Chapter 3
“Wake up!”
Goran groaned and tried to lift his head but a searing pain stopped his efforts. He felt heavy and…someone kept kicking him.
“Wake up, you monster-sized human!”
He would have laughed at that ridiculous insult if his head wasn’t throbbing so painfully. His mouth felt dry and his arms…why couldn’t he move his arms? What the hell was going on? And what was that god-awful smell?!
“Ugh!” The voice sounded like Calista’s, but Goran couldn’t imagine her being so angry. Anger implied emotions and passions! Princess Calista was one of the most lifeless women he’d ever had the misery of knowing. Although, “knowing” wasn’t possible. Calista was too diplomatically polite and too introverted for anyone to really “know” her. So who the hell was muttering a series of expletives that would make a sailor blush?
Another kick, this time to his hips, startled him enough so that he lifted his head. Unfortunately, his eyes felt as if they were glued shut. He forced his eyelids to open, just a crack, because the bright light burned the retinas. Quickly, he closed his eyes again, using his other senses to try and figure out what was going on.
Ties. His hands were tied behind his back. That would explain why he couldn’t move his arms. It would also explain the burning sensation in his shoulders.
“Darn it, Goran! You’d think that someone of your size would have a bit more resiliency!”
Was she still complaining about his size? He wanted to laugh, since Calista…and yeah, he knew that it was his lovely, cold fiancée now that he recognized her voice as well as the sweet scent of her perfume…was berating him for his size? He hadn’t realized that his size was something that she’d hated about him. He’d thought she’d liked his height! Contrary woman!
“Will you please shake it off and wake up?”
That’s when he heard the panic in her voice. Reacting to that, he once again lifted his head, forcing his eyelids to open so that he could see her and give her some small measure of reassurance. They’d be fine, he wanted to tell her, but his mouth was too dry. And he couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on.
“Where are we?”
Calista’s head swiveled around, her big, brown eyes panicked and she shifted her adorable ass along the rough wood of…where the hell were they?
“Pretend you’re not awake!” she hissed, shifting her body again. “Do it now!”
Reacting not just to the panic, but also the heavy footsteps outside of the doorway, he let his head bob downwards again. It wasn’t hard to fake being “out” since his whole body ached and his head felt as if it might explode from the pain jabbing at every corner of his brain.
A fraction of a second after he let his head flop back down, the heavy, wooden door opened up.
“Who are you talking to?” a male voice demanded.
“Him!” she snapped to whoever was standing in the doorway.
More shuffling footsteps and Goran concentrated on appearing unconscious. “He is awake?”
A long sigh followed that question. “I wish. But whatever was in that syringe was too much for him. He still hasn’t moved even when I kick him.”
The male voice laughed, but a second later, the door slammed shut. Goran waited for Calista to give him the signal that he could lift his head again. But slowly, as he waited for her signal, he realized several things. First, his hands were tied with one of those plastic zip ties. His feet were bound as well and they’d taken his shoes. Also, one of his ribs might be broken. But other than that, he was fine. Well, besides the splitting headache! Which was a pretty significant issue.
Goran waited another several beats, then lifted his head and forced his eyes to open once again. “What the hell is going on?” he whispered, not wanting the guards to come back and find him awake.
Calista rolled her eyes and he once again had the insane desire to pull her over his lap and spank her sexy ass! How dare she roll her eyes at him!
He would have done it, too. If his damn hands weren’t bound behind his back!
“Take my shoe,” she whispered, thrusting an ivory shod foot towards him. The stiletto heel was quite nice, but…!
“I’m not in the mood to play footsie at the moment, Calista,” he growled, wishing he could shove her pretty foot off of his lap. Again, the bound hands were really pissing him off!
“Don’t be an ass!” she hissed at him. “Take the heel and pull!”
“Why the hell would I do that?”
Calista sighed, the sound coming out as if she was reaching for her last reserves of patience. “Look, Goran. I know that there isn’t any love lost between us. If we are perfectly honest with each other, we probably hate each other. But right now, we’re in a bit of a bind, literally and figuratively. And at this particular moment, I need you to pull the blade out of the heel of my shoe, then hand it to me so that I can cut through these stupid plastic ties.” She paused there, staring at him with fury radiating from every fiber of her body. “After we get out of this mess, then we can figure out a way to extricate ourselves from the most tedious engagement two people have ever had to deal with. Okay?”