Surviving Passion Read online

  By now, the light from outside was filtering into the room a little more brightly, and a shadow passed over the door. Suddenly it was flung wide and the dim light spilled in, but it was the door on the opposite side of the closet. Neither of them moved. The moment seemed to last forever.

  “Ted. Let’s go, she’s not on this floor,” a voice said from the hall.

  Yet, he remained.

  “Ted! Come on, man. Let’s check the top floor,” said the other, impatiently.

  “Alright,” came the delayed reply.

  Captor and captive remained motionless for a few agonizing minutes as the footsteps receded and the door to the stairwell sounded in the distance. He slowly drew her up with him back to a sitting position, but neither sighed in relief. Selena resumed her struggle against his hold but instead of letting go, he gave her a little shake.

  “Shhh,” he commanded again, listening for another few moments. It was all she could stand. She had to get free.

  “Let me go,” Selena hissed between clenched teeth.

  He finally released his grip from her waist and stood. As soon as he let her go, she flattened herself against the back wall, watching him with wide eyes and waiting for what he would do. He was between her and the open door. She tried to haul the other one open, but to her dismay, it wouldn’t budge.

  “It’s stuck,” he said coolly.

  She turned to face him in frustration.

  “Let me out.”

  “No. You’re going to get yourself killed. If you knew how to be quiet, maybe I would.”

  Her face flamed in anger. She was about to argue, but then it abruptly occurred to her that this man had been in the room with her while she laid awake for hours and hadn’t betrayed his presence. Selena began sizing him up. His six-foot three-inch muscular frame dwarfed her. He had to be almost a full foot taller than her, and she had already had a taste of his strength. This was going to be very difficult.

  “Are you going to keep me in this closet?”

  “We’re not leaving the room until those idiots are hell and gone from here,” he informed her with a level stare.

  “I make my own damn decisions.”

  She met his gaze unflinchingly to prove she was not intimidated, even though she was, and terribly. Finding the right words was a struggle. She was flustered and hadn’t spoken to anyone in such a long time. Thank God for books. Maybe I can talk my way out.

  “And there is no ‘we’.” She finished in a tone that should have brooked no argument.

  He swept his eyes up and down her briefly. Suddenly feeling self-conscious, she wrapped her arms around her stomach and inched back a step. So much for acting tough, she thought with mounting apprehension. His eyes lingered for just a second and she caught a brief flicker of something she did not like, but it vanished when he brought his eyes back to hers.

  “Leatherworker?” he asked.

  “I know a bit,” which was obviously an understatement seeing as all her garments were hand-stitched leather. She had made it all: the soft shoes, the calf-length pants, and v-neck tank, each in a light cream shade.

  “You shouldn’t show so much skin,” he said matter-of-factly and turned to scan the room outside before stepping out through the closet door.

  Selena’s jaw dropped involuntarily and she looked down at her clothes. But it’s too hot, she thought indignantly. When she had collected herself, Selena warily stepped out after him just in time to see him close and lock the door. This caused another spike of fear. He sat on the floor, leaning his back against the door and stretching his legs out in front of him. Her mind was racing, but she couldn’t think what to do, so she hugged the wall and made her way to the corner of the room farthest from him. A long silence ensued. Bracing herself to uncover his intentions, Selena cleared her throat and spoke as calmly as she could.

  “What do you think I’m going to do?” she queried. “Run straight back to them?”

  All she got back was a knowing stare. Scoffing, she turned and scooped her pack from the floor, then dropped it on the table. Fishing through its contents she found her book on water purification and sat against the wall next to the window pretending she hadn’t read it a million times before. Stealing a glance at him again, Selena saw that his eyes were closed. She took her time inspecting him now. He had short black hair and hawk-like eyes. His skin was smooth but he had a strong jaw. She mused over how masculine he looked in comparison to her father. He was also young. She couldn’t pinpoint his age, but he couldn’t be much older than she was, at twenty-two. Then Selena noticed the menacing knife hanging from his belt and took a breath. She had her own concealed in a pocket she had sewn into the back of her shirt, but it would be stupid to pull it on him now. She continued to study him. His tank t-shirt and cargo pants were black like his hair. They obviously came from before the Crash. Now it was her turn to disapprove. What kind of a jerk can’t learn to make his own clothes after all this time?

  She may have felt smug, but she kept her judgments to herself. No sense provoking him.

  An hour must have gone by before she got sick of using her book to look calm. Glancing at the door, she saw he still hadn’t moved an inch and his eyes remained closed. He’s awake. Selena decided. She straightened up and turned, trying to get a peek out the window.

  “Keep your head down,” his low voice instructed.

  Selena turned to shoot a glare at him, but his eyes weren’t open. Turning back to the window, she peered out cautiously. It had been a long time since she was this high up. The view looked so different from above.

  A horse’s tail flicked at the corner of one building. They’re still down there, Selena realized as she scanned for any other signs of movement. She didn’t see anyone until a long while later. One of the riders trotted down the dusty road in the direction they had first come. She began to grow impatient when half the day had passed, so she lay down to join him in mock sleep.

