Текст книги "Fable of Happiness Book One"

Автор книги: Pepper winters

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My forehead furrowed. My memory knocked to deliver things she’d told me in the past. Things that were now firmly locked behind a door I could not, would not open.

Something about a brother, perhaps?

Bracing myself, I shrugged as if I didn’t care and slammed the car door shut. Marching back to the tailgate, I hopped inside, shoved away the mess I’d made, and adopted her position.

Back against the vehicle, legs spread out in front.

Two naked, dirty people who despised each other, sharing a respite from the rain with chocolate.

The only lie in that sentence was I didn’t think I despised her.

I fucking hungered for her.

Licking her lips, she reached for the box full of candy, managing to fend for herself despite her wrists roped together. Her breasts swelled to the side as she rummaged for a Snickers bar. Her nipples hard from the chill in the air, her hair sticking to her stunning skin.

And fuck, I suddenly no longer wanted chocolate.

My balls ached, and my cock twitched, demanding some sort of friction. Without thinking, I dropped my eyes to it, fisting my hands so they wouldn’t get any ideas of touching it.

The usual faint marks from my past had been replaced with bright wounds from our fight. Indents of her nails and bruises forming at the bottom of my shaft blazed in the gloom.

It ought to have summoned my temper. To have me cursing her very presence.

Instead, it granted a strange kind of kinship. She might not wear anyone’s ring. She might be tied in my rope. But in some sick way, I now belonged to her. She’d been the first in a decade to brand me. And, for the first time, seeing her punishment still embedded in my flesh filled me with lust instead of horror.

“I’m sorry...by the way.”

Her soft voice wrenched my head up. Her hazel stare on my cock only made my belly clench harder.

“Does it hurt?” she asked, unwrapping her chosen meal and taking a huge bite.

Christ, yes, it hurts.

Hurts for you, goddammit.

“No,” I snapped.

“To be fair, I wouldn’t have had to hurt you if you didn’t have such a fascination with wrapping your fingers around my throat.”

“If you stopped being such a menace, perhaps I’d stop trying to kill you.”

“I’m the menace?” She pointed at herself with the half-eaten Snickers. “I think if others were watching this twisted relationship of ours, they would disagree.”

“If others were watching, I’d tear out their eyes for seeing you bare.” I dragged my gaze down her mud-filthy beauty. “I’m debating between torturing myself watching you eat that chocolate bar or demanding you get on your knees.”

She inhaled sharply. Her hands shook, wrapped around her chocolate.

The small space of the car switched from awareness into lust-laced senselessness. The air was tiny fireworks, the oxygen we breathed electricity, and the carbon dioxide we exhaled a drug slowly drowning us.

Ever so slowly, she took another bite.

Her tongue licked her lips, her teeth bit down, her throat worked as she chewed.

And I almost came.

I throbbed, wanting inside her mouth, wanting to be the chocolate bar as she swallowed and devoured.

Turned out, giving a woman to a sexually repressed, starving man was not a good idea.

Snatching the half-full water bottle I’d drank from, I leaped from the vehicle and into the rain.

“What are you—?” Her confused question halted as I tipped the bottle over my cock and gritted my teeth against the grotesque sensation of touching myself.

I performed a perfunctory cleaning. That was all. Wrapping my hand around my hardness, washing away the dirt and mud from rolling around in the storm.

A crest of sickness tried to push up through my guts, shoving aside cocoa and sugar, replacing good with bad, tainting everything with sordid reminders.

I tore my hand away, tipping the rest of the bottle over my length, letting droplets trail to my balls.

The second I was clean, I tossed the bottle to the side, crawled into the tailgate, and didn’t stop until I kneeled before her. Kneeled with trembling muscles and rapid heartbeats. Kneeled with desperation and a shitload of pain.

I kneeled before her.

Now, it’s her turn.

My voice had gotten lost in the darkness inside me, echoing through my chest as I growled, “Kneel.”

She froze. Her chocolate bar fell from her bound hands. “No.”

