Chapter One

Absconded

Ella Bennett

“Don’t look so worried.” Tucker threw her a wink as he shoved his limited possessions into a large backpack. “I told you I’d deal with your father, and I will.”

Ella didn’t know how much time had passed since he’d smashed the phone Alexander had given them into a hundred tiny pieces. Scanning the floor, she could still make out traces of its once shiny casing, but it offered no clarity on how many minutes had ticked along since its demise. Time, it seemed, had become a metric completely out of her control since her captivity had begun, and she’d grown no better at deciphering it as the days had bled into nights.

“Okay, sir.”

She heaved in a breath from the bed, aware of how the sensitive nub at her sex tingled at the deferential label. She still didn’t understand why her body responded to his authority with such arousal. Before Tucker, she’d only wanted to kick out at those who tried to control her.

Like a spoiled banshee.

She smiled as her grandmother’s voice echoed in her head. She’d called Ella her ‘spoiled little banshee’, and sitting on Tucker’s bed, the pet name seemed apt.

She’d fought him as best she could when they’d first met—trying to make him stop—but in return, he’d hurt her, too. That angst and conflict had been difficult to deal with, but it was nothing compared to the feelings that simmered for him—feelings she shouldn’t be experiencing. Whenever he exerted his power, and sometimes, even after her anger had faded, she was always turned on. Her desire for him amplified whenever he ‘took control.’

That was why she’d stayed after he bedded her last night, and it was why, despite his obvious distracted fury from speaking to her father, she still hadn’t slipped away.

She didn’t fully comprehend her emotions, but she secretly accepted that she wanted to stay, wanted to spend more time with him, and decide if the frantic energy in her belly was a yearning for more than only his dick.

“So, where do we go, sir?” She glanced his way as his gaze rose to meet hers. “What happens now?”

Tucker had started to plan straight away, his attention turning to finding and filling his backpack as soon as he’d cleared most of the broken phone from the floor. But in the frenzied bustle of reacting to Alexander, he hadn’t discussed anything with her.

Typical.

He seemed to be assuming she’d be going with him— wherever that was. She inhaled at the confusing thought. She did want him, but that didn’t mean she’d consented to being hauled around the forest to the next grim cabin he owned. Tucker’s bleak and primitive residence was starting to grate. Ella deserved better.

“I haven’t had time to decide yet.” His expression faltered for a second, as though he, too, had only just realized this. “But I’ll take care of you, little girl.”

“You could just let me go?” She shrugged, nibbling her lower lip as she waited for his verdict.

One of his dark eyebrows cocked at her apparent audacity. “I’m not letting you go.”

His voice was so firm that while a vague part of her recognized she should be riled at his adamant assertion, another aspect of her reveled in his dominant approach.

Tucker was always in charge, and despite their clashes, his authority resonated in her soul. He was a man who, after all this time, finally wanted to look after her rather than disown and abandon her.

Her breath hitched at the poignancy of that. It meant something.

“What?” His lips curled as he watched her. “Why are you smiling?”

Was she smiling?

In the haze of her thoughts, she hadn’t realized, but she supposed she wasn’t surprised. Tucker had a tantalizingly commanding aura about him, and she couldn’t recall power looking so good on anyone else before. The man crouched on the floor shoving items into a bag had ignited something in her that she’d never given any attention to until he’d found her in the woods.

Suddenly, she understood she longed for a man she could depend on. For someone who would hold, care for her, and listen.

Tucker’s that man!

“I was just thinking, sir.” She wrapped her arms around her body, recalling how natural their conversation had been in bed. She’d been comfortable talking to him, and she hadn’t expected that. Naturally, it helped that he was not only easy on the eye but also able to send her into a sexual spin with apparently little effort.

As rugged captors went, she’d really fallen on her feet with Tucker.

“Hmmm.” His tone was skeptical as he eyed her. “Well, it’s good to see you smile.”

“Thanks.” She pulled in another breath, trying to dismiss the numerous reasons that pointed to him as her ideal man. “Are you sure you don’t want to go without me, sir? If you need to get away, all I’ll do is slow you down.”

The smirk that lit his face was as sexy as hell. “Very considerate of you, little girl.” Leaving his pack, he rose and closed the distance between them. “But you’re still mine until your useless father brings me my money.”

Beneath the blue cover that had become something of a security blanket for Ella, her nipples beaded as his words echoed in her head. ‘ You’re still mine.’

Oh God. Why on Earth are they so appealing?

“What did Alexander say, sir?” It was difficult to maintain a coherent line of thought while his gaze speared her with such illicit intent. “Is he saying he won’t pay you now?”

Once more, she couldn’t decide how she felt about the possibility. Did she want her father to pay up and secure her freedom, or did she—as she suspected—desire an alternative prospect where she actually got to remain with Tucker?

Preferably somewhere other than his bloody cabin…

Her throat dried at the idea. What was wrong with her? She couldn’t want to stay with the man who’d stolen her liberty. If she chose Tucker, what did that say about her?

“It doesn’t matter what he said.” Lowering to his haunches, Tucker reached for her blanket-covered knee. “But he did imply that armed men would be coming here to take you back.”

“What?” Her gaze shot to the window as if she expected to see an army at the door. “Armed men?” Her breaths increased at the terrifying idea. Being around Tucker was dangerous enough. The last thing she needed was even more testosterone, especially the sort that had weapons. That didn’t sound like a good pairing.

