Saved By A Stranger (6 page)

* * * * *

She ran home in a mad dash.

She let herself in through her open bedroom
window. The missing bricks in the wall of the building made a good
a makeshift ladder if one was strong enough, but she had scraped
open her hands and knees as she climbed up.

Her bedroom came as a shock—bed messed up
and broken, ropes left carelessly on the floor. She ran her
fingertips over the wood, feeling the splinters. It looked as if he
had just stood up, breaking her bed in the process. She’d thought
perhaps a knot had come loose.

But he’d used brute force.

She took clean jeans and a shirt from the
dresser, slipped into them. Her gaze hit the book next to the
keyboard, the one she’d taken out from the library.

“
Rome in Ashes,”
she
read.

Her life, she thought, was in ashes too.

A ripple went through her and she pulled her
head up. She grabbed the keys from the desk, opened the small door
leading downstairs and headed toward the basement.

* * * * *

Where else would she run except home?

Ben climbed up the building’s wall and
stepped inside her bedroom, taking a deep breath, feeling oddly at
home in her bedroom.

His gaze fell on the pile of clothes on the
floor, the black notebook peeking out from beneath it. Liz was
nowhere to be seen, but the quiet seemed treacherous.

She was here somewhere, he was sure of it.
Taking the book into his hands, he was tempted, for half a second,
to leave again.

Then he placed the book on the desk and
began searching for his girl. The soft
snick
of a door
reached his ears and he followed the sound. On the balls of his
feet, he snuck down the stairs, her scent leading the way.

When he found her in a small storage room,
smelling of sugar and cocoa and…gasoline, he tensed, suddenly sick
to his stomach.

“
Liz, no,” he said quietly,
fearing to startle her, but also fearing if he didn’t speak up,
she’d throw the torch made of what looked like a wooden chair leg
with linen wrapped around it. The torch flickered in the darkness,
throwing shadows against the walls.

Her shoulders hunched as if someone had
slapped her hard.

“
This is none of your
business
,
” she said, and he was surprised how much insult
she could pack into the word. “Leave.”

He made a silent step toward her that
nevertheless had her swiveling around so fast her hair whipped
around her face. He neither liked the strange glimmer in her eyes,
nor the way her mouth twisted.

“
Leave,” she said again,
raising her hand so he had trouble seeing her features through the
flames.

He shook his head. “I don’t know why you do
this, but I won’t let you. Whatever it is, I’ll fix it.”

She laughed, a sound that made him ball his
hands when he heard the sadness that lingered in her tone. He
wanted to wrap her into his arms and kiss her until she felt
better. But he realized that her situation might just be too
complicated to be solved by offering a calming kiss on the
forehead.

She’d lowered her hand again and he found
himself staring into her dark gaze. She looked haunted and hurt,
and he wanted so much to help her so she could be carefree and
happy.

But he definitely couldn’t let her torch
down the neighborhood, she’d be never able to forgive herself.

“
Liz, we both know you
don’t want to do this.” Why did she want to do it? Was she trying
to cash in on her insurance policy? Was she broke? He lifted his
hands in a calming gesture and stepped toward her.

“
Honey,” he said, “let me
help—”

Fuck, he thought, as he saw her squinting at
him with outrage. He shouldn’t have called her “honey”.

She flicked the torch over her shoulder.

The heat hit her face like a blazing punch.
The torch had fallen to the ground in the farthest corner of the
small storage room and flames licked at the wooden shelves that
rose from the ground up all the way to the ceiling.

Frozen, she stared as the flames spread to
the finely woven linen bags emblazed with her shop’s logo. Hundreds
of them lined the shelves, still in their cardboard boxes. she’d
planned to give those bags away to her loyal customers. Now the
flames started licking at them with gentle tongues.

Her throat went tight and she coughed. The
smoke curling in the air made it harder to breathe. She should get
the fuck out of the house, but somehow her legs wouldn’t move.

Ben had run off.