  When Selena woke up the sun was setting. She stared at the ceiling and, for a moment, couldn’t remember where she was. The memory of her predicament jolted her upright and she banged into the wall. Her eyes flashed around the room trying to locate her quiet captor. To her immense relief, he stood near the other end of the room, but even so, she was not appeased. Damn, she thought angrily. I was supposed to stay awake.

  Frustrated for allowing her fear to become so obvious, Selena ground her teeth together and supposed she shouldn’t be surprised that she had passed out. It had been a very long night. “Tall guy” was bringing his pack out of the closet. He walked back to the door, sat down and dropped it in front of him before Selena could think of rushing out.

  “Morning,” he said without looking over. Even through her fear, he was starting to annoy her.

  “Yeah, so are you gonna get out of my way now?” she inquired in a deadpan tone.

  “No.”

  She frowned.

  “So when do you plan on leaving here?”

  “In the morning,” he said, grabbing some sticks of dried meat from his pack and tossing one in her direction. She caught it easily. He set to work on his, chewing quietly. His sharp brown eyes came to rest intently on her. “And it’s not me. It’s we.”

  Two

  Selena felt her stomach drop. Her skin went cold and her throat dry.

  “We?” she echoed, with thinly-veiled horror.

  He only watched her while he chewed.

  “What do you want with me?” she asked, slowly getting to her feet.

  “You’re going to get yourself killed out here alone,” he began to say.

  “What makes you think I’m alone?” she blurted quickly.

  All she got was a knowing look before he went on. “And we have a few more men than women.”

  Now she fixed him with a venomous glare.

  “And,” he paused to chew, looking unfazed by her ire, “we need someone who can work with leather.”

  A moment of tense silence ticked past.

  “Than
ks for the offer,” Selena replied steadily, in an icy voice. “But I’ve been doing just fine for the past four years on my own, and I know how to take care of my damn self—“

  “I can see that. How many of those boys were chasing you?” He eyed her for a moment before going on. “You lead them right to the damned building you’re hiding in, right to the room you’re hiding in, almost exposing me. Ridiculous. I’d have had to kill them all if they saw me. I try to avoid that if I can.”

  His tone became authoritative when he added, “So here we are. Alive. I’m not asking.”

  “Last night was a crazy fluke—“

  “How many guys have you said that to?”

  “None!” she spat.

  Something about that seemed to give him pause and his dark eyes bored deeper than ever. Selena’s face burned fiercely, but she hoped she was tan enough to hide the fact. He’s baiting me, she realized furiously, wishing it hadn’t worked so well.

  “It was a fluke,” Selena continued quickly to break the tension. “And I am not yours to take.” He could interpret that any way he liked.

  “What’s your name?” he asked, looking more interested in his food again.

  “Selena ... Cartwright,” she said grudgingly. This was fine. It was best to act casual, despite her roiling fear and anger. When he said nothing, she prompted dryly, “Are you going to share your name?”

  “Dan. Dan Flynt.”

  “Well Dan, what are you going to do? Tie me up and drag me to wherever it is that you’re going?”

  “If I have to. What you’re trying to do is stupid and crazy.”

  “Living on my own? “

  “Yes.”

  “You think I’m better off in a place that’s short on women? Don’t pretend.”

  “It’s not like that where I live. We’re civil.”

  Selena laughed, not bothering to spare him the insult of it.

  If he was bothered, he didn’t show it.

  “You have no right,” Selena pointed out when she had sobered.

  “It’s a duty,” he answered.

  Selena could not understand that, so she took an aggressive bite out of the dried meat he’d given her and sat back down on the floor, resolving to wait.

  This time Selena managed to stay awake. When there was no trace of sunlight left in the darkening sky, she listened carefully to his breathing and tried to make her own sound relaxed. It was difficult to be still. Dan was alarmingly perceptive, both physically and mentally. That much was obvious already, but where this had only frustrated her before, it terrified her now.

  She had to act before her nerve failed. He had no right to decide her fate. The idea of trusting him in any way was completely insane. She only hoped that he wouldn’t expect what was coming. Glancing over silently in the darkness, she could see the length of him stretched out alongside the door. His fingers laced together over his muscled stomach and his breathing was quiet and steady. He has to weigh twice what I do, she thought, working hard to keep calm.

  Gathering her resolve, Selena sat up very slowly, not making any noise. She reached over her shoulder to grasp her small dagger from its secret pocket and slid it from its leather sheath. She paused to watch him and listen for any hint of awareness over the pounding of her own heart, but as far as she could tell, he was out. Now she crept towards him on her hands and knees with agonizing slowness, praying all the while that the floor wouldn’t creak. Thankfully, no sound betrayed her and she continued her trek across the room. He stirred. She froze, but she was halfway to him. She could feel the sweat beading on her skin. When he settled down, she steeled herself and made her way behind where his head lay. I have to do this, she told herself resolutely. It has to be a quick slash. She reached her dagger slowly toward his throat. Her hand jerked quickly. After a confusing moment, she was on her back with her wrists pinned above her head and her dagger gone from her hand. His weight pressed her bodily into the floor as he lay atop her, his face inches from hers. Several moments of alarming silence passed before he spoke.

