His Abducted Bride (2 page)

“Of course not. I’m not that shallow.” Sandy threw the napkin at her friend who dodged it.

She giggled and tossed the napkin back at her. “There’s some truth in it though, isn’t there?”

“You read too much into things.”

“Then why isn’t the evil king an evil queen?”

“If I had dreamt of an evil queen, I would have written the story that way.”

“Sure.”

Sandy groaned. “I don’t care what you believe. I have a brother and a father who I love very much. I can’t be against men.”

“I’m not saying you’re against all men, just ones that aren’t related to you.”

“Ugg! Can we drop this already?” Sandy asked, unable to believe her friend was pressing the issue.

“Alright. I’ll drop it.”

The server returned with the receipt and card, so Caitlyn signed the receipt and wrote in the amount for the tip before she slipped her card back into her purse.

Caitlyn looked at her and smiled. “This was fun, wasn’t it? Hanging out and relaxing?”

“Kind of like when we were in high school before you ditched me for my brother so I had to spend senior year all alone,” Sandy replied, but she winked to show that she was joking.

“You should have let me fix you up back then.”

Letting out an exasperated sigh, she slid out of the booth and held out her hand to help Caitlyn. “It’s time for the mother-to-be to go home and harass her husband for a change.” They left the restaurant, and Sandy chanced a look at the stars in the cool night sky. As she opened the passenger door and hopped into her seat, she said, “You have to admit it is kind of amazing that a man from another planet came here to marry you.”

Caitlyn buckled her seatbelt and put her key in the ignition. “Yeah, it is. Sometimes we talk about his home world.”

“And?”

She started the car and backed out of the parking spot. “It had a lot of technological advancements that made life very comfortable, but he said there was no warmth on their planet.”

“Warmth?”

She set the gear into drive and drove forward. “I don’t know how to explain it except to say he appreciates the soft and gentle nature of women.”

“Soft and gentle? He said that after your mother interfered in your lives?”

Caitlyn giggled. “I know. I thought the same thing, but you have to admit, she’s not so bad anymore. I’m not sure what Mark did to her, but she’s been a lot easier to deal with ever since.”

“At least something good came out of Lexie’s elopement.”

After a couple minutes of silence, Caitlyn asked, “What do you plan to do with your book once you finish it?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t get that far. I was just writing it to escape my boring life.”

“Ah ha! I knew it! You do need a man.”

“Oh, stop it!” She resisted the urge to laugh at her friend’s teasing tone. “But seriously, ever since you quit working at the diner, my life has been boring. Shelia is nice and the new girl is fine, but no one can get under Jack’s skin like you did. You made things fun over there.”

Caitlyn shrugged but winked. “What can I say? It was a gift.” She pulled up in front of Sandy’s apartment and turned to her. “We’ll always be best friends.”

“Of course, we will.”

“Good, because if you ever publish that book, I want to be on the dedication page.”

“You got it.” Sandy unbuckled her seatbelt and opened her door. “Hey, you know I’m happy for you, right?”

She smiled. “Yes, I know.”

On impulse, Sandy leaned forward and hugged her friend. “If I ever publish the book, I’ll be sure to dedicate it to you.”

“Thanks.”

Sandy pulled away from her and motioned to her belly. “Be sure to let me know when she’s ready to be born. I want to be there.”

“Will do.”

She got out of the minivan and waved to Caitlyn as she drove off. With a contented sigh, she spun on her heel and headed for her apartment. The fact that she was thirty-four and living alone used to bother her. But it didn’t anymore. She could do whatever she wanted, and there was no one around to bother her. It really was a peaceful existence.

She entered her apartment and clicked on the light. She locked the door, took off her shoes, and changed into her pajamas. As she brushed her teeth, she walked by her computer then glanced at the clock. It was late. She’d finish her story tomorrow. She returned to the bathroom and rinsed her mouth.

Once she was in bed, she pulled the covers up to her chin and got settled into a comfortable position. She closed her eyes and soon drifted off to sleep.

