Page 85 of Dare
Flare
Darkness swallowed me whole, midnight lacquering the walls in black. Adrenaline propelled me down the corridors, each one draped in blossom curtains and prickly shoots. Leaves curled their fingers as if to snatch me, florals twinkled with light, and the wet air beaded down my back.
Across crumbling halls, lush verandas, and sunken chambers puddled in water, I darted through the ruins, hopping around loose bits of masonry. He had practice hunting me. The prince had learned the pressure of my exhales—their own type of sound—and grown accustomed to my shape blending in with the murk. Therefore, this monarch knew what I looked like in the dark.
Most of all, he’d learned my scent.
My pulse thudded like a drum. My lips tipped into an exhilarated grin.
In the dining hall, I slowed to a jog. A raptor took flight from one of the beams, the slap of its plumage echoing, and crickets chirped from the surrounding forest, which threaded its branches past these walls.
Our rainforest castle.
Like him, I had memorized the layout. Yet my head clouded, dazed from the havoc we’d caused each other, the sensation of his cock abrading my cunt. My senses ran amok, so that I fought to orient myself.
A pebble skittered from one direction. I whipped toward the noise, then spun the other way as a click—a blade flicking from a weapon’s hilt—pierced the night from another spot. The disturbance urged me down an empty hallway, then up a stairway. As door hinges creaked, I fled down a labyrinth of passages glowing with flora.
Then I halted in realization. The noises had been intentional, meant to direct me, to steer me down an intended path. Like a creature stalking its next meal, my pursuer was trying to trap its quarry, to force me somewhere I couldn’t escape.
My mouth twitched with combativeness, my thoughts cleared, and my vision sharpened. He might be a calculating prince, but I’d had more training when it came to the darkness. I could easily hunt him back.
Let the prey become the predator. Let the captive become the captor.
Let those tables turn.
Flattening myself against a wall, I skulked down the next channel. Hyperawareness chipped at my flesh, the masculine essence of needle forests and blustering winds filling my nostrils. He was close, very close, so close.
I slipped around broken pillars and shrubs that had burst through the ground. The premeditated noises from earlier ceased. Victorious, I relished the proof that he’d lost track of me. From there, I trailed his scent and the outline of his body cutting in and out of sight.
Buoyed, I made a game of circling him. Except I drew it out for too long. This became clear when I swerved around a bend—and stumbled in place.
A vast enclosure loomed before me. Bottles containing plants and liquids flashed from the recesses, including the gauzy leaves I’d excavated for him. The honed tools he’d scavenged from the armory crypt rested on a stone table, and the hearth stood empty.
I tarried at the medical chamber’s threshold. Though, I wouldn’t have come here on purpose, nor ushered him like some enabler. At some point, I had unknowingly forfeited my advantage, and he’d reclaimed his.
With a frustrated grunt, I padded backward while staring at the chamber. One step, then two steps, yet I knew.
It was too late.
My feet skated across the uneven floor. Facing the interior, I retreated another yard, then bumped into a solid form.
I tensed, a gasp catching in my throat. A slab of muscles aligned with my back, his chest contorting from each breath. Heat prickled down my spine, the temperature seeping through the nightgown. My limbs locked, a feeble defense even though he didn’t touch me, keeping his evil hands to himself.
Regardless, he hardly needed to do more. Already, the walls of my pussy tightened.
Jeryn’s head bent over my shoulder, his jaw slanted toward my profile, and his rasping voice struck the ledge of my ear. “Poor little beast. It appears you’ve gone astray.”
My words shook. “You cheated.”
“No,” he hissed. “I strategized.”
Dammit, he was right. He’d waited me out, knowing I would grow impulsive. To catch me, all he’d needed to do was be patient.
He murmured against my earlobe, “I have obsessed over every facet of your body until each scent, sound, and movement branded itself into my head. I have spent every waking hour committing you to memory. That’s how I hunt what I want.” A silken noise oozed from him. “Though, to be fair, I would call this a draw. You gave chase longer than I had predicted. For your cunning and insolence, I have a mind to make you suffer.”
My eyelids fluttered, and my skull grew heavy. Unable to help myself, I lolled my head, bracing it atop the hard plank of his shoulder as his teeth nicked my lobe. For the thousandth time, I shouldn’t want this. This chamber should trigger nine years of torment, rousing every demon to the surface. Instead, my soul rebelled to an intimate and frightening degree.
The truth softened his words. He hadn’t driven me here to awaken trauma. The healer in him had brought me here to overturn the effect, to mend what had come before.