by Vivi Paige
Like I said, an extreme set of circumstances. So, I figured I could have an unscheduled cheat day and eat some goddamn pancakes.
When all that was left of the flapjacks were sticky fingers and smiles, I finally broached the subject I’d avoided all morning. I stared across the counter at Scarlett and cleared my throat.
“So…”
She glanced up and saw my somber expression, her smile fading. “So… what?”
“You know what I’m getting at,” my tone sharp.
“Uh, no I don’t… I left my mind reading powers at the rave when you snatched me.”
“Damn it,” I gripped my fork tight and jabbed it in her direction. “Do I have to spell it out? You’re still here.”
“Yeah?” she said, growing a bit angry. “Of course, I’m still here. I’m not allowed to leave, remember? I’m your captive.”
I sputtered for several seconds before I managed to speak. “You… I don’t… for the love of… come on, you could have left last night after I fell asleep. I’m actually going nuts trying to figure out why you didn’t.”
Scarlett lowered her fork to her plate with a clatter and glared at me. “It’s not that hard to figure out.”
Then her expression softened, and she actually reached out and put her hand on top of mine. I stared at the freckled surface of her skin, scarcely believing what was happening even as a hard throb pulsed through my chest. Was I really getting excited over a little hand holding, after the debauchery of last evening?
“Then tell me. I’m simple.”
She laughed and squeezed my hand warmly. “You’re anything but simple.” Scarlett sighed, and looked at me with those warm green eyes that threatened to melt my steely heart. “I just figured that I’m probably safer with you than I would be trying to run, even to the cops. I mean, if the people you work for are connected as well as you say…”
“They are, but why do you think you’d be safe with me?” I demanded. “I’m the one who kidnapped you in the first place.”
“Yes, but you promised I’d walk out of here alive,” she whispered, her lower lip trembling.
“And you believed me?” I asked with a snarl. For some reason I felt really angry at the moment.
“Sure,” she smiled. “You’re a good man, Mr. Big Bad Wolf. Even if you don’t want to admit it, not even to yourself.”
I stared at her, all pretty and sweet and tempting, and hated myself. I hated myself for what she made me feel and for making me doubt everything I thought I knew.
“I am not a good man,” I growled. “It’s time you learned that lesson. Don’t trust anyone.”
“I trust you.”
Her tenderness only made me angrier. Snarling, I grabbed her wrist and dragged her into the living room. Scarlett stumbled after me, not resisting other than with panicked queries.
“What’s wrong? Why are you so angry?”
I didn’t answer, only roughly untied the apron and yanked it off her body. Then I grabbed her by the jaw and squeezed hard, drawing her face up toward mine.
“Let’s see if you still think I’m good after this.”
Then I shoved her down into the chair and ripped the strings off the apron with savage jerks. She watched, hurt dancing in her eyes but without an ounce of resistance as I lashed her wrists to the armrests, making the knots miserably tight. The thin fabric cut into her skin, bulging and bubbling it outward and obviously cutting off the circulation. The emotions this conjured in me only made me angrier because I didn’t want to feel anything. I think I was trying to prove that she meant nothing to me by being extra cruel.
Tears welled in her green eyes, though I don’t think it was from the pain of the strands binding her to the chair. I reconnected her ankle chain, doing so in a way that bound her ankles together, and then shoved the ball gag into her mouth. She groaned as I tightened it several notches more than I had before, forcing her jaws wide apart and spawning a line of drool drizzling down her chin and onto her naked body.
I stared at her as if to say, “How do you like that?” But she didn’t grow angry or offer protest of any kind. She simply stared at me with those horribly hurt eyes, and I had to turn away. I ripped a strip of cloth from the nearby blanket and covered those haunting eyes.
Then I left.
I made it all the way into the car before I realized there was no way I could leave her in such a state. No matter how much I wanted to deny it, Scarlett had wormed her way into my heart.
Glumly, with an air of defeated resignation, I exited the car and headed back inside the house to set her free.
