Page 48 of Hunt for You
“Oh,that’sthe part you protest?”
“Only because I don’want to—oh!”
I stopped with a gasp because Cain had brought me to a little clear area surrounded by those thicker bushes and trees, and he’d lifted me upright, shoving me against one of the largerpines, and used his thick body to keep me there while he wrestled with me to grab both my hands that I’d gotten free again when he repositioned me.
It took him a second, but in the end, his brute strength won.
When I stopped struggling, I was pinned against the truck of a big pine, both wrists clamped in one of his hands, his fingers unyielding, like manacles, and locked together above my head. He’d stretched my arms high so I couldn’t get leverage, so I was arched back, hands pinned and body bowed against his.
We would have been nose-to-nose, but he was wearing that mask, so instead I was staring at a black mesh with vague shapes behind it that I knew were a nose and eyes and brows… but I couldn’t make out any actual features.
“Well,” I whispered. “Now you’ve got me, what are you going to do with me?”
He gave a predatory rumble in his chest and arousal exploded behind my navel.
My breath got shorter as he brought his free hand up to my throat and clamped it there, not placing enough pressure to stop me from breathing, but the inherent threat was there.
And delicious.
I swallowed hard and felt my throat press against his calloused palm.
He brought his thumb to the point of my chin and pressed it higher so I was looking down my nose at him. Then he leaned in, that mask brushing the side of my jaw as he whispered in my ear.
“The question is, whatwon’tI do with you, Bridget?”
“My first guess is taxes.”
A little splutter burst from him before he caught himself. “You’re a smartass,” he rasped.
I shrugged as best I could, trussed up like a turkey. “One man’s obnoxious is another man’s endearing.”
“This man finds your humor both hilarious and utterly inappropriate. You really aren’t scared of me, Bridget?”
“Not especially. I mean, I know you could snap me like a twig, buturgh—”
“How about now,” he whispered as he clamped that hand on my throat hard enough to cut off all my air.
My body fought reflexively—I writhed and for the second time in minutes, tried desperately to suck air through gritted teeth.
“I’ve given you too much freedom and not enough warning,” he whispered in that husky rasp. “I am not to be toyed with Bridget. Do you believe me?”
Then he released my throat enough that I could gulp a lungful of air and nod frantically. “Yes, yes, I believe you,” I gasped, that heady mix of terror and arousal twisting my chest into knots and my belly into coiled need.
“Good, then keep your mouth shut, and listen. As long as you don’t speak, I’ll allow you to breathe, do you understand?”
“Y—” I started to answer and he clamped down on my throat again so the word cut off in a strangled yelp.
“I said,as long as you don’t speak,”he hissed. Then he released my neck again, slowly this time.
I panted, chest heaving, my breasts rising and falling right under his chin because of the way he had me arched back.
Then he pulled his head back far enough to look me in the eye, though I couldn’t see it through that mask.
I nodded without speaking,thrilledthat he’d actually made me feel cautious to speak.
“Good girl,” he rumbled warmly, rolling his hips against me so I could feel his growing erection straining against his pants. My bodythrobbedin response.“Now, as tempting as you are, I’m not ready for this hunt to end yet. So we have a littleproblem, because you’re trying to run this game, and it’s not yours to control.”
I looked up, towards where he had my wrists clamped, and down towards his hand on my throat, then returned my gaze to that mask to remind him that I had very little control at all.