Captured Miracle (8 page)

“I’ll be out.” I answered obediently. And all over again, I was reminded of how deeply I hated Calix.

Pulling myself up from the floor, I turned off the water. As I stepped from the shower, I wrapped the towel around my body before bending forward to wrap another around my head in hopes of drying some of my annoyingly thick hair. Glaring at the fireplace, I darted past it. I didn’t like how the glass allowed you to see into the other room. It freaked me out.

The last thing I wanted was for Calix to see me naked. Wait? Had he seen me naked?

The unwelcome thought sent chills loose over my body. He’d admitted to having watched me for two years. In all that time, he must have caught sight of me changing clothes.

Slamming the closet door behind me, I quickly dropped my towel. I didn’t bother looking at the clothing, but rather pulled the first dress I saw from its hanger. It was a soft mint color and the fabric was breezy. The straps were thin and the dress was loose, cinched only at the waist. It hung down just above my knees. This was definitely a dress I would have chosen had I been shopping for myself with no care to the cost. I wasn’t one for brand names - and I didn’t recognize this one - not that I cared enough to study the label.

Scanning my image in the body length mirror, I decided not to bother with a bra. I wasn’t small chested by any means, but I also wasn’t so large that I was uncomfortable going without a bra. Actually, I preferred going without. It was simpler - more comfortable.

Pulling the towel from my head, I ran my fingers through my thick chocolate strands before deciding that I didn’t care enough about Calix to bother with making myself pretty. I could only hope he thought I was frumpy and hideous. Then maybe he would return me.

The thought was nothing more than wishful thinking. I knew it in my bones. Plus, if he’d been watching me for two years, then he’d already seen me at my worst.

Had he watched me every day?

I banished the thought from my mind as I stomped obnoxiously from the closet, over the floor of the bathroom, to the door. Unlocking it, I swung it open and yelped.

Calix raised a brow. “Have you destroyed
everything
in the bathroom or just the doors and floor?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Are you going to move?”

“Are you going to answer my question?”

“I haven’t destroyed anything.” I hissed. “That’s all you.” I didn’t wait for him to move. Instead, I shoved myself forward in the hopes that I would be able to push past him.

Calix was having none of it. His arm caught me around the waist and I huffed a release of breath at the weighted contact of his arm against my stomach. Suddenly, I regretted trying to shove past him.

“Let me go!” I struggled against his arm, but my efforts were nothing against the power of my captor. He was more than twice my size. I honestly don’t know what I’d been thinking by challenging him. Oh, yes, I hadn’t been thinking.

Calix gave a small grunt and that was my only warning for what happened next. One hand wrapped around my upper arm while the other gripped my waist. Determinedly, he steered my body backward into the wall beside the bathroom door. When I was pressed firmly against the wall, he moved his body snug against mine. His massive form against my small stature was overpowering and I strained to look up at him while struggling beneath his weight. “Get off me!” I screamed.

“Enough!” He yelled and I flinched. Living all my life in a house of women, a mans yell was foreign to me. “I’m tired of your attitude, Nova. I’ve forewarned you of my lack of patience. I will not be tested at every turn.”

“My attitude?” I scoffed incredulously before my temper riled and got carried away. I could almost see it running sporadically as I tried to coax it back into submission. “You think I have an attitude? You stole me from my family you
fucking monster
!”

The brilliant blue of his eyes darkened dangerously and his hand at my waist tightened. My heart tore through my chest as though on a rampage as I realized that I’d sworn. I couldn’t take my eyes off his face as I watched his anger swell. He hadn’t been lying when he said he wasn’t a patient man - but how then, had he watched me for two years? If that was anything, it was patience.

“I told you the next time you used such language that there would be consequences.”

I was nearly shaking in fear of him, but I spoke words of bravery that shocked me. “Then punish me.”

The anger in his eyes yielded to something new - something stronger. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew I feared it more than his anger. Whatever this was held the power to destroy me from the inside out.

“How do you recommend I punish you?” He bowed his head until I could taste his breath.

“I,” I whimpered, suddenly regretful of my challenge. “I don’t know.”

