Page 48 of Suspicion

Her stomach lurched at the appalling idea.

Why is this happening to me?

“Are you going to be ill again?”

“I think so.” She lurched forward again, her head regretting the swift action as soon as she’d made it. “I can’t believe I ate a bunny.” Her sorrow amplified the pain in both her head and her belly.

“Not a bunny.” He sighed as though she was being absurd. “A wild animal, little girl. That’s how life is out here in the wilderness. It’s a dog eat dog.”

‘Or a woman eats rabbit.’

He didn’t say the final sentence, but she sensed he toyed with the idea.

That’s why I loathe the wilderness.

She swallowed, trying to soothe her dry throat but spectacularly failing. Christ, she felt like death, but at least he wasn’t on her back about calling him ‘sir’ again.

A ball of energy tightened in her chest at the humiliation. What an arrogant jerk! She couldn’t believe he’d demanded the address, but even worse, in the end, she’d caved in and given him what he wanted.

What else could I do?

The question did nothing to quell the banging in her head.

If she’d countered him, then he’d have restrained her again and served her the same bunny pie cold. The reminder of her mistaken meal only whipped up her repulsion. She was damned whatever she did, but it was better to be free than bound to his bed.

Her gaze flitted fleetingly to his.

Bound to his bed?

She inhaled. The idea wasn’t as revolting as it should have been. The truth was that Tucker was a good-looking guy. Older than the men she generally dated by at least a decade, he was quick-witted and clearly had a range of diverse experiences that piqued her interest. Then there was the fact that beneath his tight-fitting shirt, she had the feeling there was a strong and muscular body. Hell, he’d carried her enough times without seemingly breaking a sweat. He was obviously in great shape.

Stop. Her gaze burned into the mud between her fingers. Stop thinking that way. This is the man who captured me, bound me, and manhandled me.

I can’t find him attractive. I don’t…

But despite the brass band playing in her head, her scratchy throat, and the horrendous taste in her mouth, she acknowledged that she did.

There was something about Tucker.

He might be the bane of her life, but he was a dark and brooding bane who offered more temptation than he should.

“If you need to be sick, then do it.” His tone was clipped, demonstrating that whatever passed for Tucker’s empathy had run out. “Get it out of your system.”

“Thanks.” Why was she thanking him? Did she now need his permission to be ill? Dread filled up the vacuum in her chest. Maybe she did.

“I feel like crap.” The pressure on her triceps at having to bear her upper body weight with bound wrists was becoming intolerable. Sprawled out in the dirt, only feet away from a pile of her own vomit, she’d never felt so low.

“Take a minute.” He sighed, shifting to lean on the other side of the trunk. “Take deep, slow breaths. The fresh air will help.”

Doing as suggested, she turned away from where she’d been ill and pulled in a lungful of air. He was right. Given long enough, the forest air might have done the trick, but Ella didn’t want to sit in the mud and wait only to be dragged back into his horrible cabin.

“I’m losing the feeling in my fingers.” Wriggling the digits, she frowned as she stared at them. “Can you help me please, sir?”

She wasn’t losing the feeling in them at all, but the lie seemed the only way to convince her captor that removing the ropes was the required course of action. She figured that addressing him in the ridiculous way he’d insisted was sure to stroke his ego and ease his compliance. It was the best trick she had to get out of the ropes, and getting out of those ropes was her fast-track ticket to freedom.

“Let me look.” He was right there with her in a moment, crouching down at her side as he tugged her hands into the air. Her shattered body concurred with the jerk, allowing him to check the ropes without complaint. “The ropes aren’t too tight.”

“But I can’t feel my fingers.” It was easy to feign the fear in her voice because she wasn’t faking it at all.

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