AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I hurtled after her, fast, but not too fast. The more she ran, the more scared she’d get, and the closer I’d get to rattling her composure.
She zigzagged between trees, and I did the same. Hungry to catch her, fucking starving to touch her. I’d missed her, this woman who had infected my life like some kind of pink venom, sparkly yet absolutely lethal.
I rounded the last tree she’d disappeared behind and stopped. The woods were quiet. Winter was nowhere in sight. I waited. She had to be hiding somewhere. After a moment, the cracking sound of someone stepping on a twig was the only warning I got before a branch hit the back of my head.
The impact was jarring, sending my teeth through my tongue. I ducked the second blow and swiveled, knocking the branch out of her hands and grabbing her.
“Help!” she screamed, wriggling like crazy against me.
As I struggled to get her into a more comfortable position to haul her back to the cabin, she threw her head back hard and slammed it against my face. Pain exploded across the bridge of my nose, but I could barely focus on it. My girl was doing so fucking well. I was proud of her. Underneath the refinement and elegance, she was a savage, just like I’d always suspected her to be.
I dropped her, and she scrambled back, holding her lit-up phone in her hand.
It would be inconvenient if she actually had a signal and managed to call the cops. I had to stop her.
She was holding the phone to her ear, her eyes wild. “Don’t come near me. I’ve called for help. Someone’s going to come and help me, and you don’t want to be here when he gets here,” she warned.
He? So, she hadn’t called the cops, it sounded like. Interesting. Then again, maybe she knew that her chances of calling the cops, describing her location, and evading capture until they arrived were slim.
She held that phone to her ear like it was her only lifeline. I advanced toward her, ready to grab the phone.
Just then, my own phone vibrated in my pocket.
No. No way.
The sound was like a gunshot in the dark, quiet woods.
I reached into my pocket and answered, my gaze glued to Winter the entire time.
She blinked at me, her ragged breaths filling my ears from across the space.
She’d called me. When she’d been scared and alone, under threat…she’d called me. I was right. She was hiding something big from me and pushing me away, and I wasn’t going to let her.
She dropped her phone, a single tear dashing down one cheek.
I shoved my phone back into my pocket as she wiped her tears away, and her expression of utter relief turned into heartbreaking sadness. I couldn’t stand that look. I strode across the space between us.
“What are you doing? Are you nuts?” Her tear-streaked face hurt to see, but at least she was really here with me, free of the bullshit act she’d been putting up for me lately.
“Yes, I am nuts — I’m fucking insane — and so are you if you think I was ever letting you just go.” I tore off the mask and studied her properly.
“Stay back! This is dangerous!” She seemed genuinely afraid.
“The only dangerous thing is what I’m going to do to you for lying to me,” I growled back.
She stumbled back, a resolve appearing in her eyes that told me she was about to run again.
“Don’t you dare,” I warned lowly. We were having this out here and now.
Like the fucking brat she was, she took off into the woods again. Frustration burned through me. She was incapable of doing things the easy way. That was fine. I could do the hard way. For her, I could do anything. I sprinted after her.
I caught her when she was within a hundred feet of the cabin, grabbing her around the waist and pinning her against me.
“You shouldn’t have done that.”
She kicked furiously at my legs, so I bore us both down to the cold forest floor, cushioning the blow with my body. She tried to crawl away, but I dragged her back.
Fisting a hand in the back of her jacket, I tilted up her head. “You’re mine, Winter. I love you, and you love me right back, and no power on this fucking planet will get between us. I won’t let it.”
