Billionaire Erotic Romance Boxed Set: 7 Steamy Full-Length Novels (174 page)

I wrapped myself in the sheet from the cot and breathed through it. It helped, but only marginally. I ran the faucet on the sink at full blast and dunked my face in, trying to clear my eyes of the burning sensation that felt like someone was rubbing glass in them. I coughed again and when I tried to breathe, everything hurt.

Then I heard the door begin to open.

They were coming for me. I wasn’t dying fast enough and they were coming to finish me off quickly. The door was opening now and I had the metal chair in my arms.

I took a deep breath from the blanket and stood by the wall, trying to be as hidden as possible in the tiny room. At the first sign of footsteps, I was going to jump out and strike with the chair. Even if it proved futile in the end, I would at least wound one of these bastards. I steadied myself and waited for my cue.

The door swung wide open and three men burst in the room. They spotted me immediately. In the moment before I swung the chair, I saw men in full body armor. They wore gas-masks that covered their faces completely and two of them had pistols. The one man leading the charge had no weapons at all.

I swung the chair with the last vestige of strength I had. The soldier leading the pack to murder me ducked. The chair went high and connected with the wall. It flew out of my hand and I cried out of pain and defeat. Then I collapsed.

I looked up the men suited up in body armor and resigned myself to my fate. Surely it would be quicker and more painless than the torture of this gas. I would be shot in the head. Lights out, show’s over folks.

Hands lifted up my head and something slipped around my face. I started to fight before I realized it was a gas mask. Confused, I stopped resisting and looked closely at the soldier strapping the gas mask on me. Behind a pane of a plastic guard around his face, I could see a set of piercing blue eyes that I knew well.

Alexander Strauss’s eyes.

“Samantha, you have to follow us. There’s no time,” Alex said with a muffled voice that came through his gas mask. “We used tear gas. It hurts, I know, but the gas mask will help. We have to go. Now!”

He held out his hand and I grabbed it. I felt strength return to my legs and I had to shake my head twice before I realized that this was really happening. Alex had come for me, personally. He had even led the rescue mission.

I had lost all track of time since I had last checked the guide channel. When I finally left my prison cell, I had no idea how long I had been in there. But just walking through the doors gave me a burst of energy. I felt like I could have won a marathon at that point. I wanted to run out of this building and then turn around and burn it to the ground. After we left my prison cell, I never turned back.

We were in a long hallway with a ceiling that seemed to be many stories above us. We must have been in some type of warehouse. I wondered if there were more than one cell, or if I had been special enough to warrant the building of a single prison cell in this entire warehouse.

We moved slowly. Alex was in the back now. I walked in front of him and two other men in body armor, with gas masks and helmets, walked in front, guns raised at the ready. As much as I had been filled with rage and despair, I found myself hoping that we came across nobody and that when we left here, it was without incident.

Then Alex grabbed me and threw me down. The two men in front of us dropped to their knees and one opened fire. The gun was a loud crack in the empty corridor, but up ahead I saw movement. A man had run across the hallway and now he was aiming a gun at us.

“This way!” One of the men yelled.

He grabbed Alex and I and threw us down an adjacent corridor. The other soldier covered us by shooting across the hall. I saw him pull out a canister and pull a pin from it. It began to smoke and he threw it.

“Ah fuck! They’ve got gas or something!” A voice cried out from far away.

We ran down the corridor and then I saw black smoke start to rise above us. This smoke wasn’t tear gas.

“They’ve lit the building on fire, we’ve got to hurry,” Alex yelled.

My heart pumped in my chest like shotgun blasts. Every muscle in my body worked towards getting me out of this building. When I looked behind me to see the other two soldiers bringing up the rear, I could see flames growing down the hall where we just were. If we didn’t hurry, we were going to go up in flames with the entire building.

Alex was leading us now. I looked up and the entire ceiling of the building was alight. We were running under flames that threatened to rain down on us like hellfire. I looked back down towards Alex and I saw a huge fiery beam crash down before us, blocking the path. Alex turned around and we ran down another adjacent corridor.

