Saving Her Bear: A Second Chances Romance by Alana Hart, Michaela Wright Page B

from a wound, she bounded out from behind the tree and began racing toward the truck headlights, still visible through the trees. The underbrush snagged and pulled at her bare skin, but she barreled onward, undaunted, watching as the details of the truck came into focus through the trees. She dodged past a low hanging branch and screamed, flailing against the touch of something tangled in her long hair. She pulled at it, unable to straighten there beneath the branch, her hair pulled taut over her head by what seemed like a thousand branches. He’d have heard her scream, he’d know where she was. She grabbed the branches in her hair and pulled, feeling several strands of her hair break as she pulled the object free. She released her hold on it, and the strange thing swung away - a wooden doll, fashioned from twigs, hanging from the tree branch as though it were hanging from a noose. She felt her heart shoot up into her throat and turned again toward the truck.
    Her face slammed squarely into a solid, warm shape. She stumbled back just in time to look up at the hooded figure.
    “No! NO!” She screamed, stepping back, stumbling over branches, feeling the swinging doll bump into her back. She knew it was John, knew despite the time that had passed since she last saw him, despite the newness of his company, that he would never hurt her. Still, nothing could prepare her for the cold fear she felt there in the woods – of the blood chilling horror at finding that wooden doll. Jesus, were Bennett and Paul’s stories true?
    She turned back into the woods, running again, spotting another strange item dangling from a nearby tree. She dodged behind another tree branch and pressed her back to the tree trunk, shutting her eyes as she waited. John was somewhere nearby.
    Suddenly, something moved up behind her, a solid, warm thing, larger than she, pressed to her back with such force that she nearly fell forward. She felt arms, strong and purposeful, wrapping across her shoulders, the other around her waist. She screamed, yet the arm across her shoulders released just long enough to grab her hands, pinning them down. Then she felt the familiar figure clutch her around the middle, pulling her backward. She dug her feet into the earth, tearing at the hands, screaming until one of them clamped over her mouth. She fought to breathe, clutching his wrist as her feet lifted from the ground completely. She wriggled and kicked at him as his face came close to her ear.
    “My God, you are perfect,” he whispered.
    John, dropped to his knees with her in his arms, rolling her over onto her side, then her stomach.
    He pinned himself over her, forcing her cheek against the damp earth.
    The terror she’d felt gave way to overwhelming relief. The hunt was over. She knew not what he would do with her, but the hunt was done, and her heart was pounding from both fear and excitement. It startled her just how much she was enjoying this. The sudden release she felt at being terrified, but safe, that she was in the arms of someone that cared for her, was almost enough to bring tears to her eyes.
    He pressed against her, his fingers tugging at the waist of her shorts, tearing them down over her hips, baring her ass to him.
    Oh my god, this is happening, she thought.
    She lied there a moment, still, the smell of the earth filling her lungs. Her heart was pounding, the sound of it pulsing in her ears as the bare skin of her ass grew cool in the open air. Then she heard the sound of his own jeans being unfastened, the belt and zipper being opened. She felt him settle himself over her, spitting into his hand .
    She thrust herself up from the ground, just enough to pull her legs free from beneath him, and took off around the tree, back towards the truck, her shorts falling off as he tried to hold onto her. She heard him growling behind her.
    She ran bareassed through the woods, blind to the world around her, save for the truck headlights.
    You want a hunt you