Tease Me (6 page)

“
Do you know where you
are?”

Ellie shook her head.
“Mexico, right?” I nodded. “I don’t know where. I know I was in
that trailer for a fucking long time.” I nodded. Driving from
Indiana to Mexico
was
a long fucking time. “Look, blindfold me, drug me…I don’t
care. Just put me back over the border and I’ll leave you alone, I
promise. I won’t say anything. I haven’t been gone long enough for
anyone to notice I’m missing yet.”

I had to hand it to her, she was smart. “I
don’t trust you,” I said and knelt down again. “I have no choice
but to keep you with me. For a while,” I added.

“
Then can you at least get
me something to drink?” she asked pointedly.

“
Diego!” I called. He stuck
his head in the doorway. I told him to bring me a bottle of water.
He hurried away and was back in a minute. I twisted off the cap and
gave it to Ellie. She took it, awkwardly holding in in her bound
hands, and drank the whole thing. I could hear her stomach
grumble.

“
Thanks,” she said, her
voice breathy. She dropped the water bottle and looked up, as if
she was surprised at herself for thanking me. Her cheeks, smeared
with dirt and mascara, flushed.

“
Are you hungry?” I
asked.

She blinked. Her lashes were long. I leaned
in. The light was dim in here, but I didn’t think she had on fake
lashes like the whores I had hired only a few hours ago.

“
I should be,” she said and
curled her legs under her body. Blood crusted to her knees. She
pushed her shoulders back and set her jaw. She reminded me of a
wounded bird, beautiful but unable to fly. I had to clip her wings.
I couldn’t let her escape and be free. I wasn’t risking my business
like that.

She shifted her weight again, and I got a
flash of her pussy. She was shaven, with day-old stubble showing
along her panty line. My dick pulsed. She was so raw, so real.

I reached behind me and took my keys. I
flicked open a pocketknife. Ellie flinched. I grabbed her hands and
started sawing through the ropes that bound her.

“
What are you doing?” she
asked.

Yes, she was smart.

“
Untying you.”

“
I know that,” she stated.
“Why?”

I sighed and continued cutting the ropes. “I
can’t leave you here.” Her skin was soft under my fingers. She
sucked in air when the knife popped through the rope. I pulled it,
unwinding it from her wrists.

“
Sorry,” I said again when I
saw the blood. “They shouldn’t have done that.”

“
No shit,” she
mumbled.

I smiled and moved on to the ropes around her
ankles. She straightened her legs and stretched out her arms. Just
how long had she been tied up? The whole trip, most likely.

I tossed the ropes from her ankles to the
side and stood. She looked at me, eyes narrowed.

“
Come with me,” I said.
Those three words could make a woman cream. But Ellie just started
at me. I reached down to offer my hand. She jerked back.

“
No.”

“
I won’t hurt you if you
listen,” I promised.

Ellie let out a snort of laughter. “Why the
fuck won’t you? You kidnapped me, tied me up, and brought me to
Mexico.”

Anger boiled inside of me. I didn’t like to
be falsely accused. “I told you, that wasn’t me.”

“
Well, you’re obviously the
boss,
Alejandro
,”
she said pointedly. I pushed my shoulders back, surprised she knew
who I was. I hadn’t told her. I blinked away the shock. Right. She
was a cop. She knew all about me…and the business.

“
I have no choice but to
take you back to the house with me. Well, you could stay here,” I
said and looked around the closet. It was dark and damp, and the
floor was dirty and gritty. “It gets colder than you’d think around
here at night. Do what you wish.” I turned to leave.

“
Fine,” Ellie said, and I
turned back around. She ignored my offer to help her to her feet.
She grabbed her heels and put them on. She bent over to pull on the
straps. Her breasts hung free inside her dress. I watched her
nipples graze against the material. The ropes that bound her were
by her feet. Suddenly I wanted to tie her back up and have my way
with her.

Blood rushed to my cock. I bit the inside of
my cheek.

