Carved in Stone: Monochrome Destiny Page 21

  “I wonder why it was at a school?” he turned the metal needle over in his hand.

  “I don’t know. I’m new there, so I wouldn’t know who brought it in.”

  “Well it’s unusual, but I’m all for encouraging the next generation into medicine.” he smiled, “or at least getting them to carry a donor card. I doubt that you would persuade anyone to be a bone marrow donor by showing them this though.”

  He was definitely right there. The sheer size of the thing had Robyn cringing and she was all too aware of the importance of being a donor.

  “How old is it do you think?”

  “Oh, I’d say this one is from the late eighties or early nineties. The first transplant was in the fifties but the equipment was quite different then. It wasn’t until the late sixties that the first successful transplant for cancer was achieved. It took time for it to become as mainstream as it is today.” He handed the needle back. Her time was up.

  She thanked him and got up to leave. On her way to the door, she thought of one last question. “Um, Dr Jenkins, Geoff, is there any other use for the needle? I mean, in any other procedure?”

  “No, not that I can think of.”

  Robyn smiled, said her goodbyes and left the office to walk down the quietly deserted corridor. Now she knew what she had, she was more confused than ever. One thing was for certain however, the needle had not been in that church when it was boarded up. It had been dropped since then, but by whom?

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  Robyn sat at the dining table, her mind filled with questions. None of the information she had discovered fitted together and the more she thought about it, the more concerned she became for Kat’s welfare. Robyn knew, deep within her soul, that the church was pivotal somehow. Why else would Kat have gone there?

  As she turned the medical implement over and over, Robyn began to think about the door in the crypt. She had already trawled the internet to find that such doors were incredibly rare. Usually the dead were laid to rest securely with the intent to keep their bodies and any trinkets buried with them safe. There would normally be only one way in or out. Was the door a later addition?

  The tunnel certainly stoked Robyn’s imagination. Pirate smugglers off the Cornish coast were legend, but smuggling was hardly a thing of the past. Quiet, deserted and accessible undercover, the church was a perfect hiding place for illegal stashes. Drugs, guns, cigarettes, alcohol, knock off designer labels; there was a fortune to be had if you had the skills and daring to do it. Had Kat stumbled onto a criminal operation? What would said criminals have done if they had found that they’d been discovered?

  A slightly too loud and impatient rap knocked the door and Robyn let out a stale breath realising that her thoughts had knotted her stomach. Kat could be in trouble.

  Rising, Robyn threw the harvesting needle into her handbag before going to answer the door. It was getting late, the sun had ducked down hours ago and only one person would come calling after dark. She still checked the peephole at the door however. Her visitors had left her wary.

  “Andrew,” she pulled back the door and took in his appearance. His hair was wet, his collar up and his shoulders hunched to keep the rain off of his neck. He should have looked dishevelled, but he just looked sexy. His hooded gaze held her before he smiled.

  “I was worried when I couldn’t get hold of you.”

  Robyn stepped back, allowing him to enter her home. She hadn’t been expecting him, in fact, she’d pulled back a step in their relationship as her doubts built a barrier between them. He had secrets and Robyn wasn’t sure she could live with that. “What are you doing here?”

  Andrew stepped into the hall and shook off his wet coat. “I came to see if you were alright. I’ve been trying to phone you all afternoon but it just rings through to voicemail.”

  “Oh,” Robyn turned and reached for the bag she’d just thrown over the back of a chair, “I put my phone on silent whilst I was driving. I must have forgotten to put the sound back on.”

  “You went out in this?” Andrew’s brows rose quizzically.

  Damn, she shouldn’t have said that. The weather really was extremely bad for driving. She’d fought the car all the way back. “Um, yeah. I only popped out.” She lied.

  Distracted, Robyn shoved her hand into her bag intending to grab her phone, but in her haste she unfortunately hooked the handle of the harvesting needle and it fell.

  Metal hit tile with a clang and a clatter as Robyn’s heart stopped. The needle skittered across the floor, chiming a noisy retreat and came to rest just in front of Andrew’s feet. He bent to pick it up.

