Run. Hide. Faster. Don’t fall. Don’t stop. Don’t?—
Then silence.
Not the peaceful kind. It’s the kind that’s oppressive and foreboding. It sets off alarm bells inside me, ringing in warning that I’m still very much in danger.
I duck behind a thick pine tree, my chest heaving so hard I’m distantly surprised my ribs don’t crack. Snow clings to my thighs, my hair, even my eyelashes. My breath comes out in huge foggy clouds, and I’m drenched in sweat. I slap a trembling hand over my mouth, forcing myself to breathe slower. Quieter.
Too late.
My boot sinks deeper into the snow and a twig cracks under my weight. I squeeze my eyes shut and start counting in my head, aware I have to run or else he’ll be drawn to the noise.
The twig sounds louder than an avalanche so deep in the snowy woods. He has to be onto me.
I shove away from the tree, but I’m too slow. I’ve only made it a couple steps when he’s already coming. He’s barreling toward me.
I throw a quick look over my shoulder and my stomach pits.
There’s nowhere to run. No way to escape him when?—
All thought is wiped out as he hits me. His body collides with mine hard enough to whip me off my feet and make me feel temporarily airborne.
I scream, the sound more of a sharp and startled yelp, arms and legs limper than a ragdoll.
We crash into the snow in a tangled heap.
Me on the bottom. Him on top. I’m squashed flat into the snow, pinned between him and the icy ground. But as his body traps me, heat floods over me.
His heat.
His raw, animalistic warmth envelops me as I blink through snowflakes and find myself looking up into the face of a monster.
Eyes dark and grotesque face expressionless, he stares down at me, heaving ragged breaths.
His hands catch my wrists, pressing them above my head. His thick, sculpted thighs hold mine down. I twist against him, panic flaring and pushing me into flight mode all over again.
But there’s no way to escape him. I’m as trapped as a person can be.
The mystery man doesn’t say a word. He merely hovers and holds me in place as if studying me.
Then he bows his head, coming in closer than I’m ready for, and he takes a long, greedy inhale at my pulse point. I flinch, struggling some more as he presses his masked face into my neck as if he can smell every chemical note on my skin.
As if he really is some kind of untamed beast with superhuman scenting.
I go even more still, unsure how to even respond. I’m being…sniffed.
I’m being nuzzled like I’m some animal’s plaything.
For a second, I almost calm down. My pulse stutters, still frantic and beating hard, but all the terror hollows out.
The epiphany hits me as a wave of shame, leaving my icy slick skin suddenly flushed hot. Underneath the fear and panic, another emotion emerges.
It’s the same shameful reaction I’d had when he’d grabbed me from behind and sank his fingers inside my pussy.
It’s… a deep, carnal, twisted craving.
Desire.
I want this unhinged, predatory, masked stranger as much as he wants me. As he’s hunted me and terrorized me, I’ve become more and more turned on by the idea of him.
