He was slamming into me, now, his body slapping against mine, my pale body writhing and trembling under his much bigger, tanned one. I had my eyes closed and I’d forget, sometimes, that we were outdoors. Then the breeze would blow across us, heavenly cool against our heated flesh, and I’d remember and it would send a crackling burst of energy right down my spine and the pleasure would double, treble. It felt risky, dangerous, even though we were as private, out here, as it was possible to be. The heat compressed tighter and tighter, becoming a weighty, incandescent ball that begged for release.
He was getting close, too. His thrusts were rough, his breathing almost animal. I ran my hands over his hips and ass, up over his muscled back, loving the feel of him. He went faster, building to a peak, and I rocked my hips up to meet him—
Suddenly, he wrapped his arms around me, grabbed my ass, and started to get to his feet, taking me with him. I quickly slipped my arms around his neck and clung on. My eyes went wide as he came up to standing and I slid down him, bouncing against the root of him with each step he took. He carried me to a nearby tree and pressed my back against it to pin me there.
“Been wanting to do this,” he growled, “since the first time I met you.”
And he began to fuck me like that, holding me against the tree. I wrapped my legs around his waist and hung on to his shoulders and it was incredible. I was powerless, wedged between his muscled body and the unyielding trunk of the tree, so every thrust was deep and full, with no room to escape. And the feel of the rough bark against my back, the smell of the trees around us...it reinforced that we were in Cal’s world. And up against a tree is exactly how he should fuck his woman.
His hands were free now, and he filled them with my breasts, squeezing the soft flesh and rubbing his thumbs across my nipples. That tight, hot ball of pleasure rocketed upward, heating my chest, my face, I was on the edge….
His thrusts built to a peak, his hips hammering between mine, and he kissed me, one hand squeezing a breast and the other sliding along my cheek and through my hair. He pushed deep and I cried out against his lips as the pleasure went tight...and then exploded. I shuddered and bucked as the orgasm ripped through me, and as I spasmed around him, he groaned and I felt him shoot jet after hot jet deep inside me.
I went limp in his arms, panting against his neck. He chuckled: a low, warm sound I hadn’t heard before. He seemed lighter. Freer. “You’re something else,” he told me.
He let me gently down to the ground and then lifted my chin and we kissed again, long and tender.
“Well,” said Ralavich from behind him. “Isn’t this cozy?”
58
Bethany
WE SPUN TO SEE Ralavich strolling out of the trees. By his side, his bodyguard Alik, an assault rifle pulled in tight to his shoulder and aimed right at us.
Cal shoved me protectively behind him. I huddled there, my brain going a million miles an hour, trying to catch up. How? How did he find us?
Ralavich grinned, enjoying our surprise. “Alik says that you’re good. You almost lost him, a few times. He thinks that you are former military, perhaps. But Alik, you see, was Spetsnaz. Special Forces. And they know how to track someone.”
Now it all made sense. I hadn’t had time to think about it before, but now I wondered if that was how they’d found the smallholding. Had Alik tracked us all the way there?
Cal and Alik eyed each other. There was anger there but just a hint of respect, too. An acknowledgment that they were the same, in some way. Worthy opponents.
“Come out, Bethany,” said Ralavich. “Let me see you.”
When Cal said my name in his low, sexy rumble, it sent a warm ripple of heat through me. Hearing Ralavich say it was the exact opposite, a chilling violation. But I was worried that he might shoot Cal, just to make me comply.
I stepped sideways, into view. one arm protectively over my breasts, the other hand down over my groin. I crouched and reached for my shirt.
“Oh no,” said Ralavich. “Don’t bother putting your clothes on.” He looked at Cal. “I only caught the end of your session, but I’ll let you watch all of mine. Thank you for warming her up for me. I hope you didn’t wear her out completely.”
Cal gave a bellow of rage and ran at him. I saw Alik tense, the assault rifle aimed right at Cal’s head. But Cal didn’t stop until I got in front of him, both hands pressed against his chest. “No!” I begged him. “No, that’s what he wants!”
