Captured by the Bodyguard (10 page)

“Go on, Alexandra; let your inner hellcat out,” Cane was saying, finally turning so their eyes met and for the first time, she saw the unmistakable flicker of molten green flame that turned his gaze almost liquid. His body was tense, coiled tight and most probably, aroused and dangerous. Alexandra licked on her parched lips and clenched her hands even tighter, her heart slamming against her chest as she stared into his terrifyingly handsome face with those haunting, shadowed angles and planes.

Quelling the urge to succumb to the violent pounding of desire echoing beneath her pores, she drew in a shuddery, bracing breath and looked away from him sharply. “Just take me home, Hutchinson. And once it’s morning, I’m calling my dad. I don’t think I feel safe around you anymore; I’ll be requesting someone else to be my handler if my father still feels so hell bent on keeping one around me. I’m getting you replaced, and this time I mean it.”

She heard Cane’s breath snag, could feel the fury coming off him in waves. She was almost afraid to make eye contact, not wanting to set him off or do anything to propel her hot tears which threatened to fall. Her face was turned firmly to her window as moments later, he started the car and drove them off without another word.

Chapter Ten

Oh, damn it all to hell!

Alexandra rolled out of bed the next morning feeling like she’d been run over by a freight truck. How did one wake up with a hangover if one hadn’t even been drinking the night before?

She’d tossed and turned all night, wrestling with her pillows, covers and even her nightmares as she tried to get over the agony of how last night had gone.

Cane. They’d said some really nasty things to each other but once he drove them home, not another word was exchanged. She’d thought he’d try to talk her out of her decision to ask for another bodyguard, but he didn’t. Alexandra felt hurt but realized that maybe he was just as sick of the whole thing as she was. Maybe? No, make that
definitely
.

She shoved her hair out of her face as she stretched her aching body. She could hear Cane in the adjoining room, moving about already. She remembered every little thing he’d said yesterday: about her bodyguard crush, and generally about her not even knowing what she wanted because heck, she was a rich brat daddy’s princess spoiled from birth.

Well, to hell with you, Cane Hutchison, Alexandra fumed as she shoved her legs into some running tights. She gathered her hair in a top knot and finished putting on the gear she’d need for a run in the nearby wooded park. She ran most mornings but in the past month she hadn’t been that regular, content mostly to go to the gym. But for the past few weeks since he’d been assigned as her bodyguard, Cane always came along. She’d enjoyed his company even though they rarely talked. But today, she couldn’t even stand to be in the same house with him not to speak of letting him along as her jogging partner slash minder. As far as she was concerned, he was no longer even her bodyguard. She’d officially divested him of his services last night and once she got back in an hour, she’d call her dad to make her stand.

But for now, she needed to clear her head. Run off all the negative energy from last night as well as all the angst that had built up since the cluster bomb her life had become when she got assigned a bodyguard.

For some reason, she found herself tiptoeing out of her room, unwilling to face a confrontation with Cane. If he saw her, he would insist on accompanying her which would be awkward and quite frankly, unwelcome. She still hadn’t forgiven him for talking to her like she wasn’t an adult who knew the difference between a crush and an actual manifestation of feelings for a man who’d made such an intense impact on her.

She stepped noiselessly past his room, pausing long enough to hear sounds that told her he was busy in the shower. Good. He needn’t know she was out on her run. She’d be back soon anyway and besides, now that her father had all but confirmed that Vincent the tycoon thug no longer considered her father a rival, then Alexandra had stopped being a target.

Feeling an almost childish satisfaction in having her way this once, Alexandra smirked as she made her way quietly out of the house, shutting the door just as softly after her.

***

Alexandra had run on that trail countless times.

As she jogged she felt the rush of adrenalin coursing through her. Her sports halter already had the sensation of cool perspiration contacting her skin. It was early morning with the sound of birds in the trees and the gentle glow of the sun breaking through the clear skies. People normally ran in the park each morning but never more than a few at a time since this was a community just outside the main city. This morning though she seemed to be the only one out this early. As always Alexandra enjoyed the tranquility that came from feeling like you were so close to nature.

