by Hannah Ford
Instead, he licked at the place where her thigh met her hips, her inner thigh, down into the valley, licking and kissing, his tongue like magic. He worked his way so close to her wet slit, and she moaned and shook, but then he stopped, and went to her other leg.
“Jake,” Raven gasped. Her hands clutched the blanket that they’d brought near the wood stove, grabbing a bunch of it tightly in each fist.
Jake kissed down her inner thigh again, only now his hands also swept across her legs, and then hoisted them atop his shoulders.
He slid his mouth close to her center place. Slowly, he began to kiss around her delicate folds, sparking sensations that made her jump a little with pleasure that was almost intense enough to provoke discomfort.
It made her want to cry, being touched so deeply somehow. It was as if he’d built her, put her together with his own two hands and thus knew every crevice of her. He understood intuitively which buttons to press, and when, and she was helpless to his attention.
When Jake finally began to slide his tongue inside her, Raven gasped for breath and then cried out, a wailing, almost plaintive cry. “Oh my God,” she said, aloud but not intentionally. It was just unbelievable how he could conjure up these feelings within her, and she grabbed the blanket that much tighter in her fists. “I’m going to come, Jake.”
He slid his tongue inside that much further, by way of a response. And then he slid it out and onto her swollen clit, and she came so hard that the noises escaping her throat were like something not even human.
Her eyes rolled back in their sockets as wave after wave of pleasure rolled through her entire body, and Jake stroked her clit with his tongue.
Her hips bucked and swerved and shuddered, and Jake grabbed her thighs with his strong hands as he persisted, his tongue fucking her pussy, fucking her pussy so well that she came yet again.
She was spent, panting, sweating.
Jake finally sat back, the glow of the fire etching him against the darkness of the cabin as he watched her.
“That was something,” Raven said, still trying to catch her breath.
“Yeah, it was,” Jake replied, and his hand cupped her leg and softly caressed her skin. “You’re so damn hot,” he murmured.
Raven shook her head, still lying down, basking in the feeling he’d given her. “Sometimes I don’t know what to do about you,” she told him. “How can I ever hope to make sense of this?”
“Why make sense of it?” Jake asked.
“Because you’re all over the place and I need to know why. Right now, everything’s amazing and you’ve taken such good care of me. But somehow I still feel like it could all be taken away at any moment.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Jake told her, his hand continuing to caress her leg in ever widening circles.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Things have changed,” he said, simply.
“What’s changed?”
“Everything.”
She looked at him, and despite the darkness, her eyes had adjusted, and she could see that he was telling the truth. Something between them had shifted and now they were connected, deeply connected, and Raven believed him about that part of it.
“Still,” she said, shifting so that she was up on her elbow.
“Still you’re worried,” he laughed.
“Yes.” She wasn’t laughing. “I’m afraid about tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow I need to put things in motion. It’s not a choice. Club Alpha made the choice and now I’m going to finish things with them for good.”
“Are you going to kill people?”
“If necessary.” His eyes didn’t waver as she watched him.
“Jake, you can’t just kill people.”
“Actually, I can.”
She sat up now. “There has to be another way. Maybe we can cut a deal, call a truce, something.”
Jake smiled. “You’re cute when you’re nervous.” His smile faded. “But no, there’s not going to be a truce. When I slapped Scott around in the restaurant that day, it was the best warning I could give them. I told them very clearly not to do anything else, and they didn’t give a shit. They took it to the next level and now they’re going to regret it.”
Raven shook her head. “There has to be a better way.”
“Let me worry about that.”
He climbed down next to her and she was happy to feel his body resuming its place next to her. More than ever, she felt the physical need for him. Perhaps, Raven thought, it had to do with being vulnerable in the woods, living a more primitive life. She sensed quite practically how much she needed Jake’s presence to keep her safe from harm.
Raven clung to his body as he pulled the covers over them once more and held her tightly in his muscular arms. He whispered softly in her ear, caressing her hair. His whispers were soothing, and she felt herself relaxing despite it all, letting go once more, and her eyes closed.
She drifted, smiling as his whispers followed her into the darkness of sleep.
* * *
Raven startled awake, frightened.
It was still dark and the fire had died. She sat up, hugging the blanket tightly to her, and looking around, knowing he was gone.
She couldn’t believe it. He’d left without a word.
Her heart was pounding and she felt like everything around her was threatening, dangerous. The woods outside were alive and she was alone with nothing and no one to protect her.
And then she heard footsteps and she jumped, yelling in terror.
“Hey, relax, it’s just me,” Jake said, and she could make out the shadow of him as he walked closer. He was wearing clothes, boots, and as her eyes adjusted to the lack of light, she could tell he was ready to leave.
He suddenly held aloft a gun and checked it methodically before placing it in the small of his back, stuffed into his waistband. He pulled his shirt over it and shrugged his shoulders.
“Were you even going to wake me up before you left?” she said, shivering with dismay and with cold.
