Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
We veer down the road our house sits on, headlights from a different vehicle than the one we left in earlier tonight slice through the rain and night. It’s still hours before sunrise, the neighborhood is asleep around us, every house dark.
Fresh clothes hug our damp skin now, soft loungewear pulled on in silence after dumping the bloodstained ones with the SUV somewhere miles back.
Streetlights glow past the windows in long stretches of gold.
Tyler’s hands stay sealed around the steering wheel; a muscle ticks rigorously along his jaw. The exhaustion from tonight hangs between us but also something else, restlessness.
Suddenly he stomps on the brakes, throwing me against the seatbelt as the vehicle skids into an empty vacant lot just off the road. Mud and gravel fling from the tires before the vehicle comes to an abrupt stop.
Sweltering tension fills the car.
Without looking at me, Tyler stares ahead and shuts down the vehicle.
His chest rises and falls rapidly, each breath coming faster than the last in the dull lights of the dashboard.
Water drips from the ends of his dark hair onto the collar of his black sweatshirt, and there’s still something dangerous stewing through his skin from tonight. I can feel it filling the vehicle like smoke.
He rotates his body to face me.
His eyes rake intentionally over my body. Starting at my face then lowering briefly to the oversized sweatshirt hanging loosely on me and the soft lounge shorts, the bottoms of them just visible.
The familiar look causes a flutter between my legs and a need within me.
“You have five minutes,” he drawls, his voice carrying a mischievous kind of temptation.
My pulse stutters, and a more insistent one comes to life between my legs.
I tilt my head, acting confused. “For what?”
A simple, almost disbelieving laugh leaves him under his breath before he reclines into the cushion of the seat and skims a hand along his jaw.
“To run.”
The words settle over me like a match to gasoline.
The rain intensifies against the glass with renewed force.
Tyler’s gaze pins me in place again, dark and unwavering.
“And when I catch you,” he says, voice dropping lower, huskily, “I’m going to fuck you.”
A rush of heat sweeps through me so unexpectedly it almost steals the air from my lungs.
He means every single word.
My heartbeat skips as the charged atmosphere between us becomes unbearable.
Tyler peers toward the digital clock on the dashboard.
“Better start now, my little reaper.”
I stare at him for a span of a single breath before my hand finds the door handle and I bolt.
The storm greets me with a barrage of freezing rain the moment I throw myself out of the vehicle. Mud sucks at my flip-flops while I sprint across the vacant lot, breath tearing from my chest as laughter nearly bubbles up out of me despite everything from tonight still molded to my skin.
Behind me, Tyler doesn’t follow.
Not yet anyways.
I squint over my shoulder once while I jog to the tree line bordering the back of the property. The headlights from the vehicle cut through the rain in pale bands, highlighting Tyler still sitting behind the wheel, his eyes never swaying from me while I recede into the night.
Something electric unfurls through me as the seconds tick by.
My wet sweatshirt is glued to my skin while rain trickles down my neck as I weave further into the tree line. Branches and twigs snag onto my sleeves. The ground is unlevel and slick soaked from the ongoing storm.
Five minutes.
My pulse gallops through my veins.
I duck behind a cluster of thick trees, becoming hyperaware of my surroundings.
The nightfall around me feels alive.
Every popping branch, dark outline and breath I gather in gulps.
My ears prick up as I listen for him and hear nothing.
The absence of sound is more alarming than hearing him coming.
Then someplace behind me, a branch splinters.
The world seems to stop as my body forgets how to work.
My attention fixes on the trees ahead, every instinct on high alert.
Rain flows through the canopy directly above me, drowning everything else out.
Another crunch, this one isn’t distant, it’s right there.
I retreat a step, then another, losing a flip-flop to the thick mud without taking my eyes off the shadows, searching for movement.
Nothing, not even his voice.
Tyler knows exactly what he’s doing. It’s part of the game. Moving through the woods like a hunter that already knows the outcome.
A nervous laugh works its way out of my throat.
Then it happens, an arm slithers around my waist and wrestles me backward.
My throat clamps up as my back connects with a tree trunk, wet bark prickling through the thin material of my sweatshirt.
Tyler boxes me in.
Water beads on his forehead, skating off and splattering on my face, cool on my skin, while the heat of him surrounds me. His chest presses firmly against mine, one hand binding my wrist above my head while the other grips my hip greedily, making my breath hitch.
“There you are,” he murmurs, his breath caressing my lips.
An immense need sets fire inside me.
Pearls of sweat wash down my arms as Tyler remains unmoving, staring at me with a ferocity of desire, feral.
