Page 34 of Taking

My eyelids popped open as the nickname took me back to the first day we’d met and I’d called her a princess.

Frigid as fuck wind whipped at the shirt on my back. Cold ice bit into my hand still gripping her hip. The howl of the storm promised to do us in if we lingered much longer.

Fuck.

I hopped up, pulling Addilyn along up into my arms and trapping her against my chest where she shivered.

She attempted to wiggle, but I crushed her body tight to mine, turned, and headed back to the cabin with quick, sure steps.

To warmth. Safety from hypothermia.

She’d won a round by bringing me back from my bloodlust, but we had all the time in the world.

We could play another day.

13

Addilyn

I was nothing more than a fly stuck in his web. Powerless to fight against his superior strength.

Teeth chattering, head pounding, I gave in to the truth and let my captor carry me back the way I’d fled.

Nothing lay around us but cold, snow-covered wilderness. I blinked against the white swirling in my face. No distant lights. Just wind and biting bits of snow stinging my neck and bare legs.

Heat radiated from his chest, but I refused to rest my cheek against him no matter how much my body wished to melt and soak in the life-sustaining heat.

He smelled like woodsmoke, and he felt like pure, rock-hard muscle.

I shivered, whimpering and telling myself it was due to the cold, not from how he’d held me down. Restrained my hands. Touched me when I’d told him not to. Thrust his hardness against my ass.

My core pulsed, and I scowled, hating how arousal flooded through me amidst the snowstorm and probably the beginnings of hypothermia.

I hadn’t ever gotten the chance to run from Lloyd, hadn’t ever been chased, and I wondered briefly if doing so would have turned me on too.

Run, my captor had said in my ear, and even though his unexpected closeness had made me shriek with surprise, lust had slipped in alongside the adrenaline rush over possible escape.

What the hell is wrong with me?

He pushed open the small cabin’s door, and warmth swept over us. A grunt and kick behind him shut us inside.

Silence descended except for the crackle of the fire and our heavy breaths.

Still, he clung to me, not putting me on my feet or allowing me a chance to run again.

Not that I would in that damn weather.

There was no place to go.

No hope.

My chest hollowed out, and I swallowed hard as shivers wracked through me. My teeth clattered together.

He grabbed a large bowl while crossing the kitchen area and tossed me into the bedroom, the metal piece clanging at my feet before I collapsed beside it in weakness.

The light tripped off, leaving me in darkness.

Alone.

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