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Drawn like a moth to a flame, he stood and walked toward her, pausing only feet away. She lay curled up on her side, one arm beneath the flat, lumpy pillow, the other hand beneath her chin. Her inky hair spread out in all directions, having come undone as she tossed and turned. Her face was even lovelier in repose, so innocent, and the strange tenderness he’d felt earlier returned.
Whatever the bastards who’d taken them had planned for her, he was determined to protect her.
The urge to crawl into that small bed and pull her against him, sheltering her against his body, was nearly impossible to resist. He wanted to press his cheek against her hair and fall asleep with her in his arms.
Had he ever felt the desire to simply sleep with a woman before? He didn’t think so.
Shaking his head, he forced himself to turn away. Morning would come soon, and with it, they’d certainly finally meet their captors. He had to be ready.
Chapter Four
The creaking of theheavy oak door brought Heather abruptly out of a restless sleep. She blinked sleepily, scrambling to a sitting position, still a bit stunned that she’d managed to fall asleep at all between her own fear and Blackstone’s uneasy pacing.
Shoving a hank of unruly hair out of her eyes, she looked toward the door and found Blackstone poised behind it, waiting as a masked man entered with a tray of food and another pitcher of water. The moment he put the tray down on the table, Blackstone lunged forward, wrapping his arm around the man’s windpipe and half-lifting him off the floor.
“Who are you? What do you want with us?” Blackstone snarled, whirling around toward the door as if to force the man through it, only to pause when three more masked men stepped into the room. She recognized the one in the middle as Jacob, simply because of his cocky stance and distinctive leather vest.
One of Jacob’s henchmen lazily raised a pistol as Jacob clapped slowly, a sardonic smile curving his lips beneath his mask. “Bravo, Blackstone. If he’d been alone, you just might have made it. But I’d be pretty stupid to let him come in here alone, don’t you think?” The smile disappeared as though it had never been there. “Let him go.”
His big body tense with fury, Blackstone held the first man suspended for a few long, tense seconds, but at last, he let him go and shoved him away. The man hurried back to Jacob’s side, gasping, and Blackstone drew himself to his full height, which towered over any of the other men.
“Who the hell are you?” Drake snarled.
“I don’t think you need to know that,” Jacob answered. “You don’t make the rules here, Blackstone. I do.”
“At least let the girl go,” Blackstone said stiffly. “I don’t know why you took her, but she has no part in all this.”
“She has a part in it if I say she does,” Jacob said, backing out of the room and beckoning the others to do the same.
“Wait,” Blackstone yelled, as they started to close the door. “What do you want? Did my brother send you?”
The only response he received was the door slamming shut. He let out an explosive groan, and Heather eyed him warily, wondering both why he’d tried to help her and why he kept asking about his brother. There certainly weren’t any viscounts in the Citizens Committee.
Silence stretched between them as Blackstone remained by the door, his big body fairly vibrating with anger and frustration. She wanted to reach out to him, to put her hand on his back and somehow soothe him, but she wasn’t at all certain how he’d react to such a thing or even why she wanted to.
With a sigh, she finally pushed off the cot and crossed the room to the table, investigating the tray of food. Two pieces of freshly baked bread, two apples, a hunk of cheese and a few pieces of ham, along with two slices of chocolate cake. Her stomach growled loudly at the sumptuous fare, which was far better than she’d expected, and she realized how long it had been since she’d eaten. She’d been too nervous yesterday. Not that her nerves were any better this morning, but there was no point in starving herself. She would need her strength for whatever was to come.
