Sophie
The day after Shelby and Bryan’s wedding, I got into the hotel limousine and had the driver take me to a day spa in downtown Honolulu. I could have visited the spa in the hotel, but I’d wanted a change of scenery. Plus this particular spa boasted a special massage and mani-pedi package for mothers-to-be that I wanted to try, and since I was still keeping my news under wraps I wouldn’t have dared ask for any maternity services at the hotel. I’d be too afraid some of the other bridesmaids would be standing next to me the moment the masseuse entered the waiting lounge saying, “Sophie Davenport for the pregnancy package.” Then my secret would be revealed, and I would rush back for my appointment with my nerves all balled up and relaxing wouldn’t be an option.
It was a good decision. My massage was wonderful, and they even had a cut-out in the table for my belly, which was starting to look like either a tiny baby bump or too many cookies. After that I had my fingernails and toenails painted a lovely shell pink.
When I got back in the car I asked the driver to take me back to the hotel. Sleepy after releasing all that tension, I leaned back on the buttery leather seats and closed my eyes. These days three in the afternoon felt more like ten o’clock at night. I stretched my palm over my stomach. This baby took every bit of energy I had. My pregnant friend once told me that during the first trimester the amount of exertion your body underwent preparing your womb to sustain your baby was the physical equivalent of climbing a mountain. That explained why I felt like I’d run a marathon every day.
I was so glad school was finally out. During the last few weeks I’d practically been falling asleep in class, even while standing at the blackboard. Once Bunny found out about the baby she insisted that I take the following year off from school, and I’d agreed. I know everyone says it gets easier later during pregnancy, but I didn’t want to risk it. Plus—I’d given up on the idea of ever becoming a mother. So now that it was happening I wanted to take advantage of every minute I had to be with my child once he or she was born.
I’d never say it out loud, but secretly I hoped the baby was a girl. Not for me, necessarily, but for Quentin. I didn’t know how much he’d participate in the child’s life, but I knew I couldn’t keep him away entirely and with that being the case, I feared it would be more painful and difficult for Quentin to have a son after he’d lost his first one.
I knew he was convinced this baby was a boy, but a boy might be a constant reminder of Sam. And as angry as I was with Quentin for deceiving me, I didn’t want him to suffer any more than he already had.
The vehicle rolled to a stop, jarring me from my drowsy state. I sat up and yawned. But when I opened my eyes I could see we were not at the hotel. Instead, we were somewhere deep on the island surrounded by lush vegetation and a driveway leading to a large, modern house.
I pressed the button to roll down the glass partition, but the driver wasn’t up front. The car door opened and instead he stood there holding out a hand to me.
“Sir, I’m sorry but there must be some mistake. I requested to be taken back to the hotel.”
“No mistake, miss. Your husband wanted to surprise you. Had me bring you here for a special surprise.”
No. Alarm bells went off in my head and I could feel beads of sweat forming on my brow. Something was desperately wrong here.
I didn’t have a husband. What was this man talking about?
Then, handsome and slick as the devil himself, Quentin walked out of the house and strode toward the limo. “Honey, you’re home.” Before I could recover from the shock to protest, he palmed the driver a few bills and helped me out of the car.
Something in the back of my mind told me to scream, to tell the driver this man wasn’t my husband, to kick and fight to get back in the car. Refuse to go with him. But deep down inside I knew Quentin would never hurt me, and even deeper than that I knew I still had feelings for him. As much as I wanted to protect myself from him, a part of me wanted to forget everything he’d done to me and go back to the way things used to be between us.
“Come inside,” he said, slamming the car door and whisking me up the driveway.
As I heard the car’s tires roll over pebbles and exit the driveway, my stomach dropped out from under me, and my hand reached for my belly.
“Are you okay?” Quentin took me by the shoulders, concern creating lines on his face that hadn’t been there before. “Is it the baby?”
I shook my head. How could I explain to him that I was nervous about being alone with him? That I didn’t trust myself to be around him and not revert to that innocent schoolteacher who fell head over heels for him when she opened her eyes and saw him for the first time. No. I had to protect myself, and I had to protect my baby from him. He might be well-meaning, but he’d proven that I couldn’t trust him. And my baby and I deserved better than that, even if it meant growing up with a single mother at home and a father he saw only occasionally.
At least that’s what I’d convinced myself.
“Let’s get you inside and get you something to drink. I got milk, juice, water. What would you like?”
Tears started to well up in my eyes as he helped me to a seat on a couch in the living room. He’d gone to the trouble of stocking the kitchen in this place, wherever it was, with drinks he thought a pregnant woman should drink. For a split second I allowed myself to revel in the fact that he’d gone to the trouble to do something like that to take care of me and our child.
I’d been on my own from the beginning of this pregnancy. The only people I had told so far had been my parents and their reaction had been mixed—they were pleased to be getting a grandchild, but displeased that I was unmarried in my current condition. There were a number of times I’d been tempted to tell Shelby, but I decided to wait until after her wedding. I wanted her to have her big day first, before my belly started lobbying for everyone’s attention.
