22. Erica
A shot rings out and an explosion of tree bark flies past my face.
My knees knock as I stumble backward.
“Next time I won’t miss,” Cain says, his warning tone making my pussy tingle.
The heat in his eyes sends a shot of liquid fire through my chest like the cheap whisky we shared in the motel.
Why does he have to be extra hot when he threatens me?
My delayed survival instincts kick in.
I twist, tripping over a root, and break into a sprint.
Where to I don’t know, just far away from the angry killer pointing a revolver at me…
A revolver he threatened to fuck me with.
Arms raised to shield my face, I veer into the nearest line of trees and flee through the woods.
Twigs catch on my hair and my roots sting, but I don’t care.
Run , my brain screams.
Run.
Run.
Run .
Something thorny rips the side of my pants while I push through the underbrush, and I cry out when a bullet whizzes past my head and impacts in a trunk nearby.
Over my shoulder, I see Cain’s huge frame bulldozing through the thicket.
He’s fucking unstoppable and right behind me.
How is a man of his stature this fast?
I slow down to duck under a low-hanging branch.
Cain swipes at the back of my hoodie, and I yelp, dropping to my knees.
I’m sure he could catch me.
Instead, he mocks me with dark laughter, the sound creeping over my skin like icy fingers.
“You belong to me, little dove!” he shouts, amusement thick in his tone as I jump up and keep running.
“I’ll track you down to the end of the world if I have to, but you’ll never get away from me. I’ll find you anywhere, from Texas to the depths of hell!”
I try to focus on my cramping leg muscles and my pounding heart, not the dampness between my legs.
This is a matter of life and death, and I should be scared out of my mind.
A part of me is terrified, but another…
I’m not actually getting turned on by my handsome kidnapper chasing me through the forest like prey, right?
It seems like I’ve been running for hours, but realistically, it can’t have been more than ten minutes.
The burning in my lungs forces me to stop, and I crouch in the underbrush.
I can’t see Cain anymore.
Did I lose him?
After I left my bag where he found me sitting in the grass, he can’t use my phone to track me again.
Trees with lush green crowns whisper in the wind, and I lean into the faint breeze, inhaling the earthy scent of the forest.
Before my involuntary road trip, I never left Kansas.
Traveling was too expensive.
I didn’t know how beautiful Texas is.
It’s easy to fall in love with the gorgeous land surrounding the ranch house.
Those colorful sunsets, the large meadows with vibrant bluebonnets, and the glittering river.
My gasps slow, my shaking legs thankful for the break.
The calm nature quietens my thundering pulse and I pick up a new sound.
Rushing water .
I follow the noise, keeping my head low until I step out into a clearing.
An instant smile cuts across my face.
Towering cypress trees with knotted trunks form a living roof.
Streaks of sunlight filter through the canopy, reflecting off sapphire water dropping from a steep cliff into a lake.
Ferns and moss grow like a tapestry over the light brown, jagged rock face.
They look soft, and I imagine running my fingers across the tiny leaves.
It’s a lovely spot, ideal for a picnic by the lake, eating cheese and fruit and drinking a glass of wine.
Then a naked swim after, jumping from one of the branches above the water.
A tire swing would be fun, too.
I should show Cain this place , I think and flinch like I got whipped.
A heavy sigh streams from my lips.
What if I actually got away from Cain?
My shoulders drop and I pick up a rock, tossing it into the water.
I watch the ripples spread, attempting to decipher the vague, cold heaviness in my chest.
Did he give up this easily?
Am I not worth the effort of the chase?
A crack comes from behind me, and I turn, eyes wide.
Nobody.
I’m still alone.
It’s probably an animal that—
A hand snaps onto my mouth, and a scream dies in my throat.
I’m yanked back, against a warm wall of muscle.
Cain .
The ice behind my ribs melts.
I breathe in the scent of tobacco clinging to his fingers, and my heart swells.
Even as metal presses against my temple, I feel like giggling—with a damn gun to my head.
Maybe Cain is right, and I’m as fucking crazy as he is, but I don’t want to waste any thoughts on that.
Only one thing matters in this moment:
Cain didn’t give up on me.
He found me.
“You shouldn’t’ve stopped running,” he whispers, and my skin pebbles, my nipples hardening.