His hand moved from my arm to my chin. Placing pressure under my chin with his fingertips, he forced my head back until I was staring up at him. Looking into his eyes made my heart race. I felt as though I were challenging a wild animal.

I was terrified.

I felt fear move through my body like wildfire. It spread through my veins and worked its way right up into my heart - poisoning my system - paralyzing me.

Calix watched me closely as he dipped his head. My heart was pounding so hard in my chest I would have bet money that he could hear it.

I wanted to push him away from me. I wanted to run. I wanted to hurt him. But I could do none of those things. In every sense of the word, I really was paralyzed.

And then his lips were on mine.

My brain must have been fried upon contact, because I didn’t twist my head to the side. I didn’t move at all.

His lips were soft - like the smoothest silk. I never would have expected such a hard man to kiss so gently, so warmly, so softly. But he did. His mouth covered mine, moving leisurely. I thought for a moment that he was trying to coax me from my paralytic fear, but I couldn’t tell for sure.

His hand moved slowly from my chin, over the side of my face, to cup the nape of my neck. Thick fingers twined with my hair, fastening his grip on me. Even though my head was tilted back for his taking, he had to bend his knees. His shoulders curved inward, blocking me between his massive form and the unrelenting wall.

I felt caged.

I hadn’t moved my lips against his once, but that hadn’t stopped him from taking the kiss deeper. Pressing his lips harder against mine, I felt his tongue press against the crease between my lips. Silently pleading for entrance. And then his hand lowered from my waist, over my hip to my thigh. His fingertips hooked the hem of my dress, tugging it up before I felt the pads of his fingers against my skin.

His touch was like fire. Every nerve ending came alive at his touch and something foreign to me flared to life. Desire maybe?

The thought was confirmed as Calix ran his teeth against my bottom lip before sucking it into his mouth. Liquid heat pooled in my lower belly and in response, I cried out pitifully. Before I knew it I was filled with shame and horror.

How had I let him touch me, kiss me? Pressing my palms flat against his chest, I pushed with everything I had inside of me. He didn’t budge an inch. The colossal man was simply too heavy for me to maneuver so easily. Panic swelled where there should have been anger. I should have bit down on his lip, but I couldn’t. I was afraid of what he was doing to my body and the reactions I couldn’t help but experience in response.

My panic worked itself into a frenzy in record time. Before I knew it, tears were streaming down my face and sobs were quaking my body. I felt Calix pull away, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. My entire body was shaking uncontrollably and I was gasping for breath.

“Nova?” He asked worriedly. “Look at me.”

I shook my head, sharp bursts of breath filling the silence and I tried to halt my crying. I couldn’t.

He caught my chin in his hand, tilting my head. “Love, look at me.”

Blinking rapidly, I looked up at him. His blue eyes were dark and serious and his lips were tilted down in a deep frown. “P-please,” the word was choppy and pathetic. “I need,” I gasped. “I need you to stop touching me.”

Calix shook his head. “No.”

“What?” I croaked, my hands pressing once again at his chest. “Please,”

“No, Nova.” He growled firmly. “You’ll have to get used to me touching you. I’ll soon be your husband, and I won’t be dancing around your shortcomings.”

I grappled frantically for some semblance of control. “Shortcomings?” I whispered. “You think my needing space is a shortcoming?”

“I will not hurt you.” He vowed.

“Physically,” my retort was cutting, but he didn’t even flinch.

“No, not physically.” He assented. “You will be my wife, Nova. I will kiss you, touch you, fuck you, and you will love every minute of it.”

I flinched at his vile words. “I won’t.”

“You will.”

“Get away from me.”

“I already told you I won’t release you.” He lowered his head and I turned my face away. Tears streamed down my face in rivulets. “When I make a decision, I stick to it.”

“Please, Calix,” I pleaded on a whimper. “I can’t handle this - not right now.”

“Why not?” He demanded. “You liked it when I kissed you, when I touched your thigh.” I slammed my eyes closed, but he continued. “I’d bet my life that you’re wet for me this very minute.”

