42. Asher

We hada late practice that evening, and I was out for blood before we'd even left the locker room. Someone said something in a half snigger. I only caught the word cheerleader, before flying off the handle.

I shoved the fucker into the wall of metal and slammed my hand into the locker by his face, hard enough to leave a dent.

"What did you just say?"

He blinked at me, paling. "I just said I'm glad we've got puck bunnies…cheerleaders seem like bitches, you know…because of?—"

I slammed my hand into the locker again. "Let me stop you there. I don't want to hear you even thinking the word cheerleader, or talking about one in particular. She shouldn't even enter your head, never mind you saying her name, got it?"

The idiot stalked off muttering under his breath, while I sank down on a bench and rubbed my temples. I'd had a headache since this whole thing had started, and there was no sign of it letting up.

"Okay, tiger, take it down a notch. Coach won't like that energy turned on our own team," Marcus said, sinking down next to me. "Are you going to be okay out there?"

I rolled my shoulders back, hot anger pressing against my skull and making my headache even worse. I might be mad as hell at Winter, but God help the person who talked shit about her. The mood I was in right now, they'd end up in the hospital, and I really didn't need that kind of heat.

"What do you need to do to get over this?"

I shook my head. "It's not over. There is no getting over it when it's not finished."

"Well, it kind of is, if you can't get her to tell you what the fuck is going on."

I let loose a growl of frustration. "I just wish I could get her alone, with nowhere to run or hide…somewhere she's trapped with me. Then I could make her tell me what was going on." I squeezed my hands together until my fingers turned white. "Take her fucking complicated, beautiful head and shake the secrets out."

Marcus clapped me on the shoulder. "Okay, I've changed my mind. Maybe you shouldn't be alone with her. It's a homicide waiting to happen. Romeo and Juliet, if Romeo was a biker and accidentally killed Juliet."

"I don't want to hurt her…I don't need to. I just need to scare her. Trap her," I mused aloud.

Marcus sighed. "I mean, it still sounds like the beginning of a true-crime doc, but who am I to judge? Use the cabin. I'll even help set it up."

I set up the cabin with everything I'd need to trap Winter inside with me for a few days, if necessary. The bathroom was the fucking downside, of course, being outside. I'd solve that by getting rid of her footwear, and maybe all her clothes. She wouldn't run away during a bathroom break if she didn't have any clothes to wear. I'd just have to stand guard outside when she did her business. I hid anything that could be used as a weapon and even nailed the windows shut. I'd borrowed a couple of balaclavas from the bikers at The Clutch. They were black with a white skull painted on; suitably menacing enough to scare Winter. Was I an asshole for planning to scare her like this? But then again, I'd never claimed to be anything but, and she'd started this whole thing.

I parked my motorcycle around the back of the cabin and headed down the gravel path. I'd already texted Marcus Winter's coordinates. She still hadn't found the tracking app on her phone.

I waited. Before long, the sound of an SUV rumbling up the road reached me. Marcus had borrowed a buddy's vehicle so he could kidnap Winter without her knowing who it was. She couldn't know it was me, not yet. She wouldn't be scared enough to shatter the sky-high wall of glass she'd put between us.

She wasn't leaving the woods until it was gone. Not even if we both had to starve out here.

The lights of the SUV flashed over the ground. Marcus pulled up a little distance from me and got out. With the stenciled balaclava on, he looked menacing. We couldn't afford to talk much, so he just headed around the back of the truck and opened the trunk. I didn't like enclosing her in a small, dark space for half an hour, knowing she was scared of them, but I needed to scare her and if I was lucky, she'd be well on her way to breaking down her emotionless fortress.

Marcus opened the trunk without a second thought.

That was his first mistake.

Winter's foot shot out and clocked him square in the balls. Marcus went down silently, thankfully. Winter scrambled out of the truck.

"Don't come near me!" she warned, brandishing a tire iron in her bound hands.

I'd told Marcus not to hurt her under any circumstances, but taking weapons out of the trunk might have been a good idea.

