Page 11 of Women Love Wraiths

Cold seeped into my bones at the touch of a hand on my face. It slowly guided me up to look into the black expanse of the dark hood. Its other hand came up to wipe my tears away.

“Speak.”

One word. The voice I’d wanted to hear again for weeks slithered down my spine. I stared, mouth agape as my mind replayed the slow, drawn-out whisper.

“Speak,” it said again.

I snapped out of the trance as realization dawned and my words came out in a rush. I told the creature about everything with Jenna, even diving farther into the past in addition to what happened earlier. Once I started it wasn’t easy to stop.

“I feel so used by her sometimes. I love her, but I seem to always be the fall-back friend. She wants to hang with me when there’s no love interest to train her sights on. Yet when I have someone I’m interested in, I’m the bad person and I feel so guilty for blowing her off⁠—.”

My jaw snapped shut like a string connecting my jaws was pulled taut. Oh, fuck. Did I seriously just fucking say that? Surely I imagined it, right?

I snapped my head to the side where the creature had hovered the entire time I talked about Jenna. The hood was tilted to the side and its posture was more rigid. Maybe it didn’t understand what I meant.

“Oh shit, I didn’t mean—.” The words tumbled from my lips in a panic and settled heavy between us like the stones nearby. I was making it much worse.

The creature began to float backward. “No, no, wait. Please!” I screeched, and luckily, the creature halted. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that. I didn’t mean interest as in interest like I want to jump your bones,” I rambled. Did it have bones? “I just meant⁠—”

Before I knew what was happening, my back was slammed into the tree behind me by imperceptible forces, the bark biting into my flesh.

“Fuck!” I yelled as something pinned me in place. I couldn’t move. My heart skipped and my breaths became ragged as I strained against the invisible restraints. I glanced up and my eyes landed on the creature floating toward me. So it did control the air somehow.

It didn’t stop a few feet away. It kept coming and when it reached me, its body pressed against mine, sandwiching me between it and the tree. It felt like a normal body, but it was like a frozen glacier. The darkened hood was inches from my face and its hand slid around my throat.

“Interested in someone, are we?”

The voice was like a bucket of water dumped over my head. I stopped struggling and leaned into the coldness of the creature, the hand around my neck tightening deliciously.

“Your skin is like flames under my hand,” it said in awe. “That’s what I’ll call you. Answer me when I speak, little flame. Someone catch your eye?”

My mouth dropped open at its words. I was transfixed by the voice—deeper than when I’d heard it other times. Seduction dripped from it like honey, except it wasn’t warm and comforting. It was chilling and possessive like I was about to be its next meal. The tightening grip of the hand constricting my airway, almost to the point I couldn’t breathe, snapped me out of the daze I’d slipped into.

“Y–yes,” I whispered.

The hood dropped so close to my face I could feed the creature's breath on my cheeks. “And who might have caught your attention?”

If I said it out loud, there would be no denying it anymore—my obsession with this thing in front of me. It would all become much more serious, despite the surrealness surrounding the whole situation. But as I was pinned against the tree by whatever forces this creature commanded, I found that I didn’t care.

I straightened my spine and looked directly where I thought the creature's eyes might be. “You.” That time, I didn’t stutter or falter.

Chapter 9

The creature’s grip loosened and its head tilted to the side. Its hand moved from my throat to my cheek and I wanted to cover it with my own, but I still couldn’t move. Its other hand came up to caress my collarbone and then dipped lower, toying with the top of my shirt. The cold was breathtaking. Like a brand on my hot skin—the creature marking me as its own as a finger dipped into my shirt between my breasts.

My breaths turned sharp, and a moan escaped my lips out into the night. It was so reminiscent of my dreams. The creature’s frigid fingertips ghosted across my skin underneath my shirt and I clenched my thighs in need of friction. My body was on fire, and the coldness was only stoking the flames.

When it brushed my nipple, I thought I was going to come on the spot, thankful I’d opted out of wearing a bra. I hated them anyway so if I could get away without one I would. My nipples showing through my shirt wouldn’t matter on a trip to the woods.

The creature moved its finger in slow sultry circles and my pussy ached to be touched. It was torture and I needed relief. I tried to move against the invisible restraints and was surprised that I could shift my arms, but I was still pinned to the tree by the creature’s cold body.

I slowly moved my hands to the front and unbuttoned my jeans. The creature’s hood snapped down from my face and I froze, unsure if the action would cause it to back away. Relief settled in my stomach when it made no move to leave.

Instead, its gaze was fixed on my hands at the closure of my pants. I slowly pulled down my zipper and shimmied my tight jeans down my hips and over my ass. Stopping when they were mid-thigh, I reached into my panties and slid a finger through the wetness.

The relief was overwhelming as the hood moved back to my face. Staring inside the dark expanse had me aching to reach up and pull the cloth back to unveil my paramour. I needed to know what it looked like and I didn’t care if it was grotesque.

Fingers sliding down my stomach brought my attention back downward where the creature was moving closer and closer to the spot where I wanted it most. This was really happening. Removing my hand from between my legs, the creature took its place, moving torturously slow and teasing.