“Yes.”

“I’m not going to sleep with you.”

I merely shook my head. “You’re wrong. I’m already inside you.”

She gasped.

For the longest second, we stared at each other. I physically felt as if her eyes were chains, slinking around me, holding me immobile as locks snapped into place. Padlocks with no keys, chains with no weaknesses, a cage of knots and fastenings that would never be undone.

I couldn’t catch a breath as heat filled my heart.

A heat filled with knowing that she was right about our connection. That it burned bright, despite our war. That it was more powerful than the both of us.

The longer we stayed together, the harder it would be to undo. Even now, pieces of me were being erased—for good this time, not just behind a wall I hastily erected. It erased fragments of the cruelty inside me, the distrust, the violence, the heavily conditioned boy who knew death better than he knew living.

For a single heartbeat, everything felt right.

Easy.

Peaceful.

God...peace.

She gave me peace after a lifetime of distress.

She gave me the silence I sought every second that I was awake. I didn’t need to run around the valley. I didn’t need to absorb myself in a book. I didn’t need to hide from the mania inside my mind.

All I had to do was look at her.

Be with her.

Sink inside her.

A sudden pain struck me in the temples, making me wince. My vision blacked out for a second, the weird vertigo I’d suffered from her striking me with the shovel returning.

The worst headache I’d ever felt came then faded, leaving me swaying and turned upside down.

What...what had I been thinking about?

I’d been...happy.

Something had made happiness grow in my heart.

But it was fading.

Popping.

Turning black and cold.

“Hey...are you alright?” Her touch landed on my thigh. A hesitant, wary touch from someone who recognized the man in front of her wasn’t entirely sane. “You blacked out for a second—”

“You concussed me,” I bit out. “I’ve had a headache ever since you hit me.”

She stiffened and turned prickly. “I wouldn’t have had to hit you if—” Inhaling hard, she forced herself to stay kind, giving me things I didn’t deserve. “Maybe sit back down. Have another chocolate—”

“Quiet.”

There was magic in this woman. Viperish magic that’d somehow twined around me while we’d been sitting in this car. I didn’t know how she’d done it, but she’d made me soft, made me vulnerable.

Never again.

Never again would I be taken advantage of.

She needed to be reminded of that.

Immediately.

Shutting my heart down, embracing the man I’d become after losing everything, I snarled, “Are you deliberately disobeying me? I said, kneel.” Grabbing the rope around her wrists, I jerked her forward.

“What? Stop! I was trying to help you—”

“I don’t need your help. I need your body. I need you to obey.”

“I’ll never obey a madman.”

I chuckled as she tumbled to the side. “I’m not mad, Gemma Ashford.” I manhandled her hips, twisting her until she landed on all fours. “I’m just not available for others to use anymore.”

“I’m not using you, you monster. You’re the one using me!”

“And you’re even more delicious than chocolate.”

I drank in the sight of her, falling forward onto her elbows, wrists locked together, her bare ass beckoning me. Her pussy still glistened from when I’d eaten her in the rain. The orgasms she’d denied both of us would still be there, waiting for me to finish.

She would give that to me.

It’s mine.

I ran a fingertip down her spine.

She quivered, a pained groan spilling from her lips. “Please...”

Her plea did terrible things to me.

I’d never wanted anyone so badly.

It gave me a dose of the power I’d briefly tasted.

“Tell me what you want.”

She scoffed. “What I want is the right to say no.”

“Truly?” Gently, ever so gently, I ran my fingers down the crack in her ass.

She shot forward, trying to get away. “Yes, truly!”

“Why do you want to say no to something you yourself admitted is out of our control?” Down, down, I slid my touch to her pussy, rubbing the wetness around her folds, dipping lower to her clit. “Doesn’t it burn when I touch you? Doesn’t your belly cramp and body clench for more?”

“Don’t throw my words back at me,” she groaned. Her back bowed. Her head fell forward, pressing against the rough carpet of the car. “Please...don’t.”

