Page 21 of At Her Pleasure
“I’ve thought of doing so many things to you.” The gravel in his voice raked her skin, rough and right. “Some nights, I’d hurt myself so the ache wouldn’t drive me fucking insane.”
She let the things she knew about him twine around the things she didn’t, and steady her voice. “So are you going to take the cuffs off and make this a fair fight?”
In her head, she was hearing Evanescence’s “Bring Me To Life.” Eyes like open doors, inviting him right down into the darkness of her soul. What was there was coming to life.
Wake me up.
“Who says I give a shit about fair? Someone told me it’s not a real fight if there are rules.”
He merged into the darkness, a wide wall descending upon her. He squatted and touched her thigh, palm skating up over her ass, but a breeze would have had more weight. It was what the contact said that mattered. He could touch her however he wished. Do what he wanted.
He knew what she could do with her free left leg, but maybe he’d thought she wouldn’t try it twice. Either way, he was ready. As her heel flew up, he caught her calf again. This time he shoved the leg back to the ground and planted his knee on the back of hers, putting uncomfortable pressure on her kneecap, pressing it into the hard floor. Pain shot through her thigh muscles as she fought the pin. Leaning over her, he cut the zip tie on the other one. Then he removed the cuff from the table support.
She tried to buck him off, flip over. He had all the leverage in this position and cuffed her wrists behind her back, the click and rasp of her breath loud in the silence.
“Just you and me here, baby. No one to hear you scream.”
She laughed. “I’d let you kill me first.”
“Yeah. I remember that about you.” He jerked her to her feet, grasping her by the elbow, but he didn’t let her stumble or knock into anything in the enclosed space. He took her to the door, pushed it open and guided her down to the ground. His movements were swift but sure. He didn’t let her fall.
They were outside the city, along a rural route. He’d parked under a bank of trees on one side of the untended lot. As he took her across the broken pavement, she saw one flickering, bug-encrusted light, shedding indifferent light on a faded sign. Fall Maze, Lafayette High School Fundraiser.
The date was last year. Possibly to keep the grid for future events that hadn’t yet come to pass, the bales had been left in place. The maze was positioned on the rear border of a fallow corn field, the brown stalks rustling in that eerie way empty husks did, inspiring horror movies.
In the distance, she saw a square of light in a Monopoly-sized rectangle of a house. The owner of the field, she assumed. Frogs croaked, and she caught the faint whiff of marsh that infused the air almost everywhere around NOLA. The road appeared sparsely travelled at this time of night. If anyone noticed his motorhome, they’d assume a traveler headed for Florida had found a place to catch a nap.
Mick took her past the sign and into the entrance of the maze. She fell back to break his grip. He moved with her. She tried to kick, and he used the move to yank her forward, putting her off balance. Again, he didn’t let her fall. He ducked away as she spat at him and shoved her a couple steps ahead, separating them. When she spun around with the kick, he was out of range, but his expression showed admiration for her form and balance.
He removed a key from his pocket and showed it to her. “I’m going to take off the cuffs. Turn around.”
She gazed at him through narrowed eyes before turning away. A different kind of stillness descended as he unlocked the metal bracelets, his fingers brushing hers. Then he stepped back.
As she pivoted, he was folding the cuffs over and tucking them in the back of his belt. A very cop-like move, even if he wasn’t one anymore.
This time he hadn’t put much distance between them. She could have made that kick work. He reached out and trailed his fingers down her throat, stopping at her sternum, just beneath the scoop neck of her tank. “Do you like that?” he murmured. The touch was once again lighter than air, while waking up every nerve. His fingers brushed the silk cord of her necklace, a polished jet stone carved with a rune for the goddess Freyja. A gift from Vera.
“I want to learn everything you like, every kind of touch,” he said. “I’ve imagined so many.”
When she talked about the things she liked, it was about what she was doing to the man under her control. Not the ways she wanted to be touched. She didn’t let those thoughts come into her head. But she was letting him touch her.
He pushed her, shoved her, overpowered her. But backed off when it mattered. A significant combination.
“So, primal play.” She stepped away and he lowered his hand. “Is this where I chase you?”
“Not how it works. You want me to chase you.” His voice rumbled in the dark like an approaching engine, stroking her nerves in all the right directions, as well as a few wrong ones. “You want me to work for it, show me how difficult it will be to catch you. But I will.”
That silky, menacing edge infused the words again. “When I do, you’ll fight me hard and dirty. You won’t go down easy. Or at all. You’re nobody’s bitch.”
From what was vibrating off of him, she knew the clock was counting down. But eventually he’d be playing on her clock, not on his. “What do you get out of it?”
“I want a woman to fight me, fight back. I want her to do her best to kick my ass. I want her to fight with her last breath. It turns me on, feeds the beast.”
She’d experienced the wrong side of what he was describing. She’d actually fought for her life. She’d experienced the right side only once, with him. A hint of the possibilities, before he’d given her a chance for a life beyond day-to-day survival.
He was offering those possibilities to her again. So she was done with questions. She backed up three steps. Adrenaline surged anew as the planes of his face altered, all the small muscles tensing. Showing readiness.
Yet, still watching her, he reached into his shirt pocket and withdrew a cigarette and lighter. The flame deepened the shadows in his steady gaze.