
Instead, she strapped on the borrowed sandals and headed into the hallway. Tia and Dane were conversing at the other end and moments later she joined them.
“I sure hope you brought breakfast.”
“We will dine before we journey, yes,” Tia said.
“Let’s get going. I want to be on our way soon,” Dane urged.
As the threesome headed down the hallway, Skye couldn’t help but wonder why Dane had a sense of urgency about the tunnel. After all, it would lead them nowhere.
Or would it?
Chapter Thirteen: Tunnel to Escape
Breakfast was served in the dining salon and Skye reveled in the fruits and surprisingly sweet bread that was served with small bowls of honey to dip it in. The only thing missing was a good strong cup of coffee. She wondered if steaming hot coffee with a brown cardboard sleeve around it was going to be something she enjoyed again. She quickly pushed such a depressing thought from her mind. Dane and Tia stood out of earshot, but she could hear them whispering. She wondered what they were up to and eyed them suspiciously. Tia had nothing but the look of innocence on her face and Dane…well, he was just Dane.
Shrugging inwardly and thinking of the long journey ahead, she took several pieces of fruit and a loaf of crusty bread and wrapped it in a large linen napkin.
“What are you doing?” Dane asked.
“We’ll need rations,” she said. “Duh.”
“We don’t need any of that.” He took the napkin out of her grasp and placed it on the table. “We’re going. Come on.”
“But—”
“Come on, Skye.” He held his hand down to her.
“Okay. Fine.”
She refused to take it. Instead, she brushed past him but he fell in step beside her.
“Lead the way, Tia.”
With a nod, she led them through the main hall of the Citadel and down twisting hallway after hallway, into the dark bowels of the building. It wasn’t long before Skye lost her sense of direction. Rounding another corner, Tia took them down a long darkened staircase. The air grew thick and heavy the closer to the bottom they got.
The girl paused at the base of the stairs. One torch lit the large concrete door looming before them. Cobwebs hung in every corner. Taking a deep breath, she bore her weight into the concrete door and pushed. When it remained in place, Dane threw his shoulder into it and helped her get it open. The door scraped the floor to reveal a narrow corridor. Torches were every three feet in black brackets. The air was stagnant and drafty and something about it sent goose bumps up Skye’s arms.
“We have to go in there?” she asked.
“Our ancestors used this escape route when the city was in chaos,” Tia said. “It will lead you under the mountain and out of the village.”
“You’re not coming with us?” Dane asked.
“I cannot take you the entire journey.” She bowed her head slightly. “Once you’ve found what you’re looking for, I will return here.”
“What are we looking for?” Skye asked, eyeing Dane.
But he ignored her question. He was up to something and planned to keep it to himself.
“Dane?”
“Not now, Skye.”
She scowled, perturbed he’d put her off.
After they had crossed t
he threshold of the doorway, Tia turned and headed back for the door. Seeing what she intended to do, he stepped up to help her shove the concrete door closed. It scraped the floor as it moved into place with a loud thud, thereby sealing them inside the tunnel.
“But…if you’re coming back, how are you going to get out?” Skye’s brows drew together.
“I know all the secrets of the tunnel,” Tia said.
Each of them stood in place for a moment, listening to the flicker of the torches along the wall. Skye didn’t like being inside this place one bit, especially now that there was no way out.
“I hope we can get out of here,” she said, her voice loud in the small confines of the corridor. She gripped her elbows.
“We’ll be fine. Let’s keep moving.”
He followed as Tia brushed by and led them down the corridor. Skye still couldn’t shake the inexplicable feeling of doom. Iciness crept up the back of her neck.
The faint light of the torches lit their way. Eerie shadows danced at the edges of the firelight, making Skye’s imagination run wild with visions of otherworldly creatures following them. Ghostly, silent shadows reached to grab her. Stepping up her pace, she gripped Dane’s hand, giving her comfort.
The tunnel widened with antechambers to the left and right. Tia paused and looked side to side, as if trying to decide which way to go, and Skye resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Doesn’t this broad know where we’re going?
“What are you—” she began.
“Shh.” Dane held up his hand to keep her quiet.
She grit her teeth, her annoyance increasing.
And then she heard it—a male voice humming somewhere to the left. Her stomach knotted and gooseflesh rose on her arms. The hair at the back of her neck prickled as she turned toward the humming. She didn’t know if Tia and Dane followed and, frankly, she didn’t care. There was something eerily familiar about that nameless tune she heard.
But it couldn’t be.
Firelight flickered through the open doorway, making yellow-orange shadows on the stone floor, ceiling and walls. Her heart throbbed madly in her chest as she walked toward the chamber. She paused outside the open doorway, swallowed hard and stepped across the threshold.
Her eyes must be deceiving her because her father couldn’t be standing there, hunched over a low stone table and humming to himself. Her breath hitched in her throat as she released a strangled gasp.
“Daddy?”
He turned, his gaze meeting hers. His dark brows knitted, the pipe clamped between his teeth.
“Skye, what are you doing here?”
Before she could form an answer, her legs buckled and she fell to her knees, staring at him. She blinked slowly, momentarily speechless.
“This isn’t possible,” she whispered.
Jacob Ransom dropped what he was doing and headed straight for her, kneeling and grasping her arm, trying to lift her to a standing position. But Skye didn’t cooperate. She gripped his arms and staring up into the deep brown eyes she remembered from the day he died.
“You’re alive.”
“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be, Skye dear?” He still had his pipe clamped between his teeth, his words muffled from talking around it.
