Captured By You: A One Night of Passion Novella Read online

  “It’s okay. It happened a long time ago. I miss them, though. Still. The diner was theirs. I’ve waitressed in it since I was twelve years old. I still feel them in there every time I walk through the door,” she reflected quietly.

  “Did you raise Derek?”

  “Yes.”

  “No wonder you never left Vulture’s Canyon,” he said softly. “You never had much of a choice, I can imagine. Derek must be like a son to you as much as a brother. You became a parent at eighteen years old.”

  “He is like a son. Luckily, he’s a wonderful person. I couldn’t have gotten any more fortunate, as unprepared as I was to parent him. What if he’d been a rebellious basket case, and there I was, a teenage guardian with no clue what I was doing? I could have scarred him for life. It didn’t turn out that way, thank God. Derek is thoughtful and smart and . . . just a great kid. He got straight A’s during his freshman year at Washington University in St. Louis. He’s in a very prestigious accounting program,” she said proudly.

  “He seemed like a good guy when I met him. He certainly is protective of you.”

  “What do you mean?” Sherona asked, turning toward him.

  “I mean that he immediately put on his game face when I asked about you. He must be used to having the guys come nosing around his gorgeous sister.”

  Heat flooded her cheeks. “Don’t be silly,” she muttered, studying her sandals pressing into the weeds beneath them. “There are only a handful of men around here, and I can assure you, they have better things to do than to ‘nose around’ me.”

  He whipped off his glasses. She sensed his head next to her neck. She glanced sideways in surprise and saw his face hovered a mere inch from hers. His gaze speared her. He inhaled as if to catch her scent off her neck.

  “I honestly can’t think of what activity would be more worthwhile than catching a nose-full of you, Sherona,” his voice rumbled, making her ear tickle. She just swallowed, his stare making her temporarily unable to speak or look away. “Did you think about what I asked you yesterday?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Sherona murmured, her stare stuck on the amber dots in his eyes.

  “I know you called Rill last night.”

  She started slightly. She considered Rill a friend worthy of a confidence. “Did he tell you that?”

  “No. I just happened to be passing the kitchen when I heard him say your name. Were you doing a reference check on my character, Sherona?” he asked, his lips twitching.

  “Does it surprise you that I was, considering what you’re asking me to do?” For some reason, her words what you’re asking me to do caused a heavy heat to flow down over her belly and sex. Or maybe that was because she was inhaling his male scent.

  “No. Better for you to find out firsthand from someone who’s known me for my entire adult life that I’m not a psycho,” he said, his low voice mesmerizing her. His gaze ran over her face. He stepped closer, putting his hands on her shoulders. The front of his body brushed against hers, the zipper of his canvas shorts bumping softly against her lower stomach. The tips of her breasts hardened against his ribs. A twinge of excitement went through her clit.

  “How would Rill know if you’re a psycho in a sexual sense? I imagine you wouldn’t advertise it to the world, would you?” she said, lifting her face to his so that their mouths were only inches apart.

  “No, I’m pretty private about sex. Besides, I guess it all depends on what you consider to be abnormal, doesn’t it?” he asked, surprising her.

  She licked at her lower lip nervously. Here it was—the crux of the issue. “Yes, I suppose it does. So tell me what it is you plan to do besides take naked pictures of me.”

  A smile ghosted his lips. He had a very sexy mouth, Sherona observed.

  “You must have felt it—out by the lake the other day,” he said.

  Her gaze skittered up to meet his stare. Had he sensed something similar to the electrical charge that had shot through her that evening by Orchard Lake? She saw the heat in his eyes and somehow thought he had.

  “I thought it’d be exciting to take some fantasy photographs of you,” he said, his warm, fragrant breath fanning her lips.

  “Whose fantasy are you referring to?”

  He stepped even closer, his hands grasping more tightly at her shoulders. She felt his erection against her belly and was reminded of seeing its fullness press against the fabric of his shorts the other day. Hot, forbidden excitement pulsed at her core.

