“Don’t brat me right now, Ava, or so help me God, I’ll handle you on this filthy forest floor the moment I’m done dealing with this dead body.”
His threat should sober me. Any sane person would shut the hell up or be in tears after the day I’ve had, but maybe something cracked in my brain when I pulled that trigger because that’s the last thing I want to do right now. Maybe it’s just a simple case of deflection.
I drop the bag of clothes we’re supposed to burn out here and walk into his heaving chest.
Pressing up onto my tiptoes, I drag my tongue along the lobe of his ear before giving it a playful nip. “So fucking handle me, Scott.”
TWENTY-TWO
SCOTT
She’s playing with fucking fire and not the one we should be using to destroy evidence of murder. Apparently, the orgasm I gave her in the shower—that still has my cock painfully hard behind my zipper—wasn’t enough to sate the temptress.
I want nothing more than to rip her jeans open, push her to the ground, and fuck the life out of her—metaphorically. But the snow is thinning, the temps are rising, and if we’re not careful, the rest of Ava’s family will be here before we can handle this. I’m not willing to take that chance.
My promise to her wasn’t full of smoke. I won’t let anything happen to her. No one will ever know what happened to us up here—at least this part of it. I very much plan to claim the mouthy little thing and deal with that fallout. She won’t be getting rid of me. Not after I’ve had the taste of her delicious cunt on my tongue and the sound of her desperate moans in my ears.
She might be too young for me. It might be an issue with her father and society, but the strong woman before me iseverything I could ever want in a partner. I just have to convince her that our night together wasn’t a fluke.
My fingers wrap around her throat, backing her lithe body away from mine. Her eyes heat, thinking I’m going to give in to her bratty ways.
“Start the fire, baby. The sooner we finish here, the quicker we can get back. And when we get back, your hot little pussy is going to pay for that.” I squeeze my fingers a little tighter and don’t miss the way her thighs rub against each other before I let go.
My aching muscles protest as the last shovel full of dirt lands against the shallow grave. It’s a common misconception that graves should be as deep as possible. But too deep, and the quantities of microorganisms needed to break down the human form as quickly as possible will be lacking. I never expected to use that tidbit of information I picked up from a documentary, but here we are.
The ashes from the fire blow away in the wind, carrying the smell of the burnt plastic that still clings to my nose. Ava rakes the remaining bits around the forest floor, spreading things amongst the mud-covered earth in all directions.
If we’re lucky, the mountains will see another storm or two before spring thaws things out completely. Not that I’m worried. This land is private property. No one should be out here traipsing around, and certainly not looking close enough to catch the freshly turned dirt.
“We should get back and get you warm,” I say, taking the other shovel from her hands.
Regardless of the thick layers and manual labor, she stillshivers from the icy air. The temp continues to drop as time passes into the night, and I know it’s the right call.
She’s been quiet for the last hour, lost in her head, moving about on instinct. I’m worried about how tonight might affect her once reality sets in. This isn’t the type of thing one takes to their therapist. You take it to your grave. But she’ll have me. Even if things between us don’t work out, I’ll always be an ear to listen—a shoulder to cry on.
I wrap my arm around her and pull her in close, heading back for the cabin as quickly as her tired legs allow. We don’t talk, letting the noises of the night fill the silence between us. My mind wanders to my threat earlier, but the way her body clings to mine, getting heavier by the moment, it’ll have to wait.
She’s dead on her feet when the thick wooden door slips into place behind us. The cabin feels like a haven, warm and inviting, with the fire flickering lively in the grate.
“Go change and get in bed. I need to do a few things.”
“You’ll join me when you’re done?” Her sleepy half-mast eyes peer up at me.
She looks so young. Fuck, she is young. Too young for my ancient ass to be caught up on her. Yet, I can’t deny her when her gorgeous smile lights up her face as she waits for my answer.
“Yeah, baby. I’ll be there soon.”
I’m screwed. This woman has me so torn up and desperate, and she doesn’t even know it.
I watch her slow frame disappear into the back bedroom and take in the quiet cabin. The mess is gone, nothing left behind to expose our secrets, except the space on the kitchen floor.
The bleach did a number on the hardwoods. It’s the lastthing I need to take care of for my girl before I can strip down and join her, finally letting the exhaustion I’ve been holding at bay take over.
I wait until the light flips off in her room and the mattress settles under her exhausted weight. Grabbing the keys and a small flashlight from the junk drawer, I head out the front door.
A glance at my watch shows it’s creeping toward five in the morning, though you’d never guess from the onyx sky. My internal clock’s been smashed into smithereens by the last twenty-four hours. Between exploring her body for the first time and being bludgeoned unconscious for God knows how long, things have been off.
We haven’t heard a peep from Ava’s family. Then again, I don’t know that either of us has taken the time to check. We’ve been on autopilot cleaning and disposing of that asshole. I add that to my mental checklist of things to do when I’m finally done with this.