“Don’t what? Don’t admit that I can’t breathe without wanting to fuck you? Don’t confess that you’re doing things to me that I can’t seem to stop? Doesn’t that make you happy? Knowing that you’re not the only one screwed up by all of this?”

“God, you’re messing with my mind.”

“And you’re messing with mine.” I shook my head as the fog and unbalance from being struck in the skull returned. I felt strange. Loose. Burning up. “You’ve drawn my blood and bruised my bones, and you dare try to say no to me?”

“Fair’s fair.” She gasped as I swept my finger back to her entrance, dipping inside to my first knuckle. “Holy—”

“Fair’s fair?” I laughed coldly. “Nothing’s fair about this. You weren’t supposed to trespass on my fucking heart.”

Christ, what the hell?

The fog was crushing me, stealing control of my thoughts and mouth.

She shivered. “Is-is that true? Am I—”

“You’re mine. That’s all you need to know.”

“I belong to no one but me.”

“Yet here you are, bound, spread, dripping for my cock.”

“Don’t flatter—” she cried out as I pulsed my finger, teasing her “—yourself. My wetness doesn’t mean I want you.”

“Are you so sure about that?” I bent and licked my way around her hipbone, keeping my finger shallow in her pussy, making her crave, causing her inner muscles to flutter with greed.

“If you weren’t trapped, would you really kick me away? Knowing how good it feels when I fuck you? Knowing that I’ll pleasure you, worship you, make you come harder than you’ve ever come before?”

“This isn’t happening,” she moaned.

“I can assure you that it is.” I drove my finger in to the second knuckle, pulsing in her heat. “You’re soaking.”

“Oh, God.” Her entire body snapped up, then folded forward.

Her pussy clenched around my finger, the shockwave traveling through my hand, up my forearm, into my bloodstream, and directly to my cock.

I thickened to unbearable levels. Wetness oozed out the tip, starving for her.

Withdrawing my finger, I rubbed her clit again. “You want me.”

“You’re an asshole,” she moaned again, her words almost slurring.

“Asshole, huh?” Dipping my finger back into her pussy, this time, I didn’t stop at the first knuckle. I drove it inside her. Pushing, diving, feeding her the entire length.

Her reaction almost made me come.

Her hips shot backward, her knees slid wider, her back lowered until her ass jutted into the air. “Fuck you.” The curse came out more like a beseech.

“Christ, you’re beautiful.” My mouth watered, and my belly hungered. Concussion or not, this woman was my medicine and disease all in one.

“Tell me to mount you,” I grunted. “Tell me how much you want me to fill you.”

Her head snapped left and right, clinging to rationality all while the electricity in the vehicle incinerated it. “Never.”

“Say it.” I fucked her with my finger.

She couldn’t control her reaction. Her desire. “...No.”

She wanted me, didn’t she? She felt this too. Her trembles couldn’t be faked. Her wetness couldn’t be hidden.

Stop lying to me!

I need to believe in this. Believe in something.

“Tell me to fuck you.”

“I’m telling you no!”

My head swam. How could she deny us after the mutual destruction outside? She’d kissed me back. She’d come on me. She’d let me into places inside her that no one else ever had before.

I needed back in there.

I needed to feel that peace.

To hear it wasn’t a lie even while I knew it was too good to be true.

Her continued denials clawed deep tracks through my heart. A heart that I’d done my best to patch up with glue for a decade. Scorn and hate combined made the perfect bandage against loss and loneliness.

The only problem was, she seemed to be a solvent that gave me nowhere to fucking hide.

Tearing out my finger, I joined two together and speared them into her. “Tell me you need me as much as I need you.”

“Holy shit—” She rocked on my penetration, her pussy greedy for more.

“Tell me!”

“I can’t!”

“Why?”

“Because you’re not just taking my body, you’re taking my damn soul!”

I froze.

I broke.

I couldn’t breathe. “It’s just sex.”

“It’s not, and you know it!”

It’s not.

I know it.

I fucking know it.

How had this happened in one night?