She lifted her shirt away from her skin,
sweat beading down her back. And still, she couldn’t move, watching
how the flames spread.

Despite the flames, she grew cold, started
to shiver. She was doing it all wrong, all wrong. Her cold-blooded
strategy, out the window.

This fire wouldn’t fool any insurance. Like
the people who used lighters, who set the gasoline on fire instead
of letting it explode, she had made mistakes. Using a torch, what
was she thinking? She’d read about it, read that this was why
people got caught, got sent to jail.

Stupid, stupid her.

She did wrong, so wrong.

And then there was Ben and the fire
extinguisher in his hand, and then everything went black.

* * * * *

Cold needles pricked at her face, a roaring
in her ears.

She licked her lips, trying to drag her
eyelids open, and swallowed a mouthful of water. Blindly she
reached for the faucets, but hard hands clamped around her wrists,
holding her in place.

“
C-c-c-cold,” she said.
“Stop it, stop.”

“
Not yet,” she heard Ben’s
rumble of a voice, “the shower will do you good.”

But the water hitting her face and slicking
her clothes against her body turned a notch warmer.

“
There’s nothing like a
cold shower,” he said, “to bring you back to the
living.”

He stroked his hands up her arms and settled
around her shoulders. “I won’t let you set fire to this place. It’s
wrong, and in your heart you know it is.”

She wanted to slap him for speaking the
truth, but her shoulders slumped, shame rising in her for what she
had done.

If he hadn’t stopped her…what if the fire
had hurt other people? Her body started trembling, hard, violent
shivers that let her teeth clash together.

“
How bad—” she swallowed.
“How badly did I damage the basement?”

“
Nothing a lick of paint
won’t fix,” he said. “The shelves are ruined though. The smell of
smoke is moderate. In this neighborhood, she doubt anyone alerts
the fire brigade. What were you thinking, opening a shop in this
desolate area?”

She groaned, having asked herself the same
question more than once.

He started massaging her shoulders, and she
let out a sigh when he found her knotted muscles. Like an
avalanche, today’s images came pouring into her mind.

And what could she do?

Nothing, as usual.

She could do nothing. Nothing as Ben shot
the man who was supposed to save her. She could do nothing.

She shrugged out of her shirt and let the
water hit her breasts and stomach. She tried to peel off the pair
of jeans.

“
Shit.” Her fingernail
broke as she opened the zipper. “Shit,” she cursed again, the wet
denim so tight against her legs it wouldn’t peel off.

“
Let me,” he said,
startling her. He tugged the wet fabric slowly but steadily over
her hips and bottom. “Lift your foot,” he said, and she did, first
one then the other until her jeans landed with a wet flop on the
floor. “Better now?”

His mouth brushed lightly against hers, a
strange comfort. When he flicked his tongue against her bottom
lip.

“
Make me
forget,”
she said, surprised to hear the edge in her voice. “Make me forget
today.”

Reaching out, she grabbed a fistful of his
shirt with one hand, and reached with her other between his legs.
“You are hard,” she whispered, tracing a finger over the ridge of
his erection. “Make me come, make me come, hard, until I stop
thinking.”

His stomach muscles moved as he stripped off
his shirt, zipped open his pants. She licked her lips as his
erection sprang free. He kicked off his shoes, pants and briefs,
stepped into the shower, turned on the water again. Turning his
face into the spray, his hair turned darker, slicked against his
head.

Seeking the heat of his mouth, she leaned
forward. He turned his head, her lips landing against his jaw. She
found no laughter in his eyes, no playfulness. She turned, pressed
her cheek against the cool, wet tile. But she couldn’t look into
his eyes.

“
Turn around,” he said, his
hand gripping her shoulder. “Look at me.”

“
I want it like this,” she
said, rubbing her ass against his groin. “Do me from
behind.”

Arms wrapped around her middle, his palms
covered her breasts and then his lips touched the side of her neck.
“This is officially the last time I allow you to tell her how you
want it.”

He kneaded her breasts until her nipples
puckered. “The next time, you’ll do as I say. Deal?”

