He lifted his head towards the sky, searching for something. The night air cool and crisp on his skin, he sensed her deep in the woods. He quickly took off, beginning his pursuit, eager to find her. As the trees slowly began to part, he saw her standing alone in a small clearing, warily looking around. He moved ever closer, the soft scent of grapefruit filling his lungs as he approached.  

“You found me.” she said plainly, her eyes watching his as he slowly circled her. 

“I’ll always find you.” He replied, his hand reaching out to brush her hair, dark as the night sky above them. 

“But how did you find me?” She asked with a puzzled look. 

“I feel you. Always.” He leaned in close, smelling the grapefruit on her hair, nearly nuzzling the nape of her neck. 

“But how...” she began, before he pressed his finger to her lips, pulling her closer. 

“Shhh...it matters not.” he spoke, gazing deeply into her wide eyes, his filled with a knowing darkness and lust. 

She gasped as he sniffed her again, long and deep. He began to speak, his voice almost in a whisper. 

“I know your deepest thoughts. I know your darkest secrets. I see the parts of you that no one else can see.” 

She nodded, slowly, knowing that his words were true. 

“I know just what you are thinking.” he said to her, his voice low. “Your head is screaming at you. Two conflicting thoughts racing through your head.” 

She whispered back, “What are they?” She was almost afraid to know if he knew. 

“The first is that you can’t help but find yourself drawn to me, like a moth to the flame. Wanting, needing. Desperately wanting something....forbidden.” 

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Her cheeks flushed, knowing that her soul lay bare to him. “And the other?” she asked, her breath catching slightly as she saw his eyes darken. She gasped as he grasped her by the hair, jerking her head back and growling in her ear. 

“Run.”  

She turned, a fear creeping over her as she began to run through the woods. She found the man intriguing, exciting, and frightening at the same time. Her heart pounded in her head as she raced through the trees, hearing his footsteps in the distance behind her. She found herself unsure what he would do when he found her. Would he kiss her, or kill her? She was not sure what he was even capable of. 

She looked around, searching for somewhere, anywhere that she could hide. She noticed a bush, overgrown from years of being allowed to grow freely. She ducked inside, pulling the limbs around her so that she could see out, looking for her pursuer. 

He trudged slowly through the woods, stopping occasionally to sniff the air. He tracked her, enjoying the chase, eagerly thinking of what he would do once he found his prey. He licked his lips at the thought, his eagerness slowly turning to arousal.  

“I can smell you.” he whispered, moving ever closer. “You smell...sweet. Scrumptious, even.” 

She could see him now. Still not close yet, but moving closer. A bead of sweat dripped down her forehead, the run having taken it’s toll. 

“Salty. I can almost taste you.” 

She held in a gasp, wondering how he could smell the small droplets from so far away. Was this truly even a man, or a beast? 

“You already know what I am.” he said, his words seeming to echo her thoughts. “I am what you crave. What you’ve been longing for, for so, so long.”  

She felt herself wanting to move towards him, her body yearning for his touch. 

“I am what you fear. The thing you try to hide in the back of your mind, in hopes that no one will ever see.” 

Her breath caught again, the fear once again returning as she saw him moving closer, closer. 

“I am the darkness in your heart, the shadow that comforts you in the night. I am the thing that you want most, and yet the thing that shames you more than anything else.” 

She felt a tear forming in the corner of her eye, knowing what would come next. 

“You ache for me, and the fact that you need something that badly frightens you. You need to shun it and push it away because if you give into those urges, you are afraid that you may never find yourself again. That if you give in, you may find something everlasting.”  

The tears began to flow freely down her cheeks, every part of her lay bare to this dark, mysterious man. 

“You fear that you don’t deserve it. That even if you have it, that it will never last. That it couldn’t.” 

A slight sob escaped her lips, and she saw the man slowly turn towards the bush. 

“You could be right. Perhaps you are undeserving of such a thing. Perhaps that is reserved only for the lucky few, and you just aren’t a part of it.” 

Her heart beat faster, the man now only a foot away from the bush. 

“However, what if you are wrong. What if it is exactly what you deserve?” 

The man slowly leaned down, a smile creeping across his lips as he began to part the bush, finding nothing there. He stood, gazing around, looking for a trace of the girl in the deep, dark woods.