I allowed a gasp to escape me as she drew her bloody fingers across her lips, oh god…she’s mad…and then another gasp as she drew them across my skin…across my breast…her touch so delicate and contradictory to what had just gone before. The cold wind blowing in from the broken window was taking its toll on my now exposed breasts and as she leant forward her own warm chest brushed my own. Both of us were breathing hard and her gaze locked onto me, her eyes were fiery and passionate. Her breasts pressed harder against my own and I felt my nipples stiffening, inwardly I groaned at my bodies quick betrayal and instantly I was thrown back to a dank winter six years ago….

“Come on Serenity, let yourself go…”

Those whispered words…the man that had been my adoptive father, lover and advisor…both aroused and sickened me. I struggled weakly under this wildly powerful woman, but my arms felt like lead weights and my legs were weaker still. The fight seemingly sapped from me at last…

The fire within her eyes seemed to change, an acknowledgement of my unwilling surrender beneath her. My body may have failed me, but I would be damned if she was to take my mind too. I closed my eyes shut…refusing to allow myself to sink into her powerful gaze. But there I was assaulted by the mocking voices of my past…I tore my eyes open and once more gazed into the depths of my attacker…she seemed to blink, recognizing something within me and we both seemed to shudder in the power of the moment.

I felt her heart beat, fast and hard, against my chest as she pressed tighter against me...and for the first time in many years I realised how I longed for the warmth of another human being against me...