Rin

 

 

 

The last thing I remember I was soaring through the sky in the claws of a dragon, But when I open my eyes I’m confronted by the sight of the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen in my life. My heart jumps up into my throat. In fact, I might have confused him for an angel if it wasn’t for the golden color of his skin and the little horns on his head. Why shouldn’t I have died and gone to heaven, after all? I just survived a helicopter crash, got kidnapped by spear-wielding lizard-masked men, and then I was hauled off by a very angry dragon. I say I’ve earned some time in paradise at this point. I deserve an angel who is all my own.

But there’s the little fact that this guy is wearing no clothing. Not one little scrap. It’s really distracting, to be perfectly honest, and I’m trying my best not to perv out on him. I don’t know how angels dress—I don’t think they covered that in Sunday school when I was a little girl—but I’m assuming they don’t walk around with their peckers hanging out. And let me tell you, this guy has one of the biggest I’ve ever seen. It’s causing quite an embarrassing reaction between my thighs, and with one last glance I blush and look away.

Needless to say, I’m completely stunned by the Adonis before me, and it takes a few moments for the reality of my situation to kick in. I look around the cave, expecting to see a huge beast lumbering nearby, but there are no dragons here. I’m surrounded by stone again, only this time it’s rough, uncut stone. Torches burn on the walls, and brilliant sparkles glimmer from the shadowy recesses. Feeling somewhat safer now that the dragon is gone, my focus returns to the man. He’s a big one, broad shoulders and muscular arms. I’ve never seen abs like his on any guy I’ve ever been with. There’s not an ounce of fat on him, and the only difference between him and a human is the color of his skin and those little horns I mentioned.

He kneels before me, shimmering like liquid bronze, with some sort of elaborately decorated golden cup in his hands. He moves it toward my mouth as if wanting me to drink, but I’m apprehensive about taking drinks from strangers. I scoot slowly away, hoping this isn’t another one of those crazy rituals the residents of this planet seem to love so much. Although to be honest, if this guy wanted to tie me up and have his way with me, well… I don’t think I’d put up much of a fight. And the ropes might be kind of fun. My mind starts going to dirty places and I bite my lip, trying not to check this guy out too hard. Mr. Bronze God here is starting to look at me funny, so I come back down to reality.

As I’m trying to scoot away, the arrow sticking out of my freaking leg becomes painfully obvious, and I grasp it tightly, trying to pull it out.

“Oww!” I yell as I yank on the shaft. This thing is in there good, and it must have some sort of barbed tip, because it’s not budging. The look on his face says it’s not a good idea to yank on it like that. I’m assuming he has more experience with arrows than I do, since I’ve never been shot by one before, so I stop.

 He sets the cup aside and raises his hands open-palmed in front of me—a gesture of goodwill, perhaps? Seems friendly enough. Then he gently takes my hands in his and sets them aside. He’s so close to me I can feel his body heat. It radiates from him like a furnace, which is nice because it is cold up here. A draft blows in through the cave entrance, and it’s freezing compared to the tropical climate I was in earlier. When he looks into my eyes, I notice for the first time a familiarity there. They are so eerily similar to the eyes of the dragon, the memory of which is burned into my memory for good. I cock my head at him, examining those brilliantly burning eyes with a scrutinizing attention to detail—

I yelp, jerking away from him as pain shoots up from my leg.

“Dude, what the hell?” I’m about to tell him where he can go, but then I look down and see that the arrow is gone.

“How did you do that?” I say, scrunching together my eyebrows and staring at him quizzically. For a moment I was transfixed on him, my mind cleared of everything but the space between us. He’d pulled me into his gaze, hypnotizing me somehow. Now that I’m free of the spell I see that he’s pulled the arrow from my leg. It hurt a bit, but he did a damn fine job of distracting me while he dislodged it. He tosses the arrow to the back of the cave, keeping his hand pressed against my thigh. I’m thankful for this, not only because his touch feels right, but because I’d be bleeding like crazy otherwise.

“Thanks,” I say meekly. It feels nice to be touched, but I’m not about to tell him that.

