I hate how handsome he is. I hate that he bought me, but he’s so gorgeous. Attractive. Dark. He’s good-looking in all the wrong ways, and I despise it.
It’s a bad thing when you want to jump into bed with your captor. It’s a dangerous thing. Still, I can’t quite control the way I’m drawn to Quinn. My eyes roam over his hair, which looks so soft. I want to touch it, play with it. I want to run my hands through it.
“You know what I mean,” Quinn says. If he notices the way I’m eating him up with my eyes, he doesn’t say anything about it. “Who are you, really? How did you get here? You told me you’re from Mirroean, but why did you come to Dreagle, little one?”
“Vacation,” I say. I blurt the word before I can stop myself. Why did I tell him that? When you’re kidnapped, you’re supposed to lie. You’re supposed to hide information about yourself. You’re supposed to make it as hard as possible for anyone to discover who you are.
Somehow, though, I can’t lie to him.
I just can’t.
“Vacation?” He looks confused. “Why are you on Dreagle? Not for vacation, little one. Ships from Mirroean don’t stop here. Ever.” He cocks his head to the side and suddenly, I feel defensive.
“There was an engine problem,” I whisper. “Or something was wrong. Maybe we were lost. A wrong turn. It was something like that.”
“Who told you that?” He asks, but his words aren’t harsh. “Who were you with?”
“My family,” I tell him. “My mom and dad. My…” I choke on the word. “Fiance.”
“You were on a trip before your wedding,” he says slowly, rubbing his chin. He doesn’t seem to care I was engaged. “And your ship stopped on Dreagle, but you don’t really know why.”
“Yes,” I whisper.
“What happened when you landed? What reason were you given for landing?”
I try to remember what happened. I try to remember the words that were spoken. I wasn’t supposed to know we were landing. No one was. It just feels like it was so long ago, so far away.
It just seems like everything happened years ago instead of days ago.
I woke up in the middle of the night when the ship landed. I peeked at the map on my in-room monitor. The map showed what planet we were on or close to. It showed exactly where the ship was.
When I saw we were on Dreagle, I was shocked. Surprised. Scared. I knew something was wrong because if nothing was wrong, we wouldn’t have landed on Dreagle. Dreagle is where you go when you’re up to no good. Dreagle is a planet full of criminals and misfits and deviancy.
Dreagle is a place that’s not safe to go.
For anyone.
“I wasn’t given a reason,” I tell Quinn as my memories come slowly back to me. “I woke up in the middle of the night when we landed.”
“You’re a light sleeper,” he murmurs.
“I usually take a sleeping pill,” I say. “But I forgot that night. I didn’t take it because I went to bed later than usual. I was up reading and I just fell asleep on my own.”
“What happened when you woke up?” Quinn urges, and I feel like he’s really listening intently. He’s not judging. He doesn’t look malicious.
He doesn’t look like he’s going to gobble me up.
“I left my room. My mother was awake and she was talking to my dad and Darin.”
“What were they talking about?” He asks.
“I don’t know. A plan for something. I guess I thought they were going to surprise me with something on Orchid. That’s where we were going: Orchid. They stopped talking when they saw me. They looked surprised to see me.”
“And then?”
“Darin looked…” Suddenly, my heart sinks when I realize he looked upset. He looked anxious, almost angry. Darin was upset to see me. Why? And why hadn’t I noticed it before?
After I was taken, I barely slept or ate. I was delusional and dehydrated. I didn’t think about the details of my abduction at all, but now that I am thinking about it, everything seems so strange.