Page 28 of The Four Leaf

This makes me laugh. “Learned about it two seconds ago and already testing out theories?”

Sam’s eyes flash back to me, and I lose myself inside them for a moment. Flecks of black and gold give them a dimension that has always captivated me. Plus, the color reminds me of the bright mud I pushed her in all those years ago. Just another piece of evidence that proves she was made for me.

“We’ve already wasted so much time, why not jump in?”

I shake my head and huff. It blows her hair back, revealing a speck of green. I pull it from her strands and smile when I realize what it is.

Holding it up in front of her, she mirrors my expression with a broad smirk as she takes it from me. “A four leaf. How appropriate.”

I lean down and kiss her nose. It will be the last soft gesture she gets until she’s shaking from her next orgasm. “I think so. Sets the precedent for what’s to come.”

She arches a brow. “That we’ve been anointed to be blessed with faith, love, hope, and luck?”

The meaning behind the four leaves, an anthem our parents would speak over us when opening the hotel. “Having the luck of the Irish sounds good to me, Bambi.”

“Having you inside me sounds better.” Her lids flutter as she tosses the clover on the nightstand and opens her legs wider for me.

I oblige, moving to seat myself between her legs and hold her steady. I love the smirk on her face, the one that says she thinks she can handle me. It will be fun to watch her come undone.

And I do. Four lucky times.

This is unfair. Completely and inexplicably, wrong.

But really, it just doesn’t make sense. I’ve spentmonthslearning the city I thought I already knew. I’ve studied blueprints and maps, and everything else that could help me plan my runs and escape routes.

In the end, none of it does anything to help because the better I get at hiding, the better he gets at finding. Which is good in a sense, because when he catches me,ugh swoon, but also, it’s incredibly frustrating because it means hunts never last more than fifteen minutes, and I’ve learned Iloveto run.

Last month, I decided to devise a plan. A full-proof way to outlast the usual time and get him to cry uncle–a word we still haven’t needed.

It’s summer, and with most people starting their cruises and summer vacations, the hotel is in its slow season. This week, I made sure only the first floor was booked so that the second and third were completely empty.

I was confident that with the split wings, access stairs, and all the rooms, I’d finally get him flustered, so I made a wager.

If he calls uncle,Iget to hunthim. Where if he wins, we do a hunt on the vacation we’re taking in the fall. He thinks I’m shy when it comes to a little voyeurism, but really, this bet is a win-win.

Still, I wanted–want–to freaking win.

But the radiating burn in my calf as I make a desperate climb to the roof with Adrian only a few meters behind me, has me on the verge of defeat.

“Come on, Bambi, there’s nowhere you can go.” The deep rumble of his voice echoes up the hollow stairs. “And if I get you to the roof, I’ll fuck you right there for the whole city to see.”

A thrill shoots up my spine.

His words sink into my skin, lighting a fuse that reverberates through my limbs. It ignites a new fire for me to keep moving. To keep running despite the ache in my chest and the throb in my clit.

I want to be caught, but I want to win more.

Pushing through the top access doors, I spin around and shove one of the maintenance shovels through the two handles. It won’t hold him for more than a few minutes, but that’s all I need.

Leading up to today, I placed various things on the roof that I knew would be a good distraction. There're stacks of heavy crates, a few oversized trash bins, and wide industrial laundry carts. All of which are big enough for me to climb through and hide, which will slow him down and allow me to get back inside and run out the remaining six minutes.

I race around and squeeze in between some trash bins on the side of the access doors at the same moment the metal clangs in the air.

My heart bangs into my chest as he slams his body into it again, the sound echoing in the air and making my core clench.

He’s hungry today, and it has me reconsidering if I want to continue to run.

Fuck.

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