My face heats. I don’t answer, because he’s right and we both know it.
“Again. Left.”
As I step, his thumb brushes over my hip—I’m sure he does it on purpose—and the touch sends a spark straight down my spine. My foot comes down wrong. I stumble, trying to correct, and his foot hooks my ankle. The world spins—sky, trees, his face—and then I’m on the ground.
Before I can get my breath back, he’s on me.
He straddles my thighs with his knees pressing into the ground on either side of my hips, and his hands close around my wrists and pin them to the earth above my head.
I can feel himeverywhere. The pressure of his thighs against mine, the strength of his grip, the heat of his body. He’s barely breathing while I’m gasping beneath him, chest heaving, heart slamming against my ribs.
His face is inches from mine, close enough that I can see the different shades of gold in his eyes.
“Get out of this.”
I try. I really do. I twist my wrists against his grip, testing for any give. There isn’t any. His fingers might as well be made of iron. I buck my hips, trying to throw him off balance. His weight holds me pinned flat. I try to move my body, seeking to create space, leverage,anything.
I’m not sure he even notices my struggles.
I try again, twisting harder, throwing everything I have into it, every bit of strength my exhausted body can muster. My muscles scream and sweat slides down the back of my neck. It doesn’t matter. He holds me there while I wear myself out.
I let my head drop back against the ground with a sigh. I have nothing left. Every muscle is shaking, my lungs are burning, and I can’t find the strength to fight against his hold anymore. Panting, I stare up at him. That golden gaze is fixed on my face, tracking every flicker, every ragged breath.
“This brings back memories.”
I frown, wondering what he’s talking about … and then I understand.
The forest. My birthday. The day I was supposed to hunt him, and he caught me instead. I’d been so stupid, so arrogant, thinking I was the hunter. I’d tried to run from him, scrambling through the forest, and he’d stepped out of the shadows and hit me so hard I’d left the ground.
My ribs twitch with remembered pain from where his foot connected with them. Then his fingers had closed around my ankle and he’d dragged me backward across the forest floor. And then …
Then he flipped me onto my back and straddled me.
Exactly. Like. This.
I remember the moment I realized the body pinning me down wasn’t an animal’s, wasn’t anit, and was unmistakably and terrifyingly male. I’d felt him pressed against my hip, andI’d screamed until my voice broke. I thrashed and clawed at him. And he’d sat astride me, watching, waiting, patient as death, while I exhausted myself. Just like he’s doing now.
Then he’d leaned down, close enough that I could see the cold emptiness in his eyes, and called me weak.
“Last time you had me pinned this way, I thought you were going to kill me.” The words come out before I consider how they sound.
He doesn’t blink or move, staring down at me.
“Who says I’m not thinking that now?”
The breath stills in my lungs, and I search his face for some hint of whether he’s serious or not. There’s nothing to be seen. That impassive mask gives away nothing at all. I can’t tell if he’s joking or not.
I wet my lips. “Are you?”
He doesn’t answer. He’s looking at me the same way he looked at me that day, assessing and calculating. Tension thickens the air between us, tightening with every breath. My pulse is racing, but not from fear. Or, at least, notentirelyfrom fear. I feel like I’m standing on the edge of a cliff, about to fall, and I don’t care.
One moment he’s watching me, and the next his mouth is on mine. His tongue forces my lips apart, pushing inside my mouth to slide against mine with a hunger that steals what’s left of my breath.
My brain shorts out.
I’m still pinned beneath him, trapped, completely at his mercy, and all I can think about is the taste of him. The pressure of his mouth. The way he’s kissing me like he wants to consume me. As though the taste of me is the only thing that matters.
And all I want is more.
