Page 84 of Bird on a Blade

My foot lands on a slick patch of ice, a place where the creek splashed water and froze, and my legs fly up in front of me. I shriek in panic. There’s a split second when I’m flying, but I never land. Two wiry arms catch me. Pull me up.

Sawyer yanks me up against him, his breath hot against my neck.

“Careful,” he purrs.

I wriggle my ass against him. He’s already starting to get hard again.

“Put your mask on,” I tell him.

He arches an eyebrow, eyes going bright with lust. “Is that what you want, baby?”

I nod, breathless from the cold and from the chase. He grins, steps back, and pulls his mask out from his back pocket and slides it on over his head. Seeing it, his second face, sends a jolt of lust through me.

Not that we have time for that.

“Run,” he growls. “It’s cold out here. You’ll catch your death.”

I grin. Then I turn and run, flush with a second wind. This time, Sawyer runs, too, jogging so he’s just behind me, a constant threat.

“Turn!” he shouts, and I do, veering off to my left.

Two seconds later, I erupt into the clearing.

I stumble to a stop, gasping at the sight. The clouds have cleared, and the moon’s out, heavy and full and high in the sky. The snow fell more thickly here and piled up in drifts against his church and the graveyard. Even though it’s the witching hour, the middle of the night, everything glows.

Sawyer grabs me by the waist and yanks me up against him. “Got you,” he snarls into my ear, and I moan a little, dropping back into his embrace. I’m freezing, my bare hands numb and raw, and I slide them up under his arms, trying to seek warmth.

“You’re shivering like a little rabbit,” he murmurs, then pulls me around to face him.

We both know I’m shivering from the cold and not fear, but I won’t hide who I am anymore. I won’t hide how much his darkness turns me on.

“A killer’s after me,” I whimper, making my eyes big and scared.

Sawyer pulls out his Bowie knife. He cleaned it of Scott’s blood, and the blade is like liquid silver in the moonlight. He presses the flat side against my cheek, and I gasp at the ice of the metal.

“The killer’s caught you,” he says.

Then he pushes up his mask and kisses me, his mouth hot and bruising. Just as I’m melting into his warmth, he sinks his teeth into my bottom lip, hard enough to draw blood. I moan at the sting of the bite, the taste of my blood. Moan as he licks it away.

“I’m going to fuck you so good,” he murmurs into my ear. “As soon as it’s safe.”

As soon as we’re away from this place, he means. All afternoon, we’ve been getting ready: clearing the church of any evidence that I willingly stayed there, planting strands of hair and drops of blood for investigators to find. We packed his truck with a few crucial supplies, mostly food and money. Then he drove the truck to a landing spot downriver. Our escape car.

But first, we have a scene to stage.

I step away from him, gazing up at him in the moonlight. He still has his mask pushed up on his forehead, and his face is carved of light and shadows and speckled with blood. He’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.

“Are you ready for me to cut you?” he says softly.

I nod. Blood’s dripping down my chin from his bite, but that, I know, won’t be enough. And that bite wasn’t for the scene anyway. It was him claiming me. Me letting myself be claimed.

Sawyer pushes his mask back down, a single movement that makes my pussy pulse.Thatisn’t necessary, strictly speaking.

I just like it. And Sawyer knows how to please me.

Then I steady myself and hold up my arms, just like we talked about. Sawyer steps forward and flashes the knife out, slashing it over the front of my forearms three quick times, shredding my sweater and slicing my skin just like we discussed. The pain is blinding, as blinding as the snow in the moonlight, and I shriek and stumble backward, clutching at the cuts. Blood splatters out and forms a delicate lacy pattern in the snow.

I clutch my arm to my chest, breathing hard through the harsh, burning pain, and look up at him through my snow-wet hair. He flicks the knife out, splattering more blood.

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