So now, having Quentin show me this small kindness made me want to curl up in his arms and bawl like a toddler. Instead, I sniffed, “Juice. What kind of juice?”
“I got orange and pineapple. The lady at the market said pregnant women sometimes craved pineapple juice.”
Being as this was Hawaii, where they grow pineapples by the acre that made sense. “I’ll try that,” I answered, trying to picture Quentin discussing the cravings of pregnant women with a woman in a market. The Quentin I knew ordered most of his groceries from Amazon. We’d been to the store together a few times, but he was usually aloof, not the type to strike up a conversation with a stranger.
He poured me some juice and took me to what looked like a guest bedroom. “Here, you can lie down in here. I’m sure this is a lot for you to take in so why don’t you just rest and we can talk later.”
“Why don’t you just take me back to the hotel? You can come to my room and we can talk there. I promise I’ll listen to what you have to say. We can talk on the way over there too.” I was nervous being in a place I didn’t know. A place I’d been taken to without my knowledge. It was creepy.
“Let’s not play games with each other, Sophie.”
“I’m not playing games. I just don’t appreciate being kidnapped.”
“Stop being such a fucking drama queen. You’re lying to me. If we go back to your hotel you will tell security and I will be thrown out, possibly arrested and you’ll go on your merry way. I’m not a fool, girl.”
My heart sank. I was stuck out here with him, and he would do whatever crazy thing he felt like.
Unless I could get to my phone to call for help. Shelby and Bryan were still in Hawaii. They’d gone to Maui, but I might still be able to reach them. I glanced over at my bag discretely.
Quentin caught on immediately and snatched the bag off the bed. Damn!
“Looking for your phone?” He riffled around in my bag. Finding the phone, he slipped it inside his pants pocket.
“Quentin, why are you doing this to me?”
“Forty-eight hours, that’s all I’m aski
ng for.”
15
Quentin
“Quentin, please let me go back to the hotel.”
“I can’t do that. Not yet anyway.”
“What is it you want from me? What can I do to make you let me go?”
I paced in front of her. “First of all chill out. I’d like you to spend the weekend with me. Give me that, and then I’ll let you go.”
She eyed me suspiciously.
“Doesn’t that seem fair? Don’t you owe me that?”
She narrowed her eyes, unconvinced.
“Don’t you owe your child that? To give his father one more chance, forty-eight hours.”
Her chest heaved as she took a deep breath. She was wavering—I knew it!
“Do you think we can talk in a civilized manner?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Good. Because you have to know that there is no way I am going to let you raise my child without me being a part of his life.”
She nodded.
“I’m not sure how you expected to get away with keeping it from me, but now that I know I will do everything in my power to make sure that you take care of yourself and deliver a healthy baby for all of our sakes.”
“Quentin, I am taking care of myself. I am taking prenatal vitamins and I am seeing a doctor. So far everything is going just fine. I am not going to teach next year. I’m taking the year off to take care of the baby. I’ve got this. Everything is going to be fine.”
“But you just thought that you wanted do this without me?”
“It’s not that.”
“Then what is it? It sounds like you’re trying to cut me out of our child’s life.”
“No. I just had a lot of things I needed to figure out for myself. After what you did I can’t trust you, and baby or no baby, I can’t just pretend everything is fine.”
“I’m sorry, Sophie. I will make it up to you.”
“It’s not that simple. The way you act, you scare me sometimes. I don’t feel safe with you. I can’t put my trust in you because you have betrayed me.” She buried her head in her hands.
“I can’t tell you how sorry I am, Sophie. I will spend the rest of my life earning your trust back.”
“So your way of doing that is to kidnap me?”
“I apologize for that. But you left me no choice.”
“You always have a choice, Quentin. What are you even doing here?”
“I was invited to the wedding.”
Her eyes widened. “You came to the wedding?”
I straightened. “I stayed in the back.”
“Because you knew you weren’t welcome.”
“I hoped I would be. Yes, I saw this as an opportunity to be alone with you, to plead my case. After all we had together, Sophie, I believe we owe ourselves a chance to at least try to find some common ground.”
“All right, I’ll stay,” she said through gritted teeth.“ But I won’t be your submissive,” she spat.
She was so cute when she was mad. “With time, you might change your mind.” I said before I left the room, closing the door behind me.
16
Sophie
When Quentin left me alone, a part of me wanted to lie down on the bed and take a nap. As I sat down on it, it felt like I was sinking into a cloud. The linens were soft as could be, and the pillows were heavenly. I lay down, got comfortable and for a minute I forgot what I was supposed to be doing—finding a way out of this bizarre situation.
My former Master had basically just kidnapped me and now he was holding me captive somewhere. Oh, he presented as very civilized the way he did it, but essentially he’d brought me here without permission.
My hand slid protectively over my belly. No, this wasn’t acceptable. I had to find a way out of here. Maybe if I could get out of here, I could walk to the next house over and call a car from there. I wondered if they had Uber in Honolulu or wherever the heck I was now. This place seemed quite out of the way. I also hadn’t seen any neighbors …
I’d deal with that once I got out of here. Surely if I walked far enough I’d find some help somewhere.
