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Amelia
I’m lying in Blaze’s bed, having attempted to get my ties loose. I’ve failed miserably so far. It’s hard doing anything without wiggling and shaking the bed too much. I figured now was my best chance. Who knows what Blaze has in store for me once he wakes up. I’m finally awake enough to concentrate, having slept many hours yesterday and last night. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had so much rest, probably sometime before I went off to college. I struggled with my restraints yesterday, eager to get free, but it was a lost cause. I was too out of it to get anywhere with anything.
So here I am, jerking and biting at the rope that’s tightly wound around my wrists. Each time Blaze’s soft snoring pauses, my body tenses, hoping he remains asleep. It’s frustrating and painful as the coarse threads dig into my sensitive skin. They’re no longer pink, but an angry, raw red. Blood’s gathered, peppering my skin, just waiting for me to rub against it once more to release the droplets. I’d like to believe this day couldn’t get any worse, but that would be foolish. I’m assuming I’m in a motorcycle club facility of some sort, though Blaze hasn’t admitted as much. With that in mind, anything could happen to me.
Maybe getting free isn’t a good idea, as I don’t know what’s waiting for me outside this room. It’s a chance I must take, though, fearing they may want to kill me at some point. Though, if I try to be rational about it and believe him, he claimed yesterday that my treatment is up to my behavior. If they wanted me dead, wouldn’t I already be that way? And he told me he wouldn’t force himself on me. So far, he’s held true to that as well. It’s hard for me to trust anything he says, though. His actions, in the end, will determine that, I suppose.
I don’t understand it. Why would he kidnap me? I don’t have a lot of money in my bank account, and my parents aren’t wealthy. I’m not worth much to anyone. It doesn’t make sense. If I can’t break free of these wrist ties, I’m going to ask him exactly that when he wakes up. I’d turned on my side away from him, but not before I’d gotten an eyeful of his bare chest. And what a chest; geez, the man must be carved from stone or something.
I can’t believe I’m even going there; the guy kidnapped me. I refuse to fall victim to Stockholm Syndrome. Besides, he’s an infuriating big-headed bastard.
He shifts, moving the bed with him, and then I’m weighed down by a massive arm. I say that because his bicep is like three of mine put together. No wonder the uncouth beast is so sure of himself when it comes to fighting someone off. However, that fact doesn’t mean I’d ever admit it to him. The last thing he needs is for me to say he’s right about anything.
Blaze’s arm is warm with its resting weight, and when he turns into me more, he heats my exposed back as well. The appendage rests there for a moment before he’s using it to turn my body toward him. I was hoping this wouldn’t happen, that he’d interrupt me from getting my binding free. Holding my breath, I can’t help but peek at his face, trying to gauge how much his sleeping has been disturbed. He’s silent, his breaths coming a bit quicker than before. In this position, I can’t help but inhale deeply and catch his manly scent. If the circumstances were any different, I’d revel in the smell, but not here, nor now.
With a drowsy grumble, he murmurs, “Tuck into my chest; you’ll be warmer that way.”
He wants me closer? Does he even know what he’s telling me right now? This guy is ridiculously confusing.
At first, I’m completely still. I want him to go back to sleep as quickly as possible to leave me to my plans. After a moment of my noncompliance, his big paw wraps more securely around my back, bringing me closer to his form. The realization hits me that we’re both completely naked in his bed. I won’t let him worm his way into having sex with me, and by the thick appendage pressed against my leg, he clearly enjoys morning sex. I have to get away. I won’t allow him to have me without a fight.
I begin to squirm, doing whatever I can to attempt to work my way out of his grip and away from his sinfully tempting bulk. Warm body or not, I won’t openly allow him to touch me—ever. He’s taken far too many liberties as it is witnessing me naked, kidnapping me and barking at me as if I’m his property to do with as he pleases. The man has nerve like no other.
My jiggling around stirs him further, and his lids slowly part, his baby blues meeting my own terrified gaze. I panic, trying to come up with something to say to distract him from what I was attempting to do. I don’t want him to find out I was trying to escape and freak out on me or kill me for disobeying him.
“What are you doing?” I manage to choke out, light-headed from holding my breath and chewing on the rope. My teeth hurt, and I think the rope scratched my tongue.
He’s grabbing for me, then holding me to him in his strong grip. Some may find enjoyment being held by a big man, but not me. The move only frightens me even more than I already am. Will this be the day he forces himself on me?
