Waking up

I woke slowly, the haze of sleep lingering as I blinked against the soft light filtering into the cabin. My body ached, the aftereffects of the night still present in every muscle, every joint. I felt drained, yet somehow there was a strange energy still buzzing under my skin, like a current that hadn’t fully dissipated. The room was quiet, the air thick with the remnants of our shared experience. Emma and Abigail were still beside me, their soft breaths the only sound breaking the silence.

But something was off. There was a presence in the room, something I couldn’t quite place. My heart began to race, a mix of leftover adrenaline and a growing sense of unease. I pushed myself up on shaky arms, the sheet slipping from my shoulders as I looked around, trying to shake the fog from my mind.

And then I saw him.

Colonel Smith stood at the edge of the room, his silhouette barely visible in the dim light. His eyes were locked onto me, dark and intense, and there was something in them that made my stomach tighten—a hunger that was both predatory and ****. It was then that I noticed the faint, almost imperceptible tremor in his hands, the slight unsteadiness in his breath.

Something was very wrong.

I opened my mouth to speak, to ask him what he was doing here, but the words caught in my throat as he moved closer, his presence suddenly overwhelming. My instincts screamed at me to move, to get away, but my body was slow to respond, the exhaustion still weighing me down.

“Madison…” His voice was low, rough, as if he was struggling to keep it under control. He reached out, his fingers brushing against my arm, and the touch sent a jolt through me—a spark of something familiar and terrifying. The sensation was sharp, immediate, cutting through the fog in my mind.

No, this couldn’t be happening. Not again.

I tried to pull away, but my limbs felt sluggish, uncoordinated, and before I could react, he was on me. His weight pressed me back down into the mattress, his hands pinning my wrists above my head. I could feel his breath on my skin, hot and ragged, and the look in his eyes—God, it was the same as before, that same overwhelming desire that had consumed us all.

“Please—” I managed to gasp out, but he cut me off, his mouth crashing down onto mine with a ferocity that left me breathless. The kiss was rough, almost ****, and I could taste the need on his lips, feel it in the way his hands gripped me like he was afraid I might disappear.

Panic flared in my chest, but it was quickly smothered by something darker, something that coiled in my stomach and spread like wildfire through my veins. My body responded to him despite the fear, a traitorous heat pooling low in my belly.

“No… this isn’t right,” I whispered against his mouth, but the words were weak, drowned out by the pounding of my heart and the rush of blood in my ears. Smith was relentless, his hands moving down my body, tracing the curves that were still sensitive, still tingling from the night before. My mind screamed at me to fight, to resist, but my body—my body was betraying me, the pleasure that he **** on me intertwined, driving me toward the edge I thought I’d already fallen from.

I twisted beneath him, trying to break free, but every movement only seemed to push him further, his touch growing more insistent, more demanding. The sensations were overwhelming, flooding my senses and blurring the lines between fear and desire. It was too much, too intense, and I could feel myself slipping, losing control as the gas’s hold on me strengthened with every passing second.

“Madison,” he groaned, his voice thick with need, and the sound of my name on his lips was enough to shatter what little resolve I had left. The pleasure was undeniable, the lust he ignited in me too powerful to resist. My body arched into his, my breath hitching as I surrendered to the inevitable, my mind caught in the storm of sensation that he unleashed.

As the last remnants of resistance crumbled away, I knew there was no escape—not from him, and certainly not from the part of me that craved this, that had been awakened and refused to be silenced.