Chapter 5
FIONA
Killian’s lips leave a phantom pressure against mine, and for hours I can still feel them.
At first, all I wanted to do was to get away.
Be it using force, running faster than him, or seducing my kidnapper, I just wanted to get away.
Now, the more cracks I see in Killian’s carefully built walls, the more I want him to come with me.
I don’t care for this mysterious father of mine who never gave a shit. Killian’s father is another asshole. We could make it. We could escape, disappear, and change our names. Live a life away from them.
But would Killian do that? For a woman he barely knows?
I hear him talk to his father, pacing the living room, then leave.
The lock clicks and I don’t even get up from bed.
I’ve tried the windows and the front door, and I already called for help the entire first day I was here until my throat got parched and sore.
There’s no use. Killian is too good of a kidnapper. He thought of everything.
I shake my head. Am I really doing this? Am I falling in love with the man who kidnapped me? That’s just plain Stockholm Syndrome. And Killian never pretended to be someone he wasn’t. He didn’t try to convince me he was the good guy at any moment. I must be crazy. It has to be it.
The sun leans up when I open my eyes. I must have dozed off.
The front door opens and closes, and Killian’s heavy steps announce his return.
How long was he away? A couple of hours?
The smell of rotisserie chicken wafts through the slit under the door and I sit up.
Killian walks closer, then stops on the other side of the door.
“Fiona?” he calls in that soft way. It’s a caress. His husky voice is usually so demanding, so booming, but when he talks to me like this... “I brought lunch.”
“What time is it?” I ask, scratching my eyes.
He takes a beat to check. “Quarter past noon.”
I napped for hours, indeed. And even though the smell of chicken makes my stomach rumble, there’s something else on my mind. “Do you mind coming in?” I ask, afraid he’ll reject me. He’ll reject this, whatever this thing between us is.
Killian opens the door but stops at the threshold.
As if he respects this space as mine. As if he wants to keep his distance, give me space.
I take a good look at him, at the way his black shirt stretches across his barrel chest and struggles not to rip around the curl of his massive biceps.
Killian’s huge, powerful body means he could break me in two if he so desired.
Instead, he kissed me like he needed my lips to live.
Straightening up, I stare straight into his steel-gray eyes. How can someone so full of ragged edges look so tenderly at me?
“Was that your father on the phone?” I ask.
Killian nods. “They settled on a time and place.”
I swallow hard. “When?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
The words are lead in my stomach, weighing me down.
In less than twenty-four hours, I’ll be exchanged with my father, a man I never cared about.
I have no idea what’s going to happen then.
Will he release me? Or will he keep me locked up to make sure I won’t ever be kidnapped by his enemies again?
Maybe he even decides to kill me, just to be sure.
A shudder of fear crosses my body. I force my mind away from the matter. There’s nothing I can do about that. I couldn’t even run away from one man. Instead of running, I fell head over heels for him...
And this might be our last day together. Ever.
“Come here,” I ask, tapping the mattress next to me.
Killian hesitates, then walks into the bedroom.
His eyes are on me as he sits down, his body facing mine.
I raise a hand and run it through his hair.
He leans into my palm, the stubble across his chin scraping my skin.
He’s so big, so gloriously big, and somehow his presence still makes me feel safe.
“So, tomorrow,” I murmur.
His fingers brush my exposed knee. “Tomorrow.”
“This is our last day locked in here.”
Pain crosses his face. “You’ll be free, then. Your father will treat you well. We take family seriously.”
“I don’t want my father,” I cut him in. “I want you. And this might be the last day we spend together.
I hope for him to console me, to promise we will meet after this... But the pain in his eyes is real, the tightness in his jaw telling me he thinks the same. And Killian wouldn’t lie to me. He wouldn’t give me hopes about something that can’t be true.
Tears sting the back of my eyes but I blink them away. Even when I have so little choice, I want to take whatever’s left of my destiny into my hands. Cradling his jaw, I near our faces until his breath covers my tongue.
“Then make me yours, Killian,” I plead, and a small part of me thinks he’ll laugh it off, push me away.
That part is wrong. It’s oh, so wrong. The words snap Killian’s restraints, and he takes me in his arms. And I never felt more at home.