Kidnapped for Christmas Read online

  “What did you say?” Kyle suddenly looked stricken. Something had upset him but all Jillian could think of was the fact that her mother’s diabetic cat could be slipping into a coma right this minute because of her neglect. She actually loved Buster and felt terrible at the thought, not to mention that it was exactly the kind of irresponsible, self-centered thing she was always getting onto Sabrina about. What was wrong with her? Was her assuming her little sister’s personality characteristics along with her name?

  “I said ‘Buster’,” she babbled, getting out of bed and searching around for her clothes. “I have to get out of here right now. What time is it?”

  “Ten o’clock,” he said after glancing at his watch. By now he was up and getting into his clothes too, and from the look on his face he was not happy. Well, that was just too bad, Jillian thought as she struggled into her discarded skirt and blouse. Any more sex would just have to wait until she made sure her night of unrestrained erotic play hadn’t cost Buster his life. After all, how could she ever explain to her mother that the beloved family pet had died because she was too busy screwing her brains out to go give him his insulin?

  “God, I can’t believe this,” she muttered as she hastily buttoned her blouse. “I have to get back to him right now. What if it’s too late and he’s already…” But she couldn’t make herself finish the thought, it was too awful.

  “So there is another man and you can’t wait to get back to him.” Kyle’s face looked like a thundercloud.

  Jillian shook her head in exasperation. “What? What are you talking about? I told you why I have to go.”

  “Right—to see him,” Kyle muttered. “So that’s it, huh? You’ve had your fun and now you want to go.” He was dressed now and still looking very upset.

  “I have to—please try to understand!” Jillian couldn’t believe how insensitive he was being. Hadn’t she just finished telling him how Buster had been in the family for years? What was his problem? Finally she was dressed, minus her panties and hose, which she couldn’t find anywhere. She supposed she was lucky to still have her bra.

  “Oh, I understand all right,” he said cryptically. Silently, he led her out to the waiting van and opened the passenger side door for her. Jillian was upset about this new, not-so-nice side of Kyle but most of her mind was fixated on the horrible image of Buster lying on his side, slowly dying for lack of his medication. She had been to the vet with her mom the last time she’d brought Buster in and remembered distinctly how important it was for him to eat and have his meds at the right time. Oh God, what if she was already too late? Should she call her father and ask him to go over to Sabrina’s place? But then what explanation would she give for not being there herself? And how would she explain her admittedly disheveled, morning-after hot sex look when she saw him? No, better to just deal with the situation herself. But what if she wasn’t on time? She was supposed to have fed and medicated Buster hours ago…

  “Look, can you step on it?” she asked testily as the van crawled through the unusually heavy South Tampa traffic. What the hell was going on that everyone was on the road this time of day on a Saturday? Vaguely she remembered that there was supposed to be a holiday air show down at MacDill Air Force Base—maybe that was it. “I think if you’d take a left onto Howard we could get there faster,” she said, still eyeing the line of cars clogging Dale Mabry Street anxiously.

  “Just can’t wait to get away, can you?” he growled, swinging into the turn lane at her insistence.

  “What?” Jillian had had it. “Look,” she said icily. “I’m sorry you’re upset we didn’t get to finish having sex this morning. But this is very important to me. I’m sorry you can’t seem to understand that.”

  “It’s not the sex and you know it,” Kyle growled, driving faster.

  For a moment Jillian registered the fact that he was extremely upset about something. But damn it, she was upset too! She wanted to explain what was going on but it all seemed so complicated now. He still thought she was Sabrina and it seemed like the wrong time to tell him about her deception. As soon as she was sure that Buster was all right they could sit down and have a nice long talk but for now, she was so upset she could barely think straight, much less explain why she’d been masquerading as her own sister for the past twenty-four hours.

  “Well, I don’t know what—” she began.

  “Here we are.” Kyle cut her off as they pulled up in front of Sabrina’s apartment building with a lurch that made Jillian glad she’d taken the time to buckle her seat belt.

  “I’m sorry things had to go this way,” she said stiffly as she unhooked herself from the belt hurriedly and slid out of the van. “I’d like to explain what I wanted to tell you but I just don’t have time right now. I—”

  “No explanation needed, sweetheart. I’m pretty sure I got it.” Kyle was looking straight ahead as he talked, his eyes fixed on the road ahead of him. “It was just a one-time thing anyway,” he said. “Because according to the We Kidnap U rules, I’m never supposed to see you again. So that must be a relief, huh?”

  “What?” Jillian looked at him. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? That he didn’t want to see her again? And after all that sweet talk about breaking his own rules and wanting to get to know her? For a moment even the urgency about Buster was pushed out of her mind and she was more than angry—she was furious. She opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind but he beat her to it.

  “Have a nice life,” he said coolly before putting the van in gear and drowning her words in the roar of its engine. And before Jillian could say anything else he was gone.

  * * * * *

  Kyle couldn’t believe how much it hurt. He’d only known her for twenty-four hours and her sudden decision to use her safe word and get away from him should have been no big deal. But in the short time they had been together, he’d really felt a connection to her. For a while it had even seemed possible that they might form a long-term relationship, founded on that one night of passion that had brought them together.

  Connection? Relationship? Listen to yourself, man. You sound like a high school girl who just got dumped, he told himself angrily. But he couldn’t help it—as much as he wished he could bury his feelings, there was no getting away from them.

  What had set her off though? he mused as he drove back to his workshop in NoHo. She’d seemed to be every bit as into it as he was and then suddenly she’d demanded to know what time it was and yelled her safe word. Had her file been wrong? Was she involved with another man, maybe someone who she was supposed to be at home to meet at a certain time? Had she been lying all along? Kyle shook his head. He just didn’t know and now it looked like he never would. She was out of his life, just like that and he wasn’t inclined to break any more rules, personal or professional, by pursuing her. If she wanted to get away from him and what they had done that badly, he didn’t see that he had any option than to let her go. Even through the thought of never seeing her again made him feel as if he’d swallowed a bucketful of splinters.

  Probably went back to her fiancé. Had a walk on the wild side and decided Mr. Safe and Boring was the one for her after all. What was his name again? Kyle wasn’t sure if she had told him but it seemed like maybe it started with a B. Was that who Buster was? If so, she wouldn’t be the first woman to use an old lover’s name as a safe word. But regardless of whether Buster was her fiancé or just a randomly chosen safe word, Kyle knew she had left for another man—why else would she keep muttering about getting back to “him” on time? He’d seen it happen in the clubs often enough—girls who came to play while their husbands or boyfriends were away and ran back home to their vanilla relationships once their kinky urges had been satisfied.

  “It doesn’t matter why she left,” he told himself out loud. “She’s gone. And you have to get over it.”

  He pulled up to one of the three parking spaces in front of his workshop and sat still for a long moment, letting the van’s motor idle. T