I know I should stop them, but I just bolt. They can take care of themselves, and so can everyone else, for that matter.
Racing through the forest, I pull the straps of my dress back up over my shoulders.
“Quinn!” someone roars, but the wind is flying through my ears too fast to tell who.
Scanning the area, I look for anything I recognize. A trail. A sign. A road maybe? If I can make it back to the car before my brothers find me, it’ll be a miracle.
I see a clearing ahead, maybe a parking lot for a trailhead. Twigs snap under my steps, and I whip my head left to right, speeding as fast as I can. Branches fly by, the night envelops me, and a man stands there…
Chills cover my skin, and I gasp.
What…?
I blink, breathing hard as I keep running.
A man. Standing still and dressed in a navy-blue suit, watching me fly by.
I look back, but the space where he stood next to the tree is now empty.
I exhale hard.What the hell was that?
I…
I slow to a jog, turning around and searching the brush around the area.
Where did he go? He was right there.
Did I recognize him? I search faces in my brain—friends of my brothers and my parents, customers, business owners in town… Dark hair, graying a little, but handsome. Tan with well-manicured stubble on his face. Around Jared and Madoc’s age, maybe a little older. He wasn’t dressed for hiking. What the hell?
I feel like I’m never going to get out of this forest.
Twisting around, I slam into a wall, and my head is still reeling so much that I don’t fight as someone lifts me off my feet. One hand under my ass and another guiding my thigh around his waist, he raises me up, his hot breath caressing my jaw as I let out a little cry.
Fireworks whistle in the night, lighting up the earth underneath us, and I look down into Lucas’s face as the reds and golds from above flicker in his eyes.
Sweat mats the hair at his temples, the vein in his neck throbs, and his chest falls hard under my hands. I try to swallow and wet my mouth, but as if he just came home from work and has been thinking about me all day, he doesn’t take his eyes off me. I gaze into his blue pools. Wasn’t there something I was running from? Something weird justhappened behind me. What was it?
Quick footsteps pound the ground at my back, and Lucas doesn’t even break our gaze to see who it is.
“Into the woods,” he tells whoever it is. “Don’t watch, and make sure no one comes this way.”
Don’t watch?
I jerk my head, Noah and Farrow meeting my eyes for a moment. Then, throwing each other a scowl, they go separate ways into the woods like Lucas instructed.
Farrow knew I’d run into Lucas. And Noah might work for my brother, but he’s obviously not going to stand in Lucas’s way. I’ll remember this the next time they need me.
Lucas turns with me in his arms, and I notice the car just before he spins us around to walk toward it. Farrow probably moved it when Lucas took off to chase me earlier. He doesn’t want to explain to anyone else why his car is here, does he?
“Quinn,” Lucas whispers, staring at my mouth.
The heat of his stomach presses between my legs, his hard body making me throb. I expected him to be pissed. He looked angry when he set off to pursue me before. But his fingers are gentle, his breathing calm.
Nudging my chin up with his nose, he sinks into my neck, brushing his lips against my skin.
I shiver, but still…
“No.” I push him back and jump out of his arms.
