Page 2

Chapter 1

Juliet

We’re going to make you scream tonight.

Damien Vanderbilt’s promise didn’t strike fear—or lust—into my heart the way he hoped. I can’t be scared and they all know it, even if they’ve made it their mission tonight to change that.

Isolating me on a sixty-nine-acre haunt with a massive haunted house at the center, a spooky hayride that wouldn’t frighten a six-year-old, and a group of scare actors hired to jump out at visitors are nowhere near enough to make me scream.

If one of these masked men actually succeeds in scaring me, I’ll marry him.

The Devils aren’t even paid scare actors, yet they’re still running around in masks at the haunt to terrorize the masses. Pretty sure that’s their kink. Too bad nothing’s scared me since I was fifteen.

A shame, really. Horror movies with raunchy sex are the biggest turn-on.

Mechanical notes of coyote howls and a cackling witch crackle over the speakers. I roll my eyes.

In the corn maze, Sienna loops her arm through mine. She’s already vibrating, more from fear than excitement. She screams every time a scare actor jumps out at her, no matter how ridiculous their gory makeup.

“Why did you even want to come tonight? We both know you’re a baby.”

She scowls at me. “I am not . And you and the guys promised it would be fun.”

“Right. You’re definitely not planning to fuck Luke in the haunted house with his mask on.”

She blushes because of course she is. I know my best friend.

An errant ear of corn crackles beneath my foot, and Sienna whips around. “Did you hear that?”

“Relax. This is the least scary haunt I’ve ever been to.” In the September night air, children shriek, scare actors shout, and classmates scream before bursting into fits of laughter.

Massacre Manor should be my shit. If a single inch of it was remotely frightening.

Footsteps thunder up behind us. Sienna tries to duck with me to the wall of corn, but a rock-solid body breaks our joined arms apart as he sprints between us.

A gas mask covers Damien’s face. Behind him, Knox, Finn, and Luke follow. Knox and Finn in matching gas masks, and Luke in a dark gray mask with red devil horns.

Sienna presses a hand to her chest. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“You’re easy.” Damien’s mask tilts as he turns to me. “Now we just need to scare the psycho.”

I don’t hate the nickname they bestowed upon me last semester. “Good luck with that. You’re about as scary as a puppy.”

“Careful.” He steps closer, like looming over me with his ridiculously giant, six-foot-seven frame will be enough to make me tremble. “I bite a lot harder.”

I laugh. He has no idea how hard I can bite back. Nothing about Damien’s empty threats worries me.

“Run, sweetheart,” Luke purrs to Sienna.

She grins and holds out her hand to me before we bolt. I match her smile. This is why we came here. To be chased in the dark by masked men. Even if only one of us is going to get fucked by one tonight.

We race down between the stalks of corn, sticking to the right because that’s how you escape a maze as simple as this one. It’s not fucking rocket science.

Next to me, Sienna laughs, and behind us, the Devils howl like they’re werewolves under the full moon. They’re a bunch of idiots but loveable in a weird way. Fuckable, maybe, but almost certainly too vanilla for my taste, even with three of them.

Those three couldn’t handle me. Their little nickname for me doesn’t even come close to covering it—I’m way more unhinged than any psycho they know.

By the time my calves start to burn, Sienna is huffing and puffing. She’s never been an athlete, and I gave up running after what happened.

My Docs and fishnets weren’t made for running. Good thing I opted for a skirt, but my black lingerie isn’t doing shit for keeping my tits in place. I swear they’re about to hit my fucking chin if we run any faster.

“I have to stop!” Sienna drops my hand and bends at the knees, heaving.

Cool autumn air curls around my cheeks. My favorite weather. My favorite time of year. Spooky season is when I feel most at home. “We really need to get you in a gym. Spending every night in Luke’s bed hasn’t built up your stamina by now?”

Sienna flips me off, not bothering to look up.

“Ladies!” Knox is getting a brotherly sort of enjoyment out of chasing us around. He’s boyish and charming and not at all my type. Damien is like a Rottweiler—he might bark, he might even bite, but underneath, he’s a softie who just wants your affection. Finn is practically nonverbal, and I need a vocal man.

Four masked men chasing me through a corn maze in the dark should be the pinnacle of arousal for me, but there’s no adrenaline or lust pumping through my veins.

“Can’t hide from us,” Damien croons.

“Keep your hands off Sienna,” Luke warns his friends.

“Don’t worry. Juliet’s enough for the three of us.” Laughter follows Knox’s words, and my eyes roll up to the constellations.

More like I’m too much for the three of them. They’re all attractive enough that they’ll eventually find a girl who will want all of them. But that girl isn’t me.

Sienna finally straightens. “We better keep?—”

Before she can finish, her green eyes go round as saucers and she points behind me.

“What?”

