He holds his hands above his head with a freakin’ smirk on his face. “I’m not gonna lay a hand on you, I promise.” He places his palms above me, leaning them on the bark of the tree. His mouth inches closer, the knife pressing into the skin on his neck.
He brushes my lips with his, like a faint whisper, but with the threat of all his desires. “You never said anything about my lips.” He crashes his mouth to mine with a savage promise of his twisted devotion. His hips grind into me, digging his hardening dick into my stomach.
His tongue licks every corner of my mouth, stroking against my own, eliciting a moan as he makes my tongue sing. Bending his knees, his dick seeks the apex of my thighs. With no control of my own limbs, my legs widen, needing the friction against my throbbing clit.
Despite his best efforts for me to submit to him, I refuse to let go of the knife. Though he’s totally oblivious to it as he thrusts his hips further into me and kisses me like there’s no tomorrow.
His punishing mouth releases my bruised lips, only to come up for air. Warm rivulets slide down my hand. When I open my eyes, I see red. A nick on his throat from the knife. I let go of the steel, tossing it to the floor.
“Dom. I’m sorry. I never meant to cut you.” My eyes examine how deep the cut is, and I hunt in my bag for a tissue.
“If I’m going to bleed to death, little fox, there’s no better way to go than buried deep inside you where I belong.” He licks my jaw, then nips my ear. “Say you still love me, Red. I need to know there’s a chance for us.”
I can’t let him take anymore from me. Not when I can’t trust him. I might not want to hurt him, but I just don’t know who I can and can’t trust anymore. “I want my freedom. If you loved me like you say you do, you’d give it to me.”
He plants torturous kisses along my collarbone, each one seared with the brand of his obsession with me. I close my eyes, wishing for his tender assault to stop, but not able to say the words because, deep down, I like it too much. I like him. Love him even. He’s seeped his way into my bones and taken root and leaving him is going to be like ripping out a weed that takes half of the soil with it. Only it won’t be soil, but my soul.
29
DOM
She wants her freedom, but I’m not able to give her that. I’ll never stop hunting her. Not because I want her as a trophy or for some twisted therapy that I need to save her, because I couldn’t save Mum. It’s because she is the rector I need to live. Without it, I’m a lost soul wandering the earth without purpose.
She saw me for who I was and loved me, anyway. With her, I’m a better person. I sink my teeth into the curve of her beautiful tits before coming back to pepper her face with kisses. She has to know how I feel about her.
“I can’t give it to you, Poppy. I’ll give you anything else you ask for, but don’t ask me to give you something that goes against every cell and instinct in my body.” My lips press against her forehead, then kiss her eyelids as they stay shut.
“I can give you a life here.” My knees drop to the floor. I kiss her belly. “I can give you a family, if I haven’t already.” My mouth travels south. I press my lips between her thighs, my breath seeping through her leggings, and I press a kiss against her pussy. “I can give you nirvana.”
“Please, Dom.”
I glance up at her, still on my knees, my hands still adhering to her rules, firmly resting on the bark at either side of her thighs. The sun shines down on her tormented yet beautiful face. Her red hair has never looked so bright. “Please what?”
Her face pales. “Red,” she mouths her safe word like a whisper that catches in the wind.
A rustle sounds behind me, then a click of a gun before cold metal digs into the back of my head.
“Isn’t this a sweet moment? I would say on your knees, lad, but you’re already there.” Billy’s voice travels through the air, his Irish twang echoing around the trees.
Poppy’s eyes are as wide as saucers. I feel her legs tremble in front of me, and I break her rule to stroke her calf, reminding her to breathe.
“Dad?” She stares right at him with that fierce look in her eyes that not so long ago she was giving me.
“Hello, peanut.” He digs the hard metal into my head again.
Poppy glances down at me, confusion written all over her face, then her gaze settles back on Billy. “I thought you were dead.”
“I know. I’m sorry. Your mother thought it was best that way.” Billy comes into view, stepping next to Poppy, waving the gun between us. She flinches each time he waves it in my direction.
“I want what belongs to me, hunter. You made me come all the way out here in the middle of fucking nowhere. I want my hidden asset before I put a bullet between your eyes.” He swings his arm, hitting me in the face with the gun. I fall to the ground, my forehead hitting the dirt and broken twigs.
He stands above me with a huge grin on his face as he toys with me. He can do what the fuck he likes with me, but if he touches one strand of hair on her head, he’s a dead man.
Poppy’s frozen, like a stunned animal before it’s sent to the slaughterhouse.
“You’re a hard one to find, peanut. I had to hire this dog to track you down.”
I lift myself from the floor, then get Billy’s boot pushing me down again into the dirt. A wild laugh fuelled by adrenaline bursts from my mouth.
