Before the man removed his softening flesh from her mouth, his deep voice… still husky as a result of his climax… broke through her humiliation. “Put on the moccasins.” He pulled himself from her mouth and she quivered frightened whimpers. “Now, girl, or you can keep walking barefoot across the rocks until I’m dragging you.”
Ashley’s fingers trembled and she silently reached up to her mouth. Once more, the lashings stopped her short from raising them up to wipe the white thread trailing from her lip. In the dim light, Garrett narrowed his eyes in approval while he watched the sheen of her tears on her cheeks. She turned her head and managed to wipe her chin on her shoulder, and then she searched blindly for the shoes and slipped them onto her tortured feet.
Garrett reached down and grasped her arm to lift her to a stand. She was slightly shocked and silent, and she made no move to stop him while he tied the leash from the saddle to the front of the belt around her waist. Garrett knew she would figure out to grab onto the lead with her bound hands. He swung into the saddle, and Ashley listened to the leather creak as he settled into the seat with the shadow of his coat billowing around him. The horse moved forward, and Ashley was pulled to follow them out from under the outcropping just as a dreary gray dawn began to light the mountaintops and the first fat raindrops mixed with her tears.
CHAPTER II
Within an hour, the rain had become a torrential downpour with wind whipping across the mountain ridge. Ashley had stopped crying long ago, and she focused on following behind the blurred vision of the horse with its ominous rider. Her wet hair snapped behind her back and her hands slipped their hold on the leash pulling her further into the wilderness.
Unaccustomed to the hard journey and the altitude, Ashley was gasping for oxygen while her legs, weighted down with the soaked leather moccasins, continued to push forward. She had stopped looking behind her, desperately hoping to see the flashlights of rescuers, when she had slipped and crashed to her knees and the horse dragged her several feet before the man stopped. She struggled to rise, wiping the mud and rock chips off her knees and sobbing when the horse began to move on. She watched the rain slide off the black cowboy hat in a steady stream onto the flowing black coat.
Her mind wandered while she trudged miserably through the downpour, and she wondered if Charlie was free yet and organizing a search party to come for her. In the brief respites between the blowing rains, she could see she was high up in a myriad of mountain peaks and valleys, and she knew that whatever small trail she had left on the rocky path had surely been washed away with her scent. Depression overshadowed her fear of the man leading her, and she thought there was slim hope of being found.
Ashley tried to figure out a way to escape. It seemed impossible the way the man had her secured, and the further they moved into the jagged cliffs, the thought of finding her way out before she succumbed to the elements or some wild animal, seemed remote. The dark thunderheads finally passed over the mountains shortly after Ashley resigned herself to her fate, and she began to think her only chance of survival was to comply with the frightening man’s wishes.
Garrett had discreetly looked back several times to see her staring at the ground or at the back of the horse. She had stopped looking behind her for rescue after she had fallen and he allowed her to be dragged a few feet as a lesson. He had watched her expressions change from hope through depression and anger, and now he saw the hint of resignation in her weary face. That too would change, but for now it was the easiest way to travel.
They had reached the high top of a ridge that sloped gently into a green mountain valley with a small waterfall splashing wildly into a stream from the recent deluge. Garrett led them down to the base, and by the time they traveled to the stream, the sun had dried the grass. The man continued to ride with his back to her, and Ashley realized that when they stopped she would finally see his face. The thought petrified her, because somewhere in her mind she had rationalized that he would never let her go if she could identify him.
She chanced a quick glance behind her along the ridge they had descended, and she realized how isolated and overwhelming the haphazard trek through the mountains had been. Everything looked the same, and even the grass they had stepped on while they crossed the valley, was springing back up to hide their tracks.
Garrett took her I.D. out of his pocket and studied the pretty face smiling back at him. He noted her name, age, and address and put it back in his shirt, and then he dismounted and looked back at the disheveled mess that barely resembled the cheerful girl in the photograph. She was staring at the ground and occasionally at the mountains behind them.
Garrett grabbed a comb and a strip of leather from the saddle and walked up to her. She began to tremble when she saw his shadow approach on the ground. He pushed the comb and tie into her hand, and unbound her wrists and removed the belt. “Get your hair tied back and wash up in the stream.” He turned on his booted heel and walked back to the horse, and only then did Ashley raise her eyes to watch him walk away. He had the same rugged leanness Charlie had from a life of working outdoors… but, this man was much bigger and more powerfully built. His long jet black hair was tied back with a leather strip like the one he had handed her. When he started to turn, Ashley quickly looked down and began the arduous chore of untangling her hair.
After she managed to get the auburn mass smoothed, she wove it into a braid that traveled over one shoulder almost to her waist. She cautiously walked towards the water, staying to the right when she noted the man filling a canteen further down the bank. Ashley took off the moccasins and, although the water was freezing, she forced herself to wade in so that she could wash the debris off her injured knees. She pushed up her sleeves and washed her arms, and splashed water onto her face.
When she returned to the shore, the man was standing by the horse and once more his back was to her. Ashley’s feet were sore with bruises and small cuts, and she decided to put off encasing them in the damp leather of the shoes, so she stood by the stream with them dangling from one hand and she waited for the man to tell her what to do. Her mind flickered to the scene in the darkness of the alcove, and she felt her cheeks heat with embarrassment and fear.
