It was the next evening. I was on the fence about being here. I loved spending time with Erik, but this all seemed too good to be true and I knew that all good things came to an end. Right when we least expected it. Right when everyone was happy, thinking that there was no possible way their happiness could be taken away from them until someone else came along and stole their joy.

Erik had gone down on me twice more since the first night we were together. I couldn’t believe how generous he was when it came to giving out orgasms like they were candy on Halloween. I had no idea sex could be this good. I hadn’t even had sex with him, but still, his mouth was amazing.

He made my insides melt, and the more climaxes I received from him, the more I became infatuated with him. He was brooding, dark and sexy. He spoke fluent Russian and would sometimes whisper Russian phrases into my ear while he was kissing me or after making me taste myself after eating me out. I had no idea what he was saying, but that was part of the mystery that made this so scary and thrilling at the same time.

I still got the sense that he didn’t fully trust me enough to let me go back to the bed-n-breakfast. Not enough time had passed for people to start looking for me. I hadn’t had time to make friends in the tour group yet, so nobody would probably be wondering where I was. I was supposed to be gone for an entire week, so it would be awhile before alarm bells started ringing with Paige or anyone at work either.

I wanted to stay as passive as I could so that I wouldn’t set him off. I didn’t know if he was a ticking time bomb or not. He seemed to be enthralled with my body and wanted to give me as much pleasure as possible. As long as I stayed under the radar and didn’t piss him off, I felt like I would be in good shape to win him over and eventually earn his trust.

We had been sitting by the fireplace in his living room with more than a few hours until dark. I pretended to be interested in his books, but I was more infatuated with watching him produce a custom-made knife from scratch. I wondered what he was going to do with the knife when he got done making it. I shoved my fears to the back of my mind again. He'd been so kind and gentle to me.

He stole glances at me while he worked and I had to admit that I was surprised that he seemed pleased with having me here. The afternoons and evenings grew brisk because of their high altitude. It was as if we were nestled in the clouds of the sky, perched up on the edge of the world.

Internally, I muddled over the prospective idea of maybe using this region as my home base one day. Those dreams were still far out in the future. Much like Erik, I had my own paranoia, doubts, and fears.

I always felt like I was being chased and trying to stay one step ahead of the game. It was a losing battle because I never felt safe. Even now, my guard was up. Even though Erik was cracking my foundation, the walls remained firmly in place to shield me from the hurricanes of life.

“What do you want for dinner?” Erik smiled at me with a flicker of adoration that I hadn’t seen leak from his emotions yet.

I sighed and rubbed my palms against my knees. If I had to eat venison and rice again, I didn’t know what I’d do. “I can cook something for us,” I suggested.

“Really?” He raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“Of course.” I chuckled. “I love cooking. My parents had a restaurant in New York and I used to work there after school. That was a long time ago though.”

“What kind of restaurant?” He seemed intrigued, so much so, that he put down the knife he was working on.

“It was our family business. My dad was an Italian chef when he married my mother. And of course, being born and raised in the deep South, my mother grew up on soul food. She was an excellent cook without the formal training that my dad had. As a teen, she used to cook meals from my grandmother’s kitchen and sell them to neighbors, the church, and anyone that knew her.” I smiled, cherishing the stories my mom told me. “And then she met my dad. Fast forward through two years of courting and they finally got married and he convinced her to move to New York and run his business with him. I was born a year later. Their restaurant was all the rage back then. They combined Southern and Italian recipes that even had the tourists paying visits just to eat there.”

Erik smiled. “Wow, that’s quite a history. What happened to your parents?”

I shrugged. “No longer living.”

“How?”

“Their lives were cut short by senseless violence. They were in debt and owed money to the mob. There. That’s my secret. I don’t like talking about it, so please don’t make me.” Before he could ask me any further questions, I said, “I still remember all the recipes. Do you want me to cook or not?”

“What would you make?”

I was glad he hadn't asked me what happened to my parents. I wasn't ready to delve into that yet. "I saw some pasta earlier in your cabinet. You've got eggs, cheese…so I think you've got just about everything for some mac and cheese. I know you said you like meat with every meal. Do you have anything else besides venison?"

