I pushed my legs to go faster. Faster. Faster.
I resisted the urge to turn around, but I could feel Redd right behind me. He was impossibly fast. I could smell his sandalwood and mint scent drifting up to meet me.
I was being hunted.
I loved it.
Distantly, part of my mind screamed at me that I wanted to get away from Redd. That I was running from him for a reason. That I didn’t want to be near him right now.
But the thrill of the chase ensnared me.
I ran harder.
I could sense Redd coming closer–could practically feel his breath huffing against the back of my neck. I tried to feint left before darting to the right around an especially large tree trunk, but he anticipated the movement. He let out a feral growl of satisfaction as he closed in on me.
I screamed as Redd’s arm snaked around my waist, snatching me off my feet before I could slip out of his grasp.
“Fiella!”he snarled in my ear as he hoisted me higher, pinning my arms to my sides as my feet dangled above the ground, kicking frantically. “Stop. Trying. To. Escape!”
I flailed uselessly. “Let me go!” I shouted.
“No. Not until youtalkto me.” He wrangled my body into submission, finally setting my feet back on the ground as he pressed my front into a tree trunk and pulled my arms behind my back. My cheek scuffed against the rough bark.
His breath heaved by my ear, his body pressing into mine.
I was trapped. Captured.
My heart was thumping wildly, my breaths sawing in and out of my throat. “I don’t want to talk,” I forced out through gritted teeth.
“Yes, you do. How do I know that? Because I know you, Fiella. Iknowyou. Just like you know me.”
I yanked on my arms, but his grip held, and he leaned more of his weight against me. My blood heated at his proximity, but my brain still held me back.
“No.” I protested lamely.
“Yes.Yes. Just think about it. This isn’t a betrayal. This isn’t an act of deceit. This isgood.” He insisted.
I squeezed my eyes shut, my thoughts spiraling out of control. I had such a different relationship with Redd and my penpal. I struggled to reconcile the two.
“How didn’t we know?” I demanded. “How didn’t we figure it out?”
“I don’t know,” he sighed, leaning his forehead against my shoulder. “I didn’t want to look too closely. I didn’t want anything to change.”
I groaned in dismay. “All this time, Redd. We were working side-by-side almost every day, barely tolerating each other.”
“Iknow. I know.”
“This whole time!”
“I know, Fiella!”
My anger boiled over, my frustration and confusion ripping through my control.
With as much speed and strength as I could muster, I whirled in his grasp, yanking my arms from his grip with a painful jerk of my shoulders. He didn’t step back, and my hair snagged on the bark as he kept me caged against the tree.
“Why won’t you just let me go?”I screamed, shoving against his chest.
He captured my hands, holding them against him with an iron grip. “Because I fucking care about you, damn it! I care about yousomuch. I can’t stop thinking about you and it’s driving me insane!” he roared, his face inches from mine. His eyes bored into me with enough heat to start a fire. “You are thefirstthing I think about when I wake up in the morning. You are thelastthing I think about before I fall sleep. And it’skilling me, not having you by my side every second of every day!”
