Finally, the car door opened. “Get out,” her “kidnapper” growled.
“I can’t unbuckle the belt any more than I could buckle it.”
His open hand caught her across the face. The slap didn’t hurt; it wasn’t a true blow, more of a warning. The lightest touch.
“I thought I told you to shut up.” He reached across her and released the belt.
“Now, listen carefully. You’re going to walk with me. You will not speak. You will not try to get away. You will do exactly what I tell you. Got it?”
“Got it. And if I do that, you won’t hurt me?” She hoped she sounded frightened. Being left in the car alone had given her a little boost in acting scared.
“I’ll have to think about that.” He grabbed her arm and pulled. “Get the hell out of the car.”
She got out carefully. Without her hands to help her up, she almost fell backward. He caught her and yanked her to her feet.
They went inside. Inside what, she had no idea. The door seemed to be one of those pull-from-the-outside, push-from-the-inside deals a lot of public buildings had, but that didn’t give her any real clue as to where they were. She looked out the bottom of the blindfold. Public building with ugly carpeting. He wouldn’t take her out anywhere like this, would he? The only logical place for them to go would be a hotel. That would certainly explain the carpet. After a few yards, they stopped. She heard something slide, a key card, maybe. Light flooded the floor as a door opened and she was shoved inside. She stumbled against the wall, banging her elbow. “Ouch!”
The door slammed behind her. “Are you—look, I told you to shut up.”
He’d almost slipped, almost fell out of character and asked if she was okay. She was torn between being glad he’d kept the game going and disappointed he hadn’t been concerned enough to actually finish the question. But that would have broken the mood.
“Do you want the blindfold off?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Too fucking bad. I want to get this damn mask and sunglasses off, and I’ll be damned if you’re going to see my face. Then you’d just be able to tell everyone who kidnapped you.”
“But I told you I won’t tell anyone anything. Please. I want to see what you look like.”
“Not a chance. Maybe after I decide what to do with you. Now get in here.”
He pulled her across the floor. She caught sight of a tattered bedspread. Yep. Hotel room. For a minute, she thought he was going to knock her down onto the mattress, but instead he reached behind her and unfastened the handcuffs.
“Don’t get excited. I’m not letting you go.”
That was why she was getting excited, because he
wasn’t
letting her go. Even the fear added to her arousal. This was exactly her fantasy. Joseph had put everything together perfectly.
But she didn’t want the blindfold on anymore. She reached up to pull it off, and he pulled her arm behind her back again.
“I told you, don’t take that off.”
“Please. I want to be able to see. If you’re going to do anything to me, I want to at least know what’s coming. I won’t tell anyone anything. You even said you might not let me go, so if you don’t let me go I won’t be able to talk to anyone.”
“Good point. Fine, but so help me, if you make any wrong move it’ll be all over.”
It could have been a threat, if she’d thought there was the slightest chance Joseph would hurt her. As it was, she took it as a warning that their game would be over if she stopped playing along. As if she would. This was incredibly hot. Held against her will by a man who’d watched her, planned this so that he could fuck a total stranger just because he thought she was sexy.
She sighed with pleasure. She could almost forget this was her husband and believe it was a stranger, a strong criminal. But not quite. And somehow, the fact she knew it was Joseph just made it better. She’d told him her deepest, darkest fantasy, and because he loved her and wanted to spice things up, he’d gone to all this trouble to fulfill it.
Just for her. Now that was love.
But his actions were far from loving. He whipped the blindfold off her eyes. He had removed the sunglasses, though he still wore the ski mask. Through the opening in the mask, Nolie could see Joseph’s warm blue eyes. If she’d had any doubt about who her captor was, those eyes reassured her.
She looked around. As she’d suspected, they were in a hotel room. The bed was a king-size, piled high with pillows. Two desks and a bureau sat against the wall opposite, with a large mirror atop the bureau. The mirror had possibilities, depending on what Joseph chose to do with her. Someone had angled it to reflect the entire bed. The windows were covered by dark drapes. She took a step toward them, thinking to regain her bearings, but Joseph grabbed her around the waist.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“I wanted to look out the window.”
“Fuck, no. You think I’m stupid, bitch? Bad enough you’re seeing me. What? You planning on leading the cops to me later? Fat chance!”
