Page 2 of Addiction

His concentration flitted to the canopy of trees that hung overhead. Their leaves blocked out most of the growing daylight but framed a small flock of birds that flew above.

“Keep up, Bennett!” Craig hollered from up ahead, his snarling tone ordering Bennett to pay attention. “We’re not coming back for you if you get lost.”

“Screw you,” Bennett muttered, although he picked up his pace, an unspoken part of him realizing Craig was correct.

The morons Kenner paid to kill for him wouldn’t give a damn if he wandered in circles for the rest of the day, and Bennett was self-aware enough to know he wouldn’t survive more than a few hours in the desolate wilderness alone. He should keep up with them. However much he despised their infernal banter, he needed them.

And so did Ella.

Chapter One

Absconded

Ella Bennett

“Don’t look so worried.” Tucker threw her a wink as he shoved his limited possessions into a large backpack. “I told you I’d deal with your father, and I will.”

Ella didn’t know how much time had passed since he’d smashed the phone Alexander had given them into a hundred tiny pieces. Scanning the floor, she could still make out traces of its once shiny casing, but it offered no clarity on how many minutes had ticked along since its demise. Time, it seemed, had become a metric completely out of her control since her captivity had begun, and she’d grown no better at deciphering it as the days had bled into nights.

“Okay, sir.”

She heaved in a breath from the bed, aware of how the sensitive nub at her sex tingled at the deferential label. She still didn’t understand why her body responded to his authority with such arousal. Before Tucker, she’d only wanted to kick out at those who tried to control her.

Like a spoiled banshee.

She smiled as her grandmother’s voice echoed in her head. She’d called Ella her ‘spoiled little banshee’, and sitting on Tucker’s bed, the pet name seemed apt.

She’d fought him as best she could when they’d first met—trying to make him stop—but in return, he’d hurt her, too. That angst and conflict had been difficult to deal with, but it was nothing compared to the feelings that simmered for him—feelings she shouldn’t be experiencing. Whenever he exerted his power, and sometimes, even after her anger had faded, she was always turned on. Her desire for him amplified whenever he ‘took control.’

That was why she’d stayed after he bedded her last night, and it was why, despite his obvious distracted fury from speaking to her father, she still hadn’t slipped away.

She didn’t fully comprehend her emotions, but she secretly accepted that she wanted to stay, wanted to spend more time with him, and decide if the frantic energy in her belly was a yearning for more than only his dick.

“So, where do we go, sir?” She glanced his way as his gaze rose to meet hers. “What happens now?”

Tucker had started to plan straight away, his attention turning to finding and filling his backpack as soon as he’d cleared most of the broken phone from the floor. But in the frenzied bustle of reacting to Alexander, he hadn’t discussed anything with her.

Typical.

He seemed to be assuming she’d be going with him—wherever that was. She inhaled at the confusing thought. She did want him, but that didn’t mean she’d consented to being hauled around the forest to the next grim cabin he owned. Tucker’s bleak and primitive residence was starting to grate. Ella deserved better.

“I haven’t had time to decide yet.” His expression faltered for a second, as though he, too, had only just realized this. “But I’ll take care of you, little girl.”

“You could just let me go?” She shrugged, nibbling her lower lip as she waited for his verdict.

One of his dark eyebrows cocked at her apparent audacity. “I’m not letting you go.”

His voice was so firm that while a vague part of her recognized she should be riled at his adamant assertion, another aspect of her reveled in his dominant approach.

Tucker was always in charge, and despite their clashes, his authority resonated in her soul. He was a man who, after all this time, finally wanted to look after her rather than disown and abandon her.

Her breath hitched at the poignancy of that. It meant something.

“What?” His lips curled as he watched her. “Why are you smiling?”

Was she smiling?

In the haze of her thoughts, she hadn’t realized, but she supposed she wasn’t surprised. Tucker had a tantalizingly commanding aura about him, and she couldn’t recall power looking so good on anyone else before. The man crouched on the floor shoving items into a bag had ignited something in her that she’d never given any attention to until he’d found her in the woods.

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