A woman’s voice
“...Hello?” Somehow, her tone is as smooth as butter, even through the frightened tremble that undercuts her words.
I already somehow know who it is.
It has to be her. No other voice could match that face.
I slide my weapon back into its holster and get ready to handle her. If she’s anywhere near as feisty as her sneer from last night suggests, she’s about to attack.
It doesn’t take long for her to confirm my intuition. The backdoor bursts open and I’m nearly blinded by the light that washes out from behind it. If I wasn’t prepared, I might actually have been in trouble. Instead, all I have to do is step aside and reach for her arm. I see the silhouette of a long kitchen knife in her hand; I catch her wrist before the blade can touch my skin. I hold her tight, and the knife quickly drops from her grip and clangs off the tiles below.
I furiously blink, trying to regain my sight in the sudden change of lighting. The woman struggles desperately under my grasp, but I’m too strong. I reach around her body and grab her other wrist, and then I push her backwards until she’s pinned against the wall.
Slowly, my vision re-focuses. The light from the now open doorway casts our inter-tangled shadows against the opposite wall. I feel her inflamed breath wash against my face, and then I see her.
Those big brown eyes are even more intense up close. I tighten my grip. She stops struggling. Her plump lips quiver and her soft limbs shake. I hold her steady.
“... You,” she whispers, finally recognizing me.
You, I think, with no intention of ever letting her go.
8
Nia
A crackling hand of dried lava wraps around my heart and extinguishes the fiery courage I had been building up inside. I thought I might have a chance if I caught the invader by surprise, but he was too quick, too strong, too furious. No light seeps from his grip. He has me, dead to rights.
I can only stare up at the steaming nightmare that pins me against the wall. He’s even more domineering up close than I could have ever imagined. He towers over me like a great oak tree with eyes that shine with the blue heat of two raging stars. The strength in his hard fingers drains all of my strength until I feel like a twig washed up against his broad trunk.
His fiery breath
is warm against my cheeks. Still, I shiver under his intense stare. There’s something cold and hard about him that overcomes the furnace we find ourselves in. His bulging chest pushes against my heaving breasts.
I grind my teeth, fighting the thought of how good this feels. I save my energy until I have enough to put up another bit of a fight, but it’s all for show. I’m his, and we both know it.
“...Hello? Hello? This is Operator 29. What’s the location of your emergency?”
Shit. If I can hear it, then so can he. As soon as I’d recognized that sound of footsteps out in the hall, I’d grabbed my cell phone and dialled 911. I wasn’t about to let myself get caught off guard again. Still, I didn’t have enough time. It must be a busy night in the underworld, because my phone rang for far longer than I’d ever hoped and emergency line would. Fuck this scummy city and all of its problems. Why can’t someone worry about me for once?
I’d felt the stranger’s presence even before I’d heard another one of his steps. So, I grabbed the knife I’d borrowed from the kitchen and got ready to pounce. A lot of good it did me. Maybe I should have waited for him to come inside, but I was too nervous to stay put for one second longer. Someone big and mean was just outside my door and no one was coming to help me, so I put aside my phone and tried my best.
As usual, my best wasn’t good enough.
The stranger’s steely blue eyes wander over my shoulder and towards my cell phone on the ground behind me. His massive hands make my wrists feel so insignificant and useless; his giant body makes me feel completely captive. I want to struggle more, but I’m defeated. All my energy is drained through his powerful grip.
“What do you—“ I start, before I’m shut-up. I’m not exactly a small woman—I’m taller than average and I have curves enough to tip the scale in my favor if I were fighting someone around my size—but when the giant stranger tosses me to the ground, I feel like a weightless toothpick. There’s no fighting back against this man; all I can do is brace myself for the fall.
The hard tiles of the floor smack against my open palms and send a cold shockwave up my arms. Before I can gather myself and turn around, I’m covered in the beastly stranger’s shadow again. His darkness completely consumes me, and I collapse down onto my forearms when I hear him hang up on the operator.
“... Fuck you,” I manage to muster. It almost doesn’t feel like my voice, but I’m glad it came out. I’m so sick of being pushed around—by debtors, by life, by this guy.
I push myself up onto my knees, keeping my back to him. His shadow is frozen over me, like a dark weight that refuses to let any light through. “What are you doing here?” I ask through heavy breaths, not ready to look around at him just yet.
“You gave my description to the police?” a low rumbling voice asks from behind me. It’s enough to make my insides tremble. He sounds like thunder. I hang my head.
“... Not a very good one,” I admit, ashamed for ever letting myself find pleasure in this asshole’s image. I’d thought I’d seen a hint of something softer in his eyes the other night. Guess I was wrong.
“Why not?” he growls.