To wake up next to someone she loved. To complain about them not hanging up their wet towel or forgetting to put the garbage out. To have her biggest worry be what they were going to have for dinner.
She dreamed of having a boring, ordinary life.
Unfortunately, there was always a Bartolli ready to ruin that dream.
“Right now I should be overcooking the potatoes and have my husband complaining that the lawn needs mowing again,” she grumbled around her fingers.
Shit.
Her fingers were still in her mouth! She hastily drew them out. Then she sat up and put her soft toys behind her to keep them safe from him. No way was she letting anything happen to them.
North watched her without giving anything away. She wasn’t even sure that he was blinking. Why was it so hard to read this man?
It was like he had his facial muscles completely ironed out. So they were flat. And pinned back so they didn’t move.
Maybe it was Botox or a face lift.
Okay, it was kind of amusing to think about him getting a facelift in order to control his face. Or because of vanity. That was even funnier.
“Why are you smiling?” He studied her closely. “What’s so funny?”
“Oh, just the idea that you might iron your face each morning.”
And she probably shouldn’t have said that. This man had kidnapped her for goodness sake!
But even though she should have learned when to shut up and think first . . . well, it seemed that lesson was a hard one for her to learn.
“Iron my face? I don’t understand.”
She shrugged. “It’s not funny if you have to explain the joke.”
“I don’t care about finding it funny. I can’t remember the last time I did laugh. Explain it.”
“You can’t remember the last time you laughed?” she asked, appalled.
“That’s right.”
“Why don’t you laugh?” she asked.
All right, she knew this was a really weird conversation to have with your kidnapper, but she was genuinely curious. Why didn’t he laugh? It was odd.
He hadn’t been like this the first time she’d met him. Sure, he’d been a bit . . . off. But he’d seemed friendlier, more sane.
Mind you . . . she hadn’t expected that he would be the one to kidnap her. There were lots of other people she could see doing it.
But not North.
He didn’t seem to want anything to do with her.
“Perhaps I don’t find anything amusing?” he suggested.
Yikes.
“You realize you sound like a psychopath,” she told him.
“I’ve been called worse.”
Worse?
