by Mae Doyle
And that’s not even mentioning the longing and tugging in my lower stomach.
The warmth pooling between my legs
I swear, I have lost my mind.
“Then let’s get to the good stuff.” He leans back, sitting up and letting go of my wrists. They ache, and I grab him by the hips to rock him off of me, but he doesn’t move. “You don’t want me off of you that badly, do you, Nora? I thought we could have some fun first.”
“Please don’t.” I don’t want to beg. I’m afraid that if he sees me cry again, he’s only going to get angry, but I can’t help the tear that escapes my eye.
Teague leans down and gently wipes it away with his thumb, then licks it off of his skin. “I bet that you taste delicious, Nora.” He ignores the look I shoot him and focuses on my pants, unbuttoning them and tracing his finger along the top of my panties.
I shiver as goosebumps follow his touch. My stomach is tight and twisted, filled with a mixture of longing and disgust. I should not want him to touch me like this, but fuck, I can’t help it.
“Don’t run.” He slides off of me and grabs my pants, yanking them hard down to my ankles. I’m frozen in place, the cool dirt on my skin, staring up into the canopy above. I can’t see any birds, but I’m sure that there are woodland animals out there, watching.
The hunter is busy, and they’re safe.
Teague runs his hands up my legs, slowly sliding them to my inner thighs. The heat from his skin is incredible. It’s like we’re both on fire, burning up where we touch.
I’m terrified.
“Open up, Nora. Let me see what I get to claim as my own.” Slowly he slides my legs apart and I clench my eyes shut, unable to look at him.
I don’t want to see the man about to take me.
I can’t stomach that I’m attracted to him.
I should be running.
I should be fighting.
He slides one finger up my panties, and I shiver as waves of energy crash through my body. All of my nerves are on fire and I bite my lower lip again, this time hard enough to draw blood. The taste is sharp and bright in my mouth and I can barely breath.
My clit is throbbing and when he grazes it with his thumb, my hips buck up a little toward him.
I swear, I’m trying to control my body, but it’s like it suddenly has a mind of its own and there’s nothing that I can do to stop it.
“Oh, Nora, you look delicious. Why on earth are you hiding all of this under those shitty clothes of yours?” He leans down, his breath hot on my skin, slowing sliding his tongue up my inner thigh.
His thumbs hook in the top of my panties and he gently tugs them down.
I should be trying to stop him, but my mind is focused on just one thing, and that’s how damn good he feels touching me. “Teague,” I say, but I’m not sure how I want to finish that sentence.
“Stop begging me to quit, Nora. There’s nothing you can do to make me stop now, and I don’t think that you really want me to.” Slowly he inches my panties down around my knees, then my shins, finally my ankles.
The cool air is sharp on my skin, but the warmth from his hand is amazing.
And his mouth. As he trails kisses up my inner thigh.
His fingers are digging into my skin, holding my legs open and I realize that I’m holding my breath. I should be fighting him. I should be doing anything and everything I can to get him off of me.
“You love this, don’t you, Nora?” He lifts his head to look at me, his hands now firmly on my hips, digging them into the ground. “But I think that I liked it better when you fought back.”
That’s what I should be doing. His words snap me out of my trance. “Stop it!” I yell, reaching for him and wrapping my hand in his hair. He grunts as I pull his head up and away from me. Gasping, I try to throw him off of me, but he grabs me by the hips and flips me over, slamming me down into the dirt.
I don’t lose all of my breath this time, but it’s harder to breath with my face pressed into the ground. Forcing my hands under me, I try to push up, but he grabs my hips, holding me in place.
“I told you that I would make it good for you, you stupid bitch,” he growls, “but now I’m just going to bury my cock in your virgin pussy. Who gives a fuck if you feel good?”
“No,” I moan, but I can hear him kneeling behind me. Letting go of my hip, he starts fumbling with his pants.
But before he can strip, we hear a car door slam.
“What the fuck?” He sits up, then stands in a half-crouch, looking over the boulder.
Hope surges through me and I struggle to sit up, flip over to sit, and yank my clothes up. Teague glances over his shoulder at me but doesn’t make any move to stop me from getting dressed.
This is good. Panting, I button my jeans and crouch next to him at the boulder. My first instinct is to call out to whoever is in the field, but I don’t know anyone here.
And, if Teague is any indication, I don’t know who I can trust. If anyone.
Please let it be the cops.
Slowly I raise my head high enough to be able to see over the top of the boulder. Teague’s hand is just inches from mine, pressed against the rock as we both lean up and peek over the top. He’s breathing as heavily as I am and I can practically feel the heat radiate off of his arm.
I start to rise to my feet, ready to call out to them for help, but that’s when I see what they’re carrying.
Huge guns.
The thought that we’re in this together runs through my mind, even though I know that it’s fucking crazy. He was about to rape me just a few minutes ago, and suddenly I’m sticking with him instead of making a run for it.
But it wasn’t like I was fighting him very hard to stop him.
Guilt surges through me as we peek over the boulder. “Do you know them?” I keep my voice as quiet as possible. Teague doesn’t look at me. He’s too busy staring at the two men walking towards the woods.
