10. Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
Cassidy
It really is beautiful here. Being so high up, it seems to rain frequently, but I don’t mind as much as I thought it would. Back in the city, rain sometimes evaporates before it hits the ground, everything is so fogged up with pollution we can’t see the stars.
Maybe Noah will let me lay outside tonight and watch them come out. Star gazing had always been one of my all-time favorite things to do as a kid. Hadn’t done it in years.
“So… did you like the falls?” He asks, almost as if looking for my approval.
I grin, “I did. I’m excited for this meadow you’re talking about.”
“It’s a few more steps, through those trees and we will be there.” He comes up beside me, his pace matching mine as we lapse into silence.
Half of me wonders why he didn’t just ask me on a date instead of kidnapping me, but then I wonder if I’d have even agreed if he had.
Probably not.
I am… was … still hung up on Stuart. Yes, he cheated on me, but he was familiar. Safe. We were also together for years.
I shiver at the thought of all that safety now.
“Here we are,” Noah says, pulling me back into the moment.
We step through the tree line and it’s like entering another world. The meadow is carpeted with wildflowers, their colors almost surreal against the green. I’m speechless. Long grasses sway in the wind.
It’s straight out of some movie where people frolic and dance, giggling as they run through the field.
“Told you,” he says, smugly satisfied.
I wander in a daze, feeling his eyes on me but not caring for once. It’s too breathtaking to worry about his intentions. I stop and kneel to touch a patch of purple blooms, their petals damp and cool under my fingers. A drop of rain hits my cheek, then another. I look up, and a few more splatter against my skin.
“It’s starting to rain,” Noah says, watching me closely.
“Yeah,” I breathe out, not moving. “So?”
His smile is quicksilver, here and gone before I can blink. “So,” he says, “I guess the city slicker in you will want to head for cover.”
“You had no issues leaving me tied to a tree.”
“True.”
I hesitate. “I’d like to stay a bit longer… if that’s okay.”
He nods, pulling a blanket out of his pack and laying it on the ground. He’s careful not to squish any of the flowers and I make a note of that.
Despite his… darkness, he truly does care for the wilds out here.
“Want to take a seat?” He says as he sits.
I hesitate, then join him on the blanket. The rain is steady and cool, but something about it is freeing. Refreshing. I close my eyes and tip my face up towards the sky, feeling each drop like a tiny electric shock.
“You’re different out here,” I say, eyes still closed.
There’s a long pause, the only sound the hiss of rain and the distant rumble of thunder.
“You mean I’m not tying you to a tree?” He jokes, his voice low and rough.
I open my eyes and glare at him, but there’s less heat in it than I intend. Maybe I am going soft.
“Seriously though… why did you do this? Why didn’t you just ask me out?” The question spills out before I can stop it.
He shifts closer, leaning back on his hands. “You’re everything I’ve ever wanted. And I knew you’d reject me. Plus, the hunt is half the fun. It’s not as fun when it’s just given. Love has to be earned.”
What the fuck does that even mean?
“You don’t even know me.”
“I know you better than you think.” There’s something fierce in his voice. Conviction. “We want the same things.”
I shake my head, pulling my knees up to my chest as another shiver runs through me. “And what’s that?”
“To belong somewhere… with someone.” His gaze is intense, pinning me in place. I should be scared, but there’s a part of me that thrills at the attention.
His fingers brush my arm lightly, barely contact at all, but enough to set off sparks under my skin.
“Stuart ever make you feel like this?”
“No,” I whisper before I can catch myself. Damn it.
He pulls away slightly but doesn’t look smug or triumphant like I expect. Just focused. Determined.
“I—” My words die as he leans over, cups my chin in his big hand and raises it so I have no choice but to look him in the eye.
It happens slowly.
His head moving forward, his eyes closing. I have enough time to move, to run, to escape.
But my body betrays me and I move forward, capturing his lips in a kiss that’s slow as it is sensual.
I can feel his smile against my mouth, a knowing curve that makes me dizzy with anger at my loss of choice and something dangerously close to excitement. His hand wraps around the back of my neck, pulling me in deeper until I’m practically sitting in his lap. Thunder cracks nearby, but I barely hear it over the blood rushing in my ears.