His azure irises take in my face and my unwelcoming expression. He clears his throat and gruffly admits, “You were shaking.” His shoulders bounce. “Your skin’s cold. I was keeping you warm.” He says it so bluntly that I almost believe that he didn’t have an ulterior motive. This is a man, though; of course, he has a motive. At this point, I wouldn’t put anything past him. I underestimated him before, and I can’t afford to make that mistake twice.
“I was shaking because you kidnapped me!” I huff, peeved at his simple explanation. “I’m cold because you keep the air conditioning ridiculously low in here, and you’ve taken my clothes from me. I was stuck in here all day yesterday without so much as a blanket...of course, I’m cold!” I glare as fiercely as I can manage, but I doubt it intimidates him. Blaze is like a boulder—unflinching and steadfast.
“I covered you up when I came to bed,” he fires back, peering at me like I’m the crazy one. It only fuels my irritation, making me fume inside at his irrational reasoning. I doubt he thinks he’s done anything wrong at all by kidnapping me since he thought to cover me up. I scoff, and his expression turns stern.
“How does that help me all day yesterday? I’ve been chilled since then. At this rate, I may catch hypothermia. So much for not hurting me.”
He scowls. “You’re being overly dramatic. Besides, coming down off strong drugs, you’re usually hot or cold and sweat a lot. I figured you’d be hot and sweaty and want the air and space to detox.” He shrugs. “How was I supposed to know you’d be the opposite?”
“Oh my God,” I murmur, completely outraged. This guy’s unbelievable. “Perhaps you’d have known if you’d thought to come and check on me? What if I had to use the bathroom? What if I’d been attacked?”
His brow raises. “I didn’t hear any screaming; figured you were fine. I wasn’t coming in here yesterday until you’d calmed the fuck down and stopped acting like an entitled bitch.”
His words make something inside me snap. In the next second, I lean forward and bite his chin. I clamp down, wanting to inflict as much damage as possible. I don’t use profanity, but fuck him and the horse he rode in on.
“What the ever-lovin' fuck!” he shouts, jerking back. His hand comes to my face and squeezes my chin and cheeks so hard it brings tears to my eyes, and I release my bite. He gives my face another tight squeeze and flings my head back. I rocket backward with the momentum, and it feels like my neck snaps. “That kind of shit will get you fucked up real quick. You feel me? You hurt me, bitch, and I’ll fuck you up.” His hands ball into fists, and he lets out a terrifying growl. I don’t doubt for a second that he could harm me badly.
Tears stream down my face. I’d done my best yesterday not to let him see me like this, but his hold hurt. I’ve never been a violent person, and harming someone or being injured isn’t fun to me. “Don’t touch me!” I manage to brokenly whisper as tears continue to spill freely.
His forehead scrunches, and his jaw flexes as he grits his teeth. “You moved first; remember that, Miss Fucking Perfect.”
“But I’m a woman a-and you put your hands on me.”
He snorts and rolls his eyes. “Now you want to pull the female card? Let me clue you in. You wanna be treated like a woman? Fuckin’ act like one. You wanna fuck with me? I’ll fuck back. You’re pulling your shit with the wrong type of man, babe.”
I sniff, my tears still falling over my heated cheeks. I bet my nose is bright red and swollen. It always gets like that when I’m upset. I could never hide it well when I cried, and he’s learning it firsthand that I’m easy to read when I’m not in one of my pressed suits behind the counter at work. I don’t have those layers of protection to help me stand apart. I glance down, and it’s the wrong move because he follows my gaze.
"Ah, shit, babe, what’d you do?” He reaches to pull my wrists out towards him so he can get a better look.
I shrug and quietly confess, “I wanted to get them off.” The blood’s risen to the top of my skin, peppering the pale flesh with dots. My struggle moments ago seems to have been the last straw for the area that’s been closely wrapped with rough rope, as droplets of blood run over my arms and underneath.
“Damn it, you hurt yourself. If you’d kept that up, you’d have given yourself scars. The ties would’ve hurt you more, too, and wouldn’t allow those cuts to heal properly. You’re so stubborn...wish you’d just listen to me,” he says with a perturbed exhale.
My teary gaze meets his, and I find myself biting my lip as he reaches up, drying my tears away with his fingers. “Why do you even care?” I ask, not complaining or shying away from his hands.
His expression softens, “Because, believe it or not, I’ve always been the one to take care of the women. Whether it was kidnapping them and locking them up or else fighting to protect them so much that it nearly kills me. One way or the other, I’ve always been the one responsible for ‘em. You need to decide which one you want me to be when it comes to you. The man that cages the bird or cares for it.”
