Goran wanted to argue about the tedious description, but at the moment, he really wanted to get out of the bindings. “Give me the damn shoe,” he snapped, then shifted his body so that her foot reached behind him where his hands were bound. It took mere seconds for him to get to the shoe and a moment later, he pulled at the heel to discover that there really was a knife hidden inside. “There are hidden depths to you,” he commented, then immediately started to saw away at the plastic ties. “I never knew that.”
She rolled her eyes, again, before snapping, “If you weren’t such a…!” She stopped abruptly, pressing her lips together as if that was the only thing holding back her angry words.
“What?” he demanded a second after the plastic tie broke under the knife’s blade. “I’d love to hear what you think of me.” He shifted around, sliced through the plastic tie around his ankles, then rolled to his feet. Walking behind her, he used the blade and, with a brisk snap, her hands were freed as well.
“No, you really don’t,” she grumbled, then reached out to take the knife back from him.
“I’ll hold onto this until we’re out of here,” he told her, pulling the knife from her reach.
She glared at him and, once again, he had the almost uncontrollable urge to flip her over so he could spank her! Where the hell had the quiet, complacent…boring…woman gone? And who the hell was this angry, spitting tiger?
Granted, the fire in her eyes was actually turning him on, even though this was the worst time to realize that the woman wasn’t quite the boring ice princess he’d originally thought. Perhaps there was a fire underneath that beautifully cold exterior.
“Give me my knife!” she snapped. “You probably don’t know how to use it. But I do! I’ve been trained in several forms of fighting. If you’ll just stand behind me, then I can get us out of here.”
Stand behind her? What the hell was she talking about?
“Calista, if you could…” He stopped when she lifted a hand to halt whatever he’d been about to spew next. “Quiet!”
Heavy footsteps came down the hallway and Goran moved swiftly and quietly in sock-feet around the small space, placing himself behind the door.
It opened swiftly and, after checking through the crack in the doorway and the door frame to make sure there wasn’t another guard waiting, Goran shifted on the balls of his feet, turning, grabbing the man’s arm and twisting until the guard’s arm pulled out of his shoulder socket. Before the man could scream, Goran’s fingers pressed against the muscles and nerve endings on his shoulder, creating a dual reaction of absolute silence as well as knocking the man unconscious. He fell heavily to the floor, with Goran guiding him so that he didn’t make too much noise.
“Close the door,” he ordered softly, then quickly began undressing the man, starting with his boots. Looking at them carefully, Goran acknowledged that they were a bit smaller than he’d prefer, but slightly small boots were better than nothing at all. Goran was fully aware that kidnappers generally took a person’s shoes in order to deter them from escaping as well as to slow them down if they tried. In this instance, the kidnappers were stupid to have left Calista with her shoes. But even he had to admit that he wouldn’t have thought that a pair of heels would be a threat. Heels that high would definitely slow a woman down. It was very difficult to run in a pair of stilettos. He made a mental note to tell his guards that all women’s heels should be examined in the future for potential weapons.
“That was…” When Calista paused, he lifted his head, looking down at her stunned eyes.
“What?” he prompted, enjoying her surprise after her previous command that he simply stay back so she could do the rough stuff.
Calista shook her head and stepped back. “Just…I didn’t know that…”
“That I could fight?” he asked, then flipped the knife around, handing it to her so that he could reach down to lace up the boots. “Why don’t you take his clothes off and put them on? Your ivory suit is nice but…”
“Right,” she whispered, hesitated for another moment, then bent down, pulling at snaps and buttons. “Ivory suit and a frantic escape through the hot, humid, sticky jungle. Probably not a good combination.”
She had the guard’s shirt off while Goran tugged at the guard’s pants. When the man was down to his skivvies, he tossed the pants over to Calista. “Hurry.”
Calista was already contorting in an effort to reach the zipper at the back of her dress. Goran sighed and moved swiftly behind her. “Hold still,” he snapped, then lifted his hand and pulled down the zipper. Underneath, Goran was surprised to find himself looking at the beautiful skin revealed when the ivory material of her dress slipped away. And a pink bra. A pretty pink bra. With silver thread shot through it.
Whatever he might have pictured, if Goran had ever bothered to picture Calista without her stiff, prim suit on, it definitely wasn’t a sexy lace bra. One that barely covered her pretty nipples. Goran tried, and failed, to pull his eyes away from those breasts.
“Stop it! Focus!” she hissed, and turned so that her back was to him. But that only brought his eyes to her ass. Damn, she had a beautiful ass! And he could see almost all of it because of the tiny, matching panties. Okay, what she had on could never be considered a pair of panties. Not in the traditional sense. The scrap of lace that disappeared into the most glorious ass…his mind blanked while he tried to name the kind of panty she had on. Thong, he thought, feeling as if his mind was barely functioning.
A moment later, she tugged the cargo pants up over those glorious globes, hiding her perfect ass from his view. Damn, he wanted to pull her into his arms and rip those pants off of her! Calista? Damn it, he’d been prepared to disengage himself from their engagement. But now, knowing what this woman wore underneath all of those boring, sensible dresses, he was…intrigued. And so turned on, his body was in actual pain.
That last part was a shock, although it probably shouldn’t be. He remembered the first time he’d met Calista. There had been a zing of attraction there, perhaps only on his side. And the kiss! That one kiss should have been a prelude to more! But nothing “more” had happened between himself and his lovely fiancée. She’d given him the signal to stay away too many times.
“Stop staring at me!” she hissed, buttoning the jacket and rolling the sleeves up so that her hands came out.
“You’re…”
Calista turned around, shoving her hair back behind her shoulders. Glorious hair! He’d never seen her hair down. It had always been confined in some precise, ice-maiden style.
Calista glared at him. “We don’t have time for this! We need to get out of here.”
She was right, but it irked him that she was more conscious of their tenuous situation than he was. He was battle hardened while Calista sat in a palace and…! Did whatever it was that princesses did in the palace. She was the sister of one of his best friends! She was the sister to one of his country’s strongest allies!
And yet, all he could think of were her nipples behind pink and silver lace!