Southern Comfort: Compass Brothers, Book 2 (10 page)

He drove to Thomas’s hunting cabin and parked the truck in front. He carried her inside, pulled down the sheets and laid her on the bed before sitting on the mattress at her side. She slept peacefully. He studied her face. The anxiety and worried lines that had covered her face since she’d returned home disappeared in sleep. She looked happy, beautiful. He intended to make sure she always looked that way.

He savored the image while he could. The only look he’d see on her face tomorrow would be fury. Slowly he undressed her. She’d be mad as hell when she woke up, but she wouldn’t be getting married tomorrow. That was for damn sure. Once she was naked, he pulled the covers over her body. Lifting her arms above her head, he used a couple of the ties he’d packed to bind her arms together to the headboard. Then he undressed, walked to the opposite side of the bed and crawled in.

He lay for several moments with a smile on his face. Tonight was Jody’s first night in his bed. He hoped there would be a lifetime more. He chuckled softly as he looked at her. God willing, maybe after tonight, he wouldn’t have to tie her up to keep her there.

“What the hell?” Jody jerked awake when she realized she couldn’t lower her arms.

“Mornin’, sunshine.”

She was startled by the deep voice and looked to her left. She was in bed with Seth. And he was shirtless. Shit. She struggled to remember the previous evening, but everything was blank. She tried to move and couldn’t.

He chuckled, and she fought the urge to kick him in a place sure to wipe his smug smile away for a good long time. She started to do just that, but he dodged the blow too quickly. Grasping both her ankles before she could predict his actions, he managed to tie her legs to the footboard.

She worked hard to take a calming breath, but her heart was racing and her mind was whirling. “Why am I tied to this bed?”

“That’s sort of a long story,” he teased.

“Give me the SparkNotes version. Oh, and untie me while you’re at it. I don’t have time for your games.”

“You have all the time in the world.”

His words had her seeing red. “In case you forgot, dumbass, it’s my wedding day. I’m not in the mood for this.”

Seth’s face darkened slightly. “This isn’t a game, Jody. Make no mistake about that.”

His gaze drifted down her chest and she realized that in her struggles, the blanket had gone south. “Fuck. I’m naked.”

He nodded, his gaze not leaving her bare breasts. “Yep,” he drawled.

Oh yeah. She was definitely hurting him. She wiggled again. He had her tied like a calf in a rodeo. This was not good.

“Why am I naked?” she asked. She racked her brain trying to remember what happened last night. She could recall going into Philly’s and the guys buying a round. “Fuck. Tequila.”

He nodded, though he didn’t seem amused. “You’re not a good drunk.”

She tried not to groan. That wasn’t exactly news. Usually she put a wide berth between her and the stuff, but last night, she’d been overwrought, frustrated, determined to erase Seth Compton from her mind for a few hours.

Well, that worked.

What the hell had she done? She looked at Seth. The sheet covered him from the waist down, but she’d seen his boxers when he tied her up. Regardless of that, an uneasy fear took root. She wanted to push it aside because the thought of it killed her, but she couldn’t dismiss it. Had she given Seth her virginity? How could she not remember something so special? “Did we have sex?”

He scowled. “What kind of asshole do you think I am? Do I look like the kind of guy who’d bring a drunk girl home and fuck her?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Well, I’m naked, and we’re in bed together. So why don’t
you
tell me what kind of asshole you are?”

Seth moved closer, and she tried to still the racing of her heart. Regardless of her confusion, lying in bed with him was a dream come true and she was having a hard time keeping her libido under control.

“Not that kind. Although,” he paused, giving her plenty of time to consider what he’d say next, “maybe I am an asshole. I did kidnap you, undress you and tie you to my bed.”

“Kidnap?” she asked with a laugh she hoped would betray her sudden nervousness. “Don’t joke.”

She let her gaze travel around the room, expecting to find herself in Seth’s foreman’s cabin. One quick look told her that assumption was wrong. “Where are we?”

“Walker’s Ridge.”

“My dad’s hunting cabin? How the hell did we get here?” The cabin was over an hour away from Philly’s.

“I drove us.”

“Why?”

Seth moved even closer, his hands engulfing her waist. Only the sheet separated them.

