by ammyford1
“I’m going to lift you up. You will need to sit with your legs dangling out, don’t worry I won’t let you fall. I am going to straddle you, I’ll count to three and then we’ll jump together, okay?”
“No, not okay. Do you really think this is a good idea?”
“I am strong enough to take the impact and I will shield you from the ground. The worst you’ll feel is winded.” I was glad that one of us was convinced it was going to be okay.
I reluctantly moved in front of him and he placed his hands on my waist. My pulse picked up a notch. Did my desire for him have no boundaries? How reckless was my body to still be affected by his touch when we were about to throw ourselves out of the window of a moving train?
In one deft movement Ahran swung me up and through the window until I was sitting on the window frame. I clutched the top of the frame in panic. Before I knew it, he was balanced on the window frame with his legs either side of me. I struggled to keep my legs still as the wind whistled past.
I felt his mouth close to my ear. The train was virtually silent but the noise of the wind buffeted in my ears.
“Okay, tuck your head into your chest.” He had one arm around my waist and was gripping the top of the window frame with his other hand.
I tucked my head down as far as I could, too frozen by fear to argue.
“One.”
Against my better judgement, I let go and Ahran held me tightly to him. I closed my eyes. This came close to being the most scared I had ever been in my life, surely we were jumping to our deaths?
“Two.”
I swallowed and sent up a silent prayer.
“Three.”
I felt the thrust of his hips as he pushed us away from the window frame and I let out a soundless scream, the kind of scream you do in a terrifying dream. We flew through the air and for a moment I felt weightless. Ahran tucked my head further into my chest and wrapped himself around me. I was completely cocooned by his large muscular body.
We hit the ground, the impact forcing the breath out of me as if I had been hit by the train we had just jumped out of. Like clothes in a tumble dryer, we began to roll over and over through the undergrowth and after what seemed like an eternity we finally stopped. I laid there not moving, frightened that every bone in my body had been broken. I was lying on my right side and Ahran was still holding me with his body curved against my back, his knees crooked into the back of mine.
“Sophie?” His voice was urgent.
I wasn’t quite able to speak.
“Are you alright?”
I detected a note of panic.
I forced myself to answer. “I don’t know,” I croaked. My lungs felt like they were stuck together. “I…can’t…breathe.”
“Just relax and breathe in slowly.”
I’d been winded before but this was something else. I tried to do as he said and relaxed, I could feel the panic rising as I struggled to drag the air into my lungs.
“Go up onto all fours, you might find it easier.”
I did as he suggested, although every one of my muscles protested. It did feel better, there didn’t seem to be so much pressure on my chest. Gradually, I took one shaky breath and then another. I ached from head to toe but the sheer fact that I was able to move meant that my initial assessment had been incorrect. All bones were intact.
Ahran gently rubbed my back.
“How about you? Are you okay?” I said rocking back onto my heels.
I turned to look at him, terrified that he might be hurt. It was difficult to make out his face, it was pitch black.
“I am fine, I am sure I’ll have the odd bruise but nothing that won’t heal.”
I put my arms around his neck and hugged him. He gently put his arms around me and hugged me back.
“We’ve got to stop having these near death moments,” I said, pulling away. “That has got to be the craziest thing I have ever done. How is it that neither of us are hurt?”
“You really need to start trusting me more.” I could hear his smile rather than see it. It was the first time I’d really been aware of his superhuman strength.
“Do you think you can stand up?” he said as he got to his feet.
“Yes I think so,” I said, putting it to the test. He put his hand out to steady me. “Ah!” I winced
“What is it?” he asked anxiously.
“My shoulder hurts.”
“Whereabouts?” His thumb began tracing the muscles of my shoulder blade.
“Ouch, there, where your thumb is now.”
He stabbed his thumbs either side of where it hurt.
“Ahran!” I was a little taken aback by how hard he had pressed, didn’t he realise how painful it was?
“Now circle your shoulder. It should start to feel a little easier.”
I circled it a few times and he was right. “What did you just do?”
“Pressure points.”
“Pressure points?”
“You just needed to release the tension between the two pressure points, your muscle had gone into spasm.”
I circled it another couple of times expecting it to hurt but it didn’t.
“Oh right, thanks.” He really was a one man survival machine.
“Sophie, I have to hand it to you, you are one brave Sapien. You walk away from being strangled without as much as a backward glance, you shoot a trained killer without hesitation and then you jump off a train with little complaint. I don’t know of many Ramians who would have coped with what you’ve put up with over the last couple of days.”
I didn’t like to admit how good it felt to hear the admiration in his voice.
“I’m no ordinary Sapien,” I said.
He laughed. “No you are certainly not ordinary.” Something in his tone made my stomach flutter.
“Okay, so what do we do now?” I asked, suddenly feeling embarrassed.
“We walk.”
“I had a feeling you might say that. Have you any idea where we are?” I asked as we began to pick our way through the undergrowth.
“No, not a clue.”