He grinned. “I got tired of eating that myself. There’s chicken.”

“How does southern fried chicken and mac and cheese with an Italian twist sound?”

He rubbed his belly. “That sounds delicious.”

We walked into the kitchen together and I set off to work. No one had ever watched me cook before, but he seemed more than interested in what I was doing. As I prepared the meal, I told him about how I practically grew up at my family's restaurant. I appreciated that he didn't ask me anymore prying questions. He just let me talk and he listened. Before we knew it, the food was done.

About five minutes into dinner, he was more than halfway finished his meal. He had already told me how great of a cook I was and claimed everything was delicious. He even went back for a second helping of mac and cheese and several pieces of chicken.

Mid-way through dinner, I nonchalantly asked him what brought him to the mountains. He didn’t seem bothered by me turning the tables on him and asking about his past, so I continued, “I know you aren’t from around here. Not with that sexy accent of yours. Where are you from again?”

My charm had the effect I wanted. He became vibrantly forthcoming, telling me about how he was born and raised in Russia, and then went to work as an independent contractor, but he had lived all over Europe.

“How long have you been in the States?” I questioned as if I were just making light conversation.

"Not long," he shrugged although he wouldn't give me a defining timeline. "I had to get away from my past."

“Oh?” I raised my voice as I nibbled at my food.

“I was a contract killer.” He said it like it was the most normal job in the world.

I swallowed, and suddenly, I wasn’t hungry anymore. I began to put the pieces together. Sanitation. Contract Killer.

“You killed people for a living?” I asked, slowly.

“Yes. Mostly for Bratva and other Russian kingpins. Like I told you before, I take out the trash.”

“I had no idea that you meant that literally,” I said.

His eyes looked full of regret and sorrow. I couldn't believe how openly honest he was with me.

“I know that must still haunt you,” I said and squeezed his hand across the table. I felt sorry for him, but I said nothing about the wave of anxiety that took me when I realized that he had once been the very thing that killed my parents.

He met my gaze and something soft changed in his demeanor. “I don’t ever want to go back to that life.” His voice was somber, grave. “I’m not that man anymore. I took out trash, not good people. You don’t have to fear me.”

“I know that. I’m not afraid of you.”

I put down my fork and backed away from the table. “I think I’ve had enough,” I mumbled.

Less than an hour after our meal, evening began to turn to dusk. Just like the previous evenings, Erik handed me a comfy fleece blanket and I stretched out on the couch with some magazines and pamphlets he’d given me to read about Arrow Lake. He must have been dead tired because he worked at a slower pace on the knife he’d been mulling over since earlier this morning.

I wanted to ask him more. I wanted to grill him more about his occupation. Now I understood why he was so suspicious of me. He was a real-life criminal who couldn’t be bothered with the law. He thought I’d rat him out. He was wrong. I never planned to rat him out. Even now, after he saved my life and offered me shelter in his home, how could I wish him any ill-fate? He just didn’t understand. Maybe he would never understand. I knew what I had to do.

I rolled over and pretended to be asleep until I couldn’t hear him fumbling with the knife-making supplies any longer. When I turned around, his eyes were closed shut and his head was rested against the back of the chair. His lips were slightly parted. He was fast asleep.

I pushed the covers off my bare legs and sat up on the sofa for a moment to make sure he wouldn’t wake up. I didn’t know where my tank top was, but my jeans shorts was draped over a wooden chair where he’d laid it out to dry earlier this morning after doing laundry. I still had on his big flannel shirt so that’d have to do. I tiptoed across the room and quietly pulled on the shorts. My shoes were by the door with his hiking boots and I slipped my feet inside.

Picking up the key that I saw him drop on the console table earlier that day, I unlocked the deadbolts with shaking fingers. I cringed when the door creaked a little when I pulled it open. A cool wind drifted inside the one-inch opening and I waited until the breeze had faded before pulling the door open just enough for me to squeeze through it.

