Chapter 21
MADISON
As I broke free of the tree line, I doubled my efforts to get away.
I sprinted through what I thought was an open field. It wasn’t until the last second that the fog parted to reveal a sheer cliff drop.
There was no guardrail. No warning. Just the edge, and then nothing. Wind howled from below, carrying the roar of waves slamming into rock. The sound hit me before the vertigo did. The sudden, stomach-dropping understanding that the ground I was running toward didn’t exist.
The soft leather of my ballet slippers shredded against the rough, broken rocks.
It was too late.
I couldn’t stop my forward momentum in time.
The storm winds carried the salty spray of the ocean upward, stinging my eyes as the dark waters loomed close.
A scream ripped out of me as I spread my arms wide, grasping at nothing.
The ocean and cliff face merged into a blur of somber brown and muddy blue as the ground fell away beneath my feet. The jagged, wet rocks came within inches of my face as my body violently pitched forward. Before I slipped over the edge, a heavy weight settled around my waist.
I was violently wrenched backward.
Pierce pulled me away from the cliff.
For one breath, everything went quiet. The wind, the rain, my own scream.
All of it swallowed by the singular, impossible fact that I was not falling.
His arm was locked around my waist. His chest was flush against my back.
He was solid and warm and real, and a second ago there had been nothing beneath me but ether.
His hard body cushioned my fall as the force of his grip sent us both crashing to the wet grass a few feet away. He shifted from beneath me to beside me. His intense stare scanned my face as his warm hands ran over my arms and hips, searching for injuries.
“Madison, are you hurt?” he asked urgently.
I couldn’t respond.
Water from the grass seeped into the silk of my blouse as heavy, cold raindrops struck my cheeks.
My gaze shifted from the stormy clouds above to the panic and rage which clouded Pierce’s gray eyes.
His lips pulled back, baring his teeth. “Goddammit, Madison. You could have been fucking killed.”
I said nothing.
In my shocked mind, he looked more wolf than man, his eyes blazing down at me and a low growl slipping past his lips, his focus locked on my mouth.
A spark of lightning ripped through the sky, illuminating the sharp angles of his face in the growing darkness. The air crackled with tension as it became apparent his fear and concern had turned into something far more sinister and dangerous.
Pierce leaned over me.
His broad shoulders blocked the worst of the rain. His right hand ran over the top of my left thigh and slipped under my skirt. His palm burned against my chilled skin.
I thought he would stop when he realized my leg wasn’t broken, but his hand traveled higher. The tips of his fingers skimmed my panties and shoved the front of my skirt up to bunch at my waist.
I snatched at the hem and tried to force it back down. “What are you—”
His hand closed around my much smaller wrist and lifted my arm away, breaking my grasp on my skirt.
He bunched the flimsy material back up around my waist. His fingers returned to the narrow waistband of my panties.
They hooked inside and dragged the fabric down.
My panties slid over my ass to the tops of my thighs.
Shocked, I grabbed at the waistband and tugged, trying to haul them back up. “Wait—”
I struggled to loosen his grip. “Pierce, stop. What are you doing?” I protested.
His breathing became heavy as his head dipped low. His look skimmed up to mine before returning to my mouth. “What I should have done weeks ago.”
His lips pressed hard against my own. The sharp edges of my teeth cut into the soft inside of my mouth as he ruthlessly swept his tongue inside. He tasted like coffee and rain and the blood from my cut lip. I moaned as his tongue dueled with mine, while his hand once more yanked down on my panties.
I tightened my grip.
Pierce rolled our bodies, turning us both on the ground until I was straddling his hips. With his hand anchored against the back of my head, holding my face close for his relentless kiss, he shredded my underwear.
He swallowed my sharp intake of breath as he rolled again. This time pinning me beneath his weight, settling between my thighs. I twisted my head to the side and sucked in a gulp of frigid sea air, realizing with a start we had rolled closer to the drop.
My heart seized as my fingers dug into his strong biceps. “Pierce, we—”
Before I could warn him, his hand caught my jaw and twisted my face toward his again, right before he crushed his mouth to mine. The wind and rain battered us as he devoured my soul with his kiss.
He tore at the bow tied at my throat. The sodden material scraped my cold, sensitive skin as he ripped it free. He seized my wrists and stretched my arms over my head.
He had the first silken loops secured around my wrists before I realized what was happening.
I bucked my hips. “What are you doing?” I wrenched my arms, but my strength was no match for his.
He wound the silk tie around my wrists repeatedly and then tied it off until I was bound like a sacrificial offering on the cliff’s edge.
He bit at my lower lip. “I wanted to do that the moment I saw that cute bow tied around your neck.”
I spoke through teeth clenched so tightly they ached. “Untie me. This instant, Pierce. I mean it.”
His eyes narrowed. “My entire fortune could depend on it, and I still wouldn’t untie you, Madison. This is where you were fated to be. Bound. Under me. At my mercy.”
“Please...” The word came out broken. “You’re scaring me.”
He skimmed the underside of my chin with his open mouth. Then tasted my lower lip. “You should be scared. I thought I was in control, but I’m not. Not anymore,” he ground out.
He gripped the open edge of my blouse collar and split it open, sending the small buttons scattering. He palmed one white-lace-covered breast and squeezed. “It’s no good, Madison. Don’t you see? I can’t let you go now.”
I thrashed beneath him, trying to break free. I was half pinned under his tall frame, with his knee braced against my thigh and his left arm still pinning my wrists. “Please. I promise. I won’t tell anyone what you did. I’ll leave town. You’ll never have to see me again.”
He stripped my bra down and flicked one traitorously erect nipple with his tongue then glared at me with those pale, unforgiving eyes. “You don’t get it, babygirl.” He drew my nipple into his mouth and sucked hard.
My back arched off the ground.
He used the edge of his teeth to tease my sensitive flesh and sucked even harder before he released my breast and slid his hand down my stomach. He pushed two fingers inside of me.
Despite the chilling rain raging around us, my cheeks burned.
He lurched upward and forced both his knees between mine. He stared down at me as he lowered his zipper and freed his cock. “The game’s changed.”
Lightning split the sky behind his head.
I lowered my bound wrists and covered my eyes, turning away with a cry.
This isn’t happening.
I turned back and shrieked against the rain pouring down on us. “This isn’t a fucking game! This is my life!”
His fist brushed my inner thigh. He leaned forward, shielding me from the rain as he placed his forearm to the side of my head. His cock pressed against my entrance.
I pushed against his chest, twisting my hips in a vain attempt to stop him.
He nipped at my bottom lip, drawing it into his mouth, bruising the sensitive flesh before harshly commanding, “Open for me, babygirl.”
I whimpered, my resolve melting.
He rocked forward as he nuzzled my neck, his mouth tracing the spot behind my ear. He then whispered darkly, “Surrender to me.”
I opened my mouth to speak but couldn’t force the words of denial past my lips.
He angled his hips and thrust. His shaft stretched and filled me at the same time he claimed my mouth, devastating what was left of my resistance.
As the unrelenting torrent hammered down on our writhing forms, he drove into me with ever-increasing ferocity.
And with each thrust, I hated him more. For being right.