I kept silent and watched. She edged around the side of the truck, pointing the tire iron at me. I waited until she got to the driver's side and attempted to get into the cab. I was on her in seconds, dragging her away from the open door and into the darkness of the woods. The tire iron fell. She fought back and managed to wriggle away. I let her go. I wanted Marcus to get his balls together and leave us alone. It was just the beginning of Winter's dark night of the soul.

"Who are you?" she demanded, and stared at me like I was a monster from her darkest nightmares.

"Asher?" She was blinking hard, her breath shallow. "Ash, is it you?"

Ash?

I swallowed my confirmation, the sound of the nickname on her lips making me feel all kinds of things I wasn't allowed to. I shook my head slowly, and a tear dashed out of her eye and down her cheek.

"Trent?" Her voice wobbled on the name. The other person she thought might harm her wasn't a surprise. I already knew that fucker was behind everything. I shook my head again.

"Whatever he's paying you isn't enough to get into serious trouble for," she continued, clearly convinced it was Trent who had organized this. "There are people waiting for me. They'll notice when I don't come home. They'll look for you and your friend."

I tilted my head to the side, soundlessly mocking her, and then shook my masked head, like I didn't believe her.

Her hands were curling into fists at her sides. My clever little Ice Queen was trying to figure out what to do. Of course she was. Winter DeLaurie didn't know how to take something lying down.

Then she put her head back and screamed.

"Help! Someone help me!"

Her scream was so loud, if there had been anyone else around, they definitely would have heard. But I knew there wasn't. The weather wasn't great for the woods. I wouldn't be out here myself if it wasn't for this special project.

"Oh my God! Over here, please help!" Winter suddenly cried, waving frantically at something behind me.

I couldn't help my grin under the mask. She was one in a million, my Ice Queen. Devious and ballsy. God, I loved her.

I turned to check, because honestly, I wanted her to feel like she had a chance before I ripped it away.

As soon as I turned, she leapt in the other direction, grabbing for her phone in her pocket. Marcus hadn't taken her phone either? This was the last kidnapping I was organizing with him. I charged after her and swiped for her hand, but she dodged away.

She was fast, my cheerleader.

She sprinted down the road, and I followed, my breath loud inside the mask. She took a sharp right and went into the wilderness, abandoning the road, her flaxen hair glittering in the moonlight that shone through the leafy canopy.

I hurtled after her, fast, but not too fast. The more she ran, the more scared she'd get, and the closer I'd get to rattling her composure.

She zigzagged between trees, and I did the same. Hungry to catch her, fucking starving to touch her. I'd missed her, this woman who had infected my life like some kind of pink venom, sparkly yet absolutely lethal.

I rounded the last tree she'd disappeared behind and stopped. The woods were quiet. Winter was nowhere in sight. I waited. She had to be hiding somewhere. After a moment, the cracking sound of someone stepping on a twig was the only warning I got before a branch hit the back of my head.

The impact was jarring, sending my teeth through my tongue. I ducked the second blow and swiveled, knocking the branch out of her hands and grabbing her.

"Help!" she screamed, wriggling like crazy against me.

As I struggled to get her into a more comfortable position to haul her back to the cabin, she threw her head back hard and slammed it against my face. Pain exploded across the bridge of my nose, but I could barely focus on it. My girl was doing so fucking well. I was proud of her. Underneath the refinement and elegance, she was a savage, just like I'd always suspected her to be.

I dropped her, and she scrambled back, holding her lit-up phone in her hand.

It would be inconvenient if she actually had a signal and managed to call the cops. I had to stop her.

She was holding the phone to her ear, her eyes wild. "Don't come near me. I've called for help. Someone's going to come and help me, and you don't want to be here when he gets here," she warned.

He?So, she hadn't called the cops, it sounded like. Interesting. Then again, maybe she knew that her chances of calling the cops, describing her location, and evading capture until they arrived were slim.

She held that phone to her ear like it was her only lifeline. I advanced toward her, ready to grab the phone.

Just then, my own phone vibrated in my pocket.

No. No way.

The sound was like a gunshot in the dark, quiet woods.

I reached into my pocket and answered, my gaze glued to Winter the entire time.

She blinked at me, her ragged breaths filling my ears from across the space.