“
You’re not going to get
away with this,” she said, her voice venomous. She looked up, green
eyes burning with anger. His distain turned me on even more. My
dick began to get hard.

I laughed and shifted my weight. “We’ll see
about that.”

Ellie straightened up and rolled her eyes.
“Do you think no one will look for me?”

“
No one knows about this
place,” I assured her. She crossed her arms and shook her head. I
could feel how much she hated me. The tip of my dick ached, wanting
in her pussy. I bet she was tight. I let my eyes run down her body.
I wondered how long she would hold onto the hatred. I could make
her want me; I was sure of it.

Fuck. I wanted her already.

“
Where are you taking
me?”

“
To my house,” I said and
motioned for her to step in front of me. I let out a breath and
shifted my thoughts from what her cunt felt like to the mess I was
in. My hard-on was gone by the time we got to the car. “Don’t think
about running,” I said and opened the door for her.

Ellie got in and laughed. “I’m not stupid,”
she said. “I can see how well guarded and armed you are.”

I closed her door and hurried around the car.
“You’re a cop. You might—”

“
Please,” she said and
rolled her eyes again. “I’m a city police officer, not an
international spy. I’m not taking my chances against the six men
with AK47s on the ground and the two on the roof.”

I couldn’t help but smile.
She
was
good. Even
I hadn’t seen the two men on the roof, and I knew they were
there.

“
Bueno,” I said and
tightened my grip on the wheel. “Now shut up and be quiet.” I fired
up the engine and drove back to my house.

I closed my eyes and let out a shaky breath.
I was scared shitless, completely terrified, but I’d be damned if I
acted like it. Now wasn’t the time to panic. Freaking the fuck out
wasn’t going to help me in any way.

I messed up.

There. I admitted it to
myself. I shouldn’t have approached a suspect alone. I should have
called for backup
then
went outside. I sighed and looked out the window. I was
sitting in a new Porsche driving fast through Mexico, next to a
very handsome stranger.

Make that a very
handsome,
dangerous
stranger.

I knew Alejandro Calaveras was young and
attractive. I just didn’t know he was this attractive. He had tan
skin with tattoos on his arms, mostly covered from the long sleeves
of his shirt. His dark hair was tousled and messy around his face.
His dark eyes were outlined in thick lashes, and his well-defined
cheekbones gave him a sultry, almost pouty look.

He could easily play the rugged bad boy your
mother never wanted you to meet. I turned, looking him over. Put a
suit on him and he could be the billionaire CEO of a Fortune 500
company as well. He could be anything and look good doing it.

That made him all the more dangerous.

He was fit but not obnoxiously muscular. And
he smelled good. Dammit. I turned away. Alejandro might not have
been the one to physically tase me and throw me in the back of a
trailer full of chickens, but he was responsible for my
kidnapping.

I didn’t want to find him attractive. But I
did, and my body reacted to him on its own accord. I felt a tingle
when our eyes met, and I had the urge to lick my lips and fuck him
with my eyes. He was a curious thing, apologizing for the way I was
manhandled and offering me water. Was he buttering me up and
planning on torturing me later?

I knew he was looking at my body. I caught
him twice. His brown eyes widened as they trailed up and down my
torso. I thought I saw a growing bulge in his pants when he stood.
Did I turn him on? There was no way. I was dirty and smelled like
chickens. Maybe holding me captive was his thing. Knowing he owned
me, that I had to listen to him to live.

My head bobbed down. I was exhausted. I
hadn’t slept since I’d been taken, and having that level of
constant terror flow through me for hours was tiring. I wanted to
believe Alejandro’s words, that if I listened, if I obeyed him, I
would be safe.

*

The car lurched to a stop in front of cast
iron gates. I wrapped my arms around myself as Alejandro drove
through, headlights illuminating a winding brick drive.

The house at the top of the hill was huge. It
was tan in color, with balconies along the second story and a red
clay roof. It looked like a freaking luxury resort. The lawn was
professionally landscaped, and underground sprinklers were misting
the grass.

