Hitman's Captive: A Bad Boy Romance (8 page)

Oh, god help me.

I’d never really
looked
before though - I knew better, and it would only have led to dangerous thoughts.
My classmates - hell, any boys - were off limits, and even if I might have felt
rebellious once or twice, I wasn’t going to risk what would happen to
them
if
I went too far. So I didn’t really have a whole range of male chests to compare
to, but even if I did…I had a feeling that this one would still come out on
top.

I cursed myself for the
thought, trying to find something to say - some way to get him to cover up and
forget this whole thing. Then the sound of a belt buckle caught my attention
and I jerked, fighting the instinct to stare at the source of the sound.

“Leo!”
My
voice came out broken, like I couldn’t believe what was happening - and I used
his name as a concession that I hoped would knock some sense into him.

Instead, he just laughed
again, “Calm down, girl - I’ll keep the boxers on. Wouldn’t want to offend your
sense of modesty, hmm?”

We were well past that.

I wanted to make a biting
remark, but it was all I could do not to sink down and let the floor swallow me
up.
He
should be the one to be ashamed and embarrassed, not me. But I’d
seen things I shouldn’t, and now I was replaying them over in my mind and that
terrible, rebellious part of me was hoping to see
more
forbidden things.

To prevent that from
happening, I darted over to the other side of the room, putting the bed between
us and refusing to look at him. I shouldn’t even be here with him at all.
Sharing a room with a
man—

The bed creaked as he
slipped into it, and suddenly my anxiety skyrocketed.

“You’re not giving me the
bed?!” I turned sharply to look at him, my concern over his lack of clothing
completely overridden at the prospect of sleeping in the same bed as my captor.

Even so, I couldn’t help
but look - the covers managed to hide most of that sinfully powerful body, but
I could still see the top of his chest, the curve of muscles along his
shoulders—

Oh please help me.

A heat stirred inside me
at the sight - the thought - and I had to fall back on my outrage to stop it
from overpowering me.

“It’s big enough for both
of us.” His nonchalance was obvious, and I could tell he was surprised by the
question. Bastard.

“It is
not!
I am
not
sharing a bed with you, asshole!” I wasn’t yelling. Not quite.

His expression shifted
between amusement and annoyance as I glared at him, and he shrugged. “I gave
you a bed of your own earlier - you tore it apart, remember? So now we’re
sharing.”

I bit my lip hard, mind
spinning as I tried to find a way out of this. “We could go back and fix it! It
wasn’t broken, just thrown—”

“No. I said it before -
after what happened there, you’re not leaving my sight.” His expression was
hard now, any patience clearly having worn out, and I was torn between fighting
some more or huddling terrified against the wall. “And, princess? Don’t think
to try anything tonight - I sleep very lightly.”

The threat was obvious,
and it chilled some of my anger, making me let it go with only a muttered, “You
could have let me have the bed.”

Leo’s eyes sparked, but I
wasn’t sure what was behind them as his gaze turned harsh. “You didn’t really
expect me to be the chivalrous sort, did you, princess?”

He flicked the light off,
and the words echoed in the sudden darkness. My gut twisted uncomfortably and
the brief memory of his hands bandaging my wrist with care replayed in my mind
- making me realize that
yes, actually - somehow, I had.

More fool you, Alessa.

I stood awkwardly as I
listened to him settle into bed, trying to work out what to do. I felt
vulnerable and exposed like this, and the idea of getting into bed with him seemed
like too much to bear. I glanced at the floor, but the thought of lying there
in the open didn’t make me feel any better. I was already tired and
uncomfortable, and I’d be damned if I’d give up the limited comfort of the bed
because he was being an asshole.

It might break all of my
father’s rules on
propriety
but this had to count as an exception,
right? And it wasn’t like I had to tell him about it.

Scowling at Leo’s form in
the bed, I inched closer, finally deciding that I wasn’t going to make myself
suffer because of his inconsideration. I glanced down at myself, but the pretty
chemise Viktor had asked me to put on earlier -
had that really been the
same day? -
was a nighttime item anyway, and I didn’t dare slip down into
just my underwear. This was already bad enough.

Taking a deep breath that
should have been unnecessary, I slipped under the covers in one quick motion,
keeping carefully to my side of the bed. Then I froze there, waiting for a
reaction - but there was none. Listening carefully, I wondered whether Leo was
sleeping already - but his breathing didn’t seem to be slow and deep yet.

