Cowboy & the Captive

by Lora Leigh

  “Why not just let him hang himself?” Heather finally shrugged. “I’ve rarely seen Luc smile as he did today. He’s more relaxed—almost happy. And I don’t sense a burning desire in you to be free.”

  She was much too close to the truth.

  “I should be desperate to escape.” Melina shook her head at that knowledge. “I think I’m a failure as a kidnap victim.”

  The episode on that washer earlier proved that. She would have begged him to take her then and there if Sam hadn’t shown up. And she wouldn’t have regretted it, she thought. She would have gloried in it.

  “I think maybe you’re just what he needs right now.” Heather leaned forward again and picked up her coffee cup. “Teach him how to cook while you’re here. Maybe he won’t kill himself with frozen dinners after you leave…that is, if he lets you leave.”

  Melina wondered at the smile that played about the other woman’s lips as she lifted her coffee cup and sipped at the hot brew. Heather seemed much too convinced that leaving wouldn’t be an option.

  “He has to let me go soon.” Melina glanced out the window to her side, watching as Luc led one of the huge horses from the barn for Sam to examine. “He won’t keep me forever.”

  No matter how much she wished he would. For a moment, shock vibrated through her system. This wasn’t what she wanted, was it? It wasn’t a question she could answer right then.

  “Stranger things have happened.” Heather shrugged. “But what will be, will be. Now tell me about your sister and how the hell you ended up being kidnapped in her place. I’m dying of curiosity.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Heather and Sam hadn’t stayed long, but by the time the two men had concluded their visit, Melina knew she had made a friend. Not that Luc seemed comfortable with the idea, nor did Sam. But both men seemed smart enough not to comment on it. Besides, as the evening wore on, Melina could tell that Luc had something much more serious on his mind.

  He kept watching her silently. His dark gray eyes were reflective, his expression too serious to suit her. She had a feeling she knew what was coming, but when the question was voiced, she found that she still didn’t have the answers that would have placated him.

  “What happened to frighten you last night?” Luc’s softly voiced question finally came after dinner.

  Melina stood in front of the sink finishing the last of the dinner dishes and staring through the window at the steadily darkening backyard. She lowered her head, focusing on the thick mass of suds that covered her hands and wondered what to tell him.

  The truth can often hurt, and Melina had no desire to hurt Luc. The fact that he had been the catalyst that ended with her in that jail cell that week had been forgiven long ago. Her own foolishness, she realized, was the reason she had landed there. She had trusted her parents, had trusted Maria, when she knew better.

  She flinched as she heard the chair he was sitting in scuff across the floor. Her gaze rose to the window, her heart speeding up in her chest as he approached her. His expression was somber, his black hair falling over his brow, his lips compressed into a controlled line as his eyes met hers in the reflection.

  “Wouldn’t any woman be frightened at the thought of being tied naked in a stranger’s bed?” she finally snapped in defense.

  He was getting too close. She could feel the heat of his body along her back now, the intensity that was so much a part of him wrapping around her with gossamer threads of emotion.

  He stared at her in the glass until she finally dropped her eyes, covering her retreat by letting out the water and rinsing her shaking hands with a quick motion.

  “Catarina?” He touched her.

  Melina stilled, wanting nothing more than to close her eyes and escape the merciless perception in his gaze. She felt trapped by his look, drawn into it, captivated by the dark clouds of concern that shifted within them as his hand settled on her hip.

  She swallowed tightly.

  “I have to finish the kitchen…”

  She was not giving in to him. Not again. She couldn’t let herself forget who he thought she was. She couldn’t let herself forget who she was. Despite her desire for him, despite the hunger that sped through every cell in her body, she couldn’t forget what they had both suffered at her sister’s hands.

  “Fuck the kitchen, Catarina.” A frown snapped between his brows as he turned her to face him, both hands gripping her hips now, holding her so close that a breath of air would have had trouble passing between his body and hers. “I want answers. Do you think I didn’t see your terror? That I wouldn’t suspect what’s behind it? What happened?”

