Lightning cuts across the sky, catching the exact moment Carter cocks a naturally sculpted eyebrow that fuels my frustration further.
“Seriously. Let’s get this out of the way,” I insist.
“I’m good.”
Frowning, I recoil, shaking my head in disbelief. “You—what? You’regood?” I exclaim, rushing after him when he dares to turn around and walk away again.
Thunder blasts through the night, the wretched rain punishing my skin as I grab his forearm to stop him.
“Cut the bullshit, killer-boy. There’s no way you’re not bothered by this, regardless of your promise to let me live.”
His eyes move from my hand clutching his forearm to my body, traveling upward until they meet mine. If looks could draw pain, his would douse me in it. I’m a sucker for a challenge and I refuse to let go, though I’m a little hurt he’s so bothered by my touch.
“Do not call me that infernal name,” he seethes.
Tilting my head, I playfully cock an eyebrow. This is it. My opening to get him talking.
“Would you prefer I text it to you? You sure do like it when I text you. When I tease you.” I step in front of him, splaying my palm over his chest, searching for his heartbeat. “Call you thatinfernalname with my hands buried deep between my thighs. Touching. Stroking. Thrusting.”
My other hand is still tightly wrapped around his forearm, and I tip my head back to catch his gaze, despite the heavy raindrops.
“Where’s that man from the texts? The one who wanted to strip me. Spank me. Make my slutty little pussy drench him.” I drag my hand down his chest, over his abs flexing beneath my touch, until I hit the buckle of his belt and pause.
His nostrils flare, yet tensing his muscles is the only movement he dares.
“Where’s the man who wanted to make me bleed and come?” I reach lower and press my hand over his strained length. “Who imagined pushing this fat cock inside of me?”
He tries to shield the hitch in his breath, but his body betrays him, cock twitching and hardening under my touch, the hollowness beneath his cheekbones deepening.
“Where’s the man who asked if I slept well? Hmm?” I give him one hard squeeze as I lean into him. “Where are you, killer-boy?”
I could have blinked and missed it if it wasn’t for the air rushing over my skin, the rough bark digging into my back, the breath ripped out of my lungs, or his menacing grip around my wrist. It took one swift move to back me against a tree with one hand immobilized above my head as his body traps me here.
“Carter—”
He wraps his hand around my throat, trapping any remaining words there as it tightens.
“Stop. Fucking. Talking,” he says through gritted teeth, his intense gaze boring into mine.
I dig my fingernails into his forearm, shuffling against the tree as I struggle through the pressure intensifying in my throat. But with it, something stronger blooms behind my ribs. It threatens to spread. Lower.
“Is this what you were so desperate for?” His grasp clenches my throat. “Punishment?”
I writhe against his body, clawing up his arm as the strain grows, spreads up to my temple, and settles behind my eyes. A mesmerizing, borderline-terrifying dizziness follows. The air becomes grit as it barely manages to pass through my airways, and I squirm harder against him.
“Well, here we are, kitten. Your life in my hand, your punishment, my own dirty pleasure. Because, trust me”—he leans in further, his whisper laced with vengeful lust—“all I dream of recently is punishing you. I knew from the moment my car was broken into that you were the culprit. Butyou, wretched little thing, you made me doubt my instincts. Sent me on false trails. Derailed me.Thatis what I most want to punish you for.”
His body lines up with mine, his cock nestled against my lower belly, right in that spot above the pubic bone that brings a strange kind of pleasure. His grip on my throat clenches tighter. My body fights back on its own. My chest fills with terror as the strain increases until it threatens to crack me open.
What little air was able to pass through has now converged at the base of my throat. Lodged tight.
Almost . . .
Almostpainful.
And something magnificent blooms through every single nerve and fiber of my being.
Chapter 21