Chapter Fourteen
Snot dribbled down my chin, mixing with the drool spilling out of my forced-open lips as I sat in abject misery. I couldn’t even move enough to wipe my face clean. My arms ached horribly from the taut apron strings, and the constant urge to swallow could not be sated or I’d wind up choking on the plastic ball wedged between my teeth.
But the physical discomfort from the cruelly tight restraints didn’t lead to my despair. I was haunted by the angry, bitter light in Wolf’s eyes as he’d tied me. The funny thing was, I don’t think he was angry at me at all. I think his rage had been directed at himself because he felt things he couldn’t understand. Things for me.
I could relate. The entire time I’d been around him, Wolf had a profound effect on me. Despite the insistence of many popular right-wing blogs, I was not, in fact, naïve. I didn’t believe in love at first sight, or any of that fated soulmate garbage.
What I did believe in was the power of chemistry. Some people just had the right set of different charges to create sparks. It had been nothing but sparks between me and Wolf, save for my terrifying abduction and trip inside the suitcase and car trunk.
While I had not enjoyed that one bit, I had found comfort at the least in the way Wolf sought to take care of me. He saw that I was fed, had water, bathed…
My mind revolted suddenly with the thought that if I were a dog, I could list the same virtues of my owner.
I stiffened when the sound of the door, which adjoined kitchen and garage, slammed shut. Was he back already? Or was this someone else? A thought boiled in me right then—one that suggested I’d rather not be rescued. I hated myself for that thought, hated myself for desiring Wolf so badly even when he’d been so cruel.
Blindfolded, I followed the sound of his footsteps with my face anyway as he came to a halt right in front of me. His heavy breathing wafted over me, mixed with the smell of his anxious sweat. I was too afraid to make a sound, yet desperately wanted him to say something, do something. Anything, other than just stand there and torment me with his presence.
I felt his hands pull and tug at the knotted fabric around my eyes until it fell slack, dropping around my neck. Our eyes met, his dark gaze holding an unexpectedly tender light. Wolf reached for me, and I lowered my gaze to my lap so he could access the buckle on the gag.
He carefully picked out the hair that had been entangled with the leather and brass, taking pains not to hurt me, and then extracted the ball from my mouth. I worked my aching jaw, now free to speak but afraid to utter a sound. Wolf used his handkerchief to wipe my face clean of drool and mucous and then went to work untying my wrists.
Wolf winced at the sight of the red indentations left behind on my skin by the cruelly tight strands. He rubbed them gently with his fingers and then lifted his gaze to meet my own.
“I’m sorry, Scarlett.” His voice was tinged with deep regret. “I—I never wanted you to get hurt. In any way.”
“Then stop hurting me, Mr. Wolf.” I was surprised at the conviction in my tone. “You have the power to stop at any time.”
His face contorted in a guilty mask as he pondered my words. “I wish I could, but I can’t let you go. Not yet.”
“I know you can’t, Wolf.” I sighed and shifted in the chair. It was far less comfortable when my naked butt was pressed into the hard surface, and it wasn’t comfortable to start. “You’re trapped i
nto your fate by your family. Like me.”
I dared to lift my hand and caress his cheek. He started, flinching away. But I touched him again, caressing his skin with my soft palm. Wolf’s big, hairy-knuckled hand lifted and cupped over mine, and then gently pulled it away so he could bend himself to the task of freeing my ankles.
As he turned the key in the padlock, opening its hasp, I pondered whether I should say my thoughts out loud. Watching the gentle, careful way he unwound the chains and attended to my red and sore ankles gave me enough courage to speak.
“Why did you come back?”
He looked at me in misery and shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut. “I don’t even know, Scarlett. I just couldn’t leave you… like that.”
I thought he added the last two words on more for his benefit than for my own.
“I think you do know, Wolf.” I caressed his stubbly cheek. “But you don’t have to say it out loud right now if you don’t want to.”
