Page 4

4

I don’t know why I’m running.

Logically, I know this is what I came here for. I wanted to find the two of them, to tell them to their faces that they don’t just get to leave me behind without a word.

Without a choice.

Yet seeing how they act when they’re Harrow and Ravage makes something in me churn with a primal fear, and adrenaline courses through me to dull the ache of my sore legs. I run faster this time, tripping over roots and gravel and whatever else litters the campground. There’s no point in being sneaky anymore. They know I’m here, and I’m not trying to eavesdrop.

But am I really trying to get away from him?

For a moment I consider slowing, and I finally do, only to hear the feral snarl of the masked man behind me. It sounds much more like an inhuman predator than one of the men I’ve been looking for. The sound makes me speed right back up until I’m panting with exertion and crashing through the undergrowth once more.

Within seconds, the cold air starts biting at my lungs, and I’m doing more tripping than actual running. From behind me I hear a sound of disapproval—a small growl almost—and just as I stumble over the remains of a camp grill, a hand snatches out to grab me by my hoodie and pull me back into a hard, lean chest.

“It’s no fun when I’m worried about you killing yourself in a fall,” Kieran huffs in my ear. “Now, are you going to fight me, or are you going to be good and tell me what the fuck you’re doing here, darling?”

My first urge is to fight him, and I go with it even as a loud, hysterical giggle bubbles from my lips. I kick out from him, scattering gravel, before slamming my foot back into his knee.

And it’s possible I pull my blow, in the same way he’s not holding me as tightly as he could. Kieran could take me down. Could force me to submit in a second if he really wanted to. Not to mention, I’m sure he has a weapon on him he could use against me, instead of letting me fight him like this.

But he merely huffs a chuckle, and one of his hands shifts from my waist to the front of my throat. “So we’re going to play this game?” he asks. The way his mask presses to the side of my face sends an unwanted shiver down my spine.

Fuck , being here just reinforces how messed up they’ve made me.

“I don’t think you deserve for me to settle down,” I tell him in a panting, breathy voice. My fingers hook around his wrists, but I’m not tugging. I’m not trying to pull him off of me. If anything, I’m trying to pull him closer, urging him to hold me more tightly.

Naturally, he notices.

I hear his soft laugh and he nuzzles my throat, though with the mask he can’t do much more than that. “You really want to play this game, don’t you?” His fingers tighten slowly around my throat, until he’s cutting off some of my air and reducing me to sharp, desperate pants to get the oxygen I need.

“Don’t—”

But he growls, cutting me off, and he certainly doesn’t lessen his grip. “No. You asked for it, little girl. You asked for this when you ran from me like you’re my prey .” God, the way he says it has me shuddering, and it takes a few moments for me to realize his hand on my hoodie is moving and taking mine along with it.

“Makes me wonder if the chase just makes you wetter. I won’t judge you if it did. After all…” Suddenly he splays his fingers on my stomach and yanks me back against him as he simultaneously rolls his hips forward and I feel his hardness pressed against my ass.

Fuck. My breath shouldn’t hitch the way it does, and I definitely shouldn’t be arching back into him like a needy, desperate thing.

“Chasing you might be one of my favorite activities. Want me to pin you down right here in the dirt and the gravel, darling? Want me to fuck you just like this, while you’re panting and begging me for air and the adrenaline still has you shaking?” The roughness of his voice has my head spinning, and I fight not to nod and beg for it.

I won’t.

Not tonight, at least.

“No,” I pant, a grin on my face that he can’t see. “Nah, you don’t get to, because I have questions and complaints.”

Something in him shifts. Something I barely notice in the feeling of his hands on me and the way his body is pressed to mine. “You have complaints?” he repeats, almost disbelieving. “You’re telling me you don’t want me to pin you down and fuck you like a bitch in heat right now?”

I can’t help the shudder that goes through me, and from his soft murmur, I know he felt it too. His body shifts, rocking into mine, and I almost lose my composure right then.

“That is exactly what I’m telling you.” It takes me a few moments to get the words out, and I tilt my head back against his shoulder to gaze up at the partially obscured moon above us. “Shall I start listing them, or should I wait until you have a pen and paper to?—”

His fingers slip under my jaw, pressing hard until I see stars and the burning ache becomes something half pleasure, half pain.

“What a little brat,” Kieran remarks, finally loosening his fingers so I can take a gasp of air. “You’ve grown a spine since the last time I saw you shaking apart on your bed.”

Whatever mortification, fear, or dismay might have once been set loose in my chest is long gone. After all, I’ve replayed those moments over and over in my mind since that morning, and I’m pretty much immune to it now.

“We can start there, actually,” I go on sweetly, acutely aware of his hands on me and the way he’s still subtly rocking against my body. “You left . I thought you were coming back. I thought that since?—”

His growl of irritation cuts me off, and Kieran spins me around, one hand on my throat as the other shakes free of me to rip off his mask. “Fine. I won’t fuck you right here,” he agrees ruefully, his dark eyes sharp. “But only because if I have to suffer through your complaints, so does Val. And I’m not going to hear it twice.” He stands there, studying my gaze, until his brows knit together.

