Gabriel vividly remembered spotting Eris for the first time. It was then he’d decided that she was the woman for him, with her determined gaze and long, sweeping hair. There was so much about her he wanted to understand, and he was still just scratching the surface of what made Eris unique. “Do you like Virginia?”
She shrugged one shoulder, not looking away from the sky. “Plants grow anywhere, I suppose. I like places with a lot of open space and nature like this. My parents have property, kind of in a suburb near the city, but it’s still close enough to be considered part of the city.” She wrinkled her nose. “It’s so busy, crowded, and noisy. It’s not where I prefer to be, and it’s definitely more crowded than when I was growing up. Bluebell hates it.”
“Bluebell?”
Eris turned to him with a smile. “My horse. I’ve had her for years. She’s my favorite ride, and she knows it too. She stays at my parents’ with the other horses, but I try and stop bywhen I can. They teach equestrian classes, so she isn’t without attention.”
“So you’ve been around horses your whole life,” he summarized, another piece of Eris sliding into place. No wonder she adored the Ranch so much.
“Basically. They started teaching lessons when I was really young. My mom was a competition rider, but they didn’t really want to do anything that intense once they had me and my sister. It’s mainly kids that come through, and they do some horse therapy classes throughout the week. It lets my parents integrate our horses into daily life, so they get lots of attention. I always loved that. Maybe it’s why the Ranch felt so welcoming when I first came here. The horses, and all the animals really, are such an important part of everyday life here, too.”
Gabriel nodded, letting the silence settle over them. She seemed content to just sit there after eating too much food and drink in the day, and he had no complaints. After so long apart, he wanted to study every little thing about her.
Some things he discovered in the dark when he couldn’t even see her. The way her breath hitched when she was scared, the twist of her words when she was aroused instead of fearful. She was smart about where she ran during their games, and even though they got dirty every time he fucked her outside, she never complained about dirt or anything else. Despite looking like a pretty princess when he’d first met her, or a confused Dominatrix when he’d spotted the leather dress, Eris loved to get down and dirty. She was okay playing rough, and that appealed more to him than he expected.
It was only day two of her stay, but watching Eris on the porch as she watched the sky, one thing ran true in his head.
He didn’t want to let her go. And at the end of their week, he wasn’t sure he could, either.
Chapter Sixteen
Gabriel
Gabriel woke to the slamming of a door, alarm bells going off in his head as he tensed. Immediately turning on the light, he glanced over and found Eris’ side of the bed empty.
Well, she must have left on her own. If someone had come in here, he would have heard that, and the Ranch had too much security for some stranger to sneak all the way across the property and find Eris here. There were no signs of a struggle either, and as he climbed out of the bed in nothing but his boxers, he stepped to the doorway of the room and peered towards the front of the cabin.
Her cowboy boots were gone, and there was a new note taped to the glass of their door.
“My little vixen thinks she can play games,” he hissed beneath his breath, turning back to throw on dark sweats, his boots, and a pullover hoodie. Lastly, he grabbed that mask she was obsessed with and carried it out of the room. The nights out here got cool, and he didn’t waste the effort trying to figure out what the hell Eris wore before she took off. He had worked up a good sweat running around with the plastic mask over his face,and if he ventured outside, he had a good idea what was on her mind.
Huffing, he stepped to the front door and tried to wipe sleep from his eyes. The paper taped to the door had the mask on the back and the words facing the door. He ripped it down, unsure if having Derek print up the logo had been a good idea or not. Creative, sure, but now it might be working against him.
Little vixens don’t go to bed just because a masked man wants them to. Come play in the maze, Master.
He swore beneath his breath, pushing open the door before stepping out. It was too dark once again to see Eris, and now he truly did have to hunt her instead of setting the trap himself. That was the general plan for the week; he would lure her out to play, and they’d make a mad dash through the darkness until he caught and fucked her. With her setting the trap, it left a lot of possibilities.
They hadn’t ended up going to look at more of the maze after stopping by the main lodge. Eris had wanted to cat nap, and he’d spent the afternoon replying to emails and working through changes in the market to keep his investments profitable. It might be a job that allowed him to work from anywhere, but it was never ending. Eris was far more rested this evening than he was, and he didn’t think his alarm had gone off yet to go outside and set the night’s game up.
“Little vixen indeed,” he mumbled behind the plastic. After running around after her yesterday, he’d grown accustomed to the mask and the little neon lines that cut through his eyeline. He reached the trees in record time, pausing to glare at the dark, wooded area.
Knowing Eris, she was probably looking for where the man-made hedges turned into actual hedges and formed the rest of the maze. It was a dense, large area, stretching over two miles with all the turns and parallel aisles, and Lucas had given him avague description when he’d asked about it last week. The whole place was designed to make it difficult to escape, while keeping people semi protected as they ran around in the dark. Gabriel noticed all her scrapes and cuts each time they returned to the cabin, and he knew she was taking the primal play seriously. Eris never held back, not now that she was letting herself be free.
Jogging into the trees, he followed along the path at a leisurely pace, keeping his ears peeled for sounds of Eris. There were occasional sounds of critters too, squirrels and birds who made their homes in the wooded areas and came alive at night. He ignored the softer sounds, listening for Eris’ panted breaths and heavier footsteps. It might take some time, but she was out here, someplace.
He moved further into the maze, backtracking a few times when he came across a dead end. There was an eerie feel to the place when he wasn’t the one watching the area, and in his head, he imagined Eris watching him.
He almost laughed. Would she tackle him and turn the tables in the dark? Eris didn’t want to be the Dominant, but he damn well knew she liked testing him and pushing boundaries where she could. If he could fuck her harder as a punishment, there was absolutely a chance that she would try and jump on him, just to earn the fucking she craved.
It wasn’t like he’d been gentle on her any time they’d played outside. She had to be sore, but it had yet to deter her.
His head whipped to the left when he heard scrambling steps, and the disadvantage of wearing the mask was she might see him before he saw her. She could try and climb something, or scramble away in the night, but he stopped moving and just listened to her next move.
Those heaving, panting breaths made his cock stir, and now that he’d found Eris, he knew it was only a matter of time before he could fuck her, too.
He charged in the direction of her heavy breathing, and his quick, sharp steps on the ground made her squeal before he could hear her running. Letting his hands guide him, he veered left when the path curved and it sounded like she turned too, chasing her down through the dark.
The sounds moved with them, reminding him of yesterday, but this time was different. There was no preplanning, no lying in wait until she stumbled outside and followed his guiding hand. He had yet to make her out, but she was so close now he could almost taste her.