Page 87 of When Hearts Collide

“Oh shit,” I mumble under my breath as I flee as fast as my legs can carry me, my simple striped cotton dress plastered against me. “Oh, God.”

I don’t know why I’m running, but I’m not a slave to my thoughts right now. I just follow the impulses of my body.

It’s freeing.

Everything is a sea of murkiness and shadows and suddenly, the ghostly silver moonbeams fade and I glance up, noticing the moon partially obscured by a thick layer of clouds.

My footfalls are resounding as I pound against the grass and dirt, my lungs burn for oxygen, and the wind feels biting against my face.

But I feel alive, the fear mixing with exhilaration, a high I’ve never experienced before. Everything is heightened and more intense. My body turns heated, my eyesight sharpening. I hurtle through the trees away from the hunter who’s trying to catch me, oblivious to the branches scraping my skin, the brushes digging into my cotton dress.

An unusual energy tears through me, and I swallow the urge to laugh.

The rustling is loud behind me now. Whoever is there is no longer trying to hide his presence.

But I know it’s him. I can feel him. His energy. His raw focus. His power. I can feel the distance closing between us, but still, I run.

I run and run and run.

Perhaps we all have a bit of prey inside us, that gut feeling, which keeps us all alive.

The imposing dark shape in front of me, which I can finally make out, is a crumbled wall of an abandoned building. I’m so close; it appears within my grasp. It looks like a sanctuary in this madness.

I can hide behind it and wait until the danger has passed, to see if it’s really him chasing me, hunting me, or if it’s something else. My skin sizzles, every nerve ending on my body awake and attuned to my surroundings. I no longer feel cold but feel very hot instead as I imagine the man behind the thousand-dollar suits and centuries of good breeding coming undone before my eyes.

I feel the telltale pulsing between my legs, my panties dampening.

I never had this with Lloyd, or even in my imagination during lonely nights.

But now, having experienced it, I can’t imagine life without this excruciating high.

The sensations are disorienting. The fear, the lust, the excitement, everything which feels familiar yet distinctly unfamiliar, all magnified tenfold. Unbidden, my lips curve in a smile as I careen toward the tall wall ahead, which is just a few feet away from me. It feels like a victory. If I can reach it, I can—

A hard body slams into me and a muscular arm bands around my waist, lifting me off the ground.

I let out a scream, my body automatically fighting as I claw at my assailant, my nails digging into his forearm, my feet swinging and kicking against his shins.

“I got you. You can’t escape me.” A low guttural rasp. The familiar scent of the great wilderness with hints of citrus sifts to my nostrils. The hard muscles pressed against my back, rippling with tension.

Ryland.

My mind, a swirl of chaos as adrenaline churns through my veins, registers this pillar of heat as the man of my dreams. The man my heart pounds for, the man whose soul calls to mine. The man who infuriates me to no end.

My clit pulses and my core throbs, my body struggling with the warring urges to fight or to give up, to succumb to the hunter or to give it back to him as good as I get.

Then, I think about this past month. His icy demeanor. His cutting words. And suddenly, my blood boils and the choice is clear.

I grit my teeth and thrash against him, even though my clit pulses for his touch and my body aches for him. My hands deliver solid punches to his body, but it’s as if I’m hitting the cement wall ahead. He doesn’t grunt in pain, doesn’t slow his strides. He’s moving, carrying me like I weigh nothing more than a sack of potatoes. The spoils of war.

He’s so powerful.

The thought causes me to break out in a fevered sweat. I want to come undone underneath him.

“Ryland.” His name is uttered on a ragged exhale as I scratch his arms, his torso, anywhere I can reach.

He freezes.

His arms band tighter around me and I feel his muscles tensing up. A startled breath rips from his lips.

---