“You run pretty,” he growls, “Now, I’m going to fuck you into ruin until you’re soaking my cock.”
The words send pulsations straight to my clit.
The sky clashes above as the thunder booms, but neither of us notices. We’re too consumed by each other.
Tyler bows his head until our foreheads meet; the only sound is the rush of our breathing.
Then without warning, his mouth crashes into mine and the kiss hits like a collision.
I let out a low moan as a tremor flows over me from head to toe.
I grab fistfuls of his sweatshirt reflexively, a powerful longing to close any distance between us swells inside of me.
His chest is elevating with mine now, all that adrenaline from tonight prowling through him like a caged beast, ready to release. I can feel it in the way he kisses me fervently. In the way his hands clutch me as if he needs the reassurance that I’m here.
“Tyler,” I manage.
He kisses me again before I can say anything else, savoring the fact that he caught me. Marking himself into every fractured piece of me once more.
I feel him smirk before his forehead drops to mine again.
Suddenly I drop my weight, slipping lower against the tree before twisting sideways out and duck beneath one of his arms.
For one triumphant second, I think I’ve actually managed to escape him.
Then his arm snakes around my waist.
A startled laugh leaves me as he hauls me backward.
“Tyler!”
“Nice try.”
It sends us both crashing into the mud together as rain explodes around us.
The impact knocks the breath from my lungs, but before I can recover, Tyler rolls and is
above me, looking entirely too pleased with himself.
The cocky bastard.
“Come on little reaper. Is that all you got?”
I glare up at him.
Water drips from his hair onto my face.
His chest rises and falls rapidly from the exertion.
Mud streaks his jaw and cheekbones and somehow, he still manages to look annoyingly attractive.
“I almost had you.”
Tyler’s mouth curves into a grin.
“Almost is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence, Reaper.”
I shove against his shoulders.
He doesn’t move, not even a little.
My pulse betrays me because he’s so close to me, I can feel the heat of him.
The rain has plastered his shirt to him.
His forearms flex beneath my hands as he keeps me pinned.
His eyes catch mine and for a moment neither of us speaks.
The playful grin fades from his mouth, not completely.
The air shifts and right away this isn’t about wrestling anymore.
“You’re staring,” he says, his voice low enough that I feel it more than hear it.
A traitorous flush colors my skin.
“I was assessing a threat.”
His eyebrow lifts.
“A threat?”
“An annoying one.”
A smile tugs at his mouth.
“There she is.”
“Don’t start.”
He laughs softly and it does ridiculous things to my heartbeat.
I twist beneath him, attempting another escape.
Tyler catches my wrists before I can get anywhere.
Rain runs down his forehead, over his nose and along the line of his jaw.
His gaze never leaves mine.
“You know,” he says, “for someone who’s supposed to be terrifying, you spend a lot of time pinned underneath me.”
I roll my eyes.
“You’ve become unbearable.”
Tyler’s grin turns smug.
“And yet, here you are.”
I try to knee him but of course he sees it coming.
“Nice try, Reaper.”
“You’re impossible.”
His grin turns victorious.
“And you’re still pinned.”
The certainty in his voice makes my stomach flutter.
Rain pours around us.
I manage to free one hand, scoop up a handful of mud, and swipe it across his cheek with a grin.
“Cassidy.”
I burst out laughing.
His eyes glint with a challenge.
“Oh, you’re done for.”
And suddenly we’re wrestling again, slipping through the mud and rain while his laughter chases me through the storm.
I don’t make it two feet.
Tyler catches the back of my jacket and yanks.
A laugh escapes me as I stumble backward straight into him and breathe out,
“Cheater.”
“I call it adapting.”
His arms tighten briefly around my waist before I manage to get free.
The second I do, I launch another handful of mud at him.
This time he ducks and the mud sails past his shoulder.
“Missed.”
“Damn it.”
His grin is infuriating.
The kind that makes me want to wipe it off his face.
I charge him.
A terrible decision.
Tyler catches me around the middle and lifts me completely off the ground.
A surprised shriek tears out of me.
“Tyler!”
“Bad strategy.”
The world tilts.
Rain spins around us.
Then we both hit the mud again, hard.
I land on top of him this time.
“Ha!”
Tyler blinks rainwater from his eyes.
“Are you done celebrating?”
“Nope.”
I plant both hands on his chest.
The movement only makes him laugh and the sound vibrates my palms.
Dangerously distracting.
“You know,” he says, looking far too satisfied with the situation, “you never learn.”
“Learn what?”
His hands land on my waist.
“That every time you think you’ve won, you stop paying attention.”