by Sienna Blake
Valentine. This was supposed to be Valentine. “But you didn’t.”
“No. I sat in her room for an hour and we talked about crap. Baseball, boxing, that kind of thing. She’s actually a pretty cool chick.”
I ignore the irrational stab of jealousy that pierces my heart. I’m not going there. Caden risked his life by not sleeping with her. He could have, but he didn’t. For me. I have no right to be jealous. “And the second thing?”
“I had to kill someone in front of them.”
I gasp. Oh. God. I pull back to search Caden’s face and he lets me. I can see the pain of the experience pinching at his beautiful features. “I’m so sorry, Caden. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
“Her name was Michelle. She was one of their girlfriends and there was some evidence that she had been talking to the police. I’ve killed a lot of people in my life as a cop, but… she was the first one who didn’t deserve it.”
“But you had to. They would have killed you instead, wouldn’t they?”
He nods. “They ambushed me with it. They brought me to a room where she was being held. She was naked, bruised and bleeding from everywhere. They had already beaten her and raped her so many times over. She was begging to die. They would have killed her eventually anyway if I didn’t do it. But it doesn’t make it feel any better.”
He reaches up to the shower handle and shuts off the water. We sit like this for a while, warm from the water and each other.
“Do you remember the first time you killed someone?” I ask.
He nods. He slips his fingers through mine and pulls our hands to his lips. He brushes soft kisses over my fingers. “It was a drug bust in a house. I went in with an officer friend of mine, Daniel, Daniel Johnson – we called him DJ. He was a police medic and he was trying to get to a gang banger who was bleeding out on the floor. Another gang member attacked DJ from behind with a knife. I hesitated before I shot him. DJ was stabbed.”
“Oh God. Did he survive? Your friend, I mean.”
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I shouldn’t have hesitated. He might still have been alive if I didn’t hesitate.” He sucks a drop of water from my knuckles. “You shouldn’t feel bad that you didn’t hesitate. Don’t ever feel bad. You did the right thing.”
He stands and pulls me up to my feet. He towel dries me carefully, slowly. Starting with my face. His fingers are gentle around my eyes and ears. Then my neck and torso. I watch his careful assessment of me as he makes sure he gets between every finger. My skin warms up as he rubs the towel along my legs. He’s still fully clothed, dripping wet, but he doesn’t seem to notice. He must be cold.
Finally, he hands me the towel. “Dry your hair. Put on some fresh clothes. I put your bag on the bed.”
I look over to the bed through the open bathroom door. It looks warm and safe like a world contained far away from where I am now. I need to get naked with Caden. I need it. Distraction. I grab his arms before he can push me out of the bathroom and press my mouth to his. I’m hungry and desperate and I know it, but I don’t care. I just need a little piece of escape. I need Caden to consume me and wash away all these memories so fresh in my mind like the smoldering ruins of a recent fire.
He pulls away. “We don’t have time for that. Go get dressed.”
Rejection stabs me. He didn’t even kiss me back. I blink up at Caden and remember Caden isn’t his real name. We just shared our first shower together and our first secrets together. It felt intimate and close for me, but for him it was probably just a way of getting me to calm down. He didn’t do it as my lover, he did it as a cop. A cop calming a victim down.
Is this what I am to him? Just a victim?
What did I expect? That now we would… what? Become a couple?
I almost laugh at my naivety, reflected in Caden when he gently pushes me out of the bathroom so that he can get changed in private. Nothing’s really changed.
I don’t know how I manage to dress myself. My fingers feel thick and stiff. My limbs feel longer than usual and I panic for a moment when the collar of my shirt gets stuck over my head, causing the world to darken and my arms to feel trapped.
I’m already dressed and sitting on the bed when Caden comes out of the bathroom, fully dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt, our stained and wet clothes in a plastic bag.
“We should go.”
Of course. We should go.
Once I am back in the rental car Caden reaches over to clip on my seatbelt. It’s the first time he has touched me since the shower.
“We’ll head out of the city and go north. You get some sleep. I’ll wake you when we get there.”
I stare out the window at the new morning, but I don’t reply.
I curl up, but I don’t sleep. I watch as the city blurs past, then as the houses turn to forest. As we leave the city limits I wait for the small release that I get when I know I’m leaving a city for good. It’s a feeling of disconnection, of letting go.
I don’t get it.
Instead my stomach clenches. It tightens. As if this city has found a way to weave a thread into me, and by leaving, it is pulling our connection tighter. We are bound, this city and I.
