And I’m losing.
My eyes shut the moment his fingers brush against my core, the thin barrier of my panties doing nothing to blunt the pulse of need spiraling through me.
I arch into the touch, shame flooding my veins as my body obeys him like it belongs to him.
But then it hits me.
The courtroom. That verdict. Him standing there in his suit and superior fucking smirk. The monster behind the mask. The man who ruins lives with a flick of his hand.
The memory cuts clean through the fog of desire, and my spine snaps straight.
What the hell am I doing? How did I let it go this far?
“Let me go. Now.”
He doesn’t move. Doesn’t flinch. His free hand slides up, curling around my throat with maddening calm.
“I will never let you go, okhotnitsa. And the more you run, the deeper I will bury myself under your skin. Until there is no you without me.” His words scorch straight through me, searing themselves into bone.
My knee flies upward before the thought even fully forms, landing hard between his legs. He staggers back, a strangled sound clawing from his throat, eyes wild with disbelief and something far scarier.
Shit. Shit, shit, SHIT!
“You really shouldn’t have done that.” A muscle tics in his jaw, those hands curling into fists.
But it’s the calm that terrifies me more than the anger.
He moves toward me. One step. Another. In that disturbing way predators move when they are deciding whether to maul or play first.
And just like that, I know I’m completely and utterly fucked.
“I…” I don’t even know what I’m trying to say.
Sorry?
Screw you?
Please don’t kill me?
He takes another step forward.
“You will pay for this.” His eyes gleam with murderous intent.
“Wh—what?” I stumble backward, arms covered in goose bumps, the air vibrating with the malice rolling off him.
It’s suffocating. All-consuming.
A smirk splits his face, sharp enough to bleed.
“You have three seconds to run, moya okhotnitsa,” he growls, a haunting blend of guttural and dangerous. “And you’d better pray I don’t catch you.”
Then he lunges.
Adrenaline explodes through my body. And I run as fast as I can.
The forest swallows me whole, branches slashing at my skin as I tear through the trees like my life depends on it.
Because it just might.
