Snatched 3

by Candy J. Starr

  Snatched

  Part 3

  Candy J. Starr

  Copyright Candy J. Starr 2016

  All rights reserved

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is purely coincidental.

  Blurb:

  As Veronica’s claim to my mother’s estate becomes stronger, I’m not sure if I trust her, but I can’t resist the temptation of her flesh. Until I can discredit any legal claim she has, I need to train her to be worthy of the family name. Training that’s strict and exacting. And totally pleasurable.

  I’d always thought I was so normal and boring, but he made me into a sexual creature. I wanted him to take me to the limit of my desire, even beyond it. He challenged me, as though daring me to draw back, but the more he pushed me, the more I wanted. I wasn’t sure where I’d draw the line. I wasn’t even sure there was a line to draw.

  Chapter 1. Veronica

  I hadn’t intended on going far from the house, but it felt so wonderful being outside with the wind on my skin and the crisp winter smells around me. The air tasted like freedom. I’d almost forgotten what fresh air was like.

  My shoes got stuck where the ground was wet, but I pulled them lose. They weren’t designed for outdoor use, that’s for sure, but I wasn’t ready to go back inside. Not until I’d cooled off after that stupid meeting. I had no idea what that rich jerk had been jabbering about and he’d not even done me the courtesy of explaining.

  He was so annoying. I hadn’t asked for any of this, but every time he spoke to me, he acted as though I’d planned it all and had evil intentions. Did I ask him to kidnap me? Did I ask him to lock me in this house? Did I ask him to have crazy, wild sex with me at the wedding?

  Well, maybe the last one. But I hadn’t expected to ever see him again.

  I kicked at a rock and sent it flying, but that just put a dint in the toe of my shoe and didn’t help at all.

  I hated to admit it even in the darkest corner of my heart, but the way he’d ignored me for so long, only to call me to his office to question me about stupid things, really hurt. Not that I wanted him to seduce me… well, maybe I did a little bit. He was interested, that was plain, but obviously not interested enough.

  When I looked around me, I realised that I’d gone further from the house than I’d intended, and the carefully manicured gardens had turned into something wild and untamed. The house was hidden by the trees and the path had become a rough track.

  That was okay, though. I just needed to go back the way I’d come.

  I did wonder, if I wanted to escape, how far I’d have to keep walking through these woods. There had to be something on the other side – a road or a town. Maybe not, maybe these were enchanted woods. The kind were you would walk forever and ever and just end up back at the same place. No escape, no end.

  Even if I did escape, that rich jerk would probably hunt me down again. With his money, it would be impossible to hide. He’d found my house with no problems. And he seemed to know a lot about me.

  The thought made me shiver. I turned around. I’d go back. As angry as he made me, I’d go back.

  I’d just go straight to my room, though. I’d go do my own thing and ignore that bastard. Hell could freeze over before I talked to him again.

  Surely, the house would come into sight soon. I’d not walked that far from where the orchards ended. I was maybe five minutes’ walk away. Although it seemed that, since I’d turned back, I’d walked for ages and seemed to be nowhere near where I should be.

  Shit, a noise scared me. A bird hooted. Only a bird.

  But the skies were darkening and I had no idea where I was. I quickened my pace, as much as I could in these stupid shoes. I wanted to throw them off, but the ground looked like it was pretty rough. There were rocks and sticks and probably all kinds of weird bugs.

  The path veered to take me near a brook. I had not seen a brook on my way in. I had definitely not seen a brook. I took a deep breath. I’d keep calm. I’d get out of here. I’d just taken a wrong turn. A classic rookie mistake. But I could retrace my steps and find the right way.

  These weren’t enchanted woods. They were regular ones with some tricky paths. I’d definitely get out of here if I kept my wits about me. If I panicked, that would be the worst possible thing.

  No one knew where I’d gone. I was totally alone and had been so stupid. If I’d stuck to the gardens, I’d have been fine. If I’d kept the house in sight, then I’d have no problem getting back, but instead of heading back to the house, I was deep in the woods.

  Soon it would be night. I hugged my arms, wishing I’d worn something more substantial than the thin dress. Stupid dress. Stupid shoes. My feet hurt like bastards. I couldn’t go much further or they’d fall off. I couldn’t remember which way I’d come.

  The rotting tree that looked like a bear, I’d seen that before. But had I come from the left or the right? I thought it was the right but I couldn’t remember. Nothing made sense.

  I was cold and I was hungry and in pain. I could run around forever and not find my way out. The only thing that made sense was to find somewhere to shelter for the night. Running around the woods in the dark was for fools. Even though I knew pretty much nothing, I did know that finding shelter was important. From the darkening of the sky, it would start raining soon and I’d be totally exposed to the elements. Hopefully, maybe, if the rain came, any wild animals wandering around would be taking shelter too instead of hunting me down.

  The rain would hide my scent from them too. At least, that’s what I thought.

