Chapter Two
Jack
All night, I’ve barely been able to stop myself from dragging this woman off that damn dance floor.
She thinks she’s blending in. But in reality, she stands out. She has from the moment she walked out of her hotel room all dolled up in that damn little dress that’s tight enough to drive any man crazy.
She looks like an entirely different person. Nothing like the innocent princess with the perfect smile whose face is always plastered on magazine covers and news articles. She definitely doesn’t look like the good little girl her father keeps locked behind glass walls.
Tonight, she looks like a temptress. Long legs glistening under club lights. Brown eyes wide with nerves and naivete, and still she managed to disarm half the room just by smiling.
Every time some bastard leaned in to whisper in her ear, I felt rage simmer in my guts and I wanted to tear them apart.
But that wasn’t my place. I have a job to do, and it has nothing to do with the strange feeling of possessiveness in my chest, or the senseless lust raging in my blood as I watched her.
I tried to detach myself from everything else and focus on my job. I watched this man watch her all night. He didn’t have more than a single beer, but he acted like he was drunk, harmless. And his eyes never left her. But as long as he didn’t make a move, I told myself to stay still, to wait.
And when that piece of shit put his hands on her, I lost it.
I also lost the chance to figure out who he is and who sent him, because while I focused my attention on her, he got away.
I don’t believe he was the drunk he was pretending to be, or that his attack on Charlotte Freeman was a coincidence.
Not with the kind of threats her father’s been receiving lately.
I’ll soon have to explain why I’m holding her hand and pulling her toward my car.
Her gratitude will only get me so far. I’m still a stranger to her, and her father’s orders were clear.
I was to let her have her fun, let her think she’s free, and not reveal my presence unless it was absolutely necessary.
Now my cover is about to be blown.
She suddenly stops walking, digging her heels into the ground. “Wait!” She yanks her hand out of mine and steps back a little.
Here we go.
She’s flustered, her voice still shaking a little. “Thank you for saving me back there, but I think I’m alright from here.”
She’s beautiful up close. Even more dangerously gorgeous than when I watched from the shadows. Fresh-faced, skin glowing under the streetlamps, lips painted a bold red. She’s so young. So oblivious…
She has no idea how the world works. No idea how many predators watched her tonight, just like I did. The difference is that I watch to protect her, while others are waiting for a chance to use her as a pawn in the power games they’re playing with her father.
“No,” I say flatly. “You’re coming with me.”
“What? Who are you?” she asks, her eyes flashing with confusion and a hint of suspicion. “Why should I go anywhere with you?”
I let out an exasperated sigh. “Trust me. It’s for your safety.”
“Trust you?” she says with a perplexed laugh. “I don’t even know you.” She crosses her arms over her chest, tilting her chin up to look me dead in the eyes. “Thanks, but I can take care of myself.”
I step closer, letting her feel the wall of my body, the weight of my stare.
“You really think you can, princess? Because two minutes ago, you were choking on panic while that asshole had his hands all over you. You think he was just some random man? Think he just wanted you for a good time? Because I saw him watching you all night. He made a plan and carried it out. Can you think of any reason someone would want to kidnap you?”
Her cheeks flush. She opens her mouth, ready with another protest, but I’ve had enough of her stubbornness. Before she can take a step back, I wrap my hand around her wrist, pinning her body to mine. She gasps and starts to push against me, her small fists thumping uselessly at my chest.
“Stop fighting me,” I growl, lowering my mouth close to her ear. “I’m not your enemy. But I will do whatever the hell it takes to keep you alive.”
Giving in to my possessive urges, I pick her up, throw her over my shoulder, and start toward my car.
She lets out a surprised yelp that sounds more like a breathless gasp, and then starts to rain blows on my shoulders and back.
I barely feel her fists, because I’m gripping the warm skin of her thighs where her dress has ridden up, and I’m trying hard not to think about moving my hands up to her ass.
“You can’t just— Put me down!”
“Not happening,” I mutter as I deposit her into the passenger seat, slamming the door.
By the time I drop into the driver’s side, her chest is rising fast, eyes flashing with fire, but she hasn’t tried to open the door, hasn’t tried to run. She looks like she wants to claw me alive, but her cheeks are flushed with something other than fear or anger.
I’ve never wanted a woman more.
“You won’t get away with this,” she snaps, twisting in her seat to glare at me. I stare at her mouth, wondering for a moment what those shimmering lips would feel like around my fingers, or better still my cock—
Keep it together, Steele.
