Right Now (The Seduced Series) (2 page)

Chapter Three

“Angelina, Ang!” I jumped nearly spilling my coffee all over my desk and myself.

“Holy shit Betty! You scared the shit out of me,” I said as I glared at her. I loved Betty she is always nice to me, a little obnoxious at times but still a great friend.

“Sorry, what’s up with you today? You seem a little lost today,” she said while examining my face for some sort of answer to her question.

“I just had a rough night last night that’s all,” I said as I tried to shake the dream I had out of my head but failed horribly.

I was joggi
ng down the street from my apartment building when all of a sudden some guy comes out of know where and started to jog right behind me. I couldn’t see his face because he was wearing a black hoodie sweatshirt with the hood up covering his head. I tried to not panic or let paranoia get the best of me but when he made every turn I did, I broke off in a sprint and he quickly mimicked what I did. I was just a few buildings down from my apartment, when I tripped and fell. Just before I could scream in panic for help, I woke up…

“Do you know what you need? Lunch, come my treat,” Betty says.

“I don’t know Betty, I still have
a lot to do and…” she started closing my laptop and all I could do was stare at her in disbelieve. “What are you doing?”

“I’m not taking no for an answer,” she said as she tugged on my arm. “You work too much, now come on!”

“Okay,” I mumbled while bending down to grab my purse. We headed to a nearby restaurant that we usually go to not far from work.

“You all know that too much work and no play makes Angelina a very boring girl,” Betty said while taking a bite out of her burger.

I d
on’t know where she puts all this food she eats, she is so tiny I envy her. I’m not a healthy eater but she overdoes it sometimes. I tried to ignore her sarcasm as I pick at my chicken wrap but sometimes she just won’t give up.

“Ha ha ha, I know how to have fun. You make me seem that I have no life at all,” I say stubbornly as she rolls her eyes at me.

“You call reading sappy romance books fun?” As she waved her fork in the air. “What about parties and boys?”

“I’m not much of a party girl,” I said nor will I ever be, it’s never been my thing.

“Okay maybe you’re not a party animal but what about boys, huh?” She raised her eyebrows at me. “When was the last time you had a date? Nah, check that when was the last time you slept with a guy?”

“Hey, what the hell does that got to do with anything?” I say trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

“Everything!” She sighed. “Look Ang, you’re twenty-seven and hot as fuck, it’s a damn crime that you’re still single. You need to get out and start having fun,” Betty is hardly the serious one, so when she is it shocks the shit out of me.

I knew h
er heart was in the right place but I couldn’t find it in myself to enter the dating scene again. I thought back to Staunton, Virginia and after Rick. I was heartbroken, it took some time to get over him; he was my first true love. I tried the dating thing after a few years but the sleaze ball guy that I was with cheated on me. I caught him in my bed nonetheless with a whore of a friend. I couldn’t even gather enough strength to scream at him for betraying me. I just wanted him and that whore out of my house.

All
I could manage to say to him without going ape shit crazy on the both of them was, ‘it’s over and get your shit out of my house,’ he looked more shocked than I was at the time. I looked at my so called friend who turns out to be one of the biggest whores in town, and whatever she saw in my eyes made her whole body flinch from terror. As I made my way back downstairs, I found my sister Jenifer on the couch drinking a glass of water; she dropped the glass onto the floor when she saw me coming down the stairs. As the glass fell I watch the glass hit the floor in slow motion, when the cup finally hit the floor I watched the glass shatter into a thousand pieces. Then I came to realize that’s how my heartfelt, shattered like broken glass. First it was Rick and now this prick Taylor.

“Angelina!” She screamed as she rushed to my side pulling me down to the couch.

“What’s wrong? Did Taylor hurt you?” Her voice sounded frantic with worry.

“Taylor… I-I caught him… in bed with that whore…Ryder,” was all I was able to choke out behind the sobs.

Every emotion appeared on Jenifer
’s face all at once; anger, betrayal, pain and sorrow. I don’t know how long we sat there holding each other. Now that I really think about it, I never really loved Taylor as much as I loved Rick, that’s why the pain wasn’t really there as it was for Rick when I lost him. I was also grieving the loss of my best friend Diana at the time; in less than two years I had lost the love of my life and a really good friend. So moving to New York was a must for me to do; I was tired of putting my mother and sister through hell and worry. I needed an escape and starting over in a new place, where no one knew me was just what I needed. The whole charade thing with Rick, Diana, Taylor and Ryder was really the last straw that broke the camel’s back and what also gave me strength to take my plans in moving out of that town and to start over, like a new beginning for me. As soon as I finished up college, I packed my bags and left Staunton forever without looking back at the past and trying to focus on my new future.

“Earth to Angelina,” I blinked up to see Betty snapping her fingers in my face trying to get my attention.

“Sorry Betty,” I mumbled as she
slumped back to her seat looking confused.

“Okay Ang
you win, I won’t force anything onto you if you’re not comfortable with it.” I smiled apologetically at her.

“Thanks for understanding,” I said as I got an idea. “But that doesn’t mean we still can’t have a girl’s night out.”

“Really?” Betty asked as I nodded and she let out a faint scream. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she said hugging me. “I promise we’re going to have a great time out.”

“No boys, right?” I asked.

“For me or for you?” She said as she eyed me carefully.

“Jeez, you’re so obtuse sometimes. For me of course.”

“Deal!” She exclaimed. I laughed, Betty was always a sucker for going out and having a good time.

“Let’s head back to work. It’s getting late now, I don’t need the both of us to get fired,” I said, and she groaned but got up and followed suit.

