Into the Flames (Perilous Connections: Book Two)

by Delka Beazer

  Catching on to his pace I pick it up and my hips dance with his, perfectly matching his rhythm. He lowers his arms at the side of my head and crushes me even more firmly to him, my legs lock around his waist and we begin moving faster, harder. Our lips lock in the same ravenous display of our bodies, moist and hard at once as we fight to get closer to each other, to take more.

  I cannot bear the oncoming pressure. The torturous buildup of pleasure that is inching ever higher in my body. I let loose a cry to gain some relief.

  I hold on fiercely to his pounding frame, summoning every bit of energy in my body as I give myself up to him, meeting his savage thrusts head-on. He rides me as though possessed, bringing my pleasure careening down into my center where it explodes. I cry out and keep on crying as he gains his release heartbeats after me.

  We cling to each other, hearts pounding, his crushing weight forgotten in the absolute perfection of being one.

  “My, my, aren’t you performing your wifely duties.” Stacy says from somewhere too close.

  Nate is off me in one motion, springing to his feet. I scramble up to my bottom, both hands immediately going up to cover my breasts.

  I can barely make her out and coupled with that a smell like rotten eggs that I have not noticed before is swiftly overtaking the clean air that has surrounded the stream.

  “What the hell are you doing here Stacy?” Nate barks.

  She harrumphs but her gaze is fixed on me sitting naked on Nate’s shirt on the sand, then she tosses her head and turns her attention back to him. “The volcano is spewing heavy loads of ash. They want everyone to stay inside for now.”

  Nate

  I crush Daphne to me in a bear hug, she accepts my strength and the growing need that I can no longer hide after these last two days together. She returns my affection with a quiet intensity.

  Long moments later I lean back and look down into her face. She meets my searching gaze and I want to tell her.

  I love you.

  But it’s not time for those words yet. There is still so much that I have to tell her but now I’m deathly afraid and not only of Emmanuel. I can’t lose her but that’s what will happen if I tell her about how Liam died and my true role in it.

  She slowly detangles herself from my arms. “Finish lunch?” a smile quirks her delectable lips as she gazes at my empty plate, which ten minutes before had sported two thick sandwiches. Unfortunately the last of the bread I had bought days before.

  “For now,” I laugh and brush my lips across hers. I straighten quickly, mindful of Aubrey’s watchful presence in the background. Like the little protector he is, he has been following the change in our relationship since we’d returned from the stream two nights before.

  The thin sheet of ash which had managed to brush us as we’d made our way back to the house had turned into a veritable shower of the stuff. The porch was covered with one foot of the grey, powdery substance and yet the volcano has not given up belching its noxious contents.

  Thankfully that’s all it’s doing for now. A new bulletin on the radio had informed us that if it gets any worse we’d be promptly evacuated to the ferry and shipped to the other side of the island.

  I pray that this doesn’t happen. I don’t want this time to end.

  I watch Daphne disappear into the bedroom that she’d formerly shared with Stacy who had protested vehemently when I took her spot. Stacy is sequestered on the couch now, hunched over a row of cards, playing a game of Solitaire. She has avoided me after I told her in no uncertain terms to leave my wife alone.

  I clean the plate quickly and follow Daphne into the bedroom. She is making our rumpled bed. Our eyes meet and the heat between us causes me to clear my throat noisily to remind my insatiable body that it’s morning and not the dead of night.

  But that doesn’t stop me from savoring the way her amber eyes smolder, a look that I know is mirrored in my own as we recall last night’s lovemaking. We had been as quiet as possible given that our nine hundred square foot home contained three other people but it had been no less intense or pleasurable.

  I’d awoken her from a dead sleep when I’d drawn her to the middle of the bed where I was kneeling. She’d come awake almost instantly and climbed atop my thighs, straddling me. Our mouths had been locked in a deep kiss as we’d rocked up and down, moving tightly in each other’s arms.

  Now I draw her into my arms, she sighs and rests her head against my chest. I can’t stop myself and I tip her head back to capture her lips. We are starving for air when I reluctantly release her lips.

