Chapter 17
Kinsley
The sound of that little three letter word sliced through the night. Low, controlled, and threaded with something dark enough to make my knees weaken.
For half a heartbeat, I couldn’t move. My pulse stuttered, caught between disbelief and the spark of recognition that bloomed like fire in my chest. Then it hit me—what he meant, what he was doing—and the air rushed out of my lungs in a shaky exhale.
The Hunter card.
“Ivan?”
He didn’t answer.
“One hundred,” he began, his tone calm, deliberate. “Ninety-nine.”
Oh, God. He was serious.
I spun on my heel, the forest opening up before me in streaks of silver and shadow.
My boots crunched against the frost-hardened ground as I bolted forward, branches whispering against my dress.
The chill bit at my cheeks, but I didn’t care.
My body moved on instinct, powered by adrenaline and something dangerously close to exhilaration.
Behind me, his voice carried through the trees—steady, unhurried.
“Ninety-eight… ninety-seven…”
Each number wrapped around me. A promise and a warning all mixed into the careful counting of my beloved. My hunter for the evening. The night swallowed me whole, but I didn’t stop running. And something beautiful happened.
The forest came alive around me. Every sound—the whisper of wind through bare branches, the brittle crack of a twig underfoot. Everything seemed sharper, louder, as if the night itself were holding its breath.
Run.
The word tumbled over and over in my head like a love song.
Something about the chase had me feeling so alive.
I didn’t dare look back. Darkness clung thick to the air, and the moon was little more than a sliver behind a bank of clouds.
My lungs burned, every inhale a frosty sting, but I kept going, the hem of my dress brushing against my thighs as I ran.
A laugh bubbled out of me—half fear, half thrill. This was madness. Beautiful, reckless madness. Somewhere behind me, I heard him counting still, his voice getting further and further away as I put distance between us.
My heart lurched. He really was giving me a true head start. There were no heavy footsteps or boots thudding on the ground. It probably helped that he knew this area like the back of his hand. Isabella had told me how the boys used to have sleepovers at the cottage when they were younger.
Him not feeling a need to rush sent a shiver straight through me.
“Sixty-two,” his voice floated through the trees.
My pulse kicked harder. I veered left, down a small dip where the ground turned soft with fallen leaves. My hand brushed against the rough bark of a tree as I tried to slow, but momentum pulled me forward. My heart was a drumbeat in my ears—pounding, wild, alive.
Before long, I heard him call out. “When I catch you, little love. I’m going to destroy that pretty little pussy.”
The toy jolted between my legs; the vibration buckled my knees, and I hit the ground. Damn him. I was torn between yanking the damned panties off and leaving them right there or grinding my needy, throbbing clit into them. I bit back a loud moan and did the latter.
Then, the sound of his boots crunching reached my ears. I pushed to my feet. The noise was coming from behind me, unhurried and way too confident.
He is hunting you.
And God help me, I wanted to be found. But the chase amplified my arousal to heights not yet discovered.
“Santa’s checked his list, not once but twice.”
I froze. His voice was closer. Much closer. The sound threaded through the night, smooth and dangerous, and every cell in my body came alive in response.
“Unsurprisingly, your name wasn’t listed under nice.”
Fuck.
I darted right, my boots slipping on damp leaves as I bolted through the trees.
My breath came in short bursts, the cold air biting at my lungs.
Branches snagged at my dress, the hem catching and tearing as I stumbled over a fallen log.
Somewhere behind me, I heard him laugh—low, dark, and full of promise.
The worst part was every second I thought I’d put some distance between us; I’d hear him again—boots on the earth, steady as could be. The sound of a man in full control. I pressed myself against a trunk, trying to quiet my breathing.
Then I heard it. A whisper of movement. The soft crunch of leaves right behind me. My pulse jumped. I turned to run, but before I could take a step, an arm looped around my waist.
A startled cry caught in my throat as he pulled me back against him, my spine meeting the solid heat of his chest. His other hand caught my wrist, pinning it easily against my body.
How the hell had he been that close to me?
“Found you,” he murmured, his breath hot against my ear.
I struggled against him, fighting, and managed to slip free. All the self-defence classes I’d been taking paid off. I took off once more, but didn’t get far.
A weight slammed into me, powerful and fast. We hit the ground in a tangle of limbs, and I yelped. The air whooshed out of my lungs as my back met the earth. He growled against my ear, his voice rough and triumphant.
I tried to twist away, but he caught my wrists, pinning them above my head. His body pressed into mine, solid and unyielding, his breath hot against my cheek. My pussy clenched in response to the feral beast straddling me. I tried to wriggle free, but his grip only tightened in a punishing way.