“You know why.”

She licked her lips.

“You’re mine and I think it’s high time I proved that to you,” he whispered, just before his lips took hers. His kiss let her know exactly how captive she was. He forced her lips apart, his tongue rubbing against hers. She wanted to resist him, but nothing on earth could stop her from responding. She moved closer, cursing the ties binding her to the bed. If she could get free, she could fight this sexy assault.

“Untie me,” she whispered against his lips.

He reached up and freed her from her constraints. She started to rise, but his hands moved to her shoulders, massaging out the kinks left behind by the bondage and she moaned at the glorious feeling. She was stiff, and he was hitting all the right spots.

He kissed her again. Before she could think better of it, she ran her hands through his hair, her breath catching when his bare chest rubbed against her naked breasts. Her nipples were tight, sensitive. This really wasn’t good. He pulled her closer and her brain kicked in.

The asshole had kidnapped her. Snatched her right out of her own bachelorette party. Oh hell no. She shoved him away and sat up, pulling the sheets to cover herself.

“How dare you,” she yelled.

Seth rolled over onto his back and gave her a rueful grin. “That didn’t take long.”

She bent down and untied her feet. “Take me home.”

“No.”

Her temper snapped. “When my father realizes I’m missing, he’ll hunt you down like the lowdown skunk you are and shoot you.”

“Thomas knows we’re here.”

His words took her aback, then fired her up even hotter. “Of course, he does. The two of you probably had a real good time figuring out how you could screw up my wedding day. This won’t work, you know. You can’t keep me here forever.”

Seth shrugged. “I’ll only keep you here long enough to make you see sense.”

“Ha! That’s rich. You kidnapped me, Compton. There’s someone lacking sense around here, but it sure isn’t me. Where are my clothes?”

Seth sat up, leaning against the headboard. She tried to ignore the slight tenting beneath his boxers.

She glanced up to find Seth grinning, and she knew she was blushing. “Wanna peek?”

She scowled. Arrogant, cocky cowboy. “You’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.”

Now it was his turn to frown. “And just whose cock have you been looking at?”

She shrugged, loving the zing of her lie. “I may be a virgin, Seth, but I’m hardly an innocent.”

He moved forward, and she struggled to hold her ground. She’d returned home with her future set. She’d promised to marry Paul, to help him achieve his dream of building the cancer research facility. Giving up a year of her life to make that a reality seemed a small price to pay.

What she hadn’t counted on was Seth. She’d spent months trying to move on. She wasn’t going to backpedal now. She needed to find some way to convince him to let her go.

“Well,” he purred, his nose brushing against her cheek, his hot breath warming her face…and a lot of other parts of her body. “Since you’re so experienced, maybe I shouldn’t worry about taking things slow. You offered to suck my cock last night. Being a gentleman, I refused.”

Heat rushed to her cheeks. Good God. She’d obviously put on quite a show. “If you were a gentleman, you’d stop playing this stupid game and give me my clothes.”

He gripped her arms and before she could react, he pulled her down on the bed, covering her with his body. “I told you before. This isn’t a game.”

He kissed her, his hands grasping her face, holding her still for his assault. The kiss was too hot, too deep. She closed her eyes, letting the emotions it evoked wash through her. She’d lied about being experienced. Like a fool, she’d saved herself for him. Spent years turning down dates and eschewing relationships out of respect for what she thought was true love. She’d been an idiot.

If it hadn’t been for Paul, she would have rectified that oversight on her twenty-first birthday. She’d gone out intent on experiencing the life she’d been denied while deluding herself into thinking Seth was the only man she ever wanted to be with. Paul had pulled her out of the bar before she could add yet another mistake to the list she’d tallied up over the years…all because she’d fallen in love with Seth Compton when she was twelve years old.

He moved back, though their lips were just a hairsbreadth away. “Let me show you what you’ll be missing if you choose Paul.”

His words splashed over her like ice-cold water as everything crashed down on her. Paul. The trust fund. The will. The wedding she was about to miss.

