And then, because lately I couldn’t seem to think about my guys without also thinking about the one man I shouldn’t, I started to wonder if Jason would enjoy something like this. I knew next to nothing about the man, other than what I was told from Lola and Kieran, so I didn’t know if he’d participate.
Hell, some men would never share their woman. Maybe he was one of them, and all these thoughts about him were just a waste on my part.
That was a sad, depressing thought, one I quickly pushed from my mind. Tonight wasn’t about Fang or Mike or even Jason. Tonight was about Kieran and that mask. My Devil. It was high time we stopped pretending there was distance between us and let our darkness mingle.
I tried to run in a semi-straight line, just to make sure I didn’t get too lost. It became semi-difficult to hop over fallen trees andlogs while sticking to that line; after a while, I was almost certain I’d started to turn either left or right. I hoped my Devil would still find me, otherwise… otherwise it’d be a long night.
Had it been five minutes yet? I had no idea. I couldn’t keep counting the seconds in my head while also focusing on not tripping and falling as I ran. Some things I could multi-task, but counting and running were two opposing things, apparently.
Hmm. I wondered how long it would be, once five minutes was up, for Kieran to find me. The man was taller than me, which meant he could move quicker, his steps were larger. He was probably used to hunting in the darkness like this, or at least more accustomed to it than I was. I hoped I was giving him a run for his money.
For kicks, mostly to see if I could hear him, I skidded to a halt near a rather large tree. I moved to lean against the tree, giving myself a few moments to catch my breath while I listened to the sounds of the forest.
Turned out, in the middle of the night, there weren’t many sounds. Most animals were asleep, and those that weren’t were clearly not around. I didn’t hear any owls or any birds, no insects either. It was eerily silent, so much more quiet than the city could ever hope to be. In fact, the only time I’d ever heard such silence was when I was chained to that bed and the TV was off. Goosebumps rose on my flesh, and the only way to shake them off was to push off the tree and continue running.
I had no idea how long the hunt actually lasted, but when Kieran found me, let’s just say I was beyond ready for him to take me.
Chapter Seventeen – Kieran
When I put on the mask, I watched as her demeanor changed. She stood a little straighter, couldn’t take her eyes off me. The mask, as it turned out, held a power over her—it was something I’d have to remember for the future.
When she took off, I was a man of my word, and I waited until my phone’s timer hit five minutes before I went after her. And even then, I was measured in ending the timer and clearing it from my phone, even slower in locking the screen and sliding it into my pocket.
I’d find her. I knew it in my heart. As badly as I wanted to have her right this minute, I also knew she wanted the hunt to last. I did, too. I never imagined we’d be here, playing primal like we were animals, but there were lots of things I never imagined that had happened.
Such as agreeing to share her, for example. For so long, Laina was mine. For so long, she was all I could see, all I could think about. She’d become everything to me, and the thought of letting another man have her, even once, filled me with a type of rage I couldn’t quite describe—and yet, look at us now. Things had certainly changed.
I raced through the forest in the same direction she went. A part of me wondered if, after a while, she got tricky and decided to zigzag or something, but her end goal wasn’t to evade me forever. It was to be caught and taken every which way possible, so I assumed my girl tried to stick to one direction to put as much distance between us as possible.
Running through the forest at night while wearing a mask, believe it or not, was not easy-peasy. No lemon-squeezy here. It would have been one thing to simply give chase, but it was another thing entirely to do so while wearing this mask. As ifthe darkness of the night did not already limit my vision, the eyeholes in the mask severely limited it further. My field of vision was not as great as it should’ve been, which was why—I hated to admit—I tripped once or twice.
Or, you know, a few more times than that.
But, hey, I was getting better as the seconds wore on. I thought.
Thank goodness Laina wasn’t around to watch me fumble at first and laugh at me. Hell, I’d like to see her try to run while wearing a mask like this.
Actually? No, I wouldn’t. This mask was mine, and no way in hell would she ever wear it. The way she immediately changed when she saw me put it on? I bet that girl was already wet with the thought of me catching her, and that was not something that made it easier for me to chase.
Hunting my girl with a semi-hard dick was actually not easy at all.
This forest was acres and acres of old trees, large enough to blot out the entire night sky and not let much moonlight through. Places like this, close to cities, were becoming fewer and farther between. So many developments popping up everywhere you went. Drive three and a half hours, and you’d be surprised at the level of nature you could find.
The forest was quiet, save for the sound of old, dead leaves crunching under my shoes as I went. I didn’t hear Laina, didn’t know how far away she was, but that only fueled me to keep pushing, to keep going. Harder, faster. The goal was to catch my girl and lay claim to her in a way only I could, while never taking off this mask.
It’d been so goddamn long. Too long. I was a man in the desert, trapped with sun and sand all around, and she was my only oasis—tonight, I planned on drinking deep, on drowning myself in that oasis. The last time I’d had her, the only time I’dhad her, was at that college party, when I’d caught her about to give herself to some random frat boy.
How furious I’d become, just like that. How enraged. I didn’t think I’d ever gotten so angry in my entire life. I could still picture that night perfectly in my head, the memory burned in my brain unlike no other. Injured as I was, I couldn’t stand back and let it happen.
It was a damn good thing I went, too, otherwise no one would have known where she’d been taken. Who knew what those crooks Tessa hired would’ve done to her. She might’ve been killed, or worse—raped, tortured, and then killed.
Not on my watch.
The seconds went by, turning into minutes, and I started to wonder if, perhaps, I’d decided on the wrong thing and that, maybe, Laina had decided to zig or zag after all. I made it to a wide tree trunk, and then I skidded to a halt to listen, to see if the forest would give me any clues, if it would tell me I was completely off-base or if she was nearby. I held my breath as I listened.
I wouldn’t call it a miracle, but I would call it something, because right when I quieted, I heard the faintest sounds in the distance: someone stepping on leaves, someone running. And just like that, I was close. She was almost within reach.
I didn’t hesitate a second longer; I launched into a full-blown run, heading right toward the sound. To say I was excited would be an understatement; I was fucking thrilled. My hands practically itched with the need to touch her, and my dick had passed the semi-hard definition and now landed firmly in the hard category.