“A for motherfucking effort,” he hissed, the faintest hint of amusement curling through the words.
With fluttering eyes, I looked up at him, lust building inside to the point of no control.
It was like he was a drug, and I’d taken a hit entirely too big for my body to take.
Leaning down, he audibly inhaled me, breathing me in like a savage animal catching its meal after days of hunger. My little whore body hummed for him.
“Don’t hurt me,” I whimpered.
“Silly little girl. I’m the Hunter. It’s all I know how to do.”
Tears formed in my eyes as I bucked wildly under him. My breath hitched when his tongue licked up my cheek, collecting the tears slipping from the corners.
“Is this dirty little whore scared?” he asked with a chuckle.
A small part of me truly was. The impact as he tackled me wasn’t gentle. He was straddling the line between true beast and an in controlled Dom. And the fact that the beautiful hue of aqua was lost behind his dilated pupils didn’t escape my notice.
His thick cock pressed against my stomach, and my chest rose and fell rapidly. I twisted hard beneath him, my instincts taking over before reason could catch up. The weight of him, the sound of his breathing, the pulse in my ears—everything screamed fight.
My knees came up, my shoulder jerked, but he was stronger than me. His thighs locked around my body, holding me in place. Panic consumed me as he pressed his forearm against my throat.
My safeword was on the tip of my tongue. Part of my brain was struggling between fantasy and reality.
“Easy,” he murmured, his voice softer now, breath stirring against my cheek. His arm eased off my throat as his hand came up, finding my face. “Look at me.”
His fingers brushed my jaw. My breath hitched. The world narrowed to the feel of his touch and the sound of his voice. And in that action, he ground me in the chaos.
The fight bled out of me, the rush still pounding in my veins, my body caught between resistance and the steady gravity of his control. He let me recalibrate.
“Better,” he hummed after a minute passed.
I nodded, and the minute my lips parted to say the words, ‘yes, sir’ he slipped right back into his role.
“Good, because I asked you a god damn question. Do you need me to repeat it? Were you lost in la la land—fantasizing about how I’m going to tear you in half? Because I absolutely am.”
His fingers, which had been softly touching my face, gripped my cheeks, this time hard. With his thumb pressing in on one side, the remaining fingers matched the grip on the other, he forced my mouth open.
Shock coursed through me as he spit. His saliva mixed and pooled with my own.
Holy hell, he was taking this to a whole new level.
Before I could collect my thoughts, he spoke. “Swallow.”
I complied, and more tears leaked from my eyes. Humiliation at how turned on I was, licked through my entire body. Then he shifted, his knee rising as he put his foot on the ground. With one hand holding my wrists, he used his other to pull his blade. He shifted and slid it across my cheek.
“I’d advise you to remain still. I would so hate to nick you.”
My breath hitched as I watched him lower the knife.
A shear ripping sound filled my ears. Like a well-trained surgeon, he cut through the cute Mrs. Claus dress, exposing me to the elements.
I gasped in fear as the sharpened point skated across my skin.
One thing was for sure; my beast knew how to use a blade.
The cold night air instantly danced across my exposed skin, and my nipples pebbled. He hummed as he tore a piece of the dress into another long strip like the blindfold and secured my wrists. Then, the cold steel of his blade was laid across my throat.
The caress of it was both frightening and exciting. He leaned down and kissed me, covering my mouth with his and sucking on my tongue. He pinched my nipples, twisting them brutally. His mouth kissed along the same path before consuming mine again.
I couldn’t breathe. A shudder ran through me as I moaned into his mouth. Then the knife was circling my nipples, making them harder, if that was possible. I whimpered when I felt the stinging bite of the nipple clamps being put into place.
Where had they come from?
I was so lost in the haze of whatever this was that I’d failed to see him unzip his backpack and pull them out.
What else was in there?
Before I could even imagine what might await me, he was tightening the clamps. I cried out as he leaned down and flicked the sensitive buds with his tongue. A crude moan left my lips when he pulled back and drug the blade across my breasts.
I anticipated the sting of a cut, and relief washed over me when I felt him place a tiny one on the top left globe. My hips bucked up, and he shifted, shoving his thigh between them. The toy was still in its torturous position.
“Fuck my leg, you dirty little whore.”
My body reacted to his words instantly, and I moved, humping his leg as he leaned down and sucked on the fresh cut he’d placed.
When he pulled back, he grinned. “Fuck your blood is life.”
A bit of red tainted his lips. That was all it took for me. My hips thrust up one last time, and I came. Waves of pleasure buzzed through my entire body as I fell apart and screamed into the night.