Free Making Love To Death (One Night With Death) by Natalie Kristen Page A

Emma
stared at his physique, trying to picture his body under that white
shirt. He obviously spent quite a lot of time at the gym. There was
not an ounce of fat on him. His arms were toned and the shirt
stretched over his chest and shoulders. She could feel the heat
rising to her face as she remembered her dream. She had seen him
stark naked and very aroused.
    When their eyes locked, she flinched from the searing
heat behind his eyes. “I remember making love to you,”
he said huskily.
    The sounds from the television reached a screaming
crescendo. Emma only heard his words echoing incessantly in her mind
and all around her small kitchen. Her lips parted but no sound
escaped.
    “ I know how this must sound...” Damien
began.
    Emma shook her head. “No. You don't.”
    “ I really don't mean to cause any offense. But
it's the truth. Even before I opened my eyes, I saw your face. I
knew your name. I can't explain it. It's like you're my anchor. I
feel...like I know you—intimately. I know every...” Every curve and inch of your body. How you taste, and feel. His eyes moved slowly down her body, and his throat moved as her
breasts heaved at her labored breathing.
    Emma let out a cough and Damien's eyes snapped back to
her face. “You mentioned...” She chewed her lower lip.
“Tell me about the fire.”
    “ Huh?”
    “ You mentioned a fire, last evening, at the
hospital.”
    Damien scrubbed his hand across his face. “I'm
not even sure how to begin...”
    “ Take your time.” Emma raised the cup to
her lips but she hardly tasted the coffee she swallowed. She kept
her gaze steadily on Damien.
    “ When I woke up in the hospital, the doctors told
me that I was real lucky that I was still alive. I'd had a narrow
escape. It's true. I am very lucky to have survived. But I didn't
survive the drugs—I don't even remember taking them. I
survived the fire,” he said feverishly, his words gushing out
in a torrent. “There was fire all around me, not just burning
me, but whipping me, scouring me, torturing me. The pain was like
nothing I have ever known. I was being ripped apart, piece by piece,
my flesh gouged out by the barbs on the flames and my entrails being
torn out and scorched. The torture went on forever, but I didn't
die. I couldn't die. I had to be destroyed completely...in order to
live. I could feel the terrible agony for an eternity, but I was
determined to bear it. Those flames were meant to punish me, but
also to purify me. So I could redeem myself...and come to you.”
    The cup was shaking so hard in Emma's hands she had to
put it down.
    “ What else do you remember?” she whispered
at last.
    Damien stared at her. “You don't think I'm mad?
You don't think that I'm hallucinating, that I'm a stark raving
lunatic? You don't think these...visions were brought on by the
drugs? That it was just a dream, a nightmare?”
    “ What do you think? Do you think that it's a
dream?”
    “ No, no.” He shook his head. “It was
real. It was all real! It happened. I...” He turned his
arms over in front of him. “I don't know why there are no
scars...” He swallowed a couple of times before continuing,
“This body—it doesn't seem to be the same. Like...it
wasn't mine, but now it's mine. I know it doesn't make sense, but
that's how it is. I'm...not Damien Blake. I was...someone else, yet
now I am Damien Blake. I know of Damien's life, my life—”
He shrugs and gives Emma a wry smile. “—only from what
I've read and heard so far.”
    “ So...if you're not Damien,” Emma said
slowly. “Who are you?”
    “ I don't think I had a name.” He frowned,
then added hastily, “But I'm Damien Blake now. I wasn't, but
now I am. Makes sense? I thought not.”
    Before Emma could respond, Luc came skidding into the
kitchen. “Can we go now? There will be long queues at the
amusement park! I want to be first in line! Let's go! Hurry,
Mummy, hurry!” He tugged at Emma's arm, trying to haul her off
her chair. “Are