I’d wink if she could see it.
She pauses before her back straightens in defiance. “Chain me back up.”
“Not the option I was hoping for, but as you wish.”
I stride over to the bathroom and retrieve the open cuff from the floor.
“What Iwishis for you to let me go. I told you, if you’re trying to stop the bill, you’re actually helping my dad by keeping me here. All publicity is good publicity to him. And the sympathy vote will work perfectly for his re-election campaign.”
I cuff her right wrist this time and untie the binds, keeping her left strapped to the chair.
Her nimble fingers dip into her shirt and reveal a soft swell of her upper breasts before she plucks out the bobby pin and tosses it onto the floor.
“Good girl.”
“Bite me.”
“I didn’t know you’d be into that kind of thing.”
“I’m Mike Tyson, remember?”
My laugh escapes as I stomp on the bobby pin with my boot and drag it further away from her. I bend over and tuck it into my pocket for safekeeping.
Her breasts jiggle as she struggles to untie the knotbelow them, then the one at her right arm, before finally getting to the ones around her ankle.
“Try anything stupid like that again, and I won’t be so nice, Princess.”
“Nice? Yeah, you’re a real saint.”
“I’m the patron saint of bobby pins.”
That earns me an eye roll, but the corner of her lips quirk up. I call that a win.
“Now, how about that pizza?
CHAPTER FIVE
DAPHNE
“You don’t strikeme as a stuffed-crust-pizza kind of guy.”
I’m halfway through my second slice, ready to dig into the buttery crust as amateur Guy Fawkes lets out a laugh. His arms cross again, those veins in his biceps swelling as his muscles tense beneath his t-shirt.
“Everything’s better stuffed, Princess.”
“You’re heavy on the innuendos for a guy who's too chicken to show his face.”
“And you’re cocky for a woman chained up in a basement.”
I finish off the last few bites before smearing the leftover pizza grease from my fingers onto a Pizza Hut napkin. “You said you weren’t going to kill me. Weirdly enough, I believe you.”
“You do?” His voice brightens, and his arms fall to his sides.
“We both know you have nothing to gain by killing me. I have no idea who you are, where I am, or if anyone even knows I’m gone.”
“It’s been six hours. It’s nearly midnight. I’m sure they noticed.”
“Hey, Genius. Which part of my parents hate me did you not get the first time? You were right about the no-friends bit. My so-called friends all wanted to get close to my dad.” I take another bite and chew, then swallow. “They’ll probably pass the bill before anyone even bothers to call me. And we both know it’ll take weeks, maybe months.”