I swallow, quiet, unsure of what to say. My stare remains glued to him as he climbs out of bed and heads for the bathroom. My eyes betray me, stealing a glance at his tantalizing behind. I’m still staring in the same spot when he returns, and I’m rewarded with a quick peek at his member. Of course, his shaft is big; I’d expect nothing less. when it comes to someone as cocky as he is. He has a great butt and an impressive member. It makes me hate him a little more, I think.
He returns with a decent sized first aid kit and sits on the bed directly beside me. He opens the white box and reaches for my hands. His length lies against his leg—imposing, but not completely hard. I want to stare so badly, but I wouldn’t dare allow it. How can he be so brazen with his nakedness? He acts like this is completely normal to just walk around naked and be in front of whoever. Maybe for him, it is. I mean, I do it at home, but I’m alone there.
“Why are you helping me?” I ask. I watch him, curious to see if he knows what he’s doing.
He’s silent as he works. He unwinds gauze, rubs my skin with a few alcohol pads, and pats it dry with the sterile gauze. Once he’s satisfied with cleaning it and wiping the blood away, he applies ointment and then wraps my wounds with more of the gauze. He tears a strip of medical tape using his teeth and utilizes the contaminated tape to secure the bandage on each wrist. Once he has them how he wants, he moves my bindings farther down my arm, so they’re positioned underneath the gauze wraps.
He eventually meets my inquisitive gaze and answers, “Because, regardless of what you may believe, I don’t want you to be in any sort of pain.”
I bite the inside of my cheek, unsure of what else to say.
“Do you need the bathroom?” He changes the subject, and I’m grateful for it.
“Yes.” Anything to get me out of this bed and allow me to scout around another area.
He stands, and then I’m being hauled up into his strong arms. I squeal, completely out of my element and caught off guard at how he easily manhandles me yet is careful enough to not bump my injured wrists. “Whoa! What do you think you’re doing?”
“You need the bathroom, but your legs are tied. I’m taking you to the toilet.”
“I am not peeing in front of you!”
“Relax, your highness; you can manage without me watching you. I’m leaving the door open, though, so don’t get your hopes up too high.”
He needn’t worry about it. My hopes aren’t high right now, about him or anything else.
***
THE DAY PASSES EXCRUCIATINGLY slowly. Blaze does come back to check on me, though. He takes me to the bathroom again and gives me a big plate of macaroni and cheese with sweet tea to drink. When I ask for a salad, he just laughs at me and leaves the room. He doesn’t seem to be too concerned with me having a plastic spoon or straw. I’m no jailbird, though, so it’s not like I know how to make a shank out of it anyway. I can only be stubborn for so long before my stomach decides to growl ridiculously loud, and I give in. Cold macaroni and cheese at this point is the best thing I can remember eating in who knows how long. I don’t usually have much sugar if I can help it, but I was so thirsty, I sucked down the tea as soon as he put it in my hands.
“Can I have clothes?” I probe the next time he comes back to the room.
He rolls his eyes and snorts. “Maybe in a week. Maybe never, it depends on you.”
A gasp escapes as my mouth falls open. “A-a week? But my job...people will know I’m gone. They’ll look for me.”
He shakes his head and offers me a smirk. “Nah, I got it all covered. Sorry to break it to you, babe, but no one will be worrying about you for some time.”
“What? How is that even possible? You realize I’m the principal of an entire school, right? That comes with meetings, paperwork, responsibilities. You’re going to get me fired from my job if you called in or whatever for me. Besides, that’s not like me. They’ll eventually catch on; everyone knows I’m unmarried.”
He flashes a bit of teeth with his smug expression. “As far as they’re concerned, you’re on vacation. From what I gathered, you have plenty of days saved up. I have more than enough time with you to make you completely disappear if I wanted to.”
I’m flabbergasted. How could he have any idea about my personal work affairs? I have over thirty days saved up. What can I say? I’m a workaholic and try not to take any days off unless it’s necessary. My unspent vacation time from my previous school position spilled over into this job, so they’ve been accumulating for years now. They were eager to accept my request to have them carry over. It meant me coming to work immediately versus them having to wait even longer without a principal. They were practically desperate to fill the position, so I was able to negotiate some.
“I don’t understand. I have to put in special paperwork to take anything over a few days off. They have to find someone to temporarily come in to help or else shift my schedule to the assistant principal and such.” I probably shouldn’t tell him any of this, but hopefully, it’ll make him think twice.
Blaze divulges, “I know all that already. It’s taken care of, babe. So, get used to the fact that no one is searching for you now and they won’t be. Hell, no one cares.” He shrugs with his cutting remark, and I try to choke the tears away that are threatening to surface. He has my emotions all over the place, and I feel like I’m losing it.