  I close my eyes and savor the rich cocoa smell of the skin in the valley between her neck and jaw. “I need to go into town to get some more groceries before the afternoon is done,” I whisper against her soft hair.

  She looks up at me, her eyes golden and melting, my body lurches with desire. I frown to cover up my lecherous thoughts.

  “Isn’t that dangerous?” She stops, and I watch the adorable scrunching of her brow as she searches for the right tone to convince me, she looks at me anxiously, “what if the volcano starts to spit lava and you become trapped somewhere?”

  I’m not a romantic and until Daphne I didn’t really see the need for any one woman but I cannot stop the warm feeling which fills me at her concern. I brush a thumb across her dainty, little nose. “I suppose anything is possible,” I draw breath to ask how she’d feel if something did happen to me but I stifle it. It’s too soon. “I’ll be back before you can pry Stacy from that couch.”

  She smiles and something foreign flashes in her eyes. I hold her arm “Is anything wrong?”

  She smiles widely up at me, places her hands over mine. “It’s nothing. Just stay safe.”

  I gather her roughly to me, and place a feathery kiss on her forehead. “Don’t worry about Emmanuel. I will take care of him as soon as I can get you and the others safe away from here.”

  She steps back from the circle of my arms. This was a fight we’ve been having for the last day since I came up with the idea. “Nate I don’t want to go to Jamaica. I can’t even understand their dialect!”

  I stare firmly at her. Jamaica is a hundred times larger than Montserrat, taken with its dense population, there were innumerable places where she could hide and be safe.

  If I return from my meeting with Emmanuel.

  If I don’t, I’ve already given her the two hundred thousand dollars that I had on my person along with access to much more in safety deposit boxes scattered across the world. She would be safe.

  “We’ll talk about this when I get back. Hopefully I won’t have to hike far to get a taxi.”

  Out of nowhere she launches herself into my arms. I grip her tightly, inhale her wonderful scent and driven by my need to show her what I feel, I bend down to her ear. “I love you.” I don’t wait for her reply, avoiding her eyes I barrel from the room and out into the stifling air filled with ash.

  Chapter Seven

  Daphne

  I should be rushing from the room as soon as Nate leaves. Instead I’m slumped over the side of the bed, my body wracked with sobs that I struggle to muffle for fear of someone barging in now that Nate’s gone.

  He loves me? I cry harder as those words condemn me as nothing else could have.

  I wish I could take back that moment. Tell him how I feel. But now it’s too late and worse when he does find out what I’ve done his love will disappear along with me.

  My nose is streaming as I grab my measly bundle of clothing from the drawers. Elaine would have already done the same for Aubrey. We’d both known that Nate would have to go for groceries soon and when he did we would leave and trek the ten or so miles to the ferry.

  Wet towels to help us breathe through the still falling ash were hidden in Elaine’s bedroom.

  And Stacy, my nostrils flare with fury as I recall Stacy and our little conversation yesterday evening after Nate had gone out to search the property for any signs of Emmanuel.

  “Elaine and I are going
to be leaving the moment Nate leaves for groceries.” I had said from the table looking out over the sea which had been invisible because of the thick ash which had hung in the clouds. I had turned to look at Stacy lounging on the couch, not a book in sight, though we’d found a little nook with several novels and old, interesting editions of National Geographic.

  Stacy had blinked awake. “What did you say?” She scrambled up from the couch, her ebony locks, though squished had unfurled sensuously down her arm.

  That had angered me. That she should be so beautiful, or had it been because when I leave and crush the feelings I have glimpsed in Nate’s eyes, it will be easy for him to assuage his broken heart by turning back to a woman who will stay with him?

  I gritted my teeth as I watched her swing her long perfect legs off the couch, the short-shorts which had not disappeared since we’ve been here though I’ve given her some of my meager clothing.

  I eyed her remorselessly. “I said we’re going to leave when Nate goes into town to pick up groceries, probably in a day or two.”

  Delight, swift and bright, passed across her face and then she noticed my hard frown and she tapped it down. Her eyes dropped from my face to my chest and beyond down to my legs clad in a knee length cotton shirt.