Okay, just ignoring you
then. Which is a good thing. You should ignore him too.

It took a few minutes,
but I gradually let myself relax into the bed, trying to breathe slowly and
calm down. Unfortunately, as we both settled into the deep silence of the
night, I found myself far too aware of the weight of his body next to me.
Images of his smooth, naked chest flitted into my mind, my imagination
supplying its own ideas of what I might have seen if I’d watched while he
pushed his pants down—

Stop it!

But it was so difficult,
here where I could feel the heat of his body, where there was nothing to occupy
me but thoughts of every slight look, every touch between us this evening. My
own body’s fire was awakening again and as exhausted as I felt, and as much as
I wanted nothing more than to drift off to sleep, I started to get restless. I
turned over, away from him, and closed my eyes tight, but the awareness that there
was a near-naked man
right next to me
was too much.

To force the fantasies
that were quickly flitting through my mind away, I played the evening back over
in its entirety - the murder, the kidnap. The blood. The fear and terror. The helplessness
and despair.

It was too effective.
Tears pricked my eyes and I bit my lip hard. I wouldn’t cry in front of him. I
wouldn’t.

I don’t know how long I
stayed like that, lost in the riotous emotions of the day, until I grew scared
that even if I did sleep, I’d be plagued by nightmares.

When I could stand it no
longer I pushed up from the bed, not even caring about whatever he might think,
and walked over to the window seat. I sat down and pulled my knees up to my
chest, lifting one edge of the curtains to peer outside my prison.

It was dark, but my eyes
had adjusted a while ago, and the moon cast a pearly glow down over the unkempt
backyard. There were no streets to look over, or any chance of seeing anyone
else, so my brief hope of attracting the attention of any passersby disappeared
- but then if there’d been an opportunity for that, I was pretty sure Leo
wouldn’t have let me come over here.

I glanced back
instinctively, and was both surprised and unsurprised to see him propped up on
an elbow on his side, watching me. I met his eyes in the dim light of the room,
but neither of us said anything, just letting the tense silence grow between
us.

I had no idea what he was
thinking as he looked over at me - maybe he was just making it clear that he’d
always be there, watching for any wrong move on my part. I shuddered at the
idea, and turned back to the window, preferring the untidy landscape outside to
the tension in the small room.

My forehead pressed
against the cool glass while my dazed mind tried to process the events of the
day - and how I was going to get out of here.

It seemed hopeless now -
I obviously couldn’t beat Leo in a fight, and he never stopped watching me. He
seemed to know about anything I could possibly exploit before I did, and he was
far more experienced at this than I was.

I felt lost and wished my
family were here. I’d even take my uncle’s rough, abrasive manner and my
brother’s smug superiority over…whatever the hell Leo was. And my sisters…my
eyes pricked with tears as I wondered if I’d ever see them again.

I bit my lip and thought
about his comment earlier…whether he could possible mean it. Letting me go once
he’d found out who had set up Viktor’s death. It was hard believe that he’d let
me go running back to my father with a description of the man who’d kidnapped
me.

But then, why not just
kill you already, as he’d said?

I shuddered at that
thought, but for some reason I couldn’t picture it. There was no doubt that he
was capable of killing, and he was definitely terrifying enough at times that I
knew his threats were real. But it didn’t seem like he
wanted
to. I’d
railed against him, insulting and yelling and being as obstinate as I could all
evening, and he hadn’t done anything more than smirk at me about it. I’d tried
to hit him over the head and escape, and…nothing.

He hadn’t hurt me - he’d
barely even yelled at me - and it seemed that as long as my efforts didn’t put
him
in any real danger, he was willing to be lenient. It was the only reason I
could think of that I’d felt comfortable enough to be so obvious about defying
him - either that, or I was just an idiot. Any other kidnapper probably would
have—

I shuddered again and
tried to make myself stop thinking about it, but the images of what I’d
expected from him flicked through my mind anyway. What I’d said about the way
he looked at me was true, and I’d been sure that he’d intended so much more
when he came to my room tonight. The look of shock and horror on his face when
I’d accused him of that had brought almost immediate reassurance - but, if I
was honest, maybe a slight tinge of disappointment too.

That was even more
stupid, of course, but when I’d spent the evening waiting for him, knowing that
if I didn’t escape
that
was likely to happen…maybe I’d resigned myself
to it a little. That was what this evening was meant to be about for me,
anyway. I hadn’t had a choice with Viktor, so how would this have been
different? And was it so bad for part of me to like the idea of my first time
being with someone handsome and powerful? Someone who made my body spark and
heat when he touched me?

