Beth’s ankles were tied to the chair legs, her feet touching the floor. He expected she’d need to rock in order to get the chair to move, but instead she simply pushed off with her toes and both chair and female moved, tumbling down the two steps to land half on top of him with the blessed sound of splintering wood.
“Ooof.” She hadn’t hurt him, but he figured complaining might keep her calm. She was scrambling to get off him, pushing away with her bound hands, pieces of chair attached to her back and ankles, but it gave her more flexibility than she would have had in the chair. “Hold still,” he growled, waiting to see if the men downstairs had heard her fall. No pounding on the stairs, but he didn’t allow himself the luxury of relief.
He moved his head toward her face and she tried to duck away, her head banging on his chin and making his headache worse. “Hold still, damn you,” he said again in the voice he used to terrorize small children. “I’m just getting your gag off.”
Her deep blue eyes looked at him questioningly, and he could feel her instinctive flinch when he moved closer, but this time she held still, like someone trying not to alarm a tarantula crawling on her arm.
His teeth caught the small edge of the duct tape. He froze for a moment. He could smell her skin, smell her fear, and if his arms were free he would have put them around her, comforting her. Like the crazy man he suddenly seemed to have become, he reminded himself. That blow on the head must have been worse than he thought.
He bit again, the tape held and he started to pull it off her mouth.
“Son of a bitch,” she whispered when he finally yanked it off completely.
“You talking to me?” he inq
uired politely.
Beth was a tough woman, but she wasn’t in the mood for banter. “Who are these people, and what do they want with us?”
“They work for the CIA.”
Relief washed over her face. “Then that’s no problem. Dylan and I are Americans. They wouldn’t want to hurt us.”
“Don’t count on it. They’re subcontractors, and they’ll kill anyone they want. As far as I can tell it’s me they’re interested in, and the two of you are expendable.”
“Great. Another thing to thank you for,” she snapped. “So how do we get out of this?”
“I have a knife. If you can get to it you can cut my ropes and then I’ll take care of you and Dylan. I’ll need to canvass the place before I know how we’re getting out, but trust me, we’ll do it.”
She didn’t move. “Oddly enough, I do. Where’s the knife?”
He shouldn’t have grinned. “Front of my jeans.”
Her icy stare would have flash frozen an ocean. “Yeah, right.”
“Sorry, babe, but that’s where I keep my spare. If anyone checks they just think I have a hard-on.”
“Which you probably do.”
“Not yet. You have to get closer.”
“You asshole,” she said in a fierce whisper. “You did this on purpose.”
“I don’t think so. It’s always been a smart place to hide something. That doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy having you get to it. But be careful. It’s a switchblade.”
“You mean if I grab it the wrong way I get to castrate you?”
He winced, then laughed. “No, probably just circumcise me.”
She looked startled, and he realized she didn’t know he wasn’t circumcised. That’s what came of innocence debauched and fucking in the dark. “Didn’t notice, did you?” he said softly, so the curious Dylan couldn’t overhear. “You can check it out later.”
She tried to jerk away, and the only way he could stop her was to slam his legs over her, keeping her still. “Come on, Sister Beth,” he chided. “We know you aren’t really a nun. Just chill and do what I tell you and we’ll get our asses out of this mess.”
She wriggled back toward him. “Do you know how much I despise you?” she said in a calm voice. She moved her bound hands toward the front of his pants, and he managed to keep the smile from his face.
“I know,” he said. Right now her fury with him was keeping her alive. Tenderness would have made her crumble, anger made her strong. “Go ahead, sweetheart. Make my day.”
Of course he was hard, had been since they’d started talking about it. Her hands brushed against him, for a moment mistaking his cock for the knife.