Page 42 of Keeping My Captive

“You think I’m sexy?” I whisper conspiratorially.

“Oh yes. Very sexy,” he whispers back.

Mateo pulls back slightly, his mouth merely inches away from mine. My tongue darts out to wet my lips, and his dark gaze focuses on the movement. It feels like electrical currents are flowing between us, like what you might feel right before lightning strikes. My heart is racing overtime as his lips grow closer to mine. Time seems to stand impossibly still as I feel him ghost his lips across mine, teasing in a barely-there kiss. I could stop this if I wanted to, but I don’t want to. The lines have been blurring for a while, my resistance waning with every passing day that we spend together.

Just as his lips brush over mine, someone calls out, “Mateo!”

And just like that, the spell has been effectively broken. Mateo squeezes his eyes shut before reluctantly pulling away from me. He turns to the man who called his name and flashes him a strained smile. “I’ll be right back,” he tells me before walking away.

I stand there, plastered against the wall, trying desperately to calm my erratic heartbeat. I swear I’m going to end up with a murmur.

I surreptitiously watch from the other side of the room as Mateo mingles with a group of people. They all seem enthralled by his presence, and I hate to say it, but I know exactly how they feel.

The kiss we almost shared not only thrilled me and scared me at the same time, but also solidified in my mind what must be done. I need to call my family before I grow too attached to my captor and never want to leave.

CHAPTER31

Aria

MATEO IS STILL in the middle of a large group of people when I slowly begin to slink away. I try to appear calm and demure on the outside as I nonchalantly check out the artwork on the walls; but on the inside, I’m a nervous wreck; my heart pumping a hundred beats a second as I try not to freak out.

I eventually escape into the hallway without anyone stopping me. Glancing back, I see Mateo engrossed in conversation, not even realizing I’m gone. Watching him from afar gives me a different perspective. He’s so brutally handsome, and I can tell why everyone who talks to him is instantly captivated. He’s taller than most of the people in the room, towering over even the tallest men. Add his height with his commanding presence, and he’s one powerful man.

Giving Mateo one last look, I steel my nerves and set out to do what I promised myself I would. My heels click in the empty corridor as I find my way back to the entrance. And then I go down a new hall filled with doors. The first door I check is a half bath. The second contains a small office. I peer around the room, but there’s not much in there and definitely not a phone.

I’m walking out of the office when a deep voice says from the shadows, “Are you lost, little lamb?”

A chill runs down my spine as I turn, searching the dark hallway for a face. And when the man walks into a ray of sunshine casting in from the far end, I take in every detail of him. Tall, lean, muscular in a designer suit that probably cost thousands of dollars with an expensive watch on his wrist. His dirty blond hair is styled perfectly, not a hair out of place. He adjusts the cuff of his suit, and I stare at his manicured fingernails. At first glance, this guy is the ultimate perfectionist.

“Uh, no, just looking around. I was bored,” I tell him, the lie slipping out of my mouth easily enough. What I’m really after is a telephone, so that I can try to call my brother, but I can’t tell anyone here that.

“These types of events bore me too,” he confesses, his gaze never wavering from mine. I don’t know who this man is, but his blue eyes creep me out. They’re deep, like the ocean, but cold, giving me the feeling that I could drown in the dark water while he watched from the shore, never bothering to offer me a lifejacket.

While he looks like he belongs on the cover of a GQ magazine, there’s something off about him. The same chill from before runs up my spine, and I know that it’s time to leave. “Excuse me. I’m going to get back to the party,” I mutter before walking in the opposite direction from him back towards the main entrance.

“Have you seen the library?” he calls after me. “It’s quite exquisite.”

I stop in my tracks.The library could have a phone. I turn to look at him. “Not yet,” I answer warily.

“Oh, then you must see it,” he says, plastering a wide smile on his face, showcasing his perfectly straight, overpoweringly white teeth. God, this guy could do a toothpaste commercial.

“Come with me.” He begins walking, not even looking back to see if I’m following.

Swallowing hard, I glance back towards the party. The prospect of finding a phone or using this as my opportunity to reach out to my family or escape Mexico is too great for me not to do it. Straightening my spine, I begin to walk after him like the good, little lamb that I am, even though I’m beginning to wonder if I’m following the big, bad wolf into slaughter.

The man leads me down a series of hallways until he stops before a large door. He grips the handle and pulls it open, revealing an expansive library. I gasp at the sight. I’ve never been in a library of this size before. I turn around and around, looking at all the wooden shelves with ladders that stretch up to the ceiling. There is a reading corner by a huge bay window where I could see myself tucked away for hours at a time. I’ve been doing a lot of reading as of late. Mateo brings me lots of books to keep me busy while he’s working. I was never into books back home, always deciding early on that they were just a waste of time. But now I have newfound respect and love for them when I figured out that every book can let you escape reality and leave all your troubles behind, even if it’s only for a little while.

“It’s lovely, isn’t it?” the man asks me.

“Oh, yes,” I agree emphatically.

“I knew you’d like it,” he tells me with a grin, those teeth beaming brighter than the damn sun. “My name is Damion Tuffin, by the way. And yours is?”

“Aria,” I tell him, offering my first name only.

There’s a glint in his blue eyes when he realizes I’m not going to give him more than that. “Just Aria? Like Cher or Madonna,” he jokes.

“You could say that.”

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