He circles in slow, deliberate loops. It’s a ritual of pleasure that leaves my body begging for more. Sensing my need, he applies more pressure and more precision. Before I know it, I can feel the orgasm building low in my core. Yes, yes, yes. Thisis all so erotic with the mask, and the restraints, and the toys, andhim. Just when the orgasm is about to consume me whole, he removes the vibrator. I go completely still, unable to process what he just did. I tilt my head to the side to get a look at him, ready to beg him if I have to. The restraint pulls at my skin, causing me to hiss slightly. I feel a tug backward until I’m nearly pulled from the mattress. He’s grabbing the chain that connects the neck and wrist restraints. When he speaks, his voice is heavy and coated in warning. It sends a shiver straight down my spine.
“There is no God in this room, darling. I am the only name that you’ll be begging to in the dark.” He leans in closer, nearly against my face. He grips a handful of my hair and tugs my head back gently, exposing my neck. His next words slip out in a whisper. “Every whispered plea, every breathless prayer, it all belongs tomenow. Got it?” He releases his grip on my hair, and my head falls softly to the mattress.
When I don’t answer, he speaks again. “I said, do you understand?” he asks, voice husky and laced with venom. Maybe his words are meant to frighten me, but all they do is awaken a part of myself that has been caged for entirely too long.
“Yes, I understand,” I say, needing him to finish what he started. Instead of hiding in the dark, I decide to break the cage wide open and expose myself fully to him. “I want you to make me come, Riven.”
My words are all that he needs to bring the vibrator back down to my clit and give me what I asked for. This time, he moves faster and with purpose. I hear him groan, and then a glove lands on the mattress in front of my face. He brings his other hand to my center, inserting two fingers and working me in that earth-shattering way that only he can. In seconds, I’m climbing that edge again. I come, pushing back into him as his fingers and the vibrator seek to draw every ounce out of me that they can.
“Yes, Riven,yes!” I scream, careful to only use his name this time.
“Just like that, Sloane. You’re so perfect for me,” he praises, allowing me to ride out the remainders of my orgasm before withdrawing his fingers and turning off the vibrator. It lands on the mattress beside me. Before I can recover, I feel his hard dick against my entrance. And before I can adjust myself, he buries himself inside of me until his hips are pressed against my ass. A loud moan escapes me at the sudden fullness of him. The burn of his size quickly fades into immeasurable pleasure, causing me to roll my hips around him.
“You take me so good, Sloane,” he pants, pulling out of me slowly before slamming back in without warning. He grabs the chain, tugging just enough to extend my neck back a little further. The feel of him against the inside of my walls, moving so damn slowly, has my nerve endings ready to combust. Ineedmore. I rock forward until he’s nearly out of me, and then rock back into him. He stills, allowing me to have the control I want. I move him in and out of me, rolling my hips to get him exactly where I want.
“You feel so good,” I say, panting and needy. It’s nothing like the person that I usually am in the bedroom. The one that’s more subdued and muted. Riven makes me come alive in ways that I never could have imagined for myself.
“Fuck, Sloane. You keep talking like that, and this is going to end much faster than I want it to,” he says between pants and groans. Hearing the way that I make him come undone short-circuits my brain, rewriting everything that I ever knew before him. All I want to do is make him sound like that over and over again. I can feel my orgasm climbing once more, ignited by his responsiveness. Just as I’m about to come all over him, he pulls completely out of me.Again?
This time, I’m really about to beg. I will flip over onto my hands and knees and bow at his feet if he will put that marvelous thing back inside of me and give me what I want. Before I can utter a single groveling word, he releases the restraint and removes the collar and wrist bindings. I feel the loss of them instantly, a low whimper escaping my lips.
“What? No, I—” I say, unable to form a coherent sentence.
He laughs, flipping me over until I’m on my back and once again staring up at the ghost face mask. It’s sodamnsexy.
