Chapter 5
Anna saw spots and could barely catch her breath. Her knees were no longer holding her upright and Riddick’s hand in her hair was supporting way too much of her body’s weight. She fought to stay conscious as she drew in a small, shaky breath.
“He’ll let me go. Stop. Back away. He’ll let me go if you back off.”
The guards lowered their weapons, astonishingly, and backed toward the open doorway of the hospital. It was incomprehensible, really, that they had given up so easily. A moment later, Anna realized why.
A full team of guards, ready and capable-looking, stood directly behind them, in between the ship she figured Riddick must’ve been heading for and the team of guards now refocusing their weapons on Riddick. And Anna.
As Riddick realized it, he spun, dropped their bodies closer to the ground, and again wrapped his injured arm around her body. They were sideways now, crouching in between the two squads, nowhere to go.
Anna briefly mourned her life…the happiness she knew as a surgeon, the lives she’d saved, the friends she’d had before the war. She knew without a doubt that she wouldn’t live through this moment and she wished she’d had more time. Then she closed her eyes and listened to Riddick’s breathing. Calm and steady. Anna almost smiled. He wasn’t even breathing hard. She pondered her reaction to the touch of his skin, she felt his hard chest against her back and his strong hips against her bottom. He was so ungiving, his body one hard plane of muscle. She admitted to herself in that moment that she was incredibly weakened by his physical appearance. Hot liquid rushed to the apex of her thighs as she sighed and leaned into his body. Her life was over. And she was pushing her behind against the man who was going to kill her.
Anna’s eyes snapped open as she came back to reality.
The sheer unbelievability of the situation hit her. What was she doing? What was she thinking? She had to fight. She had to try to get away.
Toward the hospital, the guards had already started to move forward again and she felt Riddick tug her backward. She made her move.
Anna grabbed Riddick’s forearm and dug her nails in as hard as she could. At the same time she threw her head back against what she thought was his chin with all her strength. When she felt his arm give a little, she dropped all her body weight onto that forearm. He didn’t let go. She screamed and threw her head back again. Riddick’s arm tightened until she couldn’t breathe at all and he growled low in his throat. She felt him pick her up off the ground, realized that he’d cut off her air supply completely, threw her head back for the third time, and then the world went black.
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Chapter 6
Her feet were dragging. Anna tried to lift them, but her body wouldn’t respond. Her scalp screamed, her back was on fire from the inside out and she couldn’t breathe.
She heard the sound of gunshots, felt her body being moved, shifted, deposited on the floor…and still she couldn’t move. She moved her fingers first, barely. They finally responded and she tried, instinctively, to bring her hand to her scalp. It was excruciating. Pain radiated up from the roots of her long brown hair and she felt as though every individual hair had been ripped out by it’s roots.
Satisfied her hair was intact, she opened her eyes to small slits and tried to focus. It was dimly lit in the room she was in, computer equipment lined the walls, huge steel cages were filled with blinking lights and buttons. Anna recognized it as a ship, even though she’d never actually seen the inside of one. She’d grown up, lived and stayed in one place. Never wanted to be anywhere but there. Her home.
Now she was in a ship.
She sat up slowly, her hand still gingerly touching the roots of her hair and looked around. Riddick was nowhere to be found. No guards. Anna briefly wondered if she were being transported somewhere for questioning. Maybe the guards had saved her and she now had to tell her story to the officials who held the right to imprison or kill Riddick.
Testing her shaky lower body, Anna stood up, aided by the cages that lined the walls of the ship. She pulled herself up and breathed a sigh of relief when her legs held. Her stomach ached, sore from Riddick’s huge arm, and she felt like she might throw up. Taking deep, steadying breaths, Anna pushed away from the side of the ship and walked toward the open doorway that was rimmed with light at the far end of the room. A loud whirring noise from under the floor drew her attention as she felt the floor begin to vibrate. The ship had been started. Anna moved as quickly as she could, holding on to the sides of the ship, and tried to reach the door before the ship began to move. She reached the door, finally, and the entire ship began to vibrate with the power of the engines. She put her hands on either side of the doorway, lifted her feet one at a time onto the step that led from the small room she was in and pushed her body through the open portal. She took in the sheer size of the room, the open glass that spanned the entire front of the ship, the screens, levers and buttons that made up the control panel and the two seats at the very base of that huge glass. In the right chair, no one. In the left chair, so tall his unmistakable shaved head could be seen above the chair back, sat the person who would be the pilot of her first ever space flight. The person who was responsible for the pain in her scalp, her abdomen and her legs.
Richard Riddick.
Escaped murderer,Convict, Rapist, Child molester, Animal.
