“I know that. I was calling you Pollyanna because you were being blindly optimistic.” She opened her eyes, well, one eye since her right eye was pretty much swollen shut. Why was she dreaming about such an annoying person? “And it’s really big of you to threaten a beaten, tied up, and helpless woman.”
“Beaten and tied up, yes. Helpless, I don’t see that.”
She glared at the blond-haired man crouching by the bed. Then she blinked. He didn’t disappear.
“Oh, fuck. You’re real.”
“I am. You’re awake?”
“My eyes are open, aren’t they?”
Probably best not to irritate the armed, built guy staring at you like you’re some sort of weird insect, Keira.
“They are. But I find that’s not always a good way to determine that someone is awake. I know someone who sleeps with his eyes open.”
“That’s just creepy,” she said. “Like he’s dead, but breathing.”
“Yes. It is creepy.” He ran his gaze over her. “Where else are you injured? Who did this to you? Why are you tied up?”
Yeah, like she was just going to blurt everything out to him. A stranger. A weird sort of stranger.
“Who are you?”
“Zander.”
Zander? That was it?
“What? Like Madonna?” she asked.
“What is like Madonna?” he asked, appearing confused.
“I mean, do you only have one name?”
“Oh, no. I have more than one.” He didn’t say anything more.
“So you’re not going to tell me your other name?”
“No.”
This was all she needed. Some weirdo breaking into her room to drive her insane. “What are you doing in here? Did you come into the wrong room?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Me? Stay in a place like this? I’ve slept in better conditions in the jungle.” His gaze moved over the room.
“Then why are you here?” Obviously, it wasn’t to untie her. She tugged at the ropes. She really needed to get free.
“To find you, of course.”
Fear stabbed her as reality made a nasty appearance. She was tied up on a bed with an armed stranger. It wouldn’t take much for him to kill her. And this wasn’t a fucking dream.
Fuck.
She tugged harder at her restraints.
“You’re making yourself bleed,” he told her conversationally.
“A decent person would untie me.”
“I never claimed to be a decent person. And if I untie you, then you’re not going to make very good bait.”