She'd called me. When she'd been scared and alone, under threat…she'd called me. I was right. She was hiding something big from me and pushing me away, and I wasn't going to let her.

She dropped her phone, a single tear dashing down one cheek.

I shoved my phone back into my pocket as she wiped her tears away, and her expression of utter relief turned into heartbreaking sadness. I couldn't stand that look. I strode across the space between us.

"What are you doing? Are you nuts?" Her tear-streaked face hurt to see, but at least she was really here with me, free of the bullshit act she'd been putting up for me lately.

"Yes, I am nuts — I'm fucking insane — and so are you if you think I was ever letting you just go." I tore off the mask and studied her properly.

"Stay back! This is dangerous!" She seemed genuinely afraid.

"The only dangerous thing is what I'm going to do to you for lying to me," I growled back.

She stumbled back, a resolve appearing in her eyes that told me she was about to run again.

"Don't you dare," I warned lowly. We were having this out here and now.

Like the fucking brat she was, she took off into the woods again. Frustration burned through me. She was incapable of doing things the easy way. That was fine. I could do the hard way. For her, I could do anything. I sprinted after her.

I caught her when she was within a hundred feet of the cabin, grabbing her around the waist and pinning her against me.

"You shouldn't have done that."

She kicked furiously at my legs, so I bore us both down to the cold forest floor, cushioning the blow with my body. She tried to crawl away, but I dragged her back.

Fisting a hand in the back of her jacket, I tilted up her head. "You're mine, Winter. I love you, and you love me right back, and no power on this fucking planet will get between us. I won't let it."

Then I kissed her hard, all the longing and frustration I'd felt this past week boiling over and spilling to the surface, burning us both.

She fought against me for all of two seconds before sagging into my chest and drawing me closer, her fingers tangling in my jacket.

"We can't be here together. It's too dangerous," she murmured after a moment, pulling back. Tears scattered across her cheeks.

I didn't care. I was too far gone to stop now.

I just nodded. "Yes, it is — if you don't make it back to the cabin before I catch you, I'm fucking you where I find you. That's what the danger is to you…so you'd better find your way home."

I stood and stepped back, my control dangling by a thread. I wanted her with every cell of my body. I'd never been harder; I'd never been more consumed. This woman had schemed and played her way into my heart, and my body had decided that it would never be without her. My heart no longer worked without her presence inside it.

"Go!"

She believed me. Her eyes flashed with fear and excitement. My little cheerleader loved to play, after all, the scarier the game the better.

She sprinted away. I let her go again, drawing in deep, purposeful breaths to calm my racing heart. Snatching the mask off the ground, I shoved it in my pocket and followed. I walked, giving her plenty of time to work herself up. I was too desperate for her now, still too angry that she'd brought us to this point by pushing me away. I'd be too rough. I might not be able to resist strangling her when she came, and spanking her so damn hard she couldn't sit for a week while I filled her up with cum.

Then again, she deserved nothing less for lying to me, hiding, and trying to shove me away.

The lights of the cabin glowed in the distance. She had a good sense of direction. A girl who'd thrive camping and being outdoorsy, but had only ever been encouraged to sip green drinks around a pool and give huge tips to bellmen at ritzy hotels.

She raced up the track to the cabin, glancing back over her shoulder. Her icy fa?ade was gone. Her eyes were alive with the thrill of the chase. Winter loved to win. She was competitive as hell, and that was fucking hot.

But tonight, she wasn't going to win.

No way.

Then she turned the doorknob and froze. I'd locked it, of course. I'd never intended to let her get away from me.

She turned and opened her mouth to protest, but I was already on her, pressing her into the door and circling her neck with one hand.

"Looks like you lose, Ice Queen…you know what I told you would happen."

"I didn't lose! I still got there first," she maintained.

"I don't care."

Then I kissed her. She kissed me right back, her desperate yearning matching my own. The feeling of rightness in the world flooded back. Now the world could rotate normally. Now the seasons could pass and the sun could finally rise again in the morning…now that she had come back to me.

