The forest at dawn with Dimitri hunting me is just as terrifying and exhilarating as I hoped.
I sprint back the way I came, towards the path, leaping over small bushes. He’s not subtle when he gives chase. Nope. He wants me to hear him behind me, big and bold and spine tingling. The kingpin is trying to scare me, and it’s working.
My heart judders against my ribcage, my throat burns with the exertion, and my mind is full of his kiss, his threats, his hard, imposing body, and the way he makes me feel slight and feminine.
I’m heated everywhere. My muscles are on fire as I dodge through the trees, my ankle falls into a hole, and I hear him snarl behind me as I stumble. But I keep it together, fear about his reaction if he caught up with me because I injured myself keeping me going. He was coldly furious about my straying fully into the thick forest.
And I know this is me trying to escape him, that’s the point, but need for his approval makes me push myself faster to return to the route that will earn me a purr rather than a growl.
Then I’m back on the path, my feet more secure beneath me as the cool of the early morning bites my skin on one side and the rising sun warms it on the other.
The forest at dawn is rather like Dimitri. Menacing, and deadly, and yet also caring and sweet and heart-lifting.
Dimitri has gained, his longer legs eating up the ground faster, his muscles stronger. His breathing is harsh, and close by. A scream of fright rips from my throat as his fingers grasp out and nearly catch my arm.
My mind might know that I can yell “red”, but with the shadows still long from the sun rising, the creepy, dense wood, and the terrifying slam of his feet right at my heels, my body is in full flight response. Fear, pure and vivid, pulses from my heart.
He’s a monster. I’m the little rabbit he calls me, sprinting from the jaws of death.
My thighs ache with fatigue as the path opens into a section with deep copper-coloured leaves underfoot and trees with smooth bark. But my pussy? Oh that’s a different ache. I’m so hot and slick there, and my breasts are tender from the running, bouncing a little, reminding me of their presence. The rub of my peaked nipples on the silk is unbearably sensitive. My body is instinctively fighting for freedom while readying to be caught and love it.
I yelp as he tumbles me to the ground, snatching me mid-stride but softening the blow by spinning us so I land on his chest before he rolls me onto my back.
“Got you.”
With the wind slammed out of me, there’s no time to react before he has dragged the silk up my thighs, taken hold of my underwear in both fists, and ripped it clean off.
I’m silenced with fear and shock as he discards the scrap of lace.
Then my legs jerk, trying to get away, and he clamps his arm over my waist.
“Stop.”
My whole body trembles with the effort of compliance. It’s a fright-response. Freezing as the predator approaches.
What will he take this time?
A word. Then a kiss.
He grasps my thighs and prises them apart, my heated pussy exposed to his gaze in the rising morning sunshine.
“So pretty,” he grinds out, then I stare in shock as he lowers his head and takes a long, greedy lick of my slit, making me buckle.
I whine. I was sure he would undo his jeans and push that impossibly big length into me. But instead, he licks me again, and snarls, “Your honey is fucking delicious.”
Then he’s going at me with his tongue in earnest, not holding back, and my head falls into the yielding leaves as he demands my pleasure. One of his arms holds down my hips, and the other hand yanks down the neckline of my nightdress and finds my nipple, brutally rolling it in his rough fingertips.
The combination of heart-pounding adrenaline, fear, and sharp bliss is excessive. I chase it, but can’t, and sob with need and frustration and a cocktail of hormones zinging around my body.
He rumbles with laughter at my noises, and the pressure that felt amazing on my clit disappears.
Dimitri raises his head, and his clear eyes catch me as firmly as his arm.
“Don’t make me tie you down, Jenna,” he says, tone furious, as though my attempts to get free offend him to the point of anger, then he thrusts another finger into my passage.
I cry out, even as I try to stay still. To be his good girl. Unthinking, just desperate for more, I grasp his head and pull him to me.
He hums with satisfaction and licks me with abandon, exactly where I need him. I knit my fingers into his hair.
He’s evoking sensations from my body I didn’t know I could have. It’s almost too much.
Then it’s overpowering. I come, tipping into waves of pleasure that make me utterly out of control. I’m pretty sure I’d throw him off if he wasn’t holding my hips down. The last thing I see before my eyes close in ecstasy is the dappled sunshine through the canopy above highlighting his silver-and-black hair with gold and green.
I explode. I thrash and he holds me firm with his arm. He’s relentless as he chases my clit through every jerk and shudder that spins through my body.
It’s white light pulsing through me, all the way to my toes. I go tight and loose, and I’m a creature of his making, full of the joy of being alive after a close call with death. Somehow the restraint keeps all the ecstasy contained within me rather than flying out. It’s stronger than anything I’ve ever felt before, this pleasure that is as bright as the sun.
This was the most intense experience of my life: that’s my thought as I gradually return to earth and open my eyes. But I think I said that about the last orgasm this man gave me.
Dimitri still has his face between my legs, dragging the soft prickles of his beard over the sensitised skin of my inner thighs with nips and kisses and circles of his hot, wet tongue.
“Dimitri.”
He lifts his head, and his mouth is obscene. He has my juices all over his lips and cheeks.
“That’s my good girl.”
The praise ripples over and into me, melting me from the inside out. His good girl.
But then my captor wraps his arms around me, and in one fluid motion rises to his feet. I cling to him, weak from that orgasm, my brain putty.
He whispers soft words in Russian holding me until I’m strong enough to stand. It’s long minutes, then he sweeps the hair out of my face and slowly releases me.
“Ready?” he asks softly. “Once more.”
I nod, but I’m not. I don’t want this to be over.
I don’t want to leave.
Dimitri’s eyes are serious and—I think—slightly sad as he folds his arms over his broad, powerful bare chest, the tattoos of the trees stark on his skin. He’s a creature in his element.
“If I catch you this time…” He lets the threat hang, unfinished. “Run, little bunny. Run.”
My legs are shaky. They’re unsteady, unsure. I force myself around and into a jog. Then faster.
It takes everything in me to keep myself together and not fall or perhaps turn and throw myself into my hunter’s arms.
The sun has fully risen now, the darkness gone. I recognise the path from yesterday as my heavy feet take me away from Dimitri.
The driveway, and freedom, are close. Once I emerge from the forest, I’ll be just steps away from where Dimitri’s man is waiting. I should want this, right? I can hear my pursuer, but the thrilling fear has passed. There’s a buzz of pleasure and a fog of confusion in my head.
What am I doing?
Then I break out of the trees, and there it is. A big black car, engine running, red lights and number plate illuminated.
I was a captive, and now I’m free. I won our chase.
If this is winning?
Over my shoulder I peer back at Dimitri. He comes to a stop at the edge of the woods, but he’s hardly out of breath.
He let me win, I realise.
I mean, it’s obvious, isn’t it? He didn’t have to do any of this. He didn’t have to save me from Howard, give me a perfect date, flirt with me, or rescue the dog he found.
For all his tattoos, stalking, and frankly unhealthy behaviour, Dimitri has been the safe option all along. He said he’d allow me to leave when I regained my memory, and he’s stuck to that. More honourable than I could have believed a murderous mafia boss could be.
I stop just short of the car, staring at the reflective black surface that shows me the truth better than any light.
That man is everything I’ve ever wanted. He’ll use me in the best way. He’ll spoil and care for me. And I’m pretty sure he’d kill for me.
So instead of diving into the vehicle and demanding to be returned to London, I choose madness.
One deep breath and I spin on my heel.
I run back into the beast’s forest.
And he gives chase.