A large, veiny hand lands heavily on my shoulder with an iron grip.

The scream that rips through the night comes from my best friend before I’m yanked back into the corn stalks. “Juliet!”

I thrash in my abductor’s hold as he drags me with ease, the hard stalks smacking against my legs and face. The arm he has wrapped around me like a viper squeezes hard enough to bruise my ribs. “Fucker! Let me go!”

“That’s not the safe word.” His low, seductive purr makes liquid heat pool low in my belly, words distorted by the mask covering his face.

The scare actors are allowed to touch us unless we use the safe word. Red . Which is a stupid choice because too many words sound like it. If he thinks I’m going to give in and use it, he can think again.

“Where’d Juliet go?” Luke asks.

“I don’t know!” Sienna’s genuinely terrified, voice coming out high-pitched and screechy over the chaotic rustle of the corn. “One of the actors took her!”

Honestly, I have to credit him for his dedication. He obviously gets off on this shit. Too bad for him, he picked me.

When we finally clear the corn maze, he shoves me to the ground. My ass hits first, teeth clacking together.

Finally, I get a good look at him. Tall and fit beneath a black, long-sleeved shirt and dark pants. Not bulky and massive like Damien but still intimidating. The neon-red mask with X’s slashing over his eyes and mouth covers every inch of his face, fully concealing his identity. He could be another Devil from Diamond University, or he could be a random scare actor. Either way, I’m not afraid in the slightest.

“Ooh, that was so scary.” I stand, brushing the grass and dirt from my ass. “I’m shaking in my little boots.”

The echo of his chuckle beneath the mask as he saunters toward me liquefies my stomach. Something about being approached by a masked stranger in the dark gets my heart thumping with anticipation, my thighs clenching together. “I’ll have you shaking from head to toe, pretty girl.”

He has no idea how good that sounds. Or maybe he does. Maybe his kink is hooking up with the random girls he chases at the haunt.

“Sounds hot,” I drawl, taking a step forward that throws him off. “I’m in.”

He halts in his tracks, and my stomach dips with disappointment. He can’t handle a girl like me either. No man can. “In that case. Run, little demon.”

Little demon . Even better than psycho . “What?”

The masked scare actor takes a single step forward, his movements completely silent. How a man this large can move without making a sound is mystifying. Maybe even a little, tiny bit frightening. Almost. “If you’re in, then run .”

A smirk rolls across my lips. I’m always up for a challenge. He’ll have his work cut out for him tonight. “If you catch me, you fuck me.”

Beneath his mask, I bet his mouth falls open. But I don’t wait around to find out. I spin and take off, heading away from the corn maze and deeper into the darkness, aiming for the dimly lit barn guarded by scarecrows without eyes and wrapped in fake crime scene tape. Inside, lights flash and visitors screech.

His footsteps slap against the ground behind me. I almost laugh. The masked man chasing me thinks he’s going to make me scream, but I’ll be the one who makes him scream.

“Better run faster, little demon,” he taunts. “You know what happens when I catch you.”

My manic laugh coils through the night air. I may not be a runner anymore, but I trained for years. I was the fastest on the team, running for miles every day. It made me special. Made me a target. “You won’t even come close.”

The flashing lights from the barn cast an eerie glow on the dark grass and hay stacks piled up beside the peeling red walls. Mechanical tracks of moaning ghouls and revving chainsaws split the night air. I’ll lead him into the barn and?—

Something solid catches on my foot and I go down, hands flying out in front of me at the last second to catch my fall. My palms smack against the unforgiving earth first, every inch of me aching as the pain lashes through my joints. “Shit!”

A heavy body lands on me, cementing me into the ground hard enough to leave an imprint. I can barely breathe as I gasp for air, lungs bruised from where he squeezed me and tits sore from bouncing. The dirt and grass are cool beneath my exposed skin, almost soothing.

Against my back, the masked man still breathes normally. Definitely fit. Probably an athlete. Fucking athletes. Yet I can’t help but salivate over the delicious way his body is flattened against mine. His massive hands pressed to the ground on either side of my head, his chest and abdomen crushing me, and his long, hard erection digging into the thin fabric of my skirt over my ass. My thighs clench.

The edge of his mask brushes through my hair as he leans down to my ear. “I hope you keep your promises, pretty girl.”

A lump catches in my throat. If you catch me, you fuck me . But he wouldn’t let it go that far, would he?

Will I?

Yes, of course I will. This is what I’ve fantasized about since discovering I have a mask kink.

He pulls on the side braid I swept my hair into this afternoon and jerks my head up. I clench my teeth against the pain as he nearly tears the hair from my scalp. “What the fu?—”

“Get up.” Keeping his grip on my hair, the masked man yanks me to my feet.