  “Do we need to talk about this?” he asked coolly.

  Selena was too stunned to respond. She couldn’t figure out how he’d done it, or what he’d done for that matter. She began to seethe as she stared helplessly back at him in the dimness. There was an angled handsomeness to his face, which was undeniable and only magnified by his immovable dominance and the resolute set of his jaw.

  Her shock wore off quickly and a barrage of emotions tumbled in her chest. She was resentful that he was capable of controlling her, and with it, a strange seed of attraction had planted itself. Selena felt angry with herself for being careless enough to end up in this situation. Finally, fear took its proper place at the front of the line, drowning out everything else.

  With every drawn-out moment, she became more acutely aware of the sensation of his powerful frame pressing down on her. She knew that how she felt didn’t matter. She was completely at his mercy and completely aware of it. Her self-control cracked under the pressure and she began to struggle beneath him.

  In response, he abruptly switched to a one-handed grasp on her wrists and reached into his pack, pulling out a thin rope. She tried to wrench a hand away with all her strength, but it was no use. He deftly flipped her onto her stomach, and swiftly tied her wrists together. Despite her struggles it took him only a few short moments to finish with her bonds. Her futile attempts to writhe out of his hold only prompted him to lay more of his weight atop her. When she paused to catch her breath, he leaned closer.

  “No more fighting, Selena,” came the low warning, inches from her ear.

  Her stomach plummeted. It was becoming rapidly clear how much trouble she was in. This man was serious.

  Selena resolved to save her fury for a time when it would serve her more effectively, and it took all of her willpower to submit to his control.

  I will get out of this, she promised herself silently.

  The dawn found Selena indignant, but no less resolute. Dan was at the window as soon as the light began to creep into the sky. He stood with his back to her as he scanned the town below. Clearly he didn’t need to be looking at her to know what she was doing, so Selena didn’t try anything. The last thing she wanted was to give him an excuse to touch her again, but she knew that if he’d wanted to take her by force, he would have done so the night before. For now, Selena planned to keep her head down and be extremely grateful that he was not an animal like she’d assumed most men were. For the time being, she would do exactly as he said until the right moment presented itself.

  The rope around her wrists was actually a length of leather, and there was no way she could chew through it. Dan had taken her dagger and put it in his pack. She would have to retrieve it before her escape.

  When they set off from their hiding place that evening, he held the end of her bonds, pulling her behind him. They left the same way she’d come in the night before. Once out the door in the glaring evening light, Dan led her right down the broken street in a northerly direction. What happened to stealth? The men from the other day must have all moved on. Selena already knew he was very cautious and alert. He wouldn’t walk around in the open like this unless he was completely sure there was no one around, or at least no one who worried him. She wondered how he could be so certain, but she wasn’t about to ask.

  The road wound around large buildings and houses for a long while until finally, they became fewer and farther between as they left the ghost town. Selena’s eyes scanned the hills sharply as Dan brought her further out into the open. Leading her down a paved road that was cracked and full of invading weeds, he made his way to a large barn. Selena tried to imagine how it looked two decades past and decided that it couldn’t have changed much, aside from the black smoke streaks along its western side. Its tin walls glinted brightly against the setting sun.

  When they finally reached the building, Dan hauled the heavy door open and strode right on in as if he owned the place. Selena’s eyes strug
gled to adjust to the darkness as she was pulled in after. He let go of her and set about organizing a few bulging sacks in a corner. Selena’s eyes narrowed at his back and she bristled that he was so sure she wouldn’t try to run. Pushing these feelings aside, she eyed the bags, wondering what was inside them. Dan wouldn’t be in this town unless he was doing some sort of salvage, which was the same reason she had come.

  Out of the corner of Selena’s eye, she saw something big moving and jumped to face it. There were two horses standing in the corner of the barn and one of them whickered softly. She glanced over her shoulder at Dan who was looking back with bemusement as he stood tying one of the bags. She had hoped he hadn’t seen that.

  “That’s Buck and Star, don’t worry, they won’t eat you,” he said sardonically. As an afterthought, he added, “Don’t try anything when they’re around though. They’re trained to kill.”

  Selena didn’t laugh. She’d heard a story or two about horses fighting for their riders, and thought she might like to see that someday-as long as their aggression wasn’t directed at her, of course.

  Selena suddenly realized that Dan was taking things surprisingly well. After all, she had tried to murder him in his sleep. He must have no fear of me whatsoever, she realized suddenly. Just when she thought she’d felt as trapped as she possibly could, this revelation managed to compound her feeling of doom. Needing to think about something else, she strode over to the horses and carefully gave the grey mare a pat on the nose. The other was a big, black male with white socks, and certainly one of the largest horses she had seen. He wasn’t too hefty, but he was tall. He found the only horse that wouldn’t look small under him. Selena’s eyes narrowed again and she turned to Dan.

  “That’s a stallion,” she stated with incredulity.