“What are you going to do with me?” Damn it, she sounded too eager. Which would have been fine, but she was playing the part of a kidnapping victim. She should sound scared, begging, pleading for her life, not flirtatious and excited. She would have to watch that.
“You make me tired, you know that? All those times I watched you walking around your house, you looked like such a sexy woman, but you never shut up. Maybe I should just gag you so I don’t have to listen anymore.”
Ah, better. She hated having anything other than food in her mouth, unless it was something she put there herself. Like his cock. He knew it, too. “No, please. I wouldn’t be able to breathe.”
“I guess that might be a problem. I wouldn’t want you to die or pass out before I get to have fun with you. So if you don’t want to be gagged, try keeping your mouth shut, unless I tell you different. Got it?”
Nolie opened her mouth to answer, then thought better of it and nodded. Joseph probably wouldn’t gag her, since he knew how she would react, but he was so into his character she wasn’t totally sure anymore what he would do. Her predictable husband had become completely unpredictable.
She liked it.
“Good. Maybe you’ll get out of this in one piece.” He went to the headboard of the bed. “Fuck. Why do hotels always make these things solid? How the hell am I supposed to tie you down if there’s nothing to tie you to?”
Tie her? Intriguing. Early on in their relationship she’d mentioned her curiosity about being tied down, but he hadn’t seemed into the idea. Since she’d never tried it, it hadn’t mattered to her one way or the other, so she’d let the notion go. Had he remembered? Or was this a new idea on his part?
Whichever it was, she wanted it. Being stripped naked, tied so he could access whatever part of her he wanted . . . . She moaned, and immediately clapped her hand over her mouth when he glared at her.
“What the fuck was that?”
“Sorry,” she said.
“You’d better be.” He spun her around and brought his hand down on her ass, hard enough to sting. “Don’t do it again or I’ll give you worse.”
Worse? The smack hadn’t been bad. It wouldn’t do for him to know that, though. A kidnapping victim wouldn’t be likely to want her kidnapper to spank her. She just nodded and kept her mouth shut.
“Hmm. Where the heck can I tie you?” Joseph walked over to the straight-backed, wooden chair at one of the desks. “This might work to start with. Won’t be able to fuck you, but I can have the rest of my fun. You’re nothing but my little play toy now, bitch. That’s the only reason I broke into that pretty house of yours, because I wanted a new toy.”
“You don’t break your toys, do you?”
“Sometimes I do. Especially when they talk too much. I guess you really do want that gag in your mouth, don’t you.”
“No. Please.”
“If I feel like breaking my toys, I break them. If I feel like keeping them around to play with longer, that’s what I do. In other words, you don’t know what I’ll decide to do, so if I were you, I wouldn’t give me a reason to break you.”
He had to have practiced this for days. The Joseph she knew was too quiet and mild to say half the things he’d said tonight. All because she’d mentioned her kidnapping fantasy to him. She’d known she’d married a good man, but she hadn’t realized how far he would go for her.
“Get over here.”
She walked across the room to the chair. Joseph grabbed the bottom of her shirt and shoved it up. “Be careful, you’ll rip it,” she protested.
“You think I give a shit?” But he pulled it more gently up to her chest. “Take it off. The bra too.”
She obeyed. Her nipples stiffened in the cool air of the room.
“Looks like you’re excited,” Joseph sneered. “You some kind of freak to get turned on by this?”
“I’m not turned on. It’s cold in here.” Of course she was turned on, and of course Joseph would recognize the signs. But that wasn’t part of the game.
“Too damn bad. Get the rest of your clothes off and plant your ass in this chair. You have five seconds. One.”
She couldn’t undress that fast, but she did her best. She would have made it if her feet hadn’t gotten tangled in the bottom of her slacks. She went sprawling onto the floor. Damn cheap carpet! Rug burn had never felt so painful. Joseph yanked her clothing off her feet and threw it across the room. “What kind of idiot are you? You don’t even know how to take your clothes off?”
Tears stung her eyes. He was just playing, she reminded herself. Maybe he was getting a little carried away, but he didn’t really think she was an idiot. It was just part of the role. Most kidnappers wouldn’t be too sympathetic if their captives fell. “I’m sorry.”