Cal stood there panting, his eyes locked on Ralavich. I’ve never seen such an expression of raw hate.
Ralavich grabbed my shoulder and pulled me away from Cal, then pushed me towards the middle of the clearing, making me stumble. I turned to see him stalking towards me. Oh Jesus. This was really going to happen. And it was a thousand times worse than if it had happened at the mansion, because I knew what it would do to Cal.
Ralavich was only three steps away, now. “Lie down, you little bitch,” he told me.
I stood there frozen, trying to cover myself again.
He was two steps away. “Lie. Down,” he ordered.
This can’t be happening. This can’t be the way it ends. Not after all this!
One step away. He was grinning. He liked the fact I hadn’t complied, because it meant he got to hit me, instead.
Ralavich stepped right up to me and raised his hand.
And I felt that chip of diamond at the core of my soul. It was bigger, now, as if everything that had happened in the last few weeks had built it up, atom by atom.
I grabbed Ralavich’s waist with both hands and brought my knee up between his legs as hard as I possibly could. There was a horribly intimate feeling of softness crushed against bone and then Ralavich was crumpling to the ground, his legs folding under him. He fell forward to his hands and knees and I had to jump back to avoid being crushed. Alik pointed his rifle at me, stepping back so that he could cover Cal as well. I raised my hands and froze.
On the ground, Ralavich was incapable of speech. I could hear him sucking in huge lungfuls of air but his breathing was ragged, as if even that hurt. When he finally managed to lift his head and look at me, it as if all the blood in his body had gone to his ruined face. It was almost purple with rage and pain. “You....bitch!” he hissed. It took him nearly a minute to struggle to his feet. Then he staggered towards me and his arm whipped out, a move perfected by years of practice. I heard the sound first, the crack of his palm slamming into my cheek, hard enough to send me sprawling on the ground. Then the pain lit up the whole side of my face, stinging and throbbing and bringing tears to my eyes. I tasted blood, warm, and coppery.
I heard Cal slowly exhale. His eyes were locked on Ralavich and he was fighting for control, angrier than I’d ever seen him. His hands balled into fists and he leaned infinitesimally forward, ready to spring. But Alik had his rifle pointed at both of us. “Don’t,” I pleaded, my voice tight with pain. And Cal held back. Just.
“What do you want to do, boss?” asked Alik.
Ralavich’s eyes bored into me. “Take them both back to the cabin,” he rasped at last.
They let us dress, then they tied both of our hands and walked us all the way back to the smallholding, with Alik keeping a careful ten feet behind us the whole way, ready to shoot us if we tried to run. Ralavich brought up the rear, walking with difficulty and cursing.
By the time we reached the smallholding, the sky was growing lighter. The other members of the club were sprawled on the grass beside the helicopter, several of them nursing wounds. Even the attorney-general was there and he glared when he saw us, his hand going to the ugly bruise on the side of his head.
Ralavich had three of the guards from the mansion surround Cal. Then he jerked his head at the helicopter. “Everybody else in. We’re going back to the mansion.”
The other members of the club gratefully complied, the injured wincing and grumbling as they limped aboard.
Ralavich looked at the cabin. “Burn it,” he told Alik.
<
br /> “No!” I turned to Ralavich in panic. “Please!”
But he ignored me. Alik went into the cabin and we heard things being tossed around as he searched for flammables. Then the sound of trickling liquid: the kerosene we used in the lamps, being emptied over everything. Alik emerged, lit a match and held it ready—
“Please!” I begged. I looked at Cal, who was staring at Ralavich in brooding silence. “Please don’t!”
Ralavich gave Alik the nod and he threw the match. There was a wumf and through the windows we could see the flames rush across the floor. I saw the bedding catch light. The curtains. Flames licked up the legs of the chairs and table Cal had made by hand. “No,” I breathed.
In minutes, the fire had spread to the log walls and the whole building was ablaze. Cal lowered his head in defeat and a hand crushed my heart. This is my fault! Everything he’d built was being destroyed.
But Ralavich wasn’t done.
“Make the man watch,” he told Alik. “When there’s nothing left, kill him.”
