And who are they anyway? Dad telling me how to live my life and James acting like he can just have anything he wants at any cost.
A loud crash of thunder overhead makes me jump, shattering my nerves and making it a lot harder to stay mad at the only people who can help me.
I’ll show them though. I’ll show both of ‘em.
Let’s see how they get on without Krystal Newland for a while, a few days at least.
Let’s see dad win his election, James having his own way all the time…
Maybe they can come running to me for a change.
I decide to make for the only secret place I know that even dad wouldn’t think of look for me if it’s still there.
A cabin in the woods we own, we used to go there every summer when my mom was around. Since she left it’s been boarded up.
It’s either that or spending the night shivering in my car with no heating and a roof that I’ve just discovered leaks.
“Cabin in the woods it is,” I tell myself aloud, jumping again as the storm outside agrees with me, sending another crash of thunder with sheets of lightning that light up the whole sky.
I can make out the hills for a second, so I know I’m heading in the right direction at least.
I’m low on gas and the higher I get into the hills, the slippery road gives way to a skidding mudslide where the track should be.
I try my best to keep moving forward but once my wheels start spinning going up a steep incline I can feel the whole car sliding backward.
The brakes do nothing, and the car spins around facing the opposite way before sliding off the road into a shallow ditch.
I bang my face on the steering wheel, and after checking I’m not more seriously hurt, I really do start to cry.
It’s a hopeless set of tears because I know I’m well and truly stuck here unless I get out and start walking.
It’s pouring rain still and checking my phone I can see there’s no reception up here either.
Even if I wanted to call for help I can’t. The reception in town is fine as long as I’m within a half mile of the towers. Outside of that, it’s hit or miss.
Right now, it’s a big miss.
I reason with myself that I’m closer to the cabin than anywhere else. Probably a two-mile hike, maybe more.
I have a raincoat I keep in the car under the seat, and I also discover a flashlight and umbrella. Stuff I thought I’d never need but need now more than ever.
There’s an old pair of sneakers too, better than the slippers I have on. In moments I feel transformed, ready to take on the wilderness.
At least for a couple of miles.
I should make it in about an hour.
The rain’s freezing, and there’s an icy wind blowing straight down the hill right at me. I’ve put on some extra clothes underneath, but I’m only taking my phone and laptop in my waterproof backpack.
My plan is to wait out the storm, then come back down the hill or try for a signal at the top. So much for hiding out or disappearing for a few days.
My anger for my dad and even James is gone. Vanished.
I’m starting to feel more scared with every slippery step up the hillside, with the thunder and rain in the woods giving it a sinister atmosphere.
Nothing looks even vaguely familiar so far and I wonder if I took a wrong turn somewhere, not that I can do much about it now.
It’s been so long since we’ve come to the woods, our cabin that I’ve almost forgotten what it even looks like let alone how to get there.
Almost.
The flashes of lightning give me some guidance, lighting up the scenery until I spot a familiar set of stone steps that I know lead only to one place.
It’s a little relief, but there’s something else bugging me.
I feel eyes on me, and not the kind attached to a well-built six foot six hunk that smolder with passion.
Animal eyes from the surrounding woods.
I try to tell myself I’m being stupid, that it’s just my imagination but bears and wild cats do live in these woods and are spotted all the time by lumber workers in the area.
The rain thrashing against my umbrella which catches on low-hanging branches every second step makes it hard for me to hear properly, but when I hear a low growl quite close I know I’m not imagining it anymore.
Every instinct is telling me to run, even though everyone knows not to do that.
So I start to run, dropping my umbrella and feeling like a cartoon running in place as mud slips under me for a while until I get some traction.
The growl behind me gives way to a screeching sound, like a child in pain.
Cougars don’t roar, and I’ve heard tales of their cries, which turns my blood ice cold as I suddenly discover my newfound talent for running at high speed in the dark.
It doesn’t take long for my adrenalin to become a stitch and although my legs are burning, the screeches I hear that seem to be closing in and even right beside me as I run keep me going until I spot the cabin.
There’s a ton of overgrowth, but the porch is still there and with the aid of a flash of lightning I make out the faded red door.
I reach it just in time. Praying it opens, and it does, I turn to slam it in time to see the huge cat lurching towards the porch.
A huge shadow of a beast whose eyes glow and fangs shine in the flash of a distant lightning strike.
“Holy freaking shit!” I wheeze loudly, leaning against the door and fumbling for the bolt, which is rusted so much it won’t budge.
Using my little flashlight, I scan the dusty interior of the cabin for something to barricade the door with.
There’s an old dresser, which I heave across, hoping that’ll do it.
The rain seems heavier suddenly until I feel it’s coolness inside the cabin,
A quick sweep of the ceiling showing a huge hole where a heavy branch has fallen in, a hole about big enough for a large cat to squeeze through I’m guessing.
I can hear myself whining and my teeth starting to rattle against each other, I’m frozen through and paralyzed with fear.
I’ll be lucky to last until dawn in here, let alone until any help arrives.
