- TWO #3
"Yeah, well, dying of tetanus might actually be preferable to spending any more time in your company," I snapped and it drew a laugh, deep and throaty, out of him before he suddenly turned away and walked straight toward the woods.
With night heavy on us, the moon hidden behind clouds, and the lights of the city well off, it was the darkest kind of blackout and if I didn't rush up and stay barely a breath behind him, I would have lost track of him entirely.
Then, as if I had predicted it, a few moments later, I did. Lose him, that is. How? I wasn't sure because I had literally been within arm's reach of him a mere moment before. I had glanced over my shoulder and then he was just... gone.
The panic welled up fast, making my skin feel electric and my chest tight. Had he just... left me? Alone in the woods? He did sort-of seem like that big of a tool to be honest. I should have known better. Maybe it was all some sort of twisted prank.
"Jasper," I called out, barely more than a whisper really as if I might disturb all forms of wildlife if I raised my voice and they would all come charging and rip me limb from limb.
Okay. I was being paranoid.
But could there be wolves?
Or, worse yet, bears?
There must have been bears in a place as desolate as the woods I was facing. What the hell were you supposed to do during a bear attack? I was pretty sure I'd read something about laying on your belly and putting your hands around your neck. Then you kinda just let yourself be half-eaten.
Yeah, sure, that seemed like the cherry on the pie of my week.
Cece Cooke, bear food.
That was just lovely.
But then all the thoughts of bears and wolves flew away as hands suddenly reached out and grabbed the lapels of my jacket, ripping them open. I screeched loudly, stumbling backward and trying to pry the hands away desperately.
So not bears then. A psycho rapist killer.
Yep. Even better.
I cocked my arm back and swung out, hoping to make contact with something despite my night blindness.
I felt and heard a satisfying crack that reverberated pain through my hand and up my arm.
There was no indication that I inflicted any kind of pain except the kind throbbing across my knuckles.
The hands pulled harder at my jacket and I shoved forward at the figure's chest as hard as my hurt hand would allow.
The impact made the hands leave my jacket and the lack of contact left me on unsteady footing and I felt myself falling backward, flailing helplessly to try to grab something that would stop my fall.
But there was nothing and I hit hard enough to knock all my air out of me.
But, airless or not, self-preservation had me scrambling backward desperately, feeling my skirt bunch up around my waist.
But then a weight was pressing down on my pelvis as someone straddled me, the hands yet again reaching for my jacket, dipping inside as I struggled.
"Stop," I tried to yell, but it came out strangled.
The back of a hand brushed across my breast, sliding across the cold-hardened nipple and making me jerk almost violently at the intimacy of the touch. But then the hands were out of the coat and the light of my cell phone illuminated the dark, giving me a clear view of my attacker's face.
Jasper.
"I told you no phone," he growled, taking the device in question and hauling it off far into the distance.
"Hey!" I yelled, feeling for the first time the cold ground against the whole of my legs and butt. I was practically naked near the woods with a stranger and no cell phone to call for help.
"Oh, relax," Jasper said and you could practically hear the eye-roll he was giving me.
Then his weight lifted off me, his hands grabbing the material of my bunched up skirt and yanking it roughly down to cover me.
"I have no interest in... that," he said, sounding disgusted at the idea of touching me.
And, well, it was irrational of me, but I felt insulted. I mean of course I didn't want to be ravaged in the woods, but he didn't exactly have to make it sound like I was a heap of toxic waste he had no interest in being anywhere near.
His hand reached down and snagged my wrist hard, yanking upward, and dragging me back onto my feet. "Let's go," he said, still holding my wrist. "We're here."
Here was, well, nothing as far as I could tell. There was just the tree line. That was it. Granted it was dark and I couldn't see much so maybe there were people inside the woods doing... well... God knew what. I couldn't tell.
Jasper started to pull me along and I raised my free hand to hold out, trying to feel for some kind of structure or other people or... anything. All my palm came into contact with was tree bark after tree bark.
Maybe Jade had taken off on some sort of camping trip? That seemed right up her alley. Maybe The Green was the name of a campsite.
I could have asked Jasper, but his bruising grip on my wrist seemed to suggest he wasn't inviting questions. And if I pissed him off, I was pretty sure he would just leave me there to fight it out with the bears.
That totally seemed like something he was capable of.