“I can’t…” Chris began but she stopped at the look on Dysan’s face. She didn’t look at Tynan because she was beginning to feel her first anger at him. Why didn’t he at least make some form of protest? Did he care so little about her that he’d allow whatever happened to just happen to her?
Chris tried to clear her mind. Tynan wasn’t going to help, wasn’t going to even say anything that might discourage Dysan so it was up to her. What would she do if she were alone in the room with an aggressive man?
She tried to look about the room without seeming to do so and she saw that on the sideboard were two built-in silverware holders. Inside one of them had to be a table knife. If she could lead Dysan that way…
She began moving toward Dysan, and his eyes never left hers. “What makes you think that I care anything about him? He’s only a cowboy who was hired by my father to take me through the rain forest. Did you know that he’d been in jail? My father had to get him out of prison to lead the expedition. He’s not my type of man at all.”
Dysan watched her and Chris was glad to see that his eyes went down to her hips a couple of times, from the way she was swaying them, he could hardly miss them.
“I like a man with power.” She was standing close to him now,
both of them in front of the sideboard. “Do you have any idea how very wealthy my father is? Can you imagine what an empire you’d have if you were to merge your kingdom with his?”
Dysan looked amused. “Are you trying to seduce me? Do you think you can make me forget what I really want? You are a bystander who got caught in the crossfire.”
Chris was inches away from him now, her face just below his. “I’m trying to save my own neck. If you and I merge, so to speak, we can have control of a great deal. If you murder me, my father will pursue you to the ends of the earth. Your life will be hell.”
“And what about him?”
“What does he matter? Let him go. We don’t need him.”
Dysan smiled down at her. “Nice try, princess, but it won’t work. The both of you die. Mathison would never let someone who’d once threatened his little girl into his kingdom.”
Suddenly, he grabbed Chris about the waist and pulled her to him, grinding her mouth with his, forcing her lips open and thrusting his tongue inside.
When he released her, her revulsion showed on her face.
He thrust her away from him. “And you think you could pretend to want me,” he said between closed lips. “I don’t like to be thought a fool. Now come here.”
Chris was really afraid of him now. He wasn’t going to fall for anything she’d planned, he was going to torture her in front of Tynan, then kill Tynan in an equally disgusting way—and she wasn’t even going to be told why she was dying.
Hesitantly, she walked toward him, and when she was in front of him, she voluntarily put her arms up to go about his neck. She began to kiss his neck, moving over his lips, trying to shift his interest entirely onto her—and while she was kissing him, she was trying to reach the box of silverware behind him.
Feigning passion as he again put his tongue in her mouth, she managed to get the box open, and with one eye open, she saw that there was a set of six table knifes, handles up, in the box. Now, if she could only reach one of them. She was almost there when Dysan suddenly turned and grabbed her hand, her fingertips held an inch above the handle.
“Going to stab me in the back, my dear?” he said before he slapped her across the face.
Chris hit the floor, her hand going to the corner of her bleeding mouth.
Dysan advanced on her, and Chris scooted backward on the floor.
It was just as Dysan reached her and had his hand raised to strike her again that Tynan sprang from his chair and grabbed Dysan about the neck, a small knife held to the evil man’s throat. “I think it’s time that you pick on someone your own size,” Tynan said.
With that, Ty spun the man around and slammed a right fist into his face.
Dysan went down on the nearest chair and hit the floor next to Chris. Tynan didn’t give him time to regain his breath before he was on him again. “You coward!” Tynan said under his breath as he grabbed Dysan and began to beat him.
Chris got up and tried to stop Tynan from killing the man, but Tynan was so angry that she couldn’t make him hear her. She kept watching the door, fearing that any minute, one of the guards would come in and take them back to the cellar. They had to get out now while they had the chance.
She jumped on Tynan’s back, hoping that her weight would have some effect on him.
Tynan shrugged her off and, again, Chris went skidding across the floor. It was a long moment before Tynan realized what he’d done. He dropped Dysan, allowing the man to slide down the wall to the floor in a bloody heap while he went after Chris.
“That was a fool thing to do,” he said, lifting her up from the floor.
Chris shook her head to clear it. “We have to get out of here while we can. What took you so long to get loose?”
“Have you ever sawed through half-inch ropes with a pen knife? And you didn’t look like you were in any misery. Maybe you want to stay here with Dysan rather than escaping with me? Maybe you two can still merge empires once you get rid of the cowboy.”