As Elizabeth stumbled a little in the sand, she laughed, righting herself. The transition from the wooden boardwalk, to the concrete roads and sidewalks, rickety stairs and then straight onto the soft beach had disoriented her a little and she felt like a damsel in a cliche horror movie.

She and Sammy had always giggled when the heroine stumbled, it felt so contrived and silly but here she was, stumbling and slowing herself down in a dark and breezy night. Maybe not so contrived, after all. She had the biggest, baddest man on her tail, an almost empty night with plenty of places to escape and still, she'd managed to trip.

The boardwalk had been busy but subdued, the streets surrounding it somewhat quiet and the beach she had launched herself towards stretched out in the wrong direction, too far away from the restaurants, shops and attractions to be of any interest to the people out and about.

It felt like she had Santa Carla all to herself and that was the way she liked it.

As she checked the straps of the sandals she was wearing, she quickly glanced over her shoulder before taking off again, unable to stop the smile from spreading over her face. It was thrilling and she knew that unlike a movie character, when Dwayne caught up to her - when she allowed him to catch her - she would be on the receiving end of everything but pain.

Keeping away from the shore where the sand was wet and soft, Elizabeth was making good time. She wasn't a runner by any stretch of the imagination but it was amazing what she found she could do given the right motivation. She didn't know where she was heading but she knew what she wanted. She wanted a quiet, secluded spot with just the glow of the moon and the crashing of the sea to accompany them. That was it. That was all she wanted, that's all the idea she had. Just her and Dwayne, the romance of the dark night.

Paired with an incredibly vivid idea of what she wanted to do, it was all she needed.

He was all she needed.

She could see in the distance that the beach up ahead was turning into a cluster of trees, leading into a wooded area and she paused again in the sand.

It was familiar, she remembered - or at least, she thought she did - passing through here on Dwayne's bike on the way to the cave. It was different, being on foot and somewhat breathless but she was sure it was the same place. It had to be. Pushing on, walking instead of running, she spotted something that made her inhale sharply in delight.

A bench, isolated and old, surrounded by sand that was close to turning into soil and some scattered trees that promised a hint of privacy in the empty night. It was so alone, so tucked away but obvious, so old and yet unused that, as she approached it, she knew she had found what she had been running towards.

Had she known it was there all along? She didn't know but she was glad she had found it.

All that was left to do was face the man she had been running from.

Breathing heavily, Elizabeth laughed as she turned in the sand.

As she knew he would be, Dwayne was there, standing tall and proud. If she had reached out her hand, she would have been able to touch him but she didn't. Standing her ground, she didn't move as his eyes trailed over her body, her somewhat heaving breasts and now ruffled hair. The way he was studying her was so primal, so intense and she liked it.

He could be sweet, he could be playful, he could be vulnerable...but he could be a smoldering, self-assured, powerful hulk of a man and sometimes she loved that side of him the most.

"Got you" he said, his voice deep, holding the most tantalizing promise of what their night held.

His hair was perfectly wind swept, his leather jacket open just enough to show a hint of his still chest and he almost glowed in the moonlight.

Eyes glittering, she shook her head, "...no. You didn't"

She didn't miss the way his eyes were trailing over her her body and as she slowly took a step back in the sand, he took one forward, matching her.

"No?"

"No"

He tilted his head dangerously, "...it looks like I have, little red..."

She stepped backwards again and he followed.

"But you haven't"

She took another step back, turning a little as she did before pausing as the bare skin of her calves met the rough but dry wood of the old bench.

"I hunted you and I've caught you" he stated, shaking his head with a sly smile, "and I think I'm going to claim my prize"

As he reached out his arm, clearly moving to cup his hand around her neck and pull her close, she reached out her own hand and stopped him.

Pushing his arm down, Elizabeth reached out and placed both her hands on his jacket, her fists curling around the cool leather.

"You're wrong...you didn't hunt me, Dwayne..." she said, her voice a whisper. As she looked into his eyes, she tugged him close, "I hunted you...I lead you here..."

He looked down at her thoughtfully, his eyes narrow and his smile calculating.

"...I've got you exactly where I wanted you..."