  I found a fallen tree that I could use as shelter. It had a handy fork so that there was a curve to protect me in two directions. After a search, I found a fallen branch with heaps of leaves on it that I could use as a kind of roof. I threw it up to sit on the fork of the tree, but it fell straight back down. I grabbed it and tried it again. The third time it fell, it scratched my face. I wiped the blood away with my arm and tried again, finally managing to get it hooked over something so it stayed in place.

  That was as sheltery as it was going to get. They made it look so easy on those TV programmes, but it was damn hard work. I’d worked up a sweat.

  I hunted around and gathered up armfuls of dried leaves to use as a ground cover. I could kind of heap them up around me to keep me warm.

  My stomach gurgled with hunger. Not the slow, burning hunger I’d known before but the sharp, demanding hunger of the well fed. At least it’d take me a while to starve to death now.

  As I curled up on my leaf bed, the branch above me began to sway. Don’t fall down, please don’t fall, I pleaded in my head. I wasn’t sure I had the arm strength to get it back in place.

  I had no survival skills. I didn’t know how to find my way by the position of the sun or any of that kind of stuff. I’d lived in the city all my life.

  I curled up, and the tears began to fall. I rarely gave into self-pity, but there in the woods where no one could see me, all the tears I’d never cried burst out of me. Tears for my mother and for my father. All the things that had gone wrong.

  Noises echoed around me, sounds like something scurrying through the undergrowth and branches cracking. I knew nothing about the woods. There could be bears or other wild animals just waiting for a tasty morsel like me. I’d never seen a bear before, but they would not be all cute and cuddly if you saw one in the wild.

  I wrapped my arms around myself, hoping
that huddling in as small as space as possible would make it harder for the bears to find me. I shivered from the cold and from the fear. I tried not to cry any more, but the tears didn’t listen to me. I sniffed to stop my nose from running. Mum would’ve killed me for that, but she was dead and I was alone in the woods about to be bear food.

  Another branch snapped and I jumped. It had to be a bear.

  Then I’d heard a voice. Someone was looking for me.

  It was him.

  I jumped up and ran towards him. My heart lightened and my feet flew. I wasn’t alone in this horrible, harsh world after all.

  Chapter 2. Dom

  I ran through the woods, yelling her name. She was out there somewhere. Whether she’d run away from me on purpose or she’d got lost, I didn’t know. All I knew was that she wasn’t safe and I had to find her.

  Maybe I’d been too tough on her during our conversation. But I had to be. I couldn’t give in to the temptation she offered me. I had no idea if she even meant to tempt me. I knew nothing about her at all. Even though the investigators had prepared files filling me in on every detail of her life, I knew nothing about what was really happening in her head.

  I still wasn’t convinced that she didn’t have evil plans. There was more than money at stake. There was the whole future of the company. I couldn’t let my attraction to her get in the way of that.

  I had no idea what direction she’d have even taken. All I had was the handkerchief I’d found in the orchard. A bit further along, there were some marks in the ground that looked they could’ve been made by her heels as she walked. Why would she even walk into the woods wearing those heels? They were expensive shoes, not made for running away to places like that.

  She had to have made those marks. It’s not like the gardeners would be walking around in heels.

  It got even colder as I went further into the woods. The trees grew so close together, light barely got through, especially in the late afternoon. A breeze blew around, rustling the leaves and suggesting a storm was coming. While the overhead canopy would provide some protection from rain, it would be horribly hard and eerie for her.

  There were hundreds of things that could go wrong to someone alone out here. She could lose her footing or fall down an embankment, twisting her ankle. She’d be cold and vulnerable. Once the rain started, she’d be freezing and could get sick. No matter what, I had to protect her.

  The grounds stretched on forever, though. Even if I knew what direction she’d taken from the orchard, she could’ve gone down any of the tracks.

  I took the most obvious path, hoping she’d done the same thing. She wasn’t a logical girl, though, so who knew? I kept calling her name, my voice becoming hoarse.

  “Veronica? Veronica?”

  I thought I heard an answering yelp. Not actual words, but a human-like sound.

  “Veronica?” I called again, running through the undergrowth in the direction I’d heard the noise. It had to be her. What would I do if it wasn’t?

  “Dom?”

  She’d called my name. I’d never heard her say my name before. Just “the rich jerk” at times. I called again. There was a rising inflection in her voice that sounded like fear.

  “It’s okay, I’m coming.”

  I heard a crashing noise not far from me. She came running to me, falling into my arms.

  Even though I hated being touched, and having another human grope me like that was one of my greatest fears, I opened my arms to her and pulled her tight. She shivered in my arms. I rubbed her back and made sure she warmed up. The chill of her bare skin against mine was no joke. I removed my jacket and wrapped it around her, then lifted her into my arms.

  “Are there bears in these woods?” she asked through chatting teeth.

  I laughed. Bears? Hardly. She was worried about bears?

  “Stop laughing,” she said.

  Before she could say any more, my mouth was on hers. I never kissed. I hated that kind of intimate contact, but I couldn’t resist kissing this woman. I’d done it more than once now. It didn’t make me recoil the way I did with other women. It didn’t feel like an invasion. I wanted more. I wanted to kiss her until her lips fell off, until the Earth stopped spinning. I wanted to kiss her until I could kiss no more.

