Chapter Six – Zane
I tipped my head up and breathed in a deep, ragged breath, sucking down air and trying to pull myself back together. What the fuck was wrong with me? Letting a girl get into my head like that... Shit, and a girl I had kidnapped, no less. I needed to clear my head. Now.
I strode to the bathroom, flexing my hand at my side, all too aware of how good her fingers had felt tracing over the tattoo on my knuckles. I had seen it the moment I had walked into the room, that there was something different about her, the glint in her eye that told me something had shifted in her head, something had changed. It bothered me. More than it should have.
It had been a long time since I had been close to a woman like that, through my own choice. I had been so distracted with everything that had been going on with my brother. I hadn’t for a moment allowed myself to consider any real desire. I’d noticed a few women trying to catch my eye as I drank alone at bars, but I’d brushed them off. If they knew the person I really was underneath this, what I was truly planning, they would never have looked at me twice.
But her? She was different. It was just the two of us, alone here, and there was something about being this close to her that left me... wanting. She was hot as hell, and it was obvious she knew it. She was trying to use it to get under my skin, could have been planning to make a break for it the first chance she got as soon as she had me distracted. No way would she have flipped on me that fast, not without there being something behind it.
I stepped into the bathroom and turned on the shower, undressing quickly. There was only one surefire way to get her out of my mind, and that was to... well, handle the hard-on that had risen in my jeans when she had laid hands on me.
I stepped beneath the water, tipping my head back and letting it course along my body, washing away the feel of her fingertips on my skin. Her touch was soft, eager, like she was hungry for more. But I wasn’t going to give her that. No matter how much I wanted to throw her down on to that bed, rip off her panties, and...
Fuck. I slid my hand down and wrapped it around my cock, promising myself that I would allow myself just this one time to fantasize about her. The quicker I got off, the quicker I could be done with it.
I closed my eyes, leaning my head back against the wall behind me, and let my mind wander. To her, on that bed, naked, her red hair splayed around her head, those green eyes gazing up at me, lips slightly parted as she breathed my name. Me on top of her, lowering myself down to her, taking my sweet time so I could take in that expression on her face, enjoy how hungry she looked for me... make her wait till she was begging to feel my cock inside of her...
I gritted my teeth and stroked myself, working my cock from base to tip to the image of her in my mind. I could almost imagine the little noises she would make as I inched closer to her, guiding my cock to her waiting pussy, how sweet those pink lips would look as she spread them for me, practically coaxing me into her, hips grinding against the air, slit slick with her own juices.
The water rushed over me as I continued to stroke my cock, picturing the look on her face as I sank into her for the first time. Fuck, I could almost feel her pussy wrapped around me, her tightness and wetness drawing me in deeper and deeper, like she never wanted me to pull away. Her hands on my back, fingernails digging into my skin, raking along me like she was addicted and needed more.
I could feel myself getting close, and she was just a room or two away. And she had looked so desperate for me before, like she could hardly wait to get her hands on me, her mouth just inches from mine. All these fantasies, I knew I could make them true in just a matter of moments, watch her cheeks as they flushed with want at the feel of me...
All at once, I felt it, my cock throbbing in my hand as I came over the edge and into my release. I let out a groan through my teeth, biting back anything louder, not wanting her to know that it had worked on me, her flirtation, not wanting to give her any kind of proof that she was inside my head.
I came hard, the orgasm rocking all the way from the soles of my feet up through my chest, the warmth spreading through every inch of my body. I panted, shrinking cock still in my hand, and the images of her, begging for me inside of her, still filling my head.
I finished up the shower and headed out, grabbing my phone, forcing myself into distraction with anything I could get my hands on. I didn’t care what it was—I had to do something to force her out of my mind. It was too dangerous to let her stay there. Her presence in my head, it was too much of a risk for me to take, when she was my one ticket to getting revenge for my brother.
I dialed the number to the Kennels. I had managed to pick it up from a guy who knew the place, someone I’d run into at one of the bars I had been skulking around at while I had been waiting to make my move.
Now that they’d had some time to stress the fuck out about what had been happening, I was going to give them my ultimatum: Pay me several million dollars to get her back, or I would kill Chelsea.
Even thinking those words, for some reason, made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I tried to push away the instinct, but it nagged at me. This woman... shit, this woman who I had just come to the thought of, could I really kill her, if that’s what it came to?
These were the bastards who had killed my brother. That’s why I was doing this, that’s what I had to remember. No matter how attracted to her I was, there was no way in fucking hell I was going to forget that. My brother might have been all kinds of an asshole, but he was the only family I had left. If that wasn’t reason enough to make them pay...
I pushed the thought aside. I would deal with that when I had to. For now, what mattered was telling them what they needed to hear.
I rang the number and drummed my fingers on the counter before me as I waited for someone to answer. Nothing. Answering machine. Fine. Give them something that they could go over, again and again, something they could torture themselves with.
“I have Chelsea,” I spat down the line. “I want three mill for her safety. If you can’t pay it...”
I trailed off. I wanted their minds going a million different places when they heard me speak. I wanted them worrying. I wanted them scared.
I wanted them to think that I would go through with it.
“Call this number. Don’t make me wait.”
And with that, I hung up, tossing my phone aside. It was a burner, an old thing that wouldn’t allow for tracking—if they even had access to that kind of technology. I was pretty sure only the cops could do something like that, and I knew there was no way in a million years that they could be working with the cops.
I rubbed a hand over my face and sighed deeply. This was getting complicated, more complicated than I had ever intended for it to get. There was something about her that made that threat of killing her seem impossible. I knew I couldn’t go through with it, even if they didn’t pay up.
I had to push that thought away. I had to shove it aside. I would deal with that when it came to it. For now, I was still set on one goal and one goal only—taking them down any way I could.
Even if it meant putting her life on the line in the process.