My phone signal is nonexistent, and I can hear the huge cat pawing at the door, screeching, and growling as it starts to put its weight against the barrier.
Sniffing for me through the gaps in the wood, I know it won’t be long until it finds another way in.
As if the cat can read my mind, I hear its heavy feet padding across the roof which creaks under its weight as it sniffs loudly, seeking me out.
I swear to myself, if I live through this I’ll never be mad or angry with anyone ever again. Especially James.
Oh, James. Why didn’t I listen to you? Why didn’t I just trust your judgment?
There’s no time for me to feel sorry for myself, my own scream as I see the cat’s huge head coming through the ceiling is enough to startle us both, the massive cat hissing loudly and baring its teeth.
Shining the light in its eyes does nothing, and I grab the nearest thing I can reach for, a length of lumber from where the roof’s caved in, and with a single stabbing motion squeezing my eyes shut I thrust it towards the big cat.
I don’t hit anything, and opening my eyes I can’t see the cat anymore either.
I frantically look for things to block the hole with, trying and failing badly until I hear myself scream once more.
The cougar’s gone back to the front door, pushing it with what I guess is its front paws while putting all its weight behind it.
It wants in and I have no way out.
The door’s shoved open about half a foot, a giant paw swiping inside with claws gleaming.
I scream for the only thing I can think of, the only thing I want right now.
“James!”
CHAPTER TWENTY
James
“Slow down, will ya,” Bob shouts, the rental drifting around each corner as the tires spin, thick w
ith muddied water from the track all the way up the hill.
I wish I could slow down, and I wish I’d left him behind. He’s done nothing but act like an old woman the whole way.
Problem is, he’s the only one who knows where this cabin is.
And I’m hoping that’s where Krystal has gone. The thought of her anywhere out in this storm is unbearable.
“How much further is it?” I snarl after what seems like way too long to be driving up the same set of hills making little progress.
I look over to Bob, but he’s just pointing at the rain splashing across the windshield.
I stifle a groan until I see what he’s pointing at, skidding to a halt right next to the car we both recognize, poking out the wrong way up at a sickening angle out of a ditch.
In seconds I’m at the driver’s side of her car, noticing the fading dim light of the lights and the door ajar.
No sign of serious injury, no blood or anything.
But no Krystal either.
“She’d never leave her car. She’s smarter than that,” Bob announces, wringing his hands as he studies the scene.
“How far to this cabin?” I ask with some urgency.
“About two miles, there’s a stone stair about a half mile that way and then a path that should lead straight there.
“So she wasn’t too far?” I suggest, looking at the wrecked car again, figuring she would’ve left the car if she was making for the cabin, knowing she’d make it.
“I think that’s where she went,” I tell her dad who looks huffy, wanting to believe his daughter can’t function on her own maybe.
“Well, we can’t stand in the rain all night,” he reminds me, and taking my own car as far up as I can before nearly suffering the same fate as Krystal, we decide it’s time to start hiking.
Bob shivers under a blanket and I recommend he stay with the car. “Wait here and try for a phone signal, Bob. If you go out in this dressed like that you’ll get pneumonia,” I try to tell him.
But his determination matches my own, and despite looking like hell, he insists he’s coming with me.
“It’s my daughter for god’s sake,” he calls out after me.
“Come if you want, Bob, but I’m not waiting for-”
“Aarrrggghhh!”
His piercing cry makes me stop and rolling my eyes I turn slowly, seeing him face down in a puddle of mud.
All the ‘I told you so’s’ I have ready won’t help either, and I try helping him up only to hear him scream higher and louder.
“What is it Bob, where are you hurt?” I ask him, not daring to touch him too much but sitting him up a little.
“My… Ah, Jesus. My back… I did it a few years back… Oh, fuck!” he cries out loud, obviously in agony.
I’m no medical man, but Bob’s not going any places for a while.
“Can I get you back to the car at least?” I ask, not wanting to leave him on a muddy track in a storm.
He grits his teeth, nodding and turning a pale gray as I help him move his legs together and lift him up.
There’s no shame in it, probably for the best when the man faints in my arms.
I get him back to the car, and laying him flat in the back seat I shift some heavy rocks behind my tires so it won’t go anyplace without me.
He looks feverish when he comes to again, and I put his phone in his hands, ordering him to see if he can’t get a signal and call for help.
“Find her,” he gasps. “Find Krystal, James. I know you can do it. “I’ll do anything if you just bring her back to me.”
I don’t need Bob’s permission or his blessing. He’s slowed me down long enough and it feels good to be free of him in a way, to be honest.
He’s not going anywhere, and something in me is lit up, feeling like Krystal really is in danger now, not just looking for a cabin in the woods in a storm.
She needs me, I can feel it.
The stone stairs are there, just like he said. Overgrown but I can make them out without even using the flashlight.
My senses are on high alert, and the flashes of lightning so frequent it’s almost like a disco strobing as I make my way up into the thick woods.
