Dana had to hold onto the limousine to keep herself from falling. Her guts were sloshing through her body and she had already thrown up twice in the car. The taste of vomit was still in her mouth and she wouldn't be surprised if it was on her clothes too. Reflexively, she wiped along her mouth and chin, but she had done that so many times by now she knew there was nothing left.
Even though she knew she had to hurry because Juice's life was hanging by a thread, she kept standing next to the car motionlessly. Her sight was blurry. An enormous building stood above her, but she couldn't recognize its shape. The only thing she could picture clearly was Juice's bleeding body.
What if he was already gone?
Would she want to see his body?
Squeezing her eyes, she took a deep breath. When she opened them again, she saw someone standing at the entrance of the building. Her breathing faltered. For months she had feared this moment. Oddly enough, she didn't feel the fear that had been so paralyzing in her nightmares.
She could only think about Juice.
If he was still alive, he needed to go to a hospital. He wouldn't get that chance before she went with Maddox, so she had no time to lose. She pushed herself away from the car. The driver was still behind the steering wheel. He hadn't said a single word to her since she had gotten into his car and she wouldn't be surprised if Maddox had cut off his tongue.
Only the first steps she took were wobbly. She raised her head, looking right past Maddox. She had made her choice. She couldn't go back, but she wouldn't crawl back to him like a beaten dog. As she neared him, she looked right through him. Instead of paying attention to him, she focused on the building. It was the ruin of a church.
A shiver crept down her spine as a memory floated by, as if her brain wanted to drag her back to a lost time, instead of letting her face this awful reality.
Dana's hands were leaning on the wooden fence. Below her was a sea of green and brightly colored flowers. The branches of an enormous tree close to them moved; a toucan flew away.
Not that she paid that much attention to the beauty of nature at the moment. Juice's lips were moistening her neck. One hand hugged her breast, the other was inside her bikini bottoms and played with her in such a way she was sharply breathing in, tensing her pelvis.
His tongue glided across her auricle and his warm breathing made her shiver. "Seems like you're ready for me," he whispered.
"I'm always... ahh..." a moan cut off her words as two of his fingers slid inside her.
His other hand glided away from her breast and she felt how he was lowering his swimming shorts. He knelt behind her, kissing the skin from her thigh to her ankle as he rolled down her bikini briefs until she stepped out of them. His finger tips climbed up again as he stood up, making her sigh with pleasure as he arrived back at her groins. Spreading her legs a little more, she bent over the railing of the outpost. Both of his hands grabbed her hips and the fire inside her flamed up as he entered her from behind. His waist felt warm against her bottom and she bent a little more. With her front teeth she bit her lip as he thrust inside her in the perfect rhythm.
Through her half-closed eyes she suddenly noticed four people who came their way. In this bird watching hut they were probably too high to give a very detailed sight of their current activity, but she was still distracted by them.
"People are coming," she hissed.
Juice stopped for a moment and took his lips away from her shoulder to look up. "They're still far away."
"But..."
Pressing his lips to her shoulder, he continued his pace. "Just a little longer."
. . .
Right before the hikers raised their heads towards them, Juice came. A little too quick for Dana herself; the presence of other people called up a new sense of excitement and a part of her wished he continued. Still, she stepped back so she was out of sight.
"I'll finish it within a minute," he said with a smirk, pulling her closer. "That stairs was rotten, they won't come up here."
Dana had seen the hikers were middle-aged, so she thought he was right. He kissed her.
"Admit that you secretly liked the tension."
"I did," she said, biting his bottom lip.
Maddox would never had done this, on a place where other people could hear or see them. Although he had been very inventive sexually, there had only been one time they had fucked outside his house; in a tent on a festival, their very first time. A quickie in a bird watching hut in the middle of the jungle would never have crossed his mind.
Juice tugged a strand of hair behind her ear. Sweat drops glided down her temple. "Where else do you wanna do it?" he wiggled with his eyebrows. "What's your ultimate sex fantasy?"
