Taken Hostage (6 page)

He smiled bemusedly and shook his head. ‘I
was only looking at the Mustang to keep from staring at you. I
couldn’t care less about the car.’

Tiffany’s heart leapt in a way it hadn’t all
day – and that was saying something, considering the acrobatics the
kidnapping and sex had put it through. To think that this bold,
gorgeous man had been sneaking glances at her all along while
pretending to lust after a car… After several moments of grinning
into space as her cheeks heated in a fantastic blush, she realized
he was waiting for her to continue. ‘But that’s not all,’ she said,
eager to follow up his sweet confession with something that made
her sound as if she had at least two brain cells to rub together
instead of just a pair of eyes and a neglected libido. ‘There’s
something about you that has nothing to do with the way you look.
You make me feel like I could just step outside of my regular self
and do something different. Something adventurous. I like that
feeling.’

James met her eyes, a thoughtful expression
on his handsome face. ‘So that’s why then.’

‘Well, that and my boss was a jackass, and my
co-workers were airheads,’ she conceded. ‘My life was dull and I
was lonely.’

James emitted a small snort of laughter.
‘Glad to hear I’ve livened things up.’ He grinned.

‘What about you?’ she asked.

He eyed her quietly with his sky-blue eyes,
the grin fading slowly from his face.

‘You know who I am,’ she continued, her need
to know him growing by the second. ‘You stormed into my regular
life and ripped me right out of it. But you’re just James to me. I
don’t really know who you are. I don’t even know why you robbed
that bank.’

‘Money,’ he said flatly, ‘why else? I’m not
anybody great. I’m just a guy who got tired of being shit on by
life and decided to take matters into my own hands.’ He frowned.
‘Life is unfair, right? So I thought, why should I keep playing by
the rules? They aren’t doing me any good.’

Tiffany nodded thoughtfully. It made logical
sense, but it was a very bold conclusion. ‘Most people never get
angry enough to go down that route.’

He shrugged. ‘I’m glad I did. I broke a few
rules, and look what it got me.’ He reached out to stroke the side
of her face again and smiled suddenly.

‘I’m glad you did too,’ she replied a little
breathlessly.

‘Construction,’ he said after a few moments.
‘That’s what I used to do. I lost my job about eight months ago
because of the recession. People stopped building and things just
went downhill for me from there.’

She nodded again, eyeing his T-shirt and
remembering the hard muscles that lay beneath, what they’d looked
and felt like. It was easy to imagine him doing construction. ‘So
what’s your plan?’

He lifted her suddenly, holding her against
his chest just as he’d done when he’d carried her into the woods.
‘To take you back to the car and keep driving.’

‘I mean long-term. Where will we go now?’

‘Do you speak Spanish?’ he asked as he ducked
under a pine bough.

‘No. I took French in high school, and I
don’t even remember much of that, to tell the truth.’

‘That’s alright. I’ll teach you.’

‘Oh, so you speak Spanish?’

‘I can get by. For example, if we were in
Mexico, I might describe what we just did as
asombroso
.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘You tell me.’

‘Incredible, I hope,’ she said, heat flushing
her cheeks again.

He grinned. ‘See, you’re learning
already.’

She returned his smile. ‘So we’re headed
south of the border, then?’

He inserted a hand between her legs, groping
and rubbing her tender skin deliberately through the fabric of her
pants. The seam rubbed against her raw clitoris, eliciting an
initial groan of protest and a subsequent moan of reluctant
pleasure. ‘In more ways than one,’ he replied, grinning
teasingly.

She was relieved when they found the Saturn
at the edge of the woods, waiting alone beside the seldom-traveled
road as if they’d never left it.

When they’d settled into the seats, James
paused before turning the key in the ignition. He leaned across the
console and pressed his mouth on hers. She sighed when the kiss
ended, feeling the spark he’d kindled in the forest relight within
her.

‘What do you say we drive until an hour
before dawn?’ James suggested.

‘What then?’

‘Then we’ll find a secluded place along the
dark road, and I’ll lay you across the back seat like you asked me
to yesterday.’

