I pause and listen. But the room remains still. And when I check the en suite bathroom, she’s not in there either.
My blood boils with hunting lust. “I would have been nice if you told me last night. I would have been sweet as that apple crisp you served me, even though you knew your pussy was ready to go. I would have held back. Made myself take this slow. But now you’re going to get it, Red. Do you know? Do you have any idea how hard I'm going to fuck you?"
I rip open the closet door. It's a walk-in, even though my dad was two times divorced when he had his old cabin razed and replaced with this. There's nothing except for an emergency suit and some hunting clothes hanging in here, along with the gun safe, sitting toward the back. And again, no Red.
I frown. Maybe I was wrong about how crazy she is. Maybe she’s not in here after all—
Something rustles behind me.
I whip around. Nothing. But then I notice the floor-length blackout curtains swaying a little. Could she be hiding behind them?
I yank each side of them back. Nothing there either. And there’s nowhere left for her to hide.
I’m just about to leave, but for some reason, I can’t let my original notion go. I was so sure I was right when I came in here.
Instead of moving on to another room, something makes me flip off the light, walk all the way out—then tiptoe back in and close the door behind me.
At first, nothing happens. But then I hear that rustling sound again, and a shadow crawls out from underneath the bed and rises.
So that was the sound I heard. Her moving from one hiding space I hadn’t checked yet to one I already had.
Clever girl. But the game is lost for her now.
My hunt is over.
She's framed by the moonlight, so I see her, but she doesn't see me. Not until I lunge at her and tackle her to the bed.
“Heya, Red,” I say, grinning down at her. “Looks like you’re going to get fucked in a bed after all.”
CHAPTER 15
RED
Did I go too far?
Whatever is going on with me, whatever kind of mental breakdown I’m experiencing, it’s reached its peak.
This is all Red’s fault.
She thought it would be fun to do it this way. She was the one who ran and threw out words of challenge over her shoulder. Red—not me—invited a criminal biker to hunt her like big game. She’s a very, very bad girl.
But now Griff has me flat on my back with my arms pinned above my head. He’s a shadow animal crouched on top of me—a feral smile glittering in the moonlight.
“I want to be on top,” I tell him breathlessly, grasping at my last chance to take control of this situation. “Let me drive again.”
“No,” he answers with a short laugh. Like I must be making a joke.
His answer enflames me. I struggle underneath him and tug at my arms, trying to get them free. “Then let me go!”
“Sure, I’ll let you up,” he answers. His voice is a wolf in the dark. “Just say the safeword.”
I stare up at the animal bathed in moonlight.
And he stares down at me.
Do you know how hard I’m going to fuck you?
His words from before echo in my brain.
But I say nothing.
And that feral smile flashes again.
“What did you think you were doing, huh? Running from me?” he asks. “Were you trying to make it harder on yourself?”
There is a smart and safe answer. A soft joke that will cut into the intensity of this moment and defuse the bomb I can hear ticking in our background.
And then there’s the answer Red comes up with.
Don’t…Bernice starts to warn.
But I’m already saying it. Out loud. “Sure, I’m all up for making it harder on myself,” I answer, meeting his eyes in the moonlight. “I mean, as long as you don’t come too fast again.”
A short, deadly beat of silence.
Then a cold chuff, followed by, “You crazy bitch.”
He lifts up. Not to release me, though.
He flips me over onto my stomach and yanks down the comfy Christmas pajamas I’ve come to like so much, along with my underwear. The next thing I feel is the hot brand of his hand across my ass.
“Ow!”
“You think, after making me wait this long, I’m going to put up with you trying to pull brat shit?”
He smacks my butt again before I can answer that question. The pain sears and makes me crawl to get away.
But he grabs me by the hips and drags me back to him. “I was only going to give you three swats: one for making me wait, one for not telling me as soon as you were done bleeding, and one for hiding. But now I’m giving you five because you didn’t take your punishment like a good girl.”