me.
When.
We both know it’s going to happen.
Neither of us are dressed, and running naked through the woods makes no sense, but here we are. Having not run in nearly a week, my chest aches and my calves burn with each long leap toward the trees. I can run through the grass easily, but I know once I hit that brush in the forest, my feet are going to hate me.
Why is he doing this to me?
I’d foolishly allowed myself to get caught up in the way he’d owned my body. Had allowed myself to be possessed by him. In those moments, my body had no longer been made up of skin and bones. I’d no longer held a conscience, the ability to think, tell right from wrong. No. My body had been reduced to a pool of want. It had wanted what it wanted and it didn’t care how it got it. That’s how good Gabe made it feel. Now, I’m worried there is hell to pay.
A thumping behind me that is quickly closing in lights a fire beneath me. I can’t let him catch me. Finding my inner fury, I power through the edge of the trees and ignore the bite of a stick as it stabs my heel.
Don’t stop!
I slow, only so I don’t break my ankle, and try to dodge a fallen tree and brush.
“Sixty-seven, sixty-eight, sixty-nine, seventy!”
Why is he counting?
The realization literally has me screeching to a halt. No.
“Good girl,” he snarls before he tackles me into the earth. Something stabs at my belly and I cry out in pain.
“Y-Y-You told me to run,” I stammer as I fight to catch my breath. His naked body presses against mine and he grinds against me.
“I know.”
Anger explodes from me. “This isn’t fair! Please don’t whip me! You told me to run!”
“I also told you not to beg. Such a naughty girl. Let’s get your punishment out of the way for disobeying me and then you can reap your reward for listening to me.”
He knew I’d fail either way. I was going to receive punishment one way or another.
“I hate you!”
His dark chuckle echoes through the woods followed by the snap of a twig. “Hold still and keep your hands out in front of you. The less you move, the less it’ll hurt.”
He slides off of me and digs a knee into my back which further causes the stick beneath me to stab me. The skin is broken but it doesn’t hurt—not like what he’s about to do to me.
Crack!
A howl more carnal than anything crawling in the thickest part of the trees rips from me. Before he can deliver the next blow, I claw at the dirt to no avail in a desperate attempt to get away from the searing pain that surges from where he brutalizes me.
Crack!
The world spins when the next hit is delivered. Licks of fire spread across the flesh of my ass and I’m helpless to douse the pain.
Crack!
The relentless, never-ending swats after that begin to blur into a burning roar of searing agony.
“Stop! Please!” I scream into the woods. There’s no moving. He’s too strong and in a position where he has an advantage over me, pinning me in place. The next swat is ruthless and my skin feels like it is ripping apart. “Help!” I’ve never known pain like this. Never dreamed that this level of pain was possible. My hands itch to reach back and rub the sting away, almost involuntarily, but I fight to hold them in place.
“Nobody,” he grunts, “can hear you.”
Crack! Crack! Crack!
“I’ll stop if you beg me to.”
Another game. He wants me beg but he’s told me before not to. I try to go someplace else in my mind. I remember earlier tonight when he put his tongue not only on me but inside of me. It was slick and firm which drove me crazy. I loved it.
“Beg!”
“No!”
Crack! Crack! Crack!
How many has it been ten? Twenty?
“Your ass is bloody. Beg me to stop!”
“No!”
He grunts and whips me hard until he slows. I may have seventy licks coming my way but I hope and pray he doesn’t have the strength to carry them out. Wait him out. Endure the pain and lick your wounds later, Baylee.
Crack!
This hit hurts so much that I black out.
I’m sucked into the cold, dark reprieve and I gladly fall into it.
One comforting person is forefront in my mind.
Brandon. Brandon. Brandon.
“Hey.”
I smiled when my boyfriend crawled into my bed and stroked my cheek