“You like this game, don’t you, princess?”
She strains against my hold, her hips seeking my fingers as I keep them away from where she wants them. But she nods, a little whimper of frustration matching the move.
I run my finger along her slit, playing with her. She is my prize after all. “So wet. It must have made running uncomfortable, you poor thing.”
“Walker,” she whines, wiggling. “Stop teasing me.”
“Ah, but you’re my prize. I can do whatever I want with you. Maybe even leave you wanting more. Should I do that? Just take what I want and leave you desperate for whoever finds you next?”
“Walker!” The spark of outrage in her voice has me chuckling, my decision made right then.
“I think that’s exactly what I’m going to do.” My fly is down fast enough for her dark eyes to lock onto mine, the outrage even louder there.
“You’d better not,” she warns.
I rub my bare cheek against hers. “I don’t think you’re in a position here to have an opinion. And we both know your other hunters will be more than happy to help you out. But I’m feeling selfish. And a bit sadistic. So, no coming.”
I line myself up, plunging into her warmth with no warm-up, the fit tight, taking a few tries to bottom out. Clara throws her head back against the wall, one leg wrapping around me, her heel urging me closer.
God, have I missed this. I stay seated as deep as I can, unable to move with the relief that takes over now that I’m finally here with her. “Clara,” I whisper, not able to say anything else, the feelings so large that words can’t even begin to encompass them.
“I know, I know,” she whispers back, and when I force my eyes open, I see a single tear stuck to one of her lashes.
I pull out and slam back in, making her squeak. “Never again. Promise me never again. It was too long, too hard, too lonely. I can’t do that again. Not knowing if you’re okay, or happy, or dead. It was brutal, Clara.”
The tear falls, a few following it down her pink cheeks. She swallows, and her nod is wobbly, like maybe she wasn’t sure she was going to make it out of there alive. And the thought has me withdrawing and pressing back into her warmth slowly, needing the reminder that after all that, she’s still here, with me. Alive, warm and rosy, with her familiar floral scent surrounding me, trusting me with her body, with her pleasure.
It’s a heady thing.
So I take it slowly, even knowing the others might find us, might interrupt me taking my prize. But I can’t rush this. My girl is here, alive, warm and wet and crying, and all those things are more beautiful than any grandmaster I’ve studied. And with each excruciating withdrawal and press in, each pant of her breath against my single bare cheek, each time her thighs tremble as she tries to draw me even deeper, it turns into something beyond sex. Bigger than a game. Stronger than love.
It’s something that I held onto so desperately that I hardly dared think of it, turned flesh between us—hope for the future.
And when her muscles strangle me, a slow, heady orgasm taking her despite my threat not to let her come, I force my way through it, needing her strength to envelope me. To hold me together so I can hold her together.
We come, and I gather her to me, unwilling to step away, my nose pressed to the skin of her neck. “Never again,” I whisper, a few tears of my own dripping onto her shoulder.
“Never,” she promises. “Never.”
Chapter 75
Clara
Walker has me straighten his snake-like mask before he struts back towards the car, thrilled that he caught me first. Leaning against the wall as I rearrange my dress, I catch sight of RJ at the end of the hallway, stance predatory, eyes glinting. I take in his broad-shouldered frame in one hell of a well-tailored suit, his owl-like mask flared across one side of his face, and I take a step toward him. Maybe I’m supposed to be running away, but how can I when he looks at me like he wants to devour me?
He licks his lips, but steps back, a slow shake of his head his only response before he slips around the corner and out of sight.
Taking the moment I’m offered, I lean against the wall, my heart still thundering in my chest. All my nerves are alight, knowing that there are still two of my guys in these tunnels, looking for me, even as a third keeps watch. I’d gotten a tasteof this with Trips, but this game, with all of them? It’s magical. I can’t wait to find some secret woods in the summer and try this again, someplace where there are more paths I can take, and better lines of sight for the guys. As it is, I realize the guys could be anywhere in the miles of tunnels. They might never catch me.
But also, I know RJ is keeping tabs on all of us, getting off on watching. Nobody is going to lose tonight. He’ll make sure of that.
With that thought in my mind, I make sure my golden bird mask is secure, pat the tiara for luck, then follow the signs to the next tunnel. I jog even as the heels make my feet ache. I have plans for these shoes, though, so I’m just going to have to bear it for now.
I’m nearly at the library when the soft thud of footsteps mumbles behind me. If I were breathing any heavier, I’m not sure I’d have heard them at all, which tells me exactly who’s on my tail. I spin the second before he reaches me, using our joint momentum to slam him to the wall. Excitement flares in Jansen’s eyes as he takes in his pinned position. “I think you got this game reversed, beautiful.”
“Sometimes the hunter becomes the prey.”
He strains forward and licks my cheek. “I licked it. It’s mine,” he says, eyes bright.
