Chapter 18 #2
I dared a look behind me, seeing nothing but darkness.
It was frighteningly quiet around me. The only sounds were my feet, crunching over the dead foliage and my ragged breaths.
I changed direction, hoping it would throw him off, moving slower to avoid making too much noise.
I ducked behind a large tree. With my hand clamped over my mouth, I tried not to make a sound as I gasped for air.
I listened for him, for footsteps, but nothing.
Then, “Ready or not… I’m coming for you,” he sang out into the night, his accompanying laughter sounding like something from a horror movie.
Electricity ran through my body, as fear and excitement gripped me.
The sound came from my right, so I darted in the opposite direction, running as fast as my legs could go.
After a while I ducked behind a tree again, listening.
A twig snapped, making my heart thunder in my throat.
“Come out, come out, little witch,” he called out again, so close.
Was he tracking me? I dared a peek from behind the tree.
He was standing with his feet wide, head tilted to the side, listening.
I shuddered. Gods, he was terrifying. He took a step forward.
Then another, and another. I had to move around the tree, or he would see me.
Holding my breath, I carefully placed one foot after the other and slinked around the trunk as silently as I could.
I stopped and careened my neck around the tree to see if I could catch a glimpse of him, to know where he was, but he was gone.
I screamed as he grabbed me, yanking me backwards, but the sound was muffled, by his hand wrapped tightly around my mouth. He laughed viciously, delighting in my terrified scream. “Found you,” he whispered lowly in my ear. I struggled to get free, but he had me pinned against him.
He had me. Whatever this game was, he’d won. I went still in his arms, accepting my fate.
“That’s a good girl. No point in struggling.
” He pressed his nose against my neck and inhaled audibly, his breath coming out in a crazed moan.
He lowered the hand he had clasped over my mouth to my neck, and wrapped his fingers tightly around it, cutting off my oxygen.
I panicked, clawing at his hand while he chuckled in my ear.
When my lungs were on fire, he released me slightly and I gasped for air. My body trembled against him.
“If you were mine, Princess, I’d fuck you senseless right now.”
A shudder rippled through me, settling between my thighs.
His hand tightened around my neck again, as he bit at my earlobe.
Just as I thought I was about to pass out, he released me again.
My legs gave way beneath me, but Grayson held me up, laughing, and I wasn’t sure if it was from the sudden oxygen, or the pure pleasure I felt.
I liked it, I realised. I liked what he was doing to me.
I was at his mercy, completely vulnerable to him, and I loved how it felt.
He pressed me harder into him, and I felt the swell in his jeans, pressing into the small of my back. I moaned in delight, and attempted to reach between us to touch him, but he caught my wrist and tightened his hand around my neck again.
“Behave,” he warned, before allowing me air again.
I panted, unable to catch my breath, as Grayson’s hand roamed across the skin on my stomach.
“Such soft skin. Sometimes I wonder what the inside of you would feel like. Ever had your hand in someone’s abdomen?
Felt their guts move against your fingers?
” He rasped in a seductive tone against my ear.
And fuck, it did crazy things to me. Fear and lust swirled together in my stomach, acting like they belonged together, two sides of a coin.
I clamped my eyes shut, trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with me.
“I would love to wrap my hand around your beating heart and rip it from your chest. To keep with me forever.” His hand drifted lower and lower as the dark thoughts he shared with me made my insides warm.
My body giving in to the mess of feelings Grayson had awoken in me, accepting them.
I could question how fucked up this was later.
Now, I only wanted to give in to his madness and feel.
I moaned and buckled my hips in an attempt to get his hand closer to where I needed it so badly.
He laughed in my ear, sending goosebumps rippling over my skin. “So demanding.”
His hand moved farther away, and I caught it, holding it in place. He couldn’t stop now. “Grayson,” I panted, my voice raspy and shamefully needy.
He pushed my face up harshly to his. “Then beg,” he growled.
I bit my lip hard, watching his eyes in the moonlight. His jaw was set in determination, but I saw the lust cloud his eyes as he stared back at me. I didn’t react fast enough, so he retracted his hand even more.
“Please,” I heard my own voice say, barely audible.
Grayson arched a brow at me. It wasn’t enough.
“Please touch me, Grayson.” My cheeks were red with embarrassment. Never had I begged someone for this. Especially not someone who just confessed that he had those hands in someone’s stomach before.