  Blood rushed to Robyn’s face as her deception threatened to reveal itself. She couldn’t help her reaction, she hated lying to him. She stood frozen, wondering how she was ever going to explain this.

  Andrew rose, holding the harvesting needle out to Robyn. When he saw her guilt he stopped.

  “What have you done?” His tone was short and clipped.

  She couldn’t lie, not to his face. It was one thing to go looking around churches and meet with medical professionals to find information and just not inform him, but to lie to his face was impossible.

  “I got it from the church.”

  “In the graveyard?” Andrew was tight lipped but she could see anger brewing. This was not going to be good.

  She swallowed. “No, inside,” she had that sinking feeling that comes from being caught red-handed.

  Andrew cocked his head and blinked. “How did you get inside?” His voice was a flat monotone.

  Robyn knew this was bad.

  “I took one of the boards off of the windows.” God, Robyn winced at her own words.

  Andrew looked aghast.

  “I really didn’t expect to go in, it’s just that I noticed that the board had recently been removed and I had to know,” she babbled, “It was so close to where we found the phone case.”

  Andrew’s eyes met Robyn’s with an intensity that had her shrinking and stepping back. His gaze was better than any truth serum.

  “It was in the crypt, under some old furniture stored down there.” She was trying to explain herself, but knew that she was only succeeding in digging herself a larger, deeper hole.

  “The crypt!” Now he stared at her in utter disbelief.

  “There was a trail, it led me to a grate, which I lifted, and followed some stairs to a crypt. I found it accidentally when I dropped my torch. It’s alright, I put everything back. No-one will know I was there.” She was rambling. The urge to confess under that strict gaze had her spilling out all the information too fast. It sounded so awful, now that she put it into words. What must Andrew think? He’d hate her for this. She was a criminal and she’d lied to him. Robyn realised that despite her reticence to further their relationship in the last couple of weeks, she still wanted him, desperately, and now she’d probably ruined her chances forever.

  She stared at Andrew. Her body warred between retreat and stepping forwards to touch and to comfort.

  When Andrew made his move however, all thought drained from her mind, because what happened next, even she wasn’t prepared for.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  Andrew’s expression transformed. His incredulity morphed into something darker, blacker. Robyn watched his eyes, so wide with shock, sharpen and begin to rage with a cold fire. He furrowed his brows and stared at her with his head tilted down in fierce disapproval. His jaw squared as muscle bulged and his lips became a tight, thin line. He seemed to grow before her eyes, his presence now taking up too much space in the room, sucking in too much air and suddenly she found it difficult to breathe.

  Andrew stilled, unnaturally so and stared so directly at her that she thought she would wither. She was prey to his predator, there was no doubt about their roles and there would be no doubt about the outcome. Andrew’s anger was a burning, giant, thing and it was barely controlled. He shook with rage as his shoulders squared, his fists clenched and his knuckles white
ned.

  When had Robyn forgotten about the rage within him? When had she begun to think him tame?

  The clock ticked loudly as both stared at each other.

  Robyn’s blood raced through her veins as she fought the age old instinct to run from the hunter, knowing that it would do her no good. Her knees quivered, threatening to give and her heart thrummed. Taking one careful swallow, Robyn drew on her mettle and slowly too one step backwards.

  He watched her, unmoving but his gaze darkened further. She could feel the impending danger. Andrew’s rigid, silent statue, tense and enraged, was an omen of things to come.

  Robyn took a second step back.

  Andrew’s gaze never faltered and Robyn couldn’t avert her eyes. To look away would seal her fate. She’d never seen such anger and she knew that it was taking all the control he had not to come at her. This rage was what she had only glimpsed previously. This was what had made her instinctually wary. Now, she wished that she had listened to that instinct, for her only hope was to back to the door. Andrew stood in front of the front entrance, but the back door to the garden was behind her.

  Robyn took another step.

  Andrew moved.

  Robyn shrieked and hurried backwards in blind panic.