At first she thought nothing of the van driving toward her, barely registering its light blue color or the shadow of the man driving behind the wheel. Her thoughts were all jumbled up and she didn’t even wonder when the van pulled over to the curb just as she neared.

She watched absent-mindedly and saw the driver, who was wearing a beanie, slam his hands on the steering wheel as if it was the van suddenly choosing to give out. She was still yards away from the vehicle which was parked right where she was soon to jog past. The driver stepped down from the van and walked round to the passenger door.

Alexandra kept a steady pace as she neared the van, her mind already elsewhere. Would Cane have realized by now that she’d left? Hmm. Maybe, like that first time, he was cooking some peace-making breakfast. Or maybe he was hopping mad when he finally discovered she was nowhere in the house. The thought of making Cane angry brought a pleased, twisted smile to her face. That was sure to get his goat, thought Alexandra with satisfaction. He’d hate to be thwarted or defied. For the first time, she was flouting his authority. He’d given her clear instructions from the start never to leave the house alone. Well fuck that, you’re no longer my bodyguard, Mr. Hutchinson. As of last night, your ass was fired, Alexandra thought with bitter triumph.

She barely noticed the driver of the van turn to her as she was racing past the open side of the van where he stood, a piece of cord in his hand. They nodded at each other, in the vague way that strangers sometimes do. Alexandra could barely see his face which was obscured by the beanie, though something seemed very familiar about his dark-skinned jaw. Not giving it a second thought, she jogged by.

But just as her body passed him, from the corner of her eye she saw his arms reach towards her. He lunged his entire body at her, and in an instant she felt his enormous hands gripping her, with one around her midriff and the other sealing over her mouth.

Alexandra was gripped by panic, instantly biting his hand and hearing him yell out ‘you bitch!’ before pulling tighter on her waist and robbing her of breath. She felt her body being dragged back with him into the van and she screamed into the hand gagging her mouth but the sounds were sealed in, useless. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t breathe. But her survival instinct was strong and she suddenly thought of a move she learned in the self-defense classes she’d taken in the past. Using the whole of her weight, she propelled herself off her feet and pushed back heavily on her captor with the aim of unbalancing him. She heard him curse angrily under his breath as her sudden move made him almost lose his footing.

But he caught himself quickly, only just managing to keep his hold on her body and mouth. Fuck, he was strong, thought Alexandra with a sinking sensation as his mouth pressed closed to her ear. “You’ll pay for that, slut.”

Alexandra stiffened, alarm bells ringing in her head at the sound of his voice. Oh shit. Oh hell no.
Lamar?

She had no chance to dwell on this as suddenly she was yanked, kicking and struggling, off the ground before being swung inside the van. She knew that once she got trapped in there, she was in trouble. She was in trouble right now. Oh God, I should have listened to my dad – listened to Cane.
Cane
. His face flashed through her mind and she felt another rush of terror. She felt herself hitting the floor of the inside of the van, face down on the thin matting where her abductor dropped her.

She bolted into an erect position at once as she heard him slam the van door shut from the inside. Before she could even blink, his hand shoved hard on her shoulder, slamming her down on her back as he turned to her. 

Alexandra stared into Lamar’s face and saw an expression she’d never expected. For a second she was just in shock, unable to believe this was really happening and yet knowing it wasn’t a game. Oh my God, thought Alexandra helplessly. She recoiled as Lamar moved towards her. Suddenly, he seized her left ankle and his face broke into a frightful leer. Alexandra burst out of her trance and started to scream but he slammed his whole body against hers, effectively killing her scream as he robbed her of oxygen.

Alexandra could barely move or make a sound beneath his massive weight, and she could only watch as he grabbed her flailing arms and efficiently wrestled her wrists into the shackles set halfway up the van wall. Now that her hands were secured above her head, he still held her down bodily while he reached to his left and pulled a knife from a box. Alexandra’s eyes widened in fear as he grabbed the bottom hem of her sports halter which he lifted off her body before slicing it right through the middle. He shredded the top off her, revealing her breasts as he wrapped the rags around her head and over her mouth, gagging her roughly.