“Get up.” He looked into her eyes, and she saw concern in his before he turned away. “You broken yet?”
A kidnapper-ish way of asking if she was all right, Nolie guessed. “No, I’m fine.”
She scrambled to her feet and sat in the chair. Tears trickled down her cheeks. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your plans. I . . . .” She trailed off, not wanting to admit that he’d hurt her.
“Damn right you didn’t. And you’d better not do it again.” He whipped off the ski mask. “So help me, bitch, you’d better forget what I look like. I can’t have my playtime if my face is all covered up. Guess maybe if you see me, you won’t act like such a scared little baby, huh?”
As though she could ever forget her husband’s face. He was more handsome now than the day they’d married, as far as she was concerned. But in this game, he wasn’t her loving husband, he was her evil kidnapper. “I’ll forget. Thank you.”
“Good answer. Now stay still.”
He picked up the handcuffs and fastened one side around one of Nolie’s wrists. The other cuff, he closed around one leg of the chair. “Your other hand can stay free. I might want you to use it. Spread your legs.”
She did. With the silk scarf she’d worn as a blindfold, he tied one of her legs to the chair leg. He used her slacks to tie the other leg. When he tightened that knot, she heard the slacks rip. Her favorite work slacks. Just before she snapped at him, she bit her tongue. Now wasn’t the time to say anything. After this little game was over, she’d make him buy her a new pair. Right after he fixed the sliding door at home. Secured to the chair, she was completely vulnerable. He would be able to touch any part of her he wanted.
She hoped he would start soon.
But he made her wait. “So sexy, sitting there with your tits and pussy right where I can see them. I bet you like this, don't you? I bet you're a dirty girl and you just love having a nasty stranger looking at your whole body.”
She did. Even though he wasn't really a stranger, just pretending he was made her moist. This was her wildest fantasy. God, why didn't he touch her? Why didn't he do something? If she had to wait too much longer, she might scream. As turned on as she was though, if he did touch her she still might scream. Stepping back, he folded his arms over his chest and glared at her. “Are you getting wet, you little slut? Are you scared of me like you should be, or are you excited?
Be honest, now, because if you lie I'll stuff that gag in your mouth.”
“Both.”
“Both what?”
“Scared and excited.” She shivered. The room was too cold to be naked for long.
“If I ask you something, are you going to threaten to gag me?”
“You just asked. I probably should gag you for it, but I'll give you another chance. What the hell do you want?”
“It's really cold in here. Could you turn on the heat?”
“Who the fuck do you think you are? Why would I care if you're cold or not?” He flicked one of her nipples. “Gives you these hard little things, right? You're just a toy. I don't care if my toys get cold.”
Okay, so being warm apparently wasn't part of the game. He had a point; kidnappers wouldn't care much about the comfort of their captives. She shivered. Maybe this game hadn't been such a great idea, not if it meant she was going to freeze. She hated being cold.
“Oh, for fuck's sake, fine.” He went to the heater by the window and turned it on.
“You're lucky you look good, or I wouldn't give a shit if you froze to death. Don't ask me for any more favors, though; you won't like the result.”
It took a few minutes for the room to warm up. Meanwhile, Joseph sat on the bed and stared at Nolie. Just stared, in total silence. It took a lot of effort for Nolie to keep her mouth shut. She always felt like she had to fill silences. If he didn't do or say something soon, she might go crazy.
At the same time, though, she liked having him look at her this way. His total attention was on her, which hadn't happened in months. Even in bed lately they’d both had other things on their minds. From his intense gaze, Nolie doubted Joseph had anything on his mind except her naked body. She loved it. She would love it more when he finally did something, though. Waiting for him to touch her was torture. Probably just as he intended. Finally he stood and came over to her. “You look a little anxious. Problem?”
Nolie shook her head. She wouldn't answer him. She wasn't supposed to ask for him to touch her; in this game, she should beg for him not to. No matter what she really wanted.
“You couldn't possibly be waiting for me to do this, could you?” He tweaked one of her nipples again. Before she could stop herself, she moaned. “Oh, so you do like that.” He cupped both hands around her breasts. “You want to have your tits played with, huh? Even by a stranger? Even by someone who brought you here against your will?”