AllFreeNovel
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I was pulled out of the image of him in my head when the image of him today stood in front of me. He was still quick and cut me off shortly after I made it through a valley of trees. We were in some kind of woods off the highway.
He’d cornered me.
Thatcher wasn’t even out of breath. Not like I was. Part of that, I think, was adrenaline, but he wasn’t even fazed. He lifted his big hands. “No more games. I promise I’ll take you back to your dorm.”
But how many pieces would I be in by the time he did? I snarled, “Fuck you.”
This was madness, and he had to think me mad if he thought I’d get back in a vehicle with him. I took a step, my feet bare and cut up from the sprint without my heels, but Thatcher matched my step.
He got closer. “This is pointless, snowflake?—”
“It’s Aspen!” I hated that fucking nickname he’d given me, and where the fuck did it even come from? Was he calling me fragile? Weak? I didn’t know, but I was sure it was some kind of jab and a way for him to hold dominance over me. I cringed. “Why are you doing this to me?”
I’d asked him that too back then. I just wanted to know why. I’d done nothing to this guy, but he kept coming after me.
Thatcher’s expression was stoic, and I hated him in that moment. I hated him because he was so beautiful, strong, and I knew how powerful that large body of his was. I also knew how free it made me feel if even for a night. I still felt trapped in front of him, and it was almost a decade later.
But that had nothing to do with him.
It didn’t this time, and I felt ill. I didn’t listen to him, taking quick steps away. I started to pick up my pace, but once more, he got ahead of me. He was so quick, too quick.
“As I was saying, this is pointless,” he said, his dark hair curling over his eyes. He’d made it more posh today. I assumed to go with his country-club look since he had it moussed back, but he had kept his earrings in. The one dangled in the soft light streaming through the trees, and I noticed he didn’t answer my question from before. Like when we were kids, he still didn’t explain why he was doing this to me. His eyes narrowed. “Despite the fact that you are barefoot, I play college football. You run, and I will catch you. I assure you.”
My heart squeezed. My stomach clenched, and though I thought it would be from dread… it should be from dread, it wasn’t. Something wild danced inside me when he said that. I started thinking about him chasing me, and for some reason, I wasn’t scared.
You are fucked up.
I knew that. I knew that just as well as I was here going to college and not still on tour. I had the life of my dreams, doing what I loved musically, but I was here in the woods with a guy who’d tortured me in my youth.
Thatcher wet his full lips. They were charged red and flushed from his own run. “Now, turn around and head back to my car, and for fuck’s sake, don’t run.” He appeared terse for some reason, frustrated when his lips pinched together. He wove his fingers through his inky locks, tousling it a bit before dropping his hand. “I will take you back to your dorm. I will get you there safe.”
Safe?
He pocketed his hands. “Just don’t run. You run and…” He huffed out a breath. “You just shouldn’t run. Please don’t run.”
His voice had deepened an octave, and he already had a deep voice. Those glacial eyes of his scanned the length of me, and when he dampened his lips again, my thighs clenched.
Holy fuck… the way he was looking at me. He studied me as if I was something to devour, and I was well aware of how I looked. I was windswept from the sprint, my toes and calves dirty. My peach dress had even torn a little when I fell earlier. Not to mention my hair was a complete mess. My locs had fallen from the high bun I’d looped and put time in. Now, all my hair rested down my back and across my shoulders, and there were definitely leaves in it from my earlier fall. Basically, I appeared as if I’d been through something.
And he had too.
His shirt was open a little, displaying his massive chest. His cross chain flashed down the center, his large pecs rising and falling with breath. I hadn’t gotten to see his bare chest that night at the rave. He’d been wearing a cutoff tee, but even if he hadn’t, it would have been too dark to see him there, touch him…
It wasn’t dark now, and Thatcher and I were in a standoff. I’d made things easy for him that night. I’d been an easy lay, and that was me out of my comfort zone. I just wanted to be different. I… my life was so goddamn tight, and he’d made me feel free for a night.
Thatcher stepped forward, just a step, and he had his hand out. It was like he was trying to calm a wild animal. Like I was the wild animal and he was trying to coax me into a sense of security. “No more running, snowflake. You run and I.” He paused, my blood heating again when he appraised me, my nipples tight. His irises flared. “I won’t stop.”
I didn’t know what he meant by that. I didn’t know if he wouldn’t stop chasing me… or what. My lips parted, my mouth incredibly dry. “Okay.”
His eyes flashed, maybe wondering why I was making this so easy. He started to move, but then, I did. Just a step. His chest rose. “You said you wouldn’t run.”
Did I? I took another step, and those irises flared once more.
He shook his head. “Snowflake?—”
I darted off and was completely unaware of why I had. He was faster than me, but something had my knees hiking up and adrenaline pumped through my veins every step I made away.
He got me in seconds.
