Page 7 of Ensnared
It’s sexy. I want to lick those veins and bite him.
Mortified, I turn away from him. I swear, my sex drive has gone crazy here, and I’m starting to wonder whether it’s something they put in the water, because I absolutely shouldn’t be aroused right now. Not with Jack still unconscious and Ty so angry at me, he couldn’t wait to have me gone.
That thought is enough to sober me.
“Ty won’t want me to stay. No matter why the accident happened.” I lift my chin in the direction of the Lodge. “You saw it last night.”
“What he wants is immaterial. I hired you, and you have work to do.”
I gape at him. “You can’t be that insensitive! What about Jack? Do you think he’ll want to be around a witch who nearly murdered him by fucking his brains out?”
His ears go red, and he stares at the ceiling. “That’s a picture I didn’t need.”
“Oh, come on,” I scoff. “You’re the one who keeps asking me all the personal questions.”
He sighs, picks up the contract, and places it on my knees. “You’re not going anywhere.”
There’s a finality to his words that sends a shiver down my spine. “You mean I’m not going anywhere until I finish the work?”
He cocks his head to the side. “Something like that.”
“And if Iwantto leave?”
With that infuriating calm of his, he replies, “Can you fly a plane?”
Can I fly a plane?I’ve spent my entire life in San Diego, where everything—and I meaneverything—I needed was just a short car ride away. The high school I was eventually allowed to attend was so close to my family’s home, I either walked each morning or took my bike. Then I moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, another urban sprawl that gave me all the opportunities and more.
Aiden knows perfectly well I could no more fly a plane than turn into a bird.
I stare at him, aghast. “So, what? You’re keeping me prisoner?”
“Don’t be dramatic.”
“Dramatic? You can’t force me to do the work.” I take the sheaf of paper in my lap and slap it against his chest. “Your threats are useless. If I want to leave, I’ll find another way out.”
I have no idea what he’s playing at, but I’ve had enough of this conversation. I stand and stride into the kitchen for a glass of water to calm down. Maybe he’ll take the hint and leave.
He doesn’t, of course.
“Ty, Jack, and I are the only pilots in the village. Well, there’s Stuart, but his eyesight is now so bad he lost his license seven years ago.”
I whirl around to find him standing just inches from me. He’s too fucking stealthy, and I can’t help but back away a step. He follows and gets right into my personal space. It’s not threatening, exactly. His expression is still calm, almost disinterested, but I feel the heat of him against me, and my breath hitches in my throat.
“I-I’ll walk,” I stutter. “Or take a boat.”
“Please don’t,” he says mildly. “I don’t want to have to inform your family that you died of exposure or got washed away to the ocean.”
He’s serious. He’s really fucking serious. I’m trapped here until he says so.
I narrow my eyes at him, thinking. Maybe Ty would take me. He’d be glad to have me gone, and—
“Whatever you’re planning, don’t,” he says. “Neither Ty nor Jack will oppose my orders, so you’re wasting your time. If you want to leave Amber Bay, this is your ticket out.”
He hands me the now wrinkled papers.
Shit. I take the contract and sit heavily on one of the kitchen chairs. Aiden takes the other, folding his tall frame down with such elegance, I want to kick him in the shin from spite. I’m disheveled, I missed enough sleep that my eyes feel gritty and painful, and there’s a pit in my stomach telling me I’m in big, big trouble. Yet he’s completely unruffled. He folds his arms across his chest and waits silently for me to wrap my head around this new situation.
I can’t hold his gaze anymore, so I drop it to the papers I’m clutching. There’s a detailed description of the work he wants me to complete, as well as a—