This had gone too far. This was pushing me toward an edge I couldn’t survive.

The haze came again, thick and cloying, an eraser that I’d perfected over eleven years of selective amnesia.

Lies.

All lies.

Sex was just sex. Sex was power. Sex was pain.

Sex was a weapon.

The only weapon I know.

“It’s just chemistry. Nothing more.” I touched her again, tracing her slickness. “I’m not going to stop.”

She groaned into the vehicle’s carpet. “You’re destroying both of us.”

“Am I?” I used my thumb on her clit, rubbing in time to the thrusting of my fingers. “Is it really destruction when we both know you want me to shove my cock inside you and make you come all over me?”

Her whimper almost made me buckle. Almost made my walls shatter and throw me at the mercy of my mind. Almost made that softness, that happiness, that she’d conjured shine light on all my nightmarish pieces.

“Tell me your name,” she whimpered. “Tell me, and maybe you can have me.”

“My name doesn’t matter.”

“It matters.” She moaned again as I continued to touch her, tease her.

My head pounded, the haziness returning like clouds in my valley. I felt wrong. I felt very wrong.

And she was the cure to all my wrongness.

I couldn’t wait.

I needed this.

Need her to fix me.

“We have a new agreement, remember?” Withdrawing my fingers, I clamped both hands on her inner thighs, spread her legs, then rose behind her. “I won’t try to kill you if you do what I command.”

She trembled. “Don’t you even dare—” she hissed, looking over her shoulder, her hair chaos and eyes brutal. “If you do this. If you take me while I can’t fight you back, I’ll-I’ll—”

“Scream?” I mounted her.

I thrust deep, deep inside her. I let go of all the cages and prisons I’d erected and for a single breath, allowed myself to be free.

Free to feel her, feel myself, feel us, feel the blissful, rightful, fateful link that was conjured from nowhere.

It was heaven.

It was hell.

Her scream was a mixture of hate and heat. A female in need, torn apart by lust, naked in front of her own basic desires.

She was wrong that she couldn’t fight me. That with her wrists tied and hips high, she had no way to wage war. She managed to fight me better than anyone as her ass soared back, forcing every last inch of me inside her.

She met my insanity with her own.

Her legs widened until her knees slipped to the sides, dragging me down with her. Flat on her belly, it gave her nowhere to go, no other way free but to buck against me, to scream and curse, to lose herself in the dementia we’d caused.

I fucked her.

She fucked me.

We turned as wild as we had in the storm.

Grasping her nape, I reared up and rutted into her.

The tension in my balls, the bruises she’d caused, and the wounds she’d imprinted all surged with speed and recklessness.

I wanted to come.

As fast as possible.

I needed out of this woman, away from this lust. I needed to remember how to breathe.

“I truly hate you,” she groaned as she matched my manic pace.

“I feel”—thrust, thrust, fucking thrust—“the same way.”

“Liar!” she hissed, rocking her hips into the coarse vehicle carpet, her moans tattered as I drove harder into her.

Liar?

Who was the liar?

Life itself?

Fate?

Hope?

Definitely hope.

I curled my fingers around the back of her neck and fucked with single-mindedness. I didn’t think about her well-being—no one had ever thought of mine. I wrung out my pleasure from her body, not caring if she came with me or not.

Anger born from all the shit in my past washed over me.

It was hot and black and toxic.

I lost sight of the girl I was with. The girl called Gemma who had strength and safety in her veins, and instead saw every badness, sadness, and pain I’d endured.

Every woman and man who’d thought they’d owned me.

No.

Not anymore.

My anger switched to violence.

My pace switched from manic to murderous.

“God. Oh, God. Oh my...shiiiitt.” The girl beneath me detonated.

Her pussy fisted me, milked me, rippled and stroked.

She shoved me out of the darkness and into the splintering light.

“Oh, fuuuuck—” My stomach tightened, my balls pulled up, and an orgasm gathered, full of reminders that every release since I was twelve had been blank and infertile. Courtesy of the Storymaker. My master. My hell.

