Cole hoisted the coil of rope over his shoulder. He fingered the edge of it. He still didn’t make eye contact with her. “So, uh, I need to tie you up.”
Involuntarily, something clenched between Dana’s legs. She flushed in embarrassment. This was ridiculous. The thought of Cole tying her up turned her on? Well, she guessed that a lot of their sexual encounters had occurred with her body bound.
“So that I can take a picture,” he continued. “I figured that I’d tie you up and put you in the back of the trunk. I’ll send a picture of that to my contact, a guy who I know can get in touch with Enoch.”
“Okay,” she said.
He looked up at her. “You, uh, you don’t have to stay tied up, obviously. Once I send him the picture, we just wait for them to contact us.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay.” He took a deep breath. His voice was unsteady. “Turn around.”
Another clench between her legs, this one stronger. She liked it when he told her what to do. She turned around, her back to him. It might be harder than she thought to keep from doing anything with him.
She heard Cole shuffle close to her.
She sucked in a slow breath, waiting…
And then he was touching her. His hand slid down her arms, pulling her hands together at the small of her back.
She let the breath out.
Behind her, Cole let out an audible breath too, almost a sigh.
She wanted to lean back into him. Wanted to rest her head on his shoulder, put her lips against the hollow of his jaw.
She refused to let herself move.
The rope was on her wrists. Cole pulled it taut. “Is it too tight?” he whispered in her ear.
“No,” she breathed.
“It just has to look like you’re tied up. It shouldn’t actually hurt you.”
“It’s…” She flexed her hands. Then rolled her shoulders, which made her feel like arching her back, which pushed her ass back into his body.
He made a noise—dismay or satisfaction, she couldn’t be sure—and then his hands were on her hips. He dug his fingers into her soft flesh, and he pressed his body into hers.
She gasped. Her fingers were tied behind her, and that meant they were against his crotch. She couldn’t help but stretch her fingers… searching… cupping him through his jeans.
“Dana,” he growled into her ear.
She didn’t stop. She had him in her hand now, and she could feel him hardening, lengthening under her touch. She squeezed him—
And sharp, dark pain shot through her. She cringed, letting out a strangled breath, and released him.
The alpha bond to Avery had just kicked in. She couldn’t touch Cole, or it would hurt her. She stumbled forward, out of his grasp. Collapsing against the car, she turned to face him.
His jaw twitched. He looked her over, and there was hunger in his eyes.
“Sorry,” she muttered. “But I can’t. It… hurts.”
He looked down at the rope, which trailed from her hands to the coil over his shoulder. “Why’d you agree to this?”
She swallowed. “There are people in danger. I have to stop anyone else from getting killed.”
“And that’s all it’s about.” There was a touch of sarcasm in his tone.
She didn’t say anything.
Cole lifted his hand, still not looking at her, and made a “come here” gesture with his fingers. “Let me cut the rope.”
She lurched away from the car and back over to him.
He turned her around roughly, and she felt a tug on the rope as he sawed it off.
She flexed her hands again. Now that her hands were tied, warmth was pooling between her legs. Even after the shock of pain she’d received, she still felt… aroused.
Cole took her by the shoulder and led her over to the open trunk. He helped her sit down, and then he knelt to tie her feet together.
She watched him do it, her body feeling tighter and warmer with every second. God, she was just tight all over. She couldn’t help imagining that Cole would stand up and unzip his pants. She wanted him in her mouth. She wanted to suck—
“You think a blindfold and a gag is overselling it?”
She was startled out of her fantasy. “What?”
He looked her over. “If I really captured you, would I blindfold and gag you?”
“Y-you would.” Jesus Christ, the thought of that was turning her on too. It was more than warmth between her legs now, it was a frantic tingling. She wished that Cole was touching her there. She wanted his fingers, his tongue, his cock. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this worked up.
“Yeah,” he said. “I probably would.” He leaned around her, rummaging through the trunk.
Their bodies were touching. Dana gulped.
Cole came back up with two strips of cloth. He moved slowly, looking at her face.
She looked at him. She licked her lips.
He tucked one of the strips into his pocket, and he lifted the other one.
She shut her eyes.
The fabric went over her face—against her eyebrows, her cheekbones. She felt Cole tying it behind her head.
Her heart was thudding in her rib cage. She felt like she was a smoldering fire, ready to catch flame.
His fingers trailed over her face. He traced the outline of her jaw with one hand, her lips with the other. The sensation of his fingers was intense, maybe because she couldn’t see him.
She sighed.
He groaned.
She felt his forehead rest on hers. “Dana,” he murmured. “This was a stupid plan.”
“No, it wasn’t,” she managed.
“You couldn’t fight me now, could you?” he mused darkly. “I could do what I wanted whether it hurt you or not.”
Anticipation thrummed within her, tinged with awful fear. She wanted him to touch her. She didn’t want him to touch her. She was confused and excited and hot as all hell for him.
He dragged his fingers over her chin and neck and then lower. His fingers circled her breasts, closing in on her nipples.
And when he touched them, there was a bursting release of pleasure.
