“It's not even Christmas yet,” she says. “We have two weeks to go.”
I laugh as I scoop her back up into my arms, carrying her towards the bathroom. Before we can get there, though, there's a knock on the door.
Then a shout. “Are you in there, Bellissima?”
Her eyes widen. “Oh God!”
There's a pounding, a smash, the front window’s broken open.
“It’s him, the guy who kidnapped me; I’d know his voice anywhere.”
I pull on my jeans as the man who tried to hurt my woman breaks into my cabin. Motherfucker.
I left the gun on the coffee table.
10
JUNIPER
The idea of that fucker showing up here where I just got off, orgasming over and over again with this hero of a mountain man, has my blood boiling.
Yes, I am just over the moon, feeling high on life, but now I am also a woman on a mission.
Jacob says he left the gun in there on the coffee table. “He's going to grab it.”
I shake my head. “You're a mountain man living in Alaska. Surely you have more than one gun!”
Jacob grins. “God, do you know how hot that sounds?”
I smile. “Where's your gun safe?”
Jacob walks over to his bedroom closet and pulls it open, revealing a gun safe as tall as he is. He punches in a code and opens it. I hear my captor in the living room. There's no time to waste. I knot a sheet around my bosom, feeling like I might just be some woman in a medieval novel after all, one who's just been bedded by a handsome man in the woods.
Jacob tucks a gun into his belt. Then I take the gun Jacob offers me. It's a small handgun and one I can handle. “You got that?”
“Of course I do. I do my research. I may write medieval fantasy novels, but I've considered writing thrillers.”
Jacob secures the safe, shaking his head. “You have no idea how hot you are.”
I grin. “Let's go make sure this asshole knows who he's dealing with.”
Jacob shakes his head, and he pulls me to him and kisses me hard on the lips. “I'm going to fuck you so hard after this.”
“Oh my God,” I say, and my knees are jelly. My belly flip-flops and my eyes are literal hearts. He smacks my ass and flips me around.
“Come on, time to go deal with this fuckwad.”
Side by side, we walk into the living room, our eyes on the target. Thomas is fumbling like the fool. He is a superfan come unglued. The door to the cabin is wide open and I see the headlights to his truck are on, the engine still roaring.
He must've just been driving around the mountains, looking for me. I point my gun at him. “What do you think you're doing?” I ask.
He growls. “You left me. You were my little pet. What do you think you're doing with him? He's a monster. You belong to me. It's time for you to come home.” He's jangling a set of old skeleton keys in his hand. My whole body recoils. The gust of cold wind sweeps through the front door, sending an icy chill through the room.
I lift the gun, pointing it at him, which seems to give him an idea because his eyes sweep the cabin, landing on the gun on the coffee table. He lunges for it.
“Don't,” I say, “if you touch it, I'll shoot.”
“You're not going to shoot me,” he says.
“I’ll shoot you,” Jacob says, “I'll shoot you dead. You touched Juniper in ways that weren't your right, sick pervert. Now it's time for you to pay.”
“Who are you?” the lunatic asks Jacob. “And what did you do to my pet? What have you done to her?”
“It's none of your business what I've done with her, but you're never going to touch her again. Do you understand?”
I can't wait around listening to this anymore. I step toward Thomas, wanting this to end. I point the gun at him. “If you don’t get in your truck now, I’ll shoot!”
“I'm not going anywhere,” he says, grabbing the gun from the coffee table.
I know I have no choice. I pull the trigger, shooting him in his shoulder, the same shoulder that I jabbed that fleur de lis in earlier. Now I see there's blood dripping down his sweater, crusted and disgusting.
He screams in horror, a bloodcurdling sound. “I’m gonna kill you, bitch!” He points his gun at me, but I’m already pointing mine at him, shooting before he can mark me.
I’m aiming for his heart but hit him in the leg. He deserves more than that.
“You put me in your car and held me captive. And now you're my captive until the police get here!”
Jacob bites his bottom lip, shaking his head. “You're so badass.” He shoves my captor on the ground, reaches for his gun, taking it out of the man's hands. With him unarmed, Jacob grabs a roll of duct tape from a drawer in the kitchen and binds the man's ankles and his wrists.