Page 81 of Hunt for You

~ BRIDGET ~

I didn’t move or struggle any further, but I locked eyes with him and made my tone as calm and flat as I could.

“Ronald, this isn’t—”

“Call me Sid, or we’re going to get nowhere.”

I took a breath.“Sid,let me be really clear with you—this isn’t a game. This is a no. There is nothing to bein.”

He raised one brow. “Don’t play games, Bridget. You want to be hunted. I told you I could help. You came to see me work. Here we are.”

“No, Ron—Sid. That’s not how this works, and you know it.”Heart slamming.“You have your assessments and your waivers, I have my arrangments.”Gotta breathe.“But you and I haven’t agreed on terms. I don’t have a safe-word. This isnotpart of a game,” I said very clearly and firmly, not lowering my voice. And definitely not letting him see how I wasabout to have a fucking heart attack.

Ronald tipped his head and reached up with one hand to push my hair back off my face. I jerked away from his touch, but held eye-contact. Submission could be deadly with a Dom on the hunt.

“Thisisour game, Bridget. You and I both know you don’t need a safeword. I know your boyfriend, and I’m not surprised he’s not…satisfying you.Don’t worry. I’m here now. And I’ll make sure you—”

“Ronald,no.This isn’t part of the game—there is no game for us. I’m saying no. I don’t want this from you.”

He smiled and nodded like I’d just said something profound that he agreed with.

I stopped breathing when he leaned in and his lips brushed the corner of my jaw, his breath thundering in my ear as he whispered, “Boundaries understood. Now… let me help you. And don’t worry, we can take our time. I won’t even hypnotize you. I think you’re brave enough without it.”

Shit.Shit!

Then he pulled back, locking eyes with me again, chin low and his lips pulled up in a wicked smile that turned my blood cold.

“Your heart is beatingway too fast,Bridget. Take a breath. In a second I’m going to let you go so you can run and we can get started. I know you’ll fight—I love that part. But I give you my word, I won’t let you down. You won’t get away… Ipromise.”

I gaped at him, rage and frustration andabject terrorcoursing through me as I looked in every direction and realized there was no way to get through him.

He really thought I’d come to him for help. He wasn’t going to hear my clarity—he thought it was me stating my fears.

Fears that I wanted him to help me face.

Head spinning and heart thumping painfully in my skull, I just stared at him as he slowly, carefully set me back down on myfeet, then took half-a-step back, though he could still reach me easily.

Then he brought one of those strong hands to cup my jaw and stroke my cheek with his thumb. I raised my chin, turning from him without breaking eye contact, letting him see my teeth, but his smile just got wider.

“Now…run,”he whispered like it was a lover’s caress.

Every system in my body screamed high alert and time slowed.

Valerie had once told me that all men have animals inside them. Predators. But that modern life had stifled those instincts so firmly, the only option left to most men was to become caged in their own rage.

Doms, she postulated, had found an outlet for the animal inside.

“Never run from a predator unless you want to be his prey,”she’d warned me once a couple years ago, as we sat drinking in the lounge, watching the rich, the perverted, and the self-indulgent come and go from her lair.“Never ever run from a man you don’t want to chase you—because unless he’s a complete pussy, you’ll just wake up the animal inside him.”

And now I stood here, staring into the eyes of a predator who’d had his pride hurt and had somehow twisted our interactions in his mind. If I ran, he’d chase me. But if I didn’t, I was already in his grip.

There was no winning.

He was going to kill me.

And very, very suddenly, I didn’t want to die.

Not like this. Not with him. This wasn’t the end I’d fantasized about.

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