“Probably because I killed you.” Dane’s baritone voice filled the entire space then.
Skye never took her eyes off her father’s face as he looked up, confusion in his eyes. Reaching up, he took the unlit pipe out of his mouth and slipped it into his front pocket of his dress shirt. “Preposterous. If you killed me, then why I am here?”
“Maybe you could tell us why we’re here and we’ll go from there,” he suggested.
“Maybe if I knew who you were. Skye, who the hell is this fellow?”
She tried to form the words, but they wouldn’t move past her lips. She could hear the response in her head, but nothing came out.
“My name is Dane Fortune and I was hired to kill you.”
“By who, may I ask?”
“Conner Dade.” It was Skye who finally managed to squeak the words out. Her constricted chest ached from the emotions running through her.
“Skye,” Dane said, “you realize he’s here because I haven’t killed him yet.”
“Yes.” Her mind spun with the possibilities of what her father standing here in a tunnel in the Amazon meant. He was still alive. And so was Mom.
“That means we have a chance.”
“I don’t understand any of this.” Jake blinked in bewilderment.
“Neither do I.” Finally Skye pushed off the ground and stood up, enveloping him in a tight embrace. She couldn’t stop the tears from slipping down her cheeks. She released him suddenly and reeled on Dane. “You knew, didn’t you?”
“Tia mentioned there was another and after I talked to her, I suspected it was your father,” he said.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t want you to hope for something if it wasn’t true. Now is our chance to change the future.”
“I think you’d better start at the beginning,” Jake said. “Now.”
“It’s complicated. I’ll try to explain—”
“There isn’t time for that, just sum it up,” Dane interrupted, trying to hurry her along.
“I’m trying if you’ll shut up.” She scrubbed her hands over her face, searching for the words. “Conner Dade is after the time bender. And he succeeds somehow with the help of Charles Ridgewood. Do you remember him?”
“Ridgewood.” Jake nearly growled the man’s name. “I never trusted him, especially since he was into all that dark magic mumbo-jumbo. That man was a thorn in my side from the day he stepped into my office.”
“He had a prototype of the time bender he’d built. So did Conner. They were here.” Thinking of Conner now brought back the horrifying memory of her slashing his throat open. She shook her head to clear it.
“That bastard,” Jake said. “I knew he’d stolen the plans when they came up missing.”
“You knew about that?” A wave of apprehension swept through her.
“They were duplicates. I had the originals locked up and yes I did know about that. I didn’t think he was smart enough to figure out how to build it.”
“Apparently, he was,” Dane said dryly.
“Conner hired Dane who killed you and Mom because Conner wanted the time bender for himself. You mailed it to me and I got it the day Conner paid me a visit and tried to steal it.”
Her father looked confused as he reached for his pipe. He tapped the bowl on his palm. “Skye, have you been drinking? I told you to stop with that nasty Jager stuff.”
“Argh!” She flung her hands in the air, as if in surrender and turned away. “No! I haven’t been drinking.”
“Skye’s telling you the truth. I was sent in by the CIA to kill you and your wife. What we need to know now is how do we get back?”
“You can’t,” Jake said. “At least, I don’t think you can.”
“Then how did you get here?” Skye demanded.
“With this.” Clamping the pipe between his teeth, Jake held up the time bender that looked like Ridgewood’s earlier version. “I programmed the benders to have a default location if things went haywire. That would be here so I could work on them in peace without interruptions.”
“Because you didn’t trust Conner,” Skye said.
“Because I don’t trust anybody. Not even your mother knows about this, Skye, and if she did she’d have my head.”
She knew he was right. Her mother never really was a fan of the research her father did, especially when it involved dangerous things like time travel.
“I guess you two ended up here because of the default setting.” Jake stroked his chin now and looked thoughtful.
“That would explain Conner and Ridgewood being here as well,” Dane said.
“I’m the only one that can use this one to get back.” Jake slipped the bender back into his pocket.
“Then we
’re truly stuck here.” Anxiety spurted through her.
“Well…I left you back in the twenty-first century, Skye,” her father said, grinning around the pipe.
“But I time traveled with Dane after you were killed. And we have to get back. I have to save you.”
He chuckled, as if he didn’t really believe her. “If you think you can.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Time isn’t something to be taken lightly, dear. If you alter one tiny thing in the past, the future is forever changed. I’m sure you’ve heard of the butterfly affect.”
A tense silence filled the room. She contemplated this for a moment. If they went back in time and stopped the murders from happening, then she would have never met William Wallace or Nyan and Ilsa…and she would never kill Conner on a pirate ship…or fall in love with Dane.
It suddenly felt as if a hand had closed around her throat.
“Then…what are we supposed to do?” she asked finally.
“Here.” He walked toward the stone table he had been working at earlier and picked up a tiny silver object. “Take this.”
“Another time bender?”
“Yes, a prototype, but I haven’t tested it yet.”
“Great. So we get to be guinea pigs again,” Dane said.
Jake ignored him and continued. “If you truly want to go home, then this will get you there. I hope.”
“You hope? That doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence,” Dane said and she so wanted to smack him.
“And what about you, Daddy?” she asked.
“What about me? I’ll go home in a while and kiss your mother. You’ll be at your favorite bar knocking back your favorite drinks and lamenting over the fact that what’s-his-name broke up with you for the third time.”
She flushed. What’s-his-name was her on-again, off-again boyfriend of two years. They had rocky times and she recalled the third break-up vividly. It gave her a reference point in time when her father would return…and it was only three weeks before the murders.
A Break in Time Page 12