With my heart pounding violently in my chest, I pulled the door closed. On the front porch, I let out a huge sigh of relief and then made a run for it. The sun was fading fast on the horizon and if I wanted to make it back into town by nightfall, I had to sprint.

Recalling what I’d read in one of the magazines today about the region, I turned my back to the moon and away from the mountains and began running toward what I hoped to be west. The locals referred to the main town as west. Going west into town was the phrase I’d seen numerous times in some of the interviews. I’d also remembered that the tour guide had also mentioned it a few times, so if I kept going west, I’d see civilization again.

I was startled awake by some strange noise. When I looked down at my lap, I realized I’d fallen asleep while making another knife to be sold at the local gift shop in town. On instinct, my gaze shot to the couch where Alexis should have been sleeping. She wasn’t there.

“Alexis?” I called out in the direction of the bathroom.

I glanced at the windows to see that it was now nighttime. It appeared that I’d been out a while. I rose and walked down the hall to see if she was alright.

When I didn’t find her in the bathroom and she didn’t answer my calls, I knew what had happened. I raced to the door to find that the deadbolts were already unlocked.

No. No, she didn't…

She could not have run off by herself this time of night.

Groaning, I grabbed up a flashlight and took off running. How was I going to find her out here in the dark? I should have never let my guard down. She must have planned her escape like this.

Who did she think she was—cooking macaroni and cheese and frying chicken and then waiting until I was knocked out to make her escape and run off into the woods?

How dare she leave me feeling as if I couldn’t live without her?

I couldn’t let her go. No, I couldn’t. I needed her.

I could have sworn the temperatures had dropped about ten degrees since I escaped the cottage, or maybe it just felt that way because I was shivering in trepidation. A wolf howled nearby. I tried to ignore the sound, but then I heard a chorus of wolves howling. I thought I heard ruffling through the bushes as I ran out into a clearing. My heart jumped in my chest and my lungs burned.

I glanced west again and breathed a sigh of relief when I caught the sight of smoke billowing up toward the sky. Then I saw several sets of lights in the distance coming from what appeared to be some windows.

I was hopeful up until the point when I heard a deep growl behind me. I stopped dead in my tracks, remembering what I’d read years ago about how to survive an animal attack. The worse thing I could do was run. My mind was telling me one thing and my body was telling me something else. Fighting the urge to take off running again, I turned around slowly, only to be confronted by a big ass black wolf.

“Oh…” I breathed and backed away slowly.

Its ears were perked upward and its canines were barred. It titled its snout upward and sniffed, probably trying to determine if I posed a threat.

In a sign of submission, I shifted my gaze to the ground and backed up some more.

To the right of me, I spotted someone big and tall running toward us with a flashlight.

“Alexis?” The man called out. “Alexis!” It was Erik.

When he revealed itself, the wolf then turned its aggression on Erik.

“Calm down, boy,” Erik said, in a soft voice. “It’s alright. No one’s going to hurt you.”

The wolf seemed to understand that Erik posed no threat and it turned and ran off into some bushes.

Erik shifted his gaze to me and then came straight for me. “I thought I told you not to go out alone.”

“I didn’t want to be a bother anymore, plus I have to go home,” I pleaded.

“So you snuck off in the dead of night?”

“You weren’t going to let me go anyway.”

“How do you know that?” He took my arm gently. “Come on. We can’t stay out here. Only a fool would try to find their way home in the dark. You don’t even know where you’re going.”

“No, I don’t.” My admission embarrassed me. “The wolf? You weren’t afraid of it?”

“No. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be. Come on,” he said.

I glanced out into the darkness where the wolf had disappeared, and reluctantly, I went with Erik.

“It’s like he understood what you were saying,” I said, in awe of how he’d handled a wild animal.

“I doubt it. I’ve been living out here over a year. It knows my scent. It doesn’t know who the hell you are. Don’t try to change the subject?”

