Yield to Me (4 page)

His gaze narrowed on the blade.
Before he could warn her to put it down she seemed to have second thoughts. She
dropped it in exchange for a small, wooden hammer. Without hesitation, she
threw it at him. He quickly raised his hand and caught it in midair, grinning
at the look of disbelief spreading across her lovely face.

“Why are you doing this? What do you
want?” Not giving Brent time to reply, she twisted around as though to flee.
Only there was no escape for her, unless she decided to go over the countertop,
which Brent highly doubted.

He moved up behind her, trapping her
against the counter with his body. “You’re good and stuck, princess.” He was
close enough for his breath to stir the fine hairs at the back of her neck.
Close enough to breathe in her silky warmth. Her delicate shiver awakened
something deep inside Brent. A stirring in his cock warned him he was getting a
hard-on.

Like any red-blooded male he was
attracted to beautiful women. In spite of a hard lesson learned from his last involvement;
to be precise, Connie Simmons. A relationship that had turned sour, while
making him cautious and skeptical of any woman’s intentions. Sophie had already
proved more resourceful than he’d anticipated. He wasn’t about to let his guard
down anytime soon. No matter how enticing she was.

His body had other ideas though, betraying
him by their close proximity. “You might as well give up.” He twisted her
around in his arms, at the same time reaching for the knotted scarf in his
pocket. He’d crammed it in there just in case, thankful now for his last minute
thought.

“No!” she screamed, struggling
wildly when her eyes lit on the scarf.
“Help!”

She strained away as Brent’s hand
moved closer to her, and opened her mouth to let out what he sensed would be another
ear-piercing scream. He moved quickly, and stuffed the knot into her mouth
before tying the loose ends at the back of her head. All the while she
struggled furiously against him, but he had no trouble using his greater
strength to keep her right where he wanted her.

The panicked expression on her
frightened face almost caused Brent to hesitate, almost. And he had to wonder
if it fear from feeling his hard cock, or if she was frightened over her
situation. For the first time, he began to question what he was doing and the
reasons why. Was terrifying her this way worth it? The senator might not think
so if he could see Sophie’s terrified face right then. Yet Brent knew he
couldn’t afford to soften.

“Sorry, but I gave you fair
warning,” he grated in an unsympathetic voice that said it was her own damn
fault.

She continued to struggle wildly,
trying to break free. Brent grabbed her arms and forced them behind her,
locking her wrists together at the small of her back. His gaze remained on her
pale face, moving over her delicate features in a leisurely sweep before
sliding down the graceful column of her throat and below.

Part of him knew his look was
calculated to intimidate her, make her wonder what he would do next. He took a
few seconds to appreciate the beauty of her skin, how soft and flawless, before
letting her muffled sounds of protest snag his attention. She shuddered against
him, whimpering behind the gag in her mouth. Brent’s gaze slid back up to study
her face, noticing her pupils were dilated. Everything his mother had taught
him about treating a woman came rushing to the surface, almost crippling him
from carrying out his scheme.

As much as it bothered him, he was
glad she was smart enough to be afraid. He needed her frightened if his plan
was going to work. It might help keep her manageable and God knew he needed all
the help he could get. A sudden movement at the doorway drew his attention and
he stiffened before realizing it was Tom.

“I’m sorry she got away from me
earlier, Brent, but she caught me by surprise.” Brent flashed him a scathing
look for using his name, when they’d already agreed on an alias. Tom paused in
the open doorway, his face turning red when his mistake caught up to him.
“Sorry,” he said lamely.

“Don’t sweat it,” Brent muttered,
reaching inside his pocket for a second piece of cloth. He jerked Sophie away
from the counter, tying her hands together with a bad feeling in his gut.

So far nothing was going to plan.

Chapter 4

As it began to dawn on Sophie that
she was being abducted, she strained against Brent’s hold in earnest, dragging
her feet in an effort to stall for time. Maybe with a little luck someone had
heard the commotion and phoned security. However, she soon realized he was much
stronger. Without half-trying, he curled his hand around her upper arm like a
steel shackle, forcing her to walk ahead of him. As they moved closer to the
door, she realized she had to do something. She couldn’t just go with them
without a fight.

As they reached the threshold,
desperation forced her into letting her body go limp. Maybe pretending to faint
would work to her advantage, but unfortunately her plan was short-lived. She
heard Brent release a tisk of annoyance before scooping her up and tossing her
over his shoulder like a sack of unwanted potatoes. At least he hadn’t let her
hit the floor, but his undignified solution to the problem was no less welcome.

The gag only muffled her groan of
protest over the unladylike position. Frustrated her fainting spell hadn’t
worked she began to squirm vigorously, gaining nothing but a grunt of
irritation and a hard slap that wounded her pride more than her posterior. She
had no idea where they were going. From her vantage point, all she could see
was the back of his neatly pressed slacks and the royal blue carpet embellished
with little gold crowns.

They hadn’t gone very far when they
paused before a door, long enough for Brent’s partner in crime to unlock and
open it for them to pass through. The short distance told Sophie they’d entered
the vacant apartment next to hers, making her recognize they were the new tenants.
They’d obviously thought of everything. The tenants who lived in the building
were extremely wealthy, valuing their privacy. Unless they had a good reason,
security would think twice before knocking on a tenant’s door to question them.

“Something tells me we aren’t going
to get lucky where security is concerned, which means they could show up here
any minute. Keep your eye on the peephole. You know what to do if they come
knocking.” She heard Brent say over his shoulder as he continued through the
room in hurried strides.

“Don’t screw this up, Tom.” He
strode into the bedroom, slamming the door behind him and dumping Sophie unceremoniously
on the bed.