Sheer panic erupted upward, icy and all-powerful, stealing my strength. “No!” I screamed. I ran right up to Ralavich, stumbling on legs that had suddenly gone weak, my hands still tied behind my back. “No, please! Please, I’ll go with you! Please, I’ll do whatever you want!” I hated the pleading tone in my voice. I knew that I was giving him what he wanted. But it didn’t matter. I’d do anything to save Cal.
Ralavich looked at Cal, who had lifted his head and was glaring back at him defiantly. Then he looked down at me, as if considering. For a second, I dared to think that maybe, maybe, if I pleaded hard enough, I’d get through to him, that maybe there was some shred of humanity in him. I got down on my knees. “Please!” I begged. “Please.”
“There was a dog,” said Ralavich. “Where’s the dog?”
I looked at him in horror, then looked around. Rufus was nowhere to be seen. We’d left him sitting outside the cabin but he was nowhere in sight.
“Make sure you find it, before you leave,” Ralavich told Alik. “And kill it too.”
“NO! No please!” Tears were running down my cheeks, now. I saw Cal’s body tense, his hands closing into fists. He stared at Ralavich, murder in his eyes, but bound and with three guns pointed at him, there was nothing he could do. The panic was filling me, rising up like arctic water, threatening to drown me. This was my fault. Because I’d dared to stand up to him, because I’d kneed him in the balls. If I’d just submitted, maybe he’d have left Cal alive, or spared Rufus.
Ralavich ignored me. “When it’s done, call me and I’ll send the chopper for you.” Then he grabbed me around the waist and hauled me towards the helicopter. I was going back to the mansion. He’d use me, and then I’d be taken to Russia. It would be as if none of this had ever happened, as if I’d just submitted to him in the mansion instead of running. The only difference was, Cal and Rufus would be gone. Even the cabin would be destroyed. I’d ruined everything. The icy panic rose up over my chest, drowning me: I couldn’t speak. “N—N—”
Ralavich looked down at me and grinned and that pushed me over the edge. I felt the fight drain out of me.
He’d won. He’d broken me.
“Give her something to make her sleep,” he told one of the guards from the mansion. “She’s been up all night. I want her rested and ready for me.”
I glimpsed a hypodermic needle and then my head was being pulled to the side and held there, and I felt the needle jab into my neck. My muscles went floppy and I hung from Ralavich’s arms like a ragdoll.
He lifted me aboard the helicopter. The three guards backed away from Cal, then they boarded too and the door slid closed. The rotors started to turn, kicking up loose grass and whipping the flames from the cabin sideways. My stomach lurched as we rose into the sky. The last thing I saw was Alik pushing Cal to his knees and moving to stand behind him, ready to execute him as soon as the cabin was just a ruin. Cal looked at me, agony in his eyes. I’m sorry.
No! I thought desperately, no, it isn’t your fault! That was the worst part: I knew Cal and I knew his dying thought would be that he’d failed to protect me.
Then blackness descended and there was nothing.
59
Cal
THE SUN WAS RISING behind me, pushing back the darkness inch by inch. As it crept past me, it mixed with the false dawn in front of me, a roaring orange glow that had consumed the cabin and was slowly dying down, becoming a crackling scarlet fire among the blackened timbers. As I watched, the last of the roof beams collapsed inwards, taking some of the south wall with it.
I knew I should be feeling something. It had taken me a full year to build the place and outfit it. Months of chopping down trees, sanding wood and sealing cracks. More back-breaking trips to Marten Valley for supplies than I could count. Now, it was a ruin.
But I didn’t care. Because the second she’d left, it had stopped being a home and had gone back to being a house, and now I knew how empty that was. She was gone. I’d failed her.
“It is done,” said Alik. I heard him step back from me. Imagined him raising the gun.
“Don’t shoot my dog,” I said.
He hesitated. Then, “Have to.”
“Ralavich isn’t here,” I told him. “He’ll never know.”
Alik gave a bitter laugh. “You don’t know Ralavich. When I come back, he will ask helicopter pilot if he saw dog’s body.”