His crimes scrolled in front of her eyes as she recalled every news story she’d seen about him. He tortured people, enjoyed killing them, did it for sport.
She had to get off the ship.
Anna turned, jumped down into the small room she’d been in when she awakened and made a beeline for the ship’s large bay door. His voice stopped her in her tracks.
“Stop. Don’t try to open it. Locked.”
Again, his gruff voice drifted across the space that separated them and wound its way into her chest. Anna turned and looked at the open doorway.
“Get up here. Sit down. We’re taking off.”
Riddick issued his commands in a tone that left no question what would happen if she disobeyed. Anna walked back through the open door and sat in the right seat, hoping her compliance would soften his threatening tone. Riddick glanced at her, lowered his eyes to her lap, and leaned toward her, his big hand stretching out toward her as he did. Anna sucked in her breath and pushed back against the seat, her eyes wide.
Oh, my god…he’s going to rape me right here.
Riddick raised his eyes to meet hers and once again their gazes locked. Anna breathed shallowly through her parted lips and wondered if he would kill her first or rape her first. Which would be better? Would he cut her? Torture her?
Riddick frowned, and three deep lines appeared at the bridge of his nose. His eyes hardened to steel as he locked his jaw and leaned toward her again. He reached toward her thigh, looked at Anna with disgust in his expression, and hooked her lap belt.
He hooked my lap belt. That’s what he was doing. Hooking my lap belt.
She let out her breath and looked at the belt across her lap. The ship shuddered and lifted, the view out of the huge glass changing to show the ground falling away. Anna looked at the fading buildings and trees and sanctity of the only home she had ever known. She was on a ship. With Riddick. A prisoner. What was he going to do with her?
She glanced at him and he returned his attention to the window and control panel. His full lips were amazing in profile, soft looking and so big. Anna felt her stomach flip as he parted them to speak in a low command.
“Hold on.”
A few minutes later, Riddick unhooked his own strap, punched in a code on the lighted panel in front of him and turned to face Anna. She’d been completely silent, totally still, utterly horrified. Now she tried to meet Riddick’s gaze, but found herself unable to do so. She could feel his eyes on her. Sensed his regard as surely as if he’d touched her. She knew when he looked from her face to her neck, could tell when his gaze dropped to her thighs, felt her face burn with sudden heat when he lazily inspected her chest and stomach. She looked down at her body with clinical detachment. Her 5 foot 9 frame was covered in black clothing. Black, long sleeved shirt. Black cotton pants. Black boots with a slight heel, comfortable enough to wear all day. On top of all that black, she’d donned her white lab coat. Now, the coat was in shreds, hanging on her frame and her shirt was ruined, ripped and wrinkled. Her cotton pants had held up, all but one rip on the front of her right thigh. Her stomach, already beginning to bruise, peeked out from the top of her pants. That was where she felt Riddick’s eyes pause. That strip of bruised skin that topped the waistband of her pants. She covered it with her folded arms and forced herself to look at him.
As the scenery changed from blue to black in front of her, she met Riddick’s steely gaze with her eyebrows raised. Trying to be brave, she swallowed and fought to find her voice.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Dunno yet.”
“Why? Why did you kidnap me? Where are we going?”
Anna knew she sounded desperate, but the past hour or so had been the most horrible minutes of her life and she needed answers.
In response, Riddick stood, his massive form blocking out the overhead lights and turned to walk away from her.
He didn’t get far.
Riddick’s knees hit the floor of the ship and pain radiated up through his hips to his spine. His shoulder throbbed, his head ached, his skin screamed where he’d been cut and his neck felt like millions of tiny razors were cutting through his spinal cord. He was in no mood for this woman’s round-eyed questions. He didn’t have the answers, anyway.
Anna was by his side almost instantly, peering at him over his own shoulder,
watching his reactions. She glanced at his bleeding arm and seemed to come
to a decision. Then she stepped in front of him, looked into his eyes, and
actually smiled a little. That doctor’s smile that’s meant to reassure you,
calm you. She was fantastic at it. The smile almost reached her eyes and
her full, bowed lips curved seductively upward, causing her cheeks to fill
out a bit and the skin around her huge jade eyes to wrinkle. Riddick felt
himself sway toward her in an almost childlike need to be taken care of.
And then he promptly passed out.