She bounced several times before
coming to a stop, staring at Brent over the gag with a mixture of fear and
anger churning in her stomach. What would he do now? As if reading her mind his
face split into a wolfish grin, adding to her apprehension when his hands
quickly moved to the buttons on his shirt. Her eyes nearly popped out of her
head when he began to undo them. Why was he unbuttoning his shirt? She raised
her gaze to find him watching her, shaking her head no vigorously. However, his
only response was a wider grin if that were possible, turning his eyes a darker
shade of gold. His slightly spread-eagle stance was as intimidating as it was
sexy.

She tried to swallow behind the gag,
nearly choking herself.

“Getting nervous now, are we,
princess?” Brent pulled his dress shirt out of his slacks, slipping it off his
shoulders before letting it fall carelessly to the floor.

Her stare zeroed in on his
sculptured, well-defined chest that appeared every bit as hard as the rock of
Gibraltar, complimented by a pair of the widest shoulders she’d ever seen on a
man. Mesmerized, she followed his strong hands when they dropped to the belt
buckle at his waist, watching him deftly undo it before moving to unsnap and
unzip his pants. It quickly dawned on her that he was undressing all the way.
Her heart lodged in her throat at what that could possibly mean, wishing she’d put
up more of a struggle to escape; now it was too late. Whatever Brent had
planned, it was clear by the intense look on his face he wasn’t going to change
his mind.

She was beginning to feel like a
sacrificial virgin, lying there helplessly while waiting to be conquered. Her
eyes rounded pleadingly over the gag in a silent attempt to get him to change
his mind but his hands didn’t falter. His gaze remained cemented on hers,
revealing a volley of complex emotions she couldn’t begin to unravel.

Then something made him pause, and
Sophie wondered if it had anything to do with her expression. She’d never been
so frightened in her life and knew it had to be reflected on her face.

“Sorry, princess. You’ve forced me
to come up with a change of plans. You made too much ruckus for it to go unnoticed
by the few tenants living close by. My gut tells me we’re going to have
company.”

Company?
Sophie felt a glimmer of hope. But before she had a chance to get
too excited Brent kicked off his shoes and peeled off his socks, staring down
at her. “If I thought Tom could handle you, I’d turn you over to him.”

Ohmigod…what did that mean?

When his hands moved to the open
waistband of his slacks her eyes widened with alarm. She felt her heart racing,
her gaze locking on to his. His hands faltered, a muscle in his jaw tightening.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door, tearing into the tense moment like a
gunshot blast.

“The security guards are knocking on
the door down the hallway!” Sophie heard Tom say in a voice rushed with panic.
“I think they’re heading this way!”

Tom’s comment spurred Brent into
action. He yanked off his pants and knelt on the bed, ignoring her pathetic whimper
of appeal. His added weight on the mattress forced her to roll his way. She
couldn’t stop him from reaching behind her, where he made quick work at untying
her hands. As soon as she was free, Sophie brought them up to fend him off,
aiming for his face, using her long nails like lethal weapons. Before they
reached him, Brent snagged her wrists, slamming them down on the bed, and
lowering his face close to hers.

The fierce look in his eyes
terrified Sophie; she stilled, and held her breath. What was he going to do?

“Good, now that I have your
attention,” he said in a low, threatening tone. “This is how it’s going to be.”

As scared as she was, Sophie
inwardly bulked at his arrogance, but she was helpless against him. She’d been
raised a lady, had gone to some of the finest schools for the well-to-do.
Nothing in the two years of etiquette classes her gentile grandmother insisted
she take had prepared her for something as unforeseeable as this. She was sorry
now for turning up her nose at the chance to take the self-defense courses offered
the last year of high school. The knowledge of where to hit an attacker would
definitely come in more useful now than which side of the plate the salad fork
went.

She attempted to break free, which
Brent quickly took care of by giving her wrists a jerk against the bed. “I’m
not going to hurt you, unless you force me to. Is that clear?”

Do I dare trust him?
She stared into his
eyes for a moment, as if gauging the truth behind his statement, before finally
nodding slowly.
What else can I do?

“We’re about to have company,
princess, so I’m going to remove your gag, but if you try anything, anything at
all,” he stressed in a forceful tone, “you’ll have what happens to them on your
conscience.” He paused for a moment. “Do you understand?” he inquired softly.

Sophie nodded, as he reached for the
gag.

“I’m going to keep my fingers
crossed that you’re not some spoiled, rich society type who doesn’t care about
what happens to anyone other than yourself.”

“My father will give you whatever
you want!” she was compelled to whisper the moment the gag was removed from her
mouth. “My fiancé…”

“In due time,
princess.”
Brent cocked his head as though to
listen for the sound of something significant coming from the outer room.
“Right now we have to make it through the next few minutes. Think you can play
the convincing part of a woman in the act of making love?”

“What?” Sophie’s jaw dropped; she
couldn’t have heard him right. “I don’t understand.”

His hands moved to the halter straps
of her gown, curling around the delicate fabric. “Sure you do. If security
opens that door, I want them taking in the scene of two people so engrossed
with each other that they don’t know what’s going on around them.”

“Please don’t,” Sophie whispered
sharply, realizing what he was about to do. Her hands pressed against his
chest, the heat of his solid flesh beneath her palms sent a current of sharp
awareness through her body, which she promptly ignored. She lowered her gaze,
taking in the contrast of her scarlet-tipped nails buried in the sprinkle of
crisp, black hair covering his chest. “I’ll cooperate!” she promised desperately,
feeling his fingers tugging at the material as though testing its strength.
“That’s what you want, isn’t it?” She held her breath, watching his gold eyes
flicker with hesitation.