The computer came back on. The story came up on the screen. Everything but the first scene had been deleted. The cursor blinked, and words began to appear on the screen.
Sandy woke with a start. She expected to be in bed, but she wasn’t. She wasn’t even in her apartment. She was in another world...

Sandy woke with a start. She expected to be in bed, but she wasn’t. She wasn’t even in her apartment. She was in another world.

It was dark. Something was covering her head. Her body was jostled from side to side, and it took her a good moment to realize she was draped over a horse. But someone held her in place so that she didn’t fall off. Her hands and feet were tied together, and a cloth was wrapped around her mouth so she couldn’t scream. What was happening to her? Where was she? Was this a nightmare? She had no way of pinching herself to see if she was dreaming. A part of her argued she had to be dreaming since she remembered going to bed in her apartment. But could she be sure this was a nightmare?

She shook her head in an attempt to get the sack off, but the stupid thing was tied around her neck. She was surprised she could even breathe normally through the thing. The ties around her wrists were firmly in place but didn’t dig into her skin. Any attempts to undo them were met in vain. The same was true for the ties holding her feet together. Wiggling her body to get off the horse was just as useless, especially since her captor put his hand on her back to stop her.

With no other option available to her, she stopped struggling for a way to escape and focused on the sounds going on around her. There was more than one horse. There were many, and if she guessed right, their hooves were pounding on a dirt road. The captor and those with him didn’t say a word. An owl hooted somewhere, followed by the screeching of something she couldn’t identify.

Then she noticed the air around her was significantly cooler than the fall Florida weather. So why wasn’t she shivering? She should be in her pajamas, but she wasn’t. She was fully clothed, and it seemed that she wore heavy clothing. Wool, maybe? Furs? It was hard to tell.

What is going on here?

Since she couldn’t get away from whoever had taken her from…her bed...or somewhere else, she decided to bide her time until she reached her destination. She closed her eyes and waited patiently.

By the time her captor and his men came to a stop, her arms and legs were numb. She tried to move off the horse, but she couldn’t. Not that she could do anything if she managed to get off the steed anyway. She’d just end up lying in a heap on the ground, and who knew if the horse would step on her?

“Where should I take her?” someone—a man—asked as he came closer to her.

Though she couldn’t see who talked, she opened her eyes and turned her head in the direction he spoke.

“I see our prisoner is awake,” he said.

“She’s not a prisoner,” another man spoke, and judging by the location of the voice, he was the one on the horse with her. “I’ll carry her.”

She felt him slide off the steed, and before she knew what was happening, she was pulled off the horse and into his arms. As much as she wanted to get to her feet, he was too strong. She guessed he was wearing armor of some kind. Had he gotten back from battle? He didn’t smell like sweat, which was what she would have expected if he’d been fighting. So what was she doing here? How did he manage to get into her apartment and take her away…on a horse…without her noticing?

A screeching sound startled her, so she stiffened.

The man holding her chuckled. “No need to be concerned. It’s just a door.”

A door? A door to where? She wanted to ask, but with the cloth over her mouth, she couldn’t. The ominous sounds of footsteps clanged against a hard floor. A floor made of stone, perhaps? She didn’t understand this at all. For some reason, everything seemed familiar, and yet, she’d never been anywhere like this.

“To the dungeon?” a man who hurried after her captor asked, his tone indicating that he was out of breath.

“No. What do you take me for? A barbarian?”

Her captor’s voice was deep and strong. He had the voice of a warrior. That made sense considering his armor.

“I’m sorry, your majesty,” the man told her captor.

Majesty? As in a king? Her captor was a king? She couldn’t believe this. It had to be a dream. She was having a very realistic and elaborate dream. That was the only explanation for it.

Her captor took her up some stairs, which were made of stone if she judged right. Once he was at the top of the stairs, he carried her down a corridor. The air was still a little cool but not as much as earlier. She sighed. Why didn’t he just take the sack off her head so she could at least see where she was going?

