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“Let me go, or I’ll …”
“You’ll what?” He chuckled, low and deep. She felt it through her body.
How much longer until Levi and Mason would come? Too long, she was afraid.
“Don’t worry, beautiful lady. My request isn’t difficult. I simply need you to get the king outside without his bodyguards. I’ll take care of the rest. Then maybe you and I will have a chance to be alone.”
She squirmed and tried to dig her fingernails into him. He held her so tightly she couldn’t budge.
“Do you understand what I need?”
“I understand,” she bit out, not that she planned on doing it. As soon as she could escape or Levi and Mason came, she’d run to Nolan and make him promise to increase his security and to stop his morning hikes until this brute was caught.
“I’ve been waiting at the village for so long, waiting for you. I watch you hike with the king every morning. So fit. So pretty.” His voice was full of longing now, and Madeline knew she would vomit if he kept talking like that and didn’t release her. “Maybe I’ll just have a sample of what the king’s woman tastes like.”
He released one of his hands from her back, grasped her chin, and yanked her face up to his. Madeline’s stomach protested as horror raced through her. Vomit gagged her, and she threw up right in his mouth.
The man yelped and shoved her away.
Madeline coughed on the disgusting taste of her own bile, but she didn’t take the time to catch a breath. She whirled and raced back down the trail. It was so dark she could hardly see where she was stepping.
The man cursed and yelled foul, horrible things at her, and then his footsteps thundered behind her.
No! She wanted to scream or cry out, but she couldn’t waste the oxygen. She could hardly breathe with her throat coated with a horrific taste and her heart pounding out of control.
Her foot caught on a root, and she flew forward. With a scream, she splayed out on the trail, scraping her hands, arms, and knees.
The footsteps were still coming from behind, a death knoll pounding toward her. The man would hurt her. She knew it.
Groaning, she forced herself to her feet. Her knees, hands, and arms hurt and she couldn’t catch a breath. But she had to move. Shuffling forward, she tried to move back into the rhythm of a run, but she couldn’t coordinate her legs.
Footsteps.
Closer and closer.
Please help me, she begged heaven above.
His large body slammed into her from behind. Madeline screamed. She imagined she’d hit the rough trail again, this time with an extra two-hundred and fifty pounds on top of her.
“No!” she cried out.
The man wrapped her up and lifted her off her feet.
“That wasn’t the sweet taste I was planning on,” he growled in her ear.
“Try to kiss me again and I’ll do worse,” she screamed back.
He laughed, a scratchy, mean sound. “It’s time I do worse.”
“No!” She kicked her heels back into his legs, dug her fingernails into his arm, and threw her head back into his.
“Calm down, little she-devil. Not sure what the king sees in you besides your beauty.”
Headlights bounced up the trail and through the trees. Madeline had never seen anything so beautiful.
“Guess we need some privacy,” the man said.
He carried her toward the thick trees.
