Chapter Eight

Elevated Tension

Ella

Her head was fuzzy as her eyes fluttered open, and it took a few seconds for her to realize where she was.

A car?

She blinked as she looked around. It wasn’t just any vehicle, either, but clearly, a bloody expensive one by the looks of the plush interior.

How am I in a car?

She strained her memory, trying to recall. She’d been stuck in the woods, hadn’t she? Caught in Tucker Bowman’s trap, whether she’d wanted to be or not, and hell, she had to admit there had been times she had yearned to be.

How had she managed to get away?

“Good morning, Sleepy.”

The pleasure in his voice abruptly shook the remaining sleep from around her, and she gasped as she turned to acknowledge his handsome smile.

“Tucker?” She was in a car with the man who’d been keeping her as his hostage—the same man who’d tormented and worshipped her. But how? For the time being, it seemed she was struggling to remember. “I mean, sir.”

“You look confused.” One of his enormous hands reached for her thigh and stroked over the fabric of her clothing. “Don’t you recall our hike back to my car?”

The recollections spilled into her mind like the early morning sunlight at his prompt.

“Yeah, I do now.” She pressed her lips together as she contemplated the events of the prior day. Things had been hot and heavy between them before her father had called to throw yet another spanner in the works. Except leaving the cabin had been what she’d wanted right from the start. It shouldn’t have been a ‘spanner’ at all.

Lifting one hand to her face, she rubbed at her temples. So much had happened, she could barely keep up with her feelings anymore, but as her gaze scanned the people dashing down the streets around them, the hope she’d been clinging to blossomed inside.

People meant the city, and the city meant home.

“Where are we, sir?” She eyed a couple walking hand-in-hand as he slowed for a red light, and for one fleeting second, she considered leaping out of the vehicle and making yet another bid for freedom.

The problem was that this time, she didn’t know what she was running from. She’d been frantic to escape the confines of the cabin, but without its four walls, the prospect of more kinky sex with Tucker and possibly discovering how deep the rabbit hole went between them was all the more alluring. Maybe the idea of freedom was less enticing than it should be, after all. She sighed as she mused on her situation. She might not want to ‘go home,’ but she would need to call her mum and let her know she was safe. Susie must have been desperate to know if she was all right.

“In the city.” His answer was predictably vague. “We’re close to home.”

“Home?” She spun to face him. “Where’s that?”

“You’ll see.” He eased away as the light changed to green, smirking at her no-doubt frustrated expression.

“Wherever it is, I need a favor, please, sir.” They knew each other well enough to ask for favors by now, didn’t they? Hell, wasn’t sharing bodily fluids an indication of that intimacy? Not that ‘asking’ was really Tucker’s style. In her experience, he preferred to give commands. It was just a mystery how much his show of authority had seemed to turn her on.

“Oh?” He sounded baffled at the prospect. “What’s that, little girl?”

“I’d like to call my mother from there, please.” She held her breath, watching his face for any sign of discontent. It should have been completely reasonable for her to reach out to her mother and reassure the one person who would worry the most that she was alive and well, but then, she just never knew how things would go where Tucker was concerned.

He was still such an enigma.

“I should think I can allow that.” His tone was wry. “If you’re a good girl.” The wink he threw her sent a delicious shiver of excitement up along her spine.

A good girl.

Even a week ago, the prospect of being called one of those would have been insulting and unthinkable, but Tucker had been able to alter the way she perceived the term. When he praised her that way, she swore she could feel each and every butterfly in her belly spread and flutter its wings at the same time.

“Here we are.” He gestured to a lavish-looking skyscraper to his left seconds before he pulled off the main road and into an underground parking lot.

It took a moment for her eyes to adjust from the glaring light of the street to the darkness of the new environment, and as she blinked around, he brought the car to a halt and lowered the window.

“Good morning.” Tucker leaned out where the glass had been. “It’s Sam, isn’t it?”

A younger guy in an oversized suit rose from his stool in what looked like a security hut and greeted them. “Mr. Bowman?” He stared past Tucker to Ella’s bewildered expression. “I haven’t seen you for a few weeks.”

“That’s right.” Tucker’s tone was clipped but polite. “Have there been any problems in my absence?”

“No, sir.” Sam’s response was immediate. “Everything should be just as you left it. Hannah has been in to clean and stock up your cupboards.”

“Perfect.” Tucker nodded. “Thanks, Sam. Have a great day.”

He waited for Sam to walk back to his place before he ordered the window to rise.

“You have a security guard?” Ella didn’t know why she was surprised. Men like Tucker always paid other men to protect their assets. It was only her father who’d bucked the trend by giving his daughter away as a surety for his debt. She sighed again at the demoralizing thought.

“I have a team of security guys,” Tucker corrected. “It’s necessary when I’m not around.”

“I understand, sir.” She smiled as their eyes met. “I had cleaners, gardeners, and maids back at home, too. This just all seems so different from the life you lead at the cabin.”

“It is,” he concurred as the security barrier rose before them, and he pulled the car into the back of the lot. “That’s the point.”

“Do you own this entire building?” She was astonished at how quiet the parking lot was, although she accepted it wasn’t the largest space.

“I do.” Putting on the parking brake, he turned to her. “I run a few businesses out of here, but employees park in another lot. These cars are all mine.”

“Right.” She suppressed the urge to laugh as she eyed the Ferrari parked alongside them. Of course, they are.