I’m huffing it, making the best time I can, but when I hear what I’m sure is a scream from the top of the hill, I double my effort, sprinting up the steps two then three at a time.
I slip, I fall forward, and even land on my ass a few times. Growling with rage each and every time as I pick myself up, the thought of Krystal the one thing to keep me going.
I hear the scream again, then a growling, whining sound.
It’s not a human scream after all, but whatever the fuck it is it doesn’t sound friendly. It’s moving away from me, up ahead in the distance and somehow I just know that whatever it is, it’s after Krystal.
Following the sound, I finally see a dark shape before it disappears into the shadows of the woods again.
It looks like a cat, a big cat.
I want to call out to Krystal, to let her know I’m coming, but I hold back. I don’t know how close or far away she even is and if this thing knows I’m behind it.
I have to stop to catch my breath. I’m not a machine and I calculate I’ve already just run two miles up a sheer hillside in a storm without stopping.
It’s further away now, but I hear the strange, eerie cry of the beast again, it’s definitely hunting something, I just know it.
The thunder and lightning, the heavy rain is as constant as ever but there’s the faintest sign of the landscape getting a little lighter.
The first signs of a choked, gray dawn starting to show in the darkness between the treetops.
With nothing but the wind and rain in my ears, I lose track of the big cat once it goes quiet again. The track I’m on is so overgrown it could be the same undergrowth anywhere else in these woods, with a steady trickle of muddy water forming tiny rivers that splash over my feet.
The thought occurs to me I might be lost myself, but the distant sound of a very human sounding scream snaps me to attention and I turn a few degrees to my right and start to sprint again.
It’s Krystal this time, I know it is.
When I hear her screaming my name I groan loudly, willing myself to hurry to her.
“Krystal,” I shout out as loud as I can, calling for her again and again until I see the cabin, the red door ajar, and a huge cougar pawing its way in.
Its head tilts, sensing me approach from behind, but its hissing and spitting tells me he’s as mad as hell and isn’t backing off anytime soon.
I get closer, only wanting to distract the animal, to scare it off. I get within twenty feet before it turns on me, crouching with its ears pinned back, silent now.
Ready to strike.
Crouching suddenly myself, I grip two rocks, one in each hand before springing back up and spreading my arms overhead as I try to double my size.
I let out a shriek of my own, throwing first and then the second rock just in front of the animal, who looks confused for a moment before I shout again.
Without a sound, it shifts to my left and disappears into the woods and I lurch towards the cabin door, leaning against it until I can squeeze through.
I can’t see a thing once inside, but I can sure feel her.
My hands grip her curves in the dark, our mouths finding each other’s, pressing so hard I don’t even mind that it hurts.
It hurts so good to have her in my arms again, to know she’s safe. To know she’s mine all over again.
I hold her, feeling her shiver and hearing her try to speak, but there’s nothing to say. I can only hold her, stroke her hair, and kiss her some more.
I’m never letting her go, not ever again. Not for a second and not for any reason.
“I’ve got you,” I finally tell her, hearing my own voice thick with emotion. “I’ve got you…”
She kisses me again with such intensity I almost feel strange for getting hard, but her soft body, wet against mi
ne is so fucking hot.
I can’t help it, I moan with pleasure now, as well as relief at finding her, moaning louder when I feel her hands running up and down the front of my jeans.
“Now,” she whispers. “Here.”
She takes one of my hands and slips it into her pants pressing it between her legs, the heat making me growl a sound of my own as she leans hard against my fingers, one slipping into her and making her curse before she punches me in the chest.
“Don’t ever make me get angry with you again,” she sobs, pulling my neck down and kissing my mouth, biting my lip before throwing her head back and gasping again.
A second finger slowly starts to tease her drenched pussy open a little wider as I feel her knees buckle.
Trembling as I lift her up into my arms.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Krystal
Well, that escalated quickly.
From cougar attack to being rescued to being finger fucked by James. To begging him to take me here and now, right here in a dusty old cabin in the middle of a storm.
“Here though?” he asks, triple-checking after I punch him again, crying and groping him, fishing for his thick cock. A trillion emotions coursing through my veins and all of them wanting him.
Wanting to give myself to him.
He’s earned it, and by god, I freaking need it right now.
When he pleasured me before, he told me what he wanted. Now it’s my turn. I have to tell him what I want so we both never forget today and what it means for both of us.
For our future.
“I want you to claim me, James. Make me yours. Make love to me and fill me with our babies. I want you to fuck me and make me scream James. I want you so far inside me it hurts.”
His head’s shaking in disbelief, a grin tugging the corner of his mouth.
My own filthy mouth music to his ears.
I watch my hands tremble as I tug at his zipper until I free his thick hardness, making us both moan louder as one of my hands pumps it greedily, the other moving to pull my pajama bottoms down under my long jacket.
James is working feverishly too, both of us trying to undress while keeping our hands on the other the whole time.
I was shivering with cold earlier, but James’ heat has warmed me right up.
Electing For her Curves: An Instalove Possessive Age Gap Romance Page 10