Anna moved quickly, catching his head against her chest and stopping him from falling face-first onto the ship’s floor. He was huge. She figured he must outweigh her by 60 or 70 pounds. She moved him slowly, laboriously , and finally was able to lay his massive body on the floor of the ship, face up. The supplies she needed were found easily, marked with a red cross , and she cleaned and bandaged his wound first. That done, she braced her foot on the shoulder blade of his other arm, grabbed his wrist, and, thankful he was unconscious, snapped his shoulder back into place. He didn’t budge. The few cuts and scrapes that littered his arms and neck got quick attention. Her first priority, his health, was satisfied. Anna couldn’t fly the ship, she knew that. She just hoped Riddick woke up before it was time to land. She crept up to the control panel, stealing glances over her shoulder at Riddick as she walked, and searched the huge panel for something resembling a radio, microphone, tel-com unit, whatever they called it on these ships. Her long hair fell over her shoulders and swept the panel as she searched. If she could find a radio, she could call someone to help her. She could get help, get off the ship, get home. As Anna located what she was sure was a communications device, she glanced once again over her shoulder at Riddick. He seemed comfortable enough, even though he lay on the cold steel floor. She pushed the lit square on the unit and held in the microphone’s small talk button.
“Hello? Hello? Anyone?”
Static greeted her as she let the talk button release. She tried again.
“Hello? Over? Can someone hear me?”
Her only response was the static. Anna threw the mic down onto the panel
in frustration.
A black, infinite universe was visible through the glass at the front of
the ship, speckled with stars that seemed very far away. Anna sighed. Riddick
still lay on the floor, recuperating from his wounds. She had no idea what
levers to try or what to do to get out of this situation. She cursed her
uneventful life, never having been on a ship of any kind, afraid of heights.
Ridiculous.
Dammit. Why couldn’t I have taken one fucking ride?
Anna pushed away from the panel, glanced again at Riddick and considered her options. Tie him up? Hide somewhere in the ship? She dismissed both options as impossible…Riddick had to fly the ship and she knew he would find her wherever she hid. And that would probably just make him angry. Anna reasoned with herself that she was still alive for one reason, and one reason only. She did what he told her to do…and quickly…and she proved useful in all situations. What should she do? How could she get away?
Anna turned, and gave in to her curiosity about the ship, walking down the corridor that snaked off the main area she was in. Two bedrooms, a bath and a supply room lined the hallway. She didn’t know, but this seemed like a very nice ship. Riddick had good taste in stolen ships. Anna turned back, retraced her footsteps back down the hallway and glanced over at Riddick. Still asleep. Anna touched his forehead, frowned, and checked again. He was warm. He probably had a low-grade fever. Nothing to really alarm her, but he really needed to be in bed.
Knowing she could never move him, especially that far, Anna resorted to the next best thing she could think of. She quickly went back down the hall, entered the first bedroom, stripped the blanket off the bed and grabbed a pillow. Quickly slipping back to where Riddick lay, she lifted his head, shoved in the pillow, and covered him with the blanket. Anna’s eyes slid shut as she sat beside Riddick. He would be fine, she was sure, but she had no idea what he’d do when he awakened. She knew for sure that he would appreciate her care of him, and although he hadn’t hurt her…yet…she was sure he’d eventually feel well enough to rape, torture and kill her…and she had to get off this ship before that time came.
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Chapter 7
Anna’s first reaction upon waking was that something heavy was on top of her. She struggled up from sleep, her eyes heavy and her body screaming for attention. She was on something hard. She was incredibly sore. She was on a ship in the middle of nowhere. With Richard Riddick.
Anna’s eyes opened and met with Riddick’s glittering silvery stare. He was awake. He was lying on top of her, his arm braced up above her head on his elbow and the other arm snaked down her right side. She could feel his amazingly large hand on the side of her thigh and one of his legs lay in between hers, hard and heavy. His hips pressed down into her stomach and she could feel his breathing. The movement of his chest and stomach pressed into her each time he took a breath. It was such a small movement, but Anna felt it as though he’d pushed against her with all his strength. As she lay beneath him, she began to crave that movement even as she feared his next action. He did not move. Only stared at her, his amazing eyes looking down into hers, evenly breathing, moving his chest and stomach, driving her mad. Anna had never, ever reacted to any man like this. She had never been excited by the simple movement of another person’s body. She wondered if every woman Riddick had raped had actually…enjoyed…the feel of his body as she did now.
Riddick lowered his eyes to her mouth and the light in his eyes flamed brighter. Anna opened her lips, breathing quickly and felt him harden against her tummy. He flexed his hips a little and pushed that hardness into her, slowly and easily, and Anna felt a moan rise up in her throat. She swallowed it back, and tried to catch her breath.
Riddick again met her eyes.
“You patched me up.”
“Yes.”
He lowered his gaze to her mouth again and spoke softly.
“You ok?”
Anna was puzzled. A serial killer and rapist, asking if she was ok?
“Yes, I’m fine.”
