Page 15 of Beautifully Wounded

I have to get free.

I can’t keep letting people do this to me.

The snap oftwigs behind me sends a fearful whimper past my lips. Someone is chasing me. Someone is closing in.

My foot catches on a fallen branch, and I squeal as I start hurtling forward, the bed of the bush floor coming at me fast.

“Stop!” The growl is loud, a strong arm hooking around my chest just in time to save me from face planting, my trembling body crushed back against a broad chest.

“What the fuck did I say earlier?” Ringo sneers into my ear, his breath so close, so warm that I’m sure his lips must be a mere fraction away from my lobe. “I thought you understood my fucking meaning when I said you don’t want to know what will happen if you try to run.”

“P-Please. L-Let me g-go. Y-you don’t w-want m-me. I’m not w-worth it,” I beg, stuttering my way through the words as I sob.

“Someone thinks you’re worth it. Someone thinks you are worth kidnapping in order to get you away from your family.” Lowering my feet to the ground, Ringo releases me, only to spin me to face him.

It’s dark out here, the only light is from the half moon above, and the lights from the toilet block at the rest stop filtering through the trees. His silhouette is huge. A looming presence in itself, but I can just make out one side of his face in this light, his stare hard and annoyed as he glares at me.

“Believe it or not, I am trying to protect you,” he snarls, sounding pretty unhappy about being put out.

“I don’t believe you.” I force the words, determined to not let my fear continue to allow other people to control me. “You said you are going to claim me.”

My words cause his lips to kick up in a smirk.

I think.

I can’t be sure in this dim light.

“That’s right, Charity. I did.”

“How is that any different from what my parents were forcing on me?” I take a step back, shaking my head. “I refuse to marry you or anyone else.”

“Who the fuck said I wanted to marry you?” he asks, his tone now sounding amused.

Great. Now he thinks this situation is funny.

“You said you were going to claim me as yours.” I rebut, my tears no longer falling but my cheeks flaming in anger. Why is this guy such a… a… dick?

“I did. Yes. That’s not a fucking marriage proposal. In my world, we don’t need shit like that to own something.”

“W-what? Own something?”

Did he really compare marriage to ownership?

I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s the way Daniel saw it, too.

“You find her, man?!” a male voice yells through the trees.

“Yeah. I fucking found her!” Ringo calls back, not taking his sight off me for a second.

“I’m not going to have sex with you,” I blurt out, and this time, his smirk grows as he chuckles.

“I wasn’t planning on fucking you, Charity.” He takes a step closer, and when I go to step back, my calf hits the trunk of a tree behind me, showing me I have nowhere to go.

Shifting closer, he does that thing he keeps doing, pressing his finger under my chin and forcing my head back to stare up at him. “Unless, of course, you want me to fuck you?” He leans down closer, hovering his lips right before mine, and I hold my breath, my heart tripling its speed. “But if you want that, Angel, you’d better ask really fucking nice.”

I swear I stop breathing. Is he going to kiss me? Why would he want to do that? Is he going to rape me?

Bile rises up, burning the back of my throat, and my heart starts pounding again before Ringo takes a step back, releasing my chin.

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