I’ve never felt more vulnerable in my life. I’m normally strong and independent, but this man won’t even allow me to walk to the bathroom. He carries me each time I need to move; he plates up my food and cleans up after me. It’s demeaning, let alone the huge fact that he’s kept me naked for the past two days as well.
He’d bandaged me up this morning as I’d tried to escape, and he was, dare I say it...his actions were caring the way he’d doctored my wounds. Afterward, I felt like I’d been acting childish, rubbing my wrists raw to escape. It’s all futile, he seems to have it figured out, and it’s obviously not his first kidnapping. I’m beginning to believe him about his experience with doing it plenty of times before. The thought terrifies me because what happened to all the other women he’d nabbed?
The tears I’d been trying so hard to keep locked away trail over my cheeks once again. I’ve lost count at this point how many times I’ve allowed myself to cry. My nose will tattle on me soon as well by turning bright red. I can never hide my crying.
He leans in, lightly rubbing my tears. His forehead scrunches. Under different circumstances, I’d almost think he was cute like this. He doesn’t seem to understand why I’m crying, and it clearly concerns him. Could he truly be some sort of heathen kidnapper biker who cares if I cry? That wouldn’t make any sense at all.
“What happened to them?” I whisper, and his expression falls flat, locking into a solemn frown.
Blaze stands to his full height, hands on his hips. He’s an intimidating man, I won’t deny that much. “You don’t want to know,” he says after a beat of tense silence. “Even more of an incentive for you to behave.”
“But what if I do everything you want, and you still...kill me?” I whisper, not wanting to utter the words. “Shouldn’t I...uh, fight and attempt everything I can to get away? To get help?”
I expect him to chuckle, but he remains somber. “You hear of those stories with kidnap victims miraculously escaping and finding help. I’ve seen them too. I know what you’re thinking right now. But, babe, it won’t happen for you. Let me lay it out for you a bit. Say you do get out of my room somehow; there’s an entire clubhouse full of my brothers waiting on the other side of that door.” He gestures to the door on the far wall. “Some of them are a lot worse than me. Take Annabelle’s father, for example, he wouldn’t hesitate to bury you, especially since you’ve been fucking with his daughter. You really want him to see you running free in the hallway? Let’s say you manage to make it outside the clubhouse...you know what’s surrounding it?”
I shake my head. I have no idea. I’ve done my best to stay away from this place and them. I’ve heard whispers around town of the local biker club. I’ve seen various guys in their leather vests in the stores and riding around. I’ve always kept my distance in those cases.
“Well, there’s a tall ass fence that’s wrapped with barbed wire and has electricity running through it. The electrical current will either put you out or kill you since your frame’s so thin. There are cameras everywhere outside, and there’s also my brothers guarding the gate and doing their patrols. We’re a big club with lots of shit to protect. You won’t be leaving here unless I walk your ass out, take you back to that school, and decide to let you go. You’re a little caged bird...and babe, I’m the only one with your key.”
I swallow, biting my lip as reality sets in, and then the tears hit me hard—much harder than before. Sobs wrack my body, turning me into a complete mess, but none of that matters. What does matter is everything he’s just shared with me, the truth of his words that I can’t get free no matter how hard I try to.
“Crying won’t do you any good, sugar. It’s time you face your circumstances. You behave the way you ought to, and you may make it out of this alive and unharmed.”
I exhale and nod, trying to get my tears to stop. He’s right. I need to pull myself together and get through this. I’m a strong woman. If anyone can survive being kidnapped from a biker club, it’s me. Now, doing it without attempting to bite him again, that’s another thing entirely. This man is controlling, pigheaded, and infuriating.
At my nod of submission, he goes to the closet and removes the thick down comforter from the high shelf and brings it back to the bed. He covers me, tucking the warmth around me and murmurs, “I’ll be back later.”
I nod again and wiggle until I’m turned onto my side. My body aches from lying in the bed for two days straight, but at least he’s finally covered me up. Laying in this room naked all day has me seriously feeling like I’m freezing.
It’s past time I come to terms with my current circumstances, I could be much worse off than I am right now. He could be beating, raping, and starving me or who knows what. He’s done none of those things, and tonight, I’m finding a reason to be thankful. Blaze wants me naked and compliant to him? Fine, but I won’t offer myself up to him sexually. I’ll be accommodating with personal respect for myself. Most of all, I’ll stay alive. Damn it, I have to, no matter what.
