Chapter Eleven
Dela
Twin sapphires looked at me from inches away as my eyelids fluttered open.
“Holy crap!” I yelped, abruptly coming alert and backpedaling away frantically.
My head slammed into something hard and unyielding, and I cried out in pain.
“Quiet,” Ember said, keeping his voice low for emphasis.
“Ow,” I said, rubbing the back of my head. “Why the hell were you so close to me?”
“I was making sure you were okay,” he said, standing up.
“You changed,” I observed, still coming to my senses.
Ember stiffened, looking alarmed. “What?”
I pointed at him. “Your clothing. You had a suit on before. That looks much more like a uniform.”
“Oh,” he said, glancing down and visibly relaxing. “Yes.”
He wore a high-necked black shirt that overlapped each layer instead of buttoning up in the middle. The buttons were large and an orange-red mixed color that looked strangely like fire. The sleeves ended in formal cuffs, sporting a smaller but similar colored set of buttons.
The pants were a plain but expensive-looking pair of slacks, held up by a deep scarlet belt buckle. His shoes were matte black high-topped boots that went to his mid-calf. Altogether, it evoked a very military-esque feeling.
“Where are we?” I asked, looking around. The walls were made from rock, but they lacked the smoothness that the castle walls had. These were … natural. “A cave?”
“Yes.”
His words gave away little, but the way his eyes burned with blue-white fire whenever he looked at me spoke volumes. Such intensity of emotion. It must be the “power” he talked about. That inner fire that made him the force he was.
“How did we get here?” I asked, my eyes half-closed as I tried to remember what happened during that fuzzy period between sleeping and waking up to him.
Ember offered no answer.
“I remember wind,” I said, forcing my brain to think. “Lots of wind. Like we were up high. On a balcony? Or a cliff, maybe? No, no, I think we were moving.”
Ember’s face became stony, and he looked away. Again, giving nothing away.
“Were we … this is going to sound crazy, but were we flying?” I asked, unsure I believed even myself. “I swear I remember being draped over something and the sound of wings. Warmth. I can remember lots of warmth, too. Almost too hot.”
Ember flinched, and he turned his entire body away from me.
“Whatever,” I said. “That’s crazy. All of this is crazy, in fact.
I should still be in the damn grocery store!
I must be going crazy. Maybe that’s it. Paolo dumping me broke my mind finally, and now I’m losing my grip on reality.
That makes more sense. Though I didn’t think crazy people ever realized they were crazy. ”
“You are not unwell,” Ember said. “But you must keep your voice down.”
“Why? Wait, let me guess, you can’t tell me,” I said, crossing my arms and staring at him, daring him to correct me.
“I don’t know how you arrived here,” he finally admitted. “You were somehow transported from your home.”
The words came out like teeth being pulled, slowly and reluctantly, but they were more of an answer than I’d had before.
“Transported? Like in a car?”
He didn’t answer.
“Are you telling me I wasn’t imagining things when I got sucked into the ice cream freezer?”
“Correct.”
I took a deep, shaky breath. “So. Where is here?”
“My home.”
“You live in a cave?”
He glared at me. “The castle is my home. Everywhere around us is my home.”
“Just give me some straight answers, please. Enough of this run-around bullshit! It’s tiring. Where are you taking me?”
“I am trying to get you home,” he said, his voice deepening along with his glower. “Now, be quiet.”
“So you were taking me home. Flying me … somehow. Since you haven’t denied that, I’m forced to believe it’s accurate. But why did we stop here?”
He grimaced. “It’s … complicated.”
“Then uncomplicate it!” I shouted.
Abruptly, Ember was there. Up against me, his hand over my mouth, holding it closed firmly.
His entire body was in my personal space.
I smelled him with every breath, the fabric of his uniform, new and clean, mixed with his personal scent of sandalwood and man, which I attributed to the thin layer of sweat I could see on him.
Whatever it was he’d been doing, he’d been working hard.
In that instant, that momentary pause while my brain tried to sort out what just happened, my mind overloaded and shut down as I tried to process the fact that Ember was there.
So close to me, overwhelming me with his sheer presence.
It was downright intoxicating, his intensity, his power, and it pushed my body off a cliff I could not stop.
He had me. I was putty in his hands. My breath came in short, shallow gasps as my heart pumped scalding hot blood through my system with feverish intensity.
His heartbeat thundered in my ears like drums in a parade, and I found myself automatically leaning in toward him, arching up into that crook between his chin and his chest. I wanted to be there, to belong there. His aura called to me.
What, I wondered, would it feel like to try this without clothes?
Just him and me and a bottle of wine. No limits, no judgments, no “complications.” His hands, my body.
I would give it all to him, let him explore every ounce of me however he wanted.
Touch me, tease me, play my body like a fucking instrument. As long as he took me, I didn’t care.
My clit throbbed at the image of him, his arms bulging, abs rippling, leaning over me, grabbing his cock in one hand as he guided it to my entrance, teasing me with the tip, making me beg him for it until he thrust in, only to stop just on the inside, until I trembled, shaking, needing him.
“You must be quiet,” he growled, his voice somewhat off-kilter. “For the good of us both.”
He inhaled deeply, and his body pressed slightly harder against me.
I could have come right then and there if he so much as brushed my nipples with an arm.
I was so on fire, so needy. Every part of me ached with an arousal I couldn’t have summoned if I wanted.
It wasn’t my doing—it was his. He made me like that.
And he wasn’t even trying. I shivered, trying to imagine what it would be like if he wanted to make me his. How much more intense could it get? Could I even handle it, or would my brain simply shut down?
I tried to get a handle on myself. Maintaining my composure would be key to not throwing myself at him.
Which I most certainly would not let myself do.
I’d sworn off men. I needed time to stop and think and figure out my life.
It was Dela-time, as I’d said to Chelsea. Time to focus on me and me alone.
Besides, the last attractive man who’d made my pussy tingle turned out to be a piece of shit who treated me as such. I was less than eager to see what someone sexier and even more arrogant would be like. Nobody needed to feel as low as I knew he would make me feel after we were done.
Yet, struggle as I might, I couldn’t stop myself. My body continued to heat up, and the throbbing between my legs didn’t subside. It grew stronger.
He had kidnapped me. Why was I letting him make me feel that way? What was wrong with me?
“Why do I have to be quiet?” I asked, finally pulling my mouth away from his hand. I kept my voice low, humoring him, though part of me wondered what he’d do if I continued to speak louder.
“Because,” he said, looking past me to the mouth of the cave, where the only source of light entered, “we must avoid being detected.”
“Are we hiding?” I asked, confused.
“In a way,” he said. “It would be best if we didn’t attract any attention until you’re home safe.”
“Just how much danger am I in?” I wanted to know, suddenly worried for my well-being. There I was, somehow brought to a place I didn’t know, and the strongest man I’d ever met didn’t want to be seen with me.
That didn’t make me feel very comfortable.
“I will keep you safe,” he hissed protectively. “Come, we must go!”
“Why?” I asked, starting toward the cave entrance.
“Not that way,” Ember said, snatching my arm. I recoiled from the searing heat of his touch, my body roaring to life even as he dragged me deeper into the cave away from the exit.
“What are we doing? Why are we going this way?”
“Because,” he explained, even as the sound of people approaching reached my ears, “they’ve found us.”