  Melina breathed out with a short angry burst of air.

  “I don’t owe you answers, Luc. You’ve kidnapped me. Refused to listen to reason once you were informed of the mistake you made. And you push and prod at me every chance you get to force admissions that are no more than lies to appease you. You have no right to be concerned about anything.”

  Melina pushed away from him, stalking across the kitchen to replace his chair beneath the table and straighten the small, cloth placemats. The old oak table gleamed with its fresh coat of wax, a testament to her hard work that day.

  “Catarina, freedom comes with a price.” His voice was gentle but the meaning was clear. “You can’t change if you don’t learn from your mistakes.”

  Amazement filled her. How gentle and concerned he sounded. It was almost enough to make her sick.

  “God, can you get any more pompous.” She rounded on him furiously. “Listen to yourself, Luc. I’ve told you at every opportunity what a fool you’re making of yourself here and, still, you aren’t listening. You know what?” She propped her hands on her hips, tired of the arguments, sick of dealing with his determination to believe she was Maria. “You just believe what you want to. Everyone else has. You want to believe I’m Maria? Knock yourself out, asshole, but don’t expect me to cooperate. I grew sick of wearing my sister’s shoes quite a while ago. I won’t let you force me back into them.”

  The situation would have been laughable if it weren’t for the fact that she was aware she was losing her heart to the knucklehead.

  “This isn’t about your refusal to admit who you are,” he retorted, his voice harsh, dark. “I don’t give a damn who you want to pretend to be. Dammit, Catarina, have you considered the fact that the drugs could just be an escape from whatever happened? If you admit you’re frightened, wouldn’t it be easier to accept you have a problem? Now, I want to know why the hell you looked at me like I was within an inch of raping you last night, when you should have known damned good and well that’s not a danger you face. If I don’t know the problem, then I can’t help you fix it.”

  Some men were just too damned stubborn for their own good.

  “Oh, you know the problem,” she snapped. “You just won’t admit it. Dammit, Luc, when are you going to admit that maybe, just maybe, I’m not Maria?”

  “Catarina, do you think I didn’t make certain before taking you?” he growled in frustration.

  “Evidently you didn’t.” She shrugged, lifting her brow mockingly. “Listen to you, you don’t even call me Maria. You call me Catarina. Why, Luc? If you’re so insistent you know you’re right, why not call me by Maria?”

  He grimaced, male irritation filling his gaze as he stared back at her with a determined glint in his eyes.

  “You’re deliberately trying to change the subject,” he said darkly. “You’re good at that, Cat, I have to commend you. But I won’t let it continue. Why were you so frightened of me last night? You knew I wouldn’t hurt you.”

  “Oh, did I?” She arched her brow with mocking inquiry. “And how am I supposed to know this, Luc? You threaten things when you don’t get your way. You threatened Mason’s safety before I admitted to who you thought I was. You made me lie to you.” It still infuriated her. “But I let it go.” She threw her arms wide to indicate her former surrender. “I wasn’t about to strip naked for you so you coul
d tie me down and do whatever the hell you wanted with me.”

  He stared at her. He didn’t argue with her, didn’t answer her accusations. He merely tucked his thumbs in the waistband of his jeans and watched her for long, nerve-wracking minutes. She could see a storm brewing in his eyes. Melina stilled. He looked dominant, forceful; he looked like a man unwilling to accept the answer she had given him.

  She wasn’t afraid of him. She was wary of the threat he represented to her heart, but last night, as darkness closed around them, she had admitted, to herself at least, that Luc would never harm her. He might infuriate her. He might drive her insane with his complete confidence in what he thought he was doing, especially when he was wrong. But he would never force himself on her.

  “Who raped you?” He finally asked the question she had been dreading.