“Come here,” the deep voice called out. Ashley’s eyes filled while she slowly approached the horse, and she quickly looked down at the grass when he began to turn towards her. She saw his hand reach towards her, and she quivered and squeezed her eyes closed when he raised her chin. “Open your eyes,” he demanded.
Ashley shook her head, and her panicked tears leaked from under her lashes. If I see him… if I can recognize his face… he’ll either kill me or never allow me to leave.
The hand on her jaw gripped tighter, and she raised her hands in a weak effort to loosen his fingers. “Open your eyes.” Her reluctance to look at him had perplexed him when he had first noticed it, but while he was filling the canteen, he figured out her reason. The girl still thought he would let her go, as long as she had not seen his face. He gripped her cheeks even tighter, until she let out a quick sob and slowly lifted her lashes.
Ashley stared into his eyes, which appeared almost as dark as his hair. They were so black that they hinted of a midnight blue in their depths, and they seemed to be completely devoid of any emotion or expression. His steady, deep voice rumbled, “You will not speak unless I ask you to, and you will follow my orders without hesitation.”
Her bottom lip quivered as she stared at the face looking down at her. Even under the short beard and mustache, she could see his features were chiseled with calm determination. She had expected to see the rough and unkempt face of a demented outcast, surviving in the mountains outside civilization. This man looked as though he would fit right in at one of her mother’s cocktail gatherings, if not for his manner of dress and the circumstances. As a matter of fact, his looks and the confidence he exuded, gave Ashley the unbidden thought that her mother would have, no doubt, made a teasing play for the man.
Garrett
studied her confused expression, and he waited for her next round of whining pleas that he was aware his appearance would yield when the woman realized he was not some insane rogue mountain derelict but rather a determined man, focused on his mission. The fact that he was groomed and dressed in expensive accoutrements, tended to falsely insinuate to some of the captives that they could rationalize their situation to him and perhaps successfully convince him to release them.
“Please let me…” once again that was as much as Ashley quivered, before the hand holding her head back released her, and came smashing down in a forceful blow, singeing her bottom through the thin chambray of the tails of Charlie’s shirt. “Ooow…” she screamed, and she pushed at his chest.
Garrett quickly grabbed her hair and jerked her head back again. “You will not speak, Ashley, unless I ask you to.”
Ashley flinched when he used her name, and she questioned the theory she had heard that it sometimes helped to remind an abductor that the captive had an identity and was not some nameless, unwanted victim. The authority the man reflected in his voice made her think he actually enjoyed the fact that it was another human being he was tormenting. All she could do was plead to him with her tears, and it seemed the more distressed her cries became, the more fascinated the gaze his own eyes returned. Ashley realized her fears were not causing the man to feel remorseful, but rather they seemed to be somehow arousing him. She felt a ghost of cold terror shoot through her bones, and she began to understand the implications of her circumstances.
“Take off the shirt,” he ordered. Ashley’s mouth dropped open and she formed silent words of begging reluctance, shaking her head in denial as much as she could twist in the man’s grip. His free hand reached for her top button, and she folded her two small hands around his fingers and tried to stop him from sliding the first disk through the hole. Her efforts were ineffective, and he quickly loosened the band of buttons before she had the chance to re-secure any of them. The shirt hung open and flew wider in the slight breeze, and she chased the sides with her hands to close it again. Her fingers froze on the first button when she was forced to continue to look into his face and he said, “When I give you an order, you will do as I tell you the first time, Ashley.”
She jerked at the use of her name when it left his lips again, and she shrank back at his smile and the white gleam of his teeth shown off by the dark beard. He pulled the shirt free and brushed impatiently at the arms trying to cover her nudity. “Drop your hands to your sides,” he demanded.
Ashley continued to try to hide herself, and her quiet sobs became more insistent. The man let go of her hair and grabbed her wrists, forcing her arms behind her back and retying them again. With a grip on her jaw, he pulled her close to his face to make sure he had her attention. “Ashley, you will do as I tell you without hesitation.” Once more she flinched at the sound of her name, and he knew it was tearing at the fragile fabric of her confidence.
Ashley stood with her thighs pressed together, trying to conceal the carefully groomed curls of her bush. Her shoulders were pulled to the front as if she could hide her breasts, but the effect merely pushed her chest forward and made the bountiful swells even more pronounced. She was almost shivering with her quiet sobs, but Garrett noticed she no longer tried to beg. Ashley whimpered when his eyes narrowed, traveling her quivering length, and a sadistic smile formed on his lips again.
The man retrieved a cloth pouch from the saddle pack and casually leaned back against his horse while he opened it. He tossed a piece of jerky on the grass by her feet and pointed to it. “Eat,” he ordered. Ashley blinked wide eyed tears at the meat, and his long leg swung out catching her shins, sweeping them sideways and knocking her to the ground.