Working at Impressions, a printing and graphic design company in downtown Manhattan had its perks.
One, was that it was close to my house and two, I worked with my best friend Betty on brochures, flyers, posters, promotional items and more with only one person to answer to and that was Mr. Walters our boss. Betty and I were the best of the best at Impressions, so getting fired was never a thought, but you never know what could happen if you get on your boss’s shit list.

****

After a long and boring day at work, Betty and I decided to go to a club that was only a few blocks away from us. We could have even walked there but Betty refused, she didn’t want to walk in her high heels. I for one didn’t do much to change my normal appearance. I just threw on a silver low cut V cut neck dress that I hardly ever wore because the cut was very low and you can practically see my tits if I leaned down a little too far to pick something up. I added some sexy wedged boots and was all set as we headed out to the club. I was right, it wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be to walk a few blocks, except for the guys that kept hitting on us on the way to the club. The night actually turned out to be worthwhile. As the night grew later, I could see that I was holding Betty back.

“Go,” I shouted at Betty over the loud music, she looked at me like I had ten heads.

“And leave you here alone? No way. What kind of friend would that make me?” She yelled back while shaking her head.

“I’ll be fine, besides I think I’ll just head back home and try to catch up on some much needed sleep, since I haven’t been getting a good nights rest.” It’s so sweet that she is willing to stay with me even if it meant she was missing out on some exciting fun. “Trust me, go and have a good time,” I said to her.

“Okay, you’ll catch a cab right? I don’t want you walking home alone. Especially at this time of night,” she asked concerned.

“Absolutely,” I promised. “Now go before some other girl takes your place,” I say to her with a smile.

She gave me one last look and smiled before going over to the guy that has been winking and motioning her with his finger for her to come over. As she sauntered up to the guy I let out a sigh and turned to leave. I walked out of the club and was met by a nice cool
breeze, which felt good on my skin after having spent the last few hours in a stuffy nightclub. Before I knew what I was doing, I started walking in the direction of my apartment. I know I promised Betty that I would get a cab but it’s a few blocks, it’s not like I never walked by myself at night before. I came to think as I walked home that I expected a lot of things when I came to this city but I didn’t expect the peace I would find here. It wasn’t necessarily happy but it was pretty damn close.

Out of nowhere,
I heard a suspicious sound behind me and when I turned to look behind me to see what it was, I was suddenly engulfed by very strong arms, practically dragging me into a nearby dark alley. Before I could scream a hand closed over my mouth. I tried to fight him off of me but he had me in an iron grasp that there was no escaping. This was almost like the dream I had but this time there was no waking up. Tears of terror started too streaked down my face.

“Shhh,” the deep male voice was at my ear. “It’s okay, calm down Angelina,” he said in a soft soothing voice.

How the fuck does
he knows my name? I tried to make sense of it but my knees gave away and then everything went completely black. As my eyes closed I prayed to God that I was dying but much to my disappointment I could feel myself regaining consciousness. I could hear everything around me again. We weren’t in the streets anymore, there was no sounds of cars blaring by down the street from afar; there was only complete silence. I opened my eyes to a dimly lit room, which had a huge bed and some impressive furniture that lined the room. As I continued to scan the room, I saw my black hooded kidnapper standing in the darkest corner of the room furthest from me. He was just staring at me. I let out a faint yell for help but he didn’t move one inch. I tried to get up and run only to realize that I was tied down to a damn chair. I panicked and tried to free my hands that were tied down too.

“Careful beautiful, you’ll hurt yourself,” my kidnapper said to me in the same voice I heard in the alleyway. His voice was soft, soothing and alluring as he moved slowly towards me like I was some cornered animal.

“Please, don’t hurt me,” I whimpered and pleaded to him.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he assured me as he put his hands up in defense.

“Who are you? What do you want from me?” I asked trying to slow my breathing. I still couldn’t see his face under the hood, and then I remembered… “You called me Angelina,” I whispered.

At this point he pulled down
the hoodie to his sweatshirt. If I weren’t so afraid I would’ve been swooning over this man. He was absolutely gorgeous. He was tall, muscular and his features were chiseled and beautiful. The white tank top that he was wearing underneath his sweatshirt showed off his impressive muscular frame. He had dark hair, almost jet-black looking. It was short but scruffy looking in a sexy way.

“
It doesn’t matter who I am. I just wanted to talk to you and I knew you wouldn’t be so co-operative if I would have approached you on the side of the street,” he said moving closer towards me.

“Stop!” I shrieked. “If you don’t want to hurt me then let me go. And if you wanted to talk, you should’ve asked!”

“It’s not that simple and I can’t let you go yet,” he said with a chuckle.

“What do you mean you can’t?” I shouted towards him. “Let me go you creepy bastard!”

He moved fast, before I could say another word he was crouched below me with his hand caressing my cheek.
I should’ve screamed at him to get away from me or pulled my face away from him touching me but I let him. It felt amazing against my skin. Something I hadn’t let anybody do in a very long time, it was almost soothing.

“Angelina please, you have to trust me.”

Dealing with fear and anger was so much better than these strange and foreign e
motions that paralyzed me at this moment. All I wanted to do was to jump on him at this very moment and it kind of scared me that I was thinking like that.

“How can I? I don’t even know you,” I whispered back to him.

“You will, I’ll explain later, just calm down
,” his voice sounded strained or maybe it was my mind that’s playing tricks on me.

When
I looked into his eyes; I couldn’t make out their color due to the small amount of light that was in the room, blue or green maybe? Involuntary I let my face shift so that my lips touched the inside of his palm. He froze for a second and then his face moved towards mine and I felt the rope around my hands loosen. All I could think about is how much I wanted this man. Everything about him is so tempting and alluring, it’s driving me crazy.