Before Beasts, There Was Metal--Book 5

Closet Time

To promote the release of the first book in a line of inexpensive Kindle books I'm starting to help put food on the table (literally), here is an early update! I'd put another one right after this one, but since that often confuses readers who just drop by and skim down to the latest chapter before seeing if there were any before it, I think I'll just wait for Monday. In the meantime, check out my new book I've been working so hard on!

It's called "Wendy" You can find it on Amazon under the pen name T.S. Lowe. ^.^ I'll include its synopsis at the end of this chapter.

The thin line of light beneath the door was just enough to make out a pale outline of her face. Her white hair had escaped her bun in leaps, leaving only half tucked away with the rest trailing streams of curling white-silver over her shoulders and back. One settled against his bare arm, cool and smooth as glass.

Shadows flickered across the light. Heavy boots thumped down the hall below, impossibly close, and a walkie-talkie crackled.

"...we got three down, you better..."

Then it had gone too far to hear. Without his own heavy breathing and the sound of the water hitting the floor below, Kai could hear the fog horn blaring in the distance. He was mildly surprised he had missed it at all.

"What's happening?" He felt her whisper as a warm brush across his neck.

"You would know more than me," he breathed back. "What do you hear?"

She went silent. He could feel just the barest trace of her breasts and knees as she struggled to keep the distance between them. Beneath the pungent air of the inflatable, rubber life boats, her musk twined into his senses. He closed his eyes and breathed through his mouth.

"There's a lot of movement," she whispered. "They're all heading to somewhere on the deck. It's...it's hard to hear anything else above that blasted devil of an engine and the echoing. Ugh, I hate metal. You hear everything."

"Maybe a container went overboard." The ribbon of hair slid snake like across the curve of his neck as she shifted. He shivered. "Let me know when no one's nearby." Then they could run to their coats and tuck in, no one the wiser. Damn it, his back was starting to ache. His wings protested against being held in so tightly. He dared to relax them and felt himself pushed forward a precious inch, which spread her breasts against him and brought her stomach into his. Her legs shifted to find comfortable room about his.

Though he wasn't quite panting anymore, he could still hear himself breathing. Loudly. Heat crawled up to his face as he wondered what she could be thinking and he snapped his mouth closed, but that just brought her scent back into his lungs. It filled him like warm smoke till it mingled with the fire in his belly, releasing it into his blood. A heady wave of the heat pooled in his stomach, weighing him down.

He held back a groan. "Are we clear."

"Not yet," she whispered. The faint light glittered off the shine of her eyes. It took him a second to register she wasn't looking at the light, as he had been, but at him. He became aware of the feel of her breath again, ghosting past his neck and curling up his chin.

This couldn't be normal. It just couldn't.

When he felt her fingertips land upon his arm like butterfly wings, he flinched.

"Don't!" He almost squeaked.

They drew back, but somehow she had drawn closer. "What's wrong?" The rise in pitch conveyed fear. He hadn't meant to scare her. Hell, he hadn't meant to be scared himself.