The Hostage Bride. Kate Walker

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СКАЧАТЬ she was, but now the reality came rushing back.

      ‘You!’

      Her eyes flew open, wide and dark, the last remnants of the clinging sleep that had enveloped her clearing rapidly as she stared uncertainly up into his face.

      ‘What did you do to me?’

      Crazily, foolishly she actually felt betrayed. He had promised not to harm her and even as the words had left his lying mouth he had been breaking that promise. But what should she have expected from a man who was prepared to commit the crime of kidnapping in order to get his revenge on someone?

      ‘You drugged me!’

      ‘The mildest of sedatives only.’

      The handsome face revealed no sign of guilt or repentance and the dark chocolate eyes regarded her with cool indifference.

      But what had she expected? Pity or concern? She would be all sorts of a blind, deluded fool even to hope for such a thing from this cold-hearted brute.

      ‘I thought it might help you relax. I had never anticipated that it would have the effect on you that it did.’

      No, Felicity thought ruefully. There was no way he could have known that weeks of stress had meant that she hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep for an age. Even the weakest sedative would have knocked her for six, she was so tired.

      ‘I didn’t expect to end up with Sleeping Beauty on my hands.’

      He was actually smiling—almost making a joke out of this! If she hadn’t known better, she might actually have thought that he was flirting with her. But she had learned her lesson fast. She would never trust the cold-hearted monster ever again. Even if those deep brown eyes did warm with an unexpectedly soft light, and the beautifully carved mouth looked so kissable when it curved into…

      What was she thinking of? Hastily closing off the dangerous route her wayward thoughts had opened up, she switched on a ferocious glare instead.

      ‘I’m sure you had every move planned with a military precision. But you won’t get away with it, you know!’

      ‘No?’

      One jet-black eyebrow quirked upwards, cynically questioning her furious assertion.

      ‘You think not?’

      ‘I know not!’

      Felicity struggled up into a half-sitting position, feeling dangerously vulnerable lying down with him looming over her, his face in part shadow where he had blotted out the sun.

      ‘For one thing, there are laws against such behaviour. And, for another, by now my father will surely have informed the police. You didn’t exactly hide the number of your car and…’

      Something about his face, some tiny flicker of response in the depths of those stunning eyes alerted her.

      ‘What is it?’ she demanded. ‘What have you done?’

      But even as the urgent question left her lips the haze of fear and confusion that had clouded her thoughts in the moments of wakening was slowly receding. Her eyes were starting to focus properly, her mind to take in more detailed impressions of her surroundings.

      She was still in a car, it was true, still on the back seat of some large, luxurious vehicle. But, now that she looked more closely, she became aware of some very distinct differences between this car and the Rolls Royce in which she had originally fallen asleep.

      Where the soft leather of the seat had once been a light fawn, now it was uncompromisingly black. There was no dividing glass panel between her and the seat where the driver—where Rico would have sat. And as she levered herself fully upright at last she saw not the silvery grey metalwork of the original Rolls but the sleek black lines of a very different car altogether.

      ‘This isn’t your car!’

      ‘Correction,’ Rico returned imperturbably. ‘This is very definitely my car—my personal property. The Rolls was not. It was the one that Venables hired for you, but it was easy enough to acquire it for my own use. Your original driver was only too pleased to be given the day off, especially when he earned a fat bonus at the same time.’

      I just bet he was, Felicity thought, struggling against a swamping wave of misery. The memory of her own foolishness in telling him that his kidnapping hadn’t been the most efficient possible came back to haunt her in horrifying detail. How could she have been so reckless—so crazily stupid? She had even laughed at him, for heaven’s sake!

      ‘You…’

      The black tide of horror made her voice shake and she shrank back against the far door of the car, getting as far away from him as was possible.

      ‘How—how did you get me from the Rolls into this…?’

      The faint smile grew, curving into a wicked, malign grin.

      ‘Isn’t that obvious, gatita? I carried you.’

      Her throat closed up at the thought, her stomach heaving nauseously. The image that her mind threw up of herself in his arms, her body limp and totally at his mercy, her eyes closed, all defences down, made her shudder in appalled distress.

      ‘How dare you?’

      To her relief anger came to her aid, the hot, thick force of it driving her fear before it.

      ‘How dare you even touch me!’ Her voice rose high and tight and her grey eyes flashed fire in defiance. ‘You had no right! No right at all! If you ever do that again, I’ll kill you!’

      To her fury, her reaction only seemed to amuse him, his smile incensing her further.

      ‘So the kitten has claws,’ he murmured with silky mockery. ‘I can see I shall have to be prepared to defend myself.’

      If her rage had been merely an annoying fly, easily flicked away and dismissed, he couldn’t have made his contempt more obvious. The disdain with which he shrugged off her impotent threat had her clenching her hands tight against her thighs, struggling with the impulse to use them on that arrogantly handsome face.

      ‘Oh, go to hell!’ she spat furiously. ‘Just leave me alone!’

      ‘Willingly,’ he responded smoothly. ‘But I can’t help thinking that you would be much more comfortable inside. You can’t stay in this car all night. For one thing, I think the weather is about to change.’

      A quick glance at the sky confirmed the truth of his words. The brilliant sun of earlier in the day had been eclipsed by gathering clouds, which were growing thicker and darker by the minute. But it was worse than that. Some of the intensity of the sun had also faded, leaving her in no doubt that the evening was drawing in. Just how long had she been unconscious while they were on the road? How far could they possibly have travelled in that time—and to where?

      ‘And I’m sure you must be getting hungry. If you just come into the house—’

      ‘No.’

      Felicity shook her head firmly, her chin setting stubbornly.

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