“Please,” I pressed. I wasn’t ashamed to beg. Not when it came to Rufus.
Another pause. “I make it quick,” Alik promised.
I closed my eyes. I’d lost both of them. The one companion I’d had for the last six years and the one woman who’d given me hope again. I felt like my heart had been ripped right out of me.
There was a sound, off to my left, barely perceptible. I only picked up on it because I’d spent so many years in these woods, waiting and listening. I knew the background creak of branches and rustle of leaves, I knew the birdsong and the chatter of the squirrels and chipmunks. And this sound didn’t belong. It was the sound of threads ripping.
I let my head hang a little lower, as if I was sagging in defeat, opened my eyes, and looked to my left. Through the trees, I saw tan and black fur. Rufus!
He must have fled to the trees when all the hunters came back to the smallholding. But he hadn’t left without his blanket, which he was dragging determinedly through the undergrowth in his teeth. Except it had gotten caught on some brambles and it was tearing as he pulled at it.
Rufus glanced to the side and saw me. The shirt dropped from his mouth.
Behind me, Alik racked the bolt on his assault rifle, putting one in the chamber.
Rufus shot forward, four powerful legs clawing at the ground.
The barrel of the gun pressed against the back of my head. “You want that I tell her anything?” asked Alik.
Rufus hurtled towards us. His paws barely seemed to touch the ground, now.
“Yeah,” I said. “Tell her to remind me to buy dog treats.”
At the last second, Alik heard Rufus approaching and spun to face him. But by that point, Rufus had leaped and Alik got eighty pounds of dog straight to the chest. He went down with Rufus on top of him, which both made him lose the assault rifle and knocked any remaining wind out of him.
My hands were still tied so getting to my feet wasn’t the easiest, but I struggled upright and kicked the assault rifle out of range of Alik’s hands. Then I squatted down, reached behind me and pulled the military-style knife from Alik’s belt, and used it to saw through the rope binding my hands.
Alik coughed, wheezed, and tried to struggle free. Rufus lowered his head and growled, his teeth an inch from Alik’s throat, and Alik reluctantly went limp.
“Good boy,” I said, ruffling Rufus’s fur. “Very good boy.”
There was a crash as part of the cabin’s wall collapsed. I glanced over at the ruins. Ralavich thought he’d destroyed my life but I hadn’t had a life here. I’d be
en surviving. Surviving isn’t living.
I felt the rage starting to build inside me. I’d had a shot at a real life, with someone so loving, so caring, she’d accepted me as I was. And Ralavich had taken her away.
But I hadn’t lost her yet.
I hadn’t failed her yet.
I retrieved Alik’s assault rifle and then walked back to him. With every step, I felt the anger spreading, charging my muscles and heating my blood. By the time I reached Alik, I was so mad I could barely speak.
“I’m only going to ask you this once,” I growled. “Where’s this fucking mansion?”
60
Ralavich
CAIRNS WAS WAITING for us at the door when we got back to the mansion. His face colored with rage when he saw his millionaire members nursing gunshot wounds but I just shrugged. None of the injuries were life-threatening and I knew he kept a discreet doctor on call to treat the girls, when one of the members got rough with them. If need be, they could be taken to a local hospital, and their injuries explained as hunting accidents.
Cairns looked at Bethany, asleep in my arms. “I take it you’re finally satisfied, Mr. Ralavich?” His voice was strained.
I nodded, laid Bethany down on a couch, and pulled out my phone. Within a few minutes, the money for all ten girls was transferred and Cairns was a lamb again, eager to plan future deals and asking if there was anything I needed.
I shook my head and hoisted the sleeping Bethany into my arms. “Just to be left alone,” I told him as I headed for the stairs. I’d get her on the bed, then give her a shot of something to wake her up. I wanted her looking into my eyes as I took her.
Just as we reached my bedroom, my phone rang. I tossed Bethany on the bed and stabbed the button to answer. “What?!”
It was Vladimir, who was handling transport. “There’s a storm blowing in,” he said apologetically. “If you want to leave today, you need to set off now.”
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