  As Andrew took a second step, Robyn backed into the kitchen units. Her legs were shaking so badly that she gripped the countertop to remain upright. He was too fast. There was no possible way that she was going to get the back door open and escape before he was upon her. With nowhere to go, Robyn braced herself and leaned back as far as she could. She was shaking from head to toe and her fingers began to hurt where they dug into the wood under the edge of the kitchen counter, but still she could not take her eyes off of him.

  Andrew took another step, his huge body now perilously close and Robyn arched back further, her head hitting the wall cupboard. Her breathing was fast and shallow and it took all her willpower not to pass out. She whimpered and Andrew stopped.

  She was afraid. No, that was too subtle a word; Robyn was terrified. Of him. He stopped in his tracks and saw her quaking in fear and desperately trying to pull away from him. She would have melded with those kitchen cupboards if she’d had the ability.

  What the hell was he doing?

  Yes, he was angry, downright fuming about her crazy antics, but she didn’t need to see him like this. Not out of control like this.

  Andrew inhaled deeply and forced his body to relax.

  She’d done something very foolish and he was frightened of the possible consequences, but it was done now and there was little he could do about it. He didn’t need to frighten her, but he did need to stop her. He didn’t want her to go. Damn it, how had he gotten so involved so bloody quickly. He was hot for this woman, desperate and every move she pulled just pushed her closer to being kicked out of town. Didn’t she know how he felt? Didn’t she know what she meant to him? Well, perhaps it was time he showed her. She was his.

  Andrew was halfway through the kitchen, a mere two steps from reaching her, when he stopped dead. Robyn watched the cold fire ebb as his eyes widened with shock. She didn’t move, didn’t dare. Like this, he was unpredictable.

  As Robyn stared, Andrew’s body, still huge in the room, relaxed; his muscles no longer bulged, his fists no longer clenched. The fury drained from his body but in its place something else brewed. Andrew’s feet parted and he lifted his head higher. His shoulders moved with heavy deep breaths and darkness seemed to pool in his eyes.

  Andrew stepped forwards, one, two paces. Robyn closed her eyes. She could feel his presence right in front of her, feel his breath on her skin and she waited, unable to do anything else.

  Andrew grabbed her. One hand took her hair and one her waist. In an instant, Robyn was yanked away from the units that she so desperately clung to and drawn up against rigid, hard, man. She managed to gulp in a breath before ravenous hot lips descended on hers.

  She opened for him, had little choice as he forced his tongue between her lips. He was unstoppable. He plundered with an enthusiasm that Robyn had never known and her body responded with heat and longing. She melted into his firm hold and let him take her.

  At his touch, she felt searing heat, not warmth. Instead of heating her tissues, it burned them as it jettisoned through her body. It was like lightning coursing through her veins, boiling her blood in its wake and it woke desires inside her that she had never known previously existed.

  Andrew kissed her, hard and she kissed him right back. He bit her lip, the pain clenching things deep inside her and making her groan in his arms. He sucked her tongue into his mouth and she fisted her hands into his hair. He yanked her hair to pull her head back and expose her throat and she cried out in desire before his lips feasted on her milky white flesh.

  Her breath came fast and shallow as he greedily tasted and she heard him groan. He was fire itself; burning, consuming and she wanted all.

  Andrew changed his grip and lifted her onto the kitchen counter. He shoved her skirt up to part her thighs and stand in the gap. Once there, he yanked her towards him and ground his erection into her. She threw her head back, rocking against his hardness as he pressed it into her lace covered folds.

  God she wanted him so badly. She would explode if he didn’t put out this fire.

  He brought her mouth to his as he pushed rhythmically against her. She was so wet for him. His tongue delved in and out in a parody of what she so desperately needed and she moaned as her fingers fumbled with the buttons of his shirt.

  Andrew’s hands squeezed her breasts through her blouse and she arched into him wanting him to take, to pleasure. She managed to get one of his buttons undone.

  She was unravelling in his arms. She had no patience. She wanted him, skin to skin. Robyn gripped the two side of Andrew’s shirt, too impatient now to take the time to undo the buttons, and yanked them apart. Buttons ricocheted across the kitchen floor but she had no care as she placed her palms against his skin and began running them up and down. She needed to feel him, every inch.