“There’s the exit!” a man’s voice cried out behind us.

Alex pushed through the double doors and outside four more men dressed in identical combat gear grabbed us and threw us down behind a truck.

“We secured the perimeter, but when the building caught fire we had to reconvene here,” one of them said.

There were two trucks that looked very similar to the SUV that I had been transported here in. Alex grabbed my hand and started leading me to one with him, but not before one of the soldiers came up to him and stopped him before he entered.

“Sir, we saw two cars flee the scene in two opposite directions. Do you want us to pursue?”

Alex took no time. “No, we get her cleared. I need you to be a diversion and to provide support in case they circle back around. There’s time for them later.”

Alex opened up the SUV door and lifted me into it. He followed me and one of the soldiers who had fought his way out of the building with us jumped in the driver’s seat. He tore off his mask and turned around to us in the back seat as he swung the SUV around towards the road.

“Boss, it’s sure good to see you again,” Gary said. His left eye was completely swollen shut and a huge egg of black and blue hung over it. He turned back around before I could speak and the SUV’s engine roared as he smashed his foot on the gas.

“Oh my god, you came,” I said. “You came for me, thank god.”

“Of course,” Alex said, a wry smile on his face. His hair was disheveled and ash was all over his combat gear. He looked sexier than ever.

“Are you hurt at all?” he asked, his smile fading.

“No, my eyes burn like hell but I’m fine.”

I turned to look at the building but it was a mountain of flame.

“They’re covering their tracks. There are probably no fingerprints in there besides yours, but either way, it’s a security precaution,“ Alex said. There was a noticeable hint of anger in his voice. I shuddered when I heard “security precaution” and thought of being stripped by two men in a prison cell.

We drove for half an hour until we diverged down a dirt road. Alex communicated over radio with the other car and they confirmed that the men from the warehouse had not followed us. We took many turns until we were practically in the woods. Then we reached a clearing.

In the clearing was a helipad. In the center of the helipad was a helicopter that was running. Even before we reached it, I could hear its blades whipping air against the trees. We jumped out of the SUV and Alex stripped off his combat gear and threw on a modest jacket. Underneath his combat fatigues he was wearing jeans, it was the first time I had ever seen him in a pair of jeans. He reached back into the SUV and grabbed a large duffel-bag and led me by the arm to the helicopter.

We got in the helicopter and it was only when Alex sat down in the pilot’s seat did it dawn on me that there was no pilot.

“Do you know how to fly this thing?” I yelled over the spinning blades.

He smiled and nodded. His hands were already moving around the controls and flipping various buttons and becoming acquainted with them.

“You really are a rich, arrogant prick,” I yelled.

Alex laughed out loud. I couldn’t hear it, but I could see it. “It’s good to know you didn’t lose your sense of humor in there. Are you ready?”

I buckled myself in the seat and strapped on my helmet. I gave Alex the thumbs up and we lifted into the air. I stared down at the helipad and I saw Gary waving up at us, a big grin on his face. I waved back to him furiously and blew a friendly kiss with both hands. Tears of gratitude fell on my face and I relished the feel of them. I had been saved.

Chapter Nineteen

I felt exhausted. The roller-coaster ride of emotions throughout the day had taken its toll on me. We cruised in the air and passed over a large body of water. I had no idea where we were and at this point, I didn’t care. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. There was no way I was going to sleep, but it felt good just to be able to relax in the knowledge that I was actually safe.

We were in the air for about an hour before we landed. I looked down to see a huge woodland area where there didn’t seem to be civilization around for miles. We were lowering into a thicket of trees and I felt another pang of anxiety that maybe Alex did not know exactly what he was doing. It was only when we got closer and I saw the helipad that I relaxed yet again.

Alex landed the helicopter perfectly. He shut off the engine and my ears rang in the ensuing silence of the forest. We unbuckled ourselves and left the helmets on the seats casually. I stepped out onto the fresh soil and I looked up to the sky. It was a gorgeous day. Blue, clear skies looked down on me.