“Don’t you have some kind of inbuilt navigation system? What kind of superhuman are you?” I teased. I wasn’t sure why I felt so jolly all of a sudden. Maybe it was because I had just survived another brush with death, maybe it was because for the time being we were safe, no one was following us and no one knew where we were, or maybe it was because I had just earned Ahran’s respect.
We were walking through undergrowth in a wooded area and it was almost impossible to see where I was putting my feet. I stumbled a number of times but Ahran’s arm came out and caught me every time. I couldn’t tell how long we had been walking but it seemed like we were moving deeper into the wood rather than towards civilisation.
“I’m not sure how much farther I can walk,” I said, stumbling for the umpteenth time. I felt absolutely exhausted, all I wanted to do was climb into bed, but I had no idea how far away bed was. “
“You are doing really well Sophie. Try to keep going a bit longer. I am hoping we might come across a farm so we can bed down in a barn for the night.”
This wasn’t quite what I had in mind. The wood seemed to be thinning out and it looked like we were walking into a more open space.
“I can smell sheep. With a bit of luck we might come across a lambing hut,” he speculated.
I sniffed the air but all I could smell was a feint earthy smell as our feet disturbed the undergrowth. I tried to picture what a lambing hut might look like; it must be where sheep gave birth. I think I might have preferred to sleep out under the stars.
“There!” Ahran said, making me jump.
“What is it?”
“A lambing hut.”
I strained my eyes in the darkness but couldn’t see beyond more than a few paces.
“I’ll have to take your word for it,” I said dryly.
We walked for a few more minutes and then I could just about make out the outline of a small buildin
g. His night vision was so much better than mine.
Was there anything he didn’t do better?
The lambing hut wasn’t quite what I was expecting. It was the size of a large garden shed and had curtains at the window. Why on earth would sheep need curtains?
“Do sheep really give birth in these huts?”
Ahran chuckled. “No of course they don’t. These huts are for the shepherds. When sheep are lambing it’s necessary to keep a close eye on them. We like our animals to give birth as naturally as possible and because our climate is mild we don’t bring them indoors to lamb. The shepherd sleeps in a lambing hut so he can inspect his flock at intervals during the night.”
“Oh,” I said, laughing at my own ignorance.
We approached the hut and I stumbled up the steps which were steeper than I thought. Ahran lifted the latch and the door swung open. It looked like we had somewhere to spend the night after all.
“There should be everything here we need, these huts are usually pretty well equipped and we aren’t too far away from lambing season.” Ahran felt his way around the room and found a wind-up lamp hanging on the wall. He got to work winding it up to charge the battery.
“Once I’ve got this going, I’ll light the fire.”
“There’s a fire?” I was starting to feel chilly and wrapped my arms around myself, the thought of a warming fire made me shiver with anticipation.
“Yes, there’s a small log burning stove over there.”
I was still struggling to make anything out in the dark.
“There.” He finished winding the lamp and switched it on. It wasn’t overly bright but it cast a subtle glow around the inside of the hut.
Ahran was right, there was a small wood stove against one of the walls and a neat pile of logs stacked next to it. It was as if someone had been expecting us. My eyes travelled around the room and rested on the bed at the end. It wasn’t a double but it was wider than a single and big enough to accommodate a Ramian. It was going to be snug with both of us in there. The thought of a night snuggled up to Ahran was scary and comforting at the same time. I was too exhausted to worry about sharing a bed with him tonight.
“Do you think there might be some bedding anywhere?” I said, walking over to it. The mattress was bare and uninviting.
“Have a look underneath, there might be some blankets there,” Ahran suggested as he got to work lighting the fire.
Sure enough there was a plastic box with a lid and in it was a pillow, a sheet and a couple of blankets. I took them out and shook them. They smelt a bit stale but they were dry. I set about making up our bed for the night. When I had finished, it looked much more inviting and a hundred times better than the straw bed I had imagined we might be spending the night on.
Ahran had got the fire going and the hut was feeling much cosier.
“That’s better,” I said, moving over to the fire and holding my hands out.
Ahran started to look through the wall cupboard above a small table and two chairs that were pushed up against the wall. “Sometimes they leave some basic supplies of food. It depends how long ago it was last used or how soon they intend on using it again,” he said distractedly.
“It looks like we might be in luck.” He took a tin out of the cupboard and opened the lid.
I peered into it. There were some sachets of some kind of powdered hot drink and a packet of unopened biscuits. It was an unexpected but most welcome little cache. It had been hours since we had eaten. I dared to think that we were having a well-deserved run of luck after the day we’d just had.
Ahran found a tin kettle and went outside to fill it from the tap by the door. I rooted around the cupboards and found a couple of mugs. Ahran had been right. The hut was surprisingly well-equipped, it had everything a shepherd might need for a night. A five star hotel didn’t seem any more appealing at that moment.
I sat down in front of the fire and hugged my knees whilst Ahran put the kettle on top of the wood burner and emptied the sachets into two mugs.
“Is anyone likely to find us here?” I asked.