When we finally break apart, I’m breathless, panting like I’ve just run a damn marathon.
“See?” he murmurs, his breath hot against my cheek. “You can’t pretend you don’t feel it too.”
“I don’t—” But even as I say it, I know it’s a lie. I can’t pretend here, not in this wilderness where every emotion is raw and exposed.
“Admit it, Cass.” He pulls me closer, like he’s trying to merge us into one person. “Out here, you feel alive.”
I’m trapped by more than just his arms. It’s this place, this moment—a confining freedom that makes no sense. “You’re insane.”
“Only about you.” He says it with such sincerity that it borders on terrifying.
I shuffle back an inch, needing space to breathe or think or maybe just to remember I was supposed to hate him a second ago. “This isn’t right,” I say, grasping at anything familiar to hold onto.
“It will be.”
The rain slows to a drizzle, and a chill sets in that has nothing to do with the weather. He slowly unzips my jacket and trails his fingers down my body before slipping them inside the waistband of my pants. He touches me, sending sparks skittering across my skin before he pulls his hand out, licking his fingers with a groan.
“Time to head back.”
I stand on shaky legs as he grabs the blanket, half stuffing it in the pack before taking my hand and dragging me across the meadow, back the way we came.
It’s a rush as I try to find my footing, but he doesn’t stop, he just growls at me to keep up and before I know it, he’s opening the cabin door and forcing me inside, shutting it behind us.
He’s on me in an instant, stripping me of my defenses.
I gasp as his touch ignites a fire I can’t control.
His grin is wolfish, predatory. “Time to strip.”
I slap his hand away, more of a token protest than I want to admit. “No. Noah. This...”
“Don’t reject me, Cassidy. It won’t end well for you.” He moves with the same deliberate slowness, pulling my jacket off my shoulders and tossing it aside. The wet fabric hits the floor with a slap, and I shiver. He makes quick work of the rest of my clothing, until I’m fully exposed and he’s still standing there in his wet clothes.
“Noah,” I start, but his name comes out shaky and uncertain.
“Tell me you want to leave.” He challenges me moving further into my space, forcing the air out of my lungs.
“I—” The words vanish when he tugs me back into his arms, and I hate that it feels like coming home.
He lifts me effortlessly, carrying me across the cabin to the sprawling bed covered in thick blankets. He lays me down gently, an unexpected tenderness in the way his hands linger on my skin. His fingers work at pulling off his sweater and then his shirt, undoing the button on his pants and dropping them in a messy heap. He’s left in his boxers until soon, those are gone too.
He’s gorgeous. All muscle. All male. I want to run my tongue over the dips and curves of the hard planes of his skin. But I don’t. I just lay there and watch as he turns and grabs new boxers, and a dry pair of pants, leaving his chest bare before coming down on top of me.
“We shouldn’t,” I say, but there’s no conviction in it. Just longing. I notice he likes this power dynamic.
Me, naked. Him, clothed.
It’s like he wants to show me that no matter what, he will always know everything about me, while he stays shrouded in mystery.
“Yet, we will.” He presses against me; all heat and muscle and unyielding obsession.
My resolve crumbles as his fingers thread through my hair, tugging just enough to remind me who’s really in control here. His lips find mine again, and this time there’s no hesitation. It’s fierce and consuming, forcing me into his orbit.
I tangle my hands in his hair, pulling him closer like he's the only thing keeping me tethered.
He breaks away just enough to whisper, “You’re mine, Cassidy. Say it.”
I bite down on the refusal that almost escapes. Part of me wants to scream it, the part that’s wild and reckless and new.
His grip tightens, and I know he’s not moving until he hears what he wants.
I inhale sharply, words spilling out before I can stop them. “I’m yours.”
The room spins as I admit it, and a triumphant light flares in his eyes. He kisses me again, harder this time, like he’s sealing a promise we both know I can’t take back.
