Epilogue #2
Time crawls. Seconds turn into minutes; anticipation turns to alarm.
I can’t run. I can’t fight. I can only wait.
A chill that has nothing to do with the temperature makes me shiver.
Fear is intoxicating. I desperately want the dread to end but also wish it never would.
Another branch snaps, this time on my left.
Dry-mouthed, nearly frozen, I envision clawed, loathsome creatures finding me.
It’s effortless to conjure dozens of monsters that might wait beyond the blindfold, even easier to imagine entirely human horrors.
My heart’s racing faster than when Caine was edging me, and the ache of arousal still throbs between my legs.
Fear cinches tighter around my throat. I don’t try to soothe myself.
Adrenaline courses through me. There’s no room in my mind for stress or distraction.
There’s only the hum of my body as fear reaches a glorious crescendo.
I shudder at the shift of air and the gentle vibration of approaching footsteps. A throaty, inhuman chuckle directly behind me still startles me. My knees buckle; I would have fallen without the restraints. I shriek. A hand clamps over my mouth, but the echo of my scream carries through the trees.
“None of that.” The growl of the voice modulator, his body at my back, and the smell of his aftershave are each enticing on their own, but together and mixed with the fear trying to tremble its way out of my body, they’re irresistible.
He’s hard. I try to grind back, but he sidesteps the second my ass brushes his jeans.
Caine’s free hand snakes between my legs, but he’s holding something.
A vibrator? Slicking the object back and forth through my arousal, he lets out a low whistle.
“Look who likes being left naked in the middle of the woods.”
He eases the object inside me. The shape is still unfamiliar, but I’m too far gone to care. Hips rocking, I move with the thrusts, not realizing he’s spoken again until he freezes. I groan into his palm, tempted to bite him from frustration. As if reading my mind, he removes his hand.
“Are you with me?”
I nod, shifting my hips impatiently.
“Your lips are way too pretty to give me the silent treatment.”
“God, yes. I’m with you.”
Another chuckle that makes my thighs clench.
Then there’s movement, the sound of fabric shifting, and he’s in front of me.
Lips parting, I’m ready when his mouth finds mine, savoring his faint groan.
He continues to fuck me with the toy while his other hand cups my jaw.
Tongue in my mouth, hips pressing to mine, Caine kisses me deep and long.
That does it. I’m coming. He swallows every sound I make, fucking me relentlessly.
When I finally sag as much as the restraints allow, he pulls back from the kiss.
“Don’t get too comfortable. I’m not done with you yet.” Renewed need fills me at the lust in his voice, the hurried way he undoes my restraints.
“Get on your knees.”
I do, grass sticking to my calves.
The sound of Caine undoing his belt makes my mouth water, and when I hear the slow descent of his zipper, I open wide.
“Somebody’s eager.” Hard and thick, he drives into my mouth.
Tangling a hand in my hair, he angles my head exactly how I like it.
The intensity of his thrusts could suggest a lack of care, if not for the fact that he never goes deeper than he knows I enjoy.
For all the time I spent in church, I never understood reverence.
Now I do. It’s in the way he studies my face and adapts before I can ask.
How my feelings aren’t an afterthought, but his priority.
Reverence is the constant communion, the “Are you with me?” that makes him feel like the safest place on earth.
“Knees apart.” Caine’s voice is deeper and rougher.
He’s wearing the mask again.
“Touch yourself while you take it. Show me what’s mine.”
Mine.
Before, I hated mine. The word made me feel like a pair of shoes or a car.
Caine’s mine is different. He doesn’t use mine in possession, but in devotion, and that makes all the difference.
He doesn’t have to tell me twice. Arousal and adrenaline have me writhing at his feet.
Gentle fingers undo the blindfold, then ease it off.
Blinking him into focus in the moonlight, I gaze up at the wolf skull mask.
One part scary, one part sentimental, I’m certain it will be my favorite forever, no matter how many new masks join the rotation.
I stare into the vacant eye sockets, my reaction to him visceral.
Caine thickens in my mouth, curses falling from his lips.
Between the mask, my fear, and his loss of control, I don’t stand a chance.
I climax too, gasping as I swallow, unable to look away.
It isn’t until he’s spent in my mouth that I notice the toy in Caine’s hand isn’t a toy after all.
It’s the knife. It’s sheathed, arousal glistening on the handle.
Releasing his cock from my mouth, I press a kiss to the tip before tucking it back inside his boxer briefs.
He tugs off the mask with his free hand, his hair tousled.
“You used the knife?” Unfortunately, I sound as delighted as I am. “I thought it was a toy.”
“I wondered if you’d figure it out right away.” He’s overly pleased with himself. “Did you like it?”
“It was fine.” Rising too fast, I wobble, my vision going starry for a second.
Caine steadies me, pulling my back to his chest. Wrapping an arm around me, he holds up the knife, giving me a good look at the handle, which is still slick with my arousal. “This suggests more than fine.”
Sighing, I flop my head back against him. “It was wonderful.”
With a chuckle, Caine drops the knife alongside the mask. “It’s even hotter now that you know it was a knife, isn’t it?” Both of his arms are wrapped around me now.