by I. T. Lucas
Her phone’s ringing woke Wonder up way too early. With blurry eyes, she reached for it and brought it to her ear while glancing at the clock on the wall. Who could be calling her at eight-thirty in the morning?
There were only four people who had her number, Tony, Mrs. Rashid, Mrs. Rashid’s daughter Serena, and the shelter’s administration.
Mrs. Rashid was back in Egypt where it was the middle of the night, Serena never called, and the shelter’s administration office didn’t open until ten. Which left only one person.
“Hey, Tony, what’s up?”
“Do you remember the detectives from yesterday?”
No longer sleepy, Wonder sat up and clutched the phone to her ear. “What about them?” Had they figured out she had taken Anandur? Were they coming for her?
“They are bringing a forensic artist to draw the picture of the woman the missing guy left with.”
That was a relief. Wonder plopped back on her pillow. “And you’re calling me so early because?”
“They need you to come in and describe her to him. He is going to draw her picture from what you tell him.”
Wonder knew what a forensic artist did from one of her television shows. “Do I need to come in now? I just woke up.”
“No, he will be at the club around three. I just wanted to let you know right away so you wouldn't make any plans. This is important.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ll be there.”
“I’ll be there too. I’m not going to leave you alone with those detectives. I know they scared you a little.”
Shit, so those two were going to be there too. She’d hoped it would only be the artist.
“Thanks, Tony. I appreciate that. The one with the goatee, Magnus, he was nice, but the other one creeped me out.”
Tony laughed. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I think the dude has a speech impediment, that’s all. That’s why he hardly talks. And when he does, he sounds like a robot.”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I’m just glad you’re going to be there.”
“No problem. See you here at three.”
One of those immortals must’ve been Anandur’s brother. It wasn’t the dead serious blond, that was for sure. He didn’t resemble Anandur in any way, not in looks and not in behavior.
That left the other one, Magnus with the warm brown eyes and the goatee, who had given her his business card. But he had referred to Anandur as his partner and not his brother.
Anandur had said something about his brother coming with a force of Guardians, so maybe neither of the two fake detectives was his brother. But that didn’t make sense. The club was the last place Anandur had been in and should have been the first place his brother checked.
Had he lied about his brother searching for him? Had it been a ploy to gain her sympathy?
She could ask Anandur to describe his brother. If his description matched either of the two, she would have proof that he’d been telling her the truth.
And then what?
It was so tempting to believe him. Too tempting. And that made her suspicious. Or maybe just cautious.
Wonder put her head in her hands and sighed. It was quite simple, really. If Anandur truly believed that he could overpower her despite the handcuffs and leg restraints and was refraining from doing it to convince her he meant her no harm, then everything else he’d told her was probably true as well.
But maybe he didn’t.
After all, she had a Taser gun and had used it on him before, rendering him immobile long enough to knock him out with a blow to the back of his head. Maybe he was wary of that.
She could test her theory.
Today, she would have him put the handcuffs on with his hands in the front and see if he tried anything. She would pretend to have relaxed her guard, but her hand would never be far away from her holster.
Even better. She was going to stop by the market and get a six-pack of beer and some snacks. It would convince him that she was falling for his manipulations.
If he were indeed trying to manipulate her. She would be very happy if her suspicions were proven wrong.
41
Anandur
“Is she coming for you this morning?” Shaveh asked between one chin-up and the next.
There wasn’t much to do in the cage other than reading or training, and Anandur was too agitated to read, so he trained.
Following Mordan’s example, he’d started with pushups and then both of them had moved to chin-ups. Now with Shaveh joining in, and the three of them hanging shirtless from the top horizontal bars of their cages, they must’ve looked like the original inhabitants of the place—big apes.
Unable to help himself, Anandur hung from the bar, and holding on with only one hand while scratching himself with the other, called out, “hook, hoo, hoo, hoo, oo, oo, oo!”
With the other two adding their own gorilla calls, the noise made the room sound like an asylum for demented apes.
Grud expressed his opinion by shaking his head.
“What’s going on?” Wonder ran inside then stopped in her tracks and looked at them as if they’d lost their minds.
Anandur let go of the bar and dropped down to all fours, then loped to the cage’s front and sniffed at her before pushing up and puffing out his bare chest.
“Me, Tarzan.” He pointed at himself. “You, Jane.” He pointed at her.
Instead of laughing, Wonder stared at his chest for a split second too long and then frowned. “Are you okay?”
He’d forgotten that she didn’t have a lifetime of movies stored in her head. She had no idea who Tarzan was.
Damn. There was so much he needed to teach her. “It’s a line from a movie about a man who was raised by gorillas.”
“Oh.” She forced a smile, her eyes darting back to his chest for a moment.
Anandur smirked. Wonder liked what she saw.
Naturally.
He was a fine male specimen if he said so himself.
True, she’d already seen him in all his naked glory, but that was back when she’d thought of him as a murderer. Her perspective had obviously changed.
