“Hey, sweetie. Sorry we took so long—my stomach was acting up,” Mom said as they came out of the hallway, her cheeks flushed a deep pink.
Blake stood a half-step behind her, his large hand resting on the small of her back. His thumb stroked her spine with a casual, arrogant possessiveness that made my blood boil.
But as Mom looked down to rummage through her purse for her keys, his dark gaze shifted, locking dead onto mine.
The air in the lobby evaporated instantly. He stared right through me, his eyes dropping for a fraction of a second to my heaving chest before snapping back to my face. A slow, knowing heat flared in his pupils.
I swallowed hard, forcing a tight, painful smile as I nodded at Mom. "It’s fine."
"Let’s go. This movie is officially a wrap," Mom looped her arm through his and pulling him toward the glowing exit signs.
I trailed behind them, my legs feeling like leaden weights.
---
“I can’t believe you actually picked the Shadow Dimension maze,” Mom said while we stood in the ticket line at the Halloween theme park. “You used to scream at the TV whenever those faceless monsters appeared on that 80s sci-fi show. Remember?”
I rolled my eyes, trying to ignore the way Blake was looming behind me. “I’m twenty-three now,” I muttered. “I can handle a guy in a rubber monster suit.”
Mom laughed. “Fine, big girl. But if you start crying, I’m filming it for your coworkers.”
Blake let out a low snort behind me. The vibration of the sound seemed to travel through the air and hum right against my shoulder blades. “She’ll be fine,” he said, his voice a deep, vibrating baritone. “Zoe’s tougher than she looks.”
My cheeks caught fire instantly. He dropped comments like that all the time—casual, effortless—and every single one landed like a heavy knock on the door of my heart.
The line surged forward, and we finally stepped through the rusted metal gates. The entrance to the maze wasn’t a standard haunted hallway; it was designed to look like a glowing, pulsing portal to a parallel monster world. A narrow metal bridge stretched across a massive cylinder lined with violently spinning red-and-black, flesh-like lights—a vortex tunnel.
Mom squealed the second we stepped onto it. “Oh God, it feels like it’s flipping over!” she laughed, clutching Blake’s bicep for a second before jogging confidently toward the other side.
I followed. Instantly, the spinning lights hijacked my brain. The world tilted violently on its axis. Extreme vertigo slammed into me, sucking the breath from my lungs. I gasped, throwing my arms out as my knees buckled entirely.
Blake's thick arms banded around my waist and hooked under my ass just as I went down. He hauled me up into the air like I weighed nothing. On pure, panicked instinct, my thighs split and locked tightly around his narrow hips.
“Easy, sweetheart,” he murmured against my ear, his solid stance completely unaffected by the spinning illusion. “I’ve got you. Close your eyes.”
His chest was like a wall of granite. I could feel every ridge of muscle through his hoodie. My legs were shaking, and I tried to tell myself it was the vertigo. It wasn’t. It was the radiant heat pouring off him—the intoxicating mix of clean sweat, expensive soap, and the dark musk of his cologne.
My nose pressed into the hollow of his throat, inhaling deeply.
Mom glanced back from the end of the tunnel, still giggling nervously. “Twenty-three Zoe, seriously? You’re clinging to him like a koala.”
“I’m dizzy, Mom,” I mumbled into the warm skin of Blake’s neck. It came out muffled, pathetic, and far too honest.
She rolled her eyes, already turning into the pitch-black corridor of the maze. “Some things never change. Come on, slowpokes!”
And just like that, she disappeared into the dark.
Blake stepped into the shadowy corridor. The spinning lights faded behind us, replaced by alien-looking creeping vines and the low rumble of a monster's growl echoing through hidden speakers.
I deliberately pressed my softest curves tighter against his solid chest, feigning a fragile shudder. “My head is still so dizzy,” I played the helpless girl perfectly. “Please don’t let go yet.”
He let out a low, knowing exhale that ruffled my hair. “I wasn’t planning to.”
With every confident stride Blake took, his hips naturally rolled, grinding the thick, formidable ridge of his erection directly against my swollen clit.
My skirt had ridden up uselessly, leaving my bare thighs wrapped tightly around him. Every movement sent a fresh shock of pleasure behind my eyes.