On the cusp of bliss, memories tried to steal me.

My mind flickered with Fables, with my family, with the blood-soaked end that I’d reaped.

I was falling, losing, tumbling back into the past.

But then...just before I turned rogue and killed everything breathing around me, the girl who forgave me for things that should never be forgiven, moved.

Her head twisted to the side. Her lips kissed my fist that was planted on the floor by her cheek.

I had no idea why she’d kissed me. Why she’d dropped her guard. Why she’d done something so...nice when I was being so cruel.

Her gentleness, her sweetness, her wonderful, courageous forgiveness.

It broke me.

It shoved me over the edge into a splintering, shattering release.

I punched into her, over and over, jerking and grunting as pulses of heat shot up my cock and into her.

Again and again.

Eradicating some of the filth from me to her.

Christening her into my twisted world.

Ensuring what I said was true.

She was mine.

Not just for tonight.

Not just for tomorrow.

But for every single day of my sorry existence.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

I HAD A DREAM.

A dream where soft fingers trailed through my hair, gentle kisses pressed on my temples, and a warm blanket cocooned my naked body.

I dreamed those soft fingers and gentle kisses gathered me close and held me tight, all while I slipped from aware to unaware.

Whispers invaded the night. Whispers that weren’t just whispers. Whispers that had the power to conjure images in my head, paint a story I never wanted to see, and force me to endure a different kind of life to my blessed one.

There was a boy. Lots of boys. There was a girl. Lots of girls. They all lived in a gilded prison and were only allowed out to play when monsters paid for their company.

They slept with joined hands. They ate with bare fingers. Their tears and blood had blended so often, they were no longer just one but all.

Family.

Married by circumstance, adopted by survival, and forged with unbreakable bonds.

My dream swirled with blacks and grays, revealing a circle of children, waxy skinned and haunted eyed, clinging to each other as the door opened to select another for playtime.

No.

I didn’t want to see.

I didn’t want to know.

This wasn’t a dream but a nightmare.

“I’ll go in your place,” a boy murmured. A boy with long dark hair and darker eyes. “I’ll protect you.”

I thrashed. I tried to scream. Didn’t the boy know not to offer? Not to sacrifice himself to the monster?

Don’t!

The boy squeezed the other boy’s hand, looking once at his family of broken members.

And then, he walked out the door.

Blood cascaded from the ceiling.

No, stop!

Children’s screams filled my ears.

Stop!

I couldn’t take the agony.

I threw myself against the wall of sleep.

“No!” I woke up gasping.

For a moment, I was lost.

My bearings were wrong; my location made no sense.

Then I recognized the ceiling of my trusty Jeep, the stain from an old owner on the door panel, the comforting scent of adventure and pine air freshener.

Shoving myself upright, a blanket tumbled from my shoulders as I switched from lying to sitting. Snatching the vibrant orange fleece that I packed for emergencies—that’d somehow ended up draped over my nakedness—I sucked in another breath.

My captor sat on the other side of the Jeep, his feet planted, knees up, elbows dangling with hands linked in the air. His position was exposing. I saw right between his legs. I studied his scarred cock, the soft sack of his useless testicles, the hair of a man who hadn’t shaved in years.

For a horrible heartbeat, I forgot the past few days. My mind erased the imprisonment, the erotic servitude, the mind-bending sex in the rain. All I saw was a man hiding from a new dawn in my car. I saw him without prior opinions and assessed him as a stranger instead of my enemy, and my arms ached to wrap around him.

I wanted to fill the hollowness in his eyes with happiness. I wanted to be the reason those stern lips smiled. I wanted to hear him laugh. To experience joy and peace because I honestly didn’t think he’d ever been acquainted.

You kissed his hand last night.

You let him into more than just your body, Gem.

I flinched, recalling my moment of weakness. The overwhelming rightness of him inside me, smothering me with his body, driving into me as if I was the only thing that would save him.

Leaning forward, he narrowed his gaze, his attention falling to my exposed breasts.