I had lost my mind.
But as he stared at me, I realised what he was doing. I might have been completely at his mercy and he a deranged maniac, but he was making sure I got to choose whether or not I wanted this. In the sexiest fucking way. My knees threatened to buckle again.
Grayson pushed his warm, calloused hand into my pants, and oh so slowly, traced a finger across my folds. I whimpered and let my head roll back, resting it on his chest.
“Shit, Ava,” he breathed as he felt the slickness between my thighs. “This is how you react to my depravity?” he questioned breathlessly.
I wasn’t able to explain it myself. Everything he was went against my very nature, but I was aching and throbbing for more of him.
I bucked against his hand, and he rewarded me by swirling a finger around my clit.
I inhaled a ragged breath, unable to handle the pleasure that pulsed through my body with each movement of his fingers.
His mouth and teeth were on my neck, teasing, tasting.
His other hand unzipped my jacket and roughly tugged down my shirt and bra, exposing my breasts to the cold night air.
He swore as I arched, pressing my breast into his hand, feverishly craving his touch.
“You’re fucking exquisite,” he rasped as he palmed by breast harshly, giving me the pressure I so desperately needed. Without warning, he plunged a finger into me.
“Oh, Gods!” I moaned, pleasure engulfing me.
“Your gods can’t help you now, witch,” he growled as he plunged another finger into me, fucking me roughly with his hand.
“I can cut you open and devour your soul, and they can do nothing to stop me,” he purred in my ear, while every one of his thrusts sent me higher and higher.
“Does it scare you that I think of slitting your throat right now? So no one else can touch you. I can’t bear the thought of anyone else having you like this.
I would rip them to fucking shreds.” I couldn’t control the sounds escaping my throat, as I yielded to his words and his thrusts.
“Grayson…” I whimpered, feeling myself toppling over the edge.
“I know, baby.” He licked up the side of my neck, never breaking his rhythm. “Look at me, Ava. I wanna see your face when I make you come.”
I turned my face up to him, trying to control my breathing. And trying to hold off the pleasure that was snaking from the base of my spine. The carnal look in his eyes, as he stared down at me so intently, had me right back on that ledge.
“That’s my girl. So fucking beautiful,” he rasped, as I arched into his thrusts, as the orgasm rocked through my body like nothing I had ever felt, his name like a prayer on my lips.
He caught me and lifted me off my feet, as my body gave in. We were both panting, and I couldn’t tell which one of us was trembling.
“Grayson?” I whispered after a while, burying my face in his neck, inhaling him deeply and placing a kiss against his skin, making him shudder.
“Hmm?” he whispered back against the silence of the night.
“My turn.” I wiggled in his arms, trying to get down, already imagining all the things I wanted to do to him, but he gripped me tighter, holding me in place.
“No, baby. Not tonight.”
I inched backwards to see his face. “Why not?”
“Because tonight was about you.”
I frowned at him. What was that supposed to mean?
He smiled at me amusedly and interrupted me when I tried to speak. “Shh now. Let me get you to bed.” He placed a quick kiss on my cheek and started walking back, not putting me down.
I had no idea how he knew which way to go, but he got us back to the bed and breakfast. I asked and he simply answered, “Our tracks. And I can recall every tree I passed. Even the position of the stars can help me find the Inn again.”
“You have a magnificent mind, Gray.” I rested my head on his shoulder.
“You say that even after hearing my thoughts?”
I chuckled. “I think you were right. Maybe I’m just as fucked in the head as you.”
He lowered me onto my bed with a brilliant smile and removed my shoes and jacket, then started unbuttoning my pants.
“May I?” he asked.
I nodded, excitement fluttering in my stomach as he pulled my pants off. He noticed it and shook his head, grinning at me.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, darling.” He pulled the blankets over me, covering me up to my chin. “I just want to take care of my princess for the last time.” He placed a soft kiss on my forehead. “Good night, Ava.”
I smiled at him and pretended that his words didn’t shatter my heart.
“I just want to take care of my princess for the last time.”
Tomorrow night I will be sleeping in my own bed. Never again will I see the inside of that cabin room.
“…the last time.”
Tomorrow I’m saying goodbye to him. For good. It would be the last time I would see those dark and twisted eyes.
“I just want to take care of my princess for the last time.”