Into the Flames (Perilous Connections: Book Two) (8 page)

I close my eyes to try and lessen the d
isaster zone that is my body.
P
erhaps if
I don’t
watch him it won’t be so bad.
I won’t feel so exposed or needy.

I squeeze my eyes closed. I gasp at the feel of his fingers skimming the unbearably sensitive flesh between my
legs as he rights my underwear.
I tense as he pauses there, there is a small groan from him, then
finally, blessedly he moves on
and within moments he is done fastening my jeans.

Then he does the same to his own clothing.

“Are you alright, sweeting?”

Sweeting?
Yet another nickname.
He is chockfull
of them. I
t would be funny if I could laugh but I
cannot. A
ll I want to do is weep and hide my face.

I feel his hot breat
h on my face as he leans closer.
I c
an still taste his mouth and, oh my
traitorous mouth, my lips
tremble for just one more kiss. O
ne more feel of him.
I swallow, force my lids open.

Wrong mistake.
H
e is so close.
I c
an see where the gr
ey and silver meet in his eyes
and the shadow of his morning whiskers
across those strong cheekbones and square chin
.

I search his eyes an
d I swear that I
see
them softening as we stare mutely at one another.

“Will you let me and my family go back home?”

He straightens abruptly as
if
I’ve attacked him again,
then
he turns his head away from me towards the bathroom door.

So now he’s concerned about privacy. I want
to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness
of it.

Then he faces me again and a cold gust
of air flushes the last traces
of heat from my body. “No. You know that’s not possible right now.”

My chin quivers
with
the
bitter taste of the u
njustness of him all over again. But
this time it
’
s ten tim
es worse. My eyes become slit
s. “Y
ou mean not until you’re finished using us to hide
from Emmanuel
, r
ight?”

He transforms before my eyes and I can almost see the hardness rising up, blocking off the semblance of humanity that our lovemaking had brought out in him.

He mutter
s something beneath his breath,
rakes a hand t
hrough his already tousled hair,
courtesy of me, I blush.
“Yes, not until then.”

“And when will that be?” I demand harshly, my face is
a
fire with all the emotion
s
rioting
, swirling
inside my mind and
body. “W
hen you get us killed?”

He slams a hand against the wall, making
me
jump.
I quickly
collect myself. I’ve got to know.

“You cannot do this. You
have no right,” I return
.

He offers me
a
wi
ntery smile
. “T
hat’s where you’r
e wrong. I have every right. I’
m your husband.”

I groan at the use of that
word tha
t in any other situation could have had the potential to fill me with
joy.

But not now.
N
ot with this man.
As it is the hurt of hi
s revelation is too much to
bear
. T
here is no place left inside me for it.
“That’s why you married me isn’t it,” I bite out between clenched teeth, “to become a citizen, so you can hide
out anywhere in the Caribbean like a coward
from justice.”

Before the final words have left my mouth he looms over me like an avenging spirit,
an extremely pissed off spirit. His e
yes
are
alight and burning in his
face
which
is filled with such fury an
d torment, I blanch
in
fear.
Calling him a coward was going too far, after all he had saved me from Emmanuel when he didn’t have to.

But he doesn’t touch me. H
is
hands hang clenched at his side
, fists bunched until I can
see the fat veins sticking out through the tanned flesh.

His eyes have be
come like lightening. “The reason I am running
will never be your concern. Do you understand?” he glares at me to re
iterate his point, “and yes, I’
m
a coward but at this moment I’
m afraid you’re
stuck with a coward for a husband for as long as I see fit.”

I bite my lips, trying to close off the feel of his words piercing
into my flesh.

“I can tell the immigration officers in Montserrat that you are a wanted man,” I fling up at him.

Instead of going off into the rage which I had expected, I see something remark
able, resignation
followed by
pain
which
shift
s
in his
eyes before he shrugs
it away.

“Y
es, I suppose
you can do that. I won’t stop you if that’s what you want. But keep in mind that
in marrying you I have also become a Caribbean citizen and they can
’t just toss me back o
nto a plane and send me home.”

And that means that Emmanuel could still come after him or me.

B
lackness yawn
s
at my feet but I cling to my instincts stubbornly. “You’
re trying to hide from
your past sins, which if Emmanuel is any indication must be horrible.”

He doesn’t repl
y, merely stares at me with closed
eyes, then he turns and
takes the few steps to the door. H
e reaches for the handle, releases the lock, and then he turns and looks back at me still standing dumbfounded on the spot where we’d made love less than
five
minutes before. “You will go where I go and when I’m through with
you,
you’ll know.” He opens the door and
leaves.

