Willing Captive (14 page)

After a moment of
getting my shit together, I shake my head to clear it and another
approach comes to mind. Walking around the kitchen counter toward
him, I decide to try something drastic. When I’m only a foot away
from him, I jump up onto the counter and sigh deeply. Chewing his
apple, he turns his bored expression over to me and I say softly,
“You could be nicer to me, ya know?”

He shrugs and
continues eating.

I want to throw that
apple across the room.

No more playing
nice. Time to turn on my wily charm. I bat my lashes at him in a
most southern darling way and say a hushed, “I could be nicer to
you, too.”

Have I mentioned that I’ve never flirted before?
Ever
?

Nox’s brow furrows and he mutters, “You got somethin’ in your
eye or some shit?”

Jumping off the
counter to hide my flush, I stomp out of the kitchen and shout,
“Ugh!”

And I clomp off to
the sound of Nox’s deep, sexy chuckle. Half way up the stairs, I
remember something.

Fuck my life!

I forgot the damn
food.

***

You know what I love
about Boo? I love that she doesn’t take anything to heart. Thinking
about my sister got me down. Really down. And I didn’t really want
to spend any more time with Boo because I knew my company would be
less than stellar.

When she asked me
what was wrong, I told her I was tired and might just read a little
then go to bed. Without a peep, she hugged me, told me it was good
to have me home, and left to do her nightly duties.

So here I am, in
bed, pretending to read while totally moping. My brain, preoccupied
with thoughts of my family, didn’t even alert me to the fact that
Nox was standing at the door watching me in silence.

When he cleared his
throat, I wondered just how long he was standing there watching me
watch the wall.

Looking up at him, I
ask, “Everything okay?”

Nodding, he walks
across the room and sits on the edge of the bed. “Yeah.”

I’m sure there’s
nothing but confusion written on my face, but he doesn’t say a
thing. Just pulls out the sleek, black cell phone and dials a
number. Putting it to his ear, he speaks into the cell, “Ready?
Yeah. Thanks.” Then hands me the phone.

Cautiously taking it
from him, I slowly place it to my ear and listen. I hear people
chatting, laughter, and music being played softly. A girl comes on
the line giggling, she sounds confused. “H- hello?”

Holy shit! I know
that voice!

“
Terah?” I almost shout this.

“
Lily!” She almost blows my eardrum when she squeals
excitedly.

Her enthusiasm is
obviously catching, because without thinking I throw myself into
Nox’s lap, bouncing.

Thank you, God!

Nox expels a
strained, noisy breath with every bounce as if I’m suffocating him,
but I ignore it and ask my sister in a rush, “How are you? Are you
safe? Do you know where you are?”

Terah chuckles,
“Good to the first, yes to the second, and you know better than to
ask me the third thing.”

I sigh, “I know, I
know. I just thought-” Cutting myself off, I shake my head and
mutter, “Doesn’t even matter anymore, I’m so damn happy to hear
your voice! You have no idea!”

She teases in a baby
voice, “Aww! Did you miss me?”

Without thinking, I tease back in my own baby voice, “Yeah. I
miss you lots.” I say
lots
as
wots
.

Nox chuckles at our
stupid conversation, but I don’t even care. In my elated state, I
pull down my barriers and lean back into him. And I could almost
swear that Nox inhales deeply, smelling my hair.

Right now, I don’t
give a shit.

I’m so happy that if he asked, I’d take off my panties for him
to sniff
.

Terah spends the
next few minutes filling me in on our time apart.

The person who took
her from our house that day is a guy called Jonathon. And Jonathon
is an absolute sweetheart. He and Terah are close. They’re good
friends according to my sister. Which, in Terah speak, means she’s
head over heels for the guy.

This should worry me
because I don’t know this guy, but right now, I’m just so happy for
her that the only advice I give her is to be careful. Terah tells
me about Jonathon’s second, Takeshi, and his third, Sean. They’re
also good guys. Good guys who are laid back and from what I hear,
absolutely nothing like Nox. They let her pick out movies for movie
nights, and they let her blast music if she’s in the mood; so
basically, she feels like she’s on vacation.

