Chapter One

Tortured Dreams

Ella Bennett

Ella’s head was heavy as she opened her eyes. Taking in the wooden interior stretching out all around her, dread knotted in her belly. The wood was reminiscent of Tucker’s cabin—the place she’d once been his captive—but how could she be there again?

Splaying her fingers, she tried to sit up, but something hindered her progress. She glanced down to see what the problem was, her panic amplifying at what she found.

Thick ropes secured both of her wrists, and there was a third rope wound around her body, tethering her to the bed.

Oh God .

Her breaths came faster as she struggled to understand how this had happened. She and Tucker had left the cabin, hadn’t they? She remembered their departure and the subsequent trauma of their trek through the woods. She also recalled the plush conditions of his city apartment.

“There you are, Ella.”

She turned to the male voice, expecting to see her lover, and was confused and disappointed to discover Alexander standing in the middle of the cabin.

Why is my father here?

“I’ve been looking for you.” A malevolent grin spread across his face as one graying eyebrow rose. It was a discomforting expression she’d not seen from him before.

“What am I doing here?” She tugged at the ropes again, but her efforts were useless. She couldn’t get away by yanking on her binds. Someone was going to have to help her. “Can you untie me?”

“I don’t think so.” Alexander lifted the small box in his hands. “I don’t think you’re going anywhere, little girl.”

“What?” She strained to see what he was holding, perturbed to hear Tucker’s chosen pet name for her on her father’s lips. The label had once sounded so endearing, but he made it seem strange and perverted. “What does that mean?”

“You know what it means.” Alexander’s voice was a low sneer. “You brought this on yourself.”

“No.” Her throat dried. “I didn’t do anything!”

“Shhh.” He lifted his finger to his lips, smiling as his palm opened to reveal a box of matches. “No more noise, Susie. This will all be over soon.”

Her brow furrowed at his response, her concentration laser-focused on the small box in his hand.

“I’m not S-Susie,” she stammered. “What are you doing with those matches?”

“It’s time for change, little girl.” His laughter filled the air as he pulled one match from the box and struck it. She watched as the tiny flame danced in the air between them.

“No!” she screamed, yanking harder on her ropes. “This entire place is made of wood. It’ll all go up in flames.”

“I know, Susie.” He wandered to the nearby counter and lowered the flame to the wooden surface. Time protracted as they both watched the fire leap from the match and devour the counter. “That’s what I’m counting on.”

“No!” Terror snatched at her throat as the flames crawled across the room toward her, but when she looked back to the door, Alexander was gone.

“Come back!” she screamed as the suffocating smoke crept closer. “Help me!”

This is it! She could barely take a breath as the petrified monologue played out in her head. I’m going to die. I’m going to—

“Ella?”

Eyes flying open, she stared wide-eyed into the dark, cool space of Tucker’s bedroom.

There was no fire.

There was no cabin.

She was safe.

“Ella?” Tucker reached for her in the shadows, his fingers grazing over her forearm. “What’s wrong?”

“Bad dream.” She could hardly get the words out. The recurring nightmare had become a fixture during the last couple of nights.

“Oh, little girl.” He shifted on the bed, and a moment later, the illumination of his bedside light extended from the lamp behind him. “Are you okay?”

“No.” Tears welled as she finally accepted there was no danger. It had only been a dream. “It was so real, sir.”

“Come here.” Edging toward her, Tucker wrapped her in his arms. “Were you in the cabin again?”

“Yes,” she croaked as she rested on his chest. The reassuring rhythm of his heartbeat had become a consistent consolation, and she wondered how she’d ever lived without it. “It was on fire, but this time Alexander started the blaze.”

The addition of her father had been an unwelcome development. In prior nights, the fire had appeared from thin air. Somehow, Alexander’s malice and the fact he’d confused her with her mother made the menace even worse.

“Bennett?” Tucker’s voice lowered to a growl. “That’s not good.”

“What do you think it means?” She twisted to look into his face. “Am I going crazy?” The repeated dream and broken sleep were certainly starting to wear her down.

“You’re not crazy, little girl.” He pulled her closer, grazing his lips over her mouth. “You’ve just been through a lot. The cabin and the woods were traumatic for you, that’s all.”

The knowing look in his blue eyes made her wonder what her lover knew about trauma, but she guessed a career in the special forces had facilitated more than its fair share for him to experience.

“Things will settle down once we find ourselves a routine.” His hand rose to the back of her neck, holding her gently in place. “I promise.”

She sucked in a breath. “What kind of routine, sir?”

