Chapter 36 #2
“Aye, you’re a vicious little thing, spinning me into your web when you had no intention for us to last.”
“You made it very clear there never was an us.”
“So you turned the tables on me and made us into a little game to settle the score.”
“Like you’re about to do? You have no place to talk.”
“Oh, síbhean, this will definitely be a game. The difference is, I’m not hiding it.”
I dropped her legs, and her shoes hit the ground.
We’d gone in far enough that no one could see us through the remaining foliage and underbrush, but not too far in case we needed a quick exit.
Oak and maple trees populated the area, their branches mostly bare.
One thick branch with very few shoots crossed out in front of us at my shoulder height. It was perfectly placed.
A plan formed, but knowing her, I was going to need to work fast.
With my karambit knife, I cut through the parachute suspension lines close to my harness, then cut them loose at the edges of the canopy. It made for long, sturdy strands of rope that I coiled at intervals with a few tugs.
“What are you doing?” Her head whirled from side to side as I shuffled us to the base of an oak tree and wrapped the ends of a folded suspension line into a bowline knot around its trunk above a branch collar. “You ruined a perfectly good parachute.”
I ignored her and replicated the knot with a second suspension line around an oak tree perpendicular to my chosen branch. With the first knots handled, I then sliced the leg straps of my harness into thick strips, careful not to cleave through our attachment points.
“You are going to owe them new gear. I hope they sue you.”
“Good thing I own the facility.”
She snorted. “Of course you do.”
I looped the doubled-back end of a tied suspension line around the toe of my boot, then kicked it up and knotted it around a newly cut leg strap.
The second suspension line was harder to catch.
No matter how I twisted around, the loop slipped off my shoe, and Alizé wasn’t helping things.
When I attempted to crouch to pick it up, she shoved against me, making me lose my balance.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Is the fact that we’re attached bothering you?”
“Never.” I swept her off her feet, her knees against her shoulders, and stooped down to pick it up. With the friction of her tight body against mine, I relished her little cries. The only thing that might have made this arrangement more interesting would have been a lack of clothing.
“You’re the worst…”
“Am I?”
She reached behind her shoulder for the attachment points and recoiled with an aggravated growl when I slapped her hand.
“Behave.”
“Detach me.”
“Soon.”
That quelled some of her fight, and I took full advantage to tie a strip of my leg harness around her wrist. The tied suspension line, wired between her skin and the strap, dangled with slack.
“You know what I think?” My mouth brushed the rim of her ear, and she shivered against me. “I think you like being attached to me.” I rolled my hips. “I think you’re not trying all that hard to get away. Is that what you want? To be my good little captive? How about I show you what that means?”
“Wha—”
I quickly unclipped us and jostled her harness shoulder straps a tad looser.
I then lifted her up by the harness and slipped the branch through the gap until it held her weight.
Her shock wore off surprisingly fast as I skidded her and the harness further down the branch, dodging her sidekicks and swipes of her arms. She got me good with a scratch down my jawline before the suspension line hitched to the strap around her wrist went taut and yanked her arm up and out of range.
“Cillian!” she screeched as she clawed at her tied-up wrist with the other hand.
It took much more fight to tie up her second wrist than the first. She jerked, twisted out of my hold, and smacked wherever she reached, but I won out in the end.
I always did. Now I had her exactly where I wanted her—tied up and suspended, feet dangling a few inches off the ground, completely and utterly at my mercy.
She growled and wrenched left and right to no avail. She grunted and kicked her legs up, even getting as far as wrapping one over a suspension line and awkwardly nudging it, before she gave up that attempt and dropped her feet.
“Let me down,” she yelled.
“I will. Once I know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
“This isn’t funny, Cillian.”
“That’s certainly not the word I’d use for it, no.”
My cock strained against my pants in violent agreement to that.
With renewed effort, she tried gaining side-to-side momentum, throwing her body left, then right, before attempting to spin. All she managed to do was irritate her wrists, but I gave her this moment. She’d realize soon enough my way was the only way.
“Keep going, love. This is all foreplay.”
She looked absolutely gorgeous like this.
All riled up, hair and makeup a chaotic mess, and flushed red from exertion as she fought the restraints.
Powerless despite how strong she was, and most importantly, in my control, with no sign of a panic attack on the horizon.
She was my woman. This left no doubt about that, and after today, she’d no longer doubt it either, even if she had to relearn everything she thought she knew.
“Cillian, this is messed up. You’re not thinking straight.”
“No, I’m thinking more sensibly than I have in years. You do that to me.”
“I do what?”
“Make me better.”
She suddenly stopped struggling, a look of shock then skepticism scrunching her forehead.
“That…doesn’t make sense.”