She sobbed out loud as she climbed to her knees and shuffled towards the food. Garrett watched her shoulders hitching while she buried her face in the grass, searching for the small piece of jerky. He tore off a piece from his stash and chewed slowly, enjoying the spicy juices while he studied the creamy white globes of the bottom presented before him at his feet. His cock began to harden at the sight of her submission, and he finished his meal and placed the sack back in the pouch on the saddle. The girl was still kneeling and staring at the ground while she trembled and silently cried.
Garrett moved behind her, his shaft pulsing in time with her mewling whimpers. He knelt down and caressed the soft flesh of her ass with his hands, and gripped her hips when she tried to crawl forward. He leaned towards her ear and said quietly, “Be still.”
She moaned when he released one hip and splayed a hand across her shoulder blades pressing her chest lower onto the soft grass. He wedged his knees between her bent legs, forcing her to spread as he unhooked the button on his jeans and lowered his zipper. She was crying loudly now, and she jerked when his fingers reached between her thighs to stroke her folds. Garrett’s eyes widened for a moment when he discovered she was not dry with fear as he had expected but was moist and leaking juices against his hand. The girl did not know it, but Garrett recognized she could be taught to crave the tortures he had designed for her.
Ashley was confused and humiliated when she felt her body responding to the man… preparing itself for his assault. If only she could scream her denials at him and tell him she was not feeling the sexual contractions of her walls as a result of his actions. Her body’s unwanted aroused responses teased her with the lie. Ashley realized her first thought when she looked into the stranger’s face was how dangerously handsome he was. She was sure he was somehow manipulating her with a sophisticated game of desire she did not understand. There was no way she would be responding to this act otherwise. Ashley reluctantly admitted her assurances to herself were shallow and unfounded, while her mind fought a passion her body was already demanding to have fulfilled.
Garrett realized the young woman was indeed physically aroused, even if her mind refuted the obvious signs. Still, his lesson would have to be quick until he could spend the time he desired on this revelation at the end of their journey. There was one debasing act he could inflict… something that would torment her thoughts through the rest of their travels, perhaps even overshadowing her desire to be rescued or escape. It would force her fear and humiliation to surmount any other consideration.
Garrett lined himself up with her squeezing hole, and slowly thrust forward while she sobbed and clenched her lashed hands in time to the gripping of her channel. When he was fully seated, he wrapped an arm under her breasts and pulled her back so she was sitting in his lap with her legs spread wide to the outside of his thighs. He felt her small gripping fists against his stomach while he held her against his chest with one arm. His other hand began to softly stroke her pussy, and she shuddered and wailed and tried to drop forward again.
Her swollen fleshy lips were already separated due to the forced kneeling position, and every time his finger slipped over her exposed clit she hissed an intake of breath, squeezed his cock tightly, and gave a little cry. The undeniable truth was that she felt herself quickly rising to a more explosive climax than she had ever experienced… and she did not want it to happen. She was miserably confused and did not understand how her body could be reacting to him.
Ashley began whimpering and squirming against him, half in an attempt to dislodge his shaft and halt his maddening stroking fingers, and half with desire to quench the demand of her core in orgasm. Her mind was swirling with the confused thoughts, and she wanted to scream and tear herself from his grip while her body ordered her to push into and accept the consequences of his seduction.
His fingers spread her a little wider and he began to flick and gently squeeze her clit, causing her pussy to grip his cock so tightly that he barely contained his groans. Her pulsing quickened in time to her panting breaths, and the hand holding her close against his chest loosened slightly. He let his fingers brush across her protruding, erect nipples. He noticed she was no longer struggling to fall forward or get away from him, and he knew she would remember later
that she had not fought him. It would be her ultimate debasing consideration for the rest of their journey.
Ashley felt the tense nerves of her sex gripping, and she flew over the edge of the most intense orgasm she had ever experienced. She shuddered, and slammed down against the soft denim under her bottom, demanding the long, thick shaft inside her ease her need. Garrett let her ride his cock while he gritted his teeth to keep from plunging into her. This one time he wanted to make sure she recognized she had satisfied her passion with his cock, herself.
When her shudders began to subside and her shoulders slumped in defeat, Garrett added to her humiliation. “I did not give you permission to cum, Ashley. That is a privilege you have not earned.” He began to thrust in time to her sobs, and he finally let her fall forward onto the grass. She wailed as he lifted her hips, and he plunged fully into her, his large size pushing against her womb and causing shards of pain to alternate with the residual pulsing of her debasing climax.
The man groaned when his seed jetted into her wet channel, and he pushed into her until he knew he was emptied and his sacks hung loose. He gripped the back of her head and swung her around so she was facing his lap where his withering organ rested on his jeans. “Clean me.” Garrett heard her gasp, and he forced her head down.
Ashley’s whirling mind shattered and she tried to understand her body’s betrayal. She was terrified and disgusted at his demand, but she realized that every time she had not followed his order immediately, he had assaulted her with a horrific penalty. Her thoughts were scrambled and she slowly concentrated on survival and the need to end the constant torments. Reluctantly, her tongue swiped at the glistening sexual waste of the unwanted tryst. She smelled the musky, salted juices combined with the earthy smells of leather and horse as she lapped around his soft, velvet length.
Predator Ridge Page 4
