Page 45 of His Kidnapped Queen
When he speaks it startles me out of my thoughts.
He smirks. “Aren’t you scared, pixie?”
“Of course I’m scared.”
“You don’t look scared.”
“I used to be a cop. Got used to hiding it,” I retort, and he takes a single step backward, letting me go.
My knees feel weak, like I’m about to drop down on the bed, but I remain standing, looking up at him.
“Used to be,” he repeats, and I know he doesn’t believe me. God, I wish I had a better poker face. “What makes you think I won’t make an exception?”
I tilt my chin up, trying to ignore the hot feeling between my legs, the racing beat of my heart.
“Because you want me,” I say softly, hoping to appeal to his arousal for me. I know he wants me. It’s as plain as the Roman nose on his face.
He gives me a half grin, showing a dimple that might have made my knees even weaker in a different situation. Hell, it almost does now.
“You want me too, pixie. You can’t deny it.”
“What I want is to go home,” I say flatly, huffing out a breath and blowing my bangs out of my face.
He looks down at me for a moment longer.
“You’ll tell me what I want to know. All of it. Or else.”
Then he walks out of the room, leaving me alone. I hear the deadbolt lock click closed, and I know I can’t escape that way.
My shoulders slump but I pad in cold, bare feet to the window, trying to force it open. When that doesn’t work, I punch at it, kicking it with my foot until I’m breathless and sweaty.
Nothing.
I’m trapped here. Maybe forever, with a man I’m equally terrified of and aroused by. A man I have a secret daughter with.
Will I ever see my Rosie girl again?
12
LUCA
I run my hand through my hair for the hundredth time tonight. It’s probably messy and unkempt, and I hate being messy. I hate feeling out of control, and ever since I saw Sophia again I’ve felt…unstable.
I should kill her. I should go right back in there and put a bullet in her skull, but I can’t. I can tell myself it’s because I don’t kill women as much as I want, but I know it’s something more. It’s because it’sher. If it were anyone else…
I collect myself, straightening my shirt sleeves, before going outside to meet with the others.
Alfonso, the one who she’d gotten away from, walks up to me, his chest puffed. “Who the fuck is this bitch?”
My hand strikes out to slap him so quickly evenI’msurprised. The crack sounds too loud in the quiet night. The thing is, I’m not sure I would have hit him if he hadn’t called Sophia a bitch.
He stumbles, holding his cheek and looking at me with wide dark eyes.
“Have I ever given the impression to you…” I pause, spreading my hands to gesture to all of them. “Toanyof you…that you could question me?”
No one speaks.
“Leave. All of you,” I bark. Alfonso goes first, with his tail between his legs, getting into his car and roaring off into the distance.
