Chapter 6
I t’s almost midnight by the time my kidnapper pulls into the parking lot of a hotel.
I’ve been awake for the last half hour, but I’ve chosen the coward’s way out and pretended to be asleep to avoid talking with him. Or looking at him.
Or even acknowledging he’s there. Because when I do, when I glance at his hands on the wheel, my attention focuses on his fingers. On how easily they made the embers in my body burst into a category five fire just by touching me.
My panties had been wet. He wasn’t wrong about that, and he wasn’t wrong about what made them that way. But just because my body reacts one way to his neanderthal tactics doesn’t mean my brain can’t stay in control.
“Where are we?” I ask when I notice the size of the hotel .
It’s not some motel on the side of the highway. This place is a large hotel with an optional valet.
He bypasses the valet and self-parks in the first spot he finds. After he cuts the engine, he turns to me. He frowns when his eyes graze the bandage on my forehead.
“Don’t cause any trouble here, Mira.” He cups my chin, careful of the bruise Brad gifted me. “I mean it. Any problems and you’re going to be sorry.”
“I’ve been sorry since the first moment I saw you sitting at the Dive Bar,” I say. “How much more sorry can I be?”
He grins. It’s a cockeyed thing and sexy as hell.
“Trust me, you can be a lot sorrier.” He gives a pointed look at the belt still laying across his thigh.
I tug out of his hand and pop open the door.
“Whatever. I’m tired. As long as I can sleep, I don’t care.”
He’s out of the car faster than I can get down from my seat. His door slams then another opens and shuts. By the time I’m halfway to the hotel doors, he’s with me again, bags in one hand. He grabs my right hand with his left, pulling me into him.
“I’m not going anywhere, and you don’t need to hold onto me like some pet.” I try to get out of his grip, but he only tightens it.
“Hmm, a pet? I like that.”
I roll my eyes with a scoff. But my insides like that, too.
Damn, my panties are getting wet again.
He nods to the valet as we pass and walk up the well-lit stone steps. Another staff member wearing a red quilted vest over a long-sleeved, black, button-down opens the glass doors for us to walk through into the lobby.
“I need to pee again.”
He looks down at me with an arched brow.
“It’s just there.” I point the sign that reads Restrooms. His gaze roams back to the bandage.
“Fine. Two minutes. If you’re not back by then, I’m coming in.”
“You have a thing for watching women pee?” I can’t help but poke at him, especially when the woman at the front desk has already spotted us and is watching.
“Two minutes.” He lets go of my hand and heads for the desk while I duck into the restroom.
I avoid the mirrors all together and head for the first stall. My head aches, and my chin throbs; I don’t need to look to see what a mess I am.
“Mira. Let’s go.” Rurik’s voice echoes in the room as I’m washing my hands.
“Are you kidding me?” I mutter to myself as I reach for the paper towels neatly stacked in the sleek silver paper-towel holder.
Rurik stands just outside the door holding my backpack and a black leather duffel that I assume is his.
“Ready?”
“No. But do I have a choice?”
“Not really. No.” He shifts the bags to one hand and laces his other through mine. “The elevators are this way.”
As we walk past the front desk, the woman who checked him in has her eye on him. I’ve seen the look before. She’s doing everything she can to keep the drool from escaping her lips.
“Sir!” She suddenly lifts her hand and waves us down. Rurik comes to a stop just as we reach the elevators.
Her blond curls bounce as she hurries over to us, waving a keycard in her hand.
“I only gave you one key, here’s the second for your wife.” She smiles at him, completely ignoring me, and offers the card.
Rurik looks down at the card.
“Not needed. One is enough.” He hits the call button.
She turns to me, taking in the bandage on my forehead and the bruise on my chin. “Oh, no. Are you all right? That looks awful.”
“I’m fine.” I paste on a smile. “Thanks.”
When she looks up at Rurik again, it’s with less interest and more concern.
“Maybe you’d like the key?” She offers it to me. “You’ll need it to get into the amenities rooms. There’s a snack bar on the fifteenth floor open until midnight, a fitness room that’s available twenty-four hours a day?—”
“Sure.” I take it, stopping her from continuing the list of things this place has to offer. “Just in case I need to hide in the middle of the night,” I add as a joke, but Rurik squeezes my hand so hard, I’m sure the blood will stop circulating if he doesn’t let up.
