Page 40 of Run For Me (Until You’re Mine Duet #1)

Chapter Forty

Sailor

Friday is finally here. It’s been a long and stressful week.

Classes are getting more difficult, and my homework is piling up.

I thought I had a good schedule going, but then every class seemed to double the workload and now I feel like I’m drowning.

Going out tonight should be put on the back burner so I can catch up, but I won’t blow him off.

We’ve talked on the phone every night this week.

Well, maybe not talk as much as masturbate together.

Sometimes on video, sometimes just on the phone.

I swear, each night he’s gotten hotter and hotter in the things he said, and somehow it’s made me more comfortable about tonight.

I feel like I know him better and know what to expect.

It’s 9:45 and I’m parked in the small parking lot by the playground. I don’t see a single soul here and wonder if I’m going to get stood up or if he’s going to cancel on me again. How is he getting here? A motorcycle or a car? Does he live close by and is walking?

I do my best to keep myself occupied as I wait for the next fifteen minutes to go by.

When they finally do, I get out of the car to walk to the hiking trail.

It’s past the playground, through the open field, and toward the back of the park.

There is only one way onto the trail, but it splits off in many directions as you go through.

It isn’t lit up inside, and I can just barely see the entrance where I am thanks to the light from the parking lot that’s bright enough to make it this way.

I’m going to need my flashlight to get through the trail, but I won’t turn it on until I go inside.

There is still ten minutes until then. Why did he want me to wait?

Is he here? Waiting too? Watching me? I look around, carefully browsing the tree line, the open park, the playground, the parking lot.

I see no one. It’s a quiet night, cold but not windy.

There is a slight breeze that rustles the tree leaves, but I can hardly feel it down here.

Fear licks up my spine, but not over what’s about to happen.

I worry about anyone else that’s here. Someone who could really hurt me.

Or an animal. A coyote or something. Though, if JT is here, watching, I know without a doubt he’d protect me.

A quick glance at my car has me wondering if I should run that way and say screw this, but I don’t.

This is an opportunity I don’t want to pass up.

How many chances will I get to do this? This has to be my only one.

These thoughts have tormented me for months, some of the less drastic ones for years.

I tried so hard to push them away, to the point they ruined one of the best relationship I’ve ever had.

If I had accepted these parts of me in the beginning, I could have been honest with Sam instead of forcing myself to be something I’m not.

I know there is a large kink community out there, but I don’t know a thing about inserting myself into something like that.

I want to do this, it’s not that I don’t, it’s just nerves. This is all so new.

I turn to face the trail opening, looking inside and wondering if he’s already in there or if he’s behind me, watching.

It’s 10:09. I turn on my flashlight and stare at my screen until it changes to 10:10 and then I go inside. I take slow steps, still worried about coming across an animal or a homeless person or an actual serial killer.

JT didn’t say how far I should go or which way I should go, he just said go inside at 10:10.

Once I’m walking for a few minutes, I stop, chewing on my lip and glancing back at the entrance, wondering if I should go back.

The fear is much stronger now. Still, it isn’t over him.

It’s about being out in the woods late at night alone.

I’m surrounded by darkness, and whatever is hiding in it.

Only, I’m not alone, am I?

Hopefully, I’m not. If he doesn’t show, I’m going to be screwed. I hadn’t thought of that until now. There is so much more trust involved in this than I thought.

Though, if he does find me… I’m going to be screwed in an entirely different way.

I’m sure I am not alone. He is here. I don’t see him, can’t hear him, but I just know he is.

He wouldn’t let me do this without him. And that gives me the confidence and bravery to keep going.

The only sounds I hear are my sneakers crunching on the dead leaves and my heavy breathing.

My breath puffs out in white smoke in front of me, my hand shaking as I hold out my phone to see where I’m going, but I can hardly see five feet in front of me.

I should have worn gloves because my fingers are already going numb.

Blood rushes through my ears, and my senses are on high alert.

Each minute that goes by, the anticipation grows, and I wonder how far I’m supposed to go or how long I’m supposed to walk. What if something happened, and he isn’t here? What if I get lost out here and freeze to death? He would have told me if he had to cancel. But if he fell asleep…

My worries are squashed when a twig snaps behind me. I pause, whirling around to shine my light that way, but it doesn’t go far enough for me to see anything. My hand trembles, and I focus on what I hear, but my heart is pounding so hard in my ears that I can’t hear a damn thing over it.

“H-hello?” I call out.

Nothing.

So, I turn and keep going.

It’s not for another five minutes that I’m sure someone is following me. More twigs snap, footsteps get heavier, and the best thing I’ve heard yet—little dove whispered into the dark.

It was said at just the perfect volume that I heard it but had to really focus to make sure that I did. My heart pounds harder, my feet moving faster. He’s here. I know that, yet it’s the adrenaline that has me moving further away.

The feeling of someone behind me is there now, that instinct to run overwhelming. My chest flutters, hands shaking as I pick up the pace until I’m jogging. I swear I hear heavy footsteps right behind me, which has me moving even faster, but they’re gaining on me.

My light hardly does me any good as I start to run, the light flicking from side to side and just enough that I keep on the trail and don’t run into a tree.

When I reach a fork, I stay to the right, moving even faster.

I look over my shoulder, but there’s nothing there but darkness…

and the heavy footsteps that are getting closer.

I push harder, wishing I’d done track or even just exercised more.

“Run for me, little dove!” comes from a few feet behind me. “Keep running, but know that I will get you.”

His words have my stomach twisting in the best sort of way and because I’m not ready for this game to end yet, I force my legs to move faster and smile into the dark.