“Jesus, Zoe,” he muttered with the heavy strain in his voice. “You're shaking.”
“I—I can't see the floor, it scares me,” I gasped softly, digging my nails into his broad shoulders.
His large hands settled firmly on my bare cheeks, lifting me just a fraction higher. “I’ve got you,” he murmured. “Relax.”
Relax? With his cock effectively buried in my crotch through two thin layers of fabric? I was dripping so much I was terrified the moisture would seep straight through his jeans.
We seamlessly entered the next section, designed to look like an abandoned, overgrown lab. Mom’s voice drifted back from the darkness ahead. “Blake! Zoe! Are you guys still behind me? This place is creeping me out.”
“We’re right here, Kayla,” Blake called back effortlessly. He sounded completely composed, playing the protective husband, all while seamlessly carrying his stepdaughter with her wet core molded perfectly to his aching erection.
Suddenly, a blaring klaxon shattered the silence. Strobe lights began to flash frantically in the corridor. A heavy metal panel in the wall blew open with a blast of theatrical fog, and a towering actor dressed as a faceless, fleshy monster lunged out, splitting our group right down the middle.
Mom let out a blood-curdling shriek. “Oh my God!”
She bolted blindly down the corridor to escape the roaring monster.
Blake didn’t hesitate. He yanked open the heavy glass door of a prop upright cryogenic pod lining the wall and crammed us both inside.
Click.
The instant the heavy door sealed shut, the blaring klaxon was muffled to a low hum.
Blake’s massive frame pinned me instantly. My thighs were still wrapped tightly around his waist; there was absolutely no room to put my feet down.
My skirt was bunched entirely around my ribs. My bare ass was pressed flat against the freezing, curved glass of the pod door, while Blake’s scorching body heat trapped me from the front. His belt buckle bit slightly into my stomach, and his dick—God—it felt even larger in the vacuum of the dark. The rigid, throbbing length of it jammed straight against my drenched pussy, the blunt head nestling right under my clit through the fabric.
A soft, broken whimper slipped out of my throat before I could stop it.
The next second, Mom’s frantic voice echoed in the hallway. “Blake? Zoe? Where did you guys go?”
She walked right up to our pod.
Before I could even gasp, Blake’s large hand clamped instantly over my mouth. He grabbed my waist, yanking us hard into the narrow blind spot beside the door frame. "Shh," he breathed sharply against my ear.
The sudden, desperate movement forced us flush together.
My heart completely stopped.
His instinct to hide—spoke volumes. He didn't want mom to find us alone in here. Through that shared panic, a dark, unspoken agreement snapped into place between us.
Outside, Mom was so close I could see the terrified sweat on her forehead. She cupped her hands around her eyes and pressed her face directly against the glass, trying to peer inside. She couldn't see us huddled in the corner. But she was literally inches away from my bare spine.
Because he had to pin me so tightly against the wall to stay hidden from her sightline, Blake’s thick, rock-hard erection was wedged deep into the crease of my soaking wet cleft. The sheer, overwhelming terror of almost being caught made my inner walls clench violently on instinct. The sudden spasm of my dripping slit dragged directly against his rigid length.
Blake went completely still. I felt his massive chest expand as he took a ragged, strained breath against my neck.
Outside, Mom sighed in frustration, looking down the other end of the hall. “I swear I'm going to kill them for leaving me behind...” she muttered, walking away.
As her footsteps faded, the terror in my veins violently mutated into a filthy, overwhelming high. Knowing he was entirely complicit in this dirty secret—that he had consciously chosen to hide with me—I decided to reward him.
I deliberately arched my spine and rolled my hips backward. I ground my wet, aching center slowly and shamelessly against his throbbing erection, forcing him to feel exactly how ready I was for him.
Before Blake could pull back, I reached up and caught his thick wrist. I deliberately dragged his large, rough hand down my side, past my bunched-up skirt, and pressed his palm flat against my bare, trembling inner thigh.
Then, looking up at his shadowed face in the dark.
He didn't pull away. Instead, his large hand locked onto my hip, his long fingers biting brutally into my bare flesh. The possessive grip sent a jolt of adrenaline straight to my core.
"You planned every second of this, didn't you?" he rasped.