  Andrew pulled back, broke their kiss and glanced down at his ruined shirt. Her hands were gliding over him in an act of possession that had never felt so seductive. He’d been careful to hold back, to stop the animal within from just taking, but as her legs wrapped around him in a possessive hold, his control snapped. He ripped open her lilac blouse and grabbed her breasts with animal ferociousness. Robyn arched into his hands and gripped him tighter with those curvaceous thighs. Groaning, he grabbed the black lace bra that covered her and wrenched it apart, allowing her wonderfully full mounds to pour freely into his hands. Ah god, the feel of them in his palms. She spilled over his fingers and he could feel the tightening buds of her nipples against his skin. He cupped her, moulded her and then clamped her nipples between forefinger and thumb and squeezed. She arched and moaned, so he squeezed harder. She squirmed and rubbed herself against his hard cock. Dear God she liked that. He dropped his head and devoured her breast, his one hand still rolling and pulling one nipple whilst he bit the other one.

  Ah God. He was going to make her come from his touch alone. Every time he pinched her, it clenched something deep in her core and the harder he pinched, the harder the clench. Her mind was losing all contact with reality.

  Cold air suddenly bathed her breasts as Andrew released her nipple and pulled upright. His hand shot down to where she was grinding herself against him and he wrenched her underwear away one handed, the lace giving way and leaving her bared to him as he yanked down his trousers to free himself.

  She felt elated, wild. This feral need, this wildness, was Andrew, but she met it with the same animal passion.

  He entered her in one smooth forceful thrust. She felt the stretch, the bombardment, for the briefest second before fire consumed. Andrew’s touch was warm, soothing, enticing and addictive, but this, this meeting of sensitive flesh on sensitive flesh was white fire. Heat seared into her, burned into her core and detonated an intense climax. Robyn cr
ied out, closed her eyes and arched back as Andrew began to pound into her. She rode the wave of pure unadulterated ecstasy, clinging on by a bare thread to consciousness as it threatened to completely consume her. When she came down, when she could breathe, she realised that the fire wasn’t out. As soon as her orgasm waned, another began to build.

  Andrew thrust into her fiercely fast. He pounded her against the worktop, held her hips firmly and drove in with reckless abandon. And she loved it. Her body responded to the searing sensations by meeting his thrusts, gripping his shoulders and riding the wild wave with him.

  Robyn opened her eyes and gasped.

  Andrew stared at her, unerringly, longingly, and his eyes were blue. Pale, pale, blue surrounded by brilliant cerulean. Robyn couldn’t stop her stare as she wrapped tighter around him and tilted her hips to allow him to penetrate deeper. Even as he tilted her back to pound harder, she still stared. Those eyes, after years of monochromatic existence were the loveliest things she had ever seen.

  Andrew changed his grip and ground into her harder. He filled her to the brim, stretching her and pleasuring her with each forceful thrust. She built and built as he hit her sweet spot over and over. This was not gentle, sensuous passion, this was frantic and rough and untamed.

  The second orgasm hit her so hard that she cried out over and over and Andrew ground into her faster, harder, with bruising power. She loved it, craved it and rode the wave. Clamping her legs tightly to him, clawing his sweat beaded skin to embrace him more fully, Robyn clung to Andrew.

  He wasn’t going to last any longer. Her body was clinging to his as her sex squeezed and clamped him furiously as her orgasm ripped through her. He thrust one last time, feeling his cock swelling, filling, and them he shoved in hard and spilled inside her as her glorious sex milked him for every drop.

  Shit, what had he done? Torn clothing lay strewn across the kitchen floor, the microwave had been all but shoved off of the counter to make room and he was wrapped around her like she was a second skin. He’d taken her like he was an animal. He’d had the most explosive orgasm of his life and certainly Robyn had come hard, twice, but she was better than this and, shit, he hadn’t even used protection. Even now, his seed was splattered over both of them where they were still joined.