They’re older, probably as old as our parents, and each carrying a huge rifle. Dressed all in camo, and with ball caps on, it’s hard for me to see if I know them.
Yeah, right. If they’re not students, teachers, or Mrs. Ward, then I have no idea who they are.
“Do you know them?” I ask again, when Teague doesn’t answer.
Slowly, he shakes his head. “I don’t know that I do. I don’t know that I want to, either.”
They parked near Teague in a black jeep that looks outfitted for adventures in the woods. It has huge tires and is covered with mud, and I can’t help but think that these guys aren’t from Blacksburg. They must have come from somewhere else, but that doesn’t explain why they’re here. Or why they have guns.
The two men are close to the edge of the woods now, and every nerve in my body is screaming for us to make a run for it. Glancing over at Teague, I see that he’s still, his eyes locked on them. Elbowing him to get his attention, I raise my eyebrows.
What should we do? Should we run?
He shakes his head. “I don’t think that they’re regular hunters.”
I look closer and see that he’s right. The men are wearing tactical gear, and while they’re dressed in camo, they look like they’re more suited to weeks in the woods than just hours.
“I don’t think we want to run into them.” His voice is low and for a moment, I think that he may be scared, but that’s simply not possible. Nothing scares Teague Ward.
My heart shudders in my chest. Being out in the woods with Teague after me seemed like the worst possible thing that could happen, but now that these two guys have come along and have him running scared, I know that we’re in trouble.
It’s the first time in my life that I’ve really been put in a position of having to choose between two distinct evils.
It’s not that Teague is good.
The feeling of his hands on my body makes me shiver.
No, he’s definitely not good. But right now, he might be the better choice.
That’s fucking t
errifying.
Teague
Nora wants to run. I can feel it. I help her up off of the ground and watch her as she pulls her pants up and adjusts her shirt. Once her skin is covered and I can’t see as much of her body I feel like I can concentrate again.
It’s when I can see her flat stomach and perfect tits that my mind shuts off and I start making stupid fucking decisions.
Even though Elle wants to run, I’m hoping that she doesn’t act on it. If she’s not totally fucking stupid than she won’t move. Best case scenario is that these guys pass up by without even realizing that we’re here and we can get out of these woods and get back home without any trouble.
Worse case scenario? They find us.
I don’t like to read the news since most of it sucks and I’m busy with football and school, but my mom has been prattling on for a while about poaches and drug runners using the woods outside of Blacksburg to move their product.
You know, the woods where we’re currently hiding?
Fuck.
Without thinking, I reach out and take Nora’s hand. Instinctively, she pulls back at first, but I grip her fingers tightly. I’ve not come this far with her only to let someone else take her from me. I don’t know what these guys are up to, but chances are pretty good that they’re bad news.
“Don’t do anything stupid.” From the moment I met her, all that Nora does is stupid, and I hope that she can keep her head on straight for long enough for us to get past these guys. “We’re going to cut around to the right and try to avoid running into them,” I whisper.
She nods but doesn’t look at me. I see the movement out of the corner of my eye and take a deep breath, squeezing her fingers.
I can’t think about the fact that her hand feels really good in mine.
Now is not the time.
“Go. Slowly. Quietly.” God, I hope that Nora doesn’t do anything to fuck this up, and at first, she does exactly what I tell her to. I hold my breath as I let go of her fingers and watch her slowly inch around the boulder, her eyes locked on the two men.
Every step she takes makes me nervous, but she’s careful about where she places her feet and they don’t hear us.
Until they do.
I take my eyes off of her for one fucking second to look down and make sure that I don’t step on a twig and she bursts from the underbrush like a fucking scared rabbit, running straight at them, waving her arms in the air and screaming.
There’s nothing for me to do but follow her, so I do, trying my best to avoid getting caught up in the briars.
“Over here! Help!” Her voice echoes around us, thrown back at us by the thick trees, but of course the men hear her, everyone in the fucking state hears her yelling like she’s just been attacked.
Which, I guess, she just has.
“Do you see me?!” Her foot catches on a rock and she falls down into a patch of briars, crying out as they rip into her skin, giving me enough time to catch up with her.
“What the fuck are you doing? Are you trying to get us both killed?” My mouth is close to her ear and I hiss into it, trying to make sure that she can hear me but they can’t. “Get up and act like a fucking normal person for once in your goddamn life, do you understand me?”
She’s panting hard, her chest heaving, and I yank her from the briars, ignoring the ripping and tearing of her clothes as she tugs free from them. Her arms are covered with tiny scratches and pricks of blood, but she doesn’t pay attention to them.
She’s too busy staring at me.
“I think that I’ll take my chances with them, you asshole,” she hisses back. Her face is inches from mine and I can’t tell if I want to hit her or I want to kiss her.
Unfortunately, I don’t get to decide. Before I can make a move, the two men are upon us, their guns leveled at us.
“What do we have here? Two young lovers out in the woods? Very romantic.” The one talking is taller and has a beard. His gun is pointed at me and he gestures with it to the edge of the woods. “Why don’t you two come on out of there and we can talk.”
