5. Lorraine
Chapter Five
Lorraine
L ast night felt like a dream.
When I opened my eyes, I blinked in the bright light that fell through the open curtains. The wooden ceiling, the heavy sleeper wood furniture, the quilt on the bed—all was unfamiliar.
I frowned, trying to figure out where I was.
The memories of last night crashed into me like waves on the sand.
Oscar had sold me to pay off his debt.
I’d escaped his debt collectors who would have done… what would they have done to me? Sold me off to someone else, no doubt. They were human traffickers.
I’d ended up here in the forest, in a cabin with a stranger.
Terror washed over me in waves. My body ran hot and cold, and I shivered and sweated at the same time.
I sat up in bed and studied my arms and my legs. I’d had so many scrapes and cuts and bruises last night after crashing through the trees and falling onto the ground.
The scrapes were still there, but they were almost gone. The cuts looked days old, like they’d scabbed over a long time ago and were nearly healed. My bruises were nothing more than yellowed shadows of a place where the purple, mottled skin used to be.
I frowned. This was weird.
But everything since I’d been sold last night felt surreal.
If I’d woken up in my own bed this morning, I’d have thought it was just a bad dream. I still struggled to believe any of this had happened.
I rubbed my arms and climbed out from underneath the thick blankets that lay on the bed. I’d hung my robe up against the closet door last night. I still only wore the T-shirt I slept in. I pulled the robe around my shoulders and stepped out of the room.
The man who’d helped me last night wasn’t on the couch. My stomach twisted. He’d said he would stay—had he left me?
“Morning,” a deep voice said behind me, and I spun around.
In the daylight, I got a good look at him. He was delicious. Dark hair, sky-blue eyes, and skin like marble. He had sharp features, with his square jaw and a nose as straight as an arrow. His eyes were deep in their sockets, and his thick, dark brows knit together as he studied me.
“You’re here,” I breathed.
“I said I would be,” he said.
His voice was like velvet, rubbing against my skin when he talked. Something about the sound of it made me want to wrap myself in it.
It was bizarre. It was hypnotic.
“I’m Lorraine,” I blurted out. “We never… I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself last night, with everything going on.” I blushed.
“Ash,” he said.
“Thank you for last night,” I added.
“How did you sleep?” He looked uncomfortable with me thanking him.
“Okay,” I said. “Like the dead.”
“You had a rough night.”
I groaned. “You have no idea.”
He didn’t ask what had happened or why I’d been in the forest. He only nodded.
I cleared my throat. “Do you have coffee?”
Ash frowned and it made his blue eyes seem brighter. He turned toward the small, open-plan kitchen. He lifted his hands, hesitating before he opened cabinets and took out mugs. He knew this cabin, clearly, but his movements were uncertain, as if he hadn’t been here in a while.
I sat down on the armrest of the couch and looked around me. The cabin was old. Really old. It looked like it was from a different time. The furniture was rough around the edges, as if it was handmade. In the kitchen, the stove was an old beast that needed a fire stoked in its belly. Ash did that, coaxing flames to life before he put an old-fashioned kettle on the stove so it could boil.
When he opened the cabinet, clay containers were lined up on the shelves. I felt as if we were in a different reality, removed from the world.
“I don’t have coffee,” he said. “I have tea.”
“Tea is okay,” I said.
I ran my hand through my messy hair, my fingers getting caught in the tangles. I tried to smooth it instead.
He nodded and scooped dried tea leaves out of a jar. No tea bags.
“Have you lived here long?” I asked, trying to make small talk.
Ash shook his head. “I don’t live here.”
“Oh.”
He didn’t offer anything else, so silence reigned. I watched him move around the kitchen, making us his ancient tea. His movements were fluid and graceful. It was hard to imagine a body that large and muscular could be so graceful, but there was a sophistication about the way he carried himself.
He glanced at me when he felt me looking, and my cheeks colored and I looked away.
I looked around the cabin again. It wasn’t only old, as if it had been built in the days before modern technology. The small windows let in enough light that the candles weren’t necessary, but the cabin was a little dark and gloomy. It wasn’t just the room, though. The cabin felt like it was alive, with emotions of its own, and our being here disturbed the peace of it somehow.
“Here,” Ash said, appearing next to me. I jerked before I took the cup from him.
“Thank you,” I said.
Ash remained standing, holding his own cup. It looked like a kids’ cup in his large hand.
The tea had a bitter taste when I sipped it, but the warmth rushed through my body. I reveled in the feel as it defrosted me.
“I have to get home,” I said. “My sister needs me.”
“You’re not leaving,” he said.
I frowned. “Why not? You said I could leave as soon as the sun was up.”
“I was wrong.”
I narrowed my eyes. “So, I’m your prisoner instead of theirs?” Anger bubbled to the surface, and I forgot my nerves. I’d already been taken against my will by strangers who meant to hurt me. I wasn’t going to allow myself to end up in that situation again.
I jumped up, put down the tea on the wooden armrest where I’d been sitting, and marched to the door.
“Thank you for letting me stay the night,” I said tightly. “I’m leaving now.”
I yanked the door open, and light streamed into the cabin.
Before I could step out, Ash stepped in front of me. His large body blocked my way. I looked up at him—he had to be six foot four, at least.
“Get out of my way,” I said. “I’m leaving now.”
“You can’t leave,” he said.