“Don’t worry.” His gigantic palm squeezed her leg. “We’ll be long gone before they arrive. I can’t protect you in a place like this.” He glanced around the cabin, his expression wistful.

“Protect me?” Ella was grappling to keep up. “I thought you wanted to get rid of me, sir. I thought I was a necessary liability to get your money back?” Her questions hung in the air between them.

“I did once.” He stared at her face as though he wanted to memorize every inch of her skin. She couldn’t recall seeing such reverence in anyone’s eyes before. “But the last day has changed that. You have to know that, Ella.”

Ella .

Her skin goosed at his soft tone as he called her by her name. She’d gotten so used to Tucker calling her his ‘little girl,’ the sound of her name on his lips was stark.

“What’s changed?” She couldn’t think clearly as his blue gaze bored into her. Even without his ropes and menacing glowers, Tucker had a dizzying presence, and she seemed helplessly attracted to his power. “I mean, I’m still your prisoner, aren’t I?”

“My prisoner?” His tongue ran over his lips. “You make it sound sexy when you put it that way.”

“Tucker!” She almost giggled at the look of him. “You know what I mean. I haven’t exactly had much choice about any of this.”

She turned her head to survey the inside of the cabin for the thousandth time, each glance confirming what she already knew—she needed to get out of there—but for the first time, she didn’t necessarily want her escape to be without the man who’d forced her into the place.

Now, she was actually considering what it might be like to have a future with a man like him.

Not like him . She straightened at the truth. With him.

“I know.” An odd sadness reverberated in his voice. It matched his melancholy expression, although she couldn’t understand his despondency. “You’ve been through a lot, and I know that’s my responsibility.”

She had no idea what to say to that. Only a couple of days ago, she’d have been gleeful to have heard some damn accountability from the man who’d turned her life upside down, but now there was less satisfaction in his admission.

“Not only you,” she mumbled. “But Alexander, too. He’s the real reason I’m here. Not you.”

“But I’m the bastard who accepted you as part of the deal.” His gaze brightened. “Don’t forget that.”

“How could I?” she smirked. “Sir.”

“Don’t give me that tone.” Tucker inched closer. “If we had time for me to spank you properly, then you’d have trouble sitting there, pouting at me.”

Pouting? Her lips parted in feigned disgust. “I am not pouting!”

“You are pouting.” His words resonated around the room, but she saw the mischief dancing in his eyes. “And pouting little girls always get what they deserve.”

“It’s just as well you don’t have time then.” She loved the flirty banter between them, even though the circumstances were strained.

“Now,” he corrected.

“What?” Her brows knitted.

“I don’t have time now .” He chuckled. “But there will come a time.”

She shifted on the bed, the muscles between her legs clenching at his thinly veiled erotic threat. She wished she could comprehend why the idea of being rebuked by him sounded so good, but in her current predicament, Ella had bigger things to worry about.

She was still stuck out there in the middle of nowhere, still without her clothes and any chance of getting home, and to make matters worse, her father was apparently sending armed lunatics to the location. Far from offering reassurance, the scenario only filled her with dread. If she knew anything about the types of men Alexander associated with, then they’d be far from ideal rescuers, and worse, she had an awful suspicion they’d want to hurt Tucker.

Her anxiety ratcheted as she forced the thought away. She couldn’t let anything happen to Tucker.

“We’d better go, sir.” She rose to her feet quickly and stared out of the window. As ever, she had no idea if it was early or late in the day, but she sure as hell didn’t want to be standing there when bullets tore at the timber walls. She longed to be somewhere safe by then—with Tucker.

“Hey!” He stood slowly, his expression concerned. “It’s okay. We’ll be out of here soon enough. Everything will be okay.”

Okay? She might have laughed had trepidation not roamed so freely in her blood stream.

“How can this be okay?” Her voice sounded strained. “We don’t have anywhere to go, and soon, we’ll be surrounded by men with guns!” She swallowed down her rising panic, her gaze searching the interior of the space for any sign of how she should deal with the incoming threat.

“I never said we had nowhere to go.” He looked bewildered as he grasped her hand and tried to steady her. “Only that I hadn’t decided where to take you yet.”

“What?” Her heart was beating so fast, the room was starting to spin. That wasn’t what he’d said, was it? But then, her mind was also racing at speed. Maybe she hadn’t heard him properly. Maybe she’d misunderstood.

“Come on.” He tugged her closer and wrapped his arms around her. “You need to calm down and breathe. Remember what I told you. I will take care of you.”

I will take care of you.

Take care of you.

The echo of his words played out in her head as his alluring body held her up. Breathing in his sublime scent again, she silently acknowledged what should have been obvious.

A woman with confused feelings about the man who abducted her was possibly understandable, but one with a growing emotional attachment to her captor was something else. She hadn’t been holed up with him for long, but even in those brief days, he’d done something to her—he’d altered her in a uniquely fundamental way.

He’d opened her eyes.

Even if she woke up in her bed tomorrow morning, Ella wasn’t sure she could ever come back from that.

She could never be the same woman she’d been before.

“All right.” In the end, it was all she could think to say. The pressure in her head seemed to be building. “All right, sir. I believe you.” She blew out a breath, hoping the strong arms snaked around her body would never let her go. “You’ll take care of me.”