She gasped.
But hot on its heels was the inky black pain of her alpha bond. She writhed under it.
Cole’s mouth claimed hers, his tongue sweeping into her mouth.
The pleasure and pain warred with each other, both happening at the same time, crippling her.
She shrieked. Tears came to her eyes.
Cole broke away from her. He was panting. “Did that hurt?”
“Yes,” she gasped. She was still reeling from the pain. And her clit was pulsing between her legs. Shit, shit, shit. Would the pain stop her or not? Because as awful as it felt, she wanted his hands back on her again.
His lips whispered over her skin. “Are you glad I stopped?”
“I…” She couldn’t finish the sentence. She was afraid she might start sobbing.
“God damn it, Dana.”
She felt cloth suddenly being shoved into her mouth. Then Cole was taping it in place.
“Let’s take this stupid fucking picture already.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Dana was untied now. She and Cole were sitting in a diner. He’d suggested that maybe it was better if they waited for a response someplace public. He’d sent off the picture of her tied up about an hour ago. So far, they hadn’t heard anything.
Her coffee cup was almost empty. She hadn’t been very hungry, and so she hadn’t ordered food. But Cole had eaten a slice of pie. She stared at his plate, at the crumbs he’d left behind.
They were back to not speaking very much.
She didn’t think it was a good idea for them to be talking, anyway, but she didn’t like being alone with her own thoughts. Because all she kept feeling was guilt. She wasn’t being faithful to Avery, and she knew it. She and Cole hadn’t technically done anything. Not really. Well, there had been a couple of kisses. And som
e… fondling. So, it wasn’t like they’d—
Who was she kidding? If she found out that Avery was doing this with another woman, she’d be livid.
There was something wrong with her.
There had to be. Because if there wasn’t something wrong with her, she wouldn’t get worked up when Cole tied her up. There had been nothing sexual about that situation, but to her twisted mind, having her hands tied behind her back was foreplay. She was screwed up. And… and it was Cole’s fault. Because she’d never been turned on by being tied up until he’d chained her up in his basement and kept her wrapped in a thin blanket. A blanket that would fall off and expose her, and then he’d—
“What have you been up to the past couple years?” she asked. Talking was better than thinking about that.
Cole had been drinking his coffee. He raised his eyebrows over the top of the cup and then set it down on the table. “Not much. Hiding out. Surviving.”
Right. He’d told her that he spent long periods of time in wolf form. “Well,” she said. “You’ve got a pardon now, so you won’t have to hide. What do you think you’ll do now?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Geez, why was she asking this? It made it sound like she was angling for the two of them to get together or something, and that was the last thing she wanted. She wanted Avery. She wanted her family. Didn’t she?
Of course she did. She’d chosen Avery, after all. She’d had the option of either Cole or Avery, and she’d chosen—
Actually, she hadn’t chosen at all.
She’d been running after Cole, because he was in that burning farmhouse, and she was worried about his safety. And Avery had stopped her, mated with her, and she…
Goddamn the mating. The mating fucked with her head. It had been fucking with her head for years. But she knew that she’d been in love with Avery even before they mated. She’d made love to him often enough when she wasn’t mated, after all. But for that matter, she’d made love to Cole when she wasn’t mated to him as well.
The thing with Cole was that her attraction to him was so intense. She was always trying to fight it, and she never could. Why she’d thought she could be out here with him, alone, and not succumb to it was beyond her. She never had any rational sense when she was with Cole, and she was frightened that she’d just made the worst mistake of her life.
She might very well ruin everything with Avery, and then what would she have? Her whole life was going to be destroyed.
You should have thought of this before, she told herself fiercely. You should have stopped yourself.
But she hadn’t, and she wouldn’t. She was on the path to destruction, and there was no changing destination now.
“Listen, I shouldn’t have let you do this,” Cole said suddenly.
“What? I decided to do it myself. It wasn’t your decision.”
“You might not believe me, but I actually do care about you. And I can see that I’m not good for you. I mean to stay away from you. I swear to God, I do. But when I see you…” He shook his head.
She tried to smile. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. It was my fault too. And it was only because of the… ropes. And nothing really happened, so… I’m sure we won’t end up in a situation like that again.”
“You’ve got a kid, Dana. And there’s no future for you and me to… I would not be good around a kid.”
“Well, you don’t know that,” she said. “You were great with the kids from Hunter’s Moon Farm. You said that when you were growing up, you had to help out with younger children all the time. You’re probably good with kids.”
He gave her a hard look. “You really mean that?”
Why was she encouraging him? “Not that I’m saying that we should… You’re right, there’s no future for us.”
He picked up his coffee again. “No, there’s not.”
“I mean, it would cause Avery so much pain.” And she couldn’t even imagine how things would work out with Cole. Couldn’t imagine him living with her. Couldn’t imagine him having anything as pedestrian as a job. “And it doesn’t make any sense.”
“I get it, Dana. Drop it.”