“Come with me,” he says, backing off the mattress and extending a gloved hand out to me. I stare down at his hand, confused. When I don’t make a move, he sighs and reaches over to pick me up from the mattress. He throws me over his shoulder like I’m the easiest thing he’s ever carried and takes off toward the stairs. I slap his back, attempting to throw a tantrum so he’ll put me down.
He chuckles, slapping my ass before saying, “Save your energy, darling.” Once we’re back on the main level of his house, he continues walking until we reach the front door. He opens it up, steps out, and puts me down. I’m about to ask what he’s doing when he drops his head to look at me, grumbling one single word that has the hair on the back of my neck standing at full attention.
“Run.” He nods toward the forest. The same forest that we were in before. I swallow.
I blink once and then twice, searching his eyes for any trace of a joke. Of course, I don’t find one, because he’s wearing a fuckingScreammask. I laugh out loud at no one in particular, before stopping suddenly. His head tilts as he withdraws the knife he had earlier. My gaze shifts to the silver blade that’s shining under the bright glow of a full moon. Where was he hiding that thing? I look back up at him as he stalks toward me slowly. I back away, eliciting another dark chuckle from him.
“I said, run, Sloane.Now.” I bite my lower lip, stumbling backward a couple of steps. There’s something so provocative about running through the forest while being chased by a masked man with a knife. I mean,allbook girls think that, right? I second-guess my twisted desires for only a second before I turn on my heels andrun.
I run through the opening of the forest as fast as my legs will carry me. My verynakedlegs, might I add. I am running through the forest, naked and …not soafraid. Okay, kind of afraid, butmostlyturned on. I sprint around giant redwoods, glancing back to gauge the distance between us. I see Riven a few tree lengths behind me,walking.This is literally how every girl in the horror films dies. Running from the masked murderer while hewalksafter her. And then he catches up in a few lazy strides before stabbing her to death. The thought makes me giggle, my bare feet nearly tripping on an exposed branch in my path. I giggle again, because falling face-first would besucha cliche right now.
Part of me wants to give up now, let him catch me, and have his way with me. But the much more stubborn part wants to continue the game and see how far I get. I stop, hiding behind a large tree to catch my breath. I inhale and exhale slowly and silently, allowing the air to return to my burning lungs. I focus on the sounds around me, listening for footsteps or small snapping twigs to let me know he’s close. I don’t hear anything apart from an owl hooting in the distance and the high-pitched chirping of crickets. I press my back firmly against the rough texture of the large redwood that’s concealing me, slowing my breathing until my pulse no longer echoes in my ears.
Where is he? He wasn’tthatfar behind me. I listen intently, closing my eyes and resting my head back against the tree. Suddenly, the forest seems to come alive as if it’s breathing around me. I hear the echo of a howl somewhere far off in the distance. I feel the warm breeze of the night air brush acrossmy cheek, welcoming me. I hear the rustling of leaves nearby, wondering if it’s the wind or him. The bite of the bark presses into my spine as I dig myself closer into its comfort. I hear a twig snap off to my right. My eyes shoot open, and my head snaps in the direction of the sound. I’m met with only the darkness of the forest, illuminated in shadows by the moon peeking through the trees overhead. I hear footsteps, slow and deliberate, and I think that perhaps I might be imagining it all. My breathing hitches, pulse thrumming loudly in my ears. And then his voice cuts through the darkness, low and distorted, sending a shiver straight down my spine.
“You can run, little nightmare, but I will always find what’smine.” My head snaps to the right where the sound was amplified, only to face the darkness yet again.
I hear a deep chuckle to my left now. “Try again, darling.” I snap my head in the other direction, expecting to come face to face with the mask. Again, I’m left staring into the darkness. I’m frantically searching left and right for him, fear climbing up my body like the roots of the trees around me. I step forward to run once more when a gloved hand shoots out and grabs my throat, pressing me against the tree. I scream into the darkness, the jump scare claiming my entire soul. I don’t know what terrifies me more, how much I want to run or how badly I don’t.