Shaking her head, Wonder waved her hand in a shooing motion. “Put a shirt on and stand against the back wall.”
“Yes, ma'am.” He turned around and sauntered toward the mattress where he’d left his T-shirt.
Bending down to retrieve it, he paused for a second, giving Wonder a chance to have a good long look at his ass.
He had a fine ass too, if he said so himself.
Wonder didn’t wait for him to stand against the back wall before throwing in the shackles. “Hands in the front this time, but I added another chain to connect the leg restraints to the handcuffs. If you do it sitting down, you don’t need help putting everything on.”
“Very clever.” He took the bundle and sat on his mattress.
When everything was on, he pushed up to his feet and waited for Wonder to inspect him.
When she deemed him secure, she opened the cage. “You can come out now. And just so you know, the keys to your restraints are not on me, and they are not where I’m taking you. So don’t get any ideas. There is no way you’re getting free.”
Very clever, indeed, Anandur thought as he walked out the room with Wonder following a few steps behind him. She’d listened to what he’d told her, internalized it, and adapted her safety measures.
He was so damn proud of her.
“That was mostly for their ears,” she said as she entered the office they’d used last night.
Anandur salivated as he saw the six-pack of beers on the desk. “Is that for me?”
Wonder pointed at the chair. “Take a seat. And yes. I got it for you. I don’t drink alcohol.” Pulling one can from the pack, she popped the lid and handed it to him. “Enjoy.”
Seated, the chain connecting the cuffs to the leg restraints was long enough to allow him a good range of motion. It felt good to sit in a chair and hold a cold can in his hand.
“Thank you. I usually don�
��t drink first thing in the morning even though I’m a Scot. But these are unusual circumstances.” He lifted the can to his mouth and took several long gulps.
It was piss poor beer he would’ve not touched a couple of days ago, but it tasted like heaven to him now.
“Would you like some cold cuts with your beer?” Wonder lifted the lid off a prepackaged container.
“Would I ever.” He reached with his hand then stopped. “My hands are dirty.” It was hard to keep clean when the only water source dispensed just drizzle, and he hadn’t done even that before leaving the cage.
Wonder lifted a brow. “You’re not going to eat because you don’t want to touch your food with unwashed fingers?”
“I know it’s strange, especially for an immortal. It’s not like I’m going to get sick. But I just can’t. I’m very fastidious.” He chuckled. “Though that’s my take on it. Most of my friends call me a neat freak.”
“What’s wrong with cleanliness?”
“Nothing. They just think I’m excessively concerned with it. I care about being clean and wearing clean clothes, but oddly enough not about tidiness.”
“I care about both.” Wonder pushed a hand inside her jean pocket and pulled out a small container of hand sanitizer. “Would that help?”
Anandur eyed the container, then shook his head. “Normally yes, but I haven’t washed my hands properly for two days.”
Wonder popped the cup, squirted a generous amount into her hand, then rubbed her palms vigorously. “I washed my hands several times today.” She lifted a couple of turkey slices, rolled them into a cylinder, and brought it to his mouth. “Would you eat it from my fingers?”
Instead of answering, he leaned forward and took a bite. His eyes rolled back from pleasure, and he moaned, but it wasn’t because the turkey was that exceptional. Eating from Wonder’s hand was a big time turn-on.
He hadn’t expected the strong reaction. Was it because of the intimacy that the act of feeding him implied? Or was it her proximity?
He couldn’t remember ever responding so strongly to such a small gesture. Thankfully, his chains allowed him to cross his legs and hide what the nylon pants didn’t. Except, she would no doubt smell his arousal. Hopefully, though, Wonder wouldn’t know how to interpret it.
Would she react to it?
He didn’t know.
She was the first unattached immortal female he’d met that wasn’t related to him.
When he opened his eyes, she was staring at his mouth, her lips slightly parted as if she wanted a taste of him.
If he leaned just a little closer, he could kiss her.
He must’ve done so involuntarily because Wonder leaned away. “Open wide.” She lifted the hand holding the rest of the rolled slices.
Pretending that was the reason he’d gotten closer, Anandur tilted his head and opened his mouth so she could drop it inside.
Fates, how he wanted to catch her fingers together with the meat and suck on them. It took a monumental effort to refrain from doing so. Instead, he closed his mouth and chewed, making the appropriate sounds of pleasure.
“Is it that good, or are you that hungry?” Wonder rolled up a few more slices.
“I guess both. Or maybe it’s so good because you’re feeding it to me.”
Wonder’s olive-toned cheeks became rosy.
“You look beautiful when you blush.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Stop it, or I’m not feeding you any more of this.” She dangled the roll in front of his face.
He’d gone a bit too far and scared her.
A little self-deprecating humor would fix that. “Oh, no, please have mercy and take pity on an old romantic fool. I can’t help myself.” With a pout and a trembling lower lip, he steepled his fingers and batted his eyelashes.
Wonder chuckled. “You’re such a clown.”
“So I’ve been told.”