Once I’m upright, I aim an elbow at his ribcage. He flinches, but his grip on my hair doesn’t slip. He’s committed. We’re not allowed to assault the actors, but I don’t care. They may be allowed to touch us, but no one said anything about shoving us to the ground and nearly yanking our braids from our scalps. “Let go of me.”

“Scared, little demon?” he taunts.

Did he overhear the conversation with the Devils earlier? Does he know my reputation and now he’s determined to be the one to scare me? I smile. “Not even a little bit.”

“That’s a shame.” His free hand brushes an escaped strand of dark hair off my cheek and sets my whole body on fire. “I like when they scream.”

My pulse is thundering in my ears now. Sienna would chastise me and call me an idiot if she knew what I was considering doing with a masked stranger in the dark right now, but I don’t care. I can’t remember the last time someone’s touch made my heart skip, my thighs tremble, my core hot with anticipation. “I like when someone makes me scream.”

Without another word, he scoops me up and tosses me over his shoulder. His arm pins my legs to him, my skirt riding up dangerously, potentially flashing my panties to anyone who might see us in the shadows.

I pound against his back with my fists, even as my heart flutters at the ease with which he carries me. With anticipation of what he has planned for me. “Put me down!”

The mechanical tracks and screams and laughter from inside the barn grow louder, drowning out my shouts and the masked man’s hurried steps.

“Put me down !” I repeat, and just like that, he does.

He drops me, and my back collides with the sharp needles of the haystacks. “Better?”

I gasp, the pain and shock vibrating through me as the dusty, earthy scent fills my nose. “Bastard!”

He lands on me before I can get another word out, shoving me harder against the hay, the sharp points digging into my scalp and thin crop top.

I push as hard as I can at his chest, the fabric smooth and unexpectedly soft over the hard, warm muscle underneath. He doesn’t budge. I’m a buzzing fly he doesn’t even notice as his focus drifts down to my torn fishnets.

His hand inches slowly up my thigh, the tips of his fingers catching on the nylon threads, and with every centimeter, I hold my breath. My entire body is on fire from the slight graze of his skin against mine, the pressure little more than the brush of a featherlight kiss.

He doesn’t stop until he reaches the edge of my skirt and my heart is thumping.

This is really happening. And not at all how I expected tonight to go. I give his chest one last shove with my little remaining strength. “Get off me.”

“No.”

That one word churns the acid in my stomach. This is so fucking stupid. I don’t know this guy. I couldn’t even point him out in a lineup. He could do anything to me right now and get away with it.

When he speaks again, I can almost hear the smile underlying his words. “Now are you afraid?”

Yes . I’m scared shitless now.

Yet that doesn’t make me want to keep fighting him or escape. I want him to keep going.

My palms drift from his chest to his shoulders, pulling him closer and whispering, “ Yes .”

“Good.” His voice drops, low and serious. The taunting, amused edge to his tone gone now.

He flips up my skirt, revealing the flimsy, black panties underneath. Beneath his mask, the guttural moan he emits makes me shiver. Primal, animalistic. He’s completely lost his self-control now. We both have. We’re not scare actor and victim anymore. We’re a masked man and his little demon about to fuck in the haystacks in the dark, where anyone at this haunt could stumble across us.

I bite my lip. We need to hurry. I don’t want anyone interrupting us.

Nails digging into his shoulders, I wrap my legs around his back and tug him closer. His erection collides with my panties and I cry out. I don’t bother biting it back. No one will hear us above all the chaos in the barn.

“ Fuck .” He groans as he grinds his cock against me, the friction from his pants and my panties sending electric shocks of pleasure through every limb.

“Oh my god!” I tighten my legs around him, hanging on like he’s my lifeline as he keeps grinding into me. “That feels so fucking good. Don’t stop.”

His neon-red mask looms over me, muscles rippling beneath his polyester sleeves as he rocks. He’s not even fucking me, but the friction against my clit drives me wild. My panties are soaked as every thrust makes the fabric rub against the flood between my legs.

He chuckles as I writhe beneath him, back to the cocky masked man who doesn’t doubt for a second that he can make his little demon scream. “How far are you going to let me go?”

I grip those delicious bulges on his arms, the muscles rigid beneath my palms. I want to rip his shirt off, dig my nails in, and leave scars all over his skin as he fucks me into the hay. “This is one of my fantasies. Getting chased and fucked by a masked man in the dark.”

“Yeah?” His mask tilts, amused. His voice alone is nearly enough to make me combust. Low and smooth like melted chocolate. “What else?”

“I want to be asleep and taken advantage of,” I pant. I don’t care if he knows my darkest, most depraved desires. I’ll never see him again. Who cares what a stranger knows or thinks of me. “I want to be held at knifepoint and taken against my will. Cut before he licks the blood off my skin.”

