"Nefertiti." It was the voice of a man she could not forget in a hurry. He sounded gentle and afraid.
"Nefertiti, are you alright? Are you fine?" His voice was heavily laced with worry and she felt him crouch before her but she was still too shocked to open her eyes.
"Hey?" His gentle fingers ran across the side of her face.
"Are you hurt?" He asked again and this time, the anxiety in his voice was obvious.
She opened her eyes slowly to meet his wide anxious red orbs and she broke down into a fit of tears, trembling weakly from fear.
"Hey? Hey?" He circled his arm around her shoulder and raised her into a sitting position.
"You are fine. He is gone." He assured slowly as his eyes assessed her face.
"Who… who are you?" She peered into his eyes with her blurry eyes this time and asked only to see his clench his jaw, there was something in his eyes but he restrained it.
"Are you hurt?" He asked again and this time, he wasn't anxious, he didn't sound worried, his tone was bland and his wild black hair added to his mysterious air.
"Nefa … who is that? Me? Why did you call me that?" Carla found herself squinting at him as she remembered the woman from the paper.
"Wait, there was a lady just like me. Was she the one you were referring to?" Carla winced as she managed to hold herself up.
She saw the irritation in his eyes but ignored it, she was curious, she wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery, she felt like she was going crazy.
"I know you are not human, I mean your red eyes, I…" She forced the words back to her throat and almost fell back to the rough ground full of debris on her back when he suddenly glared at her, the red of his eyes getting extremely intense.
"I. asked. if. you. were. hurt." He stressed each word as he grabbed her arms.
"I…" Carla felt something get stuck to her throat, she felt like she was about to cry.
Without letting her talk, he drew his face closer to hers, held her face in his hands and scanned the whole of her face for a wound.
She blinked rapidly at the closeness of his face to hers, she could smell his fresh breath and a little more closeness could get their lips to touch.
Out of the blue, she saw his face get extremely close to hers and before she could think of raising a protest, she felt something wet on her cheek.
Her eyes bulged, her lips fell open and she blushed.
Rhy who has seen a long red mark with a little touch of blood on her cheek did the needful. Pushing his tongue out, he licked it and almost crumbled at the softness of her flesh. Memories from the past rushed into his head but he pushed it back, now was not the time to let this part of him show.
When he withdrew himself, he looked at her stunned expression and almost lost it again at her parted lips.
"There? It's healed." He forcefully said, nodding to the mark on her face.
"What?" She questioned and raised her hand to touch her check when he saw another mark at her neck when she twisted and without thinking, he dived in, lashing onto her neck and sucking at it.
"Aaarrrr…" She had moaned unexpectedly and he gripped her from the effect her moan had on him.
Carla was in daze when she felt the sensation from his lips on her neck go straight to her core and mortified when she heard the ridiculous sound she had made.
"Stay still." He had ordered against her neck, his voice was a deeper shade of seduction.
"I am only trying to heal the physical wound on your body."
"You can … eer… you can do that without having to emm…" She swore she could choke on her saliva.
He pulled away from her neck, letting his eyes linger there for a bit before focusing on her. Carla almost found herself hiccuping. His red eyes were darker than a congealed blood, it was hooded and his breath were irregular, he seemed to be losing a grasp of his control.
"I can only heal you with my saliva. If you don't want to get questioned, you would have to quietly let me."
Carla looked at him and saw something wild in his eyes. She wasn't sure how she could trust a complete stranger who wasn't human but acted like he knew everything about her.
"You can…" She hiccuped.
"You can do it without your …" Carla made a weak attempt at pointing at his lips and at that, Rhys' hands went to his lips, touching them like he didn't know it belonged to him.
He looked at her intensely, he knew she was right but he could not pass up the opportunity to be this close to her.
Without talking, he held up her legs ignoring her silent protests and with his eyes still holding hers, he let his finger run up her legs to her thigh where there was a large wound from the edges of the branches.
Carla found herself not able to look away from his eyes, her breath hitched when his slender hand traveled her thigh.
'What in heaven's name is wrong with me?' She shouted in her head but could only sit like she was stuck to a place and watch him lick off the blood on her injury.
"Oh dear!" She sucked in a breath but still held his eyes.
There was something about his gesture that made the mysterious stranger look so hot. Carla didn't know what was wrong with her or how the frightening event morphed into this but the fire was already set at the bottom of her belly and her core clenched themselves and unclenched themselves again.
'You need to stop this madness Carla!' She had yelled in her head but still watched him without moving an inch.
When he was done and moved to her ears, she fought against the urge to grab his hair and latch her lips to his.
When was the last time she got intimate with someone?
'Oh gosh! You are crazy for thinking that Carla!' She was notified by her own thoughts but she still sat still.
She doubted there was an injury in her ear but she let him do what he wanted, secretly hoping that something more than that would happen. She wouldn't resist.
"You are too stubborn for your good and now I am pissed." He whispered in her ear before letting her see his heated glare.
Carla felt her heart drop to the pit of her stomach. She observed his face and he looked really pissed.
"I said not to come back, Nefertiti!" He glowered at her, the electrifying moment between them disappearing into the wind like it was never there.
"Nefer…"
"Carla." He corrected himself before standing, showing his back to her. She saw him tighten his hand to a fist.
"You will go home and take a long break from work." He said before turning to look at her, his eyes were back to being black this time.
"No!" Carla yelled back and found herself standing up without difficulty, it felt like she had been renewed and made whole.
"You will do as I say." He left no chance for a bargain before stepping towards her to take her back home.