2 – Picking Up the Pace Heart pounding, breath ragged, legs fading, music blaring. Zoey could tell she had pushed herself too much. Her body was screaming at her to give up, to give out. It had been an eternity since she had last felt this way. Can’t stop, she told herself. She keyed the metal music in her ear up again, a beep indicating it wouldn’t go any louder. Frankly, it was probably already blowing out her eardrum anyways, but she needed something to push her the last quarter mile. Something to carry her to the familiar place on the trail that always caused her anxiety. Usually, it was that faint fear of something bad happening to her, a predator, human or animal, springing from the dense underbrush. Today though, the spot carried a different weight. A mocking, self-doubting voice prodded Zoey’s conscious mind laughing at her foolishness. It told her she had let her kinky thoughts get the better of her, and some poor woman named Tara was paying the price. This had been such a bad idea. It was too unsafe, and with her years of disciplined self-bondage, she should have known better, but the situation had been too tempting.
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