Hot Blooded

lead. It was an
effort to lift her arm, make a fist, pound on his back. She was dizzy and sick.
His emotions were swamping her, a wild swirling of dark danger beating at her.
She had never come close to feeling such overwhelming emotions. They welled up
like a volcano, explosive, violent, very intense. She sensed something wild and
untamed, a predator without equal. Her neck throbbed and burned and she wondered
what manner of demon she had unleashed.
    She actually felt the strength gathering in him.
Felt
it. A seething
cauldron of enormous power. It built in him and seemed to spill out of him, out
of his pores, bursting from his masculine body so that the building frame shook
and creaked ominously, until the very air was so filled, the walls actually
bulged outward in an attempt to contain such power. Juliette clutched at the
tattered remains of his shirt, her fist bunching the material in her palm,
needing something, anything to hang on to.
    "My sister might be in here." She managed to whisper the words, terrified
Jasmine would be caught in the massive destruction of cement and mortar.
    "No one is in the building but us," he assured. He moved then, his speed so
incredible everything around her blurred. Juliette squeezed her eyes shut
tightly to prevent the dizziness from overcoming her. Her stomach lurched and
she clung grimly. She could feel the powerful muscles bunching beneath her, the
rush of air over her body. She could have sworn at one point they left the
ground, moving through space so quickly they were flying.

----
Chapter 2
    Â« ^ »
    FEAR amounting to terror tore at Juliette. She had no idea what she was
dealing with, but he was a powerful predator and from the condition she found
him in, his anger was justified. She could feel a controlled rage simmering deep
within him. Shockingly, they seemed linked together, she feeling his emotions,
he feeling hers. She summoned her courage, her eyes still held tightly shut to
keep dizziness at bay, keep from being overwhelmed with fear and the rush of
wind in her face as they raced through the chamber of horrors. She needed all of
her senses working if she was going to escape. She had to be alert for that one
moment, that one chance when he would momentarily be distracted. She tried to
gather her strength.
    It seemed a monumental task in the face of being upside, her stomach rammed
hard against his shoulder. He held her with one arm tightly across her buttocks,
easily, casually, as if he barely remembered she was there. Her stomach rebelled
and she was weak and light-headed.
But his touch seemed familiar, intimate
even
. His fingers were splayed across her bottom, absently caressing the
roundness of her muscles even as he was striding quickly through the building.
Almost as if his touch remembered her body, knew her intimately in some way.
Juliette couldn't focus properly no matter how hard she tried, aware of his
fingers more than she would have liked.
    The very foundation of the building shook; wrenching apart, the earth beneath
them buckled and rippled violently. Sparks began to snap and crackle around them
as the wiring popped from the beams, cracking and splintering overhead. Light
fixtures swayed precariously. Fissures appeared in the floor, along the wall,
great, ominous cracks.
    There was a roaring in her ears, loud and insistent. The man locking her to
him moved smoothly, fluidly, a certain poetry to his motion, not jarring her
badly knotted stomach.
Breathe
. She heard the word as a soft whisper in
her mind. Almost a caress, intimate.
Breathe
. As if warm air from his
mouth was breathed into her ear. As if his lungs moved for her lungs. Her body
still felt leaden, her arms hanging heavily down his back. She tried to
concentrate, tried to gather her strength to wait for her moment, but that
single word had disturbed her. Changed her.
Breathe
. It whispered
through her body, swam in her bloodstream, spread insidiously throughout her
body so that her very heart beat the rhythm of his heart. And the word was in
her mind, not spoken aloud.
    As the building vibrated, he took stairs three and four at a time. He leapt
from the crumbling cement wall, a good twenty feet in the air, landing easily on
the balls of his feet, still careful not to jar her. Flames were licking at the
blocks of concrete, trying to find fuel, greedily looking for something to
devour as he took her into the shelter of the jungle.
    At