“Something’s changed with you,” he remarks at last, voice soft. “You’re not the same, are you? You’re?—”

Frustrated as hell and secretly just as horny, I lunge forward onto the balls of my feet, hands curled tightly in his jacket to yank myself up to him and crush my lips to his. It’s certainly bold of me, and a surprise even I hadn’t seen coming from myself.

But judging from his sound of shock and the way he just stands there, Kieran hadn’t expected it either.

Just as I’m sure I’ve fucked up, he seems to come alive. His mouth melds to mine, and he nips at my lower lip as his fingers shift to hold the back of my neck. His other hand goes to my lower back, and I feel his fingers gripping my hoodie tightly as he drags me in closer like he wants to devour me.

Which he does.

His lips are insistent, his teeth sharp against my tongue and bottom lip, and within seconds, I’ve lost control of what started as a kiss. Once he’s tasted every inch of space between my lips, he moves to bite and nip at my lip, my jaw, and finally sinks his teeth into the side of my throat and bites.

A surprised cry leaves my lips and I roll up onto my toes, back arching at the sharp, stinging pain. Not that he cares. If anything, Kieran bites harder, sucking against my skin and not bothering to cover the loud, filthy sounds of him working over my throat.

If he wasn’t holding me up, I’d probably embarrass myself by falling to the ground.

“Where did those complaints go?” Kieran taunts, letting go with one last, sharp nip to the place he’s already made sore and tender. I yelp at the sting, dragging harder on his jacket as if I can pull him down to the ground with me.

“Oh, they’re still here,” I promise, head spinning and panting. “I have them in an itemized list, actually. A really well thought out, organized—” I’m being moved before I register anything other than my head spinning. Kieran yanks me off the ground, throwing me over his shoulder hard enough that his shoulder knocks the air out of my lungs and leaves me stunned.

His hand wraps around my thighs, and Kieran isn’t shy about groping my ass as he walks in long, measured strides.

“Where are we going?” I demand, fully considering kicking him in the chest just to see if I can make him feel it.

But as if he can read my mind, he slaps my thigh hard enough to pull a shocked, pained sound from my throat.

“If you kick me, I’ll drag you, little girl,” Kieran warns, prompting me to be sure he’s a mind reader. “So keep your legs right where they are, and you won’t end up with a bruised ass.” Fuck, that shouldn’t be so arousing. I shouldn’t have to press my thighs together, only for him to chuckle softly and shove his hand between them just to prove a point.

“You want to complain so bad? Like I said, Val gets to hear it too. He gets to be a part of your little game, since I’d just hate to have all the fun.” He strokes over my leggings, and I swear I can feel the searing heat of his touch through his gloves and the fabric covering my legs.

The cold suddenly finds me again and I shiver, realizing the adrenaline is finally draining out of my veins and leaving me feeling empty, and a little cold. Not that I’m going to complain about it. Especially to Kieran, when I want to keep some kind of brave front on to make him think I’m not as pathetic as I worry he does.

I want them to see me as an equal.

Not a liability to be left behind.

“You left me,” I say without really meaning to. I immediately regret the words, and dig an elbow into Kieran’s shoulder, as if to punish him for my admission instead of myself.

He doesn’t growl or threaten to drag me. Instead, his fingers stroke over my thighs, like he’s trying to comfort me. “You picked the coldest night of the week to come out here, you know,” he says by way of answer, his words full of reproach. “And you’re barely dressed for it. Is this all you own? Hoodies and leggings?”

“Yeah. And I’ve replaced the ones you ruined with blood. I have the bill with me, actually, so you can pay me back for that at your earliest convenience. Though I hope you understand that every day accrues new interest on your balance.” My words and quips are thankfully automatic and make him snort with amusement.

“I’ll get right on that, darling,” he assures me.

Footsteps on gravel that aren’t his cause me to look up, and I push my hands against his lower back to crank my spine in an unnatural direction to look around as much as I can.

Expectedly, we’re still at the campground. This site seems a bit less rundown than the others, and I’m surprised to see my small car parked at the front of it, on the other side of a still smoldering fire pit that sends the scent of smoke to my nose.

I wonder if they roast marshmallows over it, or just dead bodies.

“I thought you’d be gone longer.” Kieran drops me as the words find my ears, and I turn once I have my balance to find Val leaning against the side of an RV, arms crossed and head tilted to the side. I can barely see his unmasked face in the moonlight, but I can feel his satisfied gaze on me. “You said you wanted to have fun this time, and her clothes aren’t ripped to shreds. Did you even fuck her?”

“No.” Kieran sighs, tossing his mask down into a camp chair. “I didn’t. Apparently, she has some complaints she wants to lodge with us, and I decided I didn’t want to hear them twice.”

“Complaints?” Val tilts his head, reminding me of a confused puppy when he does it. Curiously, I step closer to him, until the light from the RV is enough for me to really see his face.

God, they really are the most gorgeous men I’ve ever met.

“Yes.” I sigh dramatically, forcing myself to get a hold of myself. No matter how much I want to touch them, no matter how much I want to lick them, I can’t.

Not yet.

“Complaints. Starting with the most important one.” I take a breath and run my fingers through my black and faded-orange hair, standing straight and raising my chin defiantly.

“Why the fuck did you leave me without even a goodbye? Why the hell didn’t both of you come back ?”