Frostbitten (Otherworld 10)

"Yes?"

"Will you let me go afterward?"

"You'll do what I want? Everything I want?"

I nodded.

"And you'll behave? Be a good girl?"

I nodded.

He lowered his lips to my ear and whispered. "Then you aren't going to want me to let you go. But ye

s, when we've both had our fill, you're welcome to leave."

He moved his lips over mine again and hovered there. I lifted my head from the ground, and I kissed him--and it was just as nauseating as I'd imagined. I concentrated on the taste of his blood, nipping his lip, drawing more. He mistook my biting for passion and kissed me harder.

I closed my eyes so he wouldn't see my revulsion, but I don't think he would have noticed anyway. When he broke the kiss, his eyes were unfocused, dark with lust, his body relaxing against mine.

His lips moved back to my ear. "See, it isn't so bad, is--?"

I smashed my elbow into his throat so hard he fell back, gargling. I rolled and slammed my palm into his nose. Blood spurted. He gave a strangled cry, but recovered fast. I was already on my feet and he didn't make it past a crouch before my foot connected with his jaw, toppling him backward. A second kick and he spun, his forehead smacking the fireplace as he fell.

As I watched him lying there, on his stomach, blood pooling, I realized I didn't need an elaborate escape plan. Just kill the bastard. Kill him and--

A hand grabbed my ponytail and wrenched me back. I sailed off my feet, but twisted, finding my footing and coming up swinging. But Eddie still had my ponytail wrapped around his hand and yanked me like a dog on a leash, keeping me from hitting him.

"Enough," he said. "He's down. You win."

"The hell she does." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tesler wobble to his feet.

"She wins," Eddie said.

The brothers faced off in silence. I expected Tesler to argue. I prayed he'd argue. Blood streamed into his eyes and he could barely stand upright. Just give me a few minutes more, and I'd never have to worry about Travis Tesler again. He had no chance of winning, not now, after I'd tasted victory--could still taste it, his blood on my lips.

But apparently his confidence had taken a bruising, too, enough to sink under the weight of his survival instinct. "Fine," he said. Then he turned to Noah and snapped, "Get her out of my sight. You have twenty minutes. Then she's mine."

ESCAPE

NOAH HUSTLED ME to what was obviously "his" room, judging by the clothing on the floor and on every piece of furniture. He got me inside, then closed the door. At this point, the ideal strategy would be seduction. Lower his defenses, as I had with Tesler, then take him out and escape.

But as repugnant as the thought of kissing Tesler had been, faking attraction to a teenage boy was out of the question.

I managed to sit woodenly on the edge of the bed, then steeled myself to pull off my shirt, praying that would be all the distraction needed to get in a good, incapacitating blow. But I wasn't the only one who was nervous. Noah locked and double-checked the door, then moved to the window. He peered out, not pulling the blind, just squinting into the darkness as if expecting Tesler or Eddie to pop up like drunken guests on his wedding night.

And while he was engrossed in the view, with his back to me, I crept up behind him. Too late, I noticed my reflection in the window glass. He wheeled, his hands going up as they had in the woods, unsure whether to fight back or just ward me off.

At the last second, he went for option three--get the hell out of the way. I managed to catch his shirt collar as he dove past me. I whipped him off his feet again. Unlike in the woods, I couldn't throw him aside--the Tesler brothers would hear the crash and know it wasn't just rough sex... at least, not after only two minutes in the bedroom.

So I threw Noah facedown on the bed. As I pressed his face into the pillow, he kicked and flailed. I gritted my teeth against the blows, grabbed a discarded shirt and made a gag of it, tying the sleeves behind his head.

He relaxed then, realizing I'd been trying to silence him... but not permanently. When I grabbed a belt, though, and yanked his hands behind his back, he wrenched hard, and the sudden movement freed one of his hands. A well-placed jab to my throat freed the other.

I dove after him, but he danced back, moving not toward the door, but to the window. Still gagged, he gestured at it emphatically.

Was someone out there? Was that what had caught his attention earlier? Tesler spying on us? Or--my heart leapt--Clay?

I still grabbed Noah by the collar, but only to keep a hold on him as I peered out, trying to see what he'd seen. He yanked down the gag but said nothing, just shook his head, eyes rolling at the dense woman who couldn't understand his wild gestures.