Inqueda

chapter 8

I can literally feel my eyes trying to close right now with sleep, but I wanted to publish this before I went to bed, so sorry if there are any errors,  it's just sleep deprivation 😊. Hope you enjoy
P.s. does anyone want to guess what's up with Orla? Lemme see if your guess and my idea rhyme.

The sound of his voice sent shivers down my spine and I didn't even know why, but his question insinuated he lives here, and since Cerball said he lives with his son, this could only be him right? Curiosity pulled me and I just had to get a look but at the same time, I was afraid to. Like something inside of me knew that my life would never be the same.

I gently shut the refrigerator and then pivoted to face the door where the voice came from. My first glance of him sent another shiver down my spine. He had a scowl on his face and his eyes were narrowed. I don't know if or what I could or would say, but suddenly I had the feeling of a thousand ants crawling over my body,I shook my hand as if to shake it off but  it got so intense that I frowned and looked down on my body to be sure. Then a feeling swept over me, like a great wave crashing against a rock, it hit me so hard and fast that I couldn't stop the gasp that left my mouth. I heard him take a step closer to me but I was too distracted to even look at him, I am having a crisis here.

The feeling seemed to be passing and I sighed with relief, but I had celebrated too soon because the wave hit me even stronger and I staggered,  my vision swam, the wave of whatever it was kept battering me like it just wanted to break down everything inside of me and be free, but by some instinct I knew that I had to hold strong, that if I lose focus for even a moment it would be disastrous, so i gritted my teeth and tried to concentrate on calming thought. Like maybe if I can calm down and think happy, then everything would be fine.

Another wave seemed to crash inside me and I gritted my teeth even tighter. At this rate I might just grind it to dust before whatever it is that is happening to me passes, and I need it to pass because I don't know how much longer I could bear this.

My vision was turning blurry now and I staggered again. I was already losing sense of feeling too, I was feeling unsteady on my feet and getting light headed, I blindly reached out for anything to steady myself with, but I  don't know if I did make contact with anything because suddenly it seemed like all the oxygen was sucked out of the room, I tried to take deeper breaths but it seemed to be doing no good. My vision was either getting thiner or everywhere seemed to be getting darker, then I couldn't see at all, and all I remember is the sensation of falling.

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I regained consciousness to the sound of a voice telling me to open my eyes, making me wonder why they were closed in the first place. And that voice, my heart rate picked up, it seemed unfamiliar yet strangely familiar at the same time. I heard it again " hey, come on, open your eyes, you're kinda scaring me here". I struggled to open my eyes, I don't know why but for some reason I felt like I would never be able to deny that voice anything. Who is he?

I doubled the effort to get my eyes open, I want to take a good look at that face again. My eyes fluttered open and I saw his face bent over mine . Our eyes locked and for some reason I couldn't for the life of me look away. Then I noticed that his mouth was moving, I frowned because I hadnt heard a word.

He seemed to understand my frown for the confusion it is, and I'm assuming it was the previous question he repeated when he asked "are you okay?" I tried to assess myself to ensure I would answer honestly. Telling lies is unbecoming, so in trying to assess how I felt, I realized that the wave had calmed to the extent that it seemed like a gentle flowing stream at the moment. But of what? That I could not tell.  I had never had anything like this happen to me before, so i had nothing to make comparisons to.

I also realised that I was starting to feel cold. This puzzled me enough that I glanced down and realised that I was indeed on the cold floor, however the warm pillow I had woken up on were his arms. I made an effort and sat up, I looked up to thank him for helping me and realised that his gaze was riveted somewhere lower. I looked down and realised that my bathrobe had parted to midthigh and he was staring at my legs.

I wondered if he liked what he saw, then flushed for even thinking something like that. It's not that I'm a prude, theoretically I know about sex and sexually oriented things, you can't exactly grow up around all sorts of men as I have and not overhear things, but I had never exposed that amount of skin in the presence of a male before. I tried to gauge how I felt about that and realised that I didn't mind at all, my covering up was just out of habit begging me to ask, why are my instincts so different with him?

I heard him again behind me " you know you still haven't told me whom you are right? The fainting thing isn't a ploy to get me to forget is it? Because I should warn you, I've been likened to a dog with a bone when it comes to finding out what I want to know"

The sound of his voice came from a more elevated place than I expected. I turned and saw that he had already gotten off the floor. My eyes roamed his body and finally came to rest on his face and I realized that his eyes on me were once more narrowed and laced with distrust. For some reason, this sent a pang of hurt through my chest.

In trying to cover it up, my voice came out more snappy than I intended " I don't exactly know you either. You insinuate that you live here, but how do I know you're whom you say you are?" With sacarsm dripping in his voice he replied " yeah, I'm not who I say yet I just walked through the front door."

I merely raised a brow at him " you could just be a smart thief that got past security."
His own brow shot up too " and decided to save you when you fainted instead just absconding with whatever?"
I just shrugged " I said you were a thief not a heartless killer." If I wasn't looking at his face, I would  have missed the slight twitch at the Conner of his mouth. I guess he found our little echange amusing.

He leveled me with an inquiring state like he was saying " yes? Get on with it." After holding his gaze for a few counts before I sighed  " my name is Orlaith but you can call me Orla" I looked at him expectantly, he rolled his eyes "my name is Conall". I smiled to myself  and muttered "strong as a wolf" I realised he had heard me when he suddenly seemed to go still, I looked up and realised that even his eyes had gone hard then he growled " how do you know that?"