Claire: The Forced Virgin Of The Billionaire
Chapter 82

I gaped at him.

“1, 2, 3… better get moving, 4, 5, today sometime? 6…”

I gasped at the quickening pace of his counting and jumped up and took off down the stairs. The barn door was closed. I knew it’d make noise when I opened it so I did but then I ducked back in and climbed through the already opened back hatch of the jeep and got into the back seat as quietly as possible. A few seconds later I heard him leave the barn and I let out the breath I’d been holding.

Wow. This was a rush. And at the end I’d get sweet release. I could see how this could get addicting, especially with how intense I suspected he’d play. A few minutes passed and I hadn’t heard anything anywhere around me. In fact it was eerily quiet. I sat up and almost had heart failure when I realized he was standing outside the driver’s side door, staring down at me with a smile on his face. I shrieked and scampered out the passenger side and ran out of the barn.

“I’ll give you an extra 5,” he called, “1, 2…”

I bolted toward the back of the barn and when I rounded the rear I saw the field of flowers and the pond up ahead. I thought about taking a run into the field but the grass was deep and I was more than a little afraid of snakes. I didn’t know where to go, though, so I ran around the back of the barn and then up the other side thinking I’d head toward the house that was also on the property. He wasn’t behind me. My heart thudded rapidly against my chest wall. So much adrenaline!

Azriel’s POV

That she’d gone from angry and broody to wanting to play got my heart pumping. Maybe she had more in common with me than she realized.

I’d allowed her to have her moment, her hissy fit, because although I wanted her obedience and her submission I also didn’t want to extinguish that fire in her that I liked so much. I’d always been one-sided in sating my desires. Sure, I’d get the woman I was with off, too, I got off on that, but I’d never gone out of my way to make sure that beyond getting an o****m, that I cared what she felt like afterwards. Playing with Claire, playing a game that got us both going? She was showing me that this got her juices flowing. This was different. I liked it. Thrill of the chase? f**k yeah; it was a thrill.

She’d gone counter clockwise around the barn so I stayed out front, crouched low against the wall. As she ran past me, I watched her pass me and counted to three in my head and then was hot on her heels.

She squealed at the sight of me and ran faster toward the house. She looked gorgeous. As she ran, her already loose ponytail came completely undone and now her hair was flowing freely in the breeze. She kicked off her flip flops so she could gain more speed and then as she took off faster, I quickened my own pace. She passed the house, which was on the front of about 83 untended acres. I knew she’d come upon stone ruins and tear up her bare feet within a minute or two of running so decided to catch her before she got to the rocky area of the property.

Claire’s POV

He was gaining on me and the thrill of it was making my heart race, my face flush, and my body tingle all over. As I rounded the house and got to the back I could see it was a little overgrown with grass and some more wildflowers and there was a combination of open fields, stone paths, and treed areas behind the farmhouse. I could head toward the trees if I went right, or if I went straight ahead it looked mostly clear but hilly. To my left was the barn, the pond, and the huge field of flowers.

I decided to run toward the trees. Not many paces in that direction he caught me by the waist and tackled me to the ground but yet he did it sort of gently, breaking my fall so that I landed on him instead of on the ground. As soon as we landed, he flipped and then he was on top of me and had my wrists pinned above my head. We were both heaving but I’d say I was heaving a lot heavier than he was.

“Gotcha,” he said in a low and husky voice. The sun’s rays were right behind his head and it was almost like they were bursting from him. He looked almost angelic to me. His whiskey colored eyes sparkled, the corners of his mouth turned up into a big smile, his slightly stubbly jaw looking rugged, and his muscles looking particularly defined.

I tried to catch my breath. I wasn’t struggling, just laying limp in the tall grass with my arms pinned above my head looking up at his beauty. I felt an itch on my nose so I reached, about to move my arm and his grip tightened and his eyes, though still sparkling, had a sudden shift, like they’d tinted with a bit of a challenge. I tilted my head to my shoulder and used my shoulder to try to eradicate the itch on my nose.

“Whenever you run,” he said with a hint of darkness, “I’ll catch you.”

I felt my heart constrict for a beat and he must’ve seen my expression shift because then he smiled and nuzzled my throat, I think, trying to salvage the moment. Would it always be like this with him? Seesawing between light and dark? How could I keep up?

Azriel’s POV

She’d stiffened under me and I knew that she had gone into the darker recesses of her mind; she’d gone to that place that said she was my prisoner. I needed her to know she was mine completely but I wanted her to want it. She clearly wasn’t there yet. I was pushing, probably too hard. She’d been shot at, kidnapped, and had her entire world turned upside down because she was mine and it’d take some getting used to. She was doing so good so far, all things considered, and I didn’t want a setback. I had to be patient. We’d get there. And the journey would be fan-f*****g-tastic.