I tried to push past him, but he took a small step to the side, making me bump up against him. Our bodies were right up against each other, and my breath caught in my throat. The atmosphere shifted, growing thick around us, and I was aware of the muscles under his skin, the warmth that radiated from him. He oozed sheer masculinity, pure sex appeal. My body responded to him.
Warmth washed over me and pooled between my legs.
He’s no better than the brutes who took you , a voice in my head shouted, but my body and my mind weren’t on the same channel.
I wanted him. I didn’t know why, but I ached for him. Something about Ash drew me, and I needed more.
I needed all of it.
His eyes changed, going from a bright, piercing blue to a deep cobalt. His pupils dilated, and his eyes filled with lust. His lips parted, and the look on his face suggested he wanted me as much as I wanted him.
Ash dipped his head, inching his face closer to mine. I closed my eyes.
The voice in the back of my mind screamed at me to think clearly, to be rational.
I couldn’t.
All I could think about was Ash, and how close he was to me. All I could feel was how desperately I needed him to touch me.
When his lips brushed against mine, electricity ran through my body. He lifted a hand and brushed his fingers down my cheek. His touch was bewitching.
He wrapped a large hand around my waist and pulled me against him. His lips mashed against mine, and he slid his tongue into my mouth. I moaned, my need for him consuming me.
Ash walked me backward into the cabin, kicking the door shut. I should have worried about that.
I didn’t.
He pushed me against the crude wooden wall next to the door and pressed the length of his body against mine. I ground my hips against his, and I felt his own need—he was thick and hard. He pushed my robe over my shoulders, and I shrugged out of it. It was only going to get in the way of?—
What are you doing?
I quashed the voice in my mind. I didn’t know what I was doing. It felt good.
I wanted it.
His hand slid up my body, and he cupped my breast through my T-shirt. I gasped when he kneaded and massaged me. His kisses were urgent, matching my own desire. My nipples were erect, hard in his palm through the T-shirt fabric.
Ash growled at the back of his throat, the sound deep and rumbling, and I shivered. The sexual tension in the air grew thicker still, so thick I breathed it in with every gasp.
Ash wrapped his hand around my thigh and lifted me up with ease. I wrapped my legs around his waist, and he ground his cock against my bare crotch. He wore some kind of brown cotton pants, and they didn’t do much to hide the feel of him. The barrier between his hard cock and my wet sex was very thin.
Ash moved his head to my neck and nibbled the skin there. I tilted my head to the side and moaned when he nuzzled and kissed me. His hands were large and capable, and he slid them down to the hem of my shirt and slowly worked it up. His hands branded my bare skin as he exposed my body.
I wanted him so badly, I trembled and shivered with need. My lust for him was all-consuming. I’d never felt like this about anyone.
Not even Oscar.
The moment I thought about him, I shoved him out of my mind. He was nothing to me anymore.
Ash slipped his hand under the T-shirt bunched around my chest now, and his hand found my bare breast. He rolled my nipple between his thumb and forefinger.
He kissed me again and lowered me to the floor.
Before I could say something, before I could think straight, he sank to his knees. He lifted my leg with his large hand around my thigh and threw it over his shoulder. I gasped when he pinned me against the floor, and his fingers found my slit.
He flicked his fingers over my clit, looking up at me with those blue eyes that made me forget about everything but him.
He broke eye contact and leaned forward, closing his mouth around my pussy. I gasped and moaned as he flicked his tongue over me, sucking my clit until I trembled and whimpered with pleasure. I wanted a release. I craved him inside me.
He pushed me closer and closer to the edge, and my whimpers turned into cries.
When I was on the verge, Ash pushed two fingers into me, and I cried out. He pumped his fingers in and out while he continued the onslaught on my clit.
The pleasure grew inside me until I felt like I would explode, and then I came undone at the seams. I orgasmed, pleasure washing through my body like waves. It crashed down on me again and again, and I closed my eyes and let the pure ecstasy transport me.
“What are you doing to me?” I asked in a trembling voice when I came down from my sexual high.
Ash froze and looked up at me. His mouth was slick with my sex, and the scent of our arousal merged between us.
Ash leaned back on his heels and stood with ease. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before he reached for me and tugged my shirt down to my legs again, covering me up.
“You’re right,” he said.
“What? No, I didn’t mean…” It had been a figure of speech, not a genuine question.
“You can’t leave,” Ash said, getting back to what we talked about before. “They’re still out there.”
“How do you know?”
“I saw them.”
“When?” I frowned, trying to get back to the point of discussion when I was still reeling in the aftermath of a powerful orgasm.
“I was out there this morning,” Ash said. He didn’t make eye contact with me. “Stay here until it’s safe.”
I nodded. I trusted him. I didn’t know why—he’d stopped me from leaving, and he had no boundaries, although he was a complete stranger to me.
Not that you tried to stop him , I reminded myself.
I didn’t know what it was about him. I didn’t usually do this, especially not with complete strangers.
Ash was different from other men I knew. He terrified me. He oozed raw power, and something about him was dangerous, but I trusted him.
“There are clothes in the closet you can use. They should be roughly your size.”
He opened the door. His attitude was abrupt now.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“I have to take care of a few things. I’ll be back.”
He shut the door behind him. I heard his footsteps go down the porch steps, and then silence as he walked away.
I stared at the closed door, trying to calm down. My body was worked up, still aching for sex, and my mind spun with questions.
Nothing made sense, least of all Ash.