If there ever would be a next time…
“Deal.”

His erection rested thick and hot against
the crack of her ass. His hands slid down her stomach, cupped her
mound.

Her moan drowned out his hoarse groan as he
found her swollen, ready. His mouth brushed her spine as he dropped
to his knees.

Tracing a finger between her butt cheeks, he
said, “It’s hard to stay upset at you when your ass has the cutest
freckles I’ve ever seen.”

He kissed her there. Silly little kisses
that made her heart ache. She wasn’t prepared that he was gentle,
still took his time, still went to his knees to kiss her.

“
Whatever you want,” he
said, “I will do for you tonight.”

She wished he would just take her, without
asking, without waiting for her approval, in whatever way he
wanted.

She lifted her arms above her head, crossed
her wrists. “Tell me you tied my hands.”

For a breathless moment, she feared he would
laugh, would reject her wish for play pretend, then his hand
wrapped around her crossed wrists, pinned her to the tiles.

“
Your hands are tied,” he
whispered against her neck, increasing the pressure on her wrists
just a notch to make his point. “Don’t fight it or I’ll have to
punish you.”

Chills erupted over her skin, eyes fluttered
shut. “Yes,” she whispered, savoring his last words that had shot
straight to her pussy. “Spank me if I don’t behave.”

He nibbled at her shoulder with his teeth,
just enough to hurt, just enough to bring pleasure. “Anything else
I can do for you,” he murmured, catching her earlobe between his
teeth.

“
Put your fingers between
my legs, touch me, tell me how it feels,” she whispered, her heart
hammering against her ribs, and tensed as he slipped his right hand
between her legs while holding her wrists against the wall with his
other.

“
Swollen,” he said roughly,
and then pushed a finger inside her, “and hot, wet.” He slipped out
of her pussy and rimmed her ass. When he pushed his finger inside,
he choked out, “so tight.”

“
Please,” she moaned,
bucking against him when he worked his finger in and out of her ass
then slipped another finger inside her pussy. In and out, he moved,
excruciatingly slow, almost detached. “Please stop,” she begged,
and drew in a disappointed breath when he did just that.

“
What else do you want?” he
asked, his fingers trailing up the side of her rib cage, tickling
her.

“
I want your cock in my
mouth,” she said, wondering how it would feel if he held her by the
nape of her neck and ordered her to suck him.

“
Your hands are tied,” he
said, amusement ringing from his voice. “Sorry, you can’t turn
around or kneel before me.”

He increased the pressure but she wriggled
one hand free only to yell out in pain as he spanked her with his
flat hand so hard on the ass that stars danced before her eyes.
“Behave, girl,” he said roughly, sending her pussy into a spasm of
contractions as the pain grew into sharp pleasure.

“
Please,” she moaned,
moving her hips against him, seeking his touch, not caring if he
spanked or stroked, anything, but she needed the
release.

As if sensing her condition, his fingers
found her clit, working her in lazy circles. “Faster,” she
breathed, “do it faster.” This time, she knew what she wanted when
she wriggled her hand free.

Pain spread from her ass to her pussy as his
hand landed on her ass, the smacking sound making her aware how
loud her own breathing had become. “Do it again,” she said, craving
the heat his spanking created, the high the pain left her in as it
slipped into arousal.

She crossed her wrists again over her head,
hearing him swear under his breath.

“
Don’t scream like you are
one breath away from getting off…” he said behind her, and clamped
his hands around her hips. His cock slipped between her legs,
rubbing over her pussy, prodding against her clit.

“
Now,” she said. “I want
you inside me now.”

He pushed inside, pushed all the way in. She
pumped against him, seeking the stretch. The heat. He adjusted his
stance behind her, tilted her hips. He began to fuck her in
earnest, all play forgotten. Long, hard strokes hammered her toward
climax, and when her hand slipped between her legs, he didn’t stop
her. He clamped his hand over hers, following the strokes she gave
herself, as if trying to learn.