“Let’s go to bed,” she said, pressing a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth.
Jason just nodded. She thought that he was feeling the same hopelessness that weighed her down, but she couldn’t be sure. She felt like crying. She felt like making love with him again.
Jase carried her into the bedroom and settled her on the mattress, dealt with the condom she hadn’t remembered him putting on. Stripping off the rest of his clothes, he joined her in bed and began to kiss her all over again.
Kate gave herself up to the pleasure and told herself that it would be enough.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Callie huddled on the mattress on the floor of the small, airless room. A sealed window let in thin rays of sunlight, but the bars blocked any chance of escape.
The first time she had managed to slip away unnoticed, but her freedom hadn’t lasted long. After they had dragged her back to the place they kept the other women, she had been sure they would beat her. Instead, they had simply locked her in different room, one she couldn’t get out of.
She’d been fed and bathed. The woman in charge brought her a pill to make her sleep, and refused to leave until she swallowed it. The day they had kidnapped her, the same woman had ordered two other girls to hold her down while she checked to be sure Callie was still intact...down there.
She had cried for hours afterward.
They had their proof that she was a virgin. Now they were grooming her for the man who would buy her—like a prize cat or a show dog, she thought miserably. They wanted the highest price they could get for her. The better she looked, the prettier, the more money she was worth.
She wondered if her mother had called the police when she’d discovered Callie was gone. Her mom loved her. Surely she would be worried about her. Maybe the cops were looking for her right now.
She held on to that hope every time they forced her to swallow another pill. Whatever drug it was took away her will to fight, and she just sat on the mattress like a lump.
She wondered how much longer she had until the man who wanted her came to claim her.
Please God, let the police find me first. Please, please, please. But God hadn’t helped her before. She didn’t really think He would help her now.
A fresh wave of grogginess closed down her mind, and Callie curled up on the mattress. She tried to keep her eyes open, but it was no use. When she gave in to sleep, she dreamed she was back in the grassy field behind her house in Wharton where she and her friend Penny used to play. She dreamed that she was safe, but she knew it was only a dream.
Both of them were wary the following morning, speaking to each other with exaggerated politeness, pretending the hot sex last night never happened.
It shouldn’t have. Jase knew it and so did Kate. She should have stayed as far away from him as she could get. Jase should have beaten down his lust and refused her offer of comfort.
He told himself that’s all it was. He was uptight and worried. Kate gave him ease with her beautiful body. He should have refused, but he had never been much of a martyr, and he had greedily taken the gift she offered.
Worse yet, he wanted it to happen again.
He’d been quiet all morning, feeling guilty and not feeling guilty at the same time.
“Okay, enough of this.” Kate marched into the kitchen where he was working on his computer. “I wanted you. You wanted me. We’re both adults. We can forgive each other for being human, okay?”
Relief swept through him, and he couldn’t stop a smile. “Honey, you are amazing.” One of his eyebrows kicked up along with the corner of his mouth. “Any chance we can be human again right now?”
Her laughter broke the tension. “Sorry, big guy, we have too much work to do.”
He looked into her smiling face and something tightened in his chest. Every day his feelings for Kate grew deeper. It was dangerous for both of them.
“We need to practice some moves,” he said gruffly. His gaze ran over her sexy, feminine curves, and his groin tightened. He wanted to practice some moves, all right, but they had nothing to do with self-defense.
Inwardly he groaned.
“Too bad we don’t have a mat of some kind,” Kate said.
“Yeah.” He went over to his gear bag, pulled out a six-inch fixed-blade knife. “We’ll do some knife work today. I’ll show you the right way to attack and ways to defend.”
Her eyes gleamed. She seemed to be liking this stuff a little too much.
“I’m ready whenever you are,” she said, smiling.