Tears of anger and trepidation suddenly pinched Alexandra’s eyes as she stared into Lamar’s hard, grinning face. Her lower body was still trapped beneath his and she could feel a stiffening begin to bulge in his pants as he pressed hard into her belly. Alexandra turned her head away in unstoppable disgust as his eyes roamed over her exposed breasts.

In a flash, he was grabbing her chin and twisting her face back to his. “If you know what’s good for you, bitch, you’d keep looking at me,” he snarled. Now, he had the knife pressed against her throat.

Alexandra’s chest was heaving and she couldn’t seem to keep up a normal breathing rate. Real fear gripped her heart as she felt the blade of the knife, unmistakably sharp and distressing, begin to break into her skin ever so slightly. He cut her, drew blood, and grinned evilly when she began to scream beneath her gag…

***

I don’t feel safe around you anymore.

Damn it to
hell
, thought Cane as Alexandra’s words from last night slashed through him like a blade. That blasted female knew just want to say to twist him up in knots. Like no other woman ever had.

Growling with self-deprecation and fury, Cane slammed his fist against the tiled wall, resting his forehead against it for a moment as the ice-cold shower pummeled him from the upper and side jets. He’d woken up after another bad night, hard as a rock for her – again. It had been that way since…oh, the first night he’d moved in as her bodyguard. And it had gotten steadily worse so that he was taking several icy showers a day just to dampen his raging hormones that were urging him to cross the line. Take the few steps out of his room and go knocking on her door.

In his fantasies, she’d be waiting eagerly. Those pretty brown eyes beguiling.

“I want you, Cane. And I’ve waited
so
long. Will you take me now?” she’d ask in her soft, melodic voice with the stirring undertone.

“Take you? Honey, I’m going to fucking
own
you,” was his raspy, tortured grunt of a reply as he’d sink on his knees at the edge of her bed. It was his fantasy, so she’d be wearing that sexy white bra and panties she’d had on that night they’d gotten soaked in the shower.

She’d tremble deliciously at his words, and at the way he’d grab her ankles firmly and tug her body down till she had her legs hanging on either side of him and off the edge of the bed. Her honey-skinned face would be flushed; beads of sweat coating her smooth temple. Her hair would be a mass of luxuriantly thick curls, just the way he liked them. He’d bend low and fist his fingers in her hair, his thighs nudging hers apart as his lips aimed for her luscious, gasping mouth.

Their first kiss. Fuck; she’d taste so
freaking
good. She’d open wide for his onslaught and he’ll seize her lips in a ravenous tango of passion. He’d grind his mouth against hers till she moaned in half protest, half-delight at his ferocity. He’d dive in with his tongue and swirl it round the roof of her sweet mouth. She’d moan, and his cock would swell impossibly. Her tongue would suddenly, shyly mesh with his and it would almost be the death of him.

Alexandra
.

He shook the fevered fantasy off and tell himself he was a fool. He’d held back this long, stayed true to his honor code and
now
he wanted to cave?

No.

One day, she’ll thank him, he reminded himself. She’d know that whatever he’d done had been for her own good. She was just twenty-three, mostly sheltered all her life. He was more than ten years older at thirty five; he’d seen too much of bad, and not enough of good in the world. But he still knew right from wrong and his mind told him it would be wrong, at this point, to finally give in to the thirst.

She might hate him now, but maybe he’d get the chance to explain before they parted. He knew that this time, she hadn’t been bluffing about asking her dad to get a replacement. He understood her anger and he was ready to step down and let her get the steam out of her system. She was a woman; she had emotions, insecurities. He’d constantly held back and the feminine side of her felt hurt, maybe undesirable. She’d never forgive him for that but hopefully, she come to respect the choices he’d made as her bodyguard. And heaven help him, they’d better have a good enough guy to replace me, thought Cane. Someone who’d treat her like the angel, precious and sweet, that she was.