“Say what?” He tried to sound harsh, but it came out a bit plaintive instead.
I just smiled and leaned forward, kissing him on his lips. He accepted it, his tongue darting inside of my mouth, but then he broke away and held me by my shoulders, staring at me hard.
“What’s wrong with you?” he demanded, shaking me a little. “Why are you doing this?”
“Doing what?” My tone was sweet, my turn to be cryptic.
“You know… this.” He let go of me and shook his hands about as if gesturing toward all of creation in general. “Kissing me. Sleeping with me. Not escaping when you had the chance. Is this all a game? Are you in cahoots with Devlin, trying to fuck with my head?”
“I don’t know who Devlin is, Mr. Wolf,” I said, growing angry and not afraid to show it in my voice. “And while I’m not averse to the idea of games—particularly the naughty kind—I assure you I’m not playing you.”
“Then why?” He shook his head and crossed those massive arms over his barrel chest. “Why…”
I gasped, realizing what he was truly getting at, and astonishment filled my tone as my mouth dropped open. “You can’t let yourself believe that I’m attracted to you. Can you?”
“I said no such thing.” Wolf stiffened, his arms falling to his sides while his hands grasped into fists.
“You don’t have to. It’s written all over your face and the way you brutally tied me to the chair.” I laughed and stroked my finger along the ridge of his chiseled jaw. “I can’t figure out why you’d think I wouldn’t be attracted to you. I mean, you look like you belong on the cover of a romance novel.”
“I would think my kidnapping you and holding you hostage would have a lot to do with you not finding me attractive.” Wolf arched one bushy brow.
“Yes, that would normally be a deal breaker, but… life doesn’t always fit into neat little boxes.” I smiled up at him, blushing a little when I realized I was still naked as a jaybird, not that he hadn’t already thoroughly examined every inch of my body. “Regardless of how we met, I can’t deny what I’m feeling. And neither should you.”
“I—I don’t have any…” Wolf’s eyes squeezed tightly shut as his palms rose up to rest on either side of his head. I could see the conflict playing out in his body language and facial expressions, mirroring what was happening inside his mind. “I—I’m not allowed to have feelings like that. Not for someone like you.”
“Someone like me?” I chuckled. “You mean, podcasters? Lefties? Naked women who don’t exactly object to being tied up and manhandled under the right circumstances? Protestants? Non-Italians? Help me out here, I’m drowning.”
I watched his face go through a ton of conflicting emotions at my examples. His cheeks turned red when I mentioned being sort of into the idea—if not the actual practice—of captivity, but he was stubbornly insistent upon sticking to his guns.
“No, of course not. I mean…” He turned his massive back on me, his shoulders slightly slumped. “Look, Scarlett. You and me, we’re from different worlds. You get it? The world I’m from is populated with people who just aren’t very nice. And you, you’re… you’re…”
“I’m what, Wolf?” I felt bad at his torment but at the same time wanted him to make the breakthrough I knew he could.
“Innocent.” He finally turned to face me. “You’re just so goddamned innocent.”
“Innocent?” I burst into laughter. “After all the things we did to each other last night, you’re going with innocent?”
“That’s not what I mean,” Wolf snarled. “You’re a good person, Scarlett. Too good, too pure at heart for my world. I just don’t see any future for us that doesn’t end in tragedy.”
“Then maybe you’re not looking hard enough.” I stood at last, walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his waist, laying my cheek on his firm chest. “Or maybe, you’re just afraid to see what’s right in front of you.”
He sucked in a great breath, swelling his chest against my face as I heard the rapid tattoo of his beating heart. “And what is in front of me, Scarlett?” he demanded softly.
“Right now, a naked girl who’s totally ready to go,” I purred, nibbling on his nipple through the thin fabric of his shirt.
“You know what I mean.” He gasped as my attentions had the desired effect. I could feel his bulge growing against me, heightening my own arousal. “How does this end? After the ransom is paid, I mean?”