“Of course,” Jake said, kneeling down beside her. “I didn’t want to wake you until I had to, though. You were so peaceful.”
“I don’t want you to leave.”
“It will only be a little while,” Jake said. “I think I can get some reception within two or three miles of here, and then once I make my calls, I’ll head right back to the cabin. All told it shouldn’t take me more than two to three hours at most.”
“What if you can’t get service?”
“I’ll get it.”
“What if you have to go further away—what if it’s five or six miles instead of two of three?”
“Then that’s what I’ll do. And then I’ll run on home.”
“What if it’s ten miles away?”
“Enough,” Jake said, and his tone was final. He reached out and touched her hair and she jerked away from him.
“I don’t like this.”
“It’ll be light out soon,” he said, trying to soothe her.
“I don’t care. I’m not afraid of the dark,” she added.
“You’re sexy when you pout.”
“It’s not funny, Jake. I don’t want you to go and I don’t agree with you planning to attack and kill people.”
He kissed her cheek before she could move away from him, and then he stood up. “We can’t argue this again, Raven. I’m going to do what I need to do to protect you, to protect your family. Protect us.”
“I know,” she said, mostly to herself.
“You can come with me,” he said. “I’ll wait for you to get dressed.”
“I’ll only slow you down,” Raven said. A big part of her did want to go with him, but she knew it was silly. “I can handle a couple hours by myself,” she said, sighing.
“I love you, Raven,” he said softly, but with clear conviction.
“I love you too.”
“I’ll be back in time for breakfast,” he said, walking to the door.
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br /> “We don’t have anything good to eat.”
“Oh, maybe I didn’t make myself clear. You’re going to be the main dish,” he said, chuckling.
“That’s gross.”
“Are you smiling?”
Raven realized she was and forced herself to stop. “Please be careful.”
“Always,” Jake said, and then he was out the door and she was alone in darkness once more.
She couldn’t fall back asleep after Jake was gone. Instead, she got up and opened the stove and began stoking the dying embers of the fire with the poker. There were only a few little red embers left, but as she pushed them around they began to glow brighter. She added some pieces of paper and then wood. Soon, the fire was burning bright again and Raven felt proud of herself for showing a little bit of self-reliance.
The fire cast the room in light, but also seemed to enhance the quality of shadow and darkness around her.
She pictured herself as a tiny little creature, huddled beside the smallest circle of light, penned in by miles upon miles upon miles of pure darkness.
It was a frightening thought and she tried to banish it from her mind.
Instead, she thought of Jake, trudging alone outside through the wilderness, with nothing but the clothes on his back and a gun to protect him from whatever lay in wait.
Of course, Raven knew that nothing lay in wait.
His biggest risk was tripping and falling, hurting his ankle or a leg. The other problem would be if he somehow got a bad cut out there, miles from the cabin. This wasn’t like getting hurt in the city or even a small town, where you could dial 911 on your cell phone or some nice passerby would do it for you.
No, out here there were no allowances for mistakes.
A bad fall could be fatal.
“Stop thinking like that,” she admonished herself aloud. That was even worse, in some ways. Her voice sounded small and lonely and afraid to her own ears.
Raven tried to shake off the sensations of fear that now pervaded the room and seemed to seep into her very bones. She got up and went to the stash of guns and ammo and picked out a handgun, then thought better of it and put it back again.
She was more likely to injure herself walking around with a weapon that she had no clue how to use.
Raven got dressed, even put on her shoes. She didn’t like feeling so naked and vulnerable. At the same time, she was regretting not going with Jake when he’d offered. If she was going to just be afraid and awake anyhow, she might as well have gone with him.
But it was true she’d have slowed him down considerably.
Sitting down once more beside the fire, Raven instead watched the flames dance and crackle, concentrated on keeping the fire burning bright and remembering that each minute passing by was one minute closer to Jake’s return.
Before long, the darkness receded as the shadows retreated from the dawning sun outside. Raven smiled as she looked out the window and watched the daylight beginning to creep over the world, the bright yellow orb clearing the tall trees now.
She was heartened by the presence of sunbeams falling across her floorboards, and the fire in the woodstove didn’t seem quite as necessary anymore.
Her eyes began to droop a little. She was quite tired, and now that the cabin was less frightening, her heart rate slowed and her weary muscles relaxed again.
Eventually she even snuck back under the blankets, smelling Jake’s scent and smiling to herself.
If it wasn’t for the awful circumstances that had brought them to this cabin, Raven could almost have convinced herself that she enjoyed this place. There was a serenity in the stillness, and the silence was less threatening in the morning.
Jake, she thought, picturing him vividly in her mind as sleep began to overtake her once more.
Jake would be walking through the forest, his eyes determined, his body sure, moving easily, like a jungle cat in his natural habitat.
Soon he would be back and everything would be better.
Jake was going to take care of everything.
* * *
“Get up.”
The voice was deep, masculine, and completely unfamiliar. Raven’s eyes snapped open and she saw a man standing above her, his expression one of detachment and disdain, like he was watching a scuttling cockroach.
