Taken Hostage

by Ranae Rose

  They were both still there, along with Marianna, who was ogling James as she handed him a glass of what appeared to be lemonade. Tiffany drifted to his side, and he turned to survey her fresh attire. ‘Well, you’re looking a lot more respectable,’ he said with a small smile. His eyes clung to her still-noticeable nipples, and his gaze seemed to imply he was glad that she wasn’t looking too respectable. ‘Thirsty?’ he offered her his glass.

  Tiffany took it with a murmured ‘Thank you’ and sipped as Marianna, who hadn’t missed anything during the exchange – verbal or non-verbal – glared at her.

  ‘So will you guys be staying for dinner?’ Marianna asked.

  Rolando shook his head. ‘Sorry, Mari, we’re in a hurry.’

  Marianna eyed James questioningly, like a child turning to her second parent after being denied by the first.

  He shook his head. ‘We’re on a schedule.’

  ‘Well, you look like you’ve been traveling hard,’ Marianna said, casting Tiffany an unflattering glance. ‘If you’re trying to get somewhere for the night, don’t worry about it. You can stay here.’ At this, she cast a flirtatious glance at James. Tiffany had no doubt that James would be welcome to spend the night in her bed. She fought down a sudden urge to smack Marianna across her pouting face as she continued to sip her lemonade. Mine, she thought quietly, remembering how James had claimed her in the driveway, and before – without words – in the woods.

  To Tiffany’s smug satisfaction, James seemed indifferent. ‘Thanks,’ he said, ‘but no. We’ve got to get going. Rolando, will you go get the trunk?’

  Rolando eyed his cousin beseechingly. ‘Marianna?’

  ‘I’ll get it for you, just hold your horses. You don’t need to leave this very minute. At least have some snacks. I can get out some chips and—’

  ‘Marianna,’ Rolando interrupted, ‘let’s get the trunk first.’

  Marianna glared at her cousin, biting her lip, which she was jutting out in a spectacular display of poutiness. ‘What’s wrong with you guys? I just wanna have a little fun before you go. It’s really boring out here. Nobody ever stops by.’

  Silence.

  ‘Look!’ Marianna added. ‘I know that you guys robbed a bank!’ She stared at James intensely. ‘I saw you on TV.’ She inclined her head briefly in Tiffany’s direction. ‘And you,’ she added belatedly.

  Rolando sighed.

  James frowned down at the lemonade Tiffany had handed back to him.

  ‘So I know you’re on the run from the police,’ Marianna continued. ‘Why don’t you just chill out here for a while? No one will ever look for you here.’ She turned to her cousin. ‘They don’t even realize you’re with them, do they? So you’re safe here.’ She crossed her arms over her chest and smiled in self-satisfaction.

  ‘Marianna—’ Rolando began

  ‘Don’t tell me you have to leave!’ she snapped. ‘Where do you have to go that’s so much better than here?’

  James interrupted the tense glares the cousins were shooting at each other. ‘Look, we appreciate your offer, but we already have something more permanent set up, and we only have a small window of time to make it there, or we’ll miss out.’

  Marianna turned to address James with another smile. ‘Did you know you’re one of America’s Most Wanted?’ she asked. The tone of her voice made it clear that she thought he deserved the title.

  James shook his head and tipped it backward, draining the last of the lemonade from the glass he and Tiffany had shared.

  ‘Well, you are,’ Marianna said. ‘I saw it on TV.’ She paused dramatically to eye him from head to toe. ‘I never thought I’d meet anyone so dangerous.’

  James thrust his glass at her. ‘Could I get some more lemonade?’

  Marianna continued to shoot flirtatious glances in James’ direction as she refilled his glass. ‘Here you go,’ she purred when she handed it to him.

  ‘The trunk, Marianna,’ Rolando said from where he stood against one of the kitchen counters.

  Marianna began to protest, but James cut her off. ‘We need it now.’

  Marianna’s face fell. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘I’ll take you to it, if you do something for me first.’

  ‘What?’ James asked, eyeing her suspiciously from above the rim of his glass.

  She tipped her head toward her bedroom with a smile, reaching out to place a hand on James’ arm. Tiffany was seized by a vicious jealousy that would have put Alicia and Cyndi at their worst back in New York to shame.