There are also so many questions on my mind. Where are we going? What will we do? But I can’t bring myself to ask just yet. My body feels devoid of strength, like someone has sucked out all my bones. I slump in a tangled ball in the passenger seat, my knees up to my chest.
You got what you wanted. You found out who Caden really was. Are you happy now?
And now… what? Now that I know, where do we go from here?
To be continued…
Bound Forever
(Bound #2)
Sienna Blake
The stunning conclusion to Bound by Lies…
“Kitten”
Caden and I on the run. Together. But he still won’t let me touch him and I know he is still keeping things from me. I am determined to uncover everything – at any cost. Even if it tears us apart.
Caden
Jacob is back. He’s back and he knows about her. Now, everything that binds the three of us together are twisting and tightening, pulling us all together. I can feel the inevitable coming…
I don’t know how this will end… all I know is, there will be blood.
Adult romantic suspense. +18 years.
TRIGGER WARNING: This novel contains scenes that include or allude to sexual violence.
Out now
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Read on for an excerpt of Bound Forever
And for how to get a FREE ecopy of my full-length novel, Paper Dolls
Dear Readers
Nobody who really loves you would ever EVER intentionally hurt you or manipulate you into staying with them. If you or someone you know is being abused, please, please reach out for help to your local abuse charity.
You are stronger than you know, but you don’t have to do this alone.
For the UK, Freephone Refuge’s 24 hour helpline: 0808 2000 247.
Beautiful Revenge
Sienna Blake
My name is…was Alena Ivanova.
Five years ago, I made a mistake. A big one. One that cost me the only man I will ever love.
Now in the lonely moors of country England, I live with my cold, cruel husband. My only friend is his daughter from a previous marriage. At least I didn’t starve to death during the bitter Russian winter.
When my husband arranges for a potential investor to stay with us, a mysterious self-made millionaire by the name of Mr. Wolf, imagine my shock when he walks in…
My name is…was Dimitri Volkov.
Until she destroyed me.
Five years I’ve worked for this moment.
Five years I’ve dreamed of revenge.
Bit by bit, she will watch her charmed life will crumble to the ground.
Then, when she needs me the most, when she is desperate, scared
and alone like I was all those years ago…
I will destroy her.
Out 24 September 2017
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Excerpt of Bound Forever
(Bound #2)
1
Blood splatter soaks through the backs of my eyelids. I snap my eyes open with a gasp. I become aware of my body, my curled and twisted limbs, and feel the ground rolling along underneath me. Somehow the cursed strap has found its way to press upon my throat, choking me. I’m trapped within in the passenger seat of our getaway car.
Our getaway car.
Caden
and I.
That sentence should feel wonderful but it doesn’t. It is separate, like we are. Divided, on either side of the law, on either side of this invisible line.
Based on the daylight crowding out the insides of the car I estimate it’s only mid-morning. Which means we must have only been on the road for a few hours now.
“You’re awake.” Caden’s voice rumbles to me, causing my heart to patter. I curse it for reacting to his voice the way it does.
I look over to him. At the same time he takes his eyes off the road and catches my eyes holding them for a second. I take him all in. All of him.
Most people would look at Caden and see danger. You can see it in his sheer width; his jaw, his shoulders, chest, arms, everything tight and coiled with a dormant power. His thick lips hide a row of straight white teeth. His large and rough-looking hands, now clutching the steering wheel, could so easily wrap around my throat. His piercing dark green eyes, so thick with lashes you would swear he lined the rims with kohl. Those eyes watch me. They don’t miss when the pulse in my neck speeds up, when my breath hitches or when my eyes widen almost imperceptibly. Most of all you can see danger in that jagged scar that cuts right across his left eyebrow. It tells you he doesn’t walk away from a fight. But because it’s his only scar says that he always wins. See… deadly. That’s what you thought, isn’t it?
I see these things too. For some strange reason I see my safety. I feel it radiating out from him when I’m near. His width is my shield, his arms that wrap all the way around me are my shelter, his mouth a balm that smooth across my every ache, even the ones no one can see. He protects me. Who protects me from him?
I break eye contact and look away. I can’t stand to look at him any longer. It hurts too much. I go to rub my eyes but my left hand is caught on something that clinks. I frown as I look down. A pair of silver cuffs chain my wrist to the side of the seat.
Muthafucker.
“What the hell, Caden?”
I can see a smirk playing at the corner of his lips. “To make sure you don’t run. I didn’t think you’d let me put them on you while you were awake so…”
My mouth drops open. “I am not going to sit here cuffed like some kind of criminal. Undo them right now.”