He gave her a nudge with his booted foot and she sat up, screaming out for Jake.
“Shut up,” another voice said, and then she felt a hard thump against her back, causing her to sprawl forward on her stomach.
Raven turned and saw another man, shorter and stumpier than the first. His face was strangely young, tufts of a beard and mustache appearing irregularly on his chin and cheeks and upper lip, as if he wasn’t capable of growing a full beard yet.
She was frightened, more frightened than she’d ever been. She had to restrain the urge to pee herself, and that made her even more scared.
“Don’t hurt me,” she begged, hating the mewling sound of her own voice.
“Shut up and get up,” the first man said, his hooded eyes still looking down at her with a pitiless unblinking stare.
As she got shakily to her feet, she took in the fact that there only appeared to be two people inside the cabin with her. She also noted, with steadily growing horror, that both people were dressed in camouflage and heavy black boots, and both men had guns.
One was holding a pistol and the youngish one had a rifle casually hoisted on his shoulder.
“Who are you?” she said.
“You don’t want to know,” said the younger one with the terribly erratic beard, “but you can call me Joe and this is my friend Dave.”
Raven saw that the younger one, who called himself ‘Joe,’ was lying, and his eyes were cruel. He was teasing her so he could look tough in front of his older buddy. His eyes were hateful, while the one he’d called ‘Dave’ simply looked cold, like a walking talking barracuda.
“Joe, please don’t hurt me,” Raven said. “I’m not going to call the police. Take whatever you want but please let me go.”
“We can take anything we want?” Joe asked, smiling through his wispy mustache, glancing at Dave, who simply stared at her with no expression.
Dave’s cheeks were riddled with old acne scars, and his dead eyes took in everything about her without showing any emotion.
“Yes, anything,” she gushed frantically. “Take the clothes, food, anything. There’s even weapons. Take it all and I’ll just leave.”
“But you said we can take anything,” Joe replied, and grabbed her arm with a tight grip that made her cry out in pain. “And we want to take you. So you start walking, and don’t make a sound or I’ll take my rifle and break your fucking nose. Got it?”
“Pl—pl—please don’t,” she whispered.
“Boss, she ‘aint moving,” Joe said.
Dave turned and looked out the window and then to Raven. Slowly, emotionlessly, he raised his arm and pointed the pistol at her face. “Start walking or I’ll splatter your brains on the walls, ma’am.”
Raven’s legs were numb and she was certain she would faint at any second, but she somehow controlled her body enough to force it to move. Her legs didn’t want to follow orders, and everything in her was protesting at full volume.
She knew that she was going to her death, but didn’t seem to have a say in the matter.
As they exited the cabin, Dave took hold of one of her arms and then Joe moved out front and perched the rifle on his shoulder and started to check the vicinity, swiveling to and fro, his body tense and ready to shoot.
Raven wanted to shout out a warning, just in case Jake was somewhere nearby. But Dave must have sensed this, because just before she yelled, his cold hand wrapped itself over her mouth and squeezed like a vice, making it impossible to do anything but grunt and moan inside her throat.
After what seemed an eternity, Joe removed the rifle from his shoulder and relaxed. He gave Raven a wink and smirked. “All clear, boss,” he said to Dave.
Dave took away his hand from Raven’s mouth.
She was sobbing quietly, her entire body seemingly collapsing in on itself.
“We have to keep moving,” Dave told her stiffly. “Come on, quickly.”
Raven looked over her shoulder and saw that Dave’s long, drawn face was incredibly serious.
“I just want to be left alone.”
“A little late for that,” Joe sneered.
She didn’t move and Joe sighed. “Boss, should I break her nose and show her we mean business or what?”
There was hesitation as Dave considered the question. “Too much blood,” Dave replied, finally, and that was what got her feet moving again.
The way he’d responded hadn’t been with disgust at the idea of bashing her nose in for the hell of it—his only objection had been that it would be too bloody. And that made Raven realize that these two men weren’t fooling around. They were waiting for her to give them a reason to hurt her, and she didn’t want to supply it.
Then and there, she decided to bide her time and wait. At some point, they’d screw up and make a mistake and she would find a way to escape.
Until then, she intended to be a model prisoner.
* * *
They kept Raven marching for a long, long time. Minutes turned slowly into hours, and the day grew hot and she struggled to keep pace.
They weren’t in apparent contact with anybody on a phone, walkie-talkie, nothing. They seemed confident, though. Dave occasionally stopped progress to take a drink from his canteen and offer her some, which she refused until she was too thirsty to keep saying no.
He also checked a compass and a map every so often, peering at the sun in the sky, squinting like some old sea captain trying to guess the wind’s direction.
Mostly, though, they just walked, the three of them.
Raven wanted to ask if Club Alpha had sent them, but she figured they’d only lie to her. They had a plan, and it didn’t involve killing her immediately, which was good. But she didn’t know just how long they intended to keep her alive, either, which was bad.