Page 24 of Of Heathens & Havoc

To my deepest shame, after a while, I start to wonder what it’s like to be down there. To be hunted, touched, claimed by a stranger in the dark. To be filled with that animal, raw part of Heath I’ve seen twice now.

A shiver of terror runs through me, but my skin flushes with heat at the same time, and the dull throb between my thighs becomes an unbearable ache. When I hear another lamb being caught and devoured, I have to stifle a sob. I pray for my soul as I lay there in the dark, considering slipping off the shelf and joining the game, running free and wild, living my most sinful, carnal desires like even God can’t see me here.

No one will know it’s you.

The thought nags at me like the pulsing need eating me alive.

I shove it away, locking it tight like I’ve locked these sinful urges for so long.

God, wash me clean of this sin…

He’s so quiet I don’t even hear him until his breath is practically in my ear. I got too comfortable, let myself relax.

A soft chuckle ripples over my body in the dark, making my nipples instantly harden to diamonds. “Gotcha.”

The voice sends cold terror spiking through me. I’m trapped. I can’t roll away, as I’m already at the back of the ledge. All I can do is go towards him.

Hoping to surprise him, I brace my feet and shove off, rolling toward him and launching myself off the ledge. I twist around in the air and land on my feet, but I stumble into the far wall of the tunnel. He curses in the dark. Fingers rake down my arm, wrapping around my elbow in a steel grip. I can’t see his face, but I’d know his unhinged laughter anywhere.

I yank to free myself, but Heath jerks me back. “Should I fuck you right here, or bring you back to the crypt and do it in a coffin? Would that get you off, you freaky little slut?”

I let him pull my body against his so I’ll know his position. I’m weak with fear, but I adjust my stance as he reaches both arms around me, grabbing my backside with both hands and grinding into my center.

“I might even let you spit out the beads. I want to hear you whimper and scream. It gets me so hard.”

I gulp, feeling the truth of his words between my legs as he continues rubbing against me in the most shocking way, a way that has my knees trembling even harder than they are. For a second, I give in to my baser desires, my head spinning with how good it feels to be touched there. I never let myself do it. Now I can feel the ridge of his shaft digging into me, hard enough to make a dull ache build along with the delicious hunger. He drags his length along me, until I can feel the steel ball of his piercing against the bundle of nerves that makes me throb deep inside. I whimper behind the rosary, and Heath growls, his face angling to find my throat.

“You’re fucking soaked, little lamb,” he whispers, his voice husky with desire. “You want it too, don’t you?”

He rakes my skirt up halfway, above my knees, fumbling in the dark to get a hand under it. “I’ve been dreaming of this day since I was fourteen fucking years old. God, I can’t wait to be inside you.”

I step back on my left foot, bracing my heel on the floor, and raise my other foot. He instantly drops my skirt, but my knee keeps it from falling and restricting my movement. I’m sure he’s flinching back, probably covering himself so I can’t slam my knee between his legs. But my aim is lower.

Grabbing my skirt to keep it up around my thighs before my foot lands, I bring my foot down, stomping directly onto his. Then I turn and bolt.

His cry echoes behind me in the dark, but I don’t slow. I aim for the turn, and once I’m around it, the faint rectangle of light beckoning from the room we entered. If I can make it up the stairs, I’ll be in the church itself.

Heath’s curse is followed by rapid footsteps, and adrenaline explodes through my veins, shooting me forward. He’s wearing boots, which means I didn’t hurt him as much as I wanted. But it also means he’s slower, while my bare feet give me both speed and silence. I race for the door as if my life, my soul, depends on it.

I’m only a few steps away when a shadow moves from the wall, stepping straight in front of me. I slam into him before I can stop. The breath is knocked from me, and I go flying backwards, but his hands catch mine, snagging the cord tying my wrists. He heaves me upright, and I crash into his chest for the second time, my giant mask bouncing off the granite surface of his muscles. I have no time to register anything else before he darts around a corner, into another tunnel. All I can do is stumble after him while he grips the cincture.

“Quiet,” he growls.

He flattens his back against the wall, dragging my body flush against his, with my back to his chest and his arm gripped around my middle. I can feel his heart hammering against my back, his hard body crushing against mine as I struggle to draw a breath.

Heath goes charging past, snarling curses meant for my ears alone. I wince, hating that the person holding me hears him referring to me as a whore.

And then I realize I don’t know this stranger at all. I only know that he saved me from a very angry, vengeful boy who wants to hurt me as much as he wants to ruin me.

I start to step away, but the man holding me only tightens his grip around my middle. His chin nudges aside the unwieldy head of the costume, and rough stubble rasps against my sensitive skin. A shiver rolls through me, and I drop my head back, breathing hard for a second, trying to get my wits about me. God, his body feels like it’s made of pure, carved marble.

Before I succeed in getting my brain back in working order, he grips my skirt, starting to draw it up. He pauses as heavy footfalls come back the other way.

“You fucking slut,” Heath bellows. “I’m going to find you, and I’m going to make you really pay this time!”

My savior’s fingers tighten in the nightgown, drawing it higher, even as I feel his breath catch and hold. He doesn’t want to be found. He’s not even breathing. But he eases his hand beneath the nightgown.

I know if I struggle, we’ll make enough noises scuffling to draw the attention of my pursuer, if not others as well. So close to the big room, there are probably others lurking like my captor was. I remember the noises in the tunnel below me, how loud that girl was, and how it drew a second hellhound to ravage her only seconds after the first one finished.

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