Trapped: A SciFi Convict Romance (The Condemned Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

twitching at the strange,
wonderful scent. Floral. Rich. Alive.
    Nothing like this had existed on Earth for centuries. But
here…her heart leapt. Winthrop had been right. Maybe there was hope for Earth,
after all.
    She skipped forward. Only to be brought up short by an
unmovable leash around her wrist. Her gaze clashed with hungry, dark eyes.
    “Take off your clothes.”
    Her euphoria crashed and burned. For a brief instance, she’d
forgotten.
    But with every second that mud man loomed above her, his dark
eyes boring into her, watching, waiting, his jaw tight, his muscles rigid, the
reality of what awaited built inside.
    “I won’t force you.” His words were a growl, but their
meaning came through loud and clear nonetheless. He was again offering her a
way out.
    Her breath shuddered in and out.
    She could turn back now. She could renege on the deal. It
looked like he’d actually let her walk away. But without his help, she, Davies,
and Winthrop would never make it until the search and rescue team arrived. No
one would ever know what she’d found here today.
    Her gaze shifted to the fan-like plants. Now she had yet
another reason to survive this, she told herself. This place. These plants.
They could be the key to saving her sister and brother.
    As quick as the thought came, she shut out the memory of her
sweet siblings’ faces. She didn’t want them connected in any way with what was
about to happen.
    “My choice.” Awkwardly, she unsealed the top portion of her uniform,
her shaking fingers making it difficult. Beside her, mud man had gone
disturbingly still.
    It wasn’t as if she hadn’t had sex just for the sake of sex
before, she reminded herself. Long hours of studying and work and scraping by
hadn’t allowed for anything more than the few quick, clumsy joinings with barrack mates to scratch an itch. Sure, she’d known them longer than five
minutes and none had been criminals, but there’d been no emotional connection.
    Today was just more of the same. At least that’s what she
tried to tell herself.
    When the seal reached its end at her bellybutton, she took a
deep breath and let the dirt-covered uniform slide from her arms before pushing
it off her hips in one fell swoop. It crumpled to the ground around her feet,
leaving her in nothing but her white bra and panties. Her skin prickled at the
exposure, her nipples crinkling into tight buds as the cooler air hit her body.
    A choked curse had her gaze flying to his.
    What she saw made her heart beat even faster. No longer cold,
no longer empty, mud man’s dark stare glittered with raw hunger as it roamed
her breasts and belly and thighs. The wonder was back, too. The dark blue rim
she’d noticed before expanding so wide it nearly swallowed the black.
    Her arms instinctively moved to cover herself.
    “Take off the rest.” The rough command had her hands dropping
back to her sides.
    With jerky movements, she kicked off her boots. Then, she unclasped
her bra in one efficient move and let it drop to the ground before pushing her
panties down her hips and stepping out of those as well. There. She’d done it.
    She forced herself to keep her arms by her sides. For survival. For survival. She chanted
the words over and over to herself.
    Seconds ticked by. Nothing happened. The only sounds in the
cave were the rhythmic drip of water and the erratic scrape of her breath
sawing in and out.
    Her stare flickered to his.
    “Beautiful.” His single rasped word surprised her. So, too,
did the intensity of his dark gaze.
    His hands fisted at his side. More seconds ticked by. Still,
he made no move to grab her. Simply stared as if memorizing every inch. Unsure,
she shifted on her bare feet, a flush of heat warming her cheeks and her chest.
The wonder in his gaze making her throat go tight all over again as it had with
their first touch.
    “Go into the water.” His voice was deeper than before.
    She started, confused. She’d expected him to be on