“Baby,” I murmured in her ear, gathering her close to me. “You have to stop now, or I’ll fuck you right here.”
I wanted to do more than that. I wanted to possess her. Not just her body but…more. Just more. I seemed to want more from her than I ever wanted from any woman I’d been with. It couldn’t even compare. It left me frustrated. It left my heart aching.
She pulled away, licking her lips. She brushed her hair off her face as she tried to catch her breath. Then she nodded. “Let’s go.”
She walked close to me, still holding my hand. We were close now.
“How did you find out about this place?” she asked.
“Raven and I moved here when I was a kid.”
She frowned. “Who’s Raven?”
“My mother.”
“You call your mother by her given name?”
I nodded but didn’t offer her an explanation.
“How about your dad?”
“They’d divorced by then. She moved around a lot, and she took me with her everywhere. It was an adventure for her.”
“Did you like it?”
“Hell no.”
She squeezed my hand.
“My parents are loaded, and after the divorce, my mom fleeced my dad for every drop she could. She didn’t need the money, but she needed to punish him. They hated each other.”
“It must have been hard for you,” she said.
I shrugged. “It was my normal.”
I couldn’t say I missed anything because I didn’t know what to miss. I grew up with parents who hated each other’s guts. I thought everyone’s parents were the same.
“We stayed here the longest, but she hated it here too.”
Talking about Raven twisted something in my gut.
“The only reason we stayed here was because she met a man. But I was…” I searched for the word. “Content here.”
“Did you have a lot of friends here?”
I chuckled, but there was no humor in it. “I don’t do friends.”
“You hang out with Caleb.”
A small laugh came out, and this time it was real. “He didn’t give me a choice.”
“Best friends forever, huh?”
I gave her a smile. I pushed her back gently behind me when I saw tree branches in the way. I shoved them back and gestured for her to go on, holding them back so they didn’t scratch her.
“The boys in my class talked about this place a lot. They said it was haunted and anyone who entered the maze would be cursed. The people in this town believed it, so no one came here.”
“But you did.”