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Fear thundered through her veins, weakening her knees and catapulting her heart into her mouth.
She couldn’t see, couldn’t feel, couldn’t breathe.
A whimper escaped. Was that her? How could it be? It sounded like a trapped animal a thousand miles away.
Panic consumed her, turning her into a frightened child, cowering, terrified...and so, so alone...
Until her fingers acknowledged the warm, solid wall she touched and the strong, steady beat of a heart.
The urge to cling to the only human thing in the darkness overwhelmed her. She threw her arms around the broad body, cowered against its strength, folding into herself, fear choking her.
‘Please...’ she begged, taking great gulping breaths of the clean pine scent as she tried to escape the terror chasing her.
* * *
‘Cassandra... It’s okay, it’s just a power outage,’ Luke said, concerned by the choking sound and the whimpering cries coming from this woman who had been turning him on to the point of madness one minute—he’d found her guilty, outraged expression as captivating as every other damn thing about her—and then literally collapsed into his arms the next.
As soon as the lights had cut out.
The rush of shock as her whimpers echoed in the darkness transformed into the swift rush of compassion and Luke wrapped his arms around her trembling body, aware of her nails scraping at his back in desperation.
‘Shh... It’s okay, I’ve got you,’ he murmured.
Her fingers released their death grip, but still she seemed to be curled into him, her body racked by violent shudders. Was she even aware of his presence?
He sank his face into the rain-soaked, citrus-scented hair that haloed around her head and stifled the jolt of desire. How could she be driving him nuts one second...and be so defenceless the next?
That desire shamed him now—the way it had in the cove, when he’d spotted her watching him. But for very diffe
rent reasons.
He’d wanted to goad her, he realised. Wanted to make her as angry and frustrated as he was about the chemistry that would not die when he’d found her sneaking into the kitchen.
And he’d succeeded.
But that impulse had gone south pretty quickly. Because he’d seen the same shocked arousal, the same vicious awareness in her eyes, that had tormented him for days.
And then the lights had gone out and she had retreated somewhere he couldn’t follow.
All he could do was hold her until she found herself again.
He wanted to deny her sudden switch from hot, aggravating woman to terrified child—wanted to dismiss it as another trick, another game, another act to garner his sympathy or his co-operation. But she’d never tried to elicit his sympathy before. She’d stood up to him, even offering him comfort when he hadn’t asked for it.
‘Please don’t leave me.’
The hoarse plea pierced through the last of his cynicism.
‘I... I can’t be alone...not in the darkness,’ she added.
Her voice was so small and scared it crucified him.
‘I won’t,’ he said, finding her face in the darkness, tracing his thumbs over her cheeks. Moisture coated his fingertips, the tears almost as shocking as her fear. ‘Just hang on. The emergency generator will kick in any second.’
He’d wanted her at his mercy—wanted her to admit she was as tortured by the relentless desire as he was, as desperate, as close to the edge... But having her in his arms like this, so vulnerable, so terrified, so dependent, did something to him.
None of it good, all of it disturbing.
They stood together for seconds which felt like hours as he willed the lights to come on, aware of the shivers still racking her body.