  Her mouth had quirked in a secret smile. “Has he already grown tired of his walk on the dark side?”

  I jerked to my feet, my chest heaved with fury. Her eyes had widened but then she’d calmed down and I knew she had wanted me to hit her. She would love to have anything to say against me. Because she wanted Nate back. Had all along.

  I had seriously begun to question her story about being afraid of Emmanuel. What if she had just been looking for Nate all along to get back together with him? The thought made my insides sizzle but I reminded myself to relax. I shrugged carelessly. “Perhaps he has. But you’re talking from experience. Whatever you’ve got he doesn’t want anymore.”

  She leapt up and stood quaking just inches from me, her green eyes ugly with hate. I smiled tauntingly at her.

  Hit me. Oh please hit me. I could take her. I’d give her a taste of the dark side.

  Her mouth had twisted in a derisive snarl. “You’re not even that pretty. I think Nate must have felt sorry for you. Your people are always begging, always with a hand out. Nate’s always been such a sucker.”

  My hand had shot out and grabbed a chunk of her glossy hair. She’d squawked like a frightened chicken and her eyes swung wildly around the room. Probably hoping for Elaine to emerge and save her.

  Not likely. I grinned with deep satisfaction. “Elaine and Aubrey are taking a nap.”

  She struggled to disengage my grip and I was surprised at how easily I could hold her, just as I had thought. She was weak and would give up easily.

  I shook her for emphasis. “Not that you would know but women who work, maids especially, have strong hands.”

  Disdain crept over her face but she just tightened her lips and glared murderously at me. But I’d had enough of this stupid interlude. “Now listen up you pea brained idiot, my face and my debatable financial means is no concern of yours,” I shook her to underscore my point, she winced but didn’t speak, “all I want from you is to keep your mouth shut so that we can prepare for our trip home without Nate stopping us. Do you understand or must I scribble it on a blackboard for you?”

  Her face had flamed with mortification and anger but she’d nodded weakly.

  Needless to say she’s avoided me since yesterday’s little chat. I move around the room and stuff the last pieces of clothing into the backpack. Then I freeze at the sight of our made bed, all traces of last night’s lovemaking now tidied away. Tears threaten to spill over my lids again as I relieve the intensity of our joining, the way he’d clasped me to him afterwards. He loves me but I cannot stay with him and risk getting caught up in the dangerous life he proposes. I had gotten what I wanted, his trust. He is gone and we are alone and now I need to take this opportunity to get Aubrey to safety away from Nate and the killer who stalks him.

  Determinedly I wipe the snot from my nose. I ignore the small bag of money under the bed.

  I’ll have to find work almost from the moment we land in St. Lucia. I’d made a good friend at college who was from that island, and though we’d lost touch after she’d returned home, I’m praying that she will be willing to help me now.

  Coming out of the bedroom, I see Elaine and Aubrey waiting, towels already secured around their necks. I do the same with mine.

  Elaine comes forward, reaches a hand to me, which I coldly ignore, she drops it to her side. “Daphne are you sure about this? That there’s no other way?”

  Not this again. Why is doing the right thing turning out to be so hard? My eyes narrow as I take in the concern on Elaine’s face. “If you want to stay you’re more than welcome to it, but I promised dad that I’d take care of Aubrey and I intend to do so.”

  Anger flares in her eyes and her mouth tightens. Now she resembles the Elaine from my past and not this silent, contemplative creature that has taken over her body almost from the moment we’d fled from Emmanuel in Antigua.

  She draws a sullen looking Aubrey protectively to her side. “You seem to forget that I’m his mother.”

  Scorn curls my lips. “Are you accusing me of your own lapse? I have never forgotten that you gave birth to Aubrey,” I take a deep breath. If she wants the truth in front of Aubrey then so be it, “but until these last days I had never seen you act like a mother-”

  Her slap whips my face to the side. But I’m more stunned by the shout from Aubrey, the way he yanks himself from Elaine’s arms and tries to use his four foot frame to shield me.