For days, they’d lurched from one incident to the next, being chased out of the cabin by her father, almost getting shot as they trekked through the forest, then finding a new and lighter equilibrium at his city base. Like their location, their dynamic had shifted, morphing into a more consensual version of the ‘captor and captive’ dance they’d wrestled with in the woods. These days, she was in bed with him because she chose to be, not because he coerced her, but that didn’t change the fact she still couldn’t go home.

She much preferred cuddling with her older man in the elegance of his apartment than the rudimentary cabin, but she still had no idea how their future would unfold.

How long could their blossoming relationship last once she was allowed to go where and whenever she pleased?

Staring into his eyes, she decided it was time to find out. “What routine do you envision for us?”

“That’s a mighty big question to ask at this time of the morning, Ella.” His lips curled as he motioned to the digital clock. She turned her head to acknowledge the red linking digits. They read 03:02.

“I know.” She gripped his bicep, suddenly keen to pursue the query despite the witching hour. They’d been at the opulent apartment for days, and she’d never felt courageous enough to mention their future before. “But please. We’ve never talked about this. I’d like to know what’s on your mind.”

“Would you?” His voice was soft as his digits lightly squeezed her nape.

The muscles at the apex of her thighs clenched at the possessive gesture.

I belong to him.

She didn’t question the logic of the absurdity as it flitted through her mind, though whatever remained of the woman Alexander had dumped in the forest wanted to balk at it. She was smart and capable, and though she might not have done much in her life to utilize assets unrelated to her beauty and appearance, her aptitude wasn’t lost on her. Why she should revel in her deference and submission to any man, let alone a man like Tucker, still wasn’t clear, but she no longer fought to resist the feelings that rose at his touch. She accepted them. Yearned for them…

“Yes, sir.” She steadied herself against his arm. “I mean, we’re meeting my mum tomorrow, and I have no idea what to tell her…” The thought of seeing Susie again filled Ella with joy, but she anticipated her mother’s understandable concerns and wanted to be able to reassure Susie about what happened next.

Except she didn’t know herself.

“What would you like to happen, little girl?” He eased himself back against his pillow, encouraging her to follow him.

“Me?”

This version of Tucker was so different from the man she’d come to know and loathe at the cabin. Tucker had found her will inconsequential, and she’d learned to rebel at every possible opportunity, but this version was far softer and appreciative of her input.

“Yes, you,” he laughed, the reaction sounding tired. “Unless you’d prefer I gag you, tie you up, and inform you of my plans?” He arched a brow at her, the deed no doubt intended to be sardonic.

All Ella could think, though, was how insanely sexy the action was—how enticing he was. Even as he described an outcome she feared, she still secretly longed for his totalitarian authority exactly because she knew how damn alluring that experience could be.

Not alluring.

Her breath caught as she acknowledged the paradox. When he’d captured her at the cabin and held her as his hostage, she’d spent her every waking moment contemplating ways to flee his erotic prison. Yet since he’d eased off the accelerator, her thoughts often returned to that time, wanting more. Naturally, Tucker had continued to humble and chastise her since they’d arrived in the city, but it was as though a twisted part of her missed his iron rule, as if it acknowledged she’d come to life beneath it and hankered to bloom again.

No. She wrestled with the contradiction. I might be his, but I also need to do what’s right for me.

“I…” Her gaze darted from his face to the bedding. “I don’t know how I feel anymore.” That was a lie; she just couldn’t find the right words to articulate her feelings. “I want us to be together, but we can’t stay in this tower forever.”

Can we?

She held back the final two words but wondered if they gleamed in her eyes.

“We need a plan.” His answer was almost masked by his sigh. “I know that, little girl, but to be honest, I’ve been enjoying just having you to myself.” His fingers returned to her neck, stiffening. “We have a good thing going here.”

She smiled in spite of herself, not able to protest his point. The memories of long steamy showers where she’d been ordered to ensure his dick was well cleaned and the afternoons she’d spent on all fours as his footrest were forever branded into her psyche. However ridiculous it would sound to the casual observer, she didn’t regret a moment of those times. She’d found freedom in her submission.

“I know.” Leaning forward as far as his fingers allowed, she skimmed a kiss on his chin. “I’m not denying that, sir. I just want to know—”

“You want to know what comes next.” His tone was edgier as he finished the sentence for her.

Her heart rate elevated at the subtle change of tack. She knew Tucker too well not to notice those differences in him and worry what they might mean.

“Right.” She breathed in his tantalizing scent, the sandalwood scent tugging at her senses. “I just want to know what’s happening with my life.”

“I understand.” His expression was passive, but like the still waters of the deep ocean, she wondered if the surface hid monsters lurking below.

“And?” she prompted, conscious of her racing heart. “Do you have a plan?”

