Page 122 of Cruel Pleasures
“You asshole!”
“Calm the fuck down,” he snaps, his humor fading. “You’re alive, aren’t you? Which is a relief. Even I got worried when I couldn’t find you after the first few minutes. I hoped at least Ry would. You’re shaking… and covered in blood.”
“Maybe because I’ve been attacked! Because I had to… to do things. There was this creature. He was chasing after me. Where did he go?”
Archer glances unconcernedly over either shoulder. “Didn’t see him.”
“He wasn’t easy to miss. He was huge. Roided out. Seven feet tall!”
“We’ll deal with him if he comes. Almost all the players are eliminated. I killed one myself. And Jerome—he was trying to hunt you down. You just need to hang on a little bit longer, minx. Relax.” Archer pushes me further up against the hedge wall, leaning closer, bowing his head. His breath tickles my lips as his mouth nears mine. “I’ve missed you. Which I fucking hate admitting. But it’s the truth. You’re never getting rid of me again.”
In the way only Archer can, he makes my defenses fade away. At least for the confusing seconds that he presses a kiss to my lips and wraps a territorial arm around my hips. My heart’s beating fast enough to explode inside my chest, still full of fear and anxiety.
But none of that matters as Archer licks at my mouth and sucks on my bottom lip. He teases me and caresses my tongue with his own. Slow and tender yet demanding at the same time. I clutch at his arms and cling to the security he brings.
The sense that I might survive if I hold onto him. If I hang on just a little bit longer…
“Archer,” I moan.
“Shhh, minx. Just let yourself feel good for a little while.”
One of his hands burrows under my ballgown, finding my panties, slipping inside.
The same fear beating inside my heart intensifies and I keen like a small wounded animal. He’s begun playing with my clit, silencing any sounds with his mouth. I tremble on the spot and let my mind roam darker spaces.
The same dark, twisted spaces I’d found in rage moments ago.
Only now it’s some form of pleasure kindling inside me.
“Yes, minx. Now you’re relaxed,” he says. He rubs me even faster. “Come for me.”
My thighs squeeze his hand, trapping him there. Tremors break out through my body as the orgasm hits me, and I come undone against the hedge wall.
Archer watches the pleasure that unfolds across my face as though mesmerized. Then he slips his fingers—the same ones teasing my pussy—into his mouth for a taste.
“Delicious.” He kisses me on the lips. “Now, do you feel better?”
Dazedly, I nod.
“Good. We’re going to get you out of this maze. There’s an exit five passages from here. On the southwest side. I want you to run for it. Careful where you step. There’s traps in the ground. Keep your weapon on you.”
A rustling noise sounds from somewhere in the distance behind us.
Archer’s on guard as soon as it reaches his ears. He turns around to face the open pathway, scanning the shadows.
“Archer,” I mumble.
“Go, minx. Remember what I said.”
“But I don’t want to leave you?—”
“I said go. Sounds like we have a visitor.”
Frazzled and at a loss for how else to respond, I do as he says. Archer rushes off into the dark while I rush off in the direction he told me to go in, uncertain what I might meet along the way.
30. Ryu
Hide and Seek - Klergy and Mindy Jones