“Or do you want to be caught, my little dove? Do you want me to break your wings and make you cry again?”
His tongue slithers along my cheek, leaving a wet, hot trail.
I make a keening noise as I push my ass against him and he groans, his cock already stiffening.
“I got you all figured out,” he drawls.
“You’re a masochist, but nobody before me managed to drag that part of you into the light. I reckon you didn’t know about it or tried your hardest to ignore it. You fantasized a little, but you never thought it was real until I showed you the truth. I think that’s why you haven’t tried to escape this far and why your attempt now was half-assed. You let me catch you because you’re addicted to the pain, and you know only I can satisfy your cravings. Only I understand you.”
His words shake me to the core, uprooting what is left of my sanity.
A tide of fear and lust rises in my chest, stealing my last breath.
Cain lets go, spinning me around so fast I get dizzy.
He aims the revolver at my head.
“Strip,” he orders.
He’s a walking contradiction in his dirt-stained slacks and muddy suede loafers.
His right sleeve is torn, the top buttons of his shirt ripped open.
His body shadows mine, and I can feel myself falling into those dangerous green eyes.
He’s the wolf in sheep’s clothing, a villain in the guise of a normal man, and I have never wanted him more.
I undress with shaking hands.
My panties come off last and I flush when I notice the dewy spot in the crotch.
I stand naked opposite Cain in the middle of the woods, adrenaline rushing through me.
I can’t separate terror from arousal any longer.
They feel the same—that breathlessness, the racing heart, the light sweat on my brow—the difference doesn’t exist.
“Brace yourself on that flat boulder and bend over,” he says through gritted teeth, pointing with his revolver.
“If you disobey me again, the next bullet will be in your head.”
Pleasure aches pulse in my pussy.
I bite my lip, the urge to submit warring with the temptation to provoke him further to see how far he’ll go.
My need to please him wins.
“Yes, sir,” I respond and walk to the boulder, bending over to press my palms against the smooth, sun-warm stone.
“Spread your legs.”
I do, but he tuts with disapproval, nudging a foot against the inside of my calf.
“Wider,” he grunts, satisfied once my thighs are straining from the position.
“That’s better.”
There is movement behind me and crinkling, and when I glance over my shoulder, Cain is slipping a condom over the revolver’s barrel.
The confusion must be plain on my face because he smirks, giving a one-armed shrug.
“Your pussy is mine, Erica, and I take good care of my things. I don’t wanna wreck that perfect, tight hole with a piece of iron. That’s what my cock is for.” He juts his chin out.
“Now look straight ahead and stand still. You don’t move until I tell you to.”
Cool metal touches the bend of my knee, sliding upward, and the hairs on my arms rise.
The thin, lubricated condom lets me feel everything, almost as if it isn’t there, but it can’t protect me from bullets.
My skin prickles and my breath stutters as the tip of the barrel travels between my legs.
He drags it along my center, parting my wet seam, and a shiver rolls through me.
I have no brain capacity left to consider how wrong it is that being chased is amazing foreplay to me and I’m literally about to get a gun shoved up my cunt.
“Damn, you’re a real deviant,” Cain rasps.
The barrel nudges my clit, and a moan slips from my lips.
“Knives, choking, drugging, sounding. Being fucked in the ass, the mouth, and the pussy, getting bruised and used and cut… and now guns? Is there any fucked up kink that doesn’t get you wet, darlin’?”
A flutter of panic stirs in my chest.
“I-I’m sorry, I—”
The affection in his chuckle catches me by surprise.
“That ain’t what I mean. Never apologize for your pleasure. Never hold back. Your perverted brain is one of the things I like most about you. If you weren’t such a little psycho, you wouldn’t’ve made it off my operating table alive.”
My mouth falls open, but I don’t get to answer when his other hand reaches around me, palming my breast.
He rolls my nipple between his fingers, his touch setting fire to my core.
“Remember back in the basement when I said I’d kill you if you came?” he asks.
“Uh-huh. Yes.”
“That was a test.”
“What… what do you mean, a test?” I ask, the words coming out jumbled.
He gives my other breast the same attention.
I bear down, trying to get more friction against the revolver, but Cain lightens his touch, denying me relief.
“If you didn’t orgasm, I would’ve gutted you, little dove. But you almost finished just from me ramming my cock down your throat and you took my toys so well when I violated every one of your holes.” He shudders against me.