She looked up at him. Oh, he was hurt. She hadn’t thought…
“Anyway,” he said. “You can rest easy. Because I told Avery that I wouldn’t mate with you and take you away from him. I’m not screwing up your family. Screwing up your pack. Don’t worry about it.”
Right. She remembered Cole’s saying that in the interrogation room when Avery had barged in. She also knew that Cole had some ridiculous idea that Avery had mated with her against her will, which wasn’t true.
But hadn’t she just been thinking…?
God. It was too confusing. She loved Avery. That was that.
And Cole… well, she definitely didn’t love him. She never had.
She chewed on her lip. “I know you think that Avery took me from you, but it wasn’t like that.”
His jaw twitched. “Well, you’d say that now, wouldn’t you? You’re mated to him.”
“No, it’s more than that,” she said.
“You know what?” he said. “Let’s drop this too.”
She sighed. Fine. There wasn’t a lot that they could talk about, was there?
They were silent again.
Dana looked at Cole’s phone and wished as hard as she could that someone would just get in contact with him already.
* * *
Three hours and just as many cups of coffee later, Cole’s phone finally rang.
Dana jumped. She’d been hoping for it to happen, but it had still startled her. They hadn’t had much to do besides check in with the SF every hour, and all of their conversations kept taking awkward turns, leaving her confused and worried.
“Randall here,” said Cole into the phone. He paused, waiting as someone spoke on the other end. “I was inspired by what you guys did in California, of course. I want to be part of that…. Well, she’s been out of my life for a while, but I didn’t think Enoch would believe me if I just said I was through with her…. He does? Good, so tell me where you are and I’ll be there—” He was interrupted on the other end. He listened. “Okay, fine. Of course, it’s not a problem for you to see her. She’s right here in the trunk…. Tell me where you want to meet…. Yeah. Yeah, I know it…. I can be there in half an hour.” He hung up the phone.
Dana looked at him expectantly.
“Well,” he said. “Guy I sent the picture to forwarded it to Enoch, just like I wanted. His name’s Booth. He’s just a go-between. He’s in good with the others, but he doesn’t really work with them, which is why I still have the ability to contact him. Anyway, then Enoch had someone else get in touch with me. His name’s Geoffrey, and we’re going to meet him now.”
“So, they wouldn’t tell you where they were located?”
Cole shook his head. “Nope. Should have figured it wouldn’t be that easy. Hopefully, once they see you, they’ll be satisfied, and they’ll give me the location then. We can have the SF there by the end of the day.”
“Good.” She nodded. “So, now we leave?”
“Now we leave. They’ve got a place where they’ll meet us.”
“Do I have to get tied up again first?”
He shook his head. “I’m not keeping you in the trunk for the whole drive. They’ll probably be there when we arrive, though, so we’ll stop a few miles out and tie you up again then.”
* * *
Cole was nervous about tying her up again. He hadn’t expected it to affect him so much the first time he did it. He would have come up with a better plan if he’d known it would get him so worked up. Part of it was the way her body responded to him. She submitted to him so easily, and then it was like she was just a ball of sex. He’d forgotten the way she smelled when she was aroused.
It set his teeth on edge.
Part of it was something else—something darker. Something fucked up that seemed have been born within him when he was youn
g. Maybe it was the way his father had treated women. Maybe it was the way his father had forced him to treat women. He still remembered Tasha tied up in the barn, completely naked, completely beautiful…
The darker part of him liked hurting Dana.
Something about it seemed… right to him. That he would feel pleasure, and she would feel pain. That she would surrender to that pain for his satisfaction. He knew it was wrong, but it touched something ancient inside him, touched the wolf. There was something primal and savage in the way he wanted Dana, and something inside him enjoyed the idea of mounting her, her squealing and whimpering beneath him, even struggling, until he put his teeth in her neck and subdued her and took her and forced her and fucked her, and—
When he stopped the car to get her situated in the trunk, his hands shook as he tied her up again. He did it as quickly as he could, trying not to touch her soft, springy skin, not to rub his body against her body. He was efficient and businesslike. Maybe a little rough.
And damned if she didn’t seem to respond to that too. He could smell it all over her. She wanted him. She was wet for him.
He wanted her too.
But that wasn’t happening, so he shoved her down into the trunk, the hell if she was uncomfortable, and slammed the door over her bound and twisted body.
He got back in the car and surged forward, images of her vulnerable and trussed up like that dancing behind his eyeballs.
He couldn’t afford to be turned on like this. He needed to be focused on making sure Geoffrey didn’t suspect anything, not thinking about how much he’d like to rip down Dana’s pants, splay her face down on the hood of the car, and drive his cock into her until he exploded.
When he got to the meeting place—an empty parking lot out by the community’s fairgrounds—he spotted Geoffrey’s car right away, since Geoffrey and three other guys were leaning against it.
Cole pulled up to them. He got out of the car. The afternoon sun beat down on them. Cole sauntered over. He held out his hand. “Geoffrey.”
Geoffrey shook his hand. “Cole.” He inclined his head. “Open the trunk?”
Cole did.
Geoffrey and the other men lifted it to look down at Dana.
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