He suddenly drops me, and steps away, barely giving me time to catch myself. Just as I straighten, he tips up his chin.
“Have you come here to ask for forgiveness?”
“Yes,” I whisper. “I’m—”
“Undress,” he orders, cutting off my apology.
Biting back a retort, I listen, and tear the articles of clothing from my body until I’m naked. It’s hot outside, yet I shiver beneath his blazing eyes.
My nipples harden beneath his wandering gaze, causing his nostrils to flare. Suppressing the urge to cover myself, I lean back against the tree, another shiver racking my body from the rough bark.
Licking his lips, he gazes at me like a hawk would a mouse. Predatory and full of intention. Slowly, his long fingers undo the buckle on his belt, before jerking it out from the loops of his black jeans.
A rock forms in my throat, but I don’t bother swallowing it down because I know it’ll come right back up. Especially as he strides towards me, and then behind the tree. The trunk isn’t large by any means, so just as I go to turn my head, his hand comes up from behind me and grips my jaw, forcing it straight.
“Face forward, Adeline,” he orders, his deep voice full of warning.
His hand retreats, and my heart pounds erratically, causing my breathing to hiccup. The weight of anticipation is suffocating, and when I finally see his belt come into view, I can’t help but flinch away.
It loops across my throat and around the trunk before it tightens, the leather groaning from the force. My eyes bulge, my precious air supply cutting off for the third time as he refastens the buckle. The fucker used his belt to pin me to the tree.
He comes out from behind me and faces me once more, his devilish gaze taking in his masterpiece.
“You’re fucked in the head,” I tell him, and then cough as the leather digs into my skin.
He hums at me. “You use pretty words as sharp knives, and I think you’ve become attached to seeing me scarred. Do they make your pussy wet, baby?”
I raise my chin, deciding to take a different route and go with the truth for once.
“Yes,” I admit, as firmly as I can manage.
He stares at me, his mismatched pools as intense as the cold wind ravaging my body. The pale scar cutting through his white eye stands out proudly amongst the otherwise smooth flesh.
It hurts to look at him.
His gaze thins, and he approaches me until I can feel the blissful heat radiating from his body.
“I didn’t mean what I said,” I whisper before he can say whatever words are resting on his tongue. “I’m sorry.”
He pauses, and my discomfort grows as his gaze intensifies.
“I’ve given you nothing but honesty, and you continue to give me lies. Is this another attempt to bring me back in just to kick me out again?”
I swallow, my throat drier than the bark digging into my back.
“No,” I rasp, and my lip trembles from the shame burning the backs of my eyes. “You’re right. I… There’s no excuse for what I said. I don’t want you to leave. And I do love you.”
“So you’ve said,” he murmurs. He cocks his head and muses aloud, “Yet you tried to take it back. You gave me something precious and then tried to rip it away.”
I shake my head, desperation clogging my throat.
“I won’t do that ever again,” I swear, another tear burning a trail down my cold cheek. It snags his attention, and I watch his eyes zero in on it, tracking it until it drips from my chin.
When he looks at me once more, it hits me that this isn’t just a punishment. This will be a test to prove my love. To prove that I mean it when I say it.
“You cut me because you know I’ll gladly bleed for you. So now I want to see you bleed for me.”
I open my mouth, prepared to tell him that I already have, but before I can, he bends and grabs a long, gnarled twig off the ground, fisting it in his hand. Whatever I was going to say somersaults right back down my throat, and my heart stalls in my chest.
“What are you going to do?” I ask hesitantly, eyeing the branch like he’s holding a gun.
Scratch that, give me the gun. I’ve survived that before.
He responds to my question by rearing his arm back and slapping me across the thigh with it. For a blissful second, I’m too shocked to feel anything, but then the sharp, piercing pain comes racing in, and all I can do is let out a strangled scream. I look down at my thigh in disbelief, an angry red welt already protruding from my skin.
My chest heaves, watching a line of blood bead from the wound before trailing down my thigh.