Page 11 of Abandoned on His Mountain

“Davis,” she says softly, nothing more than a hush, like that red satin dress brushing her skin. “I like that.”

“Good. Now that we know each other on a first name basis, strip. Pay up buttercup as they say.”

I see her consider her options. There’s not many. She’s either going to do as I say, what she wants as much as I do, or she’ll be alone to deal with the wilderness. Or so she thinks. I’ll never leave her alone. No matter what I let her believe.

Finally, she nods. I watch, transfixed, as she licks her plump lips. There’s a sultry confidence in her square shoulders. She takes a deep breath and nods once more. Convincing herself.

She lets the big red jacket fall to her feet. Underneath, that strappy red silk dress wrinkles around all her curves in just the right way.

“Fuck,” I let out on a breath.

She smiles a little then. With one perfectly manicured finger, she pushes the thin strap over her shoulder down her arm.

I let my eyes trace her curves. Lingering over the Y of her pussy, the curve of her belly. I’m gonna make her mine. All fuckingmine.

The other strap comes down. Creamy shoulder, a hint of a bikini tan. She smells good. Like summer. Rum and coconuts and a midnight fuck on an empty beach.

She crosses her arms and lowers her gaze, shaking her head.

“What happened?”

“I shouldn’t do this. You don’t understand. I should be away from you and everyone else. Protection. That’s why I wear red. Only red. To protect innocents from mytemptations.”

Now that, I don’t like. At all. I take a step into her, closing the gap between us. With the side of my finger, I lift her jaw so she’s facing me again. “Do I look like a guy that needs protection fromanything?”

A little smile. A dimple appears on her right cheek. Fuck. “No.”

“So then keep going.”

Pride, again. Confidence. Her long lashes dust her cheeks, and she scoops her thick hair over her shoulder. Slowly she turns around, casting a glance back at me that makes my balls fucking ache. “You’ll have to unzip me if you want to see more.”

chapterfive

Marin

His thick,rough fingers slowly draw down the tiny zipper at the back of my dress. Inch by inch. Breath by breath. Peeling each worrisome thought away from my body and soul.

I keep asking myself why I’m doing this. Why I’m agreeing to his command. But deep down, when I pass all the worry about sins and redemption and rapture, I know I want this. Him. And what his dark and dangerous self promises to give me.

I’m re-born here and there is no sin when you are left in a mountain cabin to die.

At least that’s what I’m telling myself and I just want to follow what feels good for once. And he feels so good.

The coolness of the cabin prickles my spine, but the goosebumps that cover my body have nothing to do with the temperature. And have everything to do withhim.

He groans as he exposes more and more of my flesh to his view, but as the dress falls away from my body, I hear his breath catch.

I know what he’s seeing. Something that nobody but me has ever seen before. Not since I had the tattoo artist place it on my body on my eighteenth birthday. I told my grandpa I was going to Bible study. That’s the only lie I’ve ever told.

His rough fingertip traces the line of my ribs as he reads the words, in their tiny script, that I have only ever seen backwards in the mirror.“Create in me a clean heart, God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

I let my eyes fall on a knot in the pine boards on the walls. I feel ashamed at having this man see me, this man I don’t know, this man whose presence makes my panties so wet and my mind spin. And yet, I like having his gaze on me. His judgment. That power.

I like the vulnerability of being naked in front of him, too. The quickened breath of his, and the occasional curses falling from his lips make me feel… powerful. But it only adds to the shame my grandpa has put on me all those years.

Temptress. Danger. Impure.

“Now you know,” I say with a shrug of one shoulder. “I am impure. I am dangerous. I am unwholesome to men. You should fear me.”

---