My cheeks flamed red-hot as I tried to ignore his words - and the intimate physical affect they had on me.

“Tell me, Nova,” Calix continued in low husky tones. “If I slipped my hand into your panties would I feel your cream? If I parted your lips and dipped my finger between your tight little folds, would I ease right in?”

I didn’t reply. And again, he spoke. “Tell me.”

“No.” I lied. And I hated myself for having to do so in the first place.

I hated Calix with every fiber of my being - and yet he affected me in a way no other had ever done before. But then again, no one had ever kissed me the way Calix had. No one had ever touched me so determinedly. And no one had ever, not once, spoken such brazen words in my ear.

Calix chuckled. “Shall we test my theory, love?”

My stomach dropped. If I thought I’d been feeling panic before, well I had been mistaking. Because what I was feeling now at the thought of Calix’s fingers moving over me where no one had ever touched me before, definitely took the cake over the panic I’d felt earlier.

There was nothing I wouldn’t do to keep him from touching me. There was nothing I would refuse to subject my pride to in order to abstain from feeling his touch.

I begged. “Calix, I’m begging you. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours since you took me from home. Please, let me know you a little better before you start this...”

I was crying so uncontrollably now that the water falling from my eyes was like a tap. And I couldn’t turn it off.

Through the blur of my vision, I saw deep frown lines crease between his eyes. His jaw was hard and his hand on my waist was firm. I thought for a moment that he wasn’t going to release me, but at the very last minute, when I was certain my heart was going to stop beating entirely, he nodded.

“We’re late for dinner.” He stepped back and a breath of relief wheezed from my lungs. “Come.”

“I should,” I thumbed toward the bathroom, sniffling. “I should probably splash my face.”

He turned to study me as though just realizing I had been crying a storm. How he could have missed it, I would never know.

“Go on,” he nodded to the bathroom. “But hurry.”

I didn’t reply as I scurried into the bathroom. At the sink, I splashed cold water on my face until my eyes felt less swollen. Despite the way I felt, I looked horrid. My cheeks were swollen and my skin was blotchy and red. My eyes were puffy and my nose was runny. If I had a choice, I would have remained in the room the entire night, but Calix seemed determined to make me eat. I hoped I was able to stomach the food. I could only imagine what he would do to me if I refused to eat. He would be so angry.

And if I made him angry, would he want to punish me? I didn’t like Calix’s brand of punishment.

“Come, Nova.” I jumped to find Calix standing in the doorway of the bathroom. His hands were pushed deep into the pockets of his jeans and his eyes were hard and guarded.

Focusing down onto the floor, I spoke. “I’m really not feeling well, Calix.”

“You’re eating.”

My stomach rolled. “I don’t think I
can
.”

He took a step forward and I flinched. I heard him sigh at my reaction to him and I cringed internally. “You don’t have to eat an entire plate, Nova. But you do have to eat something.”

Slowly, I nodded. When I looked back up at him, I found him watching me intently. Shifting uncomfortably, I gestured to the door. “Should we go, then?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

When he still didn’t move from the doorway, I walked timidly toward him. He caught my hand in his, weaving his fingers through mine. As soon as I felt contact, I instinctively tried to pull away from him, but he held me tight. “You have to get used to me touching you, Nova.”

“I don’t want to get used to it, Calix.” I reminded, incase he’d forgotten.

He hadn’t. And his reminder definitely trumped mine. “Me or your family, Nova?”

I knew exactly what he what saying. He had waved my families vulnerability in my face on more times than I could count. If I didn’t accept him as my future, then my family would lose their lives.

“You.” I whispered. “I choose you.”

He tightened his hold on my hand. “I assumed as much.”

I snorted. “You’re cruel.”

“I do hate reminding you, Nova.”

“Then stop.”

“I will if you’ll allow me.” He replied factually. “Accept me and I’ll never threaten your family again.”

I didn’t bother telling him that I didn’t know if I
could
accept him. So I said nothing at all.

Chapter 8

I walked beside Calix through the house while trying to snuff out the urge to bolt. I knew that if I ran, he would chase me and he would catch me. So I remained right where I was - at his side.