I bend over, palms on my knees, catching my breath.
“I think I’m done for the day.”
“That was less than five minutes,” he points out.
I stand straight. “Which is too much for me”—especially when I need to save a large portion of my energy for what I’m planning.
“Your body is too weak,” he states, looking me over.
“It’s not like you didn’t know that before today,” I huff.
A smirk tugs at the corner of his mouth, but thankfully he says nothing. Still, I feel the betraying warmth spreading across my skin, and his eyes catch it. I know because his smirk widens.
I clear my throat. “I can’t walk anymore. Can you carry me on your back?” I look around. “I want to see deeper into the forest.” It’s not a lie, the forest is very beautiful, and I do want to see what lies in its depths. And it will serve me as well.
He steps closer and tucks the strands falling over my ear behind it, his fingers grazing the shell of it. “There are wild animals in its depths.”
“We don’t have to go that far. We can stick to the side with no wild animals.” That will let me know which side is closest to the forest’s exit.
He hums but doesn’t move away or remove his hand from the back of my head. Instead, he threads his fingers deeper into my hair, tilting my head back.
“What are you hiding, baby?” he coaxes, the tenderness in his voice almost stopping my heart.
“Nothing.” I sound confident. I hope I look confident too.
“Your eyes are too big and too innocent to hide your intentions. Now, be a good girl and tell me what you’re up to.”
“I’m really not up to anything.”
He releases me. I almost sigh in relief. He turns and crouches down. I stay frozen, lost in my thoughts, I almost forget I asked him to carry me. He turns his head back toward me. I snap out of my thoughts and climb onto his back.
He grabs my thighs to keep me from falling and stands up. I lock my arms around his neck, my water bottle dangling against his chest, my cheek pressed to his jaw. His woodsy aftershave makes my nose tingle. I fight the subconscious urge to breathe him in, to rub the tip of my nose against his jaw and cheek, something I used to do often back in Naples.
“You know my father hated Salvario because he kidnapped me. And now that you’ve done the same thing, he’ll hate you too.” I start a random conversation, mainly to keep myself distracted from his body.
“I don’t care,” he mutters, turning his head just enough to meet my eyes. “I don’t care if the whole world hates me. The only person who matters to me is with me.”
“You’re holding that person captive.”
He stares into my eyes for a beat, unnerving me with the unspoken words and the shattered pieces of his soul I can see through the gray curtains. Then, without a single word, he averts his gaze. I have the sinking sense I’m close to breaking this man completely, and this knowledge is like a noose of thorns around my windpipe.
We stay silent for half an hour, if not more. After making sure he’s a little tired, I ask him to put me down.
I open the cap of my bottle, pretend to take a sip of water, then pass him the bottle. He takes a few gulps and returns it to me. My fingers tremble slightly as I close the cap again.
I compose myself and look around. It’s already evening. If my calculations are right, I have one hour before the sun sets. I let my eyes settle on Hunter, who is already watching me. My heart thumps wildly in my chest as I hold his assertive gaze, a countdown ticking inside my head.
He shakes his head with a faint chuckle that holds no trace of laughter. “You drugged me,” he mutters, a smile twitchingat the corner of his mouth, forced into place while devastation settles into his bones.
The gray in his eyes has finally turned to ash. Nothing moves there anymore.
He looks exactly as he did that night, and it’s having the same effect on me it had then. I want to hug him and cry in his arms, telling him it’s impossible between us. At the same time, I want to run far, far away from him, forcing myself to forget that a man named Hunter Blackwood ever existed.
“You left me no choice.” I force the words out, looking away from him.
I put a high dose of sedatives from the first-aid kit into the bottle while I was doing the dishes after lunch. Slowly, he’ll lose control of his body, and within a few minutes, he’ll lose consciousness.
He advances. I retreat.
