Gathering my hair off my neck, searching for some coolness after sweating in this hot house, I moved quietly toward the staircase. My boots made soft thumps on the gray carpet as I touched the banister and prepared to climb down.
Only...
A noise.
A growl.
The heavy pound of running feet.
Someone’s here!
My heart shot into my throat as a man suddenly exploded through the door disguised as a bookcase and skidded into the foyer. His legs splayed wide, his hands fisted by his sides, his eyes darting everywhere at once. His chest rose and fell with rapid breaths, sending sunshine scattering over his body and highlighting a thousand silvery scars.
I sucked in a breath.
He froze as his head whipped up and his dark eyes latched onto me.
Time stopped.
I swear it did.
Every clock in the world paused as he stared at me on his staircase, and I stared at him below me. I drank in every inch of his naked skin. His cock hanging between wide legs. His defined muscles etching with fury and power. He looked as if he’d appeared from the river moments ago with dripping dark hair touching defined shoulders and grass sticking to bare feet.
My stomach quickened. My heart raced. Every inch of me tingled with awareness.
I didn’t know who he was or where he’d come from, but he was the wildest, most furious looking man I’d ever seen.
Swallowing hard, I tried to speak. I licked my lips and pushed away my nerves, my voice quivery and full of guilt. “I didn’t mean to trespass. I—”
He snarled.
A rabid thundering sound that echoed in the marble-encrusted foyer.
And then, he was running.
Leaping up the stairs four at a time. His thighs rippling with power. His cock swinging. His arms coming up as weapons.
A lifetime of safety and living in a tame society left me woefully ill-equipped for a monster rushing up the stairs.
I didn’t understand.
My brain refused to contemplate that this stranger meant me harm.
But my body wasn’t so conditioned.
It still operated on instinct, and it knew.
It knew it was being hunted and needed to run.
Run!
I spun and sprinted down the corridor, racing for a bedroom.
“Stop, please!” I screamed as he leaped the final distance to the landing and gave chase. The strength of his strides shuddered the carpet beneath my boots. “I only wanted—”
He snarled again.
No words.
No warning.
Just a beast about to tear me to pieces for trespassing.
I’d die here in this mysterious mansion in the middle of nowhere.
“No!” I careened into a bedroom, swinging on the door handle as I struggled to shut it. I slammed the door as fast as I could.
I scrambled with the lock.
No lock!
The door exploded inward, bashing me off my feet and sending me sprawling to the floor. He stalked over the threshold. His dark eyes manic and long hair tumbling as if it was a shaggy pelt and he wasn’t human.
I crawled backward, my boots skidding on the carpet, my palms burning. “No, wait. Please. I—”
He stood over me, his nostrils flaring. He glowered at me with such loathing, his entire face bathed in evil. I scurried backward, but he dropped to his knees, imprisoning me between his spread legs.
His hands wrapped around my throat. A heady scent of rivers and woods filled my nose.
I instantly clawed at his wrists, digging my nails into his violent hold. “No, wait, I—”
“How dare you,” he hissed, his fingers looping tighter around my neck, his touch shaking with anger. “How dare you!”
“Stop!” I gulped and gasped, writhing beneath him, slashing at every part of him that I could reach. My fingernails scratched deeply but he didn’t seem to notice or care—impervious to whatever pain I granted.
“Please...” I struggled harder. “Let me—”
His fingers noosed tighter, his eyes flashing with hate.
His entire presence overwhelmed me, taking master of my senses, crushing me deeper into the carpet. His skin was scalding hot. His muscles rock hard. His cock pressed against my belly as he continued to squeeze. And squeeze.
I choked.
I couldn’t breathe.
My eyes felt as if they bulged with pressure, and my arms grew too heavy to fight. I kicked and kicked. My legs danced uselessly beneath him, unable to connect, unable to save me.
“Stop!” I fought until I was too feeble to try.
Get your knife!
I fumbled for my pocket.
I fought against the heaviness, the sluggishness.
My fingers didn’t work properly.
My kicking grew jerky as air retreated from my blood.
I tried again to get my knife.
I couldn’t.
Panic drowned me.
I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t beg.
I looked into the face of my murderer and studied the scars on his cheekbones, the lips glistening with hate, the eyes molten with mayhem, and took my last breath as he bowed over me, the tips of his long hair tickling my cheeks, his nose coming so close to mine.
“Die.” He squeezed a final time.
And I did.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE SECOND SHE PASSED out, I shot off her and shook out my hands. I couldn’t stop the fire of touching her, of feeling her pulse flicker, of squeezing the life out of her body.