“My wife was in a car accident earlier this evening. We weren’t able to get her medication filled at the hospital; is there a pharmacy around here?” Rurik intervenes, playing the concerned husband.
“Oh, yes.” The relief is immediate in the blonde’s features. “There is one in town that’s twenty-four hours. I’ll get the number and send it up to your room for you.”
The elevator arrives with an electric ding.
Rurik pulls me along inside and flashes her a warm smile. “That would be good. Thank you.” He hits the button for the fifth floor.
“You have to stop telling people you’re my husband,” I say once the doors have slid closed and we’re alone in the metal box. It’s a quiet elevator, I’ll give it that, but that doesn’t make it any less of a death trap.
“Are you afraid of small spaces?” He questions, and I realize I’ve stepped closer to him while we make our ascent.
“No.” I take a step to the right, but he still has my hand, so we end up looking like a tiny piece of hands across America.
I rush out the moment the doors sweep open, nearly pulling him along with me. He takes the lead within a few steps and tugs me down a hallway to our room.
“Why didn’t you want me to have a key?” The lock glows green and he lets go of my hand to push the door open.
“You don’t need one. We’re only here for one night and if you need to leave the room, I’ll be with you.” He holds the door and gestures with his chin for me to go ahead of him.
“This place looks expensive.” I take in the room.
This isn’t a chain hotel where the artwork on the wall over the bed looks to have been purchased from a hotel catalogue.
It’s a room meant for luxury. The walls are covered in a dark brown wallpaper with gold velvet baroque swirls, matching the gold trim of the room.
In the center of the room is a large, plush king-sized bed with a soft, tufted headboard.
The bedding is layered with creamy tones with hints of gold.
It looks like a luxurious cloud I could get lost in and sleep for days.
Wait.
“Rurik, there’s only one bed in here.”
He’s sitting on the velvet armchair set beside a small coffee table in the corner of the room, taking his boots off. His jacket is already laying across the arm of the second chair near the window framed with heavy curtains.
“Ah, good you can count.” He drops the second boot and gets to his feet, stretching his arms over his head. “I need a shower. I ordered food when I checked in; it should be here any minute.”
“Food? It’s past midnight.”
“You need to eat,” he says matter-of-factly as he grabs his duffle and heads to the ensuite bathroom that is probably the size of my entire apartment.
“What I need is to get in touch with Megan. And somehow get rid of you.” I try to put some levity into my voice to cover up my seriousness, but I don’t think it works.
His gaze gets darker, and he pads across the lush carpeting until his bare toes cover my shoes.
“I’m tired, and I need a shower. Let me be clear about what will happen if you try to leave this room or ask for help from the room service when it arrives.” He reaches behind me, fisting my hair and yanking my head back so I’m looking up at him.
“Ow!” I immediately try to grab at his hand, but then he growls. It’s a low sound that sends a shiver through me. A sound meant to warn, and it works.
“If you try to leave this room, I will strip you bare, bend you over that bed and whip your ass with my belt until you can’t sit.
And I don’t mean it in an empty threat sort of way, I mean it in a really can’t sit sort of way.
” He shakes my head a little, just to prove how much bigger than me he is. “Do you understand?”
“Yeah. I get it.” I swallow. “Big man with belt. I got it.”
His left eyebrow arches perfectly, and he lets out a long breath. “Eat your dinner when it gets here and get ready for bed.”
He lets me go and heads to the bathroom.
“There’s still only one bed, Rurik.”
“It’s a big bed. We’ll manage.” The door shuts, and I’m alone in the room with all the beauty of the room. It’s too pretty to sleep in for just one night.
A doorbell rings a moment after I hear the water turn on in the shower. The room has a doorbell.
My mouth waters as soon as I remove the silver cover on the first plate. A cheeseburger with fries and coleslaw on the side. The second plate is another burger, and the third is two pieces of chocolate cake.
Before I dive into the food, I give a half-hearted thought to leaving. He’s in the shower. By the time he gets out, I could be gone from the hotel. I’m sure the lady downstairs will get me a cab.
But being realistic, he’d just track me down again. And there’s the fact that his friend has Megan. He’d easily called Alexander when I asked him to, and he’d let me try to call Megan.
Rurik might be my fastest and safest way back home. If he’s actually bringing me to see Megan.
Plopping down in the plush chair a million times more comfortable than anything I’ve ever put my ass on, my hunger wins out. I’ll keep trying to call Megan.
In the meantime, food.