Everything is heat and friction and the bewildering thrill of surrender. I lose myself in it, lose myself in him, until all that exists is this moment. My hips buck up, desperate for friction, and I earn myself a rumble from his laugh.
“No sex right now, minx. We’re going to nap and then make dinner.”
I groan in frustration, but he swallows it with his lips.
When he finally pulls back, we’re both breathing hard. He strokes my cheek with surprising gentleness, like he’s afraid I’ll disappear.
“No more back and forth. You’ll always be mine,” he says, a command wrapped in a plea.
I nod because I can’t trust my voice right now. Because I don’t want to run anymore.
His smile is devastatingly satisfied as he settles beside me on the bed, pulling me close against his chest. We lie there in silence, the storm outside mimicking the one inside me.
Eventually, sleep tries to claim me, but bits of doubt creep in at the edges. This is real. This is madness. And yet...
Noah’s breathing is steady and possessive even in rest. His arm is a steel band around my midsection. I want him to take me, to own me, but he is the master of teasing me until I want to burst from need.
I shift, turning my body so my leg drapes over his, my pussy rubbing against his pants. Looking up at him, his chest rising and falling in a predictable pattern, he’s fast asleep.
Shame burns through me. I haven’t dry humped anyone since I was fifteen, in the back of David’s mom’s pick-up truck at the drive in theater, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Slowly, my hips roll, generating some friction, but not near enough.
I scoot closer, angling my body so I can rub along the seam of his pants. I bit down on my lip, holding in the whimper that tries to escape as I grind on his leg. He’s still fast asleep, so I go harder.
He shifts slightly, and I freeze, waiting for him to wake up and catch me being the greedy girl he’ll accuse me of being. But he just murmurs something incoherent and adjusts, his leg pinning me even tighter against him.
A spasm of frustrated need seizes me. I can’t take it anymore. I shake his shoulder roughly, all thoughts of subtlety gone. “Noah,” I hiss in the darkness.
His eyes flutter open, slowly focusing on me with a sleepy smile. “Already begging?” he teases with a chuckle.
“Yes,” I say, shameless now.
In one fluid motion, he rolls on top of me, his weight holding me in place. His mouth crashes down on mine, swallowing my gasp of relief. I clutch at his back, desperate to pull him closer, but he breaks away again, leaving me panting beneath him.
“I like waking up to you needing me this much,” he says. His hands move to my wrists, pinning them above my head.
“Then do something about it,” I dare him.
His laugh is warm and wicked against my neck. He kisses a slow trail down my throat, making sure to take his time again now that he knows he can. Each deliberate pause is torture as his lips work their way lower, over my breasts and down my stomach.
I think I'm going to explode from want when he finally takes a peaked nipple in his mouth and sucks before biting down. His hand trails between my legs, feeling how wet I am. How needy. How achingly desperate for his touch. He sits back on his knees for a moment, taking in the sight of me sprawled beneath him.
“Beautiful,” he murmurs. He slides off the edge of the bed and undoes his pants, going as slow as humanly possible, as my eyes drink in the sight of his perfection.
I shudder as he roams my body with his gaze, exposed and throbbing. My legs fall open, hoping the sight is enough to get me what I want.
“Noah,” I breathe, a plea.
He grips my ankles and pulls me to the edge, spreading me wide before him. “Say my name again.”
“Noah.”
He leans in, his mouth so close I can feel his breath hot against my skin. His lips brush teasingly along my inner thigh, open-mouthed kisses that make me moan and writhe and strain against his hold. He pins my hips with one hand, laughs deep and low at my desperate struggle against him.
“Patience,” he whispers.
I want to scream. But then his mouth is on me, and it’s electric—the way he takes what he wants from me, how mercilessly he devours until my vision goes white and I’m nothing but nerve endings and raw surrender. My cries echo in the cabin as I come undone, shaking apart under his relentless assault.
His smile is feral as he finally climbs back over me, kissing my lips so I can taste myself on his tongue. “You liked that,” he says.
“Obviously.”