By the time he opened a door, she was finally getting feeling back into her hands and feet. He set her in a sitting position, and judging from the way her body sank into the chair, she guessed it was cushioned. Beside her was warmth, and the sound of crackling wood notified her that she was sitting by a fire.

Finally, the sack came off her head and the cloth was removed from her mouth. She squinted for a moment as her eyes adjusted to the firelight in the large room. “Where am I?” she demanded, testing the rope around her wrists. Just her luck. The rope was firm.

“You are in your bedchamber,” the man behind her said.

She whirled around in the chair. He wore a black helmet which covered most of his face. All she could see were his blue eyes. The rest of him was covered from head to toe. He wore black armor to match his helmet. He was an imposing figure, to be sure, but there was also something strangely familiar in the way he stared at her with those amazing baby blue eyes of his.

“This is your new castle,” he said as he walked around her chair so that he was standing in front of her.

She glanced at her bound wrists and ankles. “If it’s my castle, then why was I abducted and bound?”

“Because you wouldn’t come here any other way.”

After a moment of awkward silence, she asked, “Where am I?”

“My kingdom.”

She waited for him to explain further, to tell her exactly what kingdom he meant, but he didn’t speak. Finally, she let out a long sigh. “Look, I’m probably dreaming, so it doesn’t matter anyway, but are you going to tell me anything else or is this one of those dreams where I end up having sex with some stranger?” The men in those types of dreams didn’t usually say much.

“I assure you, my queen, that you aren’t dreaming.”

Queen? Her eyebrows furrowed as he went to the candelabra by her bed.

He struck a match and lit the candles. “As for sex, we won’t be having it unless a wedding takes place. We can’t have sex until after our wedding so everyone will know the child is my heir.”

“How cute,” she muttered. “Since I’m not going to wake up any time soon, will you please untie me?” She lifted her wrists and looked expectantly at him.

“Fine. I’ll do as you wish, but know that if you try to run away, the guard outside your door will stop you.”

“And to think you said I wasn’t a prisoner.”

She sensed the mirth in his eyes as he took the sword from his sheath and cut the ties around her wrists and ankles. Relieved, she began to rub her wrists when she realized they weren’t red from where she’d been bound.

“Magic rope,” he explained. “They bind you but won’t chafe your skin.”

She rolled her eyes. “Sure.”

“You really don’t believe this is for real, do you?”

Deciding not to justify his remark with an answer, she asked, “Who are you and how did you get me out of my bed and over here?”

“You know very well who I am.”

She waited for him to continue, but he stood in front of her, holding the rope in his hands and staring at her as if that was all he needed to say. Closing her eyes to will aside her irritation, she waited for a long moment before responding. “I know you’re a king.”

“Yes.”

Again, she waited for him to explain, but when he didn’t, she groaned. “Are you trying to give me a headache?”

“No, but I’m surprised you even have to ask. You know better than anyone else who I am.”

“Which is why you think you’re being cute by not answering me.” She rolled her eyes. Just her luck. Of all the men who could have abducted her, it had to be a smart aleck. “I can’t wait until I wake up,” she muttered.

“You’re already awake. When you go to sleep in that bed over there, you’ll wake up in this room. You aren’t going back to the place you came from. You will stay here and marry me, and together, we’ll unite kingdoms. That is, unless you give into my demands. Then we can skip the marriage, and I’ll return you to your home.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “What kind of demands?”

“That’s for me to know and for you to find out. I believe we’ve talked enough for tonight. You need your rest.”

As he stepped around her, she stood up and tried to grab his arm, but the armor passed through her hand as if it was made of liquid. He clucked his tongue and turned back to face her. “It’s a magic armor. You can’t catch me, sweetie.” With a wink, he added, “At least, not yet.”

She gasped. “I don’t want you.”

“Not yet.” Before she could protest because this man might just be the most conceited one she’d ever met, he waved to someone standing in the doorway. “Come in.”

She turned her attention to a young lady who entered the room.

“Sandy, this is your lady’s maid, Noel,” he continued. “She will make sure you have everything you need.”