AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She pressed her lips together, because part of her knew he was right. That her year of grace would, if the nuns had their way, end in a ‘suitable’ marriage.
‘I think I’m too impatient to work in a florist.’
‘Don’t joke about this.’ He was very serious now. ‘Iamleaving tonight.’
‘I still want it to be you, Dante.’
She felt a sting on her back but ignored it, still resting her head on his shoulder, and then there was another sting. The first heavy drops of rain.
‘You should get back,’ Dante said, unwrapping her from him, ‘before it really hits.’
‘No.’
‘Come on,’ he said, almost pushing her away from the logs and further into the water. But then he stopped, and as they stood in the waist-high water she watched the frown on his face and looked down at herself.
‘I’m bleeding...’
‘No,’ he said, and they both looked around them, taking a moment to register the phenomena.
She had heard of blood rain before—distant sands hitting cooler air and staining the rain red—but never seen it.
‘Let’s get out the water.’ The sky had turned to fire, like a red and black sunset, and they were being pelted with heavy, stinging drops of red-sand-laced rain. ‘Come on...’
They grabbed their clothes and ran beneath the trees.
‘Alicia.’ He caught her. ‘You need to get back...it’s blood rain...’
‘I’ve told you already,’ she said. ‘It has to be you.’
CHAPTER NINE
THEYRAN. NOTJUSTfor shelter, but out of need.
Grabbing their clothes and the basket and running through red puddles, their bodies sandblasted as they dashed for the stone hut, they tried to breathe in air so hot it burnt to take it in.
‘I am leaving tonight.’
He was stripping the awful bra from her, warning her, telling her, and she cared not a jot. Alicia was truly the happiest she’d been.
They might have been paintballing, so red was the sand that smeared them, but who cared? He was massaging her taut round breasts and the relative cool of the hut was fading. Her only shame had been in what she wore—bared, she felt brave.
Even more so as she peeled off her knickers and felt as if she had just burst from some cocoon. She shook damp hair rather than wings, and climbed into the deep, ancient sink that was more like a trough and prayed for water.
‘Don’t waste it,’ he warned, for if there was any water there would not be much.
As they stood together he pulled the release and hot water drenched them.
‘Like a luxury hotel,’ Alicia said, for she was used to cold showers, and started to rinse her hair. He was rinsing himself, and she watched how carefully he washed the silky black hair surrounding purple flesh.
‘Wash your breasts,’ he told her, and she looked down at her puckered nipples and saw sand.
But as she washed she noticed his hungry eyes, and saw that he grew, and realised he was not merely being thoughtful.
‘Wash down there too,’ he said, still cursing about the sand, and she stood, feeling awkward about touching herself.
He took over, catching at the water, so gentle and thorough, and then a finger slid inside her and seemed to hook her.
‘Ouch!’ she exclaimed.
