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I jolt, shrieking and wincing when I crash into the wall and my wrists and elbows scrape against stone. In a panic, I turn and press myself to the wall, sucking in air before clamping my mouth tightly shut.
My pulse sounds like a train engine in my ears as my back rests against the cold stone, my fingertips clawing at it for dear life.
He doesn’t know I’m here. He can’t see me. He’s as blind as I?—
“Now, what’s the point of coming to a dance if you’re going to lurk by the punchbowl?”
I scream at the rough growl that sounds and feels less than a foot from my ear. I explode off the wall, a second scream curdling in my throat as I pelt forward.
The air is slammed from my body and pain knifes through my hip as I crash right into the side of what I think must be the sofa. I cry out as I rebound off it, crumpling in pain. I drop to the floor, sinking my teeth into my bottom lip so as not to make a sound.
“The darkness won’t hide you from me, kitten…”
Jesus. His voice is everywhere and nowhere.
He’s insane. A psycho. A predator I wasn’t expecting, and one I’m just now realizing I may have vastly underestimated.
And yet, one I’ve always craved in a fucked-up way. One I’ve dreamed of. Literally. Because as insane and demented as this flight through the darkness is, it’s what I’ve fantasized about for years.
Someone dark and broken and twisted. A man who’d chase me, pin me down, and fuck me even as I screamed no at the top of my lungs. It’s the kind of fantasy you can’t tell anyone, and almost don’t acknowledge even to yourself. But it’s there, like a hot little coal burning a hole in your soul.
That’s what this is. And it’s why even though I’m legitimately terrified, I’m also shamefully turned on.
As the silence drags on, my eyes widen, my pupils fully dilated as I desperately try to see into the inky black around me. But there’s dark, and then there’s this. We’re underground. There’s no windows or doors with light creeping around the edges. No LED glow from an alarm clock or even a charging phone.
I’m in pure, inky darkness, with a man who may very well be an actual psychopath.
Who’s hunting me.
A burst of adrenaline jolts me to my feet, sending me hurtling in a random direction. I keep waving my arms in front of me, the fear of being chased amplified by the fear of splitting my face open against stone.
"Soon.”
I choke on my breath, sharply veering left as the voice snarls right in front of me.
“I.”
A scream sticks in my throat as I whirl away from the voice yet again. This time, my body shudders with heat, terror, and electricity when his fingers brush against my hip.
“Will.”
Something grabs at the back of my dress as I run. Fingers tangle in chiffon, and my heart skips as the fabric shreds. I feel air against my bare back as part of the dress fully rips away.
“Find.”
I scream again, blindly veering right. It’s like he knows exactly where I am. Like he really is a savage nocturnal animal with the ability to see in the dark. This time, he grabs a tight handful of chiffon at my hip. He yanks as I bolt again, ripping more of the dress from my body as I plunge into the darkness.
“You.”
Every single nerve ending in my body explodes. Each muscle clenches and spasms. The breath leaves my body in a whoosh as his fingers wrap around my throat from behind, just as his final two words grate like metal against metal in my ear.
“Got you.”
All at once, gravity goes sideways and upside down as I go crashing to the floor with his hand still wrapped around my throat. I cry out as my knees slam to the wooden floorboards, the breath knocked out of me again when his weight suddenly crashes down on me with his knees on either side of my chest.
His other hand grabs a handful of what’s left of the front of my dress. He jerks his arm, ripping the fabric away. I squirm and try and shove him off. But he’s so fucking strong, and he easily keeps me pinned to the floor as he shreds my dress like a maniac, the muscles of his forearm rippling as my hands flail against him.
I bite my lip to stifle a whimper when I feel the bulging, rock-hard throb of his erection pulsing against my stomach. Gabriel’s hand slides up my squirming, bare torso, his nails dragging over my skin before he suddenly grabs one of my breasts roughly. His fingers pinch the nipple, hard, and I gasp in a mix of pain and raw, needy lust when he twists.
