Total pages in book: 206
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
“I’ll give you an extra 5,” he called, “1, 2…”
I bolted toward the back of the barn and when I rounded the rear I saw the field of flowers and the pond up ahead. I thought about taking a run into the field, but the grass was deep and I was more than a little afraid of snakes. I didn’t know where to go, though, so I ran around the back of the barn and then up the other side thinking I’d head toward the house that was also on the property. He wasn’t behind me. My heart thudded rapidly against my chest wall. So much adrenaline!
That she’d gone from angry to wanting to play got my heart pumping. Maybe she had more in common with me than she realized.
I allowed her to have her moment, her hissy fit, because although I wanted her obedience and her submission, I also didn’t want to extinguish that fire in her that I liked so much.
I’d always been one-sided in sating my desires. Sure, I’d get the woman I was with off, too, I got off on that, but I’d never gone out of my way to make sure that beyond getting an orgasm that I cared what she felt like afterwards. Playing with Tia, playing a game that got us both going? She was showing me that this got her juices flowing. This was different. I liked it. Thrill of the chase? Fuck yeah; it was a thrill.
She’d gone counterclockwise around the barn, so I stayed out front, crouched low against the barn. As she ran past me, I watched her pass and counted to three in my head before I was hot on her heels.
She squealed at the sight of me and ran faster toward the house. She looked gorgeous. As she ran, her already loose ponytail came completely undone and now her hair was flowing freely in the breeze. She kicked off her flip flops so she could gain more speed and then as she took off faster, I quickened my own pace. She passed the house, which was on the front of about eighty-three untended acres. I knew she’d come upon stone ruins and tear up her bare feet within a minute or two of running, so I decided to catch her before she got to the rocky area of the property.
He was gaining on me and the thrill of it was making my heart race, my face flush, and my body tingle all over. As I rounded the house and got to the back, I could see it was a little overgrown with grass and some more wildflowers. I was facing a combination of open fields, stone paths, and treed areas beyond the farmhouse. I could head toward the trees if I went right, or if I went straight ahead it looked mostly clear but hilly. To my left was the barn, the pond, and the huge field of flowers.
I decided to run toward the trees. Not many paces in that direction he caught me by the waist and tackled me to the ground but yet he did it sort of gently, breaking my fall so I landed on him instead of on the ground. As soon as we landed, he flipped and was on top of me, pinning my wrists over my head. We were both heaving but I’d say I was breathing a lot heavier than he was.
“Gotcha,” he said in a low and husky voice.
The sun’s rays were right behind his head, and it was as if they were bursting from him. He looked almost angelic to me. His whiskey-colored eyes sparkled, the corners of his mouth were turned up in a smile. His slightly stubbly jaw looked rugged, and his muscles looked particularly defined.
I tried to catch my breath. I wasn’t struggling, just lying limp in the tall grass with my arms pinned above my head gazing up at his male beauty. My nose itched, so I reached to move my arm and his grip tightened and his eyes, though still sparkling, had a sudden shift, like they’d tinted with a bit of a challenge. I tilted my head to my shoulder and used my shoulder to try to eradicate the itch on my nose.
“Whenever you run,” he said with a hint of darkness, “I’ll catch you.”
I felt my heart constrict for a beat and he must’ve seen my expression shift because then he smiled and nuzzled my throat, I think, trying to salvage the moment. Would it always be like this with him? Seesawing between light and dark? How could I keep up?
She’d stiffened under me, and I knew that she had gone into the darker recesses of her mind. She’d gone to that place that said she was my prisoner.
I needed her to know she was mine completely, but I wanted her to want it. She wasn’t there yet. I was pushing, probably too hard. She’d been shot at, kidnapped, and had her entire world turned upside down because of being mine. It’d take some getting used to. She was doing so good so far, all things considered, and I didn’t want a setback. I had to be patient. We’d get there. And the journey would be fan-fucking-tastic.