****

By the time daylight began to diffuse the
fleeting night, they’d reached Mississippi. Tiffany had slept some,
both when James had parked for a couple short hours of rest and
while he drove. She was thoroughly awake now though, eagerly
remembering what he’d promised to do to her in the hour before
dawn. Her body still retained the remnants of yesterday’s passion –
a slight twinge here, a light bruise there – but those were easily
forgotten when she remembered what it’d felt like to have him
inside her.

‘Hey,’ James said suddenly, ‘looks like it’s
almost dawn.’ The corner of his mouth curled into a suggestive
smile that caused Tiffany to shift in her seat as heat blossomed in
her core.

Her heart beat in double-time as the Saturn
slowed and veered toward a gravel turn-around on the side of the
road. All was silent when he turned off the engine – the rural
highway was almost empty at this hour in the morning. A rush of
outdoor air, already hot and muggy despite the hour, filled the car
as James opened his door and swung his legs out the side, the
gravel crunching beneath his boots.

‘You still up for it?’ he asked, grinning as
he opened Tiffany’s door for her.

She nodded eagerly and repressed an
uncharacteristic giggle, remembering how during the first hour of
her kidnapping her awkward phrasing that had planted the seed of
what was about to unfold. He took one of her hands in his and a
rush of excitement washed over her as she encountered the
delightfully rough textures of the calluses that covered his palms
and fingertips, remembering the places they’d touched her and how
wonderful it’d felt. Her clit throbbed, ready to receive the same
treatment again.

She slid quickly into the backseat and lay
down across it, eyeing the bulge that strained the front of his
jeans as her buttonless shirt fluttered at her sides, failing
completely to cover her.

James braced himself with one hand on the car
roof and leaned in to seize the end of one of her pant legs in the
other. He jerked and the waistband began sliding down over her
hips, unable to offer much resistance without the button he’d
popped from above the fly in the Tennessee woods. Within a moment,
her only garment was her useless shirt. Suddenly, wearing it seemed
even more daring than absolute nudity – perhaps because of the way
James’ blue eyes kept darting back and forth between the fraying
buttonholes and her breasts as he yanked down his own fly.

The early morning afforded enough light for
her to see the tantalizing outline of his erection as it rose from
his jeans, more than ready for action. She squirmed in anticipation
from where she laid waiting across the seat. He was still standing
in the doorway, his cock in his hand and his back to the dark
Mississippi forest that lined the highway. He made to lower himself
into the seat – or at least, as much of himself as he could – but
Tiffany moved more quickly, seized by a sudden mouth-watering
impulse.

She rose to a kneeling position and gripped
the parted waistband of his jeans, pulling it down to expose his
balls. She held them in one hand, relishing their warm weight
against her palm as she parted her lips and took his cock into her
mouth. He moaned and flexed his hips, thrusting it past her lips,
farther and farther until it met the back of her throat. She
relinquished her hold on his jeans and wrapped her fingers around
the base of his shaft instead. Her fingers were warmed by friction
as her hand rose and fell, touching first the soft nest of hair
that grew around the base of his cock, and then her own lips.

He groaned again, trembling slightly as he
braced himself against the car for support.

She continued, tasting the salty evidence of
their last encounter on his skin, until he stopped her by
withdrawing suddenly. He prevented her from following by holding
one of her shoulders in a vice-like grip. ‘If you don’t stop I
won’t be able to do what I promised,’ he said, eyeing the seat that
stretched behind her.

He exerted a gentle but commanding pressure
on her shoulder and she reclined across the seat eagerly, opening
her legs in welcoming invitation. James’ golden-brown head ducked
beneath the doorway, the errant lock of hair she loved falling into
his eyes. He lowered his body over hers, settling his elbows on the
seat on either side of her body. It was a tight fit, and she
couldn’t have moved beneath him if she’d wanted to. She loved
it.

He took his cock in his hand and rubbed the
thick head up and down her slit, smiling as he teased her. She
trembled against him as he coated himself with her wetness.
‘Please,’ she said when she couldn’t stand not having him in her
any longer. ‘No more teasing.’

