Chapter Four
Gage
I don’t knowhow long she battles with her conflicting thoughts, but eventually, I feel her body go lax against me as my body heat lulls her to sleep.
It’s obvious what she was thinking. She’s struggling with the thought that her kidnapper made her come. She wants to hate me, and I’m sure a part of her does, but her body responds to me.
I’m not fitting into the typical kidnapper mold. I’m not being the monster she expects me to be, and it’s fucking with her mind.
Hell, she’s not the only one. My response to her is fucking with me too. I shouldn’t be this tender with her. I shouldn’t have this crazed need to coddle her and protect her. But I do. At the same time, I want to possess her. I want to own every part of her. Mind, heart, body, and soul. I want her to crave me the way I crave her.
As if my obsession couldn’t get any worse, now that I’ve tasted her, I only want more. Like a junkie, one hit isn’t enough. I know that every time I hold her, it’ll only strengthen my desire for her, and I’ll have to keep having more and more to keep myself sane.
I’m trying to ignore the erection between my legs. It’d be so easy to rip those flimsy little panties from her body and stuff my aching staff inside her. God knows I need the relief. Badly.
My release on her stomach earlier had barely taken the edge off my lust. Now it’s back in full force, tormenting me as I hold the sweetest body in the world in my arms.
I can’t help tilting my head down and inhaling deeply, breathing in her sweet scent.
She feels so tiny and frail in my arms. So breakable. So vulnerable. It brings out a protective rush in me.
She’s mine. Mine to hold. Mine to protect. I’m not even going to fucking fight it anymore. I don’t care. I don’t care if it doesn’t make sense. I’m not going to be able to let her go. I know that now.
I haven’t even fucked her yet, and every part of me aches at the thought of not having her here with me.
She stirs in my arms, rolling toward me in her sleep and nuzzling her little head closer to me, burrowing into my chest.
My chest tightens at her subconscious movement. I’ve never let a woman get close enough to me before to sleep with me, to cuddle into me like this. It’s an amazing feeling coming from this girl. This sweet, innocent, little angel.
I stroke her hair, petting her like she’s a sleeping kitten.
I don’t sleep. I stare down at her all night, marveling at this beauty in my arms. I don’t want to miss a moment of watching her. I’m relieved to see that her dreams must be peaceful. Her face is soft in sleep, her little pink lips at ease. Any time she does toss, it’s to move closer to me.
I realize it’s probably a form of madness, the way I can stare at her all night so contentedly, but I really don’t give a fuck. I passed the point of no return the moment I tasted the peaches and cream from her pretty pink pussy.
I’m irritated when my buzzing phone draws my attention away from her. I don’t get to watch her slowly wake up because she’s jolted awake by both my movements and the infernal noise from the phone.
She quickly scoots away from me like I have leprosy, pulling the covers up to her chin as a shield. I try to ignore the pang of hurt at both her actions and the suspicious, disdainful look she throws my way.
“Morelli,” I snap my surname in greeting when I flick open my phone.
“Gage,” Sinclair’s smooth voice comes over the line. “I understand you have my daughter?” He doesn’t ask to see or speak to her. Sinclair knows I’m a man of my word. If I say I have his daughter, I’ve got her.
I grit my teeth at the familiarity of him using my first name. Then, I notice there’s none of the panic in his voice that most men would have at a man like me having their daughter in his possession. No, Sinclair had stated the question like he was asking about the weather or a business merger.
“Have you went over my terms?” I ask him in a bored, cold tone that should let him know I mean business.
I feel Ava’s eyes trained on me, but she doesn’t say a word. She doesn’t scream or plead to speak with her father, even though she has to have figured out that’s who I’m on the phone with by now.
“Ah, yeah, uh, see, that’s the thing,” the first hints of nervousness lace his voice. His voice lowers conspiratorially as if he’s confessing some great secret. “I don’t have that kind of cash yet, and I won’t if you force me to shut down my business.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t fully disclose the details to you earlier, Morelli,” the man goes on. “I didn’t really think it was important,” he lies.
“Come now, Sinclair,” my voice is deceptively calm. “You knew I wouldn’t front you the money if I’d known it was for human trafficking. Don’t play me for a fool. It’s not befitting a man of your stature.”
Sinclair laughs nervously and tries to play off the precarious position he’s in. “Come on, Morelli. You’ve got your hands in everything in the underworld. It’s a lucrative business.”
My hand grips the phone so tightly I’m surprised I don’t shatter it. “There are some lines even I won’t cross. But apparently there’s no end to your stupidity. Did you really think you could blindside me with something like this and come out unscathed?”