Knowing Terah, an
hour after she was taken, she would’ve made friends with everyone.
We’re different like that. My dad’s constant paranoia has rubbed
off on me.

After telling me all
about her new home, she asks, “So, how’s your safe house? Are the
people nice?” Suddenly serious, she adds, “They’re treating you
okay, right?”

Filling her in on
almost every detail, I tell her about being blindfolded and my
lashing out, not trusting the people here, and about Nox being a
hardass. I tell her about my foiled escape attempt, minus the hair
pulling thing, and that the people here are really cool too; it
just took me a while to notice. I mention that we had a small scare
the other day to which she freaked out a little, but I reassure her
I’m fine.

She asks quietly,
“So, do you know why we’re here?”

Knowing I should
tell her, I fight myself for only a second before I lie in perfect
calm. “Not a clue.”

She sighs, “I miss
you more than anything, Lil, but I know that dad wouldn’t do this
unless there was a good reason.”

Oh, honey. You don’t
know the half of it.

Agreeing with her, I
mutter, “Yeah. I know. I love you, Rahrah.”

Chuckling, she
whispers thickly, “Yeah, babe. Love you, more.”

Then she’s gone.

My smile melts into
nothing. The void in my chest opens, sucking me into nothingness.
Nox wraps an arm around my waist, holding me tight. Grounding
me.

He continues to hold
me while I cry through most of the night.

Chapter
Eleven
Time
flies when you’re having fun

One month later…

Lily

Holding the
offending product in my hand, I storm down the hall muttering made
up cuss words to myself. As soon as he hears me coming, he tries to
shut the door on me, but I bolt and make it in the nick of
time.

Nox sighs loudly
before asking in that deep husky voice, “What is it, princess?”

I know he says this
in a way that’s meant to be derogatory, but I don’t care. If I tell
him how much I like that he calls me that, he’ll stop on
principle.

And I can’t have
that. The only thing that stops me from going crazy in this safe
house is my daily argument with Nox.

His hair’s grown out
in a way that looks so mouth-watering that I have to mentally
remind myself that I mustn’t touch it whenever I’m near him.
Because that would be weird, and I would then have to explain that
I don’t have a hair fetish and…

Ugh, never mind.

Nox isn’t the best
looking guy I’ve ever seen, so why does he have this stupid
freakin’ hold on me?

You know why.

I mentally rip my
hair out and shriek to high heaven.

I
do
know why,
dammit.

He’s like a
fairy-tale hero for Christ’s sakes. I know he’s ordered to protect
me and all, but he does such a great job of it. He makes it look
effortless. He’s all like ‘C’mon, pack your shit’ and I’m all like
‘No, I like it here’ and he’s all ‘Not safe here, princess’ and I’m
all like ‘Sigh. Okay.’

That’s the basic
conversation every freakin’ time.

All he has to do is
princess
me and I’m tripping over my own feet. I don’t know how he does
it.

He’s old!

Okay, twenty-eight is
not
old, but he acts like a fifty year old!

Yeah, a fifty year
old with ripped abs and arms that could crush a man’s skull, and
those strong thighs… bet he’s hung like a hor-

Do
not
go there. Just- do not.
You’ve been warned, brain.

Who knew a virgin
could be this horny?

I know. I suck.

Raising the plastic
wrapped package up past my shoulder, I clear my throat to capture
his attention. He looks up at me with those icy-blue eyes and I
feel like I’m going to catch a cold. The man doesn’t do happy
often.

As
in,
never
.

Okay, so that’s an
over exaggeration, but I’m pissed right now. And with good
reason.

He looks from me to
the package and says stonily, “What now?”

Throwing the package
onto the desk, I tell him, “They aren’t the right ones.”

He scowls and picks
it up to get a better look at it. He reads for a moment then says,
“Yes. They are.”

Unable to mask my
look of disbelief, I ask sweetly, “And how would you know?”