He holds his gaze on mine and again pushes the cup into my hands. I’m still a little apprehensive about drinking whatever this concoction is that he brewed up, but he did help with the arrow, and I’ve seen nothing from him that indicates he means me harm. He is a big guy, after all—standing upright I’d guess him to be over six feet tall—and if he wanted to take advantage of me or hurt me in any way, he easily could’ve done it already.

My hands shake as I take the cup from him, but I manage to take a sip without spilling too much. This seems to please him, and as I tilt back the cup a second time he stands and walks back into the shadows of the cave. The drink is not bad. It’s almost sweet, with a touch of mint. It sort of reminds me of the Maghrebi tea me and the girls tried at this little Moroccan café outside of Cairo. Oh lord. My heart sinks as I think about the girls. I hope the tribesmen didn’t get to them too. My memories coming flooding back. I think about Becky, and how she disappeared when we entered the jungle. I remember Alex and Tina, Susan and Jess. Please let them be okay. I set down the cup and run my fingers through my hair as fear tremors course through my body.

“Poor Becky,” I say aloud. She was depending on me, and I let her down by running ahead. My eyes mist over. How can I get comfortable when Becky and the others are out there suffering? My lip trembles. “What have we gotten ourselves into?”

Mr. Adonis must’ve heard me because he rushes back into the room and kneels, searching my eyes with his powerful gaze.

“My friends,” I try explaining, though I know it’s no use. There’s no way he can understand what I’m saying. But I’m very talkative when I get emotional, so I talk anyway. “I am worried about them. They are college girls, none of us are equipped to deal with a situation like this. I need to go help them.”

Every time this guy looks at me it’s like he’s seeing right into my soul. Those eyes of his—damn. They are piercing. I’m pretty emotional right now but he’s got this crazy way of drawing me in until I forget about everything else around me.

“You gotta stop doing that,” I say, forcing a laugh. “I can’t focus when you stare at me like that.”

“Focus,” he repeats after watching my lips. He diverts his gaze away from me for a moment as if thinking. But he can’t seem to help himself and a little later our eyes are locked together again.

I’m taken aback by his mimicry of my words. “Hey, that’s pretty good for your first time speaking English.” All the while I’m talking he watches my lips move, and he takes in the sound of my voice with attentiveness I’ve never experienced before. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a man who actually listens? I laugh as that thought runs through my head. But this guy is seriously on the Rin train. Even as he wraps a bandage around my arrow wound he is attentive to my reaction, his focus never drifting away from me.

But then I look over his body once again and see his wounds for the first time. Deep gashes, trickles of blood. How did I not see this before? I was so caught up in my own pain, so full of fear and uncertainty, that I didn’t once notice that the one who is helping me is suffering too.

I sit up straight and reach out my hands, open-palmed and non-threatening as he did for me. “You are hurt.”

He tilts his head then repeats the word, “hurt.”

I take a deep breath and exhale, trying to ease the tension in my body. I shiver again, not only from nerves but from the icy gusts blowing in through the cave entrance. But I steady myself the best I can and make my move. I don’t know if this will end well for me, but I’m compelled to try.  I gesture toward the gash in his side. “Let me see.”

“Hurt,” he says again, this time placing his hand near the wound.

He doesn’t move away as I reach out. I’m hesitant at first, but he seems open to my touch and I place my fingers along the ragged edge. It’s a wound in the same spot as the one I noticed on the dragon. A small but deep cut, and after seeing how much this guy’s eyes remind me of the dragon’s, and waking up here not with a dragon, but with a man, I can’t help but think maybe the dragon and the man are one in the same. The cut looks like the arrow wound in my leg. The dragon had been wounded multiple times as the tribesmen attacked with their spears and arrows. It can’t be a coincidence.

“Are you—” The words will barely come. Maybe I’m afraid of the answer, but curiosity has always been my weakness. “Are you somehow the dragon that rescued me earlier?” It’s a stupid question—I realize this as soon as the words leave my mouth. Of course he’s not a dragon, Rin. Duh, look at him. He’s a golden-colored, horn-headed, smoking-hot Greek god. Or whatever, I don’t know anything anymore. I blush and am relieved that he can’t understand me.