Alejandro opened the garage and pulled in.
There were four cars and a motorcycle in here. Every thing was
expensive and shining. He cut the engine and turned to me.

“
You can get out,” he said.
His voice was commanding, but he seemed unsure of himself. And I
knew he’d been surprised to see me in that closet, like it was the
last thing he’d expected. Maybe he really hadn’t wanted his men to
take me. It was a mess for him. That I was sure of.

I got out of the car and was hit with a
breeze from the open garage door. The wind carried the scent of the
ocean. We were by the coast?

“
This way,” Alejandro
directed. His accent was alluring.

No. Fuck. There was nothing alluring about
him.

“
I’m assuming you want to
shower,” he said and opened the door into the house for me. I
nodded. “I’ll take you upstairs.”

His eyes slid over me again. I didn’t feel
violated. I almost liked knowing he was looking at me. I stepped
into the house, following Alejandro and noticing his nice ass. He
had a gun tucked into the back of his pants.

I debated taking it from him and using it. I
might get past him, but what about the armed guards at the bottom
of the driveway? If I was going to plan an escape, I needed to
think about it a bit more.

The house was grand. We walked through a
gallery hall. Expensive artwork with a hint of Spanish accents in
rich colors hung on the walls.

A maid stood in the kitchen, washing dishes.
She eyed me curiously as we walked past but knew better than to say
anything to Alejandro. I bet he brought all sorts of women home
with him…though I doubt any looked roughed up like I did.

He hadn’t married, I knew from the reports on
him. But that was about all I knew. Unlike some of his other family
members, he was quiet and kept to himself. It had made the job of
busting the Calaveras very difficult. Everyone knew he was guilty
but had no hard evidence.

Hah, now I knew too much. Actually…I could
find out everything about his operation. It could be the biggest
bust of my career. Well, if I ever got out of here, that was.

“
There are towels in the
bathroom,” Alejandro said as he went up the stairs. “I will arrange
someone to bring you clothes.”

I nodded, still weirded-out by his
politeness. What was he getting at? He was a bad person. There was
no way he could be nice like this. I went into the guest bedroom.
Whoa. Talk about luxury. A queen-sized bed was in the center of the
far wall, topped with fluffy white pillows and blankets. A dark
dresser was across from it, and an impressive painting of the ocean
hung behind the bed.

I stepped in the room. Alejandro closed the
door behind me. I heard him speaking in Spanish, and another male
voice answered. Footfalls came down the hall, stopping in front of
the door. I knew he wouldn’t leave me unguarded.

I crossed the room to the window. It was a
straight drop to the driveway below. Dammit. Not now…I’d come up
with a plan later.

I went into the large bathroom and turned on
the shower. Everything was grand. The shower was huge, with glass
doors and natural stones lining it.

I stripped out of my ruined dress and got in.
The warm water felt great on my sore muscles. I picked up a bottle
of shampoo and washed my hair, taking my time to pull out the
tangles with my fingers. I slathered conditioner in my hair and
picked up a bar of soap that smelled like lilacs.

I washed my body twice, whining when the soap
got in my open cuts. There were red marks around my wrists, and the
skin was rubbed raw in a few places.

Once I was clean, I got out of the shower. I
wrapped a fluffy towel around myself and stepped onto the bathmat.
Everything was so elegant, even in the bathroom. I couldn’t imagine
having this much money.

I opened a drawer in the bathroom counter.
There were new toothbrushes, lotions, perfumes, brushes, and combs.
Everything was neatly laid out. The drawer below that had a hair
dryer, curling iron, and a box of tampons.

I opened the cabinets. Along with more towels
and washcloths, there was a light pink, satin robe. I grabbed it
and put it on.

Alejandro must entertain a lot of women.

I towel dried my hair, then brushed and
braided it. I cracked the bathroom door. Cool air rushed in, making
me shiver. The bedroom door was still closed, and all was silent in
the hall. I left the bathroom and sat on the bed. I shivered again
but didn’t move.