Page 42 of Capture Me (Capture Me)

She freezes, and I see her staring at the rope I’m holding.

“Get down,” I repeat, reaching for her. “On the blanket. Now.”

She tenses as I pull her toward the blanket, and for a second, I’m sure she’s going to try to fight me. Instead, she complies stiffly, folding her long legs underneath her.

“Lie down.” I release her arm to press down on her shoulder. My dick throbs at the feel of her soft skin, and I have to inhale deeply to fight the urge to take her before I go. With the way I’m feeling, I wouldn’t need more than a couple of minutes to blow my load, and the temptation to spread open her legs and fuck her is all but impossible to resist. If I didn’t want more than a rough quickie, I would already be inside her.

“Lucas.” Her lips tremble as she looks up at me. “Please, I—”

“Lie the fuck down. Now,” I bark, losing my patience. If I have to force her down, Iwilltake her.

Her face pale, Yulia obeys, stretching out on the blanket. As soon as she’s horizontal, I kneel beside her, grab her wrists, and raise them above her head. Careful not to cut off her circulation, I wrap the rope tightly around her wrists and tie the other end of it on the leg of the bed. Then I repeat the maneuver with her ankles and the other leg of the bed, ignoring her stiffness. The end result is her stretched out on her side on the blanket, ankles and wrists tied to the opposite sides of the bed.

Getting up, I view my handiwork. With the bed as heavy as it is, Yulia is even more securely tied than she was in the chair—and she’s in a better position to sleep if the trespasser situation takes longer than I expect.

Before I leave, I take a pillow and bend down to stuff it under her head. Her hair is all over her face, so I brush the silky blond strands away, trying to ignore the lust pounding through me. She stares up at me, her eyes like deep blue pools, and I almost groan when her tongue flicks out to wet her lips.

“I’ll be back soon,” I say, forcing myself to straighten and step away from her.

And before I can change my mind about the quickie, I exit the room and head over to North Tower One.

24

Yulia

My pulse racing, I hold my breath as I listen to the sound of Lucas’s departing footsteps. He’ll be back soon, he said. Does that mean he went to take a shower, or did he leave to go somewhere? No matter how much I strain, I can’t hear the front door opening, but that doesn’t mean anything. The bedroom is probably too far away from the entrance.

After a few more minutes of silence, I shift on the blanket, trying to ease the strain in my shoulders. With my hands tied to one leg of the bed and my ankles to the other, I can’t move more than a couple of centimeters in any direction, and the stretched-out position is only a shade more comfortable than sitting in the chair.

Growing frustrated, I test my bonds. As expected, there’s no give in them, and the wooden king-sized bed is so heavy it might as well be welded to the floor. Every pull on the rope makes it cut into my skin, so I stop tugging on it.

Inhaling slowly, I try to relax, but I’m too anxious.

Where is Lucas? Why did he leave me here like this? When he got the rope and told me to get down on the blanket, I was sure he was going to force me, girlfriend or no girlfriend. I could see his erection, feel the intense hunger in his touch, and it was only the knowledge that it would be infinitely worse if I fought that made me comply with his orders.

If I did as he demanded, I hoped he wouldn’t be as rough.

Except he didn’t touch me. He just tied me to the bed and left me lying here on the blanket. He even gave me a pillow, as though my comfort matters to him.

As though I’m not someone he ultimately plans to kill.

Another few minutes tick by with no sign of Lucas, and I decide that he did leave the house after all. It must be because of that text message he got. Is it work-related or personal? Does it have something to do with that mysterious girlfriend of his? She knows I’m here. She’s seen me sitting in his house naked. Could she have called Lucas to her because she suspects something’s going on between us? Because she doesn’t want her boyfriend toying with his captive like this?

Irrationally, the thought makes my insides twist. I don’t know why I care that Lucas has a girlfriend. We’re not in a relationship, at least not in a romantic sense. He brought me here to torment me, to make me pay for what I’ve done. If anyone has a claim on him, it would be that girl, not me.

I’m the other woman—the one he may want, but will never love.

Closing my eyes, I try to relax again. Exhaustion presses down on me like a layer of bricks, but for some reason, sleep refuses to come. The draft from the air-conditioning is cold on my bare skin, and my shoulders ache from having my arms extended up like that. As ridiculous as it is, a small part of me wishes that Lucas were here—that I were even now lying in his hard embrace.

The fantasy is so alluring that I give into it, like I did in that prison. In my dream, none of this is real. Lucas doesn’t hate me. There was no plane crash, and we’re not on opposing sides. He’s just holding me, kissing me... making love to me.

In my dream, he’s mine and I’m his—and there’s nothing keeping us apart.

25

Lucas

By the timeI get to the guard tower, Diego and the others have strung up the trespasser in a small shed nearby. It’s pitch-black outside, and there’s no electricity in the shed, so I bring a battery-operated lantern with me to inspect the intruder.

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