Dana thought about it for a while. "I have no idea." She chuckled. "You sound like you got a whole bucket list."
"And this place wasn't even on it."
"Then what is?"
"A haunted house."
She laughed. "You wanna have sex in a haunted house?"
The smirk on his face looked stupid as he shrugged his shoulders. "Sounds like a new level of excitement." Slowly he moved his finger down her spine, holding her glance. "So? Where do you want me to make love with you?"
Dana thought about it. Or she was at least trying to, but she still wasn't used to that gorgeous body of him being pressed against hers, and his fingers that drove her wild, wherever they were touching her.
"A church," she said with a smirk. "That's so wrong."
"You like to play with fire, huh?" Laughing, he lifted her up. "You wanna bring down God's wrath upon us? I think we should wait with that until Maddox is dead." He put her down on the edge of the wooden fence. The hikers they had spotted, were gone. "Well, just pretend you're on a pulpit now."
Dana wrapped her arm around the wooden leg supporting the roof to keep herself from falling, while Juice crouched down in front of her. Her body was wobbling with rapture when his warm lips touched the skin that had only been touched by his fingers today. His tongue slid across her entrance and circled around her clit, and a high sound that sounded like his name, escaped her lips.
The memory faded, leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. It felt like Maddox had been with them the whole time, as if that conversation had been the reason they were here now. To make that fantasy come true – but not with the person she wanted.
"Dana..." His voice sounded breathless as he spoke out her name. Very lightly his vingers brushed her arm, but Dana ignored him and looked around.
"Dana!" Juice's voice sounded desperate, but it was the fact that he was still alive that hit her the most. She ran towards him, fell on her knees beside him and stroked his face.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
He looked at her. Even though she had seen him being in panic several times, his eyes had never been as restless as now. "You have to go. He – he..."
Her thumb brushed his lips to silence him. "It's okay."
Inwardly, she cringed because of those words. But she had to be strong, she had to show Maddox she had made her choice. Bluff might be the only way to get Juice out of here alive. She started to unloose the ropes around his legs and wrists.
"Listen to me baby," she said as he sat up straight, dazed. He stared past her, probably to Maddox who hadn't intervened. But Dana knew him. He was more impressed by her calmness than by her tears. Stroking his cheek with the back of her fingers, she lowered her voice. "Listen, baby. I love you, Juice. That will never change. I love you more than anything in the world and that's why I need to do this. Maddox promised me not to kill you if I go with him. So that's what I will do."
Despite the confidence she had faked, her lips started to quiver. Oh god. I don't want to let him go.
"The past months were the best of my life and I am grateful for every single minute." She swallowed with difficulty as Juice's eyes were filled with tears.
"No... No, you can't do that to me, Dane." He grabbed her hand. "Please, don't leave me. I can't live without you, I don't wanna live without you. Not... not when that monster..."
Fingers pierced her shoulder. "That's enough."
Maddox' voice sounded grim. Dana suspected that he had imagined their reunion in a different way; she had ignored his presence and he was losing his patience now.
Dana knew she was taking an enormous risk, but she couldn't stop herself. She tore away from Maddox' grasp, held Juice's face with both of her hands and reached out to his lips for the very last time. It was a short, salty kiss and the ending of it tore her apart.
As she stood up, pressing her eyelashes, tears rolled down. Sobbing, Dana took a deep breath. Then she turned away her head and placed her hand in the hand that Maddox held out to her.
In silence she walked with him to the entrance, trying to banish the grief from her heart, ignoring Juice's screams, his cries. Keep him alive, she prayed. Please keep him alive. Don't let him come after us.
But right before they left the cathedral, Maddox pulled a gun, turned around and fired.
Wildly, she spun around. Her eyes widened and a horrible pain shred her heart to pieces. A scream raised himself from the depths of her soul, growing into a cry in which al her emotions were bundled.