Reluctantly I made myself climb out of that comfy bed. There would be plenty of time for resting once I got out of here and back to the hotel. I crossed the room and stood by the door listening. There were no signs of Quentin’s presence so now was as good a time as any to make my escape.
Not wanting to alert Quentin I was leaving, I turned the doorknob as quietly as I could. Tossing my purse over my shoulder, I tiptoed down the hallway. It would help if I had a clue where Quentin was. It would be much better if he came to find me hours from now and I was long gone than if I ran into him now.
When I reached the stairs I went down a few then peeked into rooms below. The kitchen was on the left, and the living room on the right. Quentin didn’t appear to be in either one so I kept going down the stairs, taking care to tread as lightly as possible. When I got to the landing I realized I was facing the back of the house. Straight ahead was a swimming pool in a beautiful back yard. For a split second I reconsidered. I imagined Quentin and me lounging out there, making plans for our baby, making love in that pool.
Then just as quickly I shook those thoughts aside. I needed to get to the front door, because I had no idea if there was an exit out the back. My heart beat in my throat as I made my way around to the front of the house through the living room, which is the way I’d come in.
There it was—the front door.
I prayed it wasn’t locked.
No sign of Quentin.
My hand went to open it and to my surprise it was unlocked.
Hallelujah! A voice inside me cheered. I opened it and crossed over the threshold.
I was free.
It was a long driveway, and I didn’t see any other houses. Only trees and bushes. But it was the only possible path so I started down it.
I hadn’t even gotten to the road before I heard his voice. That voice that had brought me so much pleasure, and so much pain, since I first heard it. “Where do you think you’re going?”
17
Sophie
I froze. Dread flooded me.
“Come back into the house,” he said sternly.
Caught, I slowly turned toward him. There was no sense in trying to run. I wasn’t very fast anyway, plus I was pregnant and where would I even go? I didn’t have much of an escape plan to begin with, but whatever it had been, it was foiled now.
Avoiding Quentin’s gaze, I stared at the ground and walked slowly with him back to the house.
Once we were inside he made a big show of locking the front door with a key that he then put in his pocket.
“I’m disappointed in you, Sophie.”
I didn’t respond. A part of me was actually afraid of what he might do to me, but I reminded myself that since I was carrying his child, it was unlikely Quentin would hurt me. I wanted to believe that he wouldn’t hurt me because he loved me, but I’d never seen this side of him before. I wasn’t quite sure what he was capable of.
“Since you have decided to be difficult I’m going to treat you the way an attorney would treat a hostile witness.”
“What does that mean?” My heart started beating faster.
“Come sit in this chair.” He directed me to a chair sitting in the middle of the living room.
The weirdest thing about me and Quentin was that I’d always trusted him blindly. I had let him do the most unusual things to me, and he’d never hurt me. Sure, he’d inflicted pain, but that had been part of our dynamic, and something I’d grown to crave. So when he deceived me, I felt as though every single block we’d built our relationship on had been blown to smithereens.
But enough of that trust in him remained because I did as he asked and sat down in the chair.
“You’ve accused me of lying to you. Which I admit I did. My intention had been to protect you. But you lied to me, and I don’t think your motives were as honorable.”
His words stu
ng like a slap to the face. “What? I didn’t lie to you!”
He wore a bored expression. “Really? What would you call it? A sin of omission?”
I clamped my mouth shut, and focused my eyes on the floor again.
“You know you were wrong not to tell me, Sophie. You can’t even look at me, can you? An hour ago you lied to me when you told me you’d stay for forty-eight hours. The next thing I know you’re sneaking out the front door. What were you planning to do once you left this property? Not only would you be endangering yourself, but you could also hurt the baby doing something like that.”
“I’m sorry,” I whimpered.
“That’s not good enough. Give me your hands.”
“What do you mean?”
“Hold out your hands.”
I did as he asked, as much out of habit as having no idea what else to do.”
He took my hands and placed them behind the chair and I felt the familiar scratch of rope circling around, binding my wrists together.
“Please don’t do it tight,” I begged, and to my dismay my voice sounded deeper—aroused. I could only hope Quentin didn’t hear it too, but that was wishful thinking. He’d spent months listening to my voice as he commanded me to do things that aroused me. He knew that sound better than anyone else on earth, but for the moment he showed no signs of taking advantage of this knowledge.
Instead he pulled a knife out of his pocket and flipped up the blade. Light glinted off the shiny metal of the blade and made me squint. I should have been scared, but I was actually remarkably calm. There was no way Quentin would cut me with that knife. His intention was to scare me, and I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.
“What are you planning to do with that?”
“I’m going to cut your clothes off your body so that you won’t be tempted to run away again.”
That would have never occurred to me, but he was right. If I were completely naked it would definitely make me think twice about running out of the house. Who knew how close the next neighbor was, and the world was full of too many sickos to just go wandering out to the road or to a stranger’s house naked. Some people would see that as an opportunity to rape you, maybe murder you.
Claimed by Her Web Master (Web Master #3) Page 7