  “Mine. I think you share it, though.”

  “That’s rather presumptuous of you to assume, isn’t it?”

  His brows went up at her challenge. “I’ll tell you what I had in mind for the photos, and you can tell me.”

  Her breathing was suddenly shallow and erratic. Her nipples stiffened as they dragged against his torso. His thumbs circled on her shoulders in a massaging motion, distracting her even further.

  “I was hoping you’d help me capture the essence of a fantasy,” he murmured. “A really hot one that I never had until I saw you at the edge of that lake the other day.”

  She just looked at him in a silent challenge, trying to hide her soft panting and ignore the buzz of arousal at her clit.

  “I’d like to photograph you somewhere private here in these woods. I want to make you look like a captive.”

  “Captive,” Sherona repeated dryly, even though a surge of warmth had dampened her panties at the word.

  He nodded, holding her stare. His hands moved as he began to languorously massage her back muscles. Distantly, she wondered if he was trying to relax her while he said such anxiety-provoking, exciting things.

  “Yeah. An incredibly sexy one. I want to pretend that I’ve captured you and bound you and brought you to the woods for private ravishment,” he said, his eyes glowing with both amusement and heat.

  “That’s how you want to photograph me? Nude and bound?”

  “Yes,” he said, his gaze running over her face as if searching for her reaction. His small smile faded when she licked at her lower lip nervously.

  “And . . . and what about the actual ravishment part?” she asked.

  “That would be up to you. All of this is up to you. I’m not going to do anything unless you agree to it. I’ll stop whatever we’re doing the second you tell me to.” He dipped his head so that his mouth was a scant inch away from hers. She’d never known a man to appeal to her sense of smell more. She wanted to absorb his scent.

  “Don’t you think that’s an awful lot to ask of me? I don’t even know you,” she whispered desperately. “What if . . . what if you do whatever you want when I’m bound and helpless?”

  “I swear right here and now I’m not going to harm you. In fact, I want to give you more pleasure than you’ve ever known.” He studied her soberly in the brief silence that followed. “You heard from Rill that I’m an upstanding citizen—for the most part,” he added, giving her a small, concessionary smile. She couldn’t help but return it in a shaky fashion. “But what’s more, I think you trust me, Sherona. Instinctively. You trusted me not to attack you out there by the side of that lake. For a few seconds there, I think you more than trusted me. I think you liked having me see you in all your glory. And if you believe anything, believe this,” he said, his manner suddenly almost grim, he was so serious. “You are the most fuckingly glorious woman I’ve ever seen in my life. You really can’t blame me for wanting to capture you completely, can you?”

  He dipped his head and seized her mouth with his own. A puff of suppressed air flew out of her lungs. Her arms snaked around his shoulders, and she participated in a kiss that struck her as both blisteringly hot and restrained.

  Sherona wanted more—much more—but he lifted his head.

  “What do you say, Sherona?”

  She nodded once, her throat feeling tight.

  His white teeth flashed in an unabashedly triumphant smile.

  “Thank you. I have everything we need in the trunk of my car.”


  Alarm zinged through her. “What . . . You want to do it now?”

  “Yeah. The evening light is perfect. Do you know someplace really private? In the woods?”

  “I . . .” She glanced around nervously. Her heart started to do a drumroll against her sternum. “Yes, I think so,” she said, anxiety edging her tone.

  He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. She looked up at his face and saw his warm appraisal.

  “I’ll call Katie and Rill once we get to the car and tell them you and I plan to spend the evening together,” he said.

  Sherona blinked when she understood the message behind his words. He was reassuring her safety by telling dependable, mutual friends they were together that evening. Not only she would know she was putting herself in his hands for the night; Katie and Rill would know, as well.

  It shocked her a little to realize she trusted him—a stranger—so much that she hadn’t ever considered such a precaution.

  She nodded once, and they walked toward the path hand in hand.

  Chapter Four

  She directed him down a narrow, tree-lined country road.

