Chapter 25
I’m good at running.
Chase is great at it.
He said he would give me a fifteen-second head start. He doesn’t lie, especially not to a Holden. Problem is that fifteen seconds isn’t all that much when you’re galloping through the woods, trying to avoid lurkers, rogues, and your dead sister’s lover.
I can sense him on my heels, even if he stays to the shadows, following me from a slight distance.
I dash through the trees, keeping one ear cocked for danger, half my consciousness paying attention to my nervous belly.
Still no lurkers, but I’m waiting for Chase to make good on his threat to run me down.
As I run, my ponytail hangs limply, slapping me in the face when I turn to look behind me, searching for Chase. I reach up, yanking the hair tie out. My curls fall around my face and I shove them over my shoulder once I’m sure that I still have a bit of a lead.
Only a bit, though, because the next time I turn, the moonlight catches the handcuff on his wrist. At least mine is hidden.
Rory’s jacket is longer than my hands, covering up my matching cuff.
That doesn’t really mean shit, though. So many nights out in the dark means that us survivors have gotten better at scoping out the shadows for threats.
For threats, and for a bolting blonde who’s started to pant a little—and not just because she’s out of breath from running.
Oh, I could change course and do my best to head back to the campsite. My sense of direction has improved greatly since I’ve been on the Outside, and I’m pretty sure I could find it. But if I did… well, I’d never find out what Chase had in mind for when he found me.
Does that mean that I let him catch me?
What do you think?
His arms wrap around like a vice, stopping me dead in my tracks an instant before I plow into him.
I thought he was behind me, but he wasn’t, and if it wasn’t for his solid stance and his strong grip, I might’ve barreled into him.
I can honestly say I didn’t see him before he suddenly appeared in front of me, and when he quickly manhandles me, shifting me so that my back is to his front, his arms lowered to press against the front of my jeans, I can’t tell if I’m relieved or pissed that I made it so easy for him.
His mouth goes to my ear. “Gotcha.”
I don’t struggle. What’s the point? Fair’s fair. He caught me. And now? “What are you going to do?”
What does he want?”
Chase kisses my temple. “What I’ve been dying to do for ages now. I’m going to touch you.”
He follows his whisper by popping open the button on my jeans. The sound of the zipper being tugged sends a shiver down my spine, and my voice goes breathy as I say, “Touch me? That’s all?”
He plucks the waistband of my panties. “Why? You going to let me do more than that?”
I don’t answer him.
“That’s fine. I’m not taking anything you won’t give me, babe. But this”—he plunges his fingers inside my panties, instantly spreading my folds open—“is good enough for me.”
I gasp, going up on the toes of my boots to give him as much access as I can with my jeans still on.
And that’s when his other arm moves for a moment. He reaches behind him, grabbing something from the back pocket of his jeans. I hear a clicking sound, and a small flame appears on the edge of my vision.
Chase is holding a lighter, the tiny fire flickering in the faint breeze.
I gulp now, trying desperately to ignore the way his questing fingers are touching every part of my pussy he can.
“What’s that? Worried there’s a lurker out there?
I’ll let you know.” Then, because I really am a bitch, I tell him: “You’re not distracting me enough to miss the cramps those fuckers give me when they’re near. ”
“Then that means I have to try harder,” Chase retorts right as his middle finger finds the entrance to my pussy. Without any hesitation, he dips it inside of me, and I have to bite my lip not to let him figure out how fucking good that feels.
Doesn’t matter. He knows.
He chuckles softly. “Besides, the fire isn’t about the lurkers. Nah. I want to see you, Holden. When I make you finally lose control, I need to witness it myself so I know I'm not fucking dead or dreaming.”
As close as it is, the flame heats my cheek, but it’s the way Chase’s voice drops to a husky, pleading rasp that lights me up from the inside out.
“What do you say, babe? Just this once, we can both burn.”
We won’t need fire to do that.
With his hand in my pants, fingers probing my pussy, I pray that I won’t singe my hair as I jerk my head. Pursing my lips, I blow out the flame.
Chase stills.
I grab the edge of his jaw, yanking his mouth to mine again.
He wants to see me lose control? Fuck that. I initiate this kiss the same way that I initiated sex on the living rom couch because, damn it, I need control. And Chase? He’ll let me have it.
