Page 44 of Hunted By the Headless Horseman
“Okay, Jack. Understanding. Of the heart and soul. But…” I smile when he tenses, and I can’t help but lower my hand to his cock, which has not grown flaccid this whole time. “I still want to have sex with you.”
A dark chuckle ripples through our bond.Soon, my Belle. But you must heal first, my sweet summoner. Please grant me this. For, when it comes time for us to unite, I fully intend to fuck you until you cannot walk. I will not do so in your present state. It should take but a few days for you to heal. Rest assured, it is worth your patience.
“How worth it?”
I will ravish you.
My heart swoons!
FIVE DAYS LATER
Jack is drivingme crazy!
If there is such a thing as too noble, Jackson Elias Moore embodies that definition. He’s fucking insufferable! He rubs salve on my bruises every night. I’m a quick healer. The marks faded after the third day. But he has simply maintained a steady presence, cleaning the shop with me at night.
The night he put me to bed, he disappeared for some time, and I assume he returned to the place in the woods where we were attacked. I didn’t ask questions. I’ve already been on edge the past few days, dreading, hoping, praying they don’t come back. They could assume Jack was a random masked vigilante who scared them enough to give up.
A dark voice in the corner of my mind spreads ice through me. Because when Thaddeus wants something, he doesn’t give up. It’s why he didn’t pursue me much when I escaped. He got what he wanted on the honeymoon. He probably moved on to the next girl and the next. Now that he’s learned about what happened after I left, I know he won’t stop.
But I feel safer. Because I am safer…with Jack.
The past few days, we’ve also cleaned his manor together and explored the grounds, seeking wherever his heart may be hidden. I knit him another pumpkin head, and during downtime, I read to him in the evening while sipping my tea. One time, he approached my chair to discover I may have been sitting in nothing but my open-knit sweater.
I loved how he tucked the end of the riding crop beneath my chin and informed me my punishment would be greater once I healed.
In the evening, he takes me riding. A gentle ride, no more than a trail ride at a steady walking pace.
I’ve fallen positively in love with Revenant, aka Revy. Tonight, I help groom her alongside Jack.
“Slow, tender circles with the brush, much like paying boon to a beautiful woman’s pearl of the divine…” Jack alludes, and I bite my tongue, blushing profusely but working to appreciate the moment with his beautiful horse.
He turns his knit head toward me, and I can’t help but smile sweetly, a contrast to the twisted Jack-O-Lantern expression. I’vealways been an avid smiler. But ever since Jack, I’ve smiled more and more every day.
I offer Revy a fresh helping of straw, and she gratefully accepts. Smiling, I pat the side of her head while rubbing the bristled brush with my other hand. Horses were a prominent fixture in the cult. Our house was closer to the central part of town, but I would sometimes help Ms. Greene with her horses.
I muck out Revy’s stall with Jack.
I love riding with him. I smile every time, unable to help my imagination run wild with thoughts of his highwayman days. I never ask him about them. I know he blames himself for his family’s death.
I also haven’t asked him more about his…more intimate times with his wife.
What is your favorite book, my Belle?
I roll my eyes. “Seriously? How could I possibly?—”
Indulge me.
“I mentioned how Mimi found me a first-edition copy ofWuthering Heights. It would be that one. I wish I knew more aboutThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I never could have thought I’d fall right into its story.”
He was a fallen soldier. I am a woeful example of a thief.
“Vigilante,” I correct.
You still think too highly of me, my Belle.
I shrug and sift my fingers through Revy’s mane. “Same could be said of you,myJack.”
He pauses. My heart does a flip when he approaches me, riding crop in hand. My blood catches fire when he nudges the handle beneath my chin.Do you require my riding crop upon your ample fanny to remind you of how much higher above me you are?