Seeing Tucker back in his natural habitat of fast cars and high-rise buildings made a lot more sense than the rustic outdoors type she’d met in the woods. This was a man she could more easily relate to, and while she’d never run a business, she knew plenty of successful entrepreneurs and many more millionaires. His lifestyle didn’t seem so different from the one she’d known growing up.

“Something you want to say, little girl?”

Her heart sped up at his knowing tone, but still, she couldn’t resist her grin. “No, sir.”

The dynamic between them was another thing that had shifted. Back at the cabin, he’d seemed rugged and unpredictable, but she couldn’t imagine this version of Tucker stripping her and stringing her up from the rafters of the parking lot. Glancing out of the window, she realized her pulse was racing at the thought alone. Maybe he would still treat her that way… but if the threat was real, why wasn’t she running for the nearest exit?

“Hmmm.” He sounded unimpressed as he unfastened his safety belt and opened the car door. “Wait there. I’m coming to get you.”

He closed his door, casting the interior into abrupt darkness as he paced around the back of the vehicle. She waited as he opened the trunk and presumably retrieved the backpack he’d trudged through the forest. She hoped he was planning to leave the evil gun in the car, though. A moment later, her door opened above her in that unique way that Lamborghini’s tended to.

“Madam.” Offering her his palm, he arched a brow as she climbed out of the seat. The look on his face was scintillating, those deep blue eyes threatening to drown her as her boots hit the concrete below. After all the hours trudging through the woods without socks and having to ignore her sore feet, she realized she hardly noticed the discomfort at all now.

“Thank you, sir.”

If she wasn’t mistaken, there was something else different about him as they stood, hand-in-hand, in the shadows of the parking lot. The Tucker she’d met had seemed at home in the wilderness. He’d chopped wood and hunted small animals with apparent ease, however much the thought perturbed her. But despite his attire, this Tucker seemed equally at ease back in the corporate world of whatever empire he headed. The change in him was seamless.

“Come with me.” He tugged her toward him as he threw the bag on his shoulder and walked away, forcing her smaller paces to increase as she attempted to keep up.

“Will we live here?”

She peered around the dark space, unsure how she felt about the new residence. It had to be better than the cabin. Anything was better than living in a hut in the middle of nowhere that didn’t even have a bathroom.

“For now.” He paused in front of gray metal doors, reaching to press the button on the panel before them.

“Ident confirm.” A high-pitched metallic voice came from the silver panel, and Ella watched in shock as the door to the panel swung open to reveal further controls. Stepping toward it, Tucker spoke into the box as he pressed his index finger onto what looked like a fingerprint sensor.

“Bowman, Tucker.” He waited for his print to be confirmed before removing his finger and stepping closer to her.

“Good morning, Mr. Bowman.” The gray doors of the elevator glided open as the panel recognized its owner.

“Wow.” Ella didn’t know what else to say. She’d lived in swanky homes before, but she’d never encountered security like that. “You have fancy security.”

“It beats keys.” He shrugged as he guided her into the mirrored cubicle. “Keys can be lost or fall into the wrong hands.”

“I bet.” She stared at their multiple reflections as he selected a floor and used his fingerprint to instruct the doors to close. Her wayward hair and tired expression should have riled her, but she hardly gave either more than a moment of thought. “It’s all very impressive, sir.”

“Do you think that’s what I’m trying to do?” His expression was serious as he tugged her in his direction. She didn’t resist as their bodies pressed together, his arms snaking around her to hold her in place. “Impress you?”

“I don’t know, sir.”

The intensity in his gaze seared her, reminding her of the brute who’d yanked down her clothes and reddened her behind. In some distant part of her brain, she reasoned that she should be irate, if not fearful of that man, yet caught in the prison of his arms, she could only recall how his dominance had liquified her. It was as though her time in the forest had helped her lose all sense of rational thought.

“Are you?” she probed.

“No.” His tone was hard. “I’m not. Nothing has changed, little girl. I took you because of Bennett, and I’ve kept you because I want to. The new location is irrelevant.”

“Okay.” She was vaguely aware of the elevator lurching to life around them and taking them up the length of the enormous building she’d seen from the road. “Understood.”

“Anyhow.” His voice had softened a fraction. “It’s not as if wealth is new to you, is it?”

“No,” she admitted. “But even I don’t live in an ivory tower, sir.”

Sir.

The word that she’d once fought to deny now slipped from her tongue like any other. It was alarming how quickly she seemed to have fallen under his spell.

“Is that what you think this is?” He smirked down at her.

“Well, I don’t know.” Her brow rose. “For all I know, you could have a different kidnapped woman on every level.”

“Is that right?” His sardonic tone eased some of the tension from her shoulders. “Well, nice idea, little girl, but I admit I hadn’t given kidnap much thought until your father failed to meet his repayment date.”

“Right.” She blew out a breath, her focus falling to his chest. His skin was dirtied, and if she didn’t know better, she might even have spotted traces of blood there. Her insides tightened at the disturbing thought. They both needed a shower, although she wasn’t sure hot water would be enough to wash away the ghosts of the forest. “Trust Alexander to inspire your dark side.”

“I don’t want to talk about Bennett.” One of his hands rose to her chin and steered her attention back to his face. “He just fucks things up.”

“Yeah.” She couldn’t argue with that. “He does.”

The elevator’s chime drew their attention to the silver panel on the interior of the cubicle. “Top floor. The penthouse suite. Welcome home, Mr. Bowman.”