JUST BREATHE (Rick Grimes Romance)

Preview Falling Down

I was wonderfully lost in the building tension. Each muscle clenched and coiling with need. A raw desire coursing through my body as his fingers trailed down my cheek cupping my chin. Crushing his lips to mine demanding my surrender I thirsted for him like I never had before.

Kneeling between my legs Rick forced them apart without need of excuse or sympathy. Dropping the weight of his body down on mine he ground our hips together. Arching my back I moaned in wanton delight pushing Rick deeper inside me......

Gasping for air as if I was choking I lurched, awakening from my dream. My greedy life like dream. Rolling over so I was sitting up my legs dangled over the side of my bed. I struggled to regain my breath as stifling hot air rushed in and out of my lungs. There was a crushing weight upon my shoulders intolerable as it weighed down on me. A cloak if you will of demonds, depression and loss that despite it all I could not shake free from.

Laying back down on my bed I tried to wipe the sweat from my face and body using my bed sheets. Infuriated I curled them up in a ball pitching them across the room. Laying back down on my side I cradled my face in hands trying to sooth my restless soul.

I hated the night and all that it brought. The booming silence with a train of empty thoughts. Nightmares of the death of a love I had lost. Quiet and still I felt so alone and so lost. It was at night that I sometimes wished for the comfort of death. A release from the hell and personnel torment that I couldn't escape even months later. A future that no longer seemed bright but one that solely meant just surviving but another day.

It had been what I estimated to be three months since Shane and I had left the prison in the early pre dawn hours. Three long months since I had turned my back on the people I had once considered to be my family. When I had hung my head, gave up and ran. It was too late to change my mind... to go back... to say I was sorry.

It was thirty minutes on the other side of Atlanta when we turned off the interstate onto a winding gravel road along the river basin. South past several abandoned farm houses where generations of families once toiled their lives away. Now laying in ruin as Mother Nature slowly claimed the earth back as hers.

After travelling several miles the road came to a T intersection.. Assuming that Shane would turn either left or right I hung on for dear life as he gunned the jeep into the ditch line straight ahead. Barley squeezing through two trees we bounced up the incline to a path. I guess it wasn't so much of a path as a overgrown trail. It was what I would describe as something you would imagine a horse and buggy travelling down years before roads were built.

The thunderstorm boomed above us giving but brief flashes of light to the overhang and dark shadows of what lay around us. Rain was coming down so hard it felt like pellets agains the skin. Making a loud ting sounds as it hit the shell of the jeep. The wind seemed to moan as its commanded the branches down at us in grand sweeping motions. Everything about where we were, what we were doing screamed that we should not be here. That I should not be here.

Looking over at Shane he had a crazed almost psychopathic look to his face. As we bounced over rocks and pot holes big enough for a large person to lay down in I was tossed about the jeep like a Raggedy Anne doll. Shane however remained stiff as a board and focus. A man hell bent on determination.

Slamming on the brakes we didn't have a hope in hell of stopping. Arcing the wheel in an attempt to maneuver around the fallen tree we slid. The tiers unable to grasp any traction. Falling forward towards the dash my face was punched dead on by the releasing of the airbag. The seatbelt jerked me back squeezing the air from my lungs in a sudden rush.

My eyes watered from the on slot of pain from the jarring impact. The fine smokey mist from the chemicals in the air bag creating a confusing fog that surrounded us. Aching , unable to take a deep breath I fumbled with the clasp on my seatbelt.

"Shane, are you alright?" I glanced at him in a blurred daze like state. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion.

Stund for a moment Shane just sat there as the rain ran down his face. As if the light bulb suddenly came back on Shane unbuckled his seat belt. Grasping my face in his hands Shane tipped my head back and forth as he inspected my injuries.

"Your bleeding," reaching over the seat Shane reached inside one of the backpacks retrieving a shirt. Tenderly he wiped at the cut on my cheek trying to see past the oozing blood. "I can't really tell but I don't think it is too deep. Are you hurt anywhere else?"

It was impossible to tell, I hurt everywhere. "I don't think so..... I don't know."

I could taste the pungent iron taste of blood in my mouth. Slowly I ran my tongue along my teeth checking to see if any were missing or knocked loose. Satisfied they were all still accounted for I angled the mirror to see my face. Trying to whip the blood and rain from my face I finally saw the zig, zagged gash that ran the length of my cheek bone.