“Once the ransom is paid, there’s nothing keeping us from seeing each other.” My hands slid over his chiseled back muscles.
“How would we even explain to people where we met?” he gasped, his arms encircling my waist.
“Tell them the truth—we met a rave, you got rough and kinky and one thing led to another,” I murmured into his skin. His hands felt amazing as they crawled all over me, caressing my spine and cupping my buttocks firmly, kneading them and prying them wide apart.
“Oh, Scarlett,” he said in sudden relief, clasping me to him even tighter. “I need you so fucking bad it’s driving me crazy.”
“I need you, too, Wolf,” I whispered, exulting in his embrace.
“Will,” he muttered into my neck as he left tender kisses there.
“What?”
“Will. My name is Will.”
Our eyes met and then our lips, but just when I really felt swept up into the swirl of ecstasy, his phone rang. The way his body stiffened against mine let me know it was a call that was both very important and unsettling.
“I have to take this.” He dug out his phone with one hand but still clasped me at the small of the back with the other. I watched his face intently as he took the call.
“Yeah?” The other person spoke, and other than the fact that it was a man, I couldn’t tell anything else about what they said. “Are you kidding me? The guy’s fucking loaded. Yes, of course. I’m a professional. What does that have to do with—”
Will’s face grew hard, and his gaze filled with panic when he looked at me.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t get to that point.” His voice was tight as a drum. “Fine. I’m sure he’ll get the money together in a couple of days. Yeah, you’re right. I’ll switch to a new burner just in case.” Will ended the call and stared at me for a long time before speaking. “Get dressed. We’re moving to a new safe house.”
“What’s going on?”
“Your father needs a few days to liquefy his assets. In the meantime, we need to move just in case this location has been compromised.”
“I didn’t call anyone,” my own tone harsh. “Even though I easily could have while you were sleeping.”
“I know. I know,” he assured me, caressing my face with his palm. “I know, okay? Just get dressed, please, and hurry. I have a bad feeling about this.”
I nodded and went to do as he asked. But I was filled with trepidation over this unexpected move.
What kind of game was my father playing?
Chapter Fifteen
Scarlett fussed with her wide-brimmed
straw hat as I pulled the Cordoba out onto the highway and headed south. Her freckled face wrinkled into a frown as she adjusted her sunglasses with a painted nail.
“Do I really have to wear these?” She let loose a helpless laugh. “I mean, this hat is at least two seasons out of style. Not to mention no one wears blue-framed sunglasses anymore.”
I glanced over at her sharply. The hat I’d found up in the beach house attic, but I’d picked out those sunglasses specifically for Scarlett because I thought they were pretty. It seemed I was wrong.
“I’m afraid so, Red,” I grinned. “You’re a missing person, and most everyone carries a cell phone in their pocket these days.”
“Fine, but I don’t have to like it.” She peered out the window as we passed by rows of waving reeds bordering the roadside. “It’s a bit windy today.”
“Yes. The ocean will be choppy.”
Scarlett turned her glasses-shrouded face my way, an incredulous expression marring her pretty features. “The ocean will be choppy? What does that have to do with what I said?”
I smiled cryptically and just kept driving. Scarlett leaned back in her seat and stretched like a cat.
“Oh fine, be that way.” A grin teased her lips. “It’s not like you have anything to gain by keeping your secrets, though. If you wanted to keep me from knowing the way to the next safe house, you’d have blindfolded me. Or tied me up and stuck me back in the trunk.”
“That can be arranged,” I spoke as if seriously considering it.
Scarlett turned and stuck her tongue out. “Don’t threaten me with a good time. Except the trunk really sucked. The handcuffs weren’t so bad, though.”
I arched an eyebrow as we turned off the highway onto a service road. The undulating hills soon flattened as we turned toward the coast once more. We came about a bend near a rugged cliffside and the ocean came into view, blue and white with crawling breakers.
“It’s lovely,” she sighed. “Though not as pretty as the Pacific Ocean. Have you ever been to Cali, Wolf?”
