Page 4 of Addiction

“How could I?” she smirked. “Sir.”

“Don’t give me that tone.” Tucker inched closer. “If we had time for me to spank you properly, then you’d have trouble sitting there, pouting at me.”

Pouting? Her lips parted in feigned disgust. “I am not pouting!”

“You are pouting.” His words resonated around the room, but she saw the mischief dancing in his eyes. “And pouting little girls always get what they deserve.”

“It’s just as well you don’t have time then.” She loved the flirty banter between them, even though the circumstances were strained.

“Now,” he corrected.

“What?” Her brows knitted.

“I don’t have time now.” He chuckled. “But there will come a time.”

She shifted on the bed, the muscles between her legs clenching at his thinly veiled erotic threat. She wished she could comprehend why the idea of being rebuked by him sounded so good, but in her current predicament, Ella had bigger things to worry about.

She was still stuck out there in the middle of nowhere, still without her clothes and any chance of getting home, and to make matters worse, her father was apparently sending armed lunatics to the location. Far from offering reassurance, the scenario only filled her with dread. If she knew anything about the types of men Alexander associated with, then they’d be far from ideal rescuers, and worse, she had an awful suspicion they’d want to hurt Tucker.

Her anxiety ratcheted as she forced the thought away. She couldn’t let anything happen to Tucker.

“We’d better go, sir.” She rose to her feet quickly and stared out of the window. As ever, she had no idea if it was early or late in the day, but she sure as hell didn’t want to be standing there when bullets tore at the timber walls. She longed to be somewhere safe by then—with Tucker.

“Hey!” He stood slowly, his expression concerned. “It’s okay. We’ll be out of here soon enough. Everything will be okay.”

Okay? She might have laughed had trepidation not roamed so freely in her blood stream.

“How can this be okay?” Her voice sounded strained. “We don’t have anywhere to go, and soon, we’ll be surrounded by men with guns!” She swallowed down her rising panic, her gaze searching the interior of the space for any sign of how she should deal with the incoming threat.

“I never said we had nowhere to go.” He looked bewildered as he grasped her hand and tried to steady her. “Only that I hadn’t decided where to take you yet.”

“What?” Her heart was beating so fast, the room was starting to spin. That wasn’t what he’d said, was it? But then, her mind was also racing at speed. Maybe she hadn’t heard him properly. Maybe she’d misunderstood.

“Come on.” He tugged her closer and wrapped his arms around her. “You need to calm down and breathe. Remember what I told you. I will take care of you.”

I will take care of you.

Take care of you.

The echo of his words played out in her head as his alluring body held her up. Breathing in his sublime scent again, she silently acknowledged what should have been obvious.

A woman with confused feelings about the man who abducted her was possibly understandable, but one with a growing emotional attachment to her captor was something else. She hadn’t been holed up with him for long, but even in those brief days, he’d done something to her—he’d altered her in a uniquely fundamental way.

He’d opened her eyes.

Even if she woke up in her bed tomorrow morning, Ella wasn’t sure she could ever come back from that.

She could never be the same woman she’d been before.

“All right.” In the end, it was all she could think to say. The pressure in her head seemed to be building. “All right, sir. I believe you.” She blew out a breath, hoping the strong arms snaked around her body would never let her go. “You’ll take care of me.”

Chapter Two

Runaways

Tucker Bowman

Bennett’s interruption had been unexpected. Before he’d dropped his daughter off in the middle of nowhere, he and Tucker had already agreed on the timeframe Tucker would hold Ella as a surety. It was part of the deal, and it wasn’t open to negotiation, yet now Bennett wanted to change the rules.

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