Page 23 of Unconditional

My chest tightened.“Yeah, what’s up?”

“Check in more.I worry with you driving all this way by yourself.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course.”My lower lip trembled, the words from before fizzling out with a breath.

“But no texting and driving!I need you to get here in one piece!”

I forced out an appeasing laugh and we said our goodbyes.

It had been four days of this.Four days being trapped inside that car with Talon.Four days lying through my teeth to my best friend.All for what?To protect my parents?The same people who only called me on Christmas and Easter?Who stopped pretending to attempt to wish me happy birthdays when they accidentally called on my older sister’s?

I didn’t think Talon was bluffing.This was the same man who upended Birdie and Milo’s relationship last year.Who helped set Milo up to take the fall for their uncle’s drug operation.Who ripped our apartment to shreds for any information he could find on where the two had disappeared to.Who only three days ago sent me flying across my own living room, continuously handcuffed me to a bed, and just that morning had duct taped my mouth shut.

If I tested the validity of his threats, would I be able to live with the consequences of him carrying them out?And if I didn’t, and we reached Birdie and Milo—what would happen tothem?Could I live with those consequences?No matter which path I chose, I knew someone would get hurt.Being forced to choose was hurtingme.

My chest had begun to rise and fall rapidly, my breathing harsh and painful, like I couldn’t get enough oxygen into my lungs.The room began to spin around me, color flashing too brightly.I knew this feeling.The combined sensation of anxiety, panic and utter helplessness.Air.I needed air.

I fled the dining room, forgetting about Talon and my family and Birdie and Milo, my sole purpose toget out.Without detouring to our room for my coat, I darted for the back door of The Lodge, flying out into the bitter cold of Wyoming.The icy air penetrated my lungs like a million tiny needles but I gulped it down hungrily, desperate for the panic attack to abate.

It settled like iron into my toes, and before I realized what I was doing, my feet were trudging forward toward the woods.My legs led me to the edge of the tree line where the deer had been, the snow level lower there, like there had once been a path for casual hikers to take walks.There was little sound that came from within the trees, as if every creature had tucked away for the season.

“Hey!”Talon’s rough voice reached me over the expanse of the yard, accusation heavy in his tone, breaking the peaceful quiet.Dread coiled up in my belly when I looked back to find him glaring.I didn’t want to go back.Not yet.I just wanted a few minutes to myself, where I wasn’t being held captive and nobody I loved was in danger and the odd sense of emptiness I’d been feeling formonthswasn’t drowning me.

Talon glanced back at the hotel for just a moment, probably to see if there was anyone else witnessing our strange interaction.I took full advantage of that brief moment, bolting through the trees.I ignored small twigs weighed down by frozen snow as they smacked my cheeks and grabbed at the loose strands of my hair.I ignored the way the heels of my impractical boots sunk down into the snow, slowing me down more with every step.I just ran, despite the sound of Talon’s own heavy steps growing on me by the second.

It felt good; the exertion and adrenaline twisting together like a serpent in my chest, burning my lungs with each inhale I took.It felt better than anything I’d felt in days, hell, in months.

Talon’s body slammed into me with the force of a freight train, tackling me to the ground under his weight.We landed painfully, both grunting as we hit the frozen forest floor.I tried to catch my breath, twisting onto my back beneath him.Within seconds, my hands were pinned above my head, Talon’s face only centimeters from mine.

“What the fuck are you doing?”he seethed, breathing heavily through his nose.

“I-I—”

“Where did you think you were going to fucking run to, huh?”The volume of his words rose, echoing off the trees around us, reminding me how badly I’d just wanted quiet.“The goddamnedmountains?!Did you think you’d be protected by the wolves?The bears, the fuckingmountain lions?”

“I wasn’t—”

“Were you going to try to call for help?”He ripped the cell phone from my pocket.“Newsflash, Blondie, nobody is going to help you.And nothing is going to protect you fromme.”He grew closer and closer, the tips of our noses brushing.This close, I could see how golden his eyes really were as light from the snow surrounding us reflected off them.

“I just wanted to be alone,” I whispered, frozen where I lay pinned by his body.Both of our chests were heaving and he wassoclose.

"Too bad.Until I say otherwise, you're stuck with me."Again, I felt the temperature between us rise, the adrenaline shifting course.So close I could almost taste that cinnamon gum.

My lips met his angrily, but unlike the first unexpected kiss we’d shared in Chicago, everything around me felt as though it had gone still.The forest around us was so silent the sound of my pulse hammering through my body seemed to ricochet off the insides of my skull.

Talon froze, stiffening over me so rapidly I wondered if he had gone into shock.Then I wondered, only briefly, if I had imagined all the heated looks.I thought I was pretty good at sussing out mutual desire, but after the week I'd had, who could blame me if I was a little off my game?Still, I had to know.Biting down roughly on his lip, I sucked it into my mouth hard enough to bruise.Mercifully, those golden eyes sparked like a fire had been lit, his entire body shuddering over me.Any doubts I'd had about his attraction to me melted away as he went from frozen solid to returning the kiss like his life depended on it.As if he were trying to swallow me whole.

As much as I hated to admit it, and to him I never would—he’d been right.That first kiss in my apartment had hardly been a kiss at all.It hadn’t even been an adequate preview of what Talon was capable of once he really got to work.AndGod, he went to work.His tongue slid along mine like they were dancing, cinnamon and mint overwhelming my senses.His teeth knew just where to nip and when.I couldn’t help the moan that left me, low and desperate.

Large, strong hands grabbed for my breasts over the fabric of my top, squeezing hard enough to make me cry out.Talon pulled back, staring down at me with a look that I couldn’t decipher—some mixture of lust and disgust.He pulled away from me only long enough to grab me, flipping me back over onto my knees.

His chest pressed down into my back, lips touching my ear.“You say the word, and I’ll stop.”The promise was made so soft and gentle that I questioned if I’d actually heard him.Especially with the contradictory way his palm came up to shove my face downward, my cheek pressed into the frigid ground.There was a pause, a lull where he didn’t touch me at all, only the sound of our mutually choppy breathing in the dead silence of the forest.

I knew what he was doing.He was waiting for me to object.To tell him no, this isn’t what I want, to not touch me.And I knew that I should say those things.That I should shove him off me and hightail it back to The Lodge and tell Susie everything.I knew that I shouldn’t be doing what I knew we were about to do.But I couldn’t.My lips would not form the words.

I never did what was good for me, and it didn’t seem I was about to start now.So I did not move; did not object.I sat perfectly still and I waited with unreasonable impatience for his next move, blistering heat flaring to life inside of me.

Seeming to have been given all the permission he needed, Talon’s fingers gripped the edge of my fleece lined leggings and yanked them down my thighs.Brisk winter air nipped at my exposed flesh, but that wasn’t why I shivered.No, my skin felt feverish under the attention of this man, burning hot to the touch.It was the guttural groan he released that did it, just as two thick fingers slid through the center of me, coating me in my own arousal.

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