She pressed against his shoulders, and he moved back. She crawled out of the bed, embarrassed by her nudity. She should be moving beyond the stage where she was modest in front of him, but it was too new, too unfamiliar. She looked around and spotted his T-shirt hanging on the back of a chair. God only knew where he’d hidden her clothing. Grabbing it, she drew the soft cotton over her head as he moved to the side of the mattress, facing her. “I have to get out of here.”

“Dammit, Jody. Do we really need to go over this again? I told you why I couldn’t let things between us go too far.”

“You’re right. We’re beating a dead horse,” she said, tugging the T-shirt down, wishing it covered more. As it was, it only hit her about mid-thigh. “And you know what, hotshot, those reasons haven’t changed. I’m not gonna bend over and be a good little submissive for you. I’m not gonna play some weak, helpless woman in this macho kidnapper scenario you’re working on. What I am going to do is get dressed, go home and marry a man who’s never pretended to be anything other than who he really is.”

Her comments had struck a chord, but by the set of Seth’s jaw he wasn’t giving up yet. His stubbornness in the face of hers was more proof that a relationship between them would never work. Instead of compromising, they’d continue to butt heads until one of them had brain damage.

“You know what,” she started. “You were wrong to wait for me to grow up. You should’ve snatched me up when I was young and stupid and willing to do anything for you. You let the hourglass run out.”

He shook his head. “You don’t get it, Jody. I didn’t want the young girl with stars in her eyes. I wanted the woman I knew you could be. The woman you are now. I don’t want a doormat. I want an equal. I want you.”

She laughed, though the sound didn’t portray happiness. “Oh the irony. You didn’t want me when I wanted you. Now when you do want me, I’ve moved on. Life’s a bitch.”

Her words were harsh, sarcastic and full of shit.

“I don’t believe you don’t want me.”

She shrugged. “I don’t really care what you believe.” She glanced around. She needed to get the hell out of this room, away from him before all the months she’d spent hardening her heart collapsed around her. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

He narrowed his eyes suspiciously, then took in her appearance. Obviously, he decided in her current get-up she wasn’t a flight risk. “Go ahead. I’ll make us some breakfast.”

She nodded once, then turned to cross the room. As she passed the kitchen counter, she spotted the keys to his truck. She could feel his gaze burning into her back as she walked away. When she got to the counter, she pretended to step on something.

“Shit,” she said, bending down to brush away the make-believe annoyance while laying her other hand over the keys.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she grumbled. “Just stepped on a pebble or something. This damn cabin could use a good cleaning.” She closed her hands around the keys and continued toward the bathroom. Once inside, she locked the door and rushed over to the window.

She grinned as she slowly raised the glass. Maybe she’d send someone to pick Seth up in a day or two. After her wedding ceremony.

Climbing through, she landed softly on the grass outside the window, grateful the cabin was only one story. Quickly, she dashed around the corner toward the truck. She didn’t have much time.

She pulled up short when she saw Seth leaning against the hood, wearing nothing but a pair of Levi’s and a big smile.

“Goin’ somewhere?” he asked.

She sighed, feigning surrender. “Guess not,” she said. “Here.” She tossed the keys at him, aiming for his face. She didn’t wait to see if he caught them.

Instead, she turned quickly and took off in the opposite direction. She’d always been a fast runner. If she could just make it to the road, maybe she’d get lucky and someone would be driving by. She could hear Seth behind her, but she couldn’t risk turning to look. Her heart was racing and God help her, she was actually becoming aroused. Apparently, this kidnapping thing was starting to get to her, pushing some previously unexplored buttons.

A hard hand grabbed her T-shirt, drawing her back. She stumbled and started to fall. She threw her hands up to save herself from the hard ground, but at the last minute, Seth twisted her, taking the impact as she fell against his chest.

“Ouch,” she said, perfectly aware their tumble had probably hurt him worse than her.

He grimaced. “Yeah, ouch.”

She pushed up onto her elbows. “You okay?”

He lay still for a moment, and she wondered if he was taking inventory before answering her. “I’m fine, but sweetheart—”

His odd tone alerted her to the fact she was straddling his waist with her very bare ass. She could feel his erection pushing against his jeans.

“Shit.” She started to stand, but Seth clasped his hands around her hips and held her in place. “Seth. Let me up.”