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If I was weak and fucked him, I’d lose that power I had over him and there’d be only one way to get it back. The only thing stronger than sex: love.
I knew how to do it, how to take that closeness we’d shared and twist it into a weapon. I’d make him believe I liked him, that we had a connection that went beyond lust.
Seduction is easy...fun, even. I’m good at it. Throwing out smiles and compliments, like tiny silver threads that loop around a man. You draw them slowly tight and he becomes your puppet. Then, as you come to understand a man, he hands you thicker threads, golden twine weighty with promise. You wrap it slowly around him: you love his work, you support his beliefs, you promise to one day give him the family he wants. And simultaneously, you snip away the threads connecting him to anyone else. She doesn’t understand you, only I do. He doesn’t even realize he’s becoming your prisoner. Finally, when he trusts you completely, that’s when he hands you the thick, black rope you can wind around his neck: the kinky stuff he likes to do in bed, the money he stole from the company, the traitorous plans he has to overthrow his government.
But when I imagined looping those threads around Colton, something went wrong. It felt awkward and slow, as if something was holding me back. As if I’d somehow gotten tangled in threads myself.
Ridiculous. I don’t feel anything. For anyone. Not anymore.
Staring into the fire was hurting my eyes. I closed them and lay there silently, listening to his breathing. I wouldn’t give in to temptation and fuck him. I wouldn’t seduce him, either.
I’d escape. Working slowly and carefully, I’d untie the ropes and slip away. By the time he woke, I’d be miles away. All I had to do was wait until he was fast asleep.
As I lay there, I became aware of how exposed we were, out here in the forest. That primal part of my brain was kicking in, the one that reminds us that at night, we should be safely in a house or a car or a cave, not out here in the dark where there are predators and especially not just lying on the ground with our eyes closed, vulnerable. A cold unease crept out of the dark places between the trees, scuttled over the ground and threatened to sweep over me.
But as it reached me, it slammed up against something solid. A kind of forcefield thrown out by the huge, warm body that was pressed against my back. It didn’t feel like anything bad could happen to me, when he was holding me like that. His arm around my waist was a shield, a warning to anyone that might hurt me: she’s mine.
I was a prisoner, captured and bound. And I felt safer than I had done in years.
I inhaled the scent of his cologne, sharp like grapefruit and then sweet, like chocolate and vanilla. I felt my body relax.
And I slept.
16
TANYA
Somewhere above me, a bird twittered, annoyingly shrill. I grudgingly cracked one eye open and—
Chyort! The sky, which should have been inky black, was a rich, royal blue, lightening towards the east. I fell asleep. How did I fall asleep?!
Most worryingly, I was holding onto Colton’s chiseled forearm, clutching it the way a child clutches a teddy bear, and I’d hitched his arm higher around me. His arm was now pressed against the underside of my breast in a way that made me swallow hard.
I lay there for a second, furious with myself, listening to his breathing. Thankfully, he still sounded like he was fast asleep. But I’d wasted the entire night and now it was almost dawn. Soon, the light would wake him. I had an hour, at most.
I’d been planning to spend hours on the ropes, teasing them gently apart with tiny movements. Now, I had to work a lot faster and somehow still pull it off without waking him. I slowly bent my elbows and eased my bound wrists up to my face so that I could use my teeth. At least with the sky lighter, I could see what I was doing.
Colton was good with rope. The knots were tight and didn’t loosen easily. But he was a kind captor: he hadn’t tied me so tight that the ropes cut off my circulation, which would have made my hands numb. I eventually managed to grip the crucial knot that secured everything in my teeth and then, with tiny back-and-forth movements of my wrists, I started to loosen it.
Behind me, Colton stirred in his sleep. I froze, the knot still in my mouth. He mumbled unintelligibly, then his arm pulled me tighter against him. I felt something fill in my chest, expanding until I could barely breathe. A wave of warmth flooded through me, right out to my fingertips. I couldn’t help it, I just felt so...protected.