Tugging him close again, he dutifully stepped forward.

She stood on her toes, leaning up towards him to capture his lips and as he responded slowly, obviously stunned by her bold display, she began to turn in the sand, rotating their bodies.

As his legs met the bench, she pulled away from him.

Planting her hands on his shoulders, she pushed him once. A hard, commanding gesture and he responded to it, immediately dropping down to sit heavily on the aged wood.

"...and I'm going to claim my prize"

For a moment, he seemed to be at a loss for words and she took the chance, moving to straddle him. She felt sexy, she felt powerful but she didn't know how long she would be able to keep it up. She wanted him more than she could express, she needed him more than she could say and because of that, she didn't know how long she would be able to play her game, erotic and tantalizing though it was for her.

She knew she could be putty in his hands in mere moments, it was all down to him and how long he planned on humoring her. He was so inherently powerful, nothing about him was in the slightest bit submissive so she doubted it would be long.

It was exciting, thrilling and so hot. He could turn the tables on her any second and it was wild.

As her bare knees met the cool wood of the old bench and her thighs were warmed by the somewhat smooth material of his jeans, she smiled down at him.

Elizabeth softly curled her hands around his broad shoulders, the leather of his jacket feeling smooth under her chilled hands. As her dress hitched and strained a little against the wide parting of her legs, she kissed him gently before pushing at his shoulders, commanding him to lean backwards. He responded to her actions, his body moving against the dangerously weak beam of wood at his back, his hands resting on her exposed thighs.

"...your belt. Take it off..." she whispered, sounding far more confident than she felt.

He met her eyes, his gaze unwavering and strong.

She swallowed, shifting her hips and moving against his familiar hardness.

"Take off your belt" she whispered again, her voice husky, commanding.

Still meeting her eyes with an intensity that gave her pause, she felt the back of his hands graze her crotch. She could hear the surf, she could feel the coarse wood against her knees and, as she felt his fingers move, his knuckles brushing against her underwear, she could hear the soft sound of his metal buckle being opened.

Feeling the movements, trembling with need and anticipation, Elizabeth took a shuddering breath. She was in control but she wasn't, not really.

Not at all.

Everything about him screamed power and dominance.

Running her hands up from his shoulders and moving to cup his neck, she kissed him, using the rigid strength of his body to pull herself yet even closer to him.

She felt his arms curl around her waist, his hands splayed over her back.

Lips close to his, she whispered "...I want you to touch me.."

Before she could open her mouth again, before she could expand upon her command and tell him exactly where she wanted to be touched, his hand moved upwards, faster than she could register. As his fingers curled into her hair, the strands loosening a little from the constraining ribbon, he gently jerked her head back while pulling her forward even more.

She gasped, delightfully taken aback by the action. That was it. That was what she had been waiting for. He was in control and her body responded immediately. His touch was careful but the power beneath it was indescribable and she could feel how desperately wet she was, how hot she had become from that small, sharp action alone.

She could feel him, hard and ready, pressing against her and she whimpered in need as his nose trailed up from her exposed cleavage, along her neck and into her hairline.

"Like this?" he murmured, his voice a deep rumble.

As he nipped her ear, Elizabeth moaned, moving against him. His actions were so powerful, so strong and it felt dangerous, wonderfully dangerous the way his lips traveled up her neck.

Using his free hand to pop the buttons of her dress, he nipped her lobe once more.

"When I saw that ribbon in your hair-" he growled, hand curling against her scalp, "-I just wanted to eat you up"

Elizabeth gasped, as he tugged the buttons of her dress in a firm, explosive movement. She could do nothing but moan as her breasts met the cool air of the night, feeling the material of her dress drape down over her hips. Had he ripped her bra? Had he torn the dress? She didn't know, she didn't care.

It felt so good.

"Oh my God" she moaned, wanting to throw her head back even more but unable to do so.

He had allowed her the illusion of control earlier but now it was all him. Unforgiving, relentless and skilled in ways she could never have imagined.

"Dwayne..."

It wasn't enough. She wanted him, she wanted his touch, his kiss.