“Nope.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
I start tugging furiously at the seat with both hands. I’m going to break these damn things off if it’s the last thing I−
“Stop that.”
“Let me go then.”
“Not a chance. You’re in my custody. Under my protection. The cuffs stay.”
“I don’t want your God damn protection.” Liar. “Let me go right this minute or I’ll scream.”
“No one can hear you, sweetheart.”
“Except for you.” I inhale, lean forward and let out all my frustration into a long, loud scream right into his ear.
I can hear Caden cursing over my banshee shrieking. He jerks away, his right shoulder coming up to try and block his eardrum from my assault.
He swerves the car and I’m thrown back into my seat, the rest of my scream lodging in my throat. He brakes hard at the side of the road. I fly forward and I think I’m going to hit the dashboard. His arm is there to hold me back, protecting me.
Dust flies around the car, fogging up the windows in a burnt orange haze.
“Jesus, Caden, what the−”
He grabs my face with his hand, shutting me up. His fingers dig into my flesh firmly but not enough to hurt. “You listen here and listen good.” He glares at me. “You are getting my protection whether you like it or not and I’m keeping you safe even if it God damn kills me. I shall do so however I see fit. If I see fit to handcuff you to the seat, which I do by the way, I will handcuff you to the God damn seat. And you will sit there and you will shut up and you will accept it. You got that?”
A lump develops in my chest right where my traitor heart sits and I struggle to breathe around it. For a moment, as I gaze into his eyes, shiny with emotion, I could swear that he cares about me more than just a job. I could swear it. I nod my head as much as I can while being trapped in his hands.
His features soften and I become too aware of how close our faces are and how his eyes have found my mouth. I don’t dare move. He swallows and his fingers loosen. I swear my skin is so sensitized to his touch I can feel the loops and whirls of his fingerprints on my skin. I fight a shiver.
“Are you hurt?” he asks as he glances over me.
“I’m okay.”
“Are you going to behave?”
“Maybe. Are you going to take these cuffs off me?”
“No.”
There is no point arguing with him. I slump back in my seat, crossing my arms as best as I can with one hand cuffed to the seat. “Don’t think you’ve won, Caden Thaine.”
He snorts. “Never. I know I can’t win with you.”
What the hell is that supposed to mean?
He pulls the car onto the road and we’re off again. I glare at the rushing landscape outside my window, cursing every tree and every shrub that flies past us. I glance at the clock on the dashboard. It’s just past nine, which means that only hours ago, Caden and I were dumping a body in the river after I had shot dead a man who worked for Jacob Tyrell, the man I’m running from. I had to kill him. I swear. I had no choice. He would have taken us to Jacob if I didn’t which would have meant a very painful death. Him or me. You would have done the same if you were me.
It still doesn’t make the guilt go away completely. It’s still there underneath the surface like a stain that has sunk into the depths of the carpet, fading only from sight.
Jesus, was that only earlier this morning?
A few hours before that, Caden had abducted me from my boss Dixie’s apartment. Or should I say, old boss. I can’t go back to work for her anymore.
And a few hours before that, I had stumbled into a drug smuggling operation owned by the Tyrells and found Caden amongst them.
Did that all really happen in less than twelve hours? How everything can change in just one day.
Caden clears his throat. “Did you sleep okay?”
“Why do you care?” I hear him growl and I quickly add,
“Yeh, I slept okay.” Sleep was beautiful. Peaceful. Sleep is the only reprise from my life.
“Good.” He taps on the steering wheel in an off-beat. “Good.”
I rub my arms as if I’m trying to rub off the awkwardness that sits around Caden and me. It feels weird and I hate it. I don’t know what has caused it.
I lie. I do know.
I remember Caden’s admission last night… he’s a police officer working undercover. He found me so he could find Jacob. I’m a job. And he’s part of the system that I hate. Part of the very system that screwed me over in the first place.
You see, when I ran for the very first time, I didn’t run away…I ran to the police. They told me they would protect me. They told me that they would arrest Jacob and put him behind bars where he couldn’t hurt me or anyone else anymore. They told me, if I testified, they would put him away for life.
They lied.
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Books by Sienna Blake
>>>See all of Sienna’s Books in Amazon<<<
Bound Duet
Bound by Lies (#1)
Bound Forever (#2)
Paper Dolls
Dark Romeo Trilogy
Love Sprung From Hate (#1)
The Scent of Roses (#2)
Hanging in the Stars (#3)
Beautiful Revenge ~ out 24 September 2017
Mr. Blackwell’s Bride ~ out November 2017
