Page 35 of Hunted By the Headless Horseman
So, I go down instead.
Back down.
Way down.
By God, woman! By thunder and the devil!
With the aftertaste of pumpkin spice on my tongue, I slide my lips down the base of his staff, determined to reap all the rewards of cozy and comforting flavors of fall like an autumnal rainbow.
Dream. Fucking. Come. True.
14
I charge for her like a rampaging monster…
JACK
Enough, you greedyguts of a dirty girl!I command, ripping my manhood from Belle before she may mutilate the poor equipage.
“Sorry,” she giggles, but she is not apologetic in any sense of the word. “At least I won’t need any dinner.”
I grunt and stuff my overly contented length back in my drawers, then secure my breeches and suspenders before donning my waistcoat and overcoat again.Naughty Belle. I’ll need to punish you later.
“Definitely later.” She touches her palms to my chest, leans in, and kisses the side of the pumpkin head. I may not be able to feel it, but I sense it, and I hear enough to know it was a kiss. “There’s one last attraction for the day. Well, it’s night now.”
Bonfire mayhaps?
“Better.”
I hear the mischievous smile in her voice. Whatever is she up to now?
I amhard-pressed to understand how a glorified playground for the easily spooked with a transparent “ruse” to prey upon the willing gullible and separate them from their coin is superior to sharing a wool blanket and cuddling before a roaring fire.
A cold wind laces the air, cracking the tree branches and carrying the scent of the fir trees and the distant wood smoke of bonfires.
“Oh.” Belle pauses, her hand still threaded through my glove. “Do you want to leave?”
I heave a sigh, turning toward her and rubbing my other knuckles along one cheek.If this pleases you, my Belle, of course not. I may not understand it, but any good relationship is founded on compromise. I was married for six years to understand this.
“True, but it’s not like I’m your wife. You don’t have to?—”
You’re mine,I growl, seizingthe side of her neck and wrenching her against me. A gasp loosens from her mouth, and I sense the quickening of her pulse. A grimness overcomes me, and I strengthen my hold upon her.I trust your fear of this moment will not inconvenience you, Belladonna. Or cast a blot upon our budding romance. For I cannot apologize for it. The lengths I will go to possess you are unparalleled. To protect and pleasure you will be the greatest honor in my miserable existence.
“I like your type of fear, Jack. Never doubt that. It will be an equal honor to be protected by you.” She embraces me, this wondrous woman I do not deserve. “But my only true fear is that you will regret it, regret everything because the demons in my past will inconvenienceyoutoo much.”
Her voice cracks with her emotion. “I bury them deep and eclipse them with all the passions I love, like my bookshop. But every night, I revisit them in my dreams. And many times, I take them out and study them like they are notes in a book. Sometimes, I play with them. Sometimes, I stab them like they’re voodoo dolls. Regardless, I feel them every day. But…” She lifts her head and the hand still clutching mine. Shifting her fingers, she flattens her palm against mine, a pale white against the black of my glove. “The last thing I want is for my ghosts to haunt you more than yours already do.”
Dear, sweet, beautiful Belladonna…I urge her head to fall upon my shoulder.After 200 years of a solitary existence that rendered me in a chronic suicidal state, you summoning me has brought me such strength and life. Moreover, every facet of your heart has given me a long-awaited hope. So, speak the word, my Belle, and I will take all your ghosts and demons. Perhaps they will find a home with mine. And then, we may play with them together, stab them together, or conquer them. Everything…together.
“Well then, let’s start with this haunted forest.”
She squeezes my hand, and I progress with her, gripping my cane with a firm, guarded control, my spine locked and alert for predators. I must remember how the predators of this forest walk are false ones. It will take all my resolve to resist the urge to knock my cane against their heads and swipe their legs out from under them.
The forest looms before us like a yawning mouth and jaws ready to snap. A familiar energy that has haunted my steps for over two centuries. Twisted branches brush the sides of the pumpkin head, and tangled undergrowth crunches beneath my boots.
Belle’s curiosity and excitement are potent from how she clings tighter to my arm, but there is a skip in her stride, her breath quickening.
“Jack,” she whispers. “I just want you to know, I’ve never felt safer on this walk. I can let go and just be. I can enjoy the moment. Because you’re with me.”