Riddick watched her lips move as she spoke and she instinctively wet her top lip with her tongue. Riddick’s voice, when he spoke again, was even deeper.
“What’s your name?”
Does he ask all his victims these questions? She wondered.
Anna felt caught in his direct gaze, charmed by his voice, unable to move. She should push him away, try to run…but then he’d hurt her, she knew it.
“Anna Wayne. Can you get off me please?” she forced through trembling lips.
“Sure,” he made a noise that sounded like a growl mixed with a laugh and pushed himself up into a standing position.
Anna’s entire body mourned the loss of his weight and that low, even breathing that made her feel like her entire body was on fire. She quickly stood and backed into the wall, eyeing him warily.
Riddick flexed his shoulder, gave her a curious glance and looked at the gauze patch on his arm. Anna did not move as she watched his colossal shoulders stretch and move. She felt as though a heavy weight were on her chest as she tried to breathe shallowly. She was way out of her league here with him and she knew it.
Riddick looked at her heaving chest, raised his gaze to meet hers, and
lifted the corner of his mouth in a smirk.
He knew it, too.
“Anna Wayne.”
Her name rolled off his lips in a low, rumbling whisper. She felt that voice at the base of her spine and her eyes once again widened in shock as a rush of liquid flowed from her core. He said her name and she melted.
Oh, God.
Anna pushed her back against the wall of the ship and swallowed.
Riddick crossed the room to her, his massive body moving with ease even
while injured. He was a good bit taller and a whole lot steadier than Anna
when he reached her, and his presence engulfed her. Anna met his eyes with
her own. He was amazingly beautiful, terrifyingly beautiful,wonderfully
close.
Riddick braced his palm on the wall beside her head, and Anna became mesmerized by his enormous arm. He was so big. So big. This was it. He would rape her, torture her, kill her.
Anna found her voice. “Please…”
As Riddick bent his head closer to hers he regained his earlier smirk.
“Yes, Anna Wayne? Please….?”
Anna was horrified by that smirk. He was really going to enjoy this. Her life would end and he would be wearing that same smirk. She gave up all pride and begged for her life.
“Please…Riddick, please…don’t kill me. I won’t tell anyone where you go, or what you did, I just want to go back, back home…please.”
Riddick’s smirk melted off his lips and the fiery light in his silver eyes flickered, died and went out. He frowned, pushed away from the wall and backed away in what could only be described as disappointment.
Anna stayed where she was, confused by his reaction. Why did he look disappointed? Because she’d begged? She was sure all his victims did. Why wouldn’t they? No way could any of them possibly get away from this hulking man. Begging was the only option. And…it seemed like it had worked, at least for the moment.
Riddick eyed her with a frown on his rigid features. He turned and left her standing against the wall, so relieved she could barely comprehend it. Anna searched the room for anything that would be helpful…she’d tried the radio. Not working. Nothing else looked even vaguely familiar to her, so she sat in the co-pilot’s chair and stared out at the stars. Where were they going? What would happen when they got there…if he let her live that long? And why was he so angry, or disappointed, in her? Should she beg for her life again if he got close to her?
Two hours later, Riddick walked along the hallway from the bedroom to the control room. He had to talk to Anna Wayne. She was completely terrified by him, completely excited by him and he had to let her know that the excitement part was all that mattered right now. He planned to reassure her that he would, indeed, not kill her, but would take the excitement that he knew she felt and turn it into the most amazing experience of her life. He hadn’t even touched her and she was mesmerized. He hadn’t even tried to turn her on, and she was soaking wet. He knew it. He could sense it. He could smell it. She was his. And he hadn’t even begun.
She was probably huddled in a corner somewhere. Petrified. He’d just needed time to control his anger at her accusation, get his ego in check and relax, plan. Now he would go to her, relax her, reassure her, and fuck her senseless. Give her everything she imagined he could and more. She was, without a doubt, the most intoxicating woman he’d ever met. Beautiful, with long brown, caramel-curled locks that reached almost to the waist of her pants, lush curves, none of the hard planes so many women he met had from their life on the streets. Anna was completely woman, curvy and rounded in the perfect areas. He was painfully hard, had been since he saw her in the infirmary. He was through waiting. His wounds were patched up and he was harder than he ever remembered being.
And he hadn’t even touched her yet.
Riddick walked into the control room, his eyes seeking Anna’s form in
each corner before coming to rest on the sight of her hair hanging over
the arm of the co-pilot’s chair.
He walked over to her, turning the chair around to face him and stopped.
Riddick couldn’t believe it. She wasn’t huddling in fear. She wasn’t an incoherent mass of blubbering female.
His captive was asleep.