His lips. They were so soft against mine.
Somehow, I found myself kissing him back, and his tongue slid into my mouth. Sparks exploded behind my eyes. The fear and adrenaline had found an outlet and flowed straight from me to him, a perfect electrical circuit. Excitement coursed through my body as I melted into him, lost in the feel of his lips on mine.
I kissed him harder. He made a low noise of approval, sliding his free hand up my body, onto my breasts. Panting, he broke the kiss, and I moaned as he eased down my leotard straps, exposing me to him. The darkness gave me a false sense of confidence, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to make out much.
“I wish I could see you properly.” He dragged his thumb over my nipple, circling it, sending more sparks coursing through me. Then his mouth was on mine again, and my hands were somehow going around him of their own accord, and I was pulling him closer, feeling him grind his hardness against me. He smiled against my mouth, and I was shaken. He’d never smiled at me, not once. Of course, he didn’t know it was me.
He used his hand on my throat to tilt my head, and then he was sliding his teeth down my neck, down, down to my breasts, and he sucked my nipple into his mouth, biting, licking, worshipping my body. So this was what people talked about. This was what it was like to be with someone who knew what they were doing. The clumsy fumbles I’d had with my…summer fling, if you could call it that, were nothing compared to this. I was so wet, and he’d barely even touched me. I’d wondered if there was something wrong with me, that I hadn’t been able to get turned on by Ralph, but my body was having no such trouble with Carter Blackthorne.
His hand moved in between my legs, and he growled. “Mmmm.”
The sensations he was sparking inside of me were indescribable. A soft moan fell from my lips as he eased my leotard aside, before pushing a finger roughly inside me. I tensed for a minute, but the pain never came. “Ca—” I bit my lip, hard, to stop myself from saying his name. If he knew it was me, he’d stop. And I didn’t want him to stop.
I licked my lips, tasting the blood from where I’d bitten it so hard, as he added another finger, his thumb working at my clit. He kissed me harder as he played my body expertly. He wasn’t soft or gentle, but I’d never been so turned on in my life. I could feel the wetness sliding down my legs as his fingers pumped in and out of me while his thumb continued to stroke over my clit.
Tugging my lower lip between his teeth, he bit me softly as he curled his fingers inside me. A huge shock wave of pleasure hit my body, sending me soaring and leaving me gasping for breath.
I was coming all over his hand. The symphony of shouts and screams in the background faded into nothing as I came apart.
For him.
The first orgasm I’d ever had that wasn’t self-induced and it had to be from my tormentor.
“Your little pussy dripping all over my fingers is so fucking hot,” he groaned, his voice lowered to a husky rasp. “Taste yourself.” Then without missing a beat, he was shoving his fingers into my mouth, and I almost gagged as they hit the back of my throat. “Taste,” he said again, then withdrew them slightly, and I was able to swirl my tongue around them. The idea of tasting myself—it had never even occurred to me before, but something about Carter’s rasped instructions… I obediently licked and sucked his digits while he praised me, telling me how sexy I was and how hard he was for me.
This was…he was on another level. My body responded to his actions and dirty words, and the taste of myself on my tongue…I never wanted him to stop.
For a moment, I allowed myself to think the unthinkable. Was this how it would feel if he was mine? As soon as the thought had crossed my mind, the fear, which had temporarily faded away thanks to his skills in making me forget, returned in full force. Once he found out who I was, I was in so much trouble. What was he going to do to me when he found out? I needed to escape before that happened. If I could manage to get back outside, I could blend into the crowds and sneak away.
“I can tell how good you’ll be at sucking my cock.” His hoarse words against my ear sent a whole different kind of fear through me. A delicious fear. I’d never given anyone a blowjob before, and here I was, about to experiment on Carter Blackthorne.
My trembling hand went to his jeans, but he stilled it. “Not yet. We’ve got all night.”
All night? A shot of panic zipped through my body.
No! No, I couldn’t be stuck with him for a whole night. He’d find out who I was, for sure.
6
Carter tugged his mask back down over his face and put his hood over the top. I could feel the heat of his gaze slide across my body as he adjusted my leotard, pushing the straps up so my breasts were no longer exposed. He paused a moment, before gripping me firmly and spinning me around so my back was to him. As he walked us both through the maze of the haunted house, I could do nothing but stumble along in front of him, his hold on me was so tight.
An exit sign flashed up ahead, and I breathed a sigh of relief. As we staggered out through the door, slamming it on a guy running at us with a chainsaw in his hands, I attempted to twist away from Carter, scared of what he’d do to me when he found out who I was.
My struggles only made him tug me harder against him, and I hissed. “I love your fight. Maybe even more than your fear.” I could hear the excitement in his tone as he picked me up and swung me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, sending all the blood rushing to my head.
He stalked down to the side of the haunted house before putting me down, still holding me against him, his hand around my throat again.
I stared up at him, his eyes unreadable behind his mask as he looked down at me.
“Your heart’s beating so fast. Scared?”
I nodded. There was no denying it. Although I could guarantee that he had no idea that the majority of my fear had nothing to do with the way he held me helpless against him, and everything to do with what would happen once he found out who I was.
He laughed, pleased. Psycho. “Good. Now, are you gonna tell me your name?”
No. I couldn’t. “Let’s stay anonymous,” I suggested, my voice barely above a whisper. Would he recognise my voice?
He studied me, then shrugged, releasing his grip on my throat. His whole demeanour went from imposing to relaxed, and it threw me. “If that’s how you want to play it. Can you at least tell me what school you go to? I know it’s not Alstone High, because I definitely would have remembered you.”
My relief at his words combined with an undercurrent of disbelief. While I was glad that he seemed oblivious, how could he not know it was me? Then again, even Lena hadn’t recognised me to begin with, and there was no way anyone would suspect I was here. “No. Not Alstone High,” I managed.
“In that case, we should make the most of tonight. Come on.” He stared at me for a moment. “Don’t want you being caught on camera.”
What?
He tugged me away from the haunted house, his grip tight on my wrist, but not bruising as it had been previously. We weaved between stalls and ended up outside a small red-and-white striped tent, completely out of place among the neon glow of the other rides and stalls. A chalk sign on a stake outside simply said “Fortune Teller.” Pushing the canvas aside, Carter ducked through the flap of the fortune teller’s small, dimly lit tent, nodding to the heavily made-up woman inside. Tight black curls tumbled around her lined face, her fingers heavy with ornate rings as she shuffled the cards in her hands. She nodded back, throwing him a wink, her eyes glittering in the flickering candlelight as she took me in with her shrewd, dark gaze. We passed her in a flash, round behind a curtain into the back area.