“Oh, Anastasia, where have you been?” I hear what sounds like a gasp.
“I’m okay now Mom, I was kidnapped but I’ve been retrieved,” I murmur yawning again, I can’t believe that I am tired again when I have just woken up from sleeping for one whole day.
“Oh, my word, are you hurt? Where are you?” I look at Ulrich as I talk to Mom and see that his attention is fully centred on me.
“I’m okay Mom, just really tired. How is Dad?” I murmur. My worry has been with how he is feeling as I always worry with his weak heart.
“He has been worried sick; we both have, but he’s okay.”
“I will phone you back tomorrow okay Mom,” I want to talk longer to her, but my eyes don’t seem to want to cooperate.
“But, where are you?” I don’t really know, I’m about to ask Ulrich when he holds out his hand for the phone. When I frown, he nods. I reluctantly hand him the phone but only because I seem to have used up all the energy I had. Taking the phone he brings it to his ear.
“Hello,” he says, and I hear my mom’s voice saying something. “My name is Ulrich; the doctor was just here to check on your daughter and he assures us that she just needs to rest. I want you to know that she will be fine, we will take the best care of her.” I close my eyes, as the conversation between Ulrich and Mom continues and no matter how much I want to carry on listening soon, I find myself dozing off.
I don’t know how long I’ve been asleep for this time but when I wake up, I’m feeling so much more refreshed that I smile before opening my eyes, I feel a weight over my waist which has me looking down only to see an arm around my waist. Following the arm up to the body that is laying next to me I tense. Why is he sleeping with me? Instead of being upset at the audacity of him thinking he can just sleep with me I feel somewhat cherished which is silly as I don’t even know the man.
Looking at his sleeping features I smile, his hair is falling over half of his face obscuring most of it to my view but I can still see the stubble that gives him such a manly naughty look, my fingers tingle at the thought of touching his jaw. His lashes are long and dark, his lips are plump and meant to be woken up with a kiss, but I don’t dare.
I don’t know how he can lay next to me; I must stink, and my hair must look like a rat’s nest. Looking back down at my body I frown realizing for the first time that I am not wearing the dirty yellow dress that I had been wearing for such a long time, Instead I seem to be dressed in a white t-shirt. I look over at Ulrich again, wondering if he was the one to change me.
“I can feel you staring at me,” he says in a gravely sleepy voice that sounds so sexy.
“Who changed my clothes?” His eyes open sleepily and then he grins, a cocky grin that I am sure has caught the attention of many women before.
“Don’t worry I don’t go in for ravishing women while they asleep.” At his reply I feel a tinge of jealousy as I think of all the women this man must have ravished before, how could he ever want to even look at me when I must look like a scarecrow at the moment.
“I wasn’t worried,” I mutter.
“Liar,” he murmurs as he raises his hand and tweaks my chin. I am stunned at the action as I can’t remember when was the last time that anyone did that to me, I can’t even remember my parents doing it. “It was the girls. When you arrived, they made sure you were comfortable before I arrived.”
“What girls?” I see him frown and then he is lifting on his elbow as he looks down at me.
“Looks like you are feeling better,” he says without answering my question which only makes me more curious. “Are you hungry, I will get someone to bring up something to eat.” My stomach growls at the mention of food which has him grinning. “Well looks like the answer is yes,” he says as he sits up, turning he leans forward and picks up his phone from the side table.
“Can I please have anything but bread with butter,” I say feeling bad at being picky but after eating only two slices of bread with butter for days I think I can go awhile without eating any.
He looks over his shoulder at me, “don’t you like bread or is it the butter?” he asks as he places the phone back on the side table after sending a text which I’m guessing is to ask for the food.
“Actually, I liked both, but after only eating two slices of stale bread with butter for days I can easily go a few days without eating any,” I say only to see anger on his face.
“Assholes,” he grunts, his muscles bunching on his back as he stands and then turns to face me again. Oh, man and I thought he was handsome when he had his t-shirt on, I can feel the heat rising at the perfection that is the male specimen before me. If anything good came out of this situation, it was meeting this man. If nothing more I will have memories of this hunk to keep me dreaming for many years to come. There is a wings tattoo across his chest with the words Elemental’s MC, I also see the words from his shoulder blade down his bicep that says Family first. His left arm has the most beautiful tattoo, which I cannot really tell what it is, but the pattern has my eyes glued to it.
“I should have killed the fuckers.” At the angry words, my thoughts snap back to the present, my eyes snapping up to his.
“What do you mean, what happened to them?” Are they going to come after me again? I can feel a knot growing in my stomach when I think of having to always look over my shoulder in fear.
“Nothing, they are detained. We need information from them on where they keep the women and how they transport them.” At least they are detained, I start to push myself up so that I can sit up as my muscles are starting to ache from being in bed for such a long time but suddenly his hands are around my upper arms and he is helping me sit up.
“Umm, thank you,” I murmur not used to having people helping me before he can say anything there is a knock at the bedroom door. He walks to the door, opening it I hear a feminine voice before I see the woman walk in. Ulrich inclines his head towards the bedside table and the woman approaches. There is a frown on her face as she looks at me. Who is she? As soon as she places the food on the bedside table, she is once again turning, her skin-tight jeans leaving little to the imagination and her tank top clearly shows her lack of a bra.
When I see Ulrich smiling at her, my anger rises which I know is unreasonable as I don’t know him from anywhere and I must look a fright compared to the woman now standing before him simpering like a cat, her hand on his chest. “Do you need anything else?” she asks looking up at him, her fingers stroking their way up his chest.
“Not now, doll, you can leave,” he says with a wink as he takes a step back. She pouts as she turns to head out the door. When he has closed the door, my anger is at fever pitch. I saw his eyes on her ass as she strolled out.
“You know, you don’t have to stay here with me. Don’t let me stop you from going about your business.” I can hear the anger in my voice, and I know he can sense it too as his eyebrows rise in surprise.
“And now?” he asks as he frowns, but instead of answering I grunt in anger and turn to see what was brought up to eat. There is a plate that is covered, a glass with what looks like orange juice and something that is wrapped. I start to lean over to uncover the main plate but am stopped by Ulrich as he comes to stand by the plate. Looking back at him, I see him still looking at me with a frown.
“Why are you upset?” I know I am glaring as I look at him and I know that it is silly, I have no reason to be upset with the man, after all I barely know him, but the thought of him looking at another woman has me wanting to strangle him.
“I’m just hungry,” I mutter and see his suspicious expression, but he turns, leaning down he uncovers the plate to show me scrambled eggs, the smell has my mouth watering. He then uncovers a plain croissant that looks perfectly flaky, like it will melt in my mouth. Placing the croissant on the plate next to the eggs, he picks up the plate and the fork and then he is sitting down next to me.
“What are you doing?” I ask as he brings the fork towards me, filled with egg.
“I’m feeding you,” he says, I open my mouth to tell him that I can very well eat by myself when he places the egg in my mouth, instead of spluttering I close my mouth and chew, the taste of the egg after so long of not eating anything tasteful is like the best thing I have ever tasted. I lift my hand to take the fork away from him, but he moves his hand out of reach.
“I can feed mys. . .” again, he fills my mouth with egg when I try to argue with him.
“Mmmm, nice isn’t it,” he murmurs, and I can see a twinkle in his eye which has me glaring at him but instead of fighting him I decide to let him feed me if that makes him feel better, but if he thinks that I will always give in to his wishes, he has another think coming.