I see the silhouette of his cloaked form emerge from my periphery before he’s standing in front of me. I look up into his mask, bathed in the fractured moonlight filtering in through the canopy. It’s as breathtaking as it is haunting. My chest heaves against him at the sight of it. He tilts his head slowly, his breathing a bit labored. He brings the knife in his hand up to my collarbone, pressing it into the skin below it. The slightest trickle of blood seeps past the tip of the blade and down my chest. I shudder, eyes watching as he does it again on the opposite side.My breath catches on a hiss, and it comes out sounding far more sinful.
He watches as the blood from what he’s done to me trails down my chest and over my breast. His black cloak rises and falls quicker now as he watches droplets of blood drip from my nipples. The same thought must find us both as we reach up simultaneously to remove theScreammask. It falls to the forest floor, and his mouth is on my right nipple in an instant, sucking the blood clean from it while moaning against my skin. I grab a handful of his hair in both hands roughly, guiding his mouth to the other nipple. He sucks the blood clean from that one as well before raising his eyes to find mine, searching for any notion that he might have gone too far this time. The picture of him in front of me, like this, with my blood smeared across his lips, is the sexiest thing I think I’ve ever seen. His opposing eyes are burning with desperation and desire, and he’s nearly growling with restraint.
The palpable space between us disappears within an instant, our mouths crashing together in a reckless need to devour. He grips his cloak and rips it down the middle, exposing himself to me wholly. Next, he discards the black gloves, tossing them to the forest floor. My hands find his chest, running my fingers down his sculpted form until I find his pulsing erection. I fist him in my hands, moaning into his mouth at the feel of him. He bites my bottom lip in warning, nearly falling against me before bracing a hand on the tree above me. He moves his other hand down my form, and when he finds my ass, he grips me hard and lifts until my legs circle him. He pushes off the tree to spin us around until his back is against the harsh bark, running his fingers over the imprints that are now scattered across mine.
My hands once again find his hair, entwining my fingers in the damp strands. His broad shoulders fall back into the bark with a thud as he watches me like a man on the edge of losingcontrol. He lines himself up to my entrance and pushes inside of me at an agonizing pace, releasing a low groan like he’s a worshiper crossing sacred ground at last. His head falls back against the tree as he uses his grip on my ass to guide himself in and out of me once more. I moan into the night air. The feel of him inside of me, and the look of him coming undone, sends my nerve endings into overdrive. It devours me whole like a sacred drowning, pulling me under with the kind of promise that feels like forever.
He drives into me now at a much faster pace, igniting a stinging pain that mixes so beautifully with the pleasure. My head falls forward to rest in the crook of his neck, and without thought, I bite down hard enough to draw blood. I immediately find his eyes to assess them for any trace of pain, but all I find is that dark desire that coils around my spine in the sweetest embrace.
I continue to give way to my unraveling desires, flicking out my tongue and licking the trail of blood until it disappears from his skin. A low growl rumbles from his throat as one of his hands grips my jaw. His eyes are wild and intense, staring into mine like I’m the vision he prayed for but never thought he’d get. He pulls my mouth to his, kissing me softly despite the danger that charges the air around us. This kiss is somehow unlike the others. He’s no longer a man ruled by desire, but one seeking to memorize something sacred. Our tongues move in unison, dancing in the dark in a way that desperately seeks to draw us nearer. He moves inside of me with precise ease, returning his hand to cup my ass as he walks us backward until we’re in the middle of a clearing. He pulls back from the kiss, resting his forehead against mine. His breaths are uneven, and I can feel his heart hammering against my own.
“I fucking love you, Sloane. So much that it hurts.” His voice cracks, the control he usually has over his emotions crumblingaround us. A single tear falls from the void of his onyx stare, and it’s easily the most devastatingly beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed.
