An Inconvenient Husband. Karen Van Der Zee

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      CHAPTER TWO

      PARALYZED by fear, Nicky felt herself being carried through the hall and living room and out the front door. She was gasping for breath as the two powerful arms that held her pressed her face forcefully against a hard chest. She started struggling, kicking her legs, but she. was nothing more than a doll in the steely grip.

      “Not a sound or we’re both dead!” growled a low voice, the tone deadly and ominous. A voice intimately familiar.

      Fear flooded out of her. “Blake?” she asked, but her voice was smothered by his chest, barely audible.

      “Quiet!” .

      His chest was warm and solid against her face. For a fleeting moment she had an odd sense of déjà vu—as if once before she’d been carried off like this in the dark of night.

      She heard the pumping of his heart against her cheek and her senses reeled with the familiar warm male scent of him, overwhelming for one delirious moment all other thought.

      He pushed her almost roughly into the back seat ,of a car, slid in beside her, giving an order to the driver and before she could catch her breath they were tearing down the drive.

      She was panting, her throat raw. “What the hell is this all about?” She struggled for the words, rubbing at a scratch on her arm where a branch had scraped the skin, her confusion greater than her fear now. They were in a taxi, she realized, and going at great speed.

      “Be quiet,” he said on a low note, warning in his voice. “Later.” He glanced out the back window.

      “Later what? Where are you taking me?” she demanded. “Are you insane, what is this all about?”

      Steely eyes met hers. “I said be quiet.” His voice was ominously low. “You’ll be fine as long as you act normally.”

      She suppressed a hysterical little laugh. Sure, no sweat. She was used to being carried off into cars against her will. Of course she would act normally. “Are you out of your mind?” she whispered fiercely.

      His silence was eloquent.

      She hated his superior manner. She hated him. This, of course, was nothing new. She had entertained about this man every emotion known to mankind, except one: physical fear. And she wasn’t afraid of him now, which, under the present circumstances, was something to be grateful for.

      She closed her eyes and leaned back in the seat. Her whole body was trembling with shock and she felt the terrible urge to break down in tears or, alternatively, scream at Blake in fury. Her pride wouldn’t allow her to do either.

      Who was Blake to kidnap her out of her father’s house? Why in the world would he want to? It didn’t make sense. She thought of the ransacked room and shivered. Nothing made sense. She thought of her father, seeing again the worry edged in his face and her stomach twisted with anxiety. Something was wrong.

      Something indeed was very wrong.

      Could this possibly have something to do with that business deal he’d been having trouble with? Unscrupulous, he had called the Hong Kong company. It was not a nice word. In fact, it was a frightening word. She thought of her ravaged room and shivered again, her mind in chaos. But why would Blake be involved? What could Blake possibly have to do with it? It was crazy; it made no sense at all.

      Fear and anger fought for dominance in her mind. Why hadn’t her father told her what was going on? Why was he always treating her as if she were a child who should not be bothered by her parents’ problems? Well, she knew why. She was the baby of the family, and the only daughter. Her parents and three older brothers all had treated her like a princess, and although she wouldn’t dare complain about the love and nurture she had received as a child, she wouldn’t mind being respected as a mature adult now that she’d reached the ripe age of twenty-seven.

      The car stopped and she opened her eyes. There were lights and people. More cars. People laughing. They were in front of what appeared to be a luxury hotel.

      “Come along.” Blake helped her out of the car, putting an arm around her when she almost lost her balance. His face was close to hers. “Don’t do anything stupid,” he said under his breath, apparently not wanting the driver to overhear him. “You’re safe as long as you do what I say.”

      She stiffened. This was not the man she remembered. He had never ordered her around before, never told her what to do, never made any demands. He’d considered her an independent person who made her own choices and decisions. She wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

      She felt dazed and disoriented. With his hand on her shoulder Blake propelled her through the cool, sumptuous hotel lobby. Crystal chandeliers, soft piano music, people in beautiful clothes, mingling, laughing. It all seemed to come from a distance, unreal. Then she found herself in a mirrored elevator.

      Her reflection shocked her. She looked like a madwoman, her hair wild, her clothes dirty and sweaty from the day’s exploration of the city’s hot, crowded markets and streets. The elevator zoomed up, stopped. They got off. She moved as if in a trance, down a carpeted corridor, past endless doors. Blake stopped in front of one of the rooms and slid a small plastic card into a slot in the lock. The door open, he nudged her ahead of him into the room. She took in the big bed, the desk, a cozy seating arrangement near the window. Soft carpeting under her feet. Everything clean and comfortable.

      She turned to face him, clenching her hands into fists by her side and anchoring her feet to the floor to keep them from trembling. “I want to know what this is all about!” she demanded, hearing an unfamiliar, shrill tone in her voice. Anger heated her blood and she could no longer contain it—anger mixed with a terrible fear, and other feelings she couldn’t even begin to analyze. “What the hell is going on? Why did you bring me here?”

      “Don’t yell at me,” he said coolly.

      She almost stomped her foot. “I’ll damn well yell if I want to! I’ll scream!” She couldn’t believe her own behavior. What possessed her? It was as if someone else had taken over, some wild creature driven in a corner, terrified and helpless.

      “Calm down and we’ll talk.” He turned his back on her and picked up a bottle of Scotch standing on a tray on the dresser.

      “Calm down?” she raged. “Are you out of your mind? You expect me to calm down after my room has been turned upside down and I’ve been kidnapped?”

      “I did not kidnap you. I rescued you.”

      “Rescued me? From what? I want to know what’s going on!”

      He poured Scotch in two glasses. “I’ll tell you what I know, but not until you get yourself under control.”

      She nearly choked on her words. “How dare you treat me this way!” she said to his back. “How dare you just carry me off! What’s got into you? Are you the one who destroyed my room?” Even as she said it, she knew the idea was preposterous. Under no circumstances could she imagine Blake turning over drawers, going through closets. It didn’t fit his code of ethics.

      He turned and gave her a dark look. “No, I did not,” he said sharply. “A couple of hired thugs from Hong Kong did. They were waiting in the bushes for you to come home and kidnap you. I thought СКАЧАТЬ