Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 84635 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84635 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
The edges of the forest blurred. The only thing in focus was the space directly ahead of me.
In the distance, just past the low-hanging branches of a red maple, I detected a flash of movement.
I stilled. A twig snapped. “Madison!” I bellowed.
She darted out from behind the tree and ran.
She was heading straight for the cliff’s edge.
My lungs burned with every stride. Each breath came shorter than the last. I barreled after her.
I had to reach her in time.
Nothing else mattered.
The forest sounds fell away. My injuries went quiet. Branches ripped at my bare skin and I didn’t feel them.
I tore through the forest at an inhuman pace.
My hand closed on empty air.
She was only a few yards ahead of me. Her long dark hair flew about her in a tangle of curls, half-hiding her face as she hazarded a glance over her shoulder. Her eyes widened at my approach.
Her head whipped forward, then lowered as she doubled her effort to evade me. She was heading for the clearing, not realizing there wasn’t a field on the other side of those trees, but certain death.
“Madison! The cliff! Stop!”
Unheeding of my plea, she broke free of the trees. The fog hovered over the rocky edge, hiding the steep plunge beneath its cold blanket until it was too late. Her feet skidded on the loose, wet gravel as she tried to halt her momentum.
It wasn’t enough.
Her balance broke.
Her scream cut through the roar of the wind.
A howl of rage burst from my chest as her arms flailed wildly.
Her fingers clawed at the air and found nothing to hold onto before she disappeared over the edge.
CHAPTER 21
MADISON
As I broke free of the tree line, I doubled my efforts to get away.
I sprinted through what I thought was an open field. It wasn’t until the last second that the fog parted to reveal a sheer cliff drop.
There was no guardrail. No warning. Just the edge, and then nothing. Wind howled from below, carrying the roar of waves slamming into rock. The sound hit me before the vertigo did. The sudden, stomach-dropping understanding that the ground I was running toward didn’t exist.
The soft leather of my ballet slippers shredded against the rough, broken rocks.
It was too late.
I couldn’t stop my forward momentum in time.
The storm winds carried the salty spray of the ocean upward, stinging my eyes as the dark waters loomed close.
A scream ripped out of me as I spread my arms wide, grasping at nothing.
The ocean and cliff face merged into a blur of somber brown and muddy blue as the ground fell away beneath my feet. The jagged, wet rocks came within inches of my face as my body violently pitched forward. Before I slipped over the edge, a heavy weight settled around my waist.
I was violently wrenched backward.
Pierce pulled me away from the cliff.
For one breath, everything went quiet. The wind, the rain, my own scream. All of it swallowed by the singular, impossible fact that I was not falling. His arm was locked around my waist. His chest was flush against my back. He was solid and warm and real, and a second ago there had been nothing beneath me but ether.
His hard body cushioned my fall as the force of his grip sent us both crashing to the wet grass a few feet away. He shifted from beneath me to beside me. His intense stare scanned my face as his warm hands ran over my arms and hips, searching for injuries.
“Madison, are you hurt?” he asked urgently.
I couldn’t respond.
Water from the grass seeped into the silk of my blouse as heavy, cold raindrops struck my cheeks.
My gaze shifted from the stormy clouds above to the panic and rage which clouded Pierce’s gray eyes.
His lips pulled back, baring his teeth. “Goddammit, Madison. You could have been fucking killed.”
I said nothing.
In my shocked mind, he looked more wolf than man, his eyes blazing down at me and a low growl slipping past his lips, his focus locked on my mouth.
A spark of lightning ripped through the sky, illuminating the sharp angles of his face in the growing darkness. The air crackled with tension as it became apparent his fear and concern had turned into something far more sinister and dangerous.
Pierce leaned over me.
His broad shoulders blocked the worst of the rain. His right hand ran over the top of my left thigh and slipped under my skirt. His palm burned against my chilled skin.
I thought he would stop when he realized my leg wasn’t broken, but his hand traveled higher. The tips of his fingers skimmed my panties and shoved the front of my skirt up to bunch at my waist.
I snatched at the hem and tried to force it back down. “What are you—”
His hand closed around my much smaller wrist and lifted my arm away, breaking my grasp on my skirt. He bunched the flimsy material back up around my waist. His fingers returned to the narrow waistband of my panties. They hooked inside and dragged the fabric down. My panties slid over my ass to the tops of my thighs.