Yes, Alessa. Yes, wanting
your kidnapper like that is all sorts of fucked up.

I sighed and shook my
head. It must be the exhaustion. And lying next to him in the same bed
certainly hadn’t helped.
I glanced back, and he was still in that same
position - still watching me. My body tensed again, but some part of me heated
at the attention. No one had ever looked at me like that…watched me like that.
I’d never warranted that much focus or interest before.

He’s making sure you
don’t do something stupid, idiot.

But I couldn’t even think
of anything stupid to do anymore. I was out of ideas. Out of plans. And tonight
had confused the hell out of me. I didn’t really believe he’d ever let me go,
but I wasn’t sure I could risk another escape attempt - not yet, anyway.

And…he wasn’t really so
scary - being kept here with him wasn’t as painful or terrifying as I’d
imagined. Or at least, not in the conventional way - what terrified me most
seemed to be my own crazed reactions, not anything he was doing.

It wasn’t like I had a
lot of options anyway. Maybe the best thing would be to dial down on the
defiance and act like I was going to go along with his
let me go eventually
plan.
My father should find me at any moment, and in the meantime…I could learn as
much as I could about Leo - either to tell my father, or to find something to
exploit and escape.

The idea of that settled
me a little - almost gave me permission to relax and stop looking for any
little escape opening, without being an admission of giving up.

I thought about that for
a few minutes, accepting it before I took a deep breath and got up from the
window. One more brief look out at the desolate garden and I let the curtain
fall closed. As I came back to the bed, Leo stopped watching me and lay back
down, giving me the slightest bit of privacy to slip under the covers again.

I could still feel his
weight beside me, the heat from his body carrying over to me, but I felt better
about ignoring it now. I had a new plan, and now the hardest part was going to
be fighting the strange feelings he provoked. But I could do that after I got
some sleep and stopped my mind from churning at an insane pace.

I turned my back to him
and clutched the pillow, willing myself to fall asleep. I didn’t believe it
would work, not after everything that had happened and with Leo’s large form
behind me, but I was more exhausted than I’d thought, and in the end that
sucked me down into a blissful unconsciousness.

Chapter Six

Leo

“I’m in trouble, Jay. Can
I come ‘round?” My voice was urgent, but I kept it quiet as I glanced at the
closed door to the bedroom where Alessa was still sleeping.

It was barely light
outside, and I hadn’t wanted to wake her when she couldn’t have had more than a
few hours of sleep. Instead I’d locked the bedroom door and come out into the
corridor to make this call, while staying close enough to hear if anything
dramatic happened within the room. After what she’d done last night, there was
no way I was leaving her completely unsupervised.

There was a long silence
on the line, and my stomach knotted unpleasantly as I waited. Jay had always
come through for me before, but—

“Want to tell me what
this is about?” The gravelly voice wasn’t exactly hostile, but it wasn’t what
I’d wanted to hear either.

“I’ll tell you in
person.” No way were we having this conversation over the phone - and Jay knew
enough to respect that.

The silence deepened
before I finally heard a grunt. “Be here in an hour - and no promises.”

“One hour.” I confirmed
before hanging up and leaning back against the wall, my eyes closing.

Last night’s headache had
become a dull throbbing force behind my eyes, and Jay’s reluctance only made it
worse. I needed to talk to someone else about this mess at the very least, and
work out what the hell I should do. Politics and bullshit simply wasn’t me - I
only paid enough attention to make sure I stayed the hell out of it. The idea
of Jay turning me down was almost too much to think about.

Breathing deeply, I
pushed away from the wall and ran a hand through my hair, looking warily at the
bedroom door. I didn’t want to go in there and wake Alessa - and the last thing
I wanted to do was take her with me to Jay - but I couldn’t leave her here
alone. Not after last time.

Damn girl.

Still, the thought of
what I’d come home to yesterday had a reluctant smile forming. Crazy, impetuous
girl. I should hate that she was spirited as fuck - having a scared, timid
captive would make my life a hell of a lot easier, especially since I didn’t
know what the fuck I was doing. But for some reason Alessa’s attitude only made
my blood boil hotter for her. Which was another disaster waiting to happen.