My hands fell to her skirt, urging it up. She had leggings on, and they'd have to go. I took my knife out and cut them, leaving the legs sagging around her knees. Her panties went next. Her breath hitched as I ran my blade so close to her skin I could have nicked her, but she didn't move. She trusted me. The panties fell to the ground.

"On your knees. This time, I won't make you. You'll make yourself," I instructed thickly.

Her eyes shone up at me in the moonlight, huge and full of things neither of us knew how to say.

She lowered herself while I unbuckled my belt and pulled out my aching cock. I hadn't even so much as jerked off in the last week. It had been too fucking miserable to relieve myself with my head full of the girl who was breaking my fucking heart.

I guided my tip to her lips, and she opened immediately. Sinking inside the hot cavern of her willing mouth was pure ecstasy. I thrust in deep, not able to take it slow. She gripped my thighs and held on while I fucked her face in alternating thrusts, shallow then deep, shallow then deep.

"Your mistake was thinking there was anything in this goddamn world that you should lie about to me about. There is nothing. You need to understand that. Nothing."

I withdrew so she could get some air. I rested my wet cock on her lips, glazing her mouth with a combination of her spit and my pre-cum.

"Winter?" I demanded an acknowledgment, slapping my cock against her porcelain cheek so she'd focus.

"I'm listening," she panted, her gaze latching onto mine.

"But did you hear it?" I pressed.

She swallowed hard.

"There is nothing you could ever tell me to justify shutting me out. Nothing. Tell me you fucked someone — you sign his death warrant, but you don't lie to me about it. Tell me you killed someone — I will make the fucking body disappear. Never try to tell me again that you don't love me — because I will never fucking believe you. Our souls are two ropes that will never be unknotted. It's too late, Winter."

A tear dashed down Winter's cheek, and her eyes were unguarded and full of emotion. I helped her to her feet and kissed her hard, tangling my tongue with hers. She was shaking.

"Do you understand?" I tilted her chin up.

Her eyes dropped from mine and she stared mulishly at my chest. "Asher. We can't. This doesn't change anything."

Fucking hell.

It looked like Winter had decided to hold out and make this harder on herself.

I was going to spend the rest of the night fucking that lesson into my little brat, but not out here, where she was cold.

"Wrong." I crouched and grabbed her, throwing her over my shoulder.

She pounded on my back. I unlocked the door and shouldered inside. As soon as I let her down, she went for the door. I locked it as she tried to take the key from me. It was a tiny key. I had another one on my motorcycle key ring, not that she knew that. I bent down and dropped it through a crack in the floorboard, plunging it into darkness.

Winter's eyes widened. "You lunatic! Why did you do that? I can't stay here with you."

"You can and you will."

"Asher!" she shouted.

"Shout all you want. No one can hear you. No one is coming to save you from me, Winter, so you best accept that now."

"You idiot! What's wrong with you?"

She pushed at my chest, and I took the opportunity to wrestle her out of her thick jacket and toss it away. She stumbled back.

"Lose the rest, or I'll do it for you, and I won't be gentle."

"You wouldn't dare," she said in a trembling voice.

I advanced on her. She turned and tried to get away from me. We tussled, me ripping her boots off and yanking down her skirt and the tattered remains of her leggings. Her kicking and scratching for all she was worth. She tore a deep scratch along my cheek when she was down to her underwear and cried out like it was her who'd just started bleeding.

"Your face!" she exclaimed.

I used her distraction to take her panties off and rip her T-shirt over her head. She was left in just her bra. But that wasn't what caught my attention.

A delicate chain lay around her neck, glimmering in the firelight.

A chain with something on it. She froze as my eyes fixed on it.

I reached for it, and she tried to squirm away but stopped at my lethal look. She'd been caught. Now, the lies ended.

The grapevine knot ring lay on the silver chain, just long enough to rest against her heart.

Protected and safe, cherished under her clothes.

A sob left Winter, and I picked up the ring.

"Care to explain?"

She shook her head, tears falling down her face. I smoothed them away from one cheek and then the other.

Then I kissed her. I couldn't wait one more second. I'd really fucking missed her. I couldn't stay away a moment longer. I needed to come home.

I pushed her back onto the couch, and she opened her legs, making space for me to sink inside the cradle of her thighs.