He looks up at me,
throws the package towards me and says, “That’s what it says it’s
for.”

I cross my arms
across my chest, lean my hip on the desk and retort, “Well, it’s
not the right one. I would know. I’m the one who uses them.”

His shoulders slump
and he sighs. Taking another look at me, he scowls again before
picking up his handheld two-way radio and presses the button,
causing a static noise to sound. Someone at the other end says,
“Vito.”

Nox continues to
glare at me while he speaks into the radio. “She says they aren’t
the right ones.”

Vito doesn’t answer
for a moment before he responds, “Come again, boss?”

Nox lowers his head,
shaking it and repeats through gritted teeth, “They aren’t the
right ones, Vito.”

Vito utters, “But it
said on the pack-”

Nox cuts him off
with, “I know! I know what it said. She says no.”

Vito sighs, “What
the fuck does she need, then?”

Nox’s eyes widen at me in an expression that shouts
well?

I snatch the radio
out of his hands, press the button and almost shout, “Heavy flow!
You know? For heavy flow, because I flow heavily during my
menstruation cycle, because I’m a girl and that’s what we do.” He
doesn’t respond, so pressing the button again, I add, “Bleedin’ for
days here, Vito. I need comfort.”

Nox chuckles his
deep sexy chuckle, and I throw the radio at him. Hard. He catches
it without effort, smiling. I stomp out of his office muttering,
“Freakin’ pussies.”

As I exit the room,
I hear Nox buzz the radio again and ask Vito, “Got that?”

Vito responds
immediately, “Every gross detail.”

I
hear Nox laugh from all the way down the hall.

I won’t ever tell
him how much I love that sound.

***

So a month has
passed. I’m surprised by how quickly it actually went.

It was a total blur.
All I really remember is training every day with Boo, Rock, or
Nox.

That’s right. You
heard correctly.

Nox decided he wanted to be part of my training. At the time,
I thought this was a good thing, but whenever I have a
Nox
training day, I normally have to
crawl the next day because my legs become Jell-O.

I feel fitter. I
feel healthier, and I’ve even been in good spirits.

One night a few
weeks ago, at dinner, I brought up the subject of me being able to
speak to my family on a regular basis. And it went a little like
this.

Nervously moving my
food around the plate, Boo asked, “Everything okay, Dee?”

That’s the cue!

Placing my fork
down, I cleared my throat and announced, “Actually, no.”

Nox and Rock stopped
eating and gave me their full attention. Mind you, this was all
planned beforehand. Rock and Boo knew exactly what was going on.
They even had lines to remember.

Rock encouraged,
“What’s the problem, Lily?”

I began, “Well, I
was hoping to talk to you all about my family.”

Immediately, Nox
shook his head and I added in a rush, “I’m not asking for anything
huge here, Nox, just a little talk-time here and there. That sounds
reasonable. Right?”

Looking to Boo and
Rock, they both answered at the same time, loud and animated.

Boo nodded
vigorously, “Yeah, of course!”

Rock agreed, “Sure.
I mean, it’s not like you’re asking to see them or anything.”

Boo added, “It’s
definitely not unreasonable.”

Rock muttered, “Not
unreasonable at all.”

Then all three of us
turned our pleading faces to Nox.

Looking at the three
of us through narrowed eyes, he grinned when he knew he’d been had
and announced, “I’ll think about it,” then left the dinner table
chuckling.

The three of us
huddled together, talking in a hush.

I whispered, “Okay,
you know him better than I do. Was that a good chuckle or a
no-way-in-hell chuckle?”

Boo said quietly, “I’m not sure. It definitely wasn’t a
no,
but with Nox, you never know what’s
coming.”

Rock grinned, “Oh
yeah, babe. You got it. I know him well enough to know he was
impressed that you took initiative. He might not give you a lot,
but he’ll give you something. Ya know? For your efforts.”

And wouldn’t you
know it, just the next night, Nox came to my room to tell me that
he’d let me talk to my parents once every two weeks, and to my
sister every week.

He said the calls
were to be five minutes and no longer.