Page 14 of Capturing Victory

“I should have had my men kill you,” he said, his voice rough with all the emotions he’d been hiding from her. “Then we wouldn’t be here. You may prefer death over what I’ll do to you by the time I’m finished, Jaya. Because this is uncharted territory and the only thing left inside me is blacker than pitch.”

“Please, Ivan,” she begged him. “You’re scaring me.”

He ignored her. “You want to know why I haven’t touched you yet? Why I haven’t taken you and fucked you?” She shook her head, her whole body quaking now. “Because I don’t know what will happen once I’ve had you, Jaya. Maybe this obsession will break. Maybe I’ll have you killed after all. Or maybe this feeling will only grow stronger. And then what? I chain you to my side for the rest of your life and you belong to one of the worst, most hunted sons-of-bitches on the planet.”

Tears dripped down her cheeks now. She was powerless to stop them, frozen in his hands, terrified of his next move. “D-don’t, Ivan. Please just let me out, let me go. I’ll d-disappear. Like you never met me.”

His lips curved up in a terrible smile and she knew what his next words were going to be before he even spoke. “It’s far too late for that, my lovely captive.”

He yanked her hard, up against the bars. She cried out as her cheek hit the metal, but he swallowed the sound in a kiss. His tongue invaded her mouth, capturing, conquering her as though she were virgin territory he was intent on discovering. When she didn’t open wide enough for him, he gripped her face in both hands and dug his thumbs into her cheeks, forcing her mouth wider. He plundered the tender recesses, taking everything she refused to give.

Jaya gripped the bars as though her life depended on it. She couldn’t move away from his assault, though she tried. She began to weaken under the onslaught until she was sliding down the metal, away from his brutal kiss. Ivan growled against the loss. He reached as far as he could between the bars, took her by the waist and yanked her back up, smashing her against the unyielding metal.

“Ivan, please don’t,” she whimpered and tried to turn her face away from him. He ignored her plea and kissed her stinging, swollen lips. This time he tempered the brutality, licking and nibbling, attempting to coax a response from her. Jaya moaned and turned her face to the side, laying weakly against his arm. She hoped that he would stop soon and leave her, prayed that he wouldn’t open the door to her cage and finish what they’d been dancing around for weeks.

He cupped her face and tilted it against the bars, more gently this time, so he could kiss her wherever he could reach. He pressed his lips against her cheek, her chin and her forehead. He twisted her head to the side and explored her ear, then groaned against her when it became clear he wanted to continue a path down her neck but was prevented.

“Want you so fucking bad, Jaya,” he mumbled against her. “I should just end this for both of us and take you now.”

Jaya shivered at his words and the rush of heat that shot through her. Though she despised him, his kisses enflamed parts of her that usually lay dormant. She flexed her fingers against the muscles of his side and suddenly realized that she had reached through the bars and was clutching him, holding herself up using his rock-solid body. She snatched her hands back with a gasp and Ivan released her. She rocked back so hard that she fell on her butt, hitting the edge of her cushion and scattering the books that were on her blanket.

Ivan sat back on his heels for a moment, watching her intently, his eyes going from dark and stormy to ice grey. His breathing evened out before hers did. His gaze flickered to the books scattered across the bottom of her cage and landed on the one closest to her.

“Wuthering Heights,” he said coolly. “I thought you might enjoy that one, its dark and romantic, like you.”

She glared at him and made a production of using her sleeve to wipe her mouth. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m no romantic.” Her gaze flitted down to the book. The copy looked old and well used, as though it had been read several times. “And I don’t like reading.”

He stood and looked down at her, his own gaze dispassionate. “I don’t care how you pass your time, but you may want to consider cracking that one. Find out what happens to Cathy when she crosses the man obsessed with her.”

“Fuck you, Ivan.” Jaya snatched the book up and threw it at the bars. It hit one and rebounded, falling harmlessly to the floor.

“You’d better hope not, sweetheart. I don’t think either of us wants to find out what happens after I’ve fucked you.” He strode from the room, slamming and locking the door behind him.

Jaya slumped against her bed and turned her glare on the tiny bundle of sleeping kitten laying in the centre of Ivan’s giant bed, completely oblivious to the fireworks that just went off all around her.

“You could at least scratch his eyes out for me!” She scowled and reached for Wuthering Heights.

Chapter Ten

“Shut the light off, I want to go to sleep,” Jaya demanded, doing her best to be as annoying as possible.

New strategy.

Annoy Ivan until he sends her back to the dungeon. At least she had more space down there, she got to go out to the pool patio once in awhile and she didn’t have to suffer through Ivan’s presence during the night. So far her strategy wasn’t working even a little. Ivan seemed incapable of being annoyed. He was like a robot, turning his emotions on and off, ignoring her most of the time and then deciding when to pay attention to her.

Jaya lay on her back counting the bars of her cage. Twenty-five across the top, thirty-three along each side. She’d abandoned Wuthering Heights almost as soon as Ivan entered the room, not wanting him to catch her reading the book he recommended. He was right though, the dark gothic romance did appeal to her. The vivid scenery and character drama helped her mentally escape from her own predicament. And she so badly wanted to see if Cathy ended up with Heathcliff. She doubted it, given Ivan’s earlier comment. But for some reason Jaya found herself as helplessly attracted to the dark, villainous character as Cathy was.

Rolling onto her side, Jaya thrust an arm under her head and stared absently out the open balcony doors leading outside of Ivan’s bedroom. She could smell fresh sea air, like her home in Portugal only it was a slightly different scent, more humid. And she seriously doubted she was anywhere near Portugal. In her time with Ivan she’d seen very little of his home, or wherever he was keeping her, beyond the dungeon room, the pool patio and her current cage. When she’d arrived there was a bag over her head.

“Ivan?” she asked softly. “Where are we? Like where on a map are we located.”

Her tone of voice must have captured his attention because he looked up from the book he was reading and, for the first time since entering his room that evening, gave her his attention. She glanced out the window into the dark night, a question clear on her face. He seemed to understand. He sat up, swinging his long legs over the edge of his bed and leaning his arms across his knees.

He studied her for a moment before answering. “We’re on my private island, a few hundred kilometres northeast of Jakarta, Indonesia.”

Her jaw dropped in surprise. She’d known they must be on some kind of coastline, had even batted around the idea of an island, but had not in a million years considered that she’d been brought this far from her home. She thought back to the terrifying ordeal of her kidnapping and frowned. It couldn’t have been more than a few hours. She’d been moved from a van to a helicopter and then the helicopter to an aircraft of some sort. Her head had been covered through most of the trip so she hadn’t known where she was going, not that she could have oriented herself had she been able to see, everything had happened in such a dramatic rush.

Ivan must’ve caught the drift of her thoughts because he interjected. “You were brought here on my Citation X, one of the fastest light aircraft available. It took eight hours. You were given a sedative; you probably don’t remember much of the flight.”

---