  God, why did this man, of all men, have to be the one her heart had set itself on? If it had just been lust, maybe it would have been easier to handle. But the moment she met him, despite his fury, she had been drawn to him. In the months after that, all she learned about him had only increased her fascination with him. Now, spending the days with him, seeing his quiet humor and dealing with his stubbornness was turning her into a fool. A fool because she could feel her emotions peaking, edging toward him, yearning for him.

  “Because I’m not ready to spread my thighs and invite you in, then I’ve been raped?” She crossed her arms over her chest, praying now for an intervention. Any kind of intervention would be nice.

  He advanced on her. There was no way to retreat. The table behind her came against her rear as Luc pressed against her front. This time, when his hands gripped her hips she knew there would be no escape from him.

  “Catarina.” His head lowered, his gaze dark, deliberate, as his lips stopped within a breath of hers. “Tell me why I care,” he whispered, staring at her somberly, his voice filled with his own confusion, his own need for answers. “Tell me why the thought of your terror last night has driven me insane to find an explanation for it. And tell me why in the hell all I can think about is how to ease those fears long enough to get you beneath me and show you I would never hurt you.”

  Lust slammed into her womb. Melina’s eyes widened at the hard, convulsive shudder of hunger that rippled through it. She swallowed tightly, fighting for breath. Fear was the last thing on her mind. All she could think about now was the sheer, unbridled hunger glittering in his eyes and the liquid heat pooling in her vagina.

  And he knew it. He knew what he did to her. Knew how damned hot he could make her.

  “You’re imagining things.” She cleared her throat nervously, trying to push away from him, desperate to escape the building desire.

  “I watched you wax this damned table,” he whispered, his lips glancing hers, freezing her in place. “Bent over, that tight little ass bouncing around, and all I could think about was stretching you across it…”

  He lifted her. Melina gasped, gripping his hands as he set her on the table and quickly moved between her thighs.

  “Luc.” She meant for the words to come out as a protest, not the plea that it seemed to be.

  “I wanted to make a meal out of you on this damned table,” he growled, baring his teeth in a tight grimace. “And all I could think of was the fear in your eyes last night and how much I hated knowing you were frightened of me. That, and cursing myself for letting my own lust interfere in what should be a punishment rather than a vacation for you.” His voice deepened in self-disgust and bemusement.

  “Yeah, us naughty girls definitely shouldn’t have any fun.” She meant it to come out with a wealth of sarcasm, not the sultry tone it was wrapped in.

  She couldn’t forget the episode in the washroom. Couldn’t get it out of her mind and couldn’t make her body accept that this man was the wrong man for her heart. Her hormones just didn’t give a damn. This was the one they wanted.

  His eyelids lowered, giving him a drowsy, sensually dangerous appearance as his hands tightened on her hips.

  “Don’t tempt me,” he whispered.

  Tempt him? What the hell did he think he was doing to her? He was killing her. There was no fear of him, which left only the need. She wondered if she would be safer being frightened of him. Because she was just confident enough of her safety, and his desire for her, that her own need to tempt him in return surged ahead of any caution she may have displayed.

  “Hm. Admit who I am, Luc, and I might help you with that,” she murmured, almost shocked at the impish impulse to torment him now. “Come on, big boy, tell me what I want to hear.”

  His eyes flared, his cheeks flushing as his breathing began to match hers.

  “You’re playing a very dangerous game, sweetheart.” The rough warning only made her braver.

  For a moment, she wondered at her own daring. Never would she have attempted to spar with another man in this manner, especially not in the past two years. But this was Luc. She had dreamed about him for years, lusted for him, ached for him.

  She licked her lips slowly, staring back at him sensually.

  “Who am I, Luc?” she asked him, her thighs softening against his hips as she fought a whimper of longing. His jeans-covered cock settled tighter against her pussy, a hard, thick wedge of heat that made her clit swell in need and her vagina ache in emptiness.

  His eyes narrowed. The cloudy gray was nearly black now, his expression slack and filled with hunger as he stared at her moist lips.