42
Wonder
“Would you like another beer?”
“Yes, please.”
“Promise to behave?”
“I do.” Anandur put a hand over his heart, his other one dangling from the chain below. “For now.”
Trying very hard to keep a straight face, Wonder crossed her arms over her chest. “Not good enough. If you want another beer, you need to promise to be good the rest of the morning.”
“Fine. I promise, bossy lady.”
She popped the lid on the can and handed it to him. “Here you go.”
“Much appreciated.”
Anandur was growing on her big time, and not just because of his incredible body, although that was a big part of it. He was what Natasha called a hunk.
Add to that his easy-going charm and his humor, and it was impossible to be around him for any length of time and keep a stern expression.
Yesterday at work, and later as she’d lain at night in bed, Wonder would catch herself thinking about his smiling eyes, or his sensuous lips, or his big hands, then quickly chase those images away before they scrambled her brain completely, only to be reminded of something he’d said and smile like an idiot.
Her defenses were crumbling, and she was starting to think and act like an ordinary girl, which unfortunately she wasn’t.
The man was her prisoner. Her job was to determine whether he’d been telling her the truth or charming her with his humor and his good looks and his respectful attitude towards her.
Anandur never used cuss words, not around her, and he never raised his voice either, reinforcing her first impression of him as being clean. Inside and out.
Absentmindedly, she picked up a cheese cube and brought it to his lips. The thing was small, and as he gently closed his lips around it, they brushed against her fingers, sending shivers down her spine.
Hiding her reaction, Wonder pulled her hand away, looked down at the container, and reached for more turkey slices. Rolling them up like she’d done before, she lifted her head and glanced at the man driving her crazy.
His eyes were glowing.
“Why are your eyes doing that?”
“You mean why are they glowing?”
She nodded.
“Your eyes glow too when you experience strong emotions. It’s an immortal thing.”
She needed to check it out in front of a mirror. She hadn’t known that her eyes did that and it was a big problem.
Tony had told her that the forensic artist she was meeting later that afternoon would be accompanied by the two fake detectives. If she got overly anxious or upset, her eyes could give her away.
And she still hadn’t questioned Anandur about his brother. Something she’d been meaning to do since yesterday but had gotten sidetracked by Anandur’s stories and his jokes.
“Is your brother also a redhead?”
Anandur tilted his head. “Why do you want to know?”
“Just curious.”
“He’s not. We had two different fathers.” Anandur must’ve seen something in her expression that prompted him to explain. “It’s not unusual for my people. Since most members of our community are genetically related to each other, we must seek partners among humans. But because we have to keep our existence secret, we can’t form lasting relationships with them. As a result, none of us grew up with fathers around, and siblings only share a mother.”
That was so sad. “So if one of your male members fathered a child with a human, he couldn’t acknowledge that child?”
Anandur nodded. “Yup. It sucks, but a child of a human female with an immortal male doesn’t carry the special genes. It doesn’t happen often, though. Especially now that everyone is on birth control.”
“How likely is it that I’m somehow related to your community?”
“Not likely at all. We keep tabs on our people.”
The pieces of the puzzle were starting to align. Anandur hadn’t tried to escape and had no intention of doing so because he needed her. Not the other way around.
She was a rare find, an immortal
female he was not related to. Wonder could’ve been as ugly as a toad, stupid, and have a nasty attitude, and still Anandur would have done everything to win her over and have her agree to come with him.
Were the other three she’d captured planning the same thing? It was possible that each of them wanted her for himself too, but they’d failed to get close to her because they lacked Anandur’s natural charm and ability to get under her skin.
“What about the other faction? You said that they don’t activate their female Dormants. But what about the genetic thing? Do they have the same problem your people have?”
“No, they don’t. They are a patriarchal organization. Since the very beginning of the rift, they managed to capture a good number of immortal and Dormant females that were not related to each other. Their leader instituted a breeding program that serves them to this date. That’s how there are so many of them and only a few of us.”
Wonder narrowed her eyes at him. “It seems to me that finding an immortal female who is not related to you would be quite a catch. Wouldn’t you say?”
Anandur’s expression turned somber. “This is not what you think, Wonder. I like you, I won’t deny it, but this is not why I’m here trying to convince you to join my people. You need us more than we need you. Trust me on that.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. “So all of your subtle and not so subtle flirtation wasn’t because you wanted me, but because you’re completely selfless and wanted nothing more than to help the woman who Tasered you, hit you over the head, and locked you in a cage.”
Anandur shifted in his chair, the chains at his ankles rattling as he moved his legs. “You’re a beautiful girl, Wonder, and I like you and admire you. I can’t help my attraction to you. But you’re also very young.”
He lifted both hands to scratch his beard, which pulled the chain connecting his handcuffs to the leg restraints. “Too young,” he murmured.
“Too young for what?”
“For me.”
Why the hell did it hurt so much to hear that? Hadn’t she just realized that he’d never been interested in her personally but just in her immortality?