  ‘No time,’ James said firmly. ‘We need the trunk now.’

  Marianna withdrew her touch immediately, whirling toward the counter with a blistering glare. She snatched up a telephone from its receiver and the tension in the air was palpable as she dialed, eliciting two electronic beeps. She stood with her finger poised above the third button – 1 – and smiled cruelly. ‘I’ll have 911 on the line in a split second. Unless…’ She eyed James deliberately.

  James stared at the phone in her hand, perhaps comparing the distance between himself and Marianna with the almost non-existent space between her finger and the ‘1’ button. He set his glass down on the nearby counter and wiped traces of lemonade from his full lips with the back of one hand. ‘Alright.’

  Marianna beamed.

  ‘Now put down the phone,’ he said.

  Marianna shook her head and wagged the finger she’d been holding poised over the ‘1’ button at him. ‘Not yet. Not until I’m sure you’re not going to go back on your word. Follow me.’

  She began to saunter back to her bedroom, holding the phone close to her chest. She cast a beckoning look over her shoulder at James, and a shorter glance of haughty satisfaction at Tiffany.

  Tiffany watched James follow Marianna to her bedroom, feeling as if she’d swallowed all of the ice from the lemonade jug, and a few lemons besides. The noise of the running air conditioner in the kitchen window suddenly sounded like a lion roaring in her ears. Her heart beat frantically. Every inch of her body burned with the desire to take James and claim him again as her own.

  Mine, her mind screamed. He’s Mine!

  The bedroom door closed behind James. Tiffany was suddenly sure she was capable of ripping it from its hinges, of storming into the bedroom and …

  ‘Are you alright?’ Across the kitchen, Rolando was eyeing Tiffany with apparent concern.

  A giggle sounded from the bedroom and echoed through the hall and into the kitchen. It was followed by a loud bang. Perhaps the sound of a headboard slamming against a wall. Tiffany shut her eyes, but the mental image of James driving Marianna into the bed hard enough to make that sound was plastered across the back of her eyelids. She ground her teeth while every fiber of her being sparked with rage.

  The bedroom door swung open with a second bang, and Marianna stumbled out, followed closely by James. Tiffany’s heart leapt at the sight, and fluttered when she realized that they were both fully clothed – well, Marianna’s dress was certainly disheveled, but it was still on. For some reason, her hands were tucked behind her back. As Marianna stumbled forward at James’ urging, it became obvious that it was because they’d been tied there. The phone was no longer in her hands.

  The roaring in Tiffany’s ears dulled somewhat, and she deliberately stopped grinding her teeth. It had been a ruse! James had agreed to go with Marianna to her bedroom so he could catch her off guard and take the phone from her. Tiffany felt like shouting for joy. And she still felt the raw, primal urge to make love to James, to claim him as her man. Like he’d said – she was his. And he was hers. She intended to make that clear as soon as she had a chance. For now, she settled for leaning against the counter, trying not to shake as the tension swept out of her and relief replaced it.

  Marianna cried out in frustration. ‘What’s your problem?’

  James reached into the waistband of his jeans and pulled out the same gun Tiffany had stared down the barrel of when he’d robbed the bank in New York. ‘Where’s the trunk?’ he
asked as he aimed it directly at Marianna.

  Marianna seemed to be on the verge of tears, but managed to appear somewhat pouty, even with a gun trained on her. ‘Screw you,’ she spat.

  ‘Come on,’ James said. ‘Ten thousand dollars. Tell us where it is and we’ll give you the ten thousand Rolando promised you.’

  ‘I’m not telling you! I’ll keep it all for myself and you can … you can burn in hell!’

  James fired the gun, and Tiffany jumped, shocked.

  A bullet pierced the plaster in the wall a couple feet above Marianna’s head. Tiffany hoped no one had been driving down the road outside the house when he’d fired.

  ‘Tell me!’ James commanded.

  Tiffany shot a glance at Rolando, who was watching the scene unfold with a look of desperate anxiety plastered across his face.

  Marianna sobbed.

  James fired another round into the wall, closer this time.