I’d spent last night
caught between an irritating guilt for terrorizing her, and outrage that she
wasn’t afraid enough to be sensible. I should probably have gagged and
restrained her from the start - and definitely after seeing her behavior - but
I hated everything about keeping her hostage, and I couldn’t bring myself to do
it.

And overriding those
conflicting feelings was that cursed, unrelenting desire. One that I thought
I’d seen mirrored in her eyes a couple of times - but that must have been my
overly stressed mind playing tricks on me. She might have glowed with a fierce
sensuality, but there was no way the girl was going to want to fuck her
kidnapper
-
and her horror at the thought that I might force her had only made that
more obvious.

I’d hated knowing she
thought me capable of that, but considering the circumstances I could
understand it. And since I was having enough trouble following through with
treating her like a hostage, it was probably a good sign she feared me.

And however outraged I’d
been at her thinking I’d
ever
do something like that, it hadn’t been
enough to resist pushing her buttons anyway. It was a terrible idea, but I was
good
at seducing women - and with such stunning beauty in front of me, it had
been a purely natural response. About the only thing I knew about women was how
to set their pulses racing, and when I’d seen the outraged-innocence that she’d
responded with, any good intentions had vanished. I’d wanted her too much not
to make it blindingly obvious.

Maybe she would never go
for it, but I’d make sure she couldn’t doubt the offer was right there in front
of her.

Besides, it seemed to be
the only way I had of keeping her off guard.

Of course, it had all
caught up with me when we’d headed to bed. She’d put up a show of objecting to
sharing the bed, as I’d known she would, but I’d been the one to suffer in the
end.

She’d fallen to sleep
while I’d had to lie there, thinking about her beautiful sun-kissed skin next
to me, the soft curves of her hair, and that delicate set of her face.
Imagining what it would be like to roll over and touch and taste those full,
waiting lips. Just the sound of her breathing had worked its way into my
consciousness, and I’d spent the night lost in thoughts of what the hell I was going
to do - with her, with Viktor, with everything - and struggling with that
red-hot desire.

I was used to instant
gratification whenever I wanted it, and by the time I caught the first hints of
light coming through the window, I thought I’d go crazy with the frustration.
But it was day now, and the conversation with Jay had been enough to wake me up
and cool my mood, leaving me with just a splitting headache to remember the
night by.

Before I could think too
much about what was waiting for me on the other side, I unlocked the bedroom
door and stepped inside, walking over to Alessa’s side of the bed. The faint
light streaming through the curtains highlighted her face and made it appear
even softer than it had the night before.

The range of violent
emotions that it had shown then were smoothed away now, and I hesitated as I
reached for her, feeling awkward about disturbing her brief peace. My cock
twitched against my pants as I looked down at her and I almost growled at
feeling my awakening interest
already.

Today was going to be
impossible.

And you think you’ll be
rid of her by the end of the day?

I ignored the
ever-present question of what I was going to do with her, and finally reached
out a hand to her shoulder, putting on a familiar smirk and settling into
pretending far more confidence than I felt.

She jerked against me,
opening her eyes and blinking with confusion for a brief moment - then horror
and fear passed over her expression again and she recoiled from me, pulling
back into the covers.
Understandable.

I shifted back and
accepted it with a shrug, meeting her dazed eyes as I spoke. “Time to get up,
princess.”

Her brow wrinkled and she
groaned from lack of sleep, shaking her head. “Whaa’ time ’s—?”

The pulsing behind my
eyes sympathized with her muttered objection, but there were more important
things to worry about.

I followed her gaze to
the window that showed only a hint of dawn before answering her. “Early, but I
need to get moving - and you’re coming with me.”

“Wh-yy?” She was
obviously half-asleep, and the whine in her voice was almost sweet - but the
idea that she was comfortable objecting made me uneasy. Maybe it was driven by
sleep, but I was too aware of my piss-poor job at intimidating her into
obedience.

I tilted my head and
raised an eyebrow pointedly, thinking of the night before and all the reasons I
had to drag her with me today, but she barely had her eyes open and seemed to
miss my response.

Irritated, I growled a
verbal answer instead. “I’m not letting you out of my sight - remember?”

Her face screwed up and
she gathered the covers tight to her body, nestling down into the center of the
bed and closing her eyes as if it would make me go away. My blood pounded in my
temple and reminded me that I’d just
love
to be able to do the same
thing - but I didn’t have time to deal with this shit.

Instead, I folded my arms
and stepped back, appraising her.