  “A minx,” he growled, though a smile edged his lips. “One who’s going to end up spanked if she isn’t careful.”

  “Hmm. Hurt me so good.” She licked her lips, pushing her luck and knowing it. But damned if he didn’t look hot as hell. He was staring at her as though he could consume her at any minute. Lust and perhaps even a shade of confusion filled his expression.

  “You like pushing your luck, don’t you?” he asked her softly as he moved away from her.

  Nothing could dispel the heat that wrapped around her, though, as he watched her. She could feel it licking over her flesh, stoking the fires in her pussy and leaving her almost weak with arousal. She wanted to touch him more than he could ever know. But she would be damned if she would let him kidnap her and break her heart.

  “Actually,” she stated a bit regretfully, “pushing my luck has been my choice, Luc. At least, until now.”

  Flashing him a saucy smile she moved quickly away from him, aware she was only delaying the inevitable. She knew she couldn’t hold out much longer against the sensual promise he represented. She only hoped that when the time came, he didn’t whisper Maria’s name. That would be one insult she didn’t think she could bear.

  * * * * *

  Luc couldn’t push aside his certainty that Catarina’s fear had somehow been rooted in sexual violence. Though her good humor restored itself quickly, he could glimpse the shadows in her eyes, the lie spilling from her lips. He knew she was evading him.

  Going to bed with her was hell, though. Dressed in another of his shirts that night, she pulled the blankets to her chin and went quickly to sleep. Luc was left to stare into the darkness, aroused and confused by the woman he was sharing his bed with. There was no doubt by now that she wasn’t taking drugs. Withdrawal was a son of a bitch and impossible to hide. Catarina wasn’t in withdrawal. And she sure as hell wasn’t taking anything.

  He didn’t like being confused. And he sure as hell didn’t understand the strange emotions that were beginning to fill him. He wanted to believe she wasn’t Maria. He found himself daily attempting to come up with reasons why Joe might have lied to him. He was attempting to fool himself, and it wasn’t sitting well with him.

  Confirming his suspicions would have to wait until he could talk to the other man, though. Each time Luc had called him in the past few days he had been unavailable, which only roused Luc’s suspicions that much more.

  He sighed tiredly, thumped his pillow and closed his eyes. Sleep would have to come soon; if not, he would make
himself insane trying to make sense of it all. But one thing was for certain, this was not the Maria he had expected. If she was Maria.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Melina awoke in the least likely position. She had grown used to waking up draped across Luc’s chest, but never like this.

  One of her legs had crossed over his, her knee bent, resting uncomfortably close to the center of his thighs. His leg was pressed firmly to the mound of her pussy and as she awoke, she realized in mortification that she had been slowly rubbing herself against him.

  Now how did she get herself out of this one? Better yet, how had she managed to get herself into it?

  She tried to keep her breathing slow and steady, to ignore the heat building in the depths of her cunt. She had never felt so moist, so on fire there. Her clit was sensitized, swollen, and when Luc shifted against her she caught her breath at the sudden pleasure that whipped through it.

  His hand tightened in her hair, the fingers of the other smoothing against the bare flesh of her side where it had burrowed beneath her shirt. The pads of his fingers were calloused, warm, and the feel of them pressing lightly against her skin had her fighting to control the shiver that raced up her spine.

  She could feel excitement sizzling over her flesh, pleasure and need mixing in her bloodstream until she could barely breathe for it. One of her hands lay flat against his hard abdomen only inches from where the bulbous head of his cock had risen past the soft elastic of his briefs. A small, pearly drop of pre-come glistened on the tip of it as it throbbed erotically.

  Melina knew the minute he became aware of their positions. His stomach tensed; his heart began to race furiously beneath her ear. She could feel the sexual tension heating his big body now and the careful control he used as his hand flattened against her hip.

  “Better move,” he whispered with drowsy amusement. “I’m about two seconds from doing something stupid.”