  “We’ll have to leave the car and hike into the woods about a mile and a half,” she said when he pulled into the empty forest preserve entrance. “This is one of the least known entrances to the forest, and hikers typically don’t venture this far when they enter at other locations. If there’s no one in the parking lot, then there’s an almost one-hundred-percent certainty that there’s no living person within a three-mile radius,” she explained, pointing to the nearly invisible entrance to the parking lot. Chance turned.

  She exhaled when she saw the empty lot, unsure if the leap of her heart came from nervousness or excitement.

  “Perfect.” Chance swung into a spot and gave her a swift smile.

  She came around the opposite side of the vehicle from him when he popped the trunk. She glanced inside, seeing a large backpack that she suspected held his camera and equipment, although she also saw several bottles of water through a partially opened zipper, a soft-looking, folded ivory blanket and . . .

  . . . rope.

  He noticed her take a step back.

  “It’s okay. It’s not harsh rope. It’s nylon winch rope. I use it to haul equipment up steep elevations when I’m working in the mountains.”

  She just stared at him, suddenly reevaluating everything she’d agreed to.

  Was she fucking crazy?

  Was she so starved for some adventure, so desperate for hot, raw sex with a gorgeous man, that she’d put herself in danger?

  One look at Chance’s concerned expression and her anxiety eased.

  “It’s soft rope, Sherona, but it still looks like the heavy-duty variety. I thought it’d look . . . well, incredibly sexy, to be honest, for a made-up capture scenario—the texture of the black rope winding around your pale, soft skin.” She blinked, heat washing through her at his quiet description. “But I also have some pieces of cloth in my pack. We could use those. Whatever you want.”

  Sherona strove to keep her expression impassive as she leaned into the small trunk of the sporty coupe and grabbed the two coils of rope. She gave him a sideways glance as she stood.

  “Follow me,” she said.

  He didn’t reply, but she heard him behind her, hastening to comply with her request.

  Twenty-five minutes later, they broke the thick canopy of the woods and walked into a meadow filed with Queen Anne’s lace, goldenrod and daisies edging a small lake cupped in the valley of the surrounding hills.

  “Blimey,” he breathed, staring at the meadow. “Look at that color.”

  Sherona turned to him for the first time since they’d undertaken their trek. He studied the scene through a narrow-eyed gaze. She’d been acutely aware of him behind her the entire time they’d been in the woods. It was the most amazing thing, but she kept having fantasies of running and having him chase her. The crotch of her jeans had actually grown quite damp, her scissoring thighs stimulating her sex even further as they hiked.

  Did her body somehow know she could trust him, despite this risk?

  “‘Blimey,’” she repeated uncertainly. “That’s good, right?”

  His grin was sex distilled. “You better believe it, gorgeous.”

  She couldn’t help but return his smile.

  “Well . . . I’ll let you decide where to set up. You know the best angles for light and everything,” she said.

  He nodded once and walked several feet ahead of her, casing the area with the tight focus she’d observed earlier at the co-op. Her heart did a little flip-flop when he paused, placed his backpack on the ground and spread the blanket on the meadow grass.

  “Here?” she asked in a quavering voice.

  He nodded and knelt to his pack. “The lake is great, but I like the evening light in the meadow more. Besides, the lake calls to mind a vacation getaway, while I want to convey—”

  “A perv kidnapping an innocent woman so that he can have his way with her?”

  His eyebrows rose at her droll comment. “You changing your mind, Sherona?” he asked, drawing his tripod out of his backpack. He also withdrew a bottle of water and handed it to her.

  “Just tell me again that you’re not that perv,” she said, still clutching the black ropes with one arm as she grabbed the bottle.

  “I don’t think I’m a pervert,” he said, standing up. “But if you think I am because I want to photograph you naked and tied up, then that’s all that counts. We’ll leave right now.”

  “Everybody is entitled to their thing when it comes to sex,” she said quietly after taking a swig of water.

