he could. If he wanted to torment her and then kill her, he could.
It was almost impossible to comprehend that this was really happening. That this morning she’d woken up in her own neat cot in the women’s quarters of the Academy research shuttle, a junior researcher with moderate hopes for literally saving the world, and now she was about to be taken and god knows what else on a hard cave floor by a criminal with cold, dark eyes.
She couldn’t get pregnant or catch some horrible disease thanks to the yearly shot required of all Council Academy scientific and military personnel, but such precautions couldn’t protect her from anything else.
Her muscles twitched with the urge to resist, to take a surprise swing and flee before he understood what was happening, but such an act was beyond foolish. Mud man was too strong. Too powerful. Too dangerous. She’d likely be badly hurt if she tried to fight him.
As if he knew her thoughts, mud man’s grip tightened and he pulled until she was pressed flat against his side.
She muffled a gasp.
He heard it anyway. Dark brows narrowed over midnight eyes as his gaze slipped to where his hand circled her wrist. His hold loosened.
“It narrows ahead. Stay close or you’ll get cut.”
Bella blinked stupidly. His voice was a dark, smoky rumble that rolled down her spine and, under different circumstances, would have sent her senses skittering. Now, it just confused her. Was he…was he truly trying to prevent her from getting hurt?
Before she could think how to ask, he was moving forward again, her wrist still unquestionably encircled in his grasp, her body held tight against his as the cave walls narrowed and the path in front of them grew dark. So close his earthy, male scent invaded her lungs, far more appealing than she would have expected given the dirt covering every inch of him. So close the rough prickle of mud abraded her left arm where skin rather than shirt pressed against his side.
Her shirt grew damp. The air hotter. Then, without warning, they turned a sharp corner, and halted.
Her head snapped up, a sharp breath strangling in her throat at the shocking sight only a few feet ahead.
Awe whispered through her.
Beams of hazy sunlight from small cracks in the cave illuminated a vivid turquoise body of water. It glistened like a jewel while emerald colored plants with large, compound, fan-like leaves crowded along the banks. Palms. Actual thriving, gorgeous healthy palms. From the Arecaceae family, if she wasn’t mistaken, though they didn’t have the same unbranched stem as the one’s in her study guides. Delicate purple fruit sprouted from their split trunks. And the smell…she drew in a deep breath, her nose twitching at the strange, wonderful scent. Floral. Rich. Alive.
Nothing like this had existed on Earth for centuries. But here…her heart leapt. Winthrop had been right. Maybe there was hope for Earth, after all.
She skipped forward. Only to be brought up short by an unmovable leash around her wrist. Her gaze clashed with hungry, dark eyes.
“Take off your clothes.”
Her euphoria crashed and burned. For a brief instance, she’d forgotten.
But with every second that mud man loomed above her, his dark eyes boring into her, watching, waiting, his jaw tight, his muscles rigid, the reality of what awaited built inside.
“I won’t force you.” His words were a growl, but their meaning came through loud and clear nonetheless. He was again offering her a way out.
Her breath shuddered in and out.
She could turn back now. She could renege on the deal. It looked like he’d actually let her walk away. But without his help, she, Davies, and Winthrop would never make it until the search and rescue team arrived. No one would ever know what she’d found here today.
Her gaze shifted to the fan-like plants. Now she had yet another reason to survive this, she told herself. This place. These plants. They could be the key to saving her sister and brother.
As quick as the thought came, she shut out the memory of her sweet siblings’ faces. She didn’t want them connected in any way with what was about to happen.
“My choice.” Awkwardly, she unsealed the top portion of her uniform, her shaking fingers making it difficult. Beside her, mud man had gone disturbingly still.
It wasn’t as if she hadn’t had sex just for the sake of sex before, she reminded herself. Long hours of studying and work and scraping by hadn’t allowed for anything more than the