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“Yeah. It’s kind of important. Come in. I want to show you some special features.”
Nicole followed Paul as he went towards the back of the house again. “These are the bedrooms.” There were several doors along the hallway. He opened the first one on the left. “This will be your room.”
She followed him into the room. There was a queen-sized bed, a chest of drawers along one wall. Opposite the bed was a dresser. Sitting on top of it was a television and control box.
“The house is hooked up to satellite signal and there are a variety of channels for your entertainment.” Then he led her to a door she assumed was the closet.
He entered and motioned for her to follow him. He flipped a switch on the wall and the room lit. “When this door is closed and locked this becomes a safe room. Once you are locked in here, the only people that can open this door are myself and the members of my team. There’s a handprint scanner on the outside to activate and deactivate the lock. No one else will be able to get in.”
“This is one of two entrances to the room. Follow me and I’ll show you the other one.” He headed out of the closet.
She followed him into the hall and back to the living room. He walked over to the fireplace. “Pay attention. You’ll want to remember this.” He placed his hand on one of the bricks and it moved outward.
Nicole moved closer to see as he reached his hand in the space where the brick had been, and she heard a click.
Paul moved back and the fireplace slid to the right. Nicole stepped into the open space and she was back in the closet in the bedroom.
Paul followed her in and showed her how to pull the door shut and lock herself in. “Once you’re in here no one will be able to get in.” He moved over to a box on the wall.
“Emergency lighting is activated whenever the fireplace is opened, in addition to the switch I showed you before. Over here we have an emergency phone that will dial straight to our emergency response unit and notify the local police. Once this is locked, it can’t be opened by anyone who doesn’t have acce
ss.” He reminded her.
Then he showed her how to lift a panel in the floor. There were stairs that led down to a small room. Inside was a set of bunk beds, a small refrigerator and some shelves with a few canned goods and some prepackaged meals.
“This also serves as a storm shelter. It’s not the most luxurious, but will suffice in an emergency situation. It’s a certified hurricane shelter, and there’s a generator in the garage that automatically takes over when the power goes out.
The room was small with no windows, and Nicole could see how it would be useful in an emergency.
Paul led her back up the stairs to the closet. “If you get scared or feel unsafe for any reason, I want you to head in here.” He led her out of the room and took her back to the living room.
9
Nicole had been staying at the safe house for several days and was starting to go crazy with boredom. They guys were great, and she had been having a fun time getting to know each of them.
There was always one man in the house with her and at least one man on the outside. Paul was with her most often, with the other men rotating in and out.
Paul had been with her more than the others and she was learning a lot about him—things she would have never guessed. They had things in common she would have never realized had they not had time to talk.
“It’s the red thread that joins us all,” he told her as they discovered their joint interests.
He had been taking a couple of hours each day to teach her some of his martial-arts techniques. “This will help you strengthen your core, and these moves focus on deflecting the attacker. They are a little more intense than what is taught in most normal self-defense classes. Variations of moves you probably already know.”
They had just finished their session for the day, and Nicole was lying on the floor—where she’d landed again—trying to catch her breath, when Paul’s cell phone rang.
He had the phone up to his ear listening as he reached out a hand to pull her up. He gave a jerk and next thing she knew she was plastered against him.
“Oh,” she said, her breath coming out with a gush.
“Shit. I’m sorry.” He gazed down into her eyes. He took his focus off of her long enough to say, “Call you back,” into the phone.
“I’m…” she started to say, but before she could finish, he’d leaned down taking her mouth in a hot kiss. He took advantage of her open mouth to thrust his tongue in and explore.
Paul kept their lips locked as he backed them to the couch. When Nicole’s legs hit the seat, he continued moving forward until she was lying across the sofa with her head resting on the top of the back. He kept moving them until she was lying prone, not breaking contact at any time.
He crawled over her, his body crouching over hers with one leg on the floor and the other leg between her body and the back of the couch. He lifted the loose top she was wearing over her head, leaving her lying there in her sports bra and a pair of form-fitting yoga pants, only breaking the kiss long enough to pull her shirt free.
He threaded one hand in her hair, pulling it free of the messy bun she had put it in before they’d started their routine. “I’ve been wanting to do that for days. Your hair should always be loose and free.” He pulled back for a minute, staring at her with a deep intensity that had her toes curling.
