Take Me Now (Take Me Series) (2 page)

Taking a deep breath, she headed for the bed, one slow step
at a time. She was nearly there when a gloved hand snaked around her waist and
another clamp down over her mouth. Panic soared through every nerve. She fought
and kicked until there was no fight left in her. Her body went limp and she had
no control over it. She had been drugged.

An instant later, she felt the duct tape pressed over her
lips and sealed around the edges; the blindfold placed over her eyes; being
carried off then dropped to her bed, bottom up; her arms pulled behind her; the
rope slipped around her wrists and tightened. She was vulnerable and helpless.
Her
stomach quivered. Her breath caught in her throat. Fear ripped through every
cell in her brain.
 
It was like something
out of a film, novel or fantasy–not something that was suppose happen to her.

A wicked smile curled Brady’s lips as he gazed down at her.
His eyes lingered on her firm, round bottom and the sky blue lace of her
panties peeking from beneath her short attire. He felt the lengthening of his
penis, and swore beneath his breath, cursing that she had done it to him again.
He had wanted this for weeks, planned every detail, but the anticipation of the
game aroused him much too quickly. Not here, he thought, dryly. He had to get
her to the cabin, and without a moment to spare. Tugging on her robe, he
covered her bottom and crossed the room to her computer.

Logging in, he cancelled Sari’s reservations for Denver:
the flight; hotel; and rental car. He typed an e-mail to her friend Abby,
informing her that she’d had an emergency and regretted that she wouldn’t be
able to fly out for the week, as planned. Smiling, he pushed “send” and shut
down the computer. Crossing the room to the bathroom, he blew out the candles.

Sari felt the air rush from her lungs as strong arms
hoisted her over his shoulder and carried her from the house. An inherent fear
raced through her. Fight or flight. She tried to kick, but her mind couldn’t
relay the message to her legs. She heard the crick of the vehicle’s door as it
opened and she was laid on the back seat, face down. The scent of oleander
drifted to her nostrils. It was her car, she realized.

Brady closed the car door and returned to the house for one
quick sweep to be sure that he hadn’t forgotten anything. His eyes stopped when
they spotted the small suitcase in the corner. As an afterthought, he grabbed
it and threw it into the back of the SUV.

Turning the key in the ignition, he hit the remote for the
garage door then turned down
Avendale
toward the
highway. His plan was going better than he could have hoped for. He tilted the
rearview mirror until Sari came into view. Though her face was turned away from
him, he could see that her body was unmoving beneath her robe. She probably
wouldn’t awaken until they reached the cabin
.

Sari struggled
to stay alert, but the instant that the SUV rolled down the driveway, she
slipped into darkness. She was vaguely aware of the door opening and being
hauled from the back seat.
The scent of pine evoked the memory of
camping in the mountains with her family as a child. Turning over rocks and
looking for salamanders, hiking to the waterfall and dipping her feet into the
icy runoff of snow, herds of deer and elk.

 
Suddenly, she was jolted
from her musing. Fear, unlike anything she’d known, catapulted her to
awareness. She was not with her family. She’d been taken captive, and by whom
or for whatever reason, she hadn’t a clue. It was the not knowing that scared
the hell out of her.

If only she could flee, but she couldn’t run, much less
walk, even if her life depended on it. She shuddered with apprehension. The
entire scenario was vaguely familiar, but her mind was a blur and she wanted
nothing more than to return to sleep. At least in her dreams she felt somewhat
safe. As if her abductor had read her mind, she was gently eased onto a
mattress.

She felt the tug of the rope. An instant later, her hands
were free and she was rolled to her back. The powerful muscles of the man’s
thighs straddled her hips. Somewhere between her dreams and wakefulness, she
felt one wrist, then the other, lifted above her head and stretched to the
side. She tugged and pulled, but the leather was snug against her flesh and
there was no room to give.

“
Oh God!”
 
Her words were no more than a muffled whimper
through the duct tape. Then, she felt his fingers on her face, peeling the tape
free of her mouth, gently, so as not to hurt her. They were soft hands
–
not the hands of a woodsman or
construction worker.

When he finished, she drew a quick breath of air, releasing
a gasp of alarm a moment later when those same hands lifted her chin and drew
an imaginary line to the hollow of her throat, sliding to the opening of her
robe and lingering for several seconds before withdrawing.

“What do you want with me,” she whispered.

She smelled the scent of oleander. Every sensory in her
body went on alert as the memory rushed back to her, hitting her with the
realization that this was a scene right out of the pages of her novel. If her
captor followed the script she was in for the ride of her life. Who was he that
he knew so much about her most intimate secrets?

Lana came to mind. This had to be one of her pranks. She
must have hired someone to play this cruel joke on her. No, Lana wouldn’t do
something like that.

Sari couldn’t think clearly.
 
She didn’t want to think. Her mind was
clouded and all she desired was for her captor to go away and allow her to
sleep.

Suddenly, she thought of the email from Lana–
I want YOU. I want
you squirming and screaming for me to fuck you. I’m through with waiting
–
it’s
game time, Sari.

“Oh, God,”
the voice in her head panicked.
 
What if the message hadn’t come from Lana but
from her abductor? Her pulse instantly spiked with fear. She felt the heat rise
in her cheeks.

“Who are you?”

 
“I am every fantasy
that you have ever imagined, Sari. By the end of the week you’ll be
surrendering to me
. You’ve no idea how long I’ve waited to hear you say
those three simple
words–
Take
me now.
”

The husky voice and the promise that accompanied it sent
Sari’s blood surging through her body at lightning speed. This man knew
everything about her
–
her
name, the title of her book, and possibly, her every guarded and sensual
secret.