For a brief moment, the tingling pressure on the back of her head lessened before she felt him tug on the ribbon. As her hair tumbled down over her exposed shoulders, his hand fell to her neck.

"You have no idea how much control it took for me to just follow you" he growled, "when you started to run...you have no idea what that did to me"

Staring down at him, she gently scooped his hand away from her neck. Dominant and strong to soft and quiet. Elizabeth didn't think she would last long. Kissing each knuckle almost reverently, she met his eyes before releasing his hand, feeling it drop against her.

Sensual, intense, dominant, vulnerable, hard, soft.

He was everything.

"...yes, I do" she whispered, brushing her nose against his before kissing him softly, "...that's why I did it"

"You're playing a dangerous game..." he warned, his voice husky with want.

"...I know" she murmured, moving against him gently.

Kissing him again, she allowed her eyes to close.

"...but I trust you"

She kissed him once more, a final, gentle gesture before pulling back and looking down at herself. She liked the way he was touching her now, the way his hands rested heavily on her thighs. She could feel the undercurrent of power in his touch and, as she bit her lip, she also found she liked the way her exposed breasts brushed against his bare chest, the way her hardened nipples met the cool leather of his jacket.

There was so much to lose herself in and, meeting his eyes, she nipped his lip.

"Dwayne..." she put her hand over his, "...I think my panties should match the dress"

"What?"

She kissed him, hard.

"Rip them off..."

"This is Sandra" David said, dumping a female body onto the compact sand. It landed with a very dull and heavy thud, its wide open and lifeless eyes gazing into the still night.

"Hey, Sandra, how's it hanging?" Paul replied with a grin, blood staining his chin and vest. He tugged the body next to him, grabbing the limp wrist and elevating it into the air, shaking it so it flopped wildly in a dark imitation of greeting.

"Thought you weren't into it?" Marko asked amicably, his own kill lying face down in the sand a little distance away, ankles askew.

"I wasn't" David shrugged, dispassionately nudging the body he had just dropped with his booted foot, "but they were a trio. It made sense to get her too, we don't want loose ends"

Marko nodded.

"Good thinking, I give you-" Paul said as he tried to manipulate the digits on the hand he was still holding, "-five for your smarts and..." he peered at the body David had dumped before shrugging, "...eh...bruising on the wrists, the neck..she shit herself, too..." he looked at Marko before shrugging again and trying to hold up two of the dead digits, "...so that's a two for the kill itself. Not your best work-"

"-you want to talk about best work?" David queried, looking pointedly at the body in Paul's grip.

She had clearly died in pain and fear.

"Yeah, she pissed me off" the blonde shrugged, dropping the wrist.

It landed with another dull thud in the sand, oddly and unnaturally angled.

"Because she was rude to Elizabeth?"

Paul nodded, sounding annoyed, "I was really hankering for a slow, sensuous kill and then she was fucking rude and I was pissed. So now I'm full but I've got a real distinct case of the blue balls, you feel me?"

"Not really"

"You know" he sounded impatient, "that slow seduction, followed by languid but passionate fucking and then a deep, needful feeding? Where the girl is just mewing and panting and fucking begging you to bite her?"

"Jesus, you paint a vivid picture" Marko mused as David archly raised an eyebrow, "I'm familiar"

"Well that's what I was looking for tonight"

"No way were you going to do that with her" Marko scoffed, rolling his eyes at his brother's dramatics.

"Why?" David queried, the tone of his voice not revealing if he was actually interested or not.

Paul shrugged, "aw I don't know man. Just got it into my head after chatting with Liz the other night. She's all romantic and shit and I thought, hey. It's been a while, why not?" he looked at the corpse beside him annoyance, "and then she was rude and ruined it all most fucking spectacularly"

Marko grinned, "you're telling me you didn't enjoy your evening?"

"Well yeah I did, obviously but not in the way I wanted to enjoy it"

"You're pissed because you had fun but not the type of fun you wanted?"

"Yeah"

"You, too?" David asked the curly blonde.

"I'm not complaining" Marko replied.

"But how are your balls?" the cold blonde's words were sarcastic, easily making light of Paul's apparent suffering.