  She responded so fast, pressing against me, that I thought I’d stumble back and fall with her in my arms. But I righted myself. As I kissed her, I could taste the salt on her skin. For all she put up a tough front, she’d been crying. I wanted to kiss away all the traces of her tears. First we had to get back to the house. The sky was already darkening and soon the heavens would open up. We didn’t not want to be caught in the woods during a storm.

  “I’m going to have to run with you,” I said.

  “You don’t have to carry me,” she answered. “I can walk on my own.”

  “Your shoes are wrecked and not really suitable for walking in the woods. It’s easier this way.”

  “Well, I have no other shoes. There are no hiking-in-the-woods-appropriate shoes in my wardrobe.”

  That was more like her usual self.

  I didn’t answer, though. A flash of lighting lit up the sky between the trees. I ran with her in my arms until we were out of the woods. The rain didn’t start until we got to the open gardens. Then it came down in heavy sheets, soaking us both through to the skin within seconds. She shivered in my arms and I ran faster. I tried not to notice how her dress stuck to her skin, clinging to the outline of her breasts with her hard nipples obscenely popping against the wet fabric.

  I had to focus on getting us home.

  Even if this was an elaborate ruse, I didn’t care. I needed her and could never lose her again.

  Chapter 3. Veronica

  “I’m dripping all over the floor,” I said. We’d both gotten saturated on the run back to the house.

  “Don’t worry about that. We need to get you out of those wet clothes.”

  Those words made me squirm. He would be getting me out of these wet clothes, alright.

  I’d expected him to take me up to my room, but instead we went to another part of the house. He kicked open huge doors that led to a massive bedroom. I assumed it was his room. The bed was enormous, and windows overlooking the gardens filled one wall. It made my room look like a closet.

  He put me down.

  “Get your clothes off and leave them for Harrison.”

  With that, he went through into another room and I heard water running. His voice sounded more concerned than sexy. I wanted his lips back on mine. That kiss had shocked me to the core. Every fibre of my being screamed for him to kiss me again. I needed to feel that passion, that sense of the world stopping and nothing existing outside the sensations of our bodies. Just when I’d thought I’d never be warm again, he’d heated me enough to make the steam rise from my body.

  I stripped the dress off. My shoes and dress were wrecked. There’d be no repairing them. I hoped he wouldn’t make me pay for the damage, because I couldn’t afford that. But then I’d not wanted the stupid clothes to start with.

  I left the dress on the floor. His jacket was wet and a bit dirty from where it’d been against my skin, but hopefully it’d be fixable.

  He’d said to leave it for Harrison, but he hadn’t said where to leave it. My grubby clothes seemed to ruin the pristine feeling of the room.

  I wasn’t sure if I should follow him into the bathroom or stay where I was. It was cold in the bedroom, though, so I walked through the door. Goosebumps covered my skin, which mustn’t have been the sexiest look in the world, but I couldn’t do much about that. Not without heating up.

  Oh. My. God. It was the most amazing bathroom I’d ever seen. All black-and-white checked tiles with a massive claw-foot bathtub in the middle of the room. He’d run the bath and filled it with bubbles. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d had a bubble bath.

  The bathroom was nothing compared to him, though. He’d taken his wet shirt off and was naked from
the waist up. That made my insides flutter. He had the kind of body that’d make a woman do crazy things. I longed to touch him but knew that would make him angry.

  He spun around and smiled at me. I was worried he’d get angry that I’d followed him into the bathroom but he just stared at me. His gaze on my naked body burnt into me, creating heat all over my body. I almost forgot to breathe.

  I waited for him to make a move, my heart fluttering with the uncertainty.

  He motioned for me to get into the bath. He didn’t touch me but didn’t leave either. The water scorched my icy-cold skin as I lowered my foot into it. I waited to get accustomed to the temperature, then realised I stood before him, one foot on the floor and hovering over the steaming water. That made me spread open in front of him. There was nothing left to the imagination.

  God, I was caught like that. It’d have been okay if he wasn’t staring. I twisted so I wasn’t flashing myself at him, but with one leg in and one out, there was no hiding it. I flushed, not from the heat of the bath but at the fact that I’d exposed myself so readily. Even though he’d seen me spread open before, I still burnt with embarrassment.

  I quickly jumped into the bathtub even though the water seemed to cook me. I needed protection from his gaze. Once I got under those bubbles, I felt safer. As much as I desired him, he scared me too. I knew that if I gave myself to him again, it’d be no casual thing. Something had passed between us that changed the entire situation. Not that I didn’t want it. I just wanted things to slow down.

  He didn’t smile, but the corner of his mouth twitched as though he enjoyed my uneasiness.

  I sat down with the hot water bringing life back to my body. He moved behind the bathtub and began rubbing me with a sponge. The friction on my shoulders helped me to relax, and my eyes rolled back with pleasure. He moved the sponge slowly down my back. I moaned from the pleasure of the rough yet gentle strokes. I had no idea what he’d do next and it made my stomach flip-flop as though I were free-falling.