The Sacrificial Lamb (16 page)

Alex moved against him restlessly. She must have felt his erection pressing against her inner hip and was pushing against it. Reaching between them, he undid the belt of the robe. Alex didn’t stop him, and a thrill shot through him as the garment parted. Grasping two handfuls of hair, he pulled her head back so he had full access to her creamy, smooth neck. Using lips and tongue, he followed the line of her throat as he coaxed her backward.

The backs of his knees struck the sofa, and he sat down, disentangling his fingers from her hair. Domenic spread his legs so that she could stand between them and started to kiss between her breasts. Alex moaned and threw her head back as he continued his exploration of her body. Placing his hands under the robe, he cupped her soft breasts. Her nipples became hard as soon as he made contact, and he ran his fingers over them reverently.

Nudging the robe further apart, he began to kiss the side of one breast. Sliding his lips up the creamy slope, he sucked her nipple between his teeth and flicked it with the tip of his tongue. Alex hissed and her body jerked in response. Domenic moved his mouth to the other breast while his hands slid down her sides to the swell of her hips. Pulling her closer to him, he ran his hands behind her and cupped her ass.

Alex’s scent swirled around him, and he was lost in it. Vaguely, he heard her calling his name.

“Domenic…Domenic?”

He snapped back to reality to find Alex standing a foot away from him, fully robed, and waving a hand in front of his face. “Penny for your thoughts?” she said, smiling sweetly.

“Huh?”
Smooth, Domenic, smooth.

“You looked lost in thought there for a minute,” Alex said, cocking her head to one side.

“No, it’s…I…no, I was just waiting for you,” he stammered. “To let you know I had left some clothes out for you.”

“Oh, thank you,” she said and continued to dry her hair. “It’s so nice to be
clean
again!”

“Yeah, I’m going to go take a shower too.” Domenic got up stiffly, thankful she wasn’t looking at him.

“Oh, shoot!” she called after him. “I hope I didn’t use up all the hot water.”

“Don’t worry,” he said under his breath. “It won’t take long.”

Domenic locked himself in the washroom and stared at his reflection in the mirror. He had come close to making an absolute fool of himself this evening. For God’s sake, the girl had gone through one bad experience after another, and he was having fantasies of ravishing her—right in front of her no less. He turned away from the mirror, removed his clothing, and got into the shower. He had been right. It didn’t take long at all. Domenic hadn’t masturbated this often since he was a teenager.

Grabbing a towel, he ran it over his hair in short angry strokes. He would have to exert some control, and quick, if they were to remain in close quarters with one another. There was a job to do, and that job was to keep Alexis Montgomery safe, not to molest her at the first opportunity.

Wrapping the towel around his waist, Domenic walked out into the main room and stopped in his tracks. Alex was sitting on the couch, wearing his too-big clothing and waiting up for him. Her eyes widened, and he became acutely aware of the fact that he was naked except for the towel slung around his hips. He watched, fascinated, as she took in the sight of him. He resisted the urge to tense his muscles.

“What are you still doing up?” he asked curiously.

“Huh?” she replied, slightly dazed.

Domenic hid a smile. At least he wasn’t the only one struck speechless this evening. He wondered what she thought of him at that moment, bare-chested, body still slick with water. Losing his battle against vanity, he flexed his chest and had to press his lips together as Alex’s eyes flickered down momentarily.

“I thought you’d have gone to bed.”

Alex dragged her gaze away from his torso and made eye contact with him once again. A flush started to creep up her neck. “I didn’t get a chance to say good night.”

“Oh. Good night, Alex.”

“And thank you,” she said, looking at her hands. “I never got a chance to say thank you. For helping me.”

“You’re welcome.”

“You never did tell me why you’re doing this.”

Alex looked up at him then, and Domenic wanted to tell her everything. The whole sordid tale of his life from beginning to end. He wanted to confess the strange and compelling feelings he had for her. And then he remembered he was still naked, and this was not conducive to his plan of keeping his distance.

“Do you mind if we talk about this tomorrow?” he said, pointing out his lack of clothing. Her eyes followed his hand and roved over his body again.

“Yeah, right. That might be a better idea.” Alex unfolded her legs and stood up. “Good night, Domenic,” she said, as she backed toward her room.

“Good night, Alexis.”

Domenic stood there and waited until she went into the bedroom and closed the door behind her. He expelled a deep breath and ran his hands through his damp hair.

After a few more torturous seconds, he turned and went to his room. Throwing on a pair of boxer briefs, he got between the covers and wondered how he was going to make it through the next couple of weeks.

A
LEX
L
EANED
B
ACK
against the closed bedroom door and stood there, mortified. Her plan had just been to thank Domenic for everything he had done for her tonight. When she had walked into her bedroom and saw the clothes on the bed, it occurred to her she had been pretty damn ungrateful. Especially considering this man—this stranger—had risked his life for her. And she hadn’t thanked him once.

Marching back out into the living room, she had sat there waiting for him. True to his word, he hadn’t taken very long, and she looked up as he strode out of the washroom. Alex wasn’t sure why she had expected him to be fully clothed—it would have been silly for him to put the clothes he had been wearing back on—but she had most definitely been surprised to see him walk out wearing a towel.

Following his entrance, she had suffered through the most painful five minute conversation of her life. Before Mr. Armani had become Domenic, it had been easy to dismiss him as some street thug, albeit a well-dressed one. Men like that had never appealed to her. She wasn’t
that
kind of girl. She had never chased after bad boys and never understood the mentality of women who did. It was a first class ticket to a broken heart, in her opinion, and who wanted a man who would treat you badly anyway?

