Ritual Sins by Stuart Anne

Author:Stuart, Anne [Stuart, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Body, Cults, Murder, charismatic bad boy, American Southwest, Romantic Suspense / romance, Revenge, General, Romance, Swindlers and Swindling, New Mexico, Mind & Spirit, Fiction
ISBN: 9780451192523
Publisher: Onyx
Published: 1997-03-15T07:00:00+00:00

12

Rachel was slowly suffocating.

The bed was too soft, but it cushioned her, wrapping her in a dangerous comfort that she could no longer fight. She drifted, deeper and deeper into sleep, kicking the covers away from her body and burrowing down in the too soft mattress. The night was pitch-dark, a cocoon of heat and blackness sucking her into a world that was part dream, part nightmare.

She could feel him in her room, smell him. But she couldn’t open her eyes. Some distant, dancing part of her mind argued—if she opened her eyes it would prove he could scare her, convince her that anything was possible, that he’d left his monastic existence and followed her into this sweating, swamp-filled nightmare. If she kept them shut, allowed her body to stay in this half-world, then she would prove he couldn’t frighten her.

The noises were muffled, odd. Esther’s television set was still on, reassuring Rachel of the normalcy of things. She could hear an undercurrent of cheeping noise from the swamp on the edge of town. And the distant rumble of thunder, issuing a warning.

She shifted restlessly, telling herself it was all right for her eyes to blink open, to reassure herself. But her eyelids were too heavy, and she sank in deeper.

The memory was there, inescapable, but this time she willingly tried to dredge it up. The old man coming to her bed while she slept, touching her, whispering to her. She fought for that sense of horror and sickness, but this was a different time, a different man, and her body knew it.

Fingertips lightly grazed her body, so softly it was a feathery caress. Hands slid down between her legs, touching her there, and she shifted uneasily, restlessly. Wake up, she told herself. But she could only hear the thunder and feel the darkness cover her.

He wasn’t there, because she couldn’t feel him. Only the touch of his hands, the perfect erotic fantasy. Disembodied, caressing her, with no purpose but to serve her. He wouldn’t hurt her, this creature of the night. She knew that now, and she slid farther down on the mattress, letting her body receive the attention it craved.

His mouth was there as well. Lips pressed against the side of her throat. Tongue licking. She shivered in the heat, keeping her hands beside her on the mattress as his head moved down. There was no heavy fall of hair brushing her, so she told herself those rich, wondrous lips weren’t Luke’s, as his mouth covered her breast beneath the thin tank top and drew it deep.

There was a sound then. A deep sound of utter longing that couldn’t have possibly come from her. She longed for nothing, she had no desire to have a man’s mouth at her breast. She had no desire.

When he released her breast it was full, aching, damp, and he covered it with long, sensitive fingers as he moved to the other breast, sucking it deeply. She moaned again, arching her back, and

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