Running.
Then tripping, her palms slapping the wet dirt.
“Stop running, baby!” I shouted, my voice wild and rough. “We both know how this ends!”
She twisted around and scrambled back on her ass. Her eyes locked on mine as I approached her, slow and deliberate, like a wolf finally cornering its prey.
She kicked at me. “Don’t fucking touch me, you psycho!”
I lunged and caught her ankle as she tried to spin away. She shrieked, kicking harder, slipping to her stomach. Mud flew everywhere as she clawed at the dirt, but I still managed to flip her over. Her breath caught when she saw me.
Panic. Guilt. Lust.
It all flashed across her face.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I growled. “You don’t get to leave me, Avery. I will always track you down and drag you home where you belong.”
And then, she hit me, a sharp, stinging slap across my cheek.
It didn’t hurt, not physically. She hadn’t struck me hard enough for that.
But my body still reacted, just not in the way she’d intended.
For a second, we just stared at each other—both of us breathing like we were drowning, jagged breaths that filled the forest.
Then, I laughed.
“Fuck, sis. I love the new foreplay,” I murmured, dragging her body closer to me, inch by inch, across the muddy ground.
Her legs thrashed as she twisted, but I kept pulling her until she was beneath me, the weight of my body pinning her to the forest floor.
“Get off of me!” She bucked against me, trying to toss me off.
I gathered her wrists and pinned them above her head with one hand.
“You left me cuffed to the fucking bed, baby. You got in my car and drove away.” I licked the single tear that fell from her eye, groaning at the salty taste of her fear. “You thought I’d just…what? Let you go? Let you leave me?”
She refused to look at me, her jaw trembling. “I wish you had.” She was trying to sound strong and defiant, but the crack in her voice revealed her lie.
“Liar.” I leaned in, my nose brushing her cheek. “You knew I’d find you. Youwantedthis.”
She hissed, twisting under me again, but she didn’t tell me I was wrong.
“That’s what I thought,” I said in a softer voice. “You want to submit to me, Av. You want me todragyou back. You like pretending you have a choice, but we both know the truth.”
She shook her head. “You’re wro—”
“I’m never wrong, Av,” I cut her off. “You want me to make all your decisions, to keep you trapped in that perfect little life you’ve grown so fond of. Don’t you love the way I take care of you? Make sure you have everything you could ever need? I poured every goddamn ounce of my heart into serving you, Av, to keep you happy.”
She was crying, but I wasn’t sorry for the things I’d done.
“Do you have any idea what I felt? Unable to hold you while you broke down?” My voice was fraying. “Watching helplessly as you walked out, leaving me as though I meant nothing to you?”
“You don’t,” she snapped.
But her body was arching up to meet mine, heat building where we touched. She was trembling, and not from fear, as my free hand stroked her bare thigh, reaching under her skirt.
I smiled smugly. “You can do better than that.”