All her preconceived notions flew out of her head when Domenic had walked out of the bathroom half naked. If all bad boys looked like him in a towel, it started to make a little more sense why some women were so desperate to snag one.
Focus, Alex, focus,
she had thought to herself fiercely. Unfortunately, the only thing she had to focus on was Domenic’s glistening, wet, muscular body.

Shoving away from the door, Alex made her way to the bed. Over the course of the last couple days, she was finding herself inexplicably drawn to Domenic. Despite the fact he was the antithesis of her current boyfriend, Alex couldn’t seem to stop this mounting attraction. It didn’t help that Domenic was an incredibly good-looking man. She had been able to ignore that in the beginning due to her initial introduction to him and the situation she was in, but as he began to show her his more human side, the scales of revulsion had fallen from her eyes.

She had read about Stockholm syndrome in school and wondered if she was suffering from a psychological reaction to being abducted. After all, she had kept his name a secret instead of giving it to her father and had willingly come with him here instead of trying to barter for her release. Perhaps because he had treated her as a person and shown her basic human kindness, she had latched on to him. It was frightening to think of what might happen to her if she went to the police, but now that she thought about it, it had been Domenic who had made her wary in the first place. Was it all a plan to keep her isolated or was he telling her the truth?

Why wouldn’t he answer her whenever she asked why he was doing this?

What if this was just an elaborate ruse? A way to get her alone so that she could be disposed of more easily? They were in the middle of acres of forested land—no one would ever find her here. What if Domenic’s mission had been to befriend her so that she would never see it coming? Perhaps he was trying to keep her complacent so she wouldn’t try to escape again? Suppose Mr. Mean wasn’t even dead?

Her heart started to accelerate, and she turned over onto her side.
Could I escape now?
Domenic would never know she had put the pieces together, and she would have a good head start before he even realized she was missing. She cursed herself for falling asleep on the way and not paying more attention to where they were. They had driven to the cabin, so there must be a road leading out to a main artery. Alex had no idea how far into the forest they had driven or how long it would take her to get back to an intersecting road on foot, but she would have to try.

It was past one in the morning. Even if Domenic was an early riser, she would still have four or five hours to try to find her way out of here. If he came after her, she would hear his car and be able to slip into the woods and hopefully wait him out. Carefully, she got out of bed and walked to the window. After a few strong tugs, she took a closer look and realized it was screwed shut. Her panic intensified. Why would the windows be screwed shut? Alex decided she would have to leave the old fashioned way and walked to the bedroom door with a careful gait. She turned the knob slowly, tensing at every little creak and groan as the door opened.

A quick peek into the living room and there was no sign of Domenic. She made her way across to the front door and felt around on the floor for her shoes. Finding them, she slipped them on and stood up. After taking a deep breath, Alex turned the deadbolt and waited for a moment but didn’t hear anything from Domenic’s room.

Gathering up her remaining courage, she turned the doorknob and pulled. As soon as the door opened a fraction of an inch, an ear piercing alarm began to sound. Alex screamed and jumped back, covering her ears. There was a crash of a door slamming open behind her, and she screamed again as Domenic charged out of his room, gun in hand, pointed straight at her.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” he yelled over the alarm, lowering the gun. “What the fuck?”

Alex debated making a run for it, but she knew it was a hopeless situation. Domenic turned on a light and strode over to her, murder written all over his face. She stood there, hands clapped over her ears as he slammed the door shut. The alarm stopped sounding right away. He still held the gun in his right hand, and he grasped her arm roughly with the left. She shrank back from him and closed her eyes, wondering if he would strike her. Memories of their first encounter assaulted her.

“What were you
doing?”
he yelled at her, giving her a slight shake.

“Nothing!” she yelled back, yanking her arm from his grasp. “Don’t you ever wear any clothes?” He was standing in front of her wearing a pair of black boxer briefs, and despite being piss-her-pants frightened, it was incredibly distracting.

“
What?”
he said, looking down at himself and then back up at her in disbelief. “Where were you going? Answer me!”

“Nowhere! And who the hell installs an alarm in a cabin?” she said, still angry at being thwarted.

“Someone who’s trying to save your goddamn fucking
life!
That’s who!” Domenic bellowed at her, and she cringed away from him once more.

Seeing Alex flinch had some sort of effect on him, and his expression softened. Domenic exhaled sharply and turned away from her. The hand holding the gun hung limp at his side, and he rubbed at his eyes with the other one. He put the safety on the gun and laid it gently on a small table near him. Facing her again, he looked a little calmer than when he first came out, but she could tell he was still very angry. They stared at one another for a few tense moments.

“Alexis,” he said in a soothing voice, “why were you trying to leave?”

She hadn’t ever considered getting caught and hadn’t thought of an excuse as to why she was trying to leave the cabin. Alex wanted to lie to him, but when she looked into his eyes, her mouth opened, and she said the first thing that popped into her head. Which was unfortunately the truth.

“I was trying to escape. I know you brought me here to kill me.”

“I brought you here to
what?”
Domenic asked incredulously. She feared his eyes would pop out of his head if his eyebrows rose any higher.

“This was your plan all along, wasn’t it? To gain my trust so you could get me out here and dispose of me!”

In for a penny, in for a pound.

Domenic was still looking at her like she had grown another head. Alex had a sudden flashback of old Lucille Ball shows where Ricky Ricardo would start cursing in Spanish about his harebrained wife. She almost expected Domenic to fling his hands in the air and start speaking fluently in some other language. Maybe Italian. Weren’t mobsters supposed to be Italian?