I’ve never confessed any of this out loud before. To anyone. Marcus was the first I told about wanting to try breath play, wanting to fall in and out of consciousness while getting fucked, and look how that turned out. It was fine, enjoyable even, but I knew after hooking up with him a few times that he wasn’t doing it for me. An inexperienced frat boy who didn’t know how to handle a girl like me.

But I have a feeling the masked man grinding his cock against me would know exactly how to fuck me. Would know exactly how to make me come and scream and keep me returning for more.

For some reason, he stops rocking into me and leans down. Even though I can’t see his eyes boring into me, a delicious shiver races to my toes. “So you’re the one.”

Now I’m confused as hell. “The one what?”

“The one I’ve been searching for.”

My heart catches in my throat until he thrusts his hips forward again and the thundering muscle crashes against my ribcage, my head tipping back as a moan escapes. Pleasure bursts through every vein, coming to a boiling point. There’s no chance I’m about to come already. No way. Not possible.

Except as he keeps grinding against me, the pleasure builds and builds. My grip on him tightens, my legs pinning him to me, and my eyes start to water as the overwhelming pleasure mounts. “ Fuck . Don’t stop.”

“Are you really going to come with my cock rubbing your clit?” His taunt almost makes me want to stave off the orgasm, to show him he’s not nearly as irresistible as he believes, but I don’t care enough about wounding his ego to resist.

Especially when he drives into me harder, his erection massaging that bundle of nerves and making firecrackers burst in my brain. I moan, unable to bite back a retort.

“You really are the perfect little demon, aren’t you?”

The praise makes an unexpected bubble of delight rise in my chest. Perfect . No one has ever called me that. After what happened, I was certain no one ever would. No one could ever love my darkness.

With a thrust of my hips, I smack my pussy against his cock. He lets out a sharp groan, his hard length twitching in his jeans and thumping against my clit. I cry out and he finally flattens his body over mine, pinning me into the hay as he dry-humps me.

The pressure from his weight on me and his cock creating friction between my legs sends pulses of pleasure up from my clit and through my body until it grips every muscle in a stranglehold.

My mouth flies open as a scream rips out, throat aching as the orgasm barrels through me. Pleasure crackles in my head, eyes crossing and the stars above us colliding in a beautiful, chaotic dance. Each wave of pleasure tears a new scream from my throat, my heart pounding harder than it has all night. Maybe in my whole life.

“That sound is so fucking beautiful,” he pants. “Scream for me, little demon. Scream your little black heart out.”

I do. With every throb of my pussy, every burst of electricity through my veins, I keep screaming. My screams of pleasure blending with the screams of fear throughout the haunt.

He keeps thrusting against me as the orgasm eventually ebbs, my pulse still thundering, bruising my ribs from the inside. Holy fuck . Did that really just happen? I just came from a masked man dry-humping me in the haystacks. His cock grinding against my clit was all it took to send me tumbling over the edge.

If this is a dream, I hope I never wake up.

The masked man pushes the upper half of his body off me as his cock continues rubbing against the sopping mess between my legs. Even with his mask concealing his eyes, I know his gaze stays trained on me as he reaches for the button on his pants.

A soft buzzing fills my ears.

I could tell him to stop. I could use the safe word. Red . No matter what I’ve consented to before this, he’s still a scare actor and I’m a guest.

But I bite my lip and keep my mouth shut. Fuck the safe word. Fuck using my brain. I’m thinking with my libido and I don’t give a fuck. I want this masked man to make me scream again before I see stars that don’t belong to the sky.

“Juliet?” From the darkness, a soprano voice calls out behind my masked man.

Fuck .

Before I can say a word, he scrambles off me, leaving me soaked and aching—in both pain and lust—on the haystacks. Cool air covers me in his wake, making goosebumps spring up along my exposed skin. “Until next time, little demon.”

“Wait—”

But he doesn’t stop, disappearing into the shadows. Every limb longs to race after him, to shove him to the ground this time before I whip out his cock and slide it into me, riding him until we’re both roaring into the darkness.

I don’t know his face or his name. I’ll never see him again or relive that fantasy. Never again hear someone call me the perfect little demon. Never get to ask him what he meant when he said I’m the one he’s been searching for.

I jump to my feet, fixing my skirt and plucking hay needles from my hair and clothes.

“Hey!” Sienna waves to me, the Devils trailing her. She rushes forward, green eyes wide. “Are you okay? I’ve never heard of one of the actors doing anything like that before.”

I shake her off. “I’m fine. It’s all part of the fun.”

They have no idea exactly how much fun I had with the masked man who abducted me in the dark.

“Tell me that asshole didn’t manage to scare you,” Damien grumbles.

“We didn’t even get to hear her scream.” Knox pulls his mask off to reveal his pout.

I wipe away the creases in my skirt before searching for the masked man in the shadows. But he’s long gone. A smile sneaks across my lips. “Actually, he did.”