  “I’m glad you think that. I happen to agree one hundred percent, as long as the participants are one hundred percent consenting and responsible adults.”

  She bit at her bottom lip and glanced down at the black rope. “I’ll pose for you for the photographs—do anything that you want. But . . . if you touch me at any time, I want the camera turned off. I’m not agreeing to having you take photos of me while I’m having sex.”

  * * *

  “No worries. If that’s the way you want it, that’s the way it’ll be,” he said quickly, wanting to reassure her. He could tell it hadn’t been easy for her to say that. On the other hand, her declaration had made his cock lengthen. Her comment had alluded to the fact that she expected to have sex with him, didn’t it?

  Was this a blessed day or what?

  “So what do you want me to do?” she asked awkwardly.

  “I suppose we could start by having you take off your clothes,” he said, bending to straighten his tripod.

  Sherona set down the black coils of rope and unbuttoned her blouse.

  He saw her undressing from the corner of his vision, but forced himself to keep his gaze fixed on his task. Something told him that Sherona needed some evidence of his restraint, and drooling as she temptingly stripped down to her naked skin definitely wouldn’t demonstrate that.

  Still, he was only a man, and she was beyond sexy. He glanced up from his camera when she drew off her skirt and stood on the blanket, wearing only a tight tank top and matching panties. She looked up and saw him staring.

  She held his gaze as she drew her panties down over her long legs.

  Blood pounded into his cock, stiffening him to stone in an instant. Her image was arousing enough, but her expression; she liked showing herself to him, tempting him.

  And was he ever tempted, he thought numbly as he stared at the juncture of her slender thighs. Her pubic hair was trimmed so short, he could clearly make out her fleshy sex lips, the slit between them beckoning him.

  He couldn’t wait to see her spread wide. His sexual hunger mounted until it felt as if it gripped at his throat. His nostrils flared in arousal when she reached for a strap of her camisole and started to lower it. She watched his reaction, seemingly as mesmerized as he was. The clinging material lowered slowly over the upper swells of her shapely breasts. The nipples popped out, pink
and distended.

  A sharp pang of lust caused his cock to lurch.

  This was going to be more of a torture than he’d realized.

  “Stop,” he said suddenly.

  Sherona paused with the tank top just beneath her breasts. The fabric was so tight, it pushed up the already firm, fulsome flesh slightly, exciting him.

  “Leave it like that,” he muttered, his gaze glued to her breasts. The woman was a walking wonder of femininity. His cock leapt again in the confines of his boxer briefs when she immediately lowered her arms, following his instruction. He gave her a sheepish smile and turned his attention to his camera with great effort.

  “Is it hard for you?” he asked, trying to divert his attention momentarily from her goddess-like form. “To be so beautiful?”

  When she didn’t immediately respond, he looked up. Her cheeks were stained pink, but it was the incredulity and wonder he saw in her dark eyes that undid him.

  “You do know you’re beautiful, don’t you?” he asked quietly, stepping toward her.

  Again, she didn’t respond, but he saw her delicate pulse leap at her throat. His gaze lowered over her, stunned anew by her ripe sexuality. He met her stare.

  “The camera is turned off. Can I touch you—just for a moment—before we start?”

  “Yes,” she replied, the movement of her flushed lips sending prickles of excitement just beneath his skin.

  He stepped closer and cradled her head in his palm, stroking her delicate jaw. She blinked. He had the distinct impression she’d assumed he wanted to touch her elsewhere and more intimately. Instead, he leaned down and placed a chaste kiss on her parted lips. His tongue dipped ever so briefly into her wet warmth. She was so sweet.

  He lifted his head and held her stare as he slid the hair band at her neck off her ponytail. Neither of them spoke as he ran his fingers through the wavy, silken auburn tresses, spreading them around her shoulders.

  “There. You’re temptation itself. Are you ready to begin?”

  She looked a little startled when he stepped away. He was a little surprised himself that he was able to walk away.