"Not blue" he stretched in the sand. Like David, he had never really cared to indulge in a sensuous kill like Paul occasionally did. For him, it was a rare occurrence, "but yes to being pissed off...that's never happened before"

"What?" David asked, "you're always pissed off"

Marko grinned.

"Girls were never rude to Star when she was with us" Paul supplied on behalf of his friend, "and she kind of oozed a sultry sexuality. Liz is kind of obliviously naive and green to the hedonistic world we live in but they were on her like hissy cats. What was up with that?"

"She was never with us" David replied, somewhat tightly before sitting down himself, as Marko replied, "I don't think Liz is that green"

"Yeah, but you know what I mean. Star has sexy bedroom eyes" Paul said to Marko, before turning to David again, "what did you say?"

"...I said, Star was never with us" the icy blonde reiterated, his voice as flat as his face.

No matter how much they had tried to encourage Star to spend time with them, and it had been sincere and genuine in the early days, she never would. When she went to the boardwalk, she separated herself from them as soon as their engines had been turned off. Sometimes, she'd slide right off even before.

"And even if Star had been, she wasn't one of us, she was never meant to be one of us-"

"-no-" David agreed, tightly still.

"-so she would be no threat to our randoms" Marko supplied, thinking out loud. His voice wasn't playful like Paul's but he wasn't being careful, either. David wouldn't stand for even a hint of sympathy, "right?"

"What does that mean?" Paul asked his friend, "you think these girls somehow knew Busy Lizzie is one of us-" at David's raised eyebrow, he added, "gonna be one of us, you fussy little bitch! And then what? They felt like, some competition because of it? Or like they somehow knew Liz is really our girl and they're not, they never would or even could be?"

Both he and Marko looked to David who simply replied, "perhaps"

"I love it when you enlighten me" Paul winked, sarcastically seductive.

He was the only one who could insult David so blindly, address topics that were difficult to broach or downright off limits and live to tell the tale. It was part of his charm and both Marko and Dwayne - who had known the cold blonde for far longer and were infinitely more considerate of their leader's feelings - thought it was nothing short of amazing what David would let him get away with.

"I don't have all the answers" David replied.

"You don't?"

"No" David said, "that could be the case. I think it's likely but then again, they could just be-"

"-steaming bitches, yeah yeah..." Paul looked at David with a devilish smile, "takes one to know one, huh bro?"

"Funny how Elizabeth didn't care" Marko said before David could retort, "I have to be honest, I thought she would be kind of sensitive to that"

"In general, she seems pretty well rounded" David said with a shrug.

Both Marko and Paul looked at him, surprised that he'd been mildly complimentary. He had never insulted Elizabeth but he had never really complimented her either.

"I said in general" David repeated, "she's sensitive and she cries a lot-"

"-you two did terrify her-"

"-but I think she's got a bit of toughness in her. Somewhere, at least"

Paul chuckled, "nah, I'm with Marko. That shit would have hurt her but tonight she was pretty preoccupied"

All three men grinned.

"...so what are we doing with these, anyway?" Paul asked, looking down at the scattered bodies, changing the subject.

"Salty you're not the one getting dick right now?"

"Giving"

"Burn them" David shrugged, interrupting Marko and Paul's playful banter.

"Nobody's gonna look for 'em?"

"No" a cold smirk, "Sandra here told me their whole life story"

"Road trip?" Marko guessed.

"First time away from the prying eyes of Mom and Dad?" Paul added, rolling his eyes.

"They bought bus tickets a week ago, Sandra told her family that they were heading East but they sold their seats to stay in the Santa Carla sun a little longer. They just loved it here so much" the icy blonde's voice was heavy with sarcasm, "and now they're dead but the few people who give a shit about them think they're safe in-"

"-don't tell me...LA?"

"Nah, these girls wanted to go to Vegas, right?"

"Ding ding" David drawled, pointing at Paul.

Paul snorted a laugh.

"Is it me or do mortals get stupider and stupider?"

"Not just mortals" both David and Marko drawled at the same time.

"Ha" Paul replied, deadpan and dry, "ha"

A/N: Thank you, thank you and thank you again for the kind and very much appreciated reviews!