Heat ignited between us. Familiar need and unfamiliar connection.

In my hazy state between sleep and awake, I gasped in shock.

He’s the man I described on that stupid online dating profile.

Looking for: A man who’s dominant and dangerous. A man who knows how to grant pleasure. A man who knows how to cook and clean. A man who...is a man. A man who will sweep me off my feet but allow me to fly free, all while he makes me come alive beneath his tongue.

Too bad he’s ripped off my wings and stuffed me in a cage instead.

If our circumstances were different—if we’d met in normal ways—I suspected I would never have let him go. I would’ve fallen head over heels. I would’ve threaded my fortune and future with his without a backward glance.

Something inside me knew that.

It was terrifyingly black and white.

I didn’t know why I knew but whenever I looked at him, everyone else paled. First, it’d been because he threatened my life. Now, it was because he threatened everything.

He was pain.

Pain in my heart, my soul, the very core of my common sense.

He stiffened as we stared at each other, waiting for someone to strike. Distrust and unease laced between us, just as strong as our chemistry and desire.

Just because he rivalled any other male I’d met, didn’t mean I willingly accepted the strangeness happening between us.

I still wanted to run.

I would still do everything in my power to be free.

“Did you sleep?” I tipped up my chin, my hands balled in the fleece.

If our eyes weren’t locked, I would’ve missed the tightening of his shoulders. The flare of his nostrils. The flicker of fear in his soul.

In this instance, he wasn’t so easy to read. He was cryptic and coarse, throwing a question back instead of an answer. “Do you always wake so violently?”

I swallowed back my nightmare. He already knew too much about me. He didn’t need to know my mind had spun stories, inserting this scarred, angry man into the agonising role of a child beaten into servitude. “Only when I’m in the company of my jailer.”

His fingers linked tighter together between his legs. “I think I’m more than just your jailer at this point.” His gaze once again dipped down my body, his pupils hot with possession.

I was warm now the sun had risen, but in a flash of defiance, I lifted the blanket to cover my breasts. A cover I didn’t have when I first went to sleep. “You gave me a blanket. You wrapped me up.” I tilted my head. “You stroked my hair and kissed my—”

“You’re mistaken.” Unfolding his legs, he shoved away the empty chocolate wrappers that we’d devoured after he’d taken me on my belly and shot out the tailgate. Sun dappled his bare skin, dancing on silver scars, highlighting sinew and strength.

He was a beautiful man, even with his flaws.

He was rugged and untamed and far too similar to the bears and bobcats that prowled these parks. All he needed were claws and sharp teeth.

Stretching, he bent backward then dropped his hands to rake through his shaggy hair. Without looking back at me, he strode to the trees by the faded ribbon that’d survived the storm and snatched his damp pants from the branches.

Keeping his back to me, he went to put them on but swayed to the side. Stumbling, he tapped the side of his head with his palm as if trying to tune up a fuzzy frequency in his brain. Shaking his head, he tried again, slipping one leg then the other into the rain-wet clothing.

Hoisting them up, he turned and swayed again, his lips twisted and forehead furrowed.

Maybe he’s right that I concussed him.

Was that the reason he hadn’t slept beside me? Why I had the feeling he’d stayed watch all night, whispering to me, revealing pieces of himself that he never would while I was awake?

Buttoning up the torn, filthy slacks, he returned to the tailgate and cleared his throat. “Get up. Time to go home.”

“My home is hours away. It’s in a quaint little suburb, and my front lawn needs a serious mow. If we’re going there, I’ll need those keys you threw away last night.” I swiveled to sit on my knees, rolling my sore wrists still bound with my climbing rope. “Is that the home you speak of?”

“Let me rephrase.” He gave me a mocking smirk. “Let’s go back to my home. I need to get back.”

“Why? Is someone missing you?”

“I have chores.”

“Chores?” I laughed quietly. “I’ve seen how clean you keep that house, but surely, dust doesn’t warrant you bolting back in a hurry.”

He grimaced with annoyance. “I preferred you when you were sleeping.”

