Walking into me, she landed her bound hands on my naked chest. I’d ripped off my shirt halfway through the hunt. It was back on the trail somewhere, wet and abandoned.

“Please, whatever your name is. I beg you. If you’re so concerned that I’ll tell people about you, come with me. Stay locked by my side and censor every word that comes out of my mouth. Just...please let me go home. If you allow me to see my mother and brother, to give them peace of mind that I’m okay...I’ll-I’ll...” She gulped and forced herself onward. “I’ll come back with you. We’ll drive back here together. I’ll come and stay with you for a while. Two lonely people living in one house instead of two.”

I sneered. “You honestly expect me to believe that once you’re back in society you wouldn’t turn on me in a second? That you wouldn’t find some way to have me arrested?”

“You have my word.”

“Your word means nothing.”

Anger fired up her cheeks. “No, your word means nothing. You said I’d survive another day. That you wouldn’t try to kill me.” She glanced at the mud where we’d battled, where body indents scarred the earth, leaving behind a symbol of the sex we’d shared and the misery we’d caused. “That if I did what you asked, I’d live.”

Bending over her, I held her stare and murmured, “I’ll make you a new deal. You were right when you said sex with you felt different. It could’ve been the eleven years of celibacy that made it so fucking intense, or...it could’ve just been you.”

It was definitely you.

She winced as I ran my thumb over her bottom lip. “I won’t lie and say I don’t want more. I fucking loved being inside you. I loved how you fought me back. How you fought for more. How explosive it was between us.”

“You think I’d let you sleep with me again if you continue to hold me captive?”

I shrugged. “It’s not like you’ll have a choice, is it?”

“Fuck you.”

“They’ll be plenty of that, I promise. When we get home, you have my word that you will live. I won’t lay a hand on you in violence unless you deserve it. I won’t try to kill you unless you try to run. You can live.”

Her chest rose and fell with rage. “How very kind of you, you bastard. What a fucking joke! Are you that broken that you can’t be kind to anyone? I’m not just someone you can lock away and screw whenever you have the urge, you know! I have a life. A career. I can’t believe I let you inside—”

“Hush.” I cut off her tirade. “I’m sure, in time, I’ll get used to having a pet around the house. But from now on, you’re pulling your weight. You will help me gather and prepare. You will do what I do to ensure we survive winter together. You will open your damn legs whenever I command. You will get on your knees whenever I’m hard. And, who knows, maybe in a few years, when we’ve come to know everything there is to know about each other and we’ve built up something akin to friendship, our terms of agreement can change.”

“I will never be your friend.”

“You’ve been more friend to me than anyone in over a decade—hating me or not.”

She choked as if that meant something to her. As if that small confession affected her. Her body might be affected but her words were cruel. “You’re insane.”

“Perhaps.” I shrugged. “Or just damaged enough to be immune to whatever charms you’re trying to use against me. How am I supposed to know if sex between us wasn’t a lie? You acted as if you wanted my cock, you moaned as I thrust deep inside you, you kissed me back...but was it real? It could’ve all been an act. You could be lying—”

“I came in your arms, you monster. I’ve never felt anything like that with anyone—”

“Yet you’ve never fought for your life before.” Cupping her cheek with my empty hand, I bent and kissed her softly. “It could’ve just been the adrenaline talking.”

She ripped her face away, hissing, “It wasn’t and you know it! That’s why you’re so afraid of me. Why you don’t want me to go. Admit it. You can’t stomach the thought of saying goodbye!”

I stiffened. “Careful.”

“I’m done being careful. If you don’t have the balls to admit it, I will. I’ll confess it for both of us.” Her eyes shot pure fire. “What happens to you when I touch you, huh? Do you feel it? Does it burn in your blood? Does your stomach cramp and heart fist? Has that happened with anyone else?”

Christ yes, I burn. It hurts more than I can stand.

I bared my teeth. “From what I just told you, you should know the answer to that question.”

“Fine. You were abused. I get it. I won’t belittle what you’ve lived through because that isn’t who I am, even if you are using your past to terrorize my future. But I will do whatever’s necessary to wake you the hell up!”

I scowled. “I suggest you rein in your temper.”

“And I suggest you open your damn eyes. There’s something more between us. We both know it. We both don’t want it. We both wish it didn’t exist, and neither one of us understands how it happened, considering we would rather kill each other than be kind. You need to let me go. You need to admit the real reason you can’t is because you’re starting to feel something.” Her cheeks blazed, and her nipples pebbled as her skin puckered with goosebumps.

She acted as if she was about to put a curse on me. Another one. Curses upon curses, layering me in hexes and damnation.

Clamping a hand over her mouth, I growled, “Shut up. You’re just proving your stupidity. Proving that every word out of your mouth is wrong. I should gag you as well as bind. I don’t have to listen to—”

She bit my palm, tore her face away, and spat at my feet. “Gag me, and next time I attempt to kill you, I’ll succeed. Feelings or no feelings.”

I pressed against her, skin to skin, lust to lust.

That everlasting spark between us switched from a burn to a blaze. The forest became alight with it, the rain glittered with it, my blood hissed with need and want and yearning.

“Your mouth will get you hurt.”

She tried to step back, colliding with the door. “Your stubbornness will get you nothing.”

“I don’t want anything.” I looked deep into her eyes, hoping my words pierced true. “Especially not from you. Bodily gratification is all you’re good for.”

She sniffed and tipped up her chin. “We’ll see.”

“I guess we will.” Stepping away from her, I uncurled my fingers from around her keys.

Instantly, her defiance switched to cajoling. “Wait. Don’t—”

“I look forward to living with you, Gemma Ashford.”

“No—!”

In a whip fast move, I cocked my arm and hurled her keys into the forest. I threw them toward the drop-off where new waterfalls splashed over rocks and debris, falling from sky to valley.

They made no noise as they disappeared.

Not a single sound as they condemned her as mine for evermore.

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

I COULDN’T MOVE.

He threw them.

He actually threw my keys away!

Eerie emptiness filled me: the iciness of shock and the hollowness of defeat.

Going home was no longer attainable. Escaping this monster had become an unsurmountable problem. A problem that included days’ worth of hiking to find populated areas of the national park. The logistical nightmare of not having enough rations, correct footwear, or emergency beacons to find my way out of this cave labyrinth was a disaster.

If I didn’t die with him, I might very well die running from him.

Him.

God, HIM!

Something snapped back into place within me, blasting away my shock, filling me with scalding brimstone.

How dare he?!

Joshua, my mother, my work, my house. God, my house. My lovely, lavender house that’d been waiting empty and alone since I’d left. Who would water my plants? Who would tell my online fans that I would never post another video, never hunt another climbing route, never be the girl I’d once been?