He places his fingers over mine. His voice is low and gravely. “Hurt,” he says. He flinches ever so slightly as I press down on the wound, but when he notices me watching him he hides the pain. Something about this reaction draws me to him.

I place my hands against his ribs, surprised by how hot his skin is. And rough. His hands may be soft and responsive, but his chest and back muscles are hard—muscular yes, but also tough and thick like animal hide. I’m captivated by his texture and move my hands over his shoulders, caressing him, examining his bulging contours and enjoying the warmth against my cold fingers. He doesn’t seem to mind, and actually leans into my touch, encouraging me to explore further.

I get up onto my knees for a better reach. As I run my fingertips between his shoulder blades and down the center of his back he makes a low humming sound. A purr almost. I exhale sharply at his reaction, my breath coming faster. I’m dizzy for a second, knowing my touch has that effect on him. I’m close enough now that I can feel my breasts rubbing against his chest. My nipples harden. The thought runs through my mind: it’s just innocent exploration. We’re not hurting anyone.

I touch his waist and move my hands to his hips. Everywhere my hands roam it is the same: dense striated muscle, fiery radiating heat. As my touch nears his backside I’m so tempted to grab his tight muscular ass, but I don’t. I’ve no clue about his customs or culture, and with no way to communicate I wouldn’t want to take advantage of him.

Short of grabbing his butt though, I’m all in with this touching business. I just hope he can’t hear my heart racing in my chest, because I’m getting worked up and I definitely feel it pounding. There’s a tingling sensation growing between my legs, and now that his breath is falling against my bare neck, I feel that I might melt away at any moment. I hadn’t realized how caught up I was in examining his body, and when I finally snap out of it I pull my hands to my sides hurriedly and turn away from him to conceal the embarrassment spreading over my face.

“Sorry,” I tell him with a shaky voice. “I’ve just never met anyone quite like—”

Then it dawns on me: I’ve completely forgotten to dress his wounds. Dammit Rin, get ahold of yourself!

“You’re hurt,” I say, pointing. I gesture toward the bandage on my leg and a second later he grabs another strip of cloth and hands it to me. I’m barely able to get my arms around his torso. He is built like an ox, but eventually I manage and gently cover the gash in his side. I tie a small bow to fasten it snuggly, and when I check the bandage I see that the bleeding has stopped.

“Better now.” I lean in close to him to see if he needs bandages anywhere else, and nearly jump out of my skin when I feel his hands on my sides. His hot fingers hold me just below the ribs, and he begins moving his hands over my shirt, touching and examining me. There’s no way he can’t feel how excited I’ve become. My entire body trembles from a mix of adrenaline and an odd horniness that I cannot for the life of me account for. I squeeze my thighs together, feeling the wetness growing between my legs.

I’d never do something like this with a stranger back home. Well, that’s not entirely true. I’ve had my share of boyfriends and at least one one-night stand. But this is entirely different. I don’t even know what this guy is. I have no idea where I am, or how the hell to get back to my friends. Yet right now these questions feel so far away. The answers I need right now I’m finding in the space between us. He’s too attractive to turn down, and besides, I’m the one who started it. I’m in control for a change today, and he’s been nothing but kind to me. No one will ever have to know this happened. And it’s just touching, that’s all. Nothing more. After everything I’ve been through today, I think I deserve a friendly touch.

He slides his hands up my sides until his palms are resting against the outsides of my breasts. A needful heat spreads through me. I take a deep breath and move my arms away to give him room to explore. It feels too good to stop him. I crave contact with someone who isn’t trying to kill me, and whether it is Stockholm syndrome or just the massive amounts of stress I’ve endured today, I need this contact right now.

Mustering up all my courage, I grab his wrists and move his wandering hands beneath the folds of my shirt. “It’s okay,” I whisper into his ear. “But nothing more, you got me?”

My stomach jerks as his fingers brush my bare skin. A shiver races up my spine. His warmth feels so good, and I lean in closer as the chilly night air sweeps against my backside. With one last glance at him I give myself over, trusting that he won’t hurt me, trusting that I can make this stop anytime I want. My eyes close, and I lose myself in this alien stranger’s gentle caress.