“And I preferred you when you were being gentle. When you kissed my cheek and whispered to me, all while you thought I was sleeping.”

“You were sleeping.” He scowled. “You dreamed it all.”

“If I dreamed everything, why do I have a blanket covering me?”

“You grabbed it yourself.”

“And you know that how?”

He crossed his arms over his bare chest. “Unlike you, I didn’t close my eyes. I didn’t sleep.”

I stilled. “Not even a cat nap? You must be exhausted.” Come to think of it, shadows did etch under his eyes, darkening his skin and revealing fine lines.

“I’ll sleep when we’re home.”

“Why don’t you sleep now, before we start the long journey back?”

His jaw clenched as his temper spiked. “Is this you nagging me out of concern or just to piss me off?”

“Neither. I just want to know why you can’t sleep.”

“I can sleep.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

He dropped his arms and balled his hands. “Christ, if this is what it’s going to be like living with you, I’m leaning toward the gag idea.”

“Gag me, and you’ll have a serious problem.” Rage heated my blood. “If you won’t tell me your name, at least tell me something. You’ve been inside me twice. You’ve taken it upon yourself to own my freedom. Why can’t you sleep—”

“I need the valley, alright? I need my dorm—” He choked and cut himself off. “Just get the hell out of bed. I want to go. Now.”

My back prickled at his anger. I should stop. I shouldn’t push him. But something urged me to keep nettling him. To nudge and nudge until he snapped and revealed something I could use to my benefit. “I’m rather enjoying our little camp. Let’s stay another day.”

“No,” he growled.

“Why?” I raised my eyebrows. “Think there’s someone worse than you out here?”

He stiffened. His chest rose and fell. I expected him to scoff and slap my question away. To perhaps grab me from the Jeep and force me to walk where he commanded. Instead, his eyes went cold, and his voice turned almost dead. “There’s always someone worse than me.”

I sucked in a breath, aware I’d poked a predator who might not have sharp teeth or claws but could devour me all the same. I felt a small pang of guilt. I’d gleaned enough to know his past was not a pretty one. He’d survived something I couldn’t begin to imagine. Yet his life was not my life, and my life was currently in jeopardy because of him.

Keeping eye contact, I let truth slip into my murmur, “Not from where I’m standing.”

He flinched, then tossed me a savage sneer. “If you’re so aware of what I can do to you, then perhaps you should do what I say.” Throwing me the bag holding my spare clothes, he snarled, “Get dressed.”

Clutching the bag, I didn’t let it go. “What happened last night?”

“What?” His eyes jerked to mine. “I fucked you. Twice. You came. Twice. That’s all—”

“Still determined not to acknowledge it, huh?” Standing on my knees, I let the blanket fall away, revealing every inch of me. Dried mud, pebbled nipples, and a stupid core that never seemed to stop wanting him.

He sucked in a breath as I crawled awkwardly through the remains of our Jeep picnic and swung my legs off the edge of the tailgate.

My heart raced as that undeniable attraction once again infected us with madness as I dropped to the ground and stood nude before him.

He hissed low in his chest as I looked down, locking onto his rapidly hardening cock.

Last night...God, last night.

I shivered as fragments of thunder, lightning, thrusting, and coming all rained down on me. When he’d taken me against my will, I should’ve been appalled. I should’ve vowed to end his life the moment I had the chance. Instead, I’d spread my legs like a hussy and let him take everything.

I’d barely been able to breathe after I’d come. Barely able to think. And then, he’d gone and scooped me up, positioned me gently against the side of the Jeep, placed a fresh water bottle in my hands, a new Snickers bar, and cupped my cheeks with his large calloused fingers.

And he’d just held me.

Held me as if I’d crushed his heart, smashed his world, and set fire to all the ruins.

We were silent.

Still.

Suffering.

His cock had been wet from my orgasm, his tip still oozing with his. The night had thickened until the entire world seemed to hold its breath. Waiting for...something. Waiting for our games to end and fate to set us free.