45. Baby, I’m preying on you tonight. Hunt you down, eat you alive…
Moth
Each sawing breath brought the metallic tang of blood to stain my dry throat. My eyes, wide in the darkness, fought to see every rock and tree and branch in my way, but more than once I stumbled and nearly fell, fighting to get my footing again. The surrounding shadows seemed to taunt and jeer, their shifting forms dancing like a mocking crowd. They reveled in my fear, amplifying the pressure to make every turn and decision correctly. I could sense his presence trailing behind me like a hunter, his steady pace audible amidst the wind rustling underbrush.
He didn’t need to run.
He knew he would catch me eventually.
But I refused to give up.
I pushed myself to run faster, ignoring the burning ache in my muscles and the tightening in my chest. I focused on the path ahead, trying to anticipate every obstacle and navigate through the treacherous terrain .
Every step became a battle, every decision a test of my resilience. The sounds of my breathing and the pounding of my heart merged with the echoes of his footsteps, rising in a symphony of terror. I felt a scream crawl across my tongue and I fought to swallow it down as I leaped over a fallen log, my hair tousled in my face.
But I couldn’t let him catch me. I couldn’t let him win.
With each passing moment, my determination grew stronger, fueling me to push beyond my limits. I focused on the flickering hope of reaching safety, of finding a way to outsmart him.
I would win. I had to win.
I had a baby back home. She was two now, and just starting to speak in full sentences and understand the world around her. One day, I would tell her about my fight and teach her just how strong a woman could be.
In the chaos, I didn’t realize the ground was sinking, loamy soil turned to mud by this morning’s pounding thunderstorm.
I slipped, my ankle twisting painfully beneath me with a lightning bolt of pain that struck at the knee and shot up to my hip. When the pain hit, the scream in my mouth broke free, erupting in an ear-splitting cry that echoed in the forest.
Fuck. Fuck, he knows where I am. There was no denying that now.
As I lay on the muddy ground, clutching my throbbing ankle, panic surged through me. The shadows seemed to intensify as my mind raced, desperately searching for a way out.
I could hide. I could hide under the rotting log, and—
The nearby snapping of a twig shot panic through my mind, and I threw that thought away .
No, I couldn’t hide. I would be a sitting duck.
I had to move. Now. With gritted teeth, I mustered the strength to get back on my feet, ignoring the tingling shooting up my leg. Limping through the muddy terrain, my mind raced.
How could I outmaneuver him like this?
The looming threat hung over me like a dark cloud, making every decision crucial. I had to find shelter, somewhere I could hide until help arrived.
With each step, the sinking ground beneath me only added to the urgency. Once familiar paths now seemed treacherous, as if they were conspiring against me. I couldn’t afford to lose focus, not when my life hung in the balance.
I scanned my surroundings for any sign of safety. The dense foliage offered some protection, but I needed something more substantial.
A growl of thunder sounded above me, and as I twisted around, squinting through the darkness in an attempt to find a reprieve, a bolt of lightning split the sky overhead, and that’s when I saw him.
He was a shadow in the darkness, a void in blackness that had gnashing teeth and razor-sharp claws, ready to tear me limb from limb.
He was a predator, and I was the prey.
Beneath the hood drooping low over his eyes, I saw the glint of a knowing smirk.
“Stop running, Vanessa,” he said, and the growl of his voice sent a shiver rocketing up my spine. “You’ve already hurt yourself. Just give up and—”
“Never. ”
Ignoring the pain in my ankle, I shot forward, a limping sprint that did little to aid my escape. Before I knew it, I felt the heavy weight of his forearm loop around my throat and pull me back and nearly off my feet. A choking gasp was all I managed before he tore me back, holding me flush against his chest as my fingers scrambled for purchase and my nails dug away his flesh.
“No!” I screamed, twisting in his arms. “Let go! Let me go!”
“Give up, Nessa,” he whispered, his breath hot against my ear as his free hand came around to my throat. “I won. It’s over.”
I barely caught a glimpse of shining metal in the low light before I felt the blade against my throat and I relaxed against him reluctantly. I did as I was told, falling limp in my captor’s arms as the sharp sting of metal pushed against my throat.
“Now,” he growled, and I shivered as his voice climbed up inside me, strangling the breath from my lungs. “Pant’s off.”
With shaking hands, my thumbs found the button of my jeans and popped it open, my zipper hissing in the shadows before the mountain of denim pooled at my feet. I barely suppressed a moan when his gloved fingers pulled my panties to the side, and without warning or mercy, plunged inside of me.
“Hmm,” he purred, and I shuddered at his touch. “Someone’s excited.”
“Fuck you,” I spat, and he chuckled the second the words left my lips.
“Oh, don’t worry,” he said. “You’re going to.”
I heard the clatter of the blade hitting the ground as his fingers—glove removed—threaded into the hair at the base of my skull and gripped at the roots, pulling just enough to send a wave of tingles running through me.
“Are you gonna fight me?” he asked, his fingers finding the swollen bud of my clit and running circles around it, the leather slicked with my need and creating an amazing sensation that pulled a mewl from my throat.
“You know it,” I countered with a grunt. His knee hit the back of my thighs and took my knees out from under me, and with a gasp, I hit the muddy ground.