I slump to the floor wincing
as I hit the hard
linoleum flooring.

A heavy-
set woman bursts in
to the bathroom moments later. S
he shoots me an allover examination that is made comical by the raging curiosity which her
raccoon eye makeup
intensifies
.

But she is in need and she scoots past me to go
pee.
S
he emerges swiftly and goes to the sink. W
ashing her hand she watches me
avidly in the
glass
over the face basins. She
gives a few yanks to her fire-
engine weave that is t
ossed on her head like an overgrown fern
. “Girl, I would have done the sam
e thing.”

I
blink, dumbfounded. I
can’t believe she has the effrontery to talk to me about what Nate and I had just done
in the bathroom
. Had she been l
istening at the bathroom door?
The very thought makes me want to die
on the
spot but I don’t and a fie
rce blush is all that shows
my extrem
e embarrassment. I close my mouth
and prepare to leave but she is undaunted.

S
he
snatches her lip gloss from her purse,
holds out a hand to me.
“Oh no honey, don’t be offended.
I
ain’t
trying to be nosy but i
f I had to do one of them,”
she wiggles her body in her too-
tight shirt and pants ensemble,
h
er butt actually jiggles like a
jello
cake
,
“
It would be him.
”
She fans herself dramatically and
carries on. “O
h my,
that dude is
soooo
fine
, that hair, those eyes
!”
She e
nds her raptures with a climactic
shiver.

I am sorely tempt
ed to laugh but restrain myself.
I see that she’s noticed my dilemma because her eye
s twinkle mischievously, a left brow
rises impudently. T
here is mischief in her gaze but no maliciousness.

I cannot
find it in myse
lf to be mad at her words
th
ough
now
I want a bath having
reali
zed that at least one person kno
w
s
what was going on inside
the
bathroom.

Sensing my lack of animosity, she goes on. “He’s a tourist right? Can you hook me up?”

Despite everything I feel
my lips s
tretch into a bittersweet smile.
I s
hake my head.
“No he isn’t a tourist,” I say with a twisted laugh,
“he’s
my husband.”

Her
brows hit the roof as she stares
at me. “Then why you in here crying
?
” she asks.

I was just about to leave,
but
I let my face relax against the bathroom door, “because I hate him and I am going to find a way to turn him into the police.”

I ignore her shocked expression and slip through the door before she can ask me any more questions.

I make my way slowly to the front
, and
simultaneously I search for Nate
amongst the passengers
. He has regained his previous spot but he is standing, and along with everybody else his back is facing me.

Montserrat has just come in
to full view
. I forget my troubles
as
I glance at the monstrous outgrow
th that has become the Soufriere Hills Volcano. I have
never visited the island before but I’ve
seen images of it in the newspaper
.
Right where the volcano sits the greenery which
covered its majest
ic slopes
is gone
and in its place is a cloak of grey ash, whose journey downhill can be traced by the lack of trees in its path.
Plumes of smoke are rising
from little vents all along th
e bulging veins of the mountain. M
ost chillingly is the mouth of the monster
,
half of which we c
an see from this far out to sea. I
t is gaping and wide and strangely empty of smoke.
In stark contrast at the foot of the mountain juts out a green garden that stretches back through the island unbroken.

Familiar little fingers grasp mine and I look down int
o Aubrey’s bright eyes.
Elaine
is hovering in the background, possibly still smarting from the remnants of our argument. “Isn’t it awesome Daphne?”

I can’t help but smile. I would give anything to look at the hideous beast before us with wonder but
I cannot. I feel reverence in its
presence but it’s clouded by
fear
. I
t is too big, too dominant and possessing too much destructive force to arouse my admiration.

“
If you don’t behave yourself
I may just have to cook you in it,” I tease.

Aubrey’s
smile
widens. “Daphne, you know that
we can’t go on its slopes
. It’s forbidden now.”

I wiggle my nose. “Who told you that?”

He bea
ms at knowing something I don’t
. “Mrs. Holliday, my science teacher.”

“Ah
.”

I feel my fa
ce start to burn and I know Nate’s watching
me before I raise my head slowly and hold his eyes. There is no warmth in his face. We st
are at each other until Elaine
deliberately injects herself in
to my lin
e of vis
ion. She gives me a small smile. I don’t return it. H
er face wobbles a bit but she
holds onto it, “maybe you can get to know some
of my relatives while w
e
’
re
here,” she says hopefully.