“I have an idea.” His gaze burned into hers. “An idea of a life where we could be together, and you could still spend time with the people you love.” The picture his words painted sounded idyllic. “But there are loose ends I need to tether before that becomes safe and viable for us, little girl.”

“Loose ends?” She suspected it was Alexander he referred to, her belly churning with anxiety at the likelihood that she was right.

“Hmmm.” He pressed his lips together. “People like your father and some mutual acquaintances need to be dealt with first.”

“Dealt with?”

Ella didn’t adore Alexander, and she sure as hell had a fight to pick with him about the way he’d handed her over to Tucker as a surety, but equally, she’d seen the way Tucker had dealt with the gun-wielding guy who’d discovered them in the forest. Was that the kind of ‘plan’ he had in mind?

“Are you going to hurt them, sir?” Her brow creased as she contemplated her father’s demise. She supposed, based on the way Alexander had treated her, she shouldn’t care about his fate, yet she couldn’t honestly say she wanted to see him hurt.

“I’ll neutralize them.” He held her gaze. “So we can be happy, little girl.”

His answer neither countered nor assuaged her concerns.

“You want that, don’t you?” A new intensity glinted in the deep pools of his eyes.

“Yes.” Her reply was immediate. Hadn’t she just told him as much? “I want that, sir. I just wish that everything wasn’t so complicated.”

“Will you promise me something?” He tugged her closer, steering her astride his thighs.

“What?” Straddling his body, she was abruptly aware of how close her pussy was to his rousing cock.

“That you’ll leave the worrying to me.” His hand slid beneath her ass and squeezed one cheek. Her recently punished skin ached at his touch, but the caress reignited the need inside of her. Since she’d tumbled into Tucker’s dark corner of the world, that desire never seemed to extinguish.

“That’s easier said than done, sir.”

“Not if you trust me.” His hot lips brushed hers again. “I will take care of you, little girl, and if you want me to, I’ll even vow not to finish your useless father.”

“Really?” She scanned his expression for any sign of duplicity. “You’d swear not to hurt him, sir?”

Tucker’s brow rose. “I vow not to kill him.” His lips twitched at the elaboration. “I can’t promise I won’t hurt him.”

“Sir.” She pressed her palm against his chest, perilously aware of the way his cock throbbed in response. His crown was only a few inches from the heel of her hand. “I don’t want you to hurt him.”

“He needs to pay for what he did, Ella.” Tucker’s tone was serious, despite his growing arousal. “For what he did to you and whatever scheme he’s concocting as we speak.”

“What do you mean?” The atmosphere between them had shifted from soporific to solemn, yet still, the lingering visceral connection remained, amplified by his obvious arousal.

“Who do you think orchestrated the guys with guns?” Tucker paused, as if he wanted her to answer, but just as she was about to, he went on. “My guess is the same person who left a device in your sleeping bag and decided to call me on it with his new demand.”

“I suppose.” Ella had no way of knowing if his appraisal was accurate, but it certainly made sense. Alexander had been a bane. “I am sorry about your cabin, sir.”

The place had been her prison, but she’d seen the way the news of its destruction had crushed Tucker, and she understood how important it was to him. The idea that her father was behind its torching was hard to bear.

“That’s not your responsibility, little girl.” His voice was a murmur.

“Still…” Ignoring him, she continued. “Maybe if I’d stayed, the place would still be standing.”

“I’d have never left you to those monsters.” Gently, he rested his temple against her forehead, his light touch blurring the irony of his statement.

The monster she’d been desperate to flee from in the forest had been him, yet he used the same term to describe Alexander and the others. It was difficult to defend her father when his previous judgments had been so poor. Deep down, she wondered why she even felt the need to try.

Because he’s still my father .

She bit down on the rising emotion that threatened to surface. He was still her father, but the man had spent years denying she existed, then years more placating her with money she’d happily taken. Looking back, their so-called relationship had little value.

“I appreciate this isn’t easy to hear.” Tucker smoothed the loose strands of her hair from her face as her gaze flickered open. “I’m sorry.”

“This isn’t your fault.” She leaned into his muscular shoulder.

“I think you might be being kind there.” He snorted. “Agreeing to take you was my call, and I should have done better, but…” His voice trailed away, taunting her to meet his eyes.

“But?”

“But I can’t say I’m sorry that I did.” The look in his eyes was salacious.

“I know, sir.” Her hand lowered to his cock and wrapped around his pulsing shaft. “One thing’s for sure.”

“Oh, yeah?” He bit back on his rising grin. “What’s that, little girl?”

“Well.” Edging her hand along his hot skin, she dragged her palm along his smooth shaft. “We create a fire of our own, sir, and we both like to burn.”