“Never!” she said, adamantly.

Sleep. She needed sleep. Maybe she’d awake in the morning
and discover that her fears had been no more than a beaten nightmare.

 
Brady saw the slight
tremble of her lips, the heaving of her chest,
the
flush of her cheeks. He had Sari exactly where he wanted her
–
scared and vulnerable. He was
more convincing than he had hoped. His mother’s insistence in regard to drama
class had obviously paid off.

Sari listened to the rustling of clothing, the footsteps
fading, the door closing as he exited. How dare he think that he could bend her
to his will to the point of surrender? He could kiss his sorry, arrogant ass.
She would fight him tooth and nail before she would ask him to take her.
Only Brady Thompson would
have the power over her to bend her will.

Seconds later, Sari drifted to sleep with Brady Thompson’s
name on her lips. It was a much better scenario to think about than the
prospect of what was going to happen to her next.

CHAPTER THREE

Brady looked at his watch. It was half past eleven. It
would be two o’clock before Sari would be fully awake and cognizant. He’d leave
her sleep. He wanted her alert and aware of him, stimulated by of his every
caress and kiss when he seduced her.

The image of her firm bottom peeking beneath her robe
suddenly reminded him that his scheme was going to require a lot more reserve
on his part than he had anticipated. He locked his fingers, extended his arms
over his head and stretched. He needed a drink.
Perhaps,
several.
Filling his glass with Cognac, he stepped onto the porch into the
cool night air to clear his head.

He looked to the cloudless sky then stared into the dark
forest. How many of Sari’s fantasies, he wondered, had she physically
experienced?
 
Some were descriptive, but others
fell short when it came to describing how her body responded to the
stimulation.
He
was precisely what
Sari needed to fine tune her writing. One step at a time, he was going to
pleasure her, bring her to arousal and awaken those stilled places that yearned,
not only for the visual, but the thrill and excitement of each fantasy. How
many of his own desires would he awaken, as well?

He sipped his drink and returned to the house.

~~~~~~~~~~

Sari’s head was clearing and trepidation was filling the
void. She strained against the leather cuffs to no avail. The room was chilled.
She shuddered and curled her legs, thankful that he hadn’t bound them.

The door creaked open and the footsteps moved past the
bottom of the bed. She heard a snapping sound and flinched, then another, then
the crinkle of paper. He was building a fire, she realized. Within minutes, the
heat warmed her and swallowed the dampness.

He was standing beside the bed, looking down at her, she
was certain of it. She could hear the slight hitch in his breathing, the faint
odor of smoke on his clothing.

“It’s game time, Sari.”

 
Sari stiffened and
swallowed the lump in her throat when his weight sank to the bottom of the bed.
Instinctively, she strained against the cuffs, gasping when she felt his smooth
palm tighten around her ankle and drew her leg away from her body.
 
She bucked and kicked in protest, but his
sheer strength held it in place.

Brady’s eyes followed the curve of her ankle to her knee
then upward to the fine laced panties. Honey colored curls peeked out from the
edges. It was a distraction he didn’t need.

His eyes returned to her ankle. He circled it with his lips
and kissed it, nibbling on it like it was the bone of a spare rib.
 
He trailed a line to her toes. They were tiny
and dainty. Starting with the smallest, then moving to the last, he wrapped his
lips around each of them, one then the other, drawing them into his mouth and
slipping his tongue into the hollow between them.

Sari felt her fear give way to pleasure. This wasn’t part
of the fantasy in the cabin, she recalled. He’d thrown a twist into it
–
a provocative, sensual twist.

 
When he reached the
big toe, Brady sucked it deep into his mouth. He heard a muffled moan escape
her lips, felt her arch her foot, saw the tightening of her calve. Smiling, he
looked down the length of her to her face. Her lips were slightly parted, rosy
and plump. He wanted to slip his tongue between them, to taste her mouth, but
he refrained. He’d had enough distractions.

Instead, he lifted her ankle higher and trailed a line down
her arch, breathing into it before nipping his way to her heel. His eyes never
left her quivering lips
as
each new dash of air battled to escape her lungs.

He kissed the top of her foot, licking his tongue over each
of her toes, working his way to her ankle. He heard her sharp intake of air,
felt her jerk her leg.
 
Still holding her
ankle and tasting every inch of her flesh, he nibbled his way up her calve and
slid his tongue along the hollow crease at the back of her knee.

Sari’s pulse quickened. Her breath panted. Tingles of
sensation moved from the fire between her legs to the tip of her nipples,
straining against her silk robe. She bit down on her lower lip.
 
She needed a diversion or he was going to win
her surrender.

She launched an attack with her free leg and kicked at his
side, but his strong hand pinned her calve and his mouth continued in the
direction of her thigh.
 
She tried to
quiet the tremor deep in her core, but to no avail when a sizzling rush coursed
through her entire body. Each and every stroke of his tongue sent a stream of
fire up her legs to the heated pool between them.
This
was not in her fantasy, but it sure as hell would be now, she
vowed. If this was any indication of what he had intended for her over the next
week, then her fantasies were going to be shabby by comparison.

She filled the empty image with one of Brady. It was his
tongue working his magic, his hair falling over her leg and tickling her flesh,
his mouth sending sparks deep inside of her. She trembled as his lips stopped
only inches from her panties, then gulped a sharp intake of air when his tongue
flicked over them.

“How does this make feel, Sari?”

His tantalizing, husky voice sobered her immediately. He
was relishing in her ecstasy and loving every moment of it. How she hated him
for it. She yanked back on her foot and tried to kick him again.