“Oh, right. Good point. Um, so… how does this usually go? I mean, what do I do?”
Oh sweet Mother, her scent was now saturated with heat and it went straight to his cock, which hardened to the point of pain as he watched her eyes drop from his face, to his chest and then to his groin where she lingered, licking her lips again.
He growled low in warning and her lips twitched into a smile, though her gaze when it drifted back to his stayed heated. “You start by getting naked. Then I’ll give you a two minute head start.”
Callie’s hands shook when she brought them up to remove her shirt. He watched as the hem rose, revealing first her toned stomach and then finally her breasts. Her dark nipples were hard and just begging to be licked. He wondered if he could talk her into piercing them?
She tossed the shirt onto the pile of his clothes.
He darted to her when she reached for the waist of her pants, dropping to his knees before her.
“Let me help you with that, my prize,” he purred, lifting her leg to set her foot on his thigh so he could untie the straps of her sandals. He took his time, stroking over her skin with his fingers and kissing the inside of her knees as he pulled her pants down.
“How do you make taking shoes off hot?” she breathed, staring down at him.
He kissed each one of her ankles before releasing her and standing to his full height to take her naked form in.
“You are beautiful, Callie,” he whispered to her.
Her body was a testament to all her hard work. She was a sculpted work of art, hard and yet soft. Her tight curls had grown out, creating a dark halo around her head that he knew she was proud of.
His eyes inevitably fell to the crux of her thighs where a patch of black hair shielded her folds from his gaze, but it couldn’t contain the rich scent of her arousal. He knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that his Callie was wet for him.
“What now?” she whispered back to him.
His eyes flicked to hers and his body grew tense, his head lowering to a threat posture.
“Run.”
Callie's eyes widened before she was pivoting hard on her heel, her body little more than a blur as she ran through the gateway and disappeared into the maze.
He sat on his heels before leaning forward to spear his fingers through the pebbles on the ground and then he stretched out like one of the Earth cats to pop his spine and returned to his starting pose, this time with his hands resting on top of his thighs. He started counting.
He could hear the sound of her panting breaths, the crunch of gravel under her feet, but most of all, he could smell how scorching her scent had grown. The heated smell of her arousal was now nearly overwhelming. His Callie was having the time of her life. Chase and catch, it would seem, was going to be a regular date night for them. He was, after all, going to spoil her tremendously. Still, her delectable smell had his heart rate too high, and his muscles far too tense for a proper chase. A predator should be controlled, not giddy like a boy in his schooling years.
He closed his eyes and began pulling in slow, measured breaths, reaching for calm with both hands and gradually, his heart slowed and his muscles loosened. A smile formed just as his eyes opened.
“Oh, and Callie?” he called, his voice carrying over the maze, taunting and rich. “We will be doing this the old fashioned way. Without the aid of low lighting.”
The glowing stones and glittering string lights that wove through the garden died just as his words finished echoing. He heard her laughter from somewhere deep inside the depths of greenery and his smile widened.
Having counted down from two minutes, Rathal stood and howled. His song was not the full throated roar of a Rijijtera, but an eerie, higher pitched cry of a shadow come to hunt. It rose and rose before falling into the low humming throat clicking that was the natural calling card of his species, long before they walked on two legs and thought beyond their next meal.
He’d been told the sound was spine-tingling. The sound one might hear in their nightmares just as their demons drew close.
He hoped it made Callie run faster.
A good long hunt was rich for the soul, and he wanted her worked up.
Sweaty.
Desperate for escape.
Only then would he catch her and give her what they both needed.
He let the sound die for now, and entered the maze at a leisurely pace, taking his time. Inside, with the lights off, it was nearly true dark, which made his vision narrow into shades of gray. The towering densely packed hedge walls that were normally a deep purple were now as dark a gray as one could get without being black. Only the white pebbled path stayed the same, though muted. But Callie’s scent trail was like a glowing beacon leading the way before him. No matter which way she turned, he could follow.
He picked up his pace into a light jog, taking the first right turn into a long waving corridor. When he got to the end, where thepath split into four directions, Callie’s scent trail also split, as if she’d taken each path at once.