He thrusts into me with one hard stroke that knocks the breath from my lungs. My body arches into him as he sets a punishing rhythm, his hands tangled in my hair, pulling just hard enough to keep me deliciously on edge. Every thrust pushes me closer to unraveling, every raw gasp from him telling me how close he is too.
Then he slows, pulling me away from the edge. My grabs my legs, lifting them over his forearms before his hand comes down on my throat, squeezing until I have a pinhole to breathe out of.
“Tell me who owns you,” he demands, his voice deep and raspy, as if he’s teetering out of control, but desperately trying to stay above water.
I choke out his name, my pulse racing beneath his tightening grip. My vision dims around the edges, the world narrowing to the sensation of him inside me, the pressure on my neck making every nerve spark to life.
“Say it.”
I can barely get it out this time, a rasping sound that sends him over the edge. He slams into me with reckless force, his control slipping as he lets out a guttural moan. I follow him into oblivion, my body convulsing as I gasp for air, my legs trembling as he slowly lowers them off his forearms, every inch of me burning.
He collapses against me, both of us panting. His weight is heavy and perfect, pinning me down in a way that makes it impossible to think about anything but him. There’s nowhere else in the world except here, nowhere else I want to be.
We lie there in silence, tangled together on the bed. The only sounds are our breathing and the creak of the cabin settling around us. Then he shifts slightly, rolling onto his side and pulling me with him so we’re face to face, his dark eyes boring into mine.
“What am I going to do with you?” His thumb traces gentle circles on my jawline.
My heart stutters at the tender touch. “Let me go?” I try for defiant, but it comes out breathless.
His lips curl into a wicked smile. “Not a chance.”
He wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me closer, burying his face in my hair. His breath is warm against my ear as he murmurs words I can barely catch. Something about fate, about how I belong to him and always have. Words I’m not sure I want to hear just yet, but there’s part of me that already believes them.
His presence is all-consuming, a force of nature tying me to this place, this moment. I should be scared. I should fight him, find a way out of this twisted dream. Instead, I sink deeper into him, my mind and body betraying every reason I had for coming here alone.
His breathing slows, the tension in his muscles easing as he drifts toward sleep. I stay awake, watching his face relax into something almost boyish and innocent. It’s hard to reconcile this side of him with the man who tracked me for a year, the man who orchestrated this entire week-long trip to trap me in his world.
I close my eyes and try to surrender to sleep too, but my mind won’t shut off. It wants to replay every moment we’ve shared since I got here, like it’s trying to memorize all of it before it slips away. The first day when he showed up at my cabin, his sudden appearance so shocking and magnetic that everything else blurred into the background. The way he knew every little detail about me before I even said a word.
“Go to sleep, Cassidy.” He rumbles.
“I’m trying.”
He sighs, getting off the bed and tucking the duvet around me. “I’ll make you some chamomile tea.”
I watch him move across the room, my mind still buzzing as he fills a kettle with water and sets it on the stove. His movements are unhurried, deliberate, like he has all the time in the world. Each step is a reminder of how effortlessly he’s taken control of everything—including me.
The warmth of the duvet and exhaustion start to pull me under. I close my eyes, listening to the sounds of him tending to me. The clink of a cup, the soft whistle of steam rising. It’s strangely domestic, this kidnapping.
I’m almost asleep when I hear his voice again, gentle but insistent. “Here.”
I force my eyes open as he holds out a steaming mug. I sit up enough to take it, the heat soaking into my hands as I bring it to my lips. He watches me intently, like he’s making sure I drink every last drop.
“Thanks,” I murmur, feeling lethargy creep in.
He strokes my hair, his touch featherlight now. “Anything for you.”
The tea is working its magic, mellowing everything except my thoughts. How far will he go? How far will I let him? His obsession is terrifying—intoxicating. It should make me run, but all I want is to collapse into him again.
Noah waits until my blinks grow longer and slower before he takes the empty mug from my hands and sets it on the nightstand. He sits on the end of the bed and just strokes my hair as my eyelids refuse to stay open any more.
Before I know it, I’ve drifted into a peaceful sleep.
And I barely noticed him disappearing into the closet, certain it’s just part of my dream.