Sanctuary

other.”
    “Yes, we are.” She opened a cupboard to get bowls. “Sometime or other.”

    FROM Nathan’s porch, Jo watched the rain and smoked restlessly. He’d tried the television when they came in, hoping for a weather report. The cable was already out, so they settled for the radio. Static hissed out, along with the announcer’s listings of small-craft advisories and flash-flood warnings.
    They’d lose power if it kept up much longer, she thought. And the ponds and rivers would certainly flood. Already she could see puddles forming and deepening.
    “No word yet.” Nathan joined her on the porch. “Some of the search party’s taken shelter at Sanctuary to wait this out.” He laid a towel over her shoulders. “You’re shivering. Why don’t you come inside?”
    “I like to watch.” Lightning stabbed the sky and sent an answering jolt into her stomach. “Quick squalls like this are hell to be out in, but they’re exciting from the right vantage point.” She took a deep breath when the sky went hot and white. The sting of ozone lingered on the air. “Where’s your camera? I took mine back home.”
    “In the bedroom. I’ll get it for you.”
    Impatient, she stabbed out her cigarette in a broken shell. Too much energy, she thought. It was pumping through her, pounding at her. She all but snatched the camera from Nathan when he brought it out. “What kind of film do you have in here?”
    “Four hundred,” he said quietly, watching as she quickly examined it.
    “Good. That’s fast. I want fast.” She lifted, aimed at the rain-lashed trees, the swinging moss. “Come on, come on,” she muttered, then snapped with the next burst of lightning. “Another, I want another.” Thunder rattled the air as she changed angles, her finger as itchy as if it were on the trigger of a gun.
    “I need to get down, shoot up at that tree.”
    “No.” Nathan bent to pick up the towel that had fallen from her shoulders. The overhang offered little protection. The two of them were rapidly getting soaked. “You’re not going out there. You don’t know where or when we could have a lightning strike.”
    “That’s half of it, isn’t it? The not knowing. The not caring.” She tossed back her head. Recklessness streaked through her, glowed dangerously in her eyes. “I don’t know what I’m doing with you, or when I might get hit next. I don’t seem to care. How much are you going to hurt me, Nathan, and how long will it take me to get over it? And how long before one of us does something cruel, indifferent, or foolish?”
    Before he could speak, she grabbed a handful of his hair and dragged his mouth to hers. “I don’t care.” She dug her teeth into his lip.
    “You need to care.” Enraged with fate, he caught her face in his hands, pulled her back. His eyes were as dark and violent as the storm whipping the air. “I want you to understand that when I do hurt you, I won’t have a choice.”
    “I don’t care,” she repeated, pulling his mouth back to hers. “I only want now. Right now. I want you. I don’t want to think, I don’t want either of us to think. I just want to feel.”
    His mind was already hazed as they stumbled through the door. She bobbled the camera, laughing and moaning as he tore at her shirt. “Fast,” she managed. “I still want fast.”
    He tumbled with her to the floor, and the camera thudded lightly on the carpet as they ripped off clothes and shoes. Her hands were tangled in her shirt when he thrust inside her. She grappled to free them, the momentary thrill of being helpless and bound adding another layer of excitement. Then she was free, and her fingers dug into his hips to urge him to drive deeper, and harder.
    He couldn’t stop himself, and let the speed, the heat, the fury of mating rule them both. If her need was frantic, his was desperate. To take her, to have her, to keep her. One more day, one more hour. A dozen lifetimes.
    If his punishment for his father’s sin was to fall in love, so terribly in love, and lose, he would take every moment he could steal before payment came due.
    She cried out in grateful relief when the orgasm stabbed through her. His body plunged violently in hers, then stilled. His breath was ragged as he pushed himself back to stare down at her. “Is that what you wanted?”
    “Yes.”
    “Fast, and heartless.”
    “Yes.”
    His hand closed in a fist. It was exactly what he’d given her. “Do you think it’s going to stop at