“And when the pain and humiliation made you come so hard you passed out, I knew that you were my soulmate, and I could never let you go.”
Soulmate ?
He straightens, pressing the tip of the barrel against my entrance before sliding it inside.
All coherent thoughts leave my skull.
I gasp, biting the inside of my cheek.
His dick is so much girthier, but the unyielding hardness of the iron is a struggle.
The stretch is unforgiving.
My inner walls burn, clenching at the harsh, alien sensation.
He pushes in deeper and my brows furrow at the sting.
“Does it hurt?” Cain asks, cruel enjoyment in his voice.
I whimper.
“Yes, it hurts, but—”
He picks up the pace, shifting the angle of the barrel.
Now, it hits my g-spot with every thrust.
Dots of color float in my vision and my blood simmers with lust.
“But it feels good, too, doesn’t it? You’re such a twisted painslut,” Cain rasps.
“I wish you could see yourself. Your pussy looks so good stretched around my revolver, darlin’.”
His body curls around mine, and his free hand reaches for my clit.
He moves like the gun is a part of him, like it’s his cock sliding in and out of me.
“8 whole inches of cold, hard steel … How does it feel to have my loaded revolver up your needy cunt?”
“I love getting fucked with your gun, sir,” I answer without thinking.
He chuckles.
“Don’t you wonder if I’ve ever killed anybody with it?”
I writhe, my hands on the boulder turning into fists.
The thought hasn’t crossed my mind, but now that he mentions it…
“Have you?” I ask between moans.
His lips press hot against my ear before he whispers, “Yes, I shot somebody with this gun, little dove. More than just one man. And with the twitch of a single finger, I can pull the trigger and end you, too.”
His words send me into overdrive.
My legs give out as I come apart.
My moans echo through the forest, startling a bird high up in the trees while I collapse forward onto the rock.
Cain slides out the gun and tosses the condom on the ground.
I recognize the sound of his zipper before the wide head of his cock shoves against my hole.
He slams inside, and I cry out, overwhelmed by the sensation.
“That’s it, scream for me,” he growls, impatient thrusts rocking me.
His hand closes around my throat and he yanks my weak body up by my neck, fucking into me.
“Rub your clit. I wanna feel you squeeze my cock when you come again.”
I shake my head and force out breathless words.
“I don’t think I—”
He cuts off my air while his other hand puts the barrel of the gun to my temple.
“You have ten seconds to come again, little dove, but if you don’t, I’m gonna blow your brains out.”
A twist of heat surges through my center, and I jerk as my fingertips make contact with my clit.
I whimper while I massage gently.
“Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven,” Cain counts, the numbers sounding more like grunts.
He’s fucking me like he means to kill me.
“Six. Five. Four.”
I rub harder.
Tingles sweep down my legs.
“Three. Two.”
The gun clicks as he cocks it.
My body is on fire.
“One.”
Stars burst in front of my eyes.
This orgasm is even worse than the first—in the best ways.
A million tiny explosions go off inside me, and the pressure in my pussy makes Cain unravel, too.
His dick swells and throbs deep inside my belly, filling me with a hot stream of his cum.
He lets go of my throat and puts the gun on the rock to wrap both arms around me.
His body is warm against my back, and I melt into his protective embrace.
Cain shouldn’t make me feel safe, but he does.
I can’t help it.
He kisses the top of my head and I close my eyes.
I inhale his woodsy smell, his fresh sweat making it even more addictive.
His cock shrinks inside me and his seed flows from my center, but neither of us move to break our connection.
“Goddamn,” he curses tenderly, speaking into my hair.
“I don’t know what hell you crawled out of, darlin’, but I reckon it must be the same I come from. Nobody else can match my darkness like you do.” His laugh is gentle, making me smile, too.
“Oh, and Erica?”
“Yes?”
“You see that yellow mushroom growing from the fallen tree on the other side of the lake?”
I turn my head, squinting.
“Sure. What about it?”
Cain straightens, picking up the gun.
He aims.
Fires.
My ears ring and the mushroom explodes into mustard-colored splatter.
Tendrils of abject horror curl around my throat, choking a startled yelp from me.
Cain gives me a self-satisfied smirk.
“I only miss a shot when I want to, little dove.”