“Do you even know who I am?” she asks, jerking my mind out of its treacherous thoughts.
I bite back a laugh. Of course I know who she is.
But I don’t say anything. Because then I’d have to explain that my client, Senator George Freeman, contracted me to shadow and protect his daughter on her little runaway escapade.
Charlie thinks her father is overprotective, but that just shows how oblivious she is to the ways of the world. The senator has plenty of enemies, foreign and domestic. Any one of them would gladly use his daughter to send a message.
“Have you suddenly gone mute?” she asks, her voice ringing with exasperation. “If you’re going to kidnap me, can you at least tell me where you’re taking me?”
I glance at her, keeping my expression neutral. “And why would I do that?”
Her mouth falls open, eyes flashing. “You’re insufferable.”
“You’re insolent,” I add, just to needle her.
Her nostrils flare, and she huffs, crossing her arms defiantly. She glares at me, and if looks could kill I’d be six feet under the ground.
I shouldn’t enjoy it. But damn, I do.
I’ve seen her in pictures, stiff and polished in designer dresses, a doll on display for the cameras. I never imagined she had this kind of fire in her…a fire that makes my body burn with a forbidden desire. A fire that makes me want to do things to her that I shouldn’t be thinking about.
I don’t mix business with pleasure. Never have. Never will. But Charlotte Freeman is proving to be the exception to every rule I’ve ever lived by.
Her stomach growls loud enough to cut through the silence.
I glance over. “When’s the last time you ate?”
She stiffens, turning to me with a pointed glare. “That’s none of your business.”
As if on cue, her stomach grumbles again, louder this time. Color rushes to her cheeks and she turns her face toward the window.
I fight the urge to smile. She’s stubborn. And so damn cute.
A few miles down the road, I pull off into the lot of a roadside convenience store. I turn to her and kill the engine. “Can I trust you to stay here? I’ll get you something.”
She doesn’t answer, doesn’t even look at me. Just keeps her chin high and eyes trained on the dark glass.
“If you run, I’ll catch you. Always,” I tell her firmly.
I already know better than to trust her. She’s reckless enough to bolt the moment I’m out of sight. But hopefully the fact that it’s the middle of the night and she doesn’t even know where we are, will be enough of a deterrent. Still, I engage the child safety locks just to be sure.
Inside, the store smells like burnt coffee and stale chips. I don’t even know what the hell to buy her, but then I remember seeing an interview in passing once—one where she mentioned Twizzlers being her guilty pleasure.
I don’t know why that detail stuck. I didn’t even realize I’d paid that much attention. But now, here I am, filling my arms with every damn flavor of Twizzlers they’ve got—red, cherry, strawberry, pull-and-peel…
The cashier raises his brows, probably wondering if I’m in my right senses.
I level him with a stare cold enough to peel skin. He lowers his eyes fast, clearing his throat awkwardly as he rings me through.
When I get back to the car, Charlie’s eyes widen at the mountain of candy I dump on her lap.
“What the hell is this?” she breathes.
“You were hungry.”
Her fingers trail over the wrappers. “But…there’s like twenty different kinds.”
“I didn’t know which one you liked.”
She looks at me, her eyes searching my face with a mixture of surprise and suspicion. “How did you know Twizzlers were my favorite?”
I shrug. “Lucky guess.”
She narrows her eyes, like she doesn’t buy it, but doesn’t press. She tears open a pack and pops one in her mouth, then makes a sound low in her throat, her eyes fluttering closed like she’s just taken a hit of something illegal…
I drag my gaze to the windshield, jaw tight, fingers flexing on the wheel.
The action was innocent. Completely innocent. But my body reacts like she just slid her hand down my zipper. Heat sears through me, hot and violent.
Christ, she has no idea. No idea what she’s doing to me.
We drive in silence for a while, the soft rustle of wrappers the only sound between us.
Then she swallows, licks her lips, and glances over at me. “Do you have a name, or should I keep calling you kidnapper?”
“Jack.”
“So…Jack,” she drawls, arching her brows at me. “Are you really a kidnapper?”
I smirk faintly, eyes on the road. “What do you think?”
She pops another licorice strand into her mouth. “I think no kidnapper buys their victim’s favorite snack in a million different flavors.”
My mouth twitches into a smile before I can stop it.
Christ, I’ve smiled more tonight than I have in years.
What is she doing to me?