‘Alright.’ Her core clenched at the sound of
his voice, and during the brief moment before he entered her she
noticed that he smelled of sweat and Coke and musky manliness. Then
all her other senses were extinguished as her sense of touch
exploded, wild with delight.

Their last joining had left her body tender,
but she hardly cared. She was more than glad for the sequel to
their last encounter, graphic snippets of which had been
continually rising to the surface of her mind during the drive
since. A bump that divided the seat pressed into the small of her
back, forcing her to arch it, and his hips, wide with muscle,
pressed her legs tight against the seats that sandwiched her body.
Despite the cramped quarters, he moved with a sort of primal grace,
gliding in and out of her body.

She clawed at his back, the jagged edges of
her broken nails snagging his soft white T-shirt. Her core was
already clenching around his cock, on the verge of coming. ‘James,’
she gasped, and another voice echoed hers.

James’ head snapped upward with amazing
speed, and he scrambled to push his rebellious forelock out of his
eyes even as his head hit the car’s ceiling with a heavy
thump
. Tiffany whimpered in bewildered ecstasy as he jerked
within her, and then he was gone.

His boots abused the gravel noisily as he
stood with his pants hanging down past his hips, his cock still
fully erect and exposed. ‘Damn it!’ he growled, sounding more
unsettled than Tiffany had ever heard him as he jerked up his
underwear and jeans, whirling at the same time to face an
approaching figure that was barely visible in the
semi-darkness.

It was a man, and as he came closer the smirk
that was plastered over his caramel face became visible. His dark
eyes glittered beneath a short crop of coal-black hair. There was
an exotic air about his strong nose, and he spoke with an accent
that hinted at a south of the border origin, though he said ‘You’re
early’ in perfect English. His eyes skimmed over James and darted
knowingly to Tiffany, who still lay in a posture of readiness
across the back seat. She snapped her legs shut and scrambled
upright, pulling her shirt over her breasts as smoldering heat
flushed her face.

‘So are you,’ James snapped, glaring at the
intruder, who continued to cast long glances in Tiffany’s
direction.

‘No way was I going to take a chance on
missing you,’ he said, eyeing James through suddenly narrowed eyes,
‘and being left behind.’

‘Don’t be an idiot. You know I need you.’

The man with the accent tipped his head in
acknowledgement of the truth, but didn’t uncross his arms.

‘So,’ James said, ‘any snags in the plan?’
There was a hard edge to his voice.

‘No. I did my part. It’s there – I saw it
with my own eyes this morning.’ He cast a sideways glance at the
thick forest that began only a few yards away.

James’ gaze followed. ‘Let’s not waste time.
Go get it.’

The darker man’s eyes flickered with
defiance. ‘You go. I’ll wait here.’

‘Damn it!’ James exclaimed. ‘Would I have
even stopped if I was going to leave you when I got here?’

The other man’s face softened for a second,
but he quickly resumed a stubborn expression. ‘I’m sick of those
damned swampy woods. I’ve been in and out of there a dozen times.
It’s your turn.’

James’ fists tightened at his sides, his
knuckles going white above strained muscle and tautened sinew.
‘Fine,’ he spat, ‘but I’m taking my keys with me.’ He glanced over
his shoulder at Tiffany, and she shot him a desperate glance.

James moved to block her from the other man’s
view with his body, standing in place of the open door while
picking up her pants from the floor mat and tossing them to her.
She wiggled into them hastily, her eyes questioning as they
remained locked with his blue ones.

‘You stay here,’ he told her. ‘It’s miserable
in there.’ She eyed the window warily, catching a glimpse of the
dark man whom James obviously knew. ‘He won’t be able to go
anywhere without the car keys,’ James reassured her, following the
direction of her gaze. ‘Just wait here for me.’ With that he turned
on his heel and started off toward the edge of the forest, leaving
Tiffany alone with the stranger.

‘Rolando!’ James barked as he strode past the
man. ‘Don’t even think about hurting her.’

And then he was gone, disappeared into the
thick trees and the darkness that their canopy afforded despite the
fact that the sun was peeking from above their boughs, a fiery gem
against the grey morning.