“Good,” he said, and the hand in my hair drove me further, forcing me down until my face slammed against the muddy ground. The watery soil stung my eyes and the scent of underearth flooded my nose. “I like a challenge.”
His hand pulled away from me, and I sighed at the lack of contact. Damn him.
He held me there as I twisted and pulled, fighting to get away from him. Before I knew it, my panties had been torn away, and my thighs burned at the snapping threads and tearing cloth.
“Open up,” he growled, and before I even had a chance to realize what was happening, a ball of fabric was pushed over my lips and between my teeth, muffling the curses I spat at him.
“ Asshole !” I spat, and he chuckled again. “Fuckin’ asshole.”
It was muffled at best, but something told me he got the hint.
“Awe, baby girl,” he soothed, and I felt something hot and heavy pressing against my entrance with no warning. “That’s not very nice. I’m daddy, remember ?”
He punctuated his last word with a single, rough thrust of his hips, fully sheathing himself inside of me. I groaned at the pain of being stretched to the brim. Stars danced before my eyes and the scent and taste of my own desire swam in my nostrils. I was given no time to adjust, no warning, and no waiting before he slammed into me again, and fucked me hard, his pace as relentless as his chasing.
I knew it would be. It always was when he got like this.
He needed it. The darkness was his drug.
Awakening the predator in him got me bruises and blood, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
My body adjusted after a moment, my slick heat wetting across my ass and dripping down my thighs as he forced into me, over and over again. The pain in my ankle fell away until it was static and background noise, but somehow intensifying the feeling.
I liked the pain. I needed it to keep me grounded—to keep me sane. I need it to push me, to force me down at his every whim.
Truth was, I liked it. It scratched something inside of me that festered like a deep, inner itch, and if it wasn’t for moments like these, I would suffer every day of my life.
Shit, I used to want to be normal.
“Harder,” I pleaded, though it was a wavering, slurred sound, unrecognizable even to my ears.
Roughly, the hand in my hair reached down, leather sliding over my tongue as he reached in and released me from the cloth.
“Say it again,” he growled, every word accentuated by the quick popping of his hips and the wet slap of flesh on flesh.
“Harder!” I pleaded.
He complied, slamming into me hard enough that I felt the ache in my contorted spine, screaming and aching against the assault .
Still, I didn’t want him to stop.
I felt him slow, just for a moment to adjust before both of his strong hands found my biceps and pulled, bending me at the waist as he continued to pummel into me.
Stars danced behind my eyes, swaying shapes that seemed to mock me with every thrust and every stroke.
Fuck, I wanted it so much.
“H-harder,” I pleaded, sucking my lips into my mouth and biting them closed. “Harder, Tommy. Please? Please, fuck!”
He rode me like a wave, slamming into me so hard that I couldn’t think—couldn’t catch my breath. Before long, I felt that familiar ache, the warmth spreading over me. I felt something inside of me wound way too tightly, and with a final, jerking slam of his hips, I hurtled over the edge and all decency finally snapped.
I was screaming, pouring my ecstasy into the world, until it rebounded off of every tree and came back to slap me in the face.
I felt him shudder and growl, and when he pushed me away to flop onto the unforgiving forest floor, slipping back into the mud with a wet slap, I felt the flood down my thighs and a grin of satisfaction folded my lips.
Amazing.
I heard him grunt and gasp as he caught his breath, and when he spoke again, it was desperate and breathy.
“How was that?” he asked, his voice shaking. “Everything you dreamed of?”
“Perfect,” I told him, panting as I struggled to get to my hands and knees .
He helped me pull my dirty jeans up, protecting my modesty from prying eyes. They slid loosely over my hips as he replaced himself into his own and bent, one arm sliding beneath my shoulders and the other hooking beneath my thighs.
“Are you okay?” he asked as he turned with me, moving back towards the entrance of the forest. “How bad is your ankle?”
“Smarts a bit,” I said with a shrug, reaching up to wrap my arms around his warm neck. I was shivering now, from the cold. “Worth it.”
He sighed, shaking his head.
“Maybe next time we wait until it hasn’t rained in a while,” he said as he stepped from the darkness of the forest and into the glare of the front porch light shining across our manicured front lawn.
“I dunno,” I said with a giggle. “I kind of liked fucking in the mud.”
I couldn’t see him rolling his eyes, but I knew he was. Somehow I knew.
Maybe it was almost three years of marriage that helped me know him that well. Maybe it was that he was my soul mate.
As he stepped up onto the porch, the front door swung open and I looked up to see Amelia, a knowing grin on her lips and a baby on each hip. One of them, a girl with dark, curly hair and bright blue eyes, smiled warmly at me as Amelia pushed open the front door, and Tommy and I stepped inside. The other, Donovan, giggled at us, his blonde curls bouncing as his mom turned and kicked the door shut behind us.
“How was date night?” Amelia asked with a knowing smile.
“Amazing,” I said, flashing her a smile. “As always. ”
“You’re a freak,” she said with a sigh. She said it with love, and we both knew it.
“You know it,” I agreed as Tommy huffed a laugh and started ascending the stairs, still gripping me against his chest. “Same time next week?”
“Same time next week,” Amelia agreed.