✓ WICKED VOWS| JAKE (Book II )

43-Drenched In Desire

Ana's pov

My heart was galloping, and this sudden urge to flee overcame me. I didn't know what I was running from, but my instinct took over. "I hunt you down and fuck you hard. Not deal-related and you can call it coursing the wife."

"Excuse me?"

"That's the point, darling. You're excused. Unless you don't want to be. In which case, you run, I chase. Get out if you're not game. You have three seconds. One." I was up and out of the chair in an instant, digging my heels into the grass as I sprinted across the backyard. The night air was thick with tension, every breath a danger-laden, adrenaline-filled one. The darkness seemed to close in around me with every step into the shadows, its hold much stronger, and my mind racing with fear and something darker—desire. Fuck the heels I was wearing. Why the fuck was I running?

"Shit," I choked. "What am I doing?"

The words were low and full of deadly promise behind me from Jake. "Run, Ace," he growled, sending a shiver running down my spine. "Run, because I'm going to hunt you down, and when I catch you... I'll fuck you until you can't stand."

His words lit a blaze within me—a raw, primitive longing that coursed like fire through my veins, churning with the fear to birth a frenzy of speed. I heard myself wheezing, my breathing ragged as I tugged at the boundaries of my body, making my way across the garden in blackness. No matter how hard I ran, I felt him behind me—like his presence was some shadow I couldn't outrun. "Three."

His footsteps echoed solid and unwavering in my ears now, closing in on me. A wave of heat went through me at the sudden thrill of the chase, hitting my skin in tingles of anticipation. I knew I couldn't outrun him, but still, I ran, fear and excitement twisting together until I couldn't tell anymore where one left off and the other began. My breath was jerked in ragged gasps as I approached the front doors, and I was going to fall to my knees when I finally kicked off the heels, their looming figure of the fountain growing bigger with each desperate stride. The air this Autumn night was cloying when heavy; it wrapped itself around me, like a smothering shroud, and I could feel him closing in, his presence a shadow from which there was no escape.

I burst through the great front doors, my feet coming down onto the cool stone in sharp contrast to the heat burning inside me. There stood the fountain before me, its black water rippling in the moonlight—a silent witness to this twisted game we were playing. His footsteps behind me were steady and relentless, a predator on the hunt for its prey. I wondered who the hell I was anymore.

As I approached the edge of the fountain, a hand clamped down on my wrist, yanking me back with a force that sent me crashing into his chest. Spinning me around, Jake's grip only tightened more as he dragged me toward the fountain, his eyes blazing with a dark hunger that sent a thrill of fear and desire racing through me.

"You didn't run fast enough," he whispered, his breath a burning flame to my ear, laced with menace and lust. "And now you're mine."

I stumbled backward as he pushed me into the cold, dark water of the fountain. I was breathless with the shock of it, icy liquid swallowing me whole as I flailed about, struggling to find my footing. But before I could recompose myself, Jake was on top of me again, his hands digging into my shoulders and holding me forcibly down into the water. Everything around me was a blur of cold and darkness; the only sensation was his hands—rough, unyielding—holding me under.

I choked, the water invading my mouth, my lungs aflame as I thrashed against him, but the darkness within me awakened, merging with the terror and igniting a twisted hunger that made my pulse hammer. I craved this—I yearned for it. The more I fought, the more I felt his dominance, his control, and it fed the sinister longing that had been festering in the shadows.