Page 8 of Curvy Hostage Mate
He took off the cloth covering his face, revealing a dark-haired, bearded man with large hazel eyes. He crouched next to me, and I shuffled back away from him.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I didn’t answer. All I did was stare at him in disbelief.
“It’s okay,” he said. “You’re safe.”
Safe? After he’d kidnapped me? I gave a disbelieving scoff.
“I’m serious,” he said. “I’m not—”
I didn’t give him the chance to finish. I scrambled to my feet, my heart thundering in my chest as I spun and began sprinting through the woods. I heard the crunch and crash of brambles behind me as he gave chase, but I was fast.
I hissed as my bare feet hit stone. I muttered a spell, and warm shoes, perfectly fitted for me, appeared on my feet even as I continued sprinting.
For a wild moment, I thought I had gotten away. Then, a great tan wolf with rippling muscles cut me off, facing me directly ahead. It snarled at me, slowly approaching as a growl emanated from his throat.
My back pressed against rough bark as I backed into a tree with nowhere to go. It approached slowly, and I recognized with a jolt the hazel eyes of my kidnapper.
I held up my hands, trying to cast an incantation around me to stop him from coming any closer. I felt the magic fizzle and die in my hands. I guessed the new restraints on my magic extended to kidnappers. I stayed motionless, my heart pounding, waiting for his next move and knowing I was helpless to do anything about it.
I feinted left, then darted right. The wolf, as if reading my mind, cut me off. It gave a soft growl, not threatening, but telling me it had no intention of letting me get away. I ignored it and tried again, and once more, he blocked my path. He took severalsteps toward me. I waited, barely able to breathe as I waited to see what would happen, half-expecting him to eat me.
Then it crouched. The look it gave me told me in no uncertain terms what it wanted. I didn’t have any choice; there was nowhere to run. Taking a deep breath, I clambered onto the wolf’s back.
My fingers gripped his fur. For a moment, I was taken aback by how soft it was. I had to fight the urge to run my hand through it, having an inexplicable urge to touch it. Before I could act on that impulse, though, the wolf had risen to his feet. He shook his head as if getting used to my weight. Then, almost without warning, he bolted, racing through the trees,
Cold wind stung my face as my hair whipped behind me. I dug my fingers tighter into his fur, going breathless with exhilaration. I had ridden on Kendra before, but this felt different. Maybe it was just because I’d been cooped up for so long; maybe it was the adrenaline and fear mixing inside me. Either way, I found myself grinning, almost laughing.
He finally came to a stop in front of a small cabin tucked away in the woods, so inconspicuous that I might have missed it if I’d been on my own.
The wolf crouched again, allowing me to slide off his back. I obeyed. When he saw me glance around, looking for the best escape route, he let out another snarl as if he could read my thoughts. He nudged me, cold nose pressing against my bare midriff as he ushered me toward the door. Any time I slowed or looked around or tried to go somewhere he didn’t want, he let out another growl.
The door was unlocked. I stepped inside a small two-room cabin with a kitchenette in one corner. A sofa faced anunlit fireplace. A door at the back led to what looked like a bedroom.
I heard a creaking sound behind me and turned to see the wolf nudge the door closed, leaving me alone.
I stared, looking around, still trying to get a grip on what had happened over the last thirty minutes. I’d been kidnapped, dragged out of the Underside, and brought here for who knew what reason. Was it ransom? Had some idiot decided he wanted to kidnap me to sell me back to Cain? Or was it something else? A rival? Just some idiot who decided antagonizing Cain was a good idea? Or was it something else entirely?
Before I could even process all these options, let alone parse them out to see which one might be correct, the door opened again.
The man who had grabbed me strolled into the room. I sucked in a breath. He was gorgeous. The beard was gone, as was the dark hair, revealing a clean-shaven, square-jawed man. His dirty-blond hair fell casually around his face, that sort of effortlessly mussed look that I had always found wildly attractive. He was tanned, almost golden. He’d been wearing a wig and a fake nose and beard, all incredibly convincing. Without them, he was distractingly good-looking, and for a moment, he was all I could think about.
Something stirred inside me as I looked into his hazel eyes. I should have been afraid; Iwasafraid, but there was something lurking beneath the fear, a tug of longing that I couldn’t explain. As terrified as I was, part of me wondered what it would be like for him to hold me in his arms, or how his hands would feel against my skin.
I blinked and shoved those thoughts away. This man had kidnapped me. I didn’t know why, but he was dangerous, and Iwas in a world of trouble. The last thing I needed was to think about him in that way.
A long silence filled the air between us. I waited to see what he would do or say, knowing that whatever it was, it would give me a clue as to why he’d dragged me here.
“It’s okay,” he said. His voice was deep, with the faintest hint of gravel around the edges. “You’re safe.”
Safe? Once again, I wanted to laugh. This guy, whoever he was, had just snatched me from underneath Cain’s nose and pulled me out of the Underside. On the surface, it seemed like a wonderful thing. It didn’t feel like it. All I knew at the moment was that this man had kidnapped me and brought me to this cabin without giving me the chance to say no.
“Let me go,” I said. “Trust me, you have no idea what you’ve stepped into.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You can’t tell me you want to go back to that asshole.”
“Cain?” I said. “It doesn’t matter whether I want to go back to him. It’s a matter of when. He’s going to keep looking for me, and he isn’t going to stop until he gets me back. And if he finds you here with me, he’ll kill you before you can say a single word.”