I walked around, stretching my legs. The panic and rush of the earlier events were gone now. Alex walked over to me and started to put his arms around me and I almost let him. But the memory of the phone conversation he had had with the electronic voice flooded back into my memory. I pushed him away.

“I heard your conversation about me, about not caring about me,” I said defiantly. “How I was just one more assistant. What number am I of the twelve that you can buy?” My anger rose and I wasn’t even sure I was mad at Alex. But I had been abused. I had been kidnapped. I had been wronged. And this man was here to bear the brunt of it.

“Samantha,” Alex said softly. “There was a lot going on behind that phone call. Let’s go inside and I’ll explain everything.”

I looked at the helicopter. I looked at the little remnants of ash that were still on his face from the fire at the warehouse. Despite what he said, he had come and rescued me, personally. It was silly to hold what he said against him.

“I’m sorry,” I said, choking on my words. “I just—I’m very emotional right now and I’m pretty confused. Alex, I was scared.”

He put his arms around me and held me close. I breathed him in. I could smell the faint smell of his cologne underneath the smokey smell of the burnt warehouse. I buried my head against his shoulder and cried. He gripped me tight in his arms and for the first time in days, I felt safe again. When I pulled back from him, my tears had mixed with ash and left a dark spot on his white t-shirt.

“Sorry,” I said, starting to cry again.

Alex led me inside. The cabin was small in comparison to his apartment, but it was still spacious. There was a comfy looking leather couch that looked to be a few decades old, and a fridge that looked equally old. Everything was earth-toned and warm looking. A fireplace lay waiting to be lit. My mind immediately went to an image of us making love by the fire, something that always sounded so cheesy to me, but now that I was looking at a fireplace and at Alex, I decided it didn’t seem so cheesy anymore.

Alex walked over to the fridge and pulled out two bottles of beer. He popped the tops on both of them and handed me one. I drank it down greedily. It tasted good. Really good. I finished the beer in less than three gulps and the warm feeling of a single-beer buzz began to fill my stomach. I laid down on the couch and stretched my legs out.

“I brought you some clothes. We’re going to hang low here for a few days, just till everything blows over and my team can figure out exactly who took you and why,” Alex said. “There’s a shower outside, and yes, it has hot water.”

“This cabin is a little quaint for a man like you, isn’t it?” I teased.

“It was my great grandfather’s. My mother was the only one in the family who knew about it and she showed me. My father doesn’t even know about it. Nobody knows about it except me, and now you. I even built the helipad myself.”

I took off all the clothes and stood before Alex completely naked. His eyes fell on my breasts and then lowered, tracing the lines of my hips. I wondered if he was getting aroused. Before any of that though, I would definitely need a shower.

“Will you start a fire and burn all of these clothes? I never want to see them again and I want to know they were destroyed.”

“Absolutely,” he said quickly, his eyes dropping to the pile of clothes on the floor.

“Alex?” I began.

“Yes?”

“Did you guys kill anyone to save me?”

“No, not unless somebody died in the fire, and if that’s the case, we were certainly not responsible.”

I nodded, feeling slightly relieved. I walked out of the small cabin, taking slightly exaggerated steps to let my bottom create a little show for Alex before I went outside to shower. I was surprised by how horny I was, despite having just escaped mortal danger. I thought that maybe I’d be an emotional wreck, curled up in a ball on the couch and crying, but more than anything I wanted Alex. I wanted him to take me. I wanted him inside me. I wanted him to fuck me.

The warm shower felt wonderful. I was outside, completely unrestrained and without walls. The sun shone down on me through the cabin window and I worked suds from a bar of soap over my whole body. I cleaned myself slowly, relishing the feel of the dirt washing from my skin. If anybody had been walking through these uninhabited woods, they would have been given the show of a lifetime. I only wished that Alex could have watched me.

I came back inside and Alex had built a fire. He turned to me and smiled. The fire was burning blue from the cloth and shoe material that burned in the fireplace. I watched the fire consume the clothes and felt a sense of relief.

“I’ll wash up and then cook us some dinner. I had planned to bring us here before your ordeal and I stocked the fridge the day you were taken.”