  ‘It’s in my closet!’ Marianna cried. ‘It’s in my bedroom closet!’

  James lowered the gun and stalked off in the direction of the bedroom, his boots falling heavily on the floor boards. Tiffany darted after him.

  Inside Marianna’s bedroom, James flung the closet door aside and knelt, shoving a small avalanche of shoes aside. The tension in his shoulders eased visibly, and Tiffany enjoyed watching his powerful arms flex as he pulled a heavy metal chest from the depths of the closet. He tried the lock and found it secure. Tiffany crossed the distance between them and placed a hand on his shoulder.

  He turned to face her, his gaze intense. The tingling sensation between Tiffany’s legs flared with sudden acuteness. She bent and pressed her mouth against his. He responded with fervor and pulled her down to the floor where he kneeled. He pressed her shoulders down and rolled onto her, something pressing against her belly. She thought for a moment that it might be the gun he’d tucked into his pants earlier, but the idea was dispelled when she caught a flash of silver out of the corner of her eye and saw the weapon lying on the carpet.

  James lifted his hand from the floor to Tiffany’s chest, where he squeezed her breasts beneath the thin cotton of the T-shirt she’d donned. She reached down and grasped at the hard rod of his erection, her fingers scrabbling against the tautened fabric of his jeans. With her second hand she undid the brass button, barely pausing to pull down the fly before she plunged her hands into the fabric of his underwear, finally able to touch him as she wished.

  ‘You’re mine, James,’ she whispered into his ear as she clutched his cock. It jumped and throbbed beneath her touch.

  He moaned and tightened his grip on her breast, squeezing so hard she gasped. She glided her hand up and down his long shaft while she placed the other on her own hip, where she tucked a thumb into the waistband of her pants and yanked, wiggling her hips until they were free of clothing. Once her pants had gotten over the swell of her ass, they slid off easily. With a few tugs, James’ jeans slid down too, and he was free.

  ‘Stop it,’ he whispered in her ear as she stroked him, ‘you’re going to make me come.’

  She smiled and relented a little, massaging more gently and slowly as she guided him toward her slippery sex, reveling in how different this encounter was than the one they’d had in the woods, where he’d played her body like an instrument, making her gasp and scream all of the right notes. Now it was her turn. Finally. ‘Am I?’ she purred provocatively.

  He moaned in response and she wiggled deftly out from under his body. He reclined on his right side as she slid down to his waist-level, taking his cock into her mouth as she had in the car. She tightened her lips around the broad shaft, gliding back and forth over the underside with her tongue until he said ‘Please, Tiffany. Stop.’ She did. ‘I don’t want to come yet,’ he told her. ‘I want to come in you.’

  She released him slowly, dragging her lips and tongue backward in a way that made him groan again. When her lips left his hot, stiff flesh it gleamed with her saliva. She repositioned herself so his erection throbbed against her belly, its nicely rounded tip resting in the hollow of her navel.

  ‘Hey James!’ a sudden voice interrupted them. ‘Did you find the trunk?’

  James cursed under his breath. Tiffany reached down to caress him again, and he trembled as her fingertips brushed his cock.

  ‘Yeah,’ he called, his voice as steady as could reasonably be expected under the circumstances. ‘Just give me a minute.’

  She let her fingers glide past the head and down the shaft of his stiff member as she rolled onto her back and spread her legs in invitation. James’ eyes went wide. ‘Now,’ she whispered. ‘Come here.’

  He rolled, settling between her thighs. The fabric of his pulled-down jeans absorbed the dampness that’d crept from her core as his legs met hers. She reached around his muscular hip to grasp his ass as he entered her, his long length gliding easily into the depths of her ready body. She shuddered with delight before beginning to guide him, rhythmically applying and easing pressure against his hips with both her hands. After a dozen or so strokes she removed her touch, letting her hands rest lightly atop the muscular surface of his ass, her fingertips brushing the soft fuzz that grew there. He stopped too, awaiting her cue to continue.

  She lifted her head from the floor and tickled the rim of his ear with her lips. ‘My name,’ she said. ‘Say it.’ She closed her hands into fists, gathering as much of his muscular flesh as she could in her palms.