With that, Erik scooped me up and trudged back in the darkness towards his cabin. Although he was gentle with me, I could tell he was angry and hurt. I didn’t realize how much I’d betrayed his trust until he stormed in the home, passed the couch, entered his bedroom, and then threw me on his bed. When he took out some ropes and began securing my arms to his bedpost, I understood just how much trouble I was in.

“What are you doing?” I hissed.

“Making sure you don’t try to escape again.”

"This is unreasonable! I made a bad decision, okay? I couldn't stand the thought of saying goodbye, so I just left. I thought it was best for both of us," I pleaded.

He grunted but continuing securing the ropes. I struggled against the knots, but every time his hands brushed against my legs or any other part of my body, my pussy creamed and clenched in need. How could I be so aroused by having a mountain man abduct me for the second time in a week and tie me to his bed so I wouldn't be able to escape again? I was so turned on that I couldn't even think or form words to express myself.

“I’ve told you everything you wanted to know about me. I’ve convinced you that I’m not some secret government agent spying on you. I spent time with you only because it looks like you’re lonely and you need it. You can’t just keep me here as your little plaything,” I blurted out.

My last statement seemed to amuse him, and he grinned. “My little plaything?”

“Yes,” I hissed, infuriated.

The ropes around my wrist were too tight and I could barely move my arms. He left my legs free, probably because they didn't reach far enough to tie to the other bedposts. Between Erik and the plush comforter, it felt like the big oversized bed was going to swallow me up whole. His bed was at least California king-sized. I expected nothing less from this mountain man.

“You think you’re a plaything to me?” he asked with a straight face. He even leaned in close to me, making me look him in the eye.

“It’s plain to see that I’m obviously out of your league. What could you possibly want with me?”

He said nothing while he drew a slow trail up my legs with his fingers. “I think you know…”

“Sex? You want to have sex with me?”

When he didn’t say anything, I tried again. “You want to eat me. Is that it?”

He began rubbing my inner thigh and I gasped in response to his touch.

“Well, answer me,” I breathed.

He unbuttoned the flannel shirt I was wearing, exposing my chest to him. When he palmed my breasts, I arched into him. I was so over being embarrassed by my body’s response to him touching me, so I gave in. I wanted this more than he knew it.

“This is what you want. A submissive me, strapped to your bed to do what you want with. You know that no one will ever find me here. You know that no one will ever come for me,” I said, trying to make him feel guilty while he played my body like a fiddle.

He licked his lips, bent his head, and sucked my nipple into his mouth. I cried out as he started to slurp and lick me until the sensitive buds were hard. By the time he got done with my breasts, the seat of my panties was soaking wet. He kissed a hungry trail down my belly until he reached my waist. Needing his lips on me, I lifted my hips off the bed so that he could slip my shorts and underwear right off.

His mouth was the devil. He kissed and teased my inner thigh with light to firm kisses until I was jerking at the ropes binding me.

“Please…” I begged.

“Please what?” he moaned against my lower abdomen.

“That thing you do with your tongue…” I began.

He grinned and pressed his mouth to my mound. It wasn’t enough and he knew it.

“Fuck,” he grumbled, sliding his fingers through my slit. “You’re wet.”

I bit my bottom lip. “Make me come please,” I urged, parting my legs and showing him my glistening pussy.

“Why are you a virgin?” he asked. It must have been a rhetorical question because he started to lick the outer lips of my pussy. “Answer me! Why?”

“I…I’m saving it for my husband,” I panted.

He groaned and dipped his tongue into my wetness. He said nothing else while he ate my pussy like he was starving. His tongue lashed against my clit and entered my pussy repeatedly until there was nothing left. Even with my cries, with me begging him for mercy as I repeatedly came that night, went ignored.

And when I looked down and saw that he was stroking himself while eating me out, I came with a passion that rocked my core. He came not too long after me, growling into me and sending soothing vibrations against my throbbing clit.

When it was over, he brought a warm, damp towel to clean me up and crawled back into the bed beside me. He didn't untie my wrists, but he did drape his arms around my waist possessively. I wasn't sure who fell asleep first this time, but after that, I didn't want to attempt to move.