“I doubt it. The reason they have these huts is because we are a long way away from the farmhouse, or indeed any house. The chances of anyone coming here tonight are slim,” he said as he put another log on the fire. “Anyway, it’s unlikely that the sheep would be lambing yet. Now that the fire’s got going though, I’ll switch the lamp off so that there won’t be any light visible from outside, just as a precaution.” He turned off the lamp. The light from the fire was enough to cast a flickering light around the hut.
He handed me a steaming mug and sat next to me.
I took a sip of what turned out to be creamy tasting hot chocolate and stared into the fire wondering where Toby was. Would he be tucked up in bed or alone in a cold and draughty prison cell? I hated the thought of him having to suffer for one second. If that bitch Bazeera touched one hair on his head I would kill her myself!
We sipped our drinks in silence. I wondered what Ahran was thinking. Was there any part of him that thought we had a chance together?
Jesus! Who was I kidding? What hope was there? There were so many reasons why it could never work. I started to go round in the same old circle and it made me feel confused and miserable.
“What are you thinking Sophie?”
I laughed a humourless laugh. “You wouldn’t want to know.”
“Try me,” he replied.
“It’s nothing,” I said and reached for the biscuits.
“No, it is something, you look miserable.” His face was full of concern and it all very nearly came tumbling out.
“I don’t know, it’s just everything. I didn’t ask for any of this,” I said despairingly.
I put my mug down and struggled to open the biscuits, my hands were shaking and I fought the tears that were threatening to spill. Ahran took the packet from me.
“Come on he said, let’s get you into bed, you are exhausted.”
He scooped me up into his arms, laid me down gently on the bed and pulled the blanket over me.
“You need to get some rest. I’ll sleep on the floor.”
“No,” I said too loudly in the quiet of the hut. “No,” I repeated more quietly. “You can’t sleep on the floor, please, sleep in the bed, you must be just as tired as I am.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes I’m sure,” I said softly.
I moved back towards the wall to make space for him to get in and held the blanket back. He filled the space next to me and pulled me into him so that my head lay on his chest. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. There was that sense of complete security again. It felt like no harm could ever come to me as long as his arms were around me. I inhaled the smell of him and nestled closer into him. I could hear his heart beating hard and fast under my ear. In the quiet darkness of the hut the atmosphere between us had suddenly changed.
“Do you hear that Sophie? That is the effect you have on me,” he said, lacing our fingers together. I stared at our hands resting on his chest.
“I don’t know what has happened to me since I met you. I can’t seem to think straight when I’m around you,” he said quietly.
I leant up on one elbow and looked into his eyes. He looked troubled and I reached up and touched the side of his face just like I had wanted to do so many times before.
“I want to kiss you so badly.” His voice was husky and it did funny things to my insides.
I hesitated. “I want you to kiss me,” I said, my voice little more than a whisper. I did want him to kiss me more than I had ever wanted anything else in the world. Sleep was now the furthest thing from my mind. I wanted him to wrap his arms around me so that I could lose myself in him. I wanted to feel his warm skin against mine, to entwine our bodies so tightly that nothing could ever come between us.
His lips found mine and I knew there was no going back. Ahran had been right on the train. What was about to happen was inevitable and I had been a fool to think
I could stop it. I opened my mouth to the demand of his tongue and felt his intake of breath. The sensation of his hot demanding mouth made a burgeoning heat spread through my body and a quiet moan escape from my throat. My hand found the top button of his shirt. I hesitated and he gently caressed my throat.
“I have wanted to touch you since the first moment I saw you,” he said against my lips. It was all I needed to spur me on. I started to unbutton his shirt, desperate for the feel of him. I wanted to get rid of the barrier of clothes, to feel that moment when his skin would finally touch mine unhindered. There was no voice of reason now, it had upped sticks and left, allowing my desire for him to flow freely. Talina? Talina who? My need for him was so great that any rationality had deserted me, all I knew now was how it felt to be here touching him, being touched by him, and I was hungry for more.
I fumbled with the buttons on his shirt. He helped me finish the job and shrugged it off. I tentatively touched his chest and felt the contours of his muscles beneath my fingertips. His eyes were dark pools of desire in the dim light. My fingers became sensitised by the smattering of hair over his pecs. Slowly I ran my hand down the sculpted form of his stomach and felt his muscles tense. His reaction made me feel bolder. I trailed my fingers lower to the hair that dipped down below the waistband of his jeans.
I sat up and pulled my jumper and t-shirt over my head in one. I couldn’t wait any longer. I needed to feel his skin next to mine as much as I needed to take my next breath. My hands went round my back to unhook my bra.
“Don’t do that yet,” he requested.
I looked at him uncertainly. A slow smile worked its way across his face. “I’ve been waiting for you all my life, let me savour this...”
He started to plant slow kisses along my collar bone and I let my head drop back. Each kiss was slow and exquisite and I focused on the feel of his lips as they brushed over my skin. His mouth trailed down and I gasped as his tongue flicked over a hardened nipple through the lace of my bra. I moaned on my outward breath as the effect of what he was doing radiated through my body.
His hand found my other breast and his thumb mimicked the movement of his tongue.