  He didn’t hesitate. ‘Tiffany,’ be breathed as he plunged into her again, sheathing himself to the root.

  A tell-tale tingle, a slight internal spasming, warned Tiffany that she wouldn’t be able to withstand many more strokes like his last. ‘Again,’ she breathed.

  He obliged. ‘Tiffany,’ he groaned, more deeply this time, pressing himself so far into her that her pelvic bones ached in protest.

  ‘Again,’ she panted, ‘and don’t stop.’

  ‘Tiffany.’ It was nearly a growl this time.

  She writhed beneath him, digging her nails into his laboring ass and biting his shoulder hard to keep from crying out too loudly. The faint odor of pines clung to his shirt, and it reminded her of how she’d writhed beneath him on the forest floor. For a moment, it was as if she lay among the pine needles again. Waves of pleasure swept over her, causing her core to clamp down tight on his cock.

  The toe-curling pleasure of her climax eventually ebbed, and she stared up at James through a haze of satisfaction. He hadn’t come yet, but if the way his entire body trembled slightly as he thrust was any indication, he wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.

  She wrapped her arms around his waist and gripped her own wrists, holding onto his heaving body. For several earth-shattering moments, her insides erupted into a second round of wild contractions and she cried out, as much from surprise as pleasure.

  He replied in kind, shouting and thrusting, pouring all of himself into her. After a few last, hard strokes it was over, and the only sounds were the soft but rapid rushes of both their breathing. They tumbled apart, each gasping and sweating.

  James kissed her again as he helped her dress, pressing his lips delicately against the inflamed skin between her hips before zipping her pants over it, then lifted her T-shirt to dip his tongue into the hollow of her navel and kiss her breasts. The tiny ritual granted Tiffany a sense of confidence, assuring her that however their circumstances changed, James would remain the same wonderful lover.

  That didn’t stop her from blushing faintly as they reemerged into the kitchen. She cast an envious glance at James, who had his arms full with the trunk. She had nothing to do with her hands and had to settle for fiddling stupidly with the hem of her shirt. Rolando and Marianna stared at them, he with knowing incredulity and she with tearful jealousy.

  ‘Do you know the combination?’ James asked, his voice as calm as ever.

  Rolando continued to stare for a moment before recovering from his shock. ‘Yeah. Just set it down on the counter.’

>   James hefted the trunk onto the countertop next to the half-empty lemonade jug and stood back to watch as Rolando began twirling the combination lock. It popped open with a minute metallic click, and he raised the lid, revealing neat rows of stacked bills. James pushed past him and began to lift the bricks of cash, checking until he’d seen for himself that the entire trunk really was full of them.

  ‘Alright,’ he said when he was satisfied, ‘let’s go.’

  Rolando tipped his head at Marianna, who sat huddled on the floor with her hands still tied behind her back, secured by a colorful length of fabric that might have been a scarf. ‘What are we gonna do about her? I’m pretty sure she’ll rat us out to the cops if we just leave her.’

  Marianna glared at her cousin balefully, confirming his suspicion.

  ‘We take her with us,’ James said.

  Rolando looked as surprised as Tiffany felt.

  ‘The only other alternative would be to leave her here tied to a bed or chair,’ James explained, ‘and I’m afraid if we do that she’ll dehydrate before anyone stops by and finds her. Besides, you have family in Mexico, Rolando. You can take her to them.’

  Rolando considered James’ proposal for a moment before nodding. ‘I guess it’s our only choice.’

  ‘Alright then,’ James said. ‘We won’t be making any stops between here and border, so if anyone’s got anything they need to do, they should do it now.’

  Ten minutes later, they were all installed in the Saturn with James driving and Tiffany at his side while Rolando and a quietly sulking Marianna sat in the back. ‘Will we make it in time?’ Tiffany asked, glancing at the car’s digital clock.

  James nodded. ‘We should.’

  She relaxed against her seat and watched the Texas scenery speed by, marveling at how flat it was, so unlike New York. The sky faded to twilight as they drove. Compared to the long drive from New York to the south, the journey to the lands nearing the border seemed to take little time. ‘Only fifteen minutes,’ James said, glancing at the clock in satisfaction.