She held such fear in her eyes that I felt something within me crack, and then she sawme, and she relaxed. Why would she relax? She hated me. She was supposed to hate me.
Her eyes slowly shifted to anger. “Was this a ploy?” she suddenly accused, causing my shock to shift to a frown.
“A…what?” I asked carefully. What thefuck?
She sniffed again, wiping her sleeve across her nose as she shoved herself to a stand, dropping the gun carelessly on the ground, hissing when the tree trunk she used to hoist herself up bit into her hands. “A ploy. You know, to get me to trust you. Because that’s reallyfuckingmean, you egotistical, arrogant,jerk!”
What the actual fuck was happening right now? “I don’t need you trusting me, Olivia. I need you to do what I say and not ask fucking questions. Getting lost in the woods? And how fucking dare you question my orders.”
Her eyes widened in complete disbelief. “Me? You’re the one that led two killers to these woods! You’re supposed to be training me how to shoot a gun!”
“And I brought two perfect targets here just for you,” I bit, stepping up to her. “You write like you’re so fucking fearless, but look at you,” I gestured to all of her, my heart slamming, my head pounding, my mind spinning in fear and relief and anger and irritation. “Whimpering in the alcove of a tree, crying cause why? Afraid of earning some scars yourself?”
Regret. It wasn’t an emotion I was used to feeling, in fact, I don’t think I had ever felt it before because in this moment, it hit me like a ton of bricks.
Her face went bright red, her hands shaking in rage, and fuck, did I love it when she got angry. “How dare you,” she seethed.
I couldn’t back down now though. I had reached her. She needed this. She needed to release the rage, not swallow it down like she had so many times before. If she needed me to be herpunching bag, I’d be the best damn punching back there was, but fuck her if I wouldn’t punch back.
And honestly, I needed to release some anger myself. I needed to release something much fucking deeper and much more complicated than that.
I think we both did.
And I think that’s what made this work so well. We were volatile and toxic and chaotic, like fireworks exploding in a cave filled with c4 and gasoline, but goddamn if I wasn’t addicted to the feeling of it. To the feeling of exploding and crashing against each other, ricocheting off the damp walls of our own destruction. I needed it.
I needed her. Because a day without fighting with her wasn’t a day I wanted to have.
I laughed, the sound far from joyous. “All talk and no bite. Fantasize about dismembering people and then run when things get tough. Oh, but not every time, right? Because you froze. For three years, you froze. But maybe you got off on that too. Maybe you got off on being beat to shit—”
She slammed her fist into my face, causing stars to dance in my eyes again.
I stumbled back a step, grabbing my head, my eyes finding hers, the world tilting. “You fucking bi—”
She lunged, a snarl on her lips, and shoved me back suddenly, my feet catching on a root behind me.
I fell to my ass, my gun slipping from my grip, pain shooting up my spine. I cursed under my breath trying to get ahold of her, but she was already jumping on top of me. “You fucking cunt,” I snarled as she slapped and clawed at me, my head pounding. I wasn’t sure if I had a concussion or not but fuck me if I didn’t have one now.
I managed to get an arm around her waist and flipped her onto her back, slamming her into the forest floor.
She locked her legs around my hips, continuing to throw her untrained little punches as I fought to gain control of her arms.
I snarled, tears streaming down her face, dirt, sticks, and moss tangling in her hair and knit sweater as she continued to fight, the blood from my own reopened wound falling to her face.
I finally got my hands wrapped around her wrists and slammed them down next to her head, a snarl ripping from her lips. “You can’t fight me. I’ve been trained.”
“Fuck you!” she shouted, bucking her hips up, doing her best to…actually, I wasn’t quite sure what she was trying to accomplish there, but she wasn’t letting up.
I leaned down until she couldn’t look away from me, my anger raging. “You’re angry because bad people followed me into the woods. Sorry to say, little writer, but that’s the fucking job. They hunt me, I hunt them. It doesn’t stop until there’s a bullet in someone’s head. But this little show of yours is fucking sad. You have the balls to slap me, talk shit, but you get scared when the real fire show happens? You’re a pup with no fucking teeth.”
She screamed, thrashing uselessly as I sat back and watched her do it, my cock as hard as a rock. It’s been hard since the ride down here, but now? God, she was so fucking irritating. All I wanted to do was tie her to the fucking tree and shove my cock so deep into that tight little pussy of hers that she lost the ability to even form sentences. That there was no chance she wouldn’t swell with my child for the next nine months.
My eyes widened at the sudden though, my heart racing at the idea of it. Wait.Wait. This was…
My breathing had picked up. “Stop it,” I ordered. And when she didn’t listen, I lifted her wrists and slammed them back down. “Stop it!”
She cried out, pulling at her arms. She was panting, her eyes lined in tears, the nearly invisible freckles she had plastered along her nose and cheeks almost glowing in the light streamingin through the branches.
Fuck me, she was beautiful.