Once I break the kiss, smug in the knowledge that he might have caught me, he might’ve chased me, but he will always follow my lead, I pat his cheek and clench myself around the knuckle he still has lodged inside of me.
He grunts at the sensation, though he doesn’t try to give me any more than he has.
Pity.
Instead, he clicks the wheel of the lighter, bringing the flame back to life.
With a coy smile, I blow it out again.
Then, before he can click the wheel for a third time, I say, “Anyone could see us. Anyone could be out there. Lurkers… rogues… and you have your hands in my panties and a lighter to help them see you’re fingering me. You’re sure that’s smart?”
“I’m sure that, right now, I’m doing exactly what I want to,” growls Chase, and I notice that he’s dropped the hand holding the lighter while using his thumb in my panties to flick my clit. “And if anyone does stumble upon us, I’ll kill them.”
I shake my head. God, I want him to play with me more, but when he announced that he’d become murderous if anyone found us like this… “You don’t mean that.”
“Yes, I fucking do.”
“Chase—”
“We were outnumbered in East Jersey. I had no choice when that bastard was watching. Out in the woods? I’ve got the edge, Holden. Anyone sees you? I mean it. I’ll kill them. That’s what I am now. That’s what the world made me. I’m a killer, and I’ll kill for you. I promise you that.”
Damn it. I don’t know what’s sexier: the way he made his vow, or that he did it while still touching me so possessively.
Both, I decide. Both.
But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to let him call himself a killer.
“You’re a hunter, Chase.” When he starts to argue with me, I cut him off. “You hunted me down, didn’t you? And now you have me. What was it you said? You get to do whatever you want to me.”
“And now I’m touching you. That’s what I wanted.”
“Is that all you want? Because your fingers… uhn… they’re doing a fantastic job, but if you really want to see me fall apart, I know your mouth can do a much better job.”
Once again, I don’t know where the fuck I put my brain.
I went along with his insane idea to chase me through the woods, and all it cost me was a little finger action.
And instead of letting it end at that, maybe getting a quick orgasm out of it, I’m suggesting that maybe Chase might want to give me oral.
Just in case he thinks I’m after some reciprocation for what I did before, I quickly add, “I mean, only if you want to. But I was thinking about what you said before. About East Jersey… you only did it because you were trying to relax me. I know. But what if I let you try again because I want you to? And… maybe… you might want to, too.”
Does he want to?
In one quick motion, he shoves the lighter into his pants pocket and withdraws his other hand from my panties. A kiss on my lips that’s both fleeting and claiming before Chase uses his hold on me to help guide me to the dirt.
I drop on my knees first, then my ass. He strokes the collar of Rory’s jacket, my cheek, the dip of my cleavage. I hear him suck in a breath before he licks his lips and orders me to: “Lie down, baby.”
The grass cushions my back as, just once, I decide to do what he says.
“Lift your ass.”
Can do, Chase.
With my boots on the earth and my ass in the air, he grabs my jeans and shimmies them down to my knees.
My panties go next. He places his hands on my bare knees, testing to see how far he can spread them.
Once he’s satisfied that there’s enough room between them for his broad shoulders, he puts his head in the gap and rests my heels on his back.
Then, without checking to see if I changed my mind, he dives in headfirst.
I have only a split second to wonder if I should’ve suggested freshening up as much as possible out in the woods before Chase’s moans of pleasure erase any shameful discomfort I have.
After all, I wasn’t disgusted by his dick, and he seems to be addicted to my taste if the way he eats my pussy is any indication.
I fist the grass, pulling up blades at a time, letting them sprinkle to the dirt as he nuzzles my clit in between lapping at my entrance and licking my inner folds.
He seems to know exactly what I like without me having to guide him, and when I’m on the verge of coming and he pulls away, placing my trembling legs flat on the ground, it hits me that he’s figured out my tells when I’m ready to climax.
He’s figured them out, and he’s stopped.
Talk about being a killer. If he doesn’t help me finish, leaving me on the edge like this… I’ll fucking kill him.
“Chase?” It’s a whimper. “What are you—”
“I told you, baby. I want to see you fall apart.”
Before I can demand to know what that means—or tell him that he can watch from him position between my legs—he moves next to my hip, reaching for my cunt.
Two fingers slips inside. Another goes right to my clit. With a determined expression on his face, his eyes locked on my feverish expression, Chase fingerfucks me to completion.