Nora shoots me a triumphant look, but the glee fades off of her face when the second guy jabs the barrel of his gun at her. “You two, sweetheart,” he grunts.
My mind racing, I keep my eyes locked on the back of Nora’s head as she carefully picks her way through the woods. We’re close enough that I can see the grass in the field and I consider making a run for it.
But a bullet in the back doesn’t sound very tempting, to be honest.
The wind has picked up and Nora’s covered in goosebumps once we’re out of the woods and facing the two men. Neither one of them has lowered his weapon, which I’m taking to be a bad sign.
And possibly one that these are drug runners.
I may be the hunter, but they’re poachers.
They don’t play by the rules.
And right now, we’ve stepped straight into their territory and pissed them off.
“So, who wants to tell me what’s going on here? And be honest.” It’s the first guy, and he casually waves his barrel between the two of us.
Before Nora can have a chance to speak and fuck things up even more, I start talking. “Just out here with my girlfriend. I grew up in the area and used to come hunting here, so I wanted to show her the woods.” Slinging my arm around Nora, I pull her close, and to her credit, she doesn’t shy away.
In fact, she snuggles up closer to me and even wraps her arm around my waist.
“Is that so?” The second guy obviously doesn’t want to feel left out. “Just so happens that you’re trespassing in our woods, you know that?”
“I didn’t know someone owned these woods,” Nora says, turning and looking up at me. “We never meant to trespass.” She looks at the guys and gives them a winning smile. “We’ll just get out of your way. So sorry for the inconvenience.”
“No, no, not so fast. Let’s just take a look in your truck and make sure that you two are good to go.” The first guy slowly starts walking to the truck and when we don’t follow, he turns back and grunts. “That means you guys, too.”
Fuck. The money. If these guys are involved in running drugs, or something worse, then we are truly fucked when they find the sock full of cash.
And the broken window.
And the blood.
“What do we do?” Nora rests her head on my shoulder as we walk and whispers in my ear. I shiver, then try not to think about what it feels like to have her so close to me.
I have no idea what to do, but I don’t want to tell her that. I’m thinking fast, as quickly as I can when I’m completely panicked. We’re totally fucked.
This is not how my hunting trip was supposed to go.
The taller guy pauses by my truck. “You two get into some trouble today? This looks like it was painful.”
“I locked our keys in the truck.” Nora grins and tilts her head to one side. “He’s always telling me that I can be so foolish, but there you go. It was an accident, but we just punched the window out.”
I hold up my hand for them to see, and they both grunt.
“You got anything fun hidden in here?” When the guy opens my door and leans in, my heart starts pounding. He drops the sun visor down but nothing falls out. Right as he reaches for the center console, Nora bursts from my side and runs to him.
“No, please!” He turns to look at her while the second guy adjusts his feet, keeping his rifle squarely pointed at her. “I’d rather you not. I left…some things in there.”
“Things?” His hand is hovering over the console, but he doesn’t open it.
She nods. “You know.” She drops her voice. “Girl things.”
The disgust on the guy’s face is obvious and he slowly pulls back his hand. “Girl things?”
Seeing my opportunity, I step forward. “We came out here for a little alone time, but you know women. They always get on the rag at the most inopportune time.”
He slams the door and frowns at me. “We sh
ould kill you both.”
Nope. Nope. This is not how I want this to go. I walk up and take Nora’s hand, pulling it up so that I can kiss her fingers. “Listen, we fucked up, but we’ll leave. You’ll never see us again.”
The second man leers at Nora. “I wouldn’t mind taking her for a ride, you know. Then you guys can go.”
Hot heat surges through my body. “Not a chance.” Nora is mine and I’ll be damned if I let anyone else touch her. I’m the person who’s going to destroy her. I’m the one whose face she’ll see at night when she closes her eyes.
I want to destroy her, not watch someone else do it.
The guy takes a step towards us, his face dark, but his partner stops him.
“Fuck. Let them go. They’re stupid fucking kids.” The first guy sighs and funs his hand through his hair. “But if you come back here I will fucking kill you and rape her.” He swings his rifle over to Nora, who swallows hard and nods.
“You got it. Get in the truck, honey,” I tell Nora. She has her eyes on the two guys and slowly inches her away around the truck before hopping in and slamming the door.
I follow her, slowly moving past the two of them and then getting into the driver’s seat. My keys are in my pocket and I dig them out, turning on the truck before either of them can change their mind and stop us.
We back up slowly through the tall grass, both of us bouncing as we hit ruts, but neither of us talk until we’re on the main road. I turn towards Blacksburg, my hands tight on the wheel.
Fuck.
I wanted Nora for myself.
I didn’t want to actually feel something for her.
Chapter 9
Nora
The wind whips into the cab of the truck through the broken window and even though I tried again to apologize to Teague, he wouldn’t even look at me.
I fell like all of the words that I would want to say are being sucked out of the window as we drive. My heart won’t slow down.
At least we’re out of the woods, right? Once we reach down, I risk a quick glance at him. His hand is tight on the steering wheel, his eyes locked onto the road.
