Chapter 58: Chapter 58

You are in San Francisco on a business trip. You arrived today. We’re having dinner and I’m looking

at you from across the table like it’s the only thing in the way of my devouring you.

I will not see you again until… We’re here to talk about until.

Your stay will last four nights. Each night you will sleep naked and will not lock any additional locks on your door aside from the one that requires the room’s key card to open.

I ask you if you want me to be me, or someone else, a stranger, perhaps with a hood on to help you forget that I am me. “I want you to rape me,” you tell me. You give me a copy of the key card. I won’t do it tonight. It’s too likely that with our arrangement fresh in your mind

you will sleep lightly, too likely that you’d easily awake if I enter in the middle of the night. I will not do it on the third night, because, should the second night go by without a visit from me, you will assume I’ll come on the third night, and for very good reason: if I did not show on night three, you will know to expect me on night four. This is also why I will not do it on night four: you will know I am coming; I will be out of options. I will do it tomorrow. Tomorrow night I will arrive at your hotel at approximately 3:00 a.m. I know from meeting you in your room prior to coming to the restaurant that the halls are carpeted and that your room is nowhere near an elevator, so I worry little that you will hear me coming. I will quietly insert and remove the key card and open the door to your room. You won’t hear me enter, or you will hear me enter and you will pretend you do not. I’ll bet that you will be on your stomach, your usual sleeping position. I will slide the covers off of you and have a knife to your neck before you fully wake.

CRAWLING THROUGH TEMPTATION

We’re almost there.” His scratchy, low drawl carried through the craggy tunnel.

A bead of water dripped along her nose and she shivered. The quiet buried deep down into her being was only interrupted by the minute shuffling through the small, dripping cave passage. Who’d have thought a first-year anniversary could be so romantic? There could have been sarcasm there—but there wasn’t. For two people who’d met on an online caving site this was perfection. Or their end destination would be, once Max got his gorgeous, well-toned ass out of her headlamp. Beneath the stink of sulpher and earthier, muddy things, Lela breathed in the thread of her lover’s spicy cologne. She’d follow Max to the end of the earth. Liter- ally. Beneath her fleece underwear her nipples pebbled

as she took another shuffling pace on her hands and knees. Barely enough room to breathe. Each movement constricted as she took in air through small sips, tasting the depth of ozone.

Almost there. What surprises did Max have in store for them?

A shake of her head sent her beam skittering across the darkness. A slip of her tongue across her lips. Eager- ness for whatever grand finale awaited them pumped adrenaline through her veins that skittered goose bumps along her upper arms. Her stomach tightened. Only one lifeline—a primal directive drawing them closer to their conclusion—and the sexy sway of her boyfriend’s ass.

No way back. Only forward now.

These caves held secrets. Half the fun was not knowing whether they’d ever come out again or if they’d be swallowed whole by a place that came before time and man. Her hands fisted in her thick rubber gloves. Her pulse thrummed inside her head. Max grunted in front of her and their passage grew narrower. She ducked her head. He wouldn’t leave her behind. She needed to concentrate on the one-two step of clawing through the mud—ankles and wrists thick with it. It’d be all over her fingers except for her gloves.

Like the sensual, fun finger painting they’d done on each other’s bodies two nights ago.

Anticipation. It was a twisting, twining mind fuck and a half. She loved every damn second. Every hand forward pressed her jeans tight against her naked pussy with the

roll of her hips. While darkness snaked around her ankles, she crawled deeper, anxious for her final reward.

“Here.”

Gruff excitement in his voice pushed her harder. She tightened her tingling lips as the cave’s narrow back pressed against her spine in a caress that directly trans- lated into her brain as sheer terror. Not wanting to get stuck there. Max was gone. He must have stood and doused his headlamp. All ready for her to follow next. The sense of pure, complete darkness—not seeing even a hand an inch away from her face—was a spike of lust.

At her back the space widened. Almost there. Her beam illuminated an entrance big enough for three people to stand on each other’s shoulders and still make it through without much fuss. A small sigh. A pump of triumph making her palms tingle as Max’s hand shot down cutting through the light to help her up. Even through the thick rubber and muck, his contact was a conductor for her smile. But before she’d gained her footing, his hand brushed by her hair, dousing the light from her helmet.

Inescapable darkness engulfed them plunging in from all sides. They were small, meaningless. His large, rough, gloveless fingers tugged through her tied-back hair. A shudder dipped her sore back. His other hand dug through the layers of her clothing to find the scant line of skin above her hip, tracing with the barest touch that made everything come to a standstill. How she wanted his bruising mouth. A lifeline in all the dark.

Damp, small swallows through her mouth. A shift of air against her exposed flesh. Before she could react his large hands gripped her hips, manhandled her and slammed her against the rock face. A less than subtle pain swiped up her cheek—but Max knew she liked that.

His satisfied laugh made her mute.

Rough palms forced off her pack, frisking over her curves, while she was blind. His body heat anchored her while her fingers gripped the rocks. Tremors shook her knees. A loud yank of her zipper. He might as well have ripped her pants in half with the force of his grip. Not one breath passed her lips as he forced the whole bundle of her sticky, muddy clothing to her ankles. Trapped. Exposed. A beat.

Not a sound but the soft ping of water and her galloping heart.

She shifted, nipples scraping against the rocks. A current of pleasure tightened her pussy muscles. Her bare ass was caught between the frigid cold and Max’s heat less than an inch away. But so far it might as well have been a chasm. A shock of sound jerked through her body before the enveloping pain of his hand making contact with her asscheek. Warmth spread through her tired, aching muscles even as she clenched for another.

Another.

Pain unfurled through her limbs. Another.

The warmth of her soft moan lingered against her face.

“Again,” she breathed. “Like you make the rules.”

Beneath the shock of sensation her heightened plea- sure climbed through the darkness.

Please, let it never stop. Arms and legs braced for the zing. Every fiber pulsating as his next smack jostled her breasts making her cry out from the rough friction. Cool air taunted her wet, tight cunt. His rough palm bruised her when his latest smack ended with his tight grip cupped along her stung flesh.

She lived for these primal explorations—seconds before release—on the cusp of the unknown.