  A sob gets caught in my throat. I bend to him, catch him up in my arms. He’s crying and sadness suddenly overwhelms me. I start crying too. His little body feels so frail in my arms. I cannot bear the thought of not doing everything I can to protect him. I love him so much. But you also love Nate, a voice whispers in my mind. How will leaving him help him?

  No. No. No. Aubrey has to come first.

  I stare into his little crumpled face, the dark chocolate eyes. “It’s okay little man,” unbidden Nate’s nickname for him comes springing from my mouth. “I should not have said that to your mom.”

  He shakes his head hard, looks up at Elaine. “Mom, please don’t hit Daphne again. She’s my sister and I love her.”

  A cracking sob breaks from my mouth, and I gather him back into my arms, press my face into his. “I love you too.”

  Moments later I look up at Elaine whose hand is clasped over her mouth, eyes wide in horror. I blink and cannot believe what I’m seeing. There are tears in her eyes and she is looking at me as if she’s seeing me for the first time. “Forgive me Daphne. That was not my place. I understand that now. But I want to keep Aubrey safe too and I wouldn’t be going along with this plan if I didn’t think this was the best way.”

  This is too much to take in.

  Behind Elaine’s shoulder I see Stacy watching us avidly. Caught, she colors, but doesn’t look away. Elaine and I hoist the backpacks over our shoulders and move to the door.

  “What should I tell him?” Stacy suddenly asks. I stop and turn to look at her. Her raven colored brows are drawn together in what appears to be concern.

  I pin her with a cold look. “Whatever you want,” I snap. Though she doesn’t know anything beyond our leaving I shudder to think of her delivering the news to Nate.

  Telling him of my betrayal.

  An hour later I stop and wait for Aubrey to catch up as we make our way through the trees tucked far enough from the road so as not to be seen. At least until we get to a spot close enough to the pier and the ferry.

  It’s growing dark and the air is bitter with the smell of ash.

  Aubrey began wheezing about half a mile ago and every time I hear him struggle for breath my heart constricts sharply in my chest.

  And by my estimation it’s still seven or eight more miles to our d
estination. We have only covered three miles at most in the rapidly deteriorating visibility.

  Another cloud of dust comes raining down from the branches of the trees, which all appear ethereal and haunting, sunk under the growing burden of the ash. I grimace as some of it manages to sneak through my now unrecognizable towel which is practically caked through. Little bits of ash enter my mouth. I gag at the bitter tang on my tongue. I risk another glance overhead and it’s coming down even harder now.

  I cannot see more than a foot ahead. I could easily be gouged in the face by any protruding tree branch.

  I stop and wait for a struggling Elaine and Aubrey to catch up. Our chances are slipping away the longer we take to reach the ferry. “Hurry up. I don’t want to be caught outside when it gets dark.”

  Elaine draws alongside slowly and she is heaving as though she’s having a heart attack. “Daphne, I can’t ...

  Then we both hear it, feel it under our feet. It’s a rumble like the headlong rushing of a large dump truck barreling out of control. But there are no dump trucks in the middle of a tree laden hill and the thought gets dashed aside as my body is flung clear. I hear Aubrey and Elaine cry out, as they too go airborne. I land hard on my bottom on a small outcropping of rocks and a painful cry escapes my mouth. Thank God it wasn’t a tree branch. I could have been impaled.

  I squint through the thick ash for a glimpse of Elaine and Aubrey. “Elaine, Aubrey. Are you alright? Are you hurt?” In the fall my towel had come undone from around my mouth and I immediately give up trying to find it in the terrible visibility.

  A whimper comes from close by and I stagger towards it. I make out the silhouette of Elaine, then Aubrey sprawled in the ash on the ground.

  Wincing, I head towards them when another loud rumble sounds. Instead of an earthquake it sounds more like thunder.

  Rain. Thank God.

  Reaching out a hand I eagerly wait for the first droplets which will surely clear this ash away enough for us to go on. Moments pass and the sounds only grows louder, much louder and my body stills as I listen more closely to the thrashing sound. Then a sickening thought starts to form and I listen closely and grasp that there is a difference in the way these cracks of thunder sounds.