My mouth never left hers. I pushed my way inside her. She was wet, ready for me. I thrust into her, sinking home after three thrusts and pausing there. She was still crying, and it broke my fucking heart.

"You're going to tell me what's happening."

She shook her head, stubborn as fuck. I pulled out and slid back in smoothly.

She arched her back at the quick motion.

"You will tell me everything," I demanded, fucking her steadily now.

Pink traveled over her face, down to her nipples. She writhed against me, her face wet with tears.

She shook her head again, and I tutted.

"Yes, you will. You'll trust me and let me in. We aren't leaving here until you do."

She sobbed again, and I kissed her, swallowing the sound I hated the most. The sound of her pain. My hand fell to her neck, and she pressed herself into it. Begging for me to tighten my grip. When I didn't, she took my hand and guided it to her cheek. Suddenly she lifted both our palms and brought them down on her face, slapping herself with my hand.

"What the fuck?" I growled at her, balls-deep in this complicated, beloved woman.

"It's okay…hurt me. I deserve it," she whispered, her blue eyes huge and showing her heartbreak.

"No, Your Majesty, you don't. I don't hurt the women I love, and that includes you now." I kissed her instead, fucking her with slow, languid movements.

She cried out. She'd come, but it was only the first time she was going to be doing that tonight. If I couldn't scare the truth out of her, then I'd fuck it out of her. Pleasure over pain. I had a feeling Winter had a higher tolerance for the latter and less experience with the former.

She shook, her mouth frozen in an O of pleasure. I sat up and brought her onto my lap, my cock still hard and buried inside her. Cradling her face, I kissed her slowly until her body stopped pulsing sensitively around me. Then I lowered my hand between us and strummed her clit.

"You need to tell me everything, right from the start…or make your peace with living out here for the rest of your natural life," I said against her lips.

"It's dangerous. I don't want you to be in danger," she murmured again, letting me little further into the locked box of her secrets. So, my intuition was right. She thought she was protecting me. Me, the guy who only ever protected other people.

"I'm a danger to myself when you're ignoring me, Ice Queen. The only person who can hurt me is you."

She shivered and instinctively rode me. She was slippery wet with both of us, and the feeling of her rising and falling on my lap, squeezing my cock deep inside her, had me coming with her this time. I held her face near mine, looking deep into her eyes as we came together. She was crying again, but there was less defiance in it. They were resigned tears. She was cracking. Her walls were falling down all around us.

"Do you have any idea how beautiful you are to me? You always have been," I muttered.

She tugged the short ends of her hair, a sudden, unexpected show of self-consciousness. "Even like this? I cut my hair," she tacked on.

"I noticed. I already told you. I think you could pull off a shaved head. Nothing you could do to yourself, or wear or fucking think – could make you less beautiful to me."

Next, I lay her down and climbed on top of her, working my way down her body. She was dazed and out of it, relaxed and spent. I sucked her nipples, lavishing her with attention, every single inch.

Moving down, I spread her legs wide.

"I'm a mess," she murmured, leaning up on her elbows to look at me.

She was. Wet with her cum and mine. I lowered my face and inhaled the scent of us mixed together.

"Maybe, but you're my mess," I told her before finding her clit with my tongue and making her come again.

Finally, when we'd moved into the bedroom and I'd come another two times, and I'd lost count of her number, the terrible urgency ebbed.

She was really here, in my arms, all around me, above me, inside my heart.

Home.

"Time to talk, Your Majesty," I murmured, pushing her hair back and looking down into her face to see she was already gone.

Sound asleep. For the first time in a week, the frown between her eyebrows had eased. She looked peaceful, worn out and safe.

She'd been trying so hard to push me away, worried and alone under the weight of whatever terrible thing Trent Fitzgerald was holding over her.

I couldn't wake her. Holding her while she slept trustingly in my arms healed the cracks the last few days had made in my heart. I should tie her up so she couldn't wake up before me and make trouble. My little brat was exceptionally skilled at that. I was reluctant to move, however. I'd missed her so fucking much.

I just needed a little longer. I'd tie her up soon, but not yet.

Not just yet.