“Do you want me to pull
you out of there myself?” My low voice could have been a threat -
should
have
been - but I couldn’t help the thrum of seductive promise there either. I
wasn’t even sure which I’d intended.

Either way, the comment
was enough to have her jerk upright, outrage reddening her cheeks again. “You
wouldn’t
dare!”

Her elegant, heart-shaped
face became cute and cherubic every time she flushed like that, stirring my
blood and making me wonder whether she had any idea what sort of effect she was
having on me.

“Try me.” I gave her a
cocky grin, surprising myself with how much I enjoyed provoking her as I
watched those hot-tempered emotions flare. When she scowled at me in response,
I decided that she was awake enough to follow simple instructions and turned
away to leave her to it. “You have ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes?!”
I
was glad she couldn’t see my second grin at the outrage there. “You have
obviously never lived with a woman, asshole.”

The careless accusation
hit me unexpectedly hard, and my mood soured.

Maybe not - but look how
right I was about that. It’s a fucking nightmare.

“Ten minutes. You’re not
dressing up for royalty, princess - I just need you ready to walk out of the
house.” If she noticed the sudden coldness to my voice, it wasn’t obvious.

Instead, she seized the
opportunity to retort. “And just what should I be dressing in, then? Do you
have a woman’s wardrobe somewhere around here?”

I turned back to see her
out of the bed with her hands on her hips, glaring at me with a now-familiar
challenge. She’d obviously worn the silken dress to bed last night, and now
stood there in its full glory - barring a few creases - and with every generous
curve on display. I recovered from the stunning sight within moments, then drew
my gaze over her slowly, enjoying every glimpse as she narrowed her eyes at me.
But she didn’t make a move to cover herself up, which - considering her modesty
the night before - I was oddly impressed by.

“Well?” Her raised
eyebrow said that she knew exactly what I’d been looking at - and while the
redness staining her cheeks showed some of her discomfort, she clearly refused
to be intimidated by it. My smile broadened in appreciation, before her
question finally registered.

“Damn.” I frowned and
turned to look at the two dressers on either side of a mid-sized wardrobe in
the middle of the opposite wall, thinking. I could sense her satisfaction at
evidence of something I hadn’t thought about, but I only glanced over mildly as
I moved forward to start searching. “Go and get on, I’ll find something.”

She gave me a smug look, but
walked towards the en suite bathroom without complaint.

“Leave the door open,
too.” I called it over my shoulder, anticipating the following angry squeal
with ease. “Either that, or you get to close the door with me inside,
princess.”

I had meant what I said
about not leaving her alone. She cursed at me for a couple of minutes and I
could hear her stomping around the bathroom, but she left the door open. I’d
already removed any questionable items so I wasn’t worried about what she might
find in there and instead, I caught myself smiling at her antics. Then I
reminded myself that we were
not
here for her games, and they were
likely going to make my life very difficult. I needed to focus, and she was
wrecking it with every fiery comment - no doubt deliberately.

So why can’t you get
angry about it? Scare her, restrain her, do something to get it all under
control again?

I pushed that thought
away and turned back to the wardrobe. This safehouse had always been intended
for me, and it was well stocked with my clothes - but I’d never considered a
female
guest
.

I rummaged through
everything there, but I had to admit it was lacking. The sound of the shower
from the bathroom had me cursing and I called out a reminder to be quick - I
couldn’t afford to wait for however long women took to get ready in the
morning. Maybe Alessa’s attitude amused me, but there was no doubt that having
her around was a pain in the ass. Turning back to the wardrobe only highlighted
that again, and with a grunt of irritation I started pulling out a couple of my
old shirts and t-shirts.

Everything was far too
big, and none of my pants stood a chance of fitting her, but maybe she could
throw something together. Anything would be better than that revealing piece of
lingerie that she’d been wearing when I took her. My blood flared at the
thought of her in that again, but even if she’d go for it, having her parade
that in public would attract far too much attention.

She came out from the
bathroom quicker than I’d expected, but even so I was pacing impatiently by the
time I saw her in the doorway, my mind absorbed by thoughts of what I was going
to tell Jay later. I stopped as I noticed her there, wrapped in a cream towel
that barely covered her golden skin and showed off the long length of her legs.
Her gaze met mine briefly and she blushed, obviously awkward around me in just
the towel.

Far too modest for her
own good. What was an innocent girl like that